For most small and midsize stores, the best live chat app for Shopify is ThriveDesk, which pairs the chat widget with an AI agent, Shopify order details and an email inbox at one flat price. If you only need free storefront chat, Shopify Inbox is the best free pick.
Shoppers use chat at two moments. Before they buy, they ask about size, stock and delivery dates, and a slow answer loses the cart. After they buy, the same chat fills with tracking and return questions. A live chat app for Shopify has to cover both, including the hours when nobody is online.
Our eight picks, in order: 1) ThriveDesk, for chat, an AI agent and email in one plan; 2) Shopify Inbox, for free chat; 3) Tidio, for chatbot flows; 4) LiveChat, for sales chat with product cards; 5) Chatra, for small teams that watch visitors live; 6) Willdesk, for a low-cost start; 7) Crisp, for seat bundles with social channels; and 8) tawk.to, for free chat with unlimited agents. We checked every price on the app’s Shopify App Store listing or the vendor’s pricing page on 30 October 2026.
What is the best live chat app for Shopify?
The best live chat app for Shopify answers shoppers fast at any hour, shows the agent the order or cart, and costs about the same in December as in March. Which app wins depends on who answers chats in your store.
- A small team that also answers email: ThriveDesk, from $29 a month for the whole plan.
- A store owner who answers chats alone: Shopify Inbox, free.
- A store that wants scripted chatbot flows: Tidio.
- A sales team that sends product cards and watches carts: LiveChat.
- A store that needs no paid plan at all and has many agents: tawk.to.
Live chat, chatbot or AI agent
Live chat is a person who answers a shopper in real time. A chatbot follows flows that you build, such as a menu that asks for an order number. An AI agent reads your help content and store data and writes its own answer, then hands the chat to a person when it cannot help. Our post on chatbots and live chat explains the trade-offs in detail.
In practice, most apps on this list now sell all three, but they price them in different ways. Some include the AI in the plan. Others sell it as a separate product with its own conversation cap. That difference decides your bill more than the starting price does.
How we evaluated
We judged each app against the jobs a Shopify store gives its chat.
- Coverage: Does an AI agent or chatbot answer when the team is offline? Does it hand off cleanly to a person?
- Store context: Can the agent see the order or cart next to the chat?
- Sales tools: Can the app send proactive messages, product cards or offers in the chat?
- Pricing model: Does the bill grow with agents, conversations, visitors or AI answers?
- Team fit: Where do email and chat transcripts go once the store hires a second person?
We also read each app’s rating and review count on its Shopify App Store listing.
Quick comparison
Pricing verified October 2026. We checked each price on the app’s Shopify App Store listing or the vendor’s pricing page on 30 October 2026. Prices are in US dollars.
| App | Best for | Free plan | Paid plans from | How the bill grows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ThriveDesk | Chat, AI agent and email in one plan | No, 7-day free trial | $29 a month, or $19 billed yearly | By plan, AI included |
| Shopify Inbox | Free chat with AI product answers | Yes, free app | No paid plans | Free |
| Tidio | Chatbot flows and an AI add-on | Yes, with visitor limits | $29 a month for 100 conversations | By conversations and add-ons |
| LiveChat | Sales chat with product cards | No, 14-day free trial | $25 a month | By user, on the vendor’s page |
| Chatra | Watching visitors in real time | Yes, 5 conversations a month | $31 per agent a month | By agent |
| Willdesk | Low-cost start with order tracking | Yes, 20 conversations | $16.90 a month for 100 conversations | By conversations and AI answers |
| Crisp | Seat bundles with social channels | Yes, 2 seats | $45 a month for 4 seats | By seat bundle |
| tawk.to | Free chat with unlimited agents | Yes, no seat limit | Add-ons from $29 a month | By add-on |
The 8 best live chat apps for Shopify in 2026
1. ThriveDesk: best for chat, an AI agent and email in one plan
ThriveDesk is AI customer service software for ecommerce: an agentic omnichannel helpdesk, intelligent chatbot, modern help center and powerful reporting, plus Neo, the AI agent that answers customers around the clock. Its Shopify integration is live. The chat widget sits on your store, and when a person takes over, Shopify order details sit next to the chat.
Neo answers in the chat widget 24/7, in 50+ languages, from your help center, site pages and files. It resolves up to 65% of conversations without a person and hands the rest to your team by rules you set. Neo can also send proactive messages based on what a shopper does and make in-chat upsells. Chats and email land in one shared inbox, with iOS and Android apps for replies on the go.
Pricing is flat per plan, with AI included and no fee per resolution. Basic costs $29 a month for 2 teammates and 1 inbox. Standard costs $69 for 5 teammates and 2 inboxes, and Unlimited costs $129 for unlimited teammates and 5 inboxes. On yearly billing, the plans cost $19, $49 and $99 a month. The 7-day free trial needs no credit card.
Limitations:
- There is no free plan, so a store that only wants a chat box pays from day one, where Shopify Inbox costs nothing.
- WhatsApp and Messenger are not launched yet, and visitor tracking is only on the Unlimited plan.
See the plans on the pricing page.
2. Shopify Inbox: best free live chat
Shopify Inbox is Shopify’s own chat app, and it is free. The listing calls it an AI sales associate: it answers shopper questions, recommends products from your catalog and sends automated order updates and discounts. Shoppers who sign in with Shop get replies based on their preferences and past orders. On the Shopify App Store, Inbox has a 4.6 rating from 5,807 reviews.
Best for: A store owner who answers chats alone and wants AI product answers at no cost.
Limitations: It handles chat, not email. Once a second person joins, you need a help desk for ticket owners, statuses and an email queue. Our list of customer support apps for Shopify covers that step.
3. Tidio: best for chatbot flows
Tidio combines live chat, a visual chatbot builder called Flows and an AI agent called Lyro. Lyro can take native Shopify actions. It has a 4.8 rating from 1,355 reviews, the highest score here with more than a thousand reviews.
The free plan includes live chat, ticketing and Flows for up to 100 visitors a month. Customer Service costs $29 a month for 100 conversations and $59 for 250 to 1,000. Flows costs $29 a month, and the Lyro AI Chatbot plan costs $39 a month for up to 200 Lyro conversations. Removing Tidio branding is a paid add-on. Paid plans have a 7-day free trial.
Best for: Stores that want to build their own chatbot flows for welcome offers and cart rescue.
Limitations: Live chat, flows and AI are separate products, each with its own cap, so the bill grows in several places at once.
4. LiveChat: best for sales chat with product cards
LiveChat, now sold by Text, is built for sales chat. Agents can send product cards on every plan. The Team plan adds order details, a real-time cart preview and sales tracking from chats. It has a 4.4 rating from 49 reviews.
Starter costs $25 a month, or $228 a year, with product cards, AI features, traffic tracking for up to 100 visitors and 60 days of chat history. Team costs $59 a month and Business $89. Each plan has a 14-day free trial. The vendor’s pricing page says plans are priced per user. Our LiveChat alternatives post covers other options.
Best for: Sales-led stores where agents guide shoppers to checkout.
Limitations: Order details and cart preview need the Team plan, and every person who answers chats needs a paid seat.
5. Chatra: best for small teams that watch visitors live
Chatra shows a real-time list of store visitors and lets agents see what a shopper types before they press send. It also brings Instagram DMs and Facebook chat into the same window, with chatbots and chat automation. It has a 4.6 rating from 307 reviews.
The free plan covers 5 conversations a month. Essential costs $31 per agent a month, or $300 a year, and Pro costs $41 per agent, or $396 a year, with reports, operating hours and integrations. Paid plans have a 10-day free trial.
Best for: Small teams that like to start chats with visitors who look stuck.
Limitations: Five free conversations a month is only enough to try the app, and some reviewers complain that the free limit was cut. The price grows with each agent.
6. Willdesk: best for a low-cost start
Willdesk, from Channelwill, is a chat and help desk app for Shopify stores. Its free plan includes unlimited agents, live chat, order tracking, a help center and email and social channels, capped at 20 conversations. It has a 4.7 rating from 379 reviews.
Basic costs $16.90 a month, or $141.96 a year, for 100 conversations and 3 stores. Extra usage costs $12 per 100 conversations, $20 per 100 AI conversations and $4 per 100 tracked orders. Pro costs $89.90 a month for 1,000 conversations. Paid plans have a 7-day free trial.
Best for: New stores that want order tracking in chat for less than $20 a month.
Limitations: Three separate usage meters make a busy month hard to predict.
7. Crisp: best for seat bundles with social channels
Crisp sells chat by the workspace, with a set number of seats in each plan. The free plan includes 2 seats, website chat and Shopify data sync. It has a 4.0 rating from 34 reviews.
Mini costs $45 a month for 4 seats. Essentials costs $95 a month for 10 seats and adds a custom-trained AI agent with limited AI automations, plus WhatsApp, Instagram and SMS. Plus costs $295 a month for 20 seats. Extra seats cost $10 a month each. Paid plans have a 14-day free trial.
Best for: Teams of 4 to 10 that want WhatsApp and Instagram in the same inbox as chat.
Limitations: The AI agent starts on the $95 plan, and the listing has fewer reviews than most apps here.
8. tawk.to: best free chat with unlimited agents
tawk.to is free with unlimited messaging, ticketing and agent seats, plus a free knowledge base. You pay only for add-ons: $29 a month to remove the tawk.to branding, AI Assist from $29 a month, and hired chat agents at $1 an hour. It has a 3.6 rating from 89 reviews.
Best for: Stores with many part-time agents and no budget for seats.
Limitations: The free widget shows tawk.to branding. About one in five listing reviews give one star.
How to choose a live chat app for your Shopify store
Start with who answers chats today and who will answer them next year.
- One person and no budget: Shopify Inbox, or tawk.to if you need more agents.
- A small team that also answers email: ThriveDesk, so chat and email share one queue and one bill.
- Chatbot flows matter more than a team inbox: Tidio.
- Agents sell in the chat: LiveChat on the Team plan.
- WhatsApp and Instagram are main channels: Crisp Essentials.
Then price your peak month. Count conversations, agents and AI answers for November and December, not for a quiet week. Put the numbers into the help desk cost calculator to compare seat-based and flat plans.
What chat costs a three-person team in a busy month
Starting prices hide how each bill grows. Take a store with 3 people on chat and 600 conversations in a peak month, on monthly billing:
- Shopify Inbox: $0.
- tawk.to: $0, or $29 to remove the branding.
- Crisp Mini: $45, which covers 4 seats.
- ThriveDesk Standard: $69, because Basic covers 2 teammates and Standard covers 5. Neo is included.
- LiveChat Starter: $75, if each of the 3 users pays $25 as the vendor’s page says.
- Willdesk Basic: $76.90, which is $16.90 for 100 conversations plus 500 more at $12 per 100.
- Chatra Essential: $93, at $31 per agent.
- Tidio Customer Service: $59 for up to 1,000 conversations, plus $39 for the Lyro plan if you want 200 AI conversations.
AI changes the totals. Willdesk charges $20 per 100 AI conversations, Tidio caps Lyro at 200 on its entry plan, and Crisp’s AI agent starts on the $95 Essentials plan. On ThriveDesk, Neo’s answers do not change the bill. Run the sum with your own numbers before you decide.
What to test during a free trial
Install two or three apps on a test theme and run the same checks on each. Ask a sizing question at night and see who answers. Ask where an order is and see whether the agent can find it without a search. Open the widget on a phone and check that it does not cover the add-to-cart button.
Then read a day of AI answers. Check that the AI quotes your real return window and delivery times. Check that it hands the chat to a person when the shopper asks for one. Our guide to the best live chat software for ecommerce lists more checks.
Why Shopify teams choose ThriveDesk for live chat
ThriveDesk fits the store that has outgrown a free chat box but does not want a seat-priced help desk.
- One queue for chat and email: a chat that turns into a return request stays in the same conversation, with the Shopify order beside it.
- AI in the plan: Neo answers at night and on weekends, and no resolution fee lands on the invoice.
- A fixed price: five teammates cost $69 a month on Standard, in a quiet month and in December.
The ecommerce support page shows how stores set it up.
Disclosure: ThriveDesk is our product, so this is not an independent ranking. We checked every price and App Store rating on the app’s Shopify App Store listing or the vendor’s pricing page on 30 October 2026, and we list two real limitations for ThriveDesk. Plans change, so confirm the current price before you buy. If you find an outdated detail, tell us and we will correct it.
