The best free tawk.to alternative depends on what is pushing you away. The two usual reasons, removing the "Powered by tawk.to" badge and adding an AI agent, are both paid add-ons on tawk.to at $29 a month each (as of October 2026), and some tools include more in their free plan. If you rely on tawk.to's unlimited free seats and only people answer your chats, staying is often the right call.

Below you will find the free plans of tawk.to, Tidio, Crisp, Zoho SalesIQ and Shopxare side by side, four questions that tell you which one fits, and a checklist for switching in an afternoon. Every price and limit comes from the vendor's own pricing page, checked on 9 October 2026. Prices are in US dollars.

Free plans compared (October 2026)

	Free seats	Free chat volume	AI on the free plan	Watch out for
tawk.to	Unlimited team members	No cap stated, unlimited history	AI Assist is an add-on from $29/month; a free tier exists for "sites with limited chat volume"	Removing the branding costs $29/month
Tidio	Up to 10 agents on self-serve plans	50 billable conversations a month	Lyro AI: your first 50 conversations are free, lifetime	Tidio branding stays on Free; Starter is listed at $24.17/month
Crisp	2 seats	Not stated	None ("No AI credits included")	Removing the "We run on Crisp" watermark is listed under the Plus plan
Zoho SalesIQ	3 operators	100 operator chat sessions a month, 10K visitors tracked	None on Free	Branding customization is only on paid plans
Shopxare	Unlimited	Unlimited conversations	Are AI, answering from your own content	Report history is 30 days; flows and workflows are capped at 10 each

Two things the table can't show. First, "billable conversation" on Tidio means any chat, ticket or email conversation, but unanswered visitor messages don't count. Second, Tidio's 50 Lyro conversations are a one-time allowance, so think of it as a trial of the AI, not a free AI plan.

Pick one in four questions

Answer from the top and stop at the first yes.

Only people answer your chats, and the "Powered by tawk.to" badge doesn't bother you? Stay on tawk.to.
Your customer data already lives in HubSpot or Zoho? Use their free chat.
You are one or two people and don't need AI? Crisp Free.
You want AI answers from your own pages plus a shared team inbox? Shopxare. Tidio works too if you only want to test AI on 50 conversations.

Why people look for a tawk.to alternative

Both common reasons are on tawk.to's own pricing page:

The badge. The widget shows "Powered by tawk.to". Removing it is $29 a month.
AI. AI Assist starts at $29 a month. There is a free tier, but only for sites with limited chat volume, and tawk.to doesn't say where the limit is.

Google's autocomplete adds a third: "tawk.to alternative open source". That one has a clear answer further down (Chatwoot).

When you should stay on tawk.to

Be honest with yourself before you switch. tawk.to is a good deal for a specific kind of team:

Many people, no AI. tawk.to advertises unlimited team members with no per-seat fees and unlimited history (features). Of the free plans above, only Shopxare also lists unlimited seats. Tidio, Crisp and Zoho cap them.
The badge doesn't bother you. Most visitors don't notice it.
You already use its ticketing and knowledge base. Both are free on tawk.to.
You need desktop and phone apps. tawk.to has native apps for iOS, Android, macOS and Windows.

Switching costs a few hours: a new snippet, new saved replies, a team that has to learn a new inbox. If neither reason above actually hurts, keep what works.

The alternatives, one by one

Tidio: try AI on a small store

The free plan covers 50 billable conversations a month and the first 50 Lyro AI conversations in total. That is enough to see how an AI agent handles your shipping and returns questions for a few days. It is not enough to run a store with 10 chats a day. Choose Tidio if you expect to pay for Lyro later and want to test it first.

Crisp: tidy for one or two people

Two seats, a shared inbox, the website widget, contact forms and mobile apps. No AI credits on Free. The next plan, Mini, is $45 a month per workspace. Choose Crisp if you are a solo founder or a pair and don't need AI.

Zoho SalesIQ: if you already live in Zoho

Three operators, 100 chat sessions a month and visitor insights for up to 10,000 visitors a month. No chatbot on Free. It makes sense when Zoho CRM is already your system of record, because chats land next to your contacts.

HubSpot: if your contacts are in HubSpot CRM

HubSpot says you can start with its live chat and chatbot builder for free, with no credit card (HubSpot). Its product page doesn't list the free limits, so check them in your account. Pick it when HubSpot is where your sales team works.

Chatwoot: open source and self-hosted

Chatwoot calls itself "an open-source alternative to Intercom, Zendesk" and is released under the MIT License (GitHub). You run it on your own server. Choose it if you have someone who will keep that server updated. If you don't, a hosted tool is cheaper in practice.

Shopxare: chat, inbox and an AI agent in one free plan

This is our product, so read this part with that in mind. Shopxare has one plan today and it is free, no credit card. The pricing page lists unlimited seats and conversations, with limits on a few things: 3 teams, 10 flows, 10 workflows, 500 MB of file storage and 30 days of report history.

The part that answers the "AI" reason is Are AI. It answers from your help center articles, short answers, saved replies, your website pages and files (PDF, DOCX, TXT, MD, CSV), and it hands the conversation to a person when the customer asks for one, when the topic is sensitive or when it isn't confident. It runs on a monthly AI budget; if that runs out, conversations go straight to your team. You can also plug in your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Google key.

Where Shopxare is the weaker choice: WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger channels are on the way but not built yet. If most of your customers write on WhatsApp, pick a tool that has it today.

How to switch from tawk.to in an afternoon

List what tawk.to does for you today. Shortcuts, triggers, departments, office hours. You will rebuild only what you actually use.
Move your shortcuts. In Shopxare they become saved replies: type "/" in the reply box to insert one.
Install the new widget. One snippet for any site, or the WordPress plugin, Shopify snippet, ikas app or Google Tag Manager. Our WordPress guide compares the three WordPress methods.
Remove the tawk.to code in the same session. Two chat buttons confuse customers. Check the plugin list, the theme footer and your Tag Manager container.
Set office hours and what visitors see when nobody is online.
If you use AI, feed it first. Add your shipping, returns and payment pages, then test real questions in Are AI → Try it before customers see it.
Get the team on their phones. Shopxare Mobile for iPhone and Android is free (apps).
Send yourself a test message from your phone and check that the notification arrives.

Keep your tawk.to account for a few weeks so you can look up old chats.

Example: a two-person candle shop

A WooCommerce store, two owners, 10 to 15 chats on a busy day. Most are "when will my order arrive?" and "can I return this?". The badge doesn't bother them. Answering the same delivery question at 11 p.m. does.

Run the four questions. They want AI, so questions 1 and 3 are a no. They don't use HubSpot or Zoho, so question 2 is a no too. Question 4 sends them to Shopxare or Tidio. At their volume, Tidio's 50 free AI conversations would be gone in under a week. On Shopxare, Are AI stays on within the monthly AI budget.

The late-night chat then looks like this:

Customer: Hi, I ordered on Monday. When will it arrive?

Are AI: We ship within 2 working days, and standard delivery takes 1 to 3 working days after that. If you send me your order number, I'll pass it to the team so they can check the exact status.

The answer comes from the shop's own shipping page. With data connectors, Are AI can also look the order up in the shop's system itself.

Try it next to what you have

Shopxare is free, with no credit card. Install the Messenger on a test page, connect your shipping and returns pages to Are AI, and ask it the five questions you answer most. If the answers aren't good enough, you have lost an afternoon, not money. Start here, or see how we compare.

FAQ

Is tawk.to really free?

Yes. Chat, ticketing and the knowledge base are free, with unlimited team members. Paid extras as of October 2026: branding removal at $29/month, AI Assist from $29/month and hired chat agents at $1/hour.

Can I remove "Powered by tawk.to" for free?

No. It is a $29/month add-on, according to tawk.to's pricing page.

What is the best free alternative to tawk.to?

For an AI agent and a team inbox on a free plan, Shopxare. For one or two people who don't need AI, Crisp. If your customer data is already in HubSpot or Zoho, use their free chat.

Is there an open-source alternative to tawk.to?

Yes, Chatwoot. It is released under the MIT License and you host it yourself.

Does tawk.to have AI?

Yes, AI Assist. It is an add-on from $29/month, with a free tier for sites with limited chat volume.

Free tawk.to alternatives in 2026: free plans compared side by side