# LiveChat Alternatives: 9 Help Desks and Chat Tools Compared > LiveChat now sells Text plans from $19 per user per month billed annually. Compare Zendesk, Help Scout, Freshdesk, Zoho Desk, Gorgias, Tidio and Crisp. _Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/livechat-alternatives — The Professional's Toolkit · updated November 2026_ --- LiveChat, now sold to new customers as Text plans, starts at $19 per user per month billed annually, or $25 billed monthly, on Essential, with 10 AI resolutions per account a month. The alternatives do not bill the same way. Zendesk, Help Scout, Freshdesk and Zoho Desk charge per agent or user; Gorgias charges per account by tickets; Crisp per workspace; Tidio by conversations; tawk.to keeps its core chat free. Our verdict: stay with Text for live chat, inbox, tickets and an AI Agent under one per-user price. Move for a free plan with chat, a phone channel, a help center or a flat team fee. Compare meters, not sticker prices. **$19 per user** — LiveChat's entry price today: Text Essential, per user per month billed annually ($25 billed monthly). - **10 / 200** — Text AI resolutions per account a month, Essential / Growth - **$49.50** — Text pack of 50 extra AI resolutions ($0.99 each) - **14 days** — Text trial of Essential or Growth, no card, no free plan ## What you would be leaving: Text's price model > **About these prices:** Prices shown are what LiveChat lists for visitors in the United States, in US dollars. Your price can differ by country, currency and local taxes such as VAT. Check your current price — LiveChat: https://api.colosus.site/go/livechat?to=pricing Text bills every user who answers chats or tickets as a seat, with no minimum and no fixed cap on Essential or Growth. Growth costs $79 per user per month billed annually or $99 billed monthly [1] and lifts the allowance to 200 AI resolutions per account a month. Extra AI resolutions come in packs of 50 for $49.50, or $0.99 per AI resolution, recurring until reduced at renewal. Unused ones do not carry over. There is no free plan. The 14-day trial needs no card and never charges automatically. The reasons to look elsewhere sit in Text's own plan matrix. Essential keeps history for 60 days, allows one AI Agent, and leaves routing rules, working hours, supervision and chat summaries to Growth. Custom SSO, audit logs and SLAs are Enterprise only, and HIPAA with a BAA is listed as coming soon. Text is not a phone system. Its Knowledge hub feeds the AI rather than publishing a help center. Existing LiveChat customers keep their plan and price; billing terms are in our [LiveChat pricing guide](/articles/livechat-pricing). **What users rate it, by platform** | Platform | Rating | Reviews | As of | |---|---|---|---| _Rendered from our current record; these are other platforms' user scores, separate from our own Toolkit Score._ Read those platforms with care before you leave. G2 and Capterra reviews mostly describe the older LiveChat product, app-store ratings rate the renamed mobile app, and Trustpilot holds too few reviews to be more than a map of complaint themes. If you do switch, plan the export early: a raw chat export is capped at the latest 100,000 records, and one export covers up to two years of chats or six months of tickets. > 💡 **Check where chat actually starts:** Zendesk live chat starts on Suite Team, Freshdesk chat needs Freshdesk Omni, and Help Scout Free and Zoho Desk Free include no live chat. > ⚠ **AI allowances expire differently:** Unused Text AI resolutions do not carry over, and Freshdesk's Freddy AI agent stops when its sessions reach zero. ## Six help desks from our catalog, unit by unit ### Zendesk: chat starts on Suite Team Zendesk prices per agent per month, and its entry Support Team plan has email ticketing and public social channels but no live chat, messaging or help center. Live chat, WhatsApp and voice start on Suite Team at $55 per agent per month billed annually or $69 billed monthly, with voice billed per number and per minute on top. The AI allowance runs per agent: Suite Team includes 5 automated resolutions per agent a month, and extras cost $1.50 each committed or $2.00 pay-as-you-go. The trial lasts 14 days with no card. The full head-to-head is in [LiveChat vs Zendesk](/articles/livechat-vs-zendesk). ### Help Scout: a free plan, but no chat on it Help Scout Free costs $0 for up to 5 users, one inbox, one Docs site and 100 contacts a month. It includes no live chat. Chat starts on Standard at $25 per user per month billed annually or $30 billed monthly, for up to 25 users. Its AI agent, Scout, costs $0.75 per resolution through the Envoy add-on, with three free months for new accounts. Scout answers in Beacon and email only, not on Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp or SMS, and takes no actions. A 30-day money-back guarantee covers the first payment. ### Freshdesk: buy Omni if you want chat Plain Freshdesk has no live chat. Chat, WhatsApp, Instagram and SMS sit in Freshdesk Omni, where Growth costs $29 per agent per month billed annually or $35 billed monthly. Omni Pro costs $79 per agent per month billed annually or $95 billed monthly. New customers get 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions once per account, then pay $49 per pack of 100 sessions, and at zero the AI agent stops. That rule matters if a bot takes most first contacts. There is a 14-day trial without a card and no self-serve free plan. ### Zoho Desk: low seat price, chat through Business Messaging Zoho Desk Free covers 3 users with email ticketing and no live chat. Chat starts on Standard, at $14 per agent per month billed annually or $20 billed monthly, through Zoho's Business Messaging channel, one channel on that plan. Zoho SalesIQ website live chat inside Desk is Enterprise only, at $40 per agent per month billed annually or $50 billed monthly. Light agents cost $6 per light agent per month from Standard, useful when many staff only read tickets. The 15-day trial drops to the Free plan automatically. ### Gorgias: priced by tickets, built for Shopify Gorgias charges per account by billable tickets a month, never per user. Basic costs $50 a month billed annually or $60 billed monthly for 300 tickets. Its AI Agent costs $1.50 per automated interaction beyond the included ones, and each interaction also counts as a helpdesk ticket. Voice and SMS are add-ons. The trial lasts 7 days, and there is no free plan. LiveChat's own Gorgias comparison page admits that a small Gorgias ticket allowance can cost less than a Text subscription for several users. ### Tidio: billed by conversations Tidio bills by billable conversations, meaning threads with a human agent's message; replies from its Lyro AI do not count. The Free plan costs $0 with 50 billable conversations. Tidio Starter costs $24.17 a month billed annually for 100 billable conversations [2]. The Lyro quota starts at $39 a month billed monthly, or $32.50 a month billed annually, for 50 Lyro conversations a month, billed per conversation, not per resolution. Self-serve plans hold up to 10 agents. By our arithmetic, one Text Essential seat costs less than Tidio's entry paid plan, but from two seats Tidio's flat fee is lower, as long as 100 human conversations a month are enough. Our [Tidio alternatives](/articles/tidio-alternatives) guide covers it in full. ## Three chat-first tools outside our catalog ### Intercom: a help center included, AI by outcome Intercom charges per seat on Essential, Advanced and Expert, plus usage. Its Essential plan already includes Messenger live chat, a shared inbox with ticketing and a public help center. Fin AI Agent costs $0.99 per outcome [3]. Nothing is charged when Fin cannot answer or the customer asks for a human, and at most one outcome counts per conversation. The trial runs 14 days without a card. The figure equals Text's per-resolution pack rate, but Text sells resolutions in packs of 50 that expire unused. ### Crisp: one flat fee per workspace Crisp charges a flat fee per workspace with no limit on conversations [4]. The Free plan holds 2 seats. Mini costs $45 a month for 4 seats, and Essentials $95 a month for 10 seats, with extra agents at $10 a month each. AI usage comes as included credits, not resolutions. Essentials adds a knowledge base and an omnichannel inbox. By our arithmetic, ten Crisp Essentials seats cost $95 a month at Crisp's listed monthly price, the same as five Text Essential users billed annually ($125 billed monthly). ### tawk.to: free core, paid extras tawk.to keeps its core live chat free and charges for extras. Branding removal costs $29 a month, the AI Assist bot has a paid tier at $29 a month plus a free tier for low chat volume, and hired human agents cost $1 an hour. It lists Messaging and Phone as beta products. For a site that needs only a widget and can live with the branding, it costs nothing at all. ## The bill at five and ten seats By our arithmetic, billed annually and per month, five users on Text Essential come to $95, against $275 for five agents on Zendesk Suite Team. Five Help Scout Standard users cost $125 and five Freshdesk Omni Growth agents $145. Five Zoho Desk Standard agents cost $70. Gorgias Basic stays at $50 per account whatever the headcount, if 300 tickets a month are enough. Features differ, though. Text Essential carries one AI Agent and 10 resolutions per account a month at that price. At ten users the picture shifts. Ten users on Text Growth cost $790 a month, the same as ten Freshdesk Omni Pro agents. Ten Zendesk Suite Team agents cost $550 and ten Help Scout Plus users $450. Add 300 AI resolutions a month and Text Growth needs two extra packs ($99), for $889 in total. Zendesk Suite Team reaches $925 with committed resolutions or $1,050 pay-as-you-go. Help Scout Plus reaches $675 once the free Scout months end. > ⚠ **Seat totals hide feature gaps:** Text Essential keeps 60 days of history and has no routing rules or supervision; those start on Growth at $79 per user per month billed annually. ## Which alternative fits which team Stay on Text if one seat price should cover website chat, email forwarded into tickets, native WhatsApp with free numbers, Messenger and Instagram, with an AI Agent that answers on website chat, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and SMS. Copilot comes with every Text plan. Pick Zendesk Suite Team for native voice and a help center in one product. Pick Zoho Desk Standard when the seat budget is tight. Pick Gorgias for a Shopify store with a modest ticket count. If the budget is zero, skip the free help desks: Help Scout Free and Zoho Desk Free include no live chat, while tawk.to, Tidio Free and Crisp Free do. Regulated teams should note that Text lists HIPAA as coming soon on Enterprise, while Help Scout offers it as a Plus add-on or on Pro with a BAA, and Zendesk with a BAA and configuration. Want a public help center bundled? Zendesk Suite, Help Scout's Docs, Intercom Essential and Crisp Essentials include one. > 💡 **Price the AI meter at your volume:** Text counts AI resolutions per account a month, Zendesk per agent, Intercom per Fin outcome and Tidio per Lyro conversation. Multiply each by your expected monthly volume before comparing seat prices. ## FAQ **Do existing LiveChat customers have to move to Text?** Not today. Existing LiveChat customers keep their account, plan and price; Text features such as the AI Agent and ticketing are not included in LiveChat plans, and a Text trial can run side by side. Text's Context 2025 page says the Text App will be the only supported platform in the long run, with plan and price kept for migrating customers and advance notice of any change. **Are ChatBot.com and HelpDesk.com alternatives to LiveChat?** No. Both come from Text, Inc. HelpDesk.com's own pricing page now sells the same Text plans, while ChatBot.com and KnowledgeBase are separate products from Text, Inc. Text's AI Agent, inbox and ticketing are built into the Text plans. **Can I bring tickets from another help desk into Text?** Text documents API-based ticket import, and WhatsApp numbers move with Text's migration guide. **Does Text include a customer-facing help center?** No. Text's Knowledge hub only feeds its AI; KnowledgeBase is a separate help-center product from Text, Inc. and is not part of Text plans. ## The bottom line Text fits when you want chat, tickets and AI under one per-user price, and it gets expensive as headcount grows or once Growth's routing and supervision become necessary. The alternatives win on specific needs: Zendesk for voice, Zoho Desk for seat cost, Gorgias for small Shopify ticket loads, Crisp for a flat team fee, tawk.to for a free widget. Price each against your real seats and AI volume, then run a trial before committing. ## Sources [1] Text Live Chat Pricing: Plans from $19/User — https://www.livechat.com/pricing/ (2026-11) [2] [Toggle state: initial, read from the US on 2026-11-04] This website uses cookies. We use — https://www.tidio.com/pricing/ (2026-11) [3] [Toggle state: initial, read from the US on 2026-11-04] Product Customers Resources — https://www.intercom.com/pricing (2026-11) [4] [Toggle state: initial, read from the US on 2026-11-04] NEW Discover the State of AI — https://crisp.chat/en/pricing/ (2026-11) [5] LiveChat help center — https://www.livechat.com/help/ [6] Text Terms of Use — https://www.text.com/legal/terms-of-use/ [7] Text API documentation — https://www.text.com/docs/