Shopxare Team
Short answer: LiveChat now sells new accounts as "Text", from the same company in Wrocław: Essential costs $19 per seat a month on yearly billing ($25 monthly) and includes only 10 AI resolutions a month. For a 3-person team with 300 chats and 100 AI resolutions, that comes to $156–237 a month. The main alternatives cost less for the same work: Crisp ($95 flat), Smartsupp ($41), tawk.to (free chat, AI from $29) and Shopxare (free, you pay your AI provider for usage). If you are already on a LiveChat plan, nothing changes for you, so only switch for a reason.
All prices are list prices in US dollars before tax, taken from each vendor's own pricing page on 22 October 2026.
What changed at LiveChat in 2026
LiveChat's pricing page now says: "LiveChat pricing for new trials now lives here, as Text plans. Text is the next product from the team behind LiveChat" (LiveChat pricing). The company itself renamed from LiveChat Software S.A. to Text S.A. back in September 2023 (MarketScreener, 2023).
Three points matter if you are comparing tools today:
- New sign-ups get Text plans. Essential is $19 per user a month billed yearly or $25 monthly; Growth is $79 yearly or $99 monthly. Enterprise is custom.
- Existing customers keep their plan. The page says "Your LiveChat account, plan, and price stay exactly as they are." The old plans (Starter $19, Team $49, Business $79 per seat on yearly billing) are still listed on the legacy pricing page.
- New features stay in Text. Text features "are not included in LiveChat plans, including legacy LiveChat subscriptions." If you want the AI Agent and the shared inbox, you are buying Text.
So the question "what's a good LiveChat alternative" now has two parts: is Text worth it for a new team, and is it worth leaving a legacy plan you already pay for.
How Text (LiveChat) counts seats and AI
Text is priced per user: "every user who logs in to answer chats or tickets needs a seat." On top of seats, the AI Agent is metered by resolutions:
- Essential: 1 AI Agent, 10 AI resolutions a month, 60 days of conversation history, 50 live visitors tracked.
- Growth: 10 AI Agents, 200 AI resolutions a month, unlimited history, 400 live visitors tracked.
- Extra AI: $49.50 for each pack of 50 resolutions, on both plans.
A resolution means "the AI directly solved a customer question", and several questions in one chat count once. That is fair counting, but 10 a month is a trial-sized allowance. A small store usually gets that many "where is my order" questions in a day.
The 60-day history on Essential is the other thing to check. If a customer comes back in month three about a warranty claim, the old chat is gone on that plan.
LiveChat alternatives compared (October 2026)
| Tool | Free plan | Paid from | AI agent | Better than Text when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text (LiveChat) | No, 14-day trial | Essential $19/seat yearly, $25 monthly | 10 resolutions on Essential, 200 on Growth, then $49.50 per 50 | You want one vendor for chat, tickets and AI with a large app marketplace |
| Crisp | 2 seats, 100 customer profiles, no AI credits | Mini $45/month for 4 seats | About 90 automated chats on Mini, about 450 on Essentials ($95) | You want one flat price for the whole team |
| Smartsupp | 1 agent, 25 conversations/month, 14-day history | Solo $17, Plus $25 (3 agents), yearly billing | Mira from $16/month for 100 conversations | You want the lowest paid price with unlimited conversations |
| tawk.to | Free chat | Branding removal $29/month | AI Assist from $29/month | You only need free human chat |
| Tidio | 50 billable conversations/month | Starter $24.17/month (100 conversations) | Lyro from $32.50/month for 50 | You need WhatsApp and Instagram in the same inbox today |
| Shopxare | Unlimited seats, conversations, contacts and AI resolutions | No paid plan today | Are AI with your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Google key | You want chat, email tickets, help center and an AI agent without per-seat fees |
Sources: Text/LiveChat, Crisp, Smartsupp, tawk.to, Tidio, Shopxare, all checked 22 October 2026.
What 3 agents, 300 chats and 100 AI resolutions cost
"From" prices hide the real bill. Here is one store priced line by line: 3 people answer 300 chats a month, and an AI agent resolves another 100.
| Setup | Seats and chat | AI (100 resolutions) | Total per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text Growth, yearly | 3 × $79 = $237 | 200 included | $237 |
| Text Essential, monthly | 3 × $25 = $75 | 10 included + 2 packs × $49.50 = $99 | $174 |
| Text Essential, yearly | 3 × $19 = $57 | $99 | $156 |
| Crisp Essentials | flat $95 (10 seats) | about 450 included | $95 |
| Smartsupp Plus + Mira, yearly | $25 (3 agents, unlimited chats) | $16 for 100 conversations | $41 |
| tawk.to + AI Assist | $0 | from $29, allowance not listed | from $29 |
| Shopxare | $0 | your AI provider bills usage | $0 + AI usage |
Two caveats. Vendors count AI differently: Text counts resolutions, Smartsupp counts conversations the AI took part in, Crisp counts automated conversations. And if your AI volume stays under about 90 a month, Crisp Mini at $45 is enough. We left Tidio out of this table because its prices above 250 conversations and 50 Lyro conversations are not published.
Which alternative fits which team
Crisp: one price, many seats
Crisp charges per workspace, not per person. Essentials covers 10 seats for $95. If five people dip into chat now and then, this beats any per-seat tool. We compared it in detail in our Intercom alternatives guide.
Smartsupp: cheapest paid plan with AI
Plus gives 3 agents and unlimited conversations for $25 a month on yearly billing, and the Mira AI agent starts at $16 for 100 conversations. The free plan is small: one agent and 25 conversations a month.
tawk.to: free human chat
If nobody wants an AI agent, tawk.to's free chat is hard to beat. Removing the "Powered by tawk.to" line costs $29 a month, and so does the entry AI Assist plan.
Shopxare: no seat price, no AI meter
Shopxare has one plan today and it is free: unlimited seats, conversations, contacts and AI resolutions. It includes the Messenger (website chat), a shared inbox, email tickets, a help center and Are AI, which answers only from your own content and hands the chat to a person when it isn't sure or the customer asks. You connect your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Google key, so that provider bills the AI usage directly. Two limits to know: the free plan keeps 30 days of report history and shows Shopxare branding (it goes away after 3 referrals). Where Text is ahead: a large marketplace of add-ons, and sister products like ChatBot and HelpDesk from the same company. WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger are still on the way in Shopxare. Our LiveChat comparison page lists the same differences.
When to stay on LiveChat or pick Text
Don't move if one of these is true:
- You are on a legacy LiveChat plan and happy with it. Your price is not changing. A rebrand alone is not a reason to migrate.
- You use LiveChat marketplace apps every day, for example a CRM or ecommerce integration your team depends on.
- You need 200 AI resolutions and unlimited history from one vendor, and Text Growth's $79 per seat fits your budget.
- You have one agent. Text Essential at $19 a month for one seat is reasonable if 10 AI resolutions are enough.
How to switch in an afternoon
- Export your numbers. In LiveChat reports, note chats per month and your busiest month over the last quarter. Price the alternatives on that month, not an average.
- Install the new chat on a test page. In Shopxare that is one snippet, the WordPress and WooCommerce plugin, the Shopify snippet or Google Tag Manager (all install options).
- Rebuild your 20 most-used canned responses, not all of them. Our 24 canned response templates are a starting point, and in Shopxare they become saved replies you insert with /.
- Set office hours and assignment so chats go to whoever is on shift (teams and assignment).
- Teach the AI agent. Add your shipping, returns and FAQ pages as knowledge, then test it with 30 real questions from last month and fix every wrong answer with a short answer.
- Move contacts with a CSV (contacts). See Move to Shopxare for which tools can be imported directly. Keep your LiveChat export for old chat history.
- Remove the old widget the same day, so visitors don't see two chat buttons.
Example: a bedding store with 3 people on chat
An online store selling duvet covers and sheets has 3 people sharing chat and about 300 chats a month. In November most questions are about delivery dates and sizes.
At 22:15 a visitor writes: "Is the 200×220 duvet cover available in stone grey, and will it arrive before Saturday?" The AI agent answers from the product and shipping pages: "Yes, stone grey is in stock in 200×220. Orders placed before 14:00 ship the same day, and standard delivery takes 1–2 working days, so an order tonight should arrive by Friday." The next morning a customer writes that a fitted sheet arrived torn. That chat goes to a person, who checks the order and sends a replacement.
On Text Essential, the first 10 answers like the one at 22:15 are covered each month, and each further 50 cost $49.50. On a flat or free plan, the same month costs the same no matter how many of those questions arrive.
FAQ
Is LiveChat free? No. LiveChat (now sold as Text) has a 14-day free trial with no credit card, then Essential from $19 per user a month on yearly billing, as of October 2026.
Is LiveChat now called Text? New trials are sold as Text plans, "the next product from the team behind LiveChat." The company renamed itself from LiveChat Software to Text S.A. in 2023. Existing LiveChat customers keep their accounts and prices.
How much do LiveChat AI resolutions cost? Essential includes 10 a month and Growth 200. Extra packs of 50 resolutions cost $49.50 on both plans, as of October 2026.
What is the best free alternative to LiveChat? For free human chat, tawk.to. For a free plan with unlimited seats and an AI agent, Shopxare, where you connect your own AI key. Crisp's free plan covers 2 seats without AI.
Who owns LiveChat? Text S.A., a listed company based in Wrocław, Poland, which also makes ChatBot, HelpDesk and Knowledge Base (Wikipedia).
If you want to compare on your own site, Shopxare is free with no credit card, and you can run it next to LiveChat on a test page first.
