2 Best Tawk.to Alternatives in 2025
Last updated: February 2026 • 7 min read
Tawk.to is a popular tool for businesses wanting free live chat. While it offers a free tier (Completely free), its paid plans start at Free. Whether you're looking for a cheaper option, better features, or an open-source solution, we've compiled the 2 best Tawk.to alternatives to help you find the right fit.
📋 Quick Summary
- Total alternatives: 2
- Free alternatives: 1 (Chatwoot)
- Open-source options: Chatwoot
- Best overall: Intercom
- Best free: Chatwoot
Why Look for Tawk.to Alternatives?
People commonly look for Tawk.to alternatives for several reasons:
- Cost: While Tawk.to has a free tier, its paid plans starting at Free can add up quickly for growing teams.
- Feature gaps: Tawk.to branding and basic design are common complaints.
- Simplicity: Some users find Tawk.to overly complex for their needs and prefer simpler solutions.
- Data ownership: Organizations wanting data sovereignty prefer open-source, self-hosted alternatives.
- Better fit: Different tools excel at different use cases — you may find a tool that's specifically built for your workflow.
📊 Quick Comparison Table
| Tool | Free Tier | Starting Price | Rating | Open Source | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tawk.to | ✓ Completely free | Free | ⭐ 4 | No | Businesses wanting free live chat |
| Intercom | ✗ No | $39/user/mo | ⭐ 4.2 | No | SaaS companies wanting full customer messaging |
| Chatwoot | ✓ Free (self-hosted) | $19/agent/mo | ⭐ 4.1 | ✓ Yes | Companies wanting open-source customer support |
Detailed Reviews of Each Alternative
Intercom
Customer messaging platform for sales, marketing, and support.
Intercom is a customer communications platform that combines live chat, bots, product tours, and a help center. It's designed to help businesses communicate with customers throughout their lifecycle — from acquisition to engagement to support.
Pros
- ✓ Powerful platform
- ✓ AI features
- ✓ Good UX
- ✓ Comprehensive
Cons
- ✗ Very expensive
- ✗ Complex pricing
- ✗ Feature overload
- ✗ Slow support
Chatwoot
Open-source customer engagement platform.
Chatwoot is an open-source customer engagement platform that serves as an alternative to Intercom. It offers live chat, email, social media, and messaging app support from a single dashboard. Being open source, it can be self-hosted for complete data control.
Pros
- ✓ Open source
- ✓ Self-hostable
- ✓ Multi-channel
- ✓ Free option
Cons
- ✗ Fewer features than Intercom
- ✗ Self-hosting complexity
- ✗ Smaller ecosystem
- ✗ Less polished
🏆 Our Recommendations
❓ FAQ
What is the best free alternative to Tawk.to?
The best free alternative to Tawk.to is Chatwoot, which offers Free (self-hosted).
Is there an open-source alternative to Tawk.to?
Yes! Chatwoot is open-source alternative to Tawk.to that you can self-host for free.
What is the cheapest alternative to Tawk.to?
The cheapest alternatives are the free options: Chatwoot. For paid alternatives, prices start from as low as $19/mo.
💰 Stop Overpaying for SaaS
Join smart professionals who receive our weekly roundup of the best SaaS deals, free alternatives, and money-saving tips.
Free forever. Unsubscribe anytime. No spam.