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The Best Live Chat for WooCommerce in 2024

Paweł Hałabuda

19 min read

Aug 19, 2024

Providing instant, personalized customer support is a necessity. For WooCommerce store owners, integrating a live chat feature through a plugin can be a game-changer.

Live chat software allows you to engage with your customers in real-time, helps to reduce cart abandonment, increase conversion rates, and boost customer satisfaction.

However, with so many live chat plugins available, choosing the right one for your WooCommerce store can be overwhelming. You need a solution that not only integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce but also offers the features necessary to enhance your customer service experience.

Depending on your store’s size, budget, and specific needs, there are many live chat tools that might be a good fit.

In this article, I’ll explore the top live chat solutions for WooCommerce, highlighting their key features, advantages, and potential limitations, to help you make an informed decision.

WooCommerce live chat plugin comparison

This article reviews and compares some of the best live chat software available for WooCommerce.

LiveChat	The top choice for WooCommerce, offering seamless integration, a user-friendly interface, and advanced features like real-time customer monitoring, automated greetings, and detailed analytics. It's ideal for businesses of all sizes looking for a powerful and reliable solution.
Tawk.to	The best free option, Tawk.to offers unlimited agents and chats at no cost, making it perfect for small businesses or startups. While it lacks some advanced features, it provides essential live chat functionality with a straightforward WooCommerce integration.
Zendesk Chat	Best suited for large enterprises, Zendesk Chat offers scalable solutions with advanced features like AI-powered chatbots, comprehensive analytics, and omnichannel support. Though it doesn't have a dedicated WooCommerce plugin, it can be integrated using third-party tools or custom APIs.
Olark	Ideal for businesses that prioritize customization, Olark allows deep personalization of the chat widget and offers features like real-time visitor monitoring and chat automation. While it lacks a dedicated WooCommerce plugin, it's a strong option for those who need a flexible and customizable chat solution.
Chaport	The best for multichannel communication, Chaport enables businesses to manage customer interactions across various platforms like Facebook Messenger and Telegram. It doesn't have a native WooCommerce plugin but can be integrated through manual embedding of the chat widget. Chaport is an affordable option for small to medium-sized businesses looking to expand their communication reach.

1. LiveChat

Screenshot of LiveChat's chat widget on a website.

LiveChat is a leading live chat service and customer service platform designed to help businesses engage with their customers in real-time. As one of the most popular live chat solutions available, LiveChat is trusted by thousands of businesses worldwide, including ecommerce giants.

For WooCommerce store owners, LiveChat offers a dedicated plugin that seamlessly integrates with their online store, making it easier to provide instant customer support and improve the overall shopping experience.

Seamless WooCommerce integration

LiveChat offers a dedicated plugin for WooCommerce, ensuring a smooth and hassle-free integration process. This plugin allows store owners to quickly add a live chat widget to their store, enabling real-time communication with customers. The integration process is straightforward, requiring just a few steps to set up, and once installed, the chat widget can be customized to match the store’s branding.

The plugin automatically gathers essential customer data, such as cart details, previous interactions, and browsing history, which agents can use to provide personalized support. This seamless integration with WooCommerce ensures that your live chat functionality is deeply embedded into your store’s operations, enhancing both customer experience and operational efficiency. Setting up a LiveChat account is essential for businesses looking to improve client interaction and streamline communication.

Key features

LiveChat is packed with features designed to enhance customer engagement and improve conversion rates, including robust live chat conversations.

Some of the key features include:

Automated greetings: LiveChat allows you to set up automated greetings that trigger based on specific customer actions, such as visiting a product page or spending a certain amount of time on the site. This proactive approach helps engage customers at the right moment, increasing the likelihood of a sale.
Real-time visitor monitoring: This feature enables your support team to monitor website visitors in real-time, including their location, browsing history, and time spent on each page. This data allows agents to offer tailored support and suggestions, which can significantly enhance the customer experience.
Ticketing system: In addition to live chat, LiveChat includes a built-in ticketing system that helps manage customer inquiries that come in outside of business hours or require more detailed follow-up. This ensures that no customer query is left unanswered.

Integration with other tools

LiveChat doesn’t just work well with WooCommerce; it also integrates seamlessly with a wide range of other tools and platforms that are essential for running an online store. This includes CRM systems like Salesforce and HubSpot, email marketing tools like Mailchimp, and help desk solutions like Zendesk.

For store owners using WordPress, LiveChat provides a straightforward WordPress live chat plugin that can be installed directly from the WordPress marketplace. This integration is especially valuable for businesses running WooCommerce on WordPress, as it allows for a seamless connection between your WordPress-powered site and LiveChat. With this plugin, you can manage customer interactions from your WordPress dashboard, ensuring a consistent and efficient user experience. The WordPress plugin also supports features like widget customization, automated greetings, and detailed visitor analytics, all accessible within your WordPress interface.

Pricing

LiveChat offers four pricing plans:

Starter	$20 per agent/month (billed annually). Includes basic features like chat history and ticketing.
Team	$41 per agent/month (billed annually). Adds advanced reporting, customization, and work scheduling.
Business	$59 per agent/month (billed annually). Includes all Team Plan features plus advanced integrations, AI routing, and priority support.
Enterprise	Custom pricing tailored to large organizations, with additional features like dedicated account management and custom security.

Opting for annual billing offers a discount on each plan.

LiveChat stands out as the best WooCommerce live chat plugin due to its seamless integration, comprehensive feature set, and commitment to providing exceptional customer support.

Whether you’re running a small boutique or a large online store, LiveChat offers the tools and flexibility needed to engage customers effectively, reduce cart abandonment, and increase conversion rates. With its robust analytics, mobile accessibility, and advanced engagement tools, LiveChat is an investment that can significantly enhance your WooCommerce store’s customer service and overall success.

2. Tawk.to

Tawk.to is a popular live chat solution that stands out primarily because it offers all its core features for free, including the ability to send and manage chat messages, making it an attractive option for WooCommerce store owners, especially those on a tight budget. Despite being free, Tawk.to doesn’t skimp on functionality, providing a comprehensive set of tools to help businesses engage with their customers in real-time. It’s widely used by small to medium-sized businesses and has gained popularity due to its affordability and ease of use.

WooCommerce integration

Tawk.to offers an integration with WooCommerce via a plugin that can be easily installed from the WordPress plugin repository, making it a great addition to any WordPress website. Once integrated, the live chat widget can be customized to match your store’s branding, ensuring a seamless look and feel. The plugin also allows you to monitor and engage with customers directly from your WooCommerce dashboard.

The integration captures essential customer information, such as cart details and browsing history, enabling agents to provide personalized support. Additionally, Tawk.to offers visitor monitoring, allowing you to see who is on your site in real-time, track their activities, and initiate conversations proactively.

Key features

Customizable chat widgets	Even though Tawk.to is free, it offers a range of customization options for its chat widget. You can change the colors, add your logo, and customize the greetings to align with your brand's identity. This ensures that the chat widget complements your website's design and enhances the customer experience.
Real-time monitoring and analytics	Real-time monitoring and basic analytics allow you to see who is on your site, what pages they are viewing, and how long they have been there. This information can be used to initiate proactive chats with visitors who might need assistance, potentially increasing conversions.
Ticketing system	Tawk.to includes a built-in ticketing system that allows you to manage customer inquiries that occur outside of live chat hours. This system ensures that no customer question goes unanswered, providing a seamless support experience even when your team is offline.

Pricing

One of the biggest advantages of Tawk.to is that it’s completely free, with no hidden costs. This means you can have unlimited agents managing an unlimited number of chats without worrying about increasing costs as your business grows. This makes Tawk.to particularly appealing for startups and small businesses looking to maximize their resources.

While Tawk.to’s core features are free, they do offer some paid add-ons for businesses looking to enhance their live chat experience. These include options like removing the Tawk.to branding from the chat widget, hiring professional chat agents through Tawk.to, and accessing advanced reporting and analytics.

Limitations

While Tawk.to is a powerful and cost-effective solution, there are some limitations to consider:

Basic features: Compared to premium tools like LiveChat, Tawk.to lacks some of the more advanced features such as AI-powered chatbots, in-depth analytics, and advanced integrations with CRM systems.
Branding: The free version includes Tawk.to branding on the chat widget. Removing this branding requires purchasing a paid add-on.
Limited automation: While Tawk.to offers basic automated greetings, it does not have the sophisticated automation and workflow capabilities found in more expensive live chat solutions.

Tawk.to is an excellent choice for WooCommerce store owners who are looking for a free and reliable live chat solution. It offers all the essential features needed to engage with customers, manage inquiries, and improve customer satisfaction without any upfront costs. While it may not have all the advanced features of premium live chat tools, its robust functionality and ease of use make it a valuable tool for small to medium-sized businesses.

3. Zendesk Chat

Zendesk Chat is part of the larger Zendesk Suite, a comprehensive customer service platform known for its scalability and powerful features. While Zendesk Chat can be used as a standalone product, it shines when integrated with other Zendesk tools, providing a unified customer service experience. It's particularly well-suited for large enterprises and businesses with dedicated customer support teams that need a robust, scalable solution.

Zendesk for WooCommerce

Zendesk does not offer a direct, dedicated WooCommerce plugin like some other live chat solutions (e.g., LiveChat or Tawk.to). However, you can still integrate Zendesk with WooCommerce through a few different methods:

Third-party integrations	There are third-party plugins available in the WordPress repository that can help integrate Zendesk with WooCommerce. These plugins typically allow you to sync customer information, tickets, and chats between WooCommerce and Zendesk, but they may not offer as seamless or direct an integration as a native plugin.
Custom API integration	For businesses with development resources, it is possible to create a custom integration between WooCommerce and Zendesk using Zendesk's APIs. This method allows for greater flexibility and customization, but it requires technical expertise to implement and maintain.
Using Zapier	Zapier, a popular automation tool, can be used to connect WooCommerce and Zendesk. Through Zapier, you can set up automated workflows (called "Zaps") that trigger actions in Zendesk based on events in WooCommerce, such as creating a new ticket when an order is placed or updating a customer profile when their information changes.

Key features

Scalability: Zendesk Chat is designed to handle high volumes of customer interactions, making it ideal for large enterprises. The platform supports multiple agents and offers features like chat routing, departments, and agent roles, which help organize and manage large teams effectively. This scalability is a significant advantage for businesses that require a reliable solution capable of handling numerous simultaneous chats.
Analytics and reporting: One of Zendesk Chat’s standout features is its powerful analytics and reporting capabilities. The platform offers detailed insights into chat performance, customer satisfaction, agent productivity, and more. These analytics are crucial for large organizations that need to track performance across various metrics and make data-driven decisions.
Chatbots and automation: Zendesk Chat integrates with Zendesk's AI-powered tools, allowing businesses to deploy chatbots that can handle basic customer inquiries, triage issues, and even resolve common problems without human intervention. This automation helps reduce the workload on human agents, allowing them to focus on more complex queries.
Zendesk Suite integration: Zendesk Chat is part of a broader suite of customer service tools, including Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, and Zendesk Talk. When used together, these tools provide a seamless, omnichannel customer service experience. This integration is particularly valuable for large businesses that need to manage customer interactions across multiple channels, including email, phone, and social media.

Pricing

Zendesk Chat offers several pricing tiers designed to cater to businesses of different sizes:

Support Team: $19 per agent/month, which includes advanced chat features like triggers and chat routing.
Support Professional: $55 per agent/month, offering more advanced analytics, chat history, and advanced integrations.
Support Enterprise: $115 per agent/month, providing the full suite of features, including AI-powered chatbots, detailed reporting, and customization options.

Compared to LiveChat, Zendesk Chat’s pricing is on the higher end, especially for the Professional and Enterprise plans. However, the added cost is justified by the extensive features and scalability it offers, making it a worthwhile investment for large businesses.

Limitations

While Zendesk Chat is a powerful tool, it may not be the best fit for all businesses:

Complexity: Zendesk Chat's extensive features and integrations can be overwhelming for smaller businesses or those without a dedicated IT team. The setup and customization processes are more complex compared to Tawk.to or LiveChat.
Cost: Zendesk Chat’s pricing is significantly higher than Tawk.to (which is free) and LiveChat. This makes it less accessible to small businesses or startups with limited budgets.

Zendesk Chat is an excellent choice for large enterprises and businesses that need a scalable, feature-rich live chat solution integrated with a broader customer service suite. While it comes with a higher price tag and complexity, the investment is justified by the advanced features, scalability, and deep integrations that it offers. For small businesses or those with simpler needs, tools like Tawk.to or LiveChat may be more suitable due to their ease of use and lower cost.

However, for businesses that require a robust, enterprise-level solution with advanced analytics, automation, and omnichannel support, Zendesk Chat stands out as the best option on the market.

4. Olark

Olark website with chat support starting.

Olark is a live chat tool that places a strong emphasis on customization, allowing businesses to tailor the chat experience to their specific needs and branding. It’s an ideal solution for WooCommerce store owners who want to deeply personalize how they interact with customers. Olark is particularly well-suited for small to medium-sized businesses looking for a user-friendly live chat solution that offers flexible design options and powerful customer interaction tools.

WooCommerce integration

While Olark doesn’t offer a dedicated WooCommerce plugin like LiveChat, you can still integrate Olark into your WooCommerce store by embedding the chat widget using a simple script. The setup process is relatively easy, though it may not offer the deep integration that some other live chat solutions provide. However, once set up, Olark’s customizable chat widget can be tailored to fit your WooCommerce store’s needs, and you can use its visitor monitoring features to engage with potential customers as they browse your products.

Key features

Customizable chat automation	Olark provides automation features to streamline customer service. With customizable rules and triggers, you can set up automated messages to greet users or respond to frequently asked questions when agents are unavailable. This helps ensure that customers always receive an immediate response, even if a human agent isn't ready to chat right away.
Transcript search and analysis	Olark's transcript search and reporting features are particularly useful for businesses that need to track and analyze customer interactions. With searchable chat transcripts, your team can quickly access past conversations to resolve issues or gain insight into common customer concerns. The tool provides basic reporting on chat performance, helping you track metrics like response times, chat duration, and customer satisfaction. These reports can be used to optimize your support strategy and improve customer experience.
CRM integrations	Olark integrates seamlessly with a variety of CRM systems, including Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zendesk. This allows you to sync customer information and chat data directly into your CRM, enabling you to maintain a comprehensive view of your customer interactions across all channels.

Pricing

Olark offers a simple, flexible pricing structure. Their Standard Plan starts at $29 per agent/month (billed monthly). This plan includes all core features, such as chat customization, real-time monitoring, chat transcripts, and basic automation rules.

Compared to competitors like Tawk.to, which offers a completely free service, Olark’s pricing may seem relatively high. However, its extensive customization options and powerful features make it worth the investment for businesses that need more control over their live chat interactions. The pricing is also more affordable than high-end solutions like Zendesk Chat, making it a middle-ground option for businesses that need something more feature-rich than Tawk.to but less complex than Zendesk.

Limitations

While Olark is a powerful tool for customization and customer engagement, it does have some limitations:

Limited advanced features: Compared to more enterprise-focused tools like Zendesk Chat, Olark lacks some advanced features like AI-driven chatbots and deep automation workflows. This may limit its appeal for larger businesses with complex support needs.
No dedicated WooCommerce plugin: Although Olark can be integrated into a WooCommerce store, it doesn’t have a dedicated WooCommerce plugin. This might be a downside for businesses looking for a more seamless, out-of-the-box integration.

Olark is an excellent live chat tool for WooCommerce stores looking for a highly customizable and user-friendly solution. Its ability to tailor chat experiences to fit your brand, along with powerful features like real-time monitoring, automation, and CRM integration, makes it a great choice for small to medium-sized businesses. While it may not offer the advanced features of more enterprise-focused tools like Zendesk Chat, Olark provides a solid balance of customization, functionality, and affordability.

For WooCommerce store owners who want to personalize their customer interactions without the complexity or high cost of larger platforms, Olark is a compelling choice.

5. Chaport

Chaport is a live chat software designed to help businesses manage customer interactions across multiple channels from a single platform. It’s particularly well-suited for WooCommerce store owners who want to engage customers not only through web chat but also via popular messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger and Telegram. Chaport is known for its affordability, user-friendly interface, and flexibility, making it a strong contender for small to medium-sized businesses looking for a multichannel support solution.

Integration methods

Chaport does not offer a dedicated WooCommerce plugin. However, you can manually embed their chat widget into your WooCommerce store by copying the widget's JavaScript code from the dashboard and pasting it into your WooCommerce site’s code. This can be done by adding the code to the header or footer of your WordPress theme, or by using a plugin that allows you to add custom scripts to your site.

Since WooCommerce runs on WordPress, you can also integrate Chaport using a general WordPress plugin that allows custom code insertion. While this isn't a dedicated WooCommerce integration, it effectively adds the Chaport live chat functionality to your WooCommerce store.

Key features

Automatic chat translation: Chaport offers an automatic chat translation feature that supports over 20 languages, making it an excellent choice for WooCommerce stores with a global customer base. This feature automatically translates incoming and outgoing messages, allowing agents to communicate with customers in their preferred language without any language barriers. This level of translation support is particularly valuable for businesses operating in multiple regions.
Visitor information and targeted messaging: Chaport provides detailed visitor information, including location, visit history, and time spent on your site. This data allows your support team to target messages more effectively and engage with visitors based on their behavior. For instance, you can set up rules to automatically greet customers who spend a certain amount of time on a product page or who are returning visitors, thereby increasing the chances of conversion.
Group chats and chat assignment: Chaport supports group chats, allowing multiple agents to join a single conversation when needed. This is especially useful for handling complex queries that require input from different departments. The platform also offers chat assignment features, enabling automatic or manual distribution of chats to available agents based on predefined rules, ensuring that customer inquiries are handled efficiently.

Pricing

Chaport is known for its competitive pricing, offering a free plan with basic features and affordable paid plans that unlock additional functionality. The pricing structure is straightforward and designed to be accessible to businesses of all sizes.

Free	Includes 2 operators, unlimited chats, basic widget customization, and a history of up to 60 days.
Pro	$29 per agent/month. Includes unlimited chat history, advanced widget customization, chat assignment, and integrations with messaging apps like Facebook and Telegram.
Unlimited	$99 per month. Provides all Pro plan features plus priority support and more advanced automation options.

Compared to LiveChat and Zendesk Chat, Chaport’s pricing is significantly lower, making it an attractive option for small to medium-sized businesses that need multichannel support without the high cost.

Limitations

While Chaport offers a robust set of features, there are some limitations to consider:

Limited advanced features: Chaport lacks some of the more advanced automation and AI features available in higher-end tools like Zendesk Chat. This might be a drawback for larger enterprises that require sophisticated support capabilities.
No dedicated CRM integration: Unlike some competitors, Chaport doesn’t offer deep CRM integrations out of the box. Businesses that rely heavily on CRM systems for managing customer data might find this limiting, though basic integrations can still be managed via APIs or third-party tools like Zapier.

Chaport is an excellent choice for WooCommerce store owners who need a flexible, multichannel live chat solution at an affordable price. Its ability to integrate with popular messaging platforms, combined with features like automatic chat translation and group chats, makes it a powerful tool for engaging customers across different communication channels.

While it may not offer the advanced features of more expensive tools like Zendesk Chat, Chaport provides a balanced mix of functionality, customization, and affordability that’s ideal for small to medium-sized businesses. For those looking to expand their customer support reach beyond just web chat, Chaport is a compelling option that delivers solid value for the price.

Choose the best live chat plugin for your WooCommerce store

In the competitive world of ecommerce, providing real-time customer support can significantly enhance the customer experience and boost sales.

For WooCommerce store owners, choosing the right live chat tool depends on your specific needs and budget.

For those seeking a robust and easy-to-integrate solution, LiveChat stands out as the best overall option for WooCommerce. Tawk.to is perfect for those on a tight budget, while Zendesk Chat is ideal for large enterprises needing advanced features.

Olark offers unparalleled customization, and Chaport excels in multichannel communication at an affordable price. Each tool has its strengths, so select the one that best aligns with your business requirements.

If you're ready to enhance your WooCommerce store's customer support and boost your sales, LiveChat is the perfect solution. With seamless integration, powerful features, and a user-friendly interface, LiveChat is designed to help you engage with your customers in real-time and deliver exceptional service.

The Best Live Chat for WooCommerce in 2024