Pick an Olark alternative by what you want chat to do. If it's there to close sales, go for an ecommerce-focused widget. If it's one support channel among many, choose a help desk with chat built in. If you'd like control over your data, look at open-source options you can host yourself.
Live chat looks like the simplest tool on a website. A little bubble, a reply box, done. But the chat tool you choose quietly decides how fast you answer, who answers, and whether those conversations ever reach your CRM. Olark is one long-standing live chat tool, and the ten alternatives here come at the job from quite different angles.
They're listed in no particular order, A to Z, and each description is based on the vendor's own website. Treat them as claims to test on your own site.
How to choose before you swap widgets
- Who replies? If it's you between other jobs, you need good mobile apps and offline messages. If it's a team, you need routing and assignment.
- What should chat lead to? A sale, a booked call, a support ticket? Choose the tool that's built around that outcome.
- How much should AI handle? Some tools here put AI agents up front. That's handy for repeat questions and risky for anything delicate.
- Where do the conversations go? Check the link to your CRM and email tools, because a chat that disappears after it ends is wasted.
Do you make live chat software? Tool makers can ask to be considered for a featured place on this list.
Ten live chat tools, alphabetically
Chatwoot
Best for: technical teams who'd like an open-source option they can self-host, covering live chat, email, WhatsApp and social.
Gist
Best for: marketers who want chat inside an all-in-one growth tool that follows the whole customer journey.
HelpCrunch
Best for: teams pairing live chat and a chatbot with a knowledge base, popups and email campaigns.
Jivo
Best for: small businesses that want live chat on the website with an easy setup and room for a few agents.
Kommunicate
Best for: businesses that want AI agents answering across chat, email, WhatsApp and voice, with people stepping in on harder queries.
LiveAgent
Best for: small teams that want live chat as one part of a wider help desk covering email, phone and social, with AI agents.
Pure Chat
Best for: owners after a plain, quick way to add live chat to a website without a big setup project.
Smartsupp
Best for: ecommerce owners who see chat as a sales channel and want help turning website visitors into repeat customers.
Tawk.to
Best for: teams wanting live chat, ticketing, a knowledge base, AI assist and a CRM in one place.
Userlike
Best for: support teams that want chat and messaging apps together; the product now goes by Lime Connect.
Quick comparison of the ten
| Tool | Type | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Chatwoot | Open-source support | Self-hosting your customer chat |
| Gist | Growth platform | Chat as part of a wider growth suite |
| HelpCrunch | Chat and email | Chat, chatbot and email marketing together |
| Jivo | Live chat | Quick install on a small site |
| Kommunicate | AI support agents | AI handling first replies, humans the rest |
| LiveAgent | Help desk with chat | Email, chat, phone and social in one inbox |
| Pure Chat | Live chat | Adding chat fast with little fuss |
| Smartsupp | Live chat | Online shops chasing more sales from chats |
| Tawk.to | Live chat | One inbox for many customer channels |
| Userlike | Chat and messaging | Chat, messaging and AI on one platform |
Accessibility is the check most owners skip
A chat widget sits on every page of your site, so if it doesn't work for everyone, you've got a site-wide problem. The W3C's WCAG overview explains that WCAG documents set out how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities, and that WCAG 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 are stable, referenceable standards once published as a W3C Recommendation.
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I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
In practice that means opening each trial widget and trying it with the keyboard only: can you open it, type, send and close it without a mouse? Then try a screen reader. For the wider picture, my guide to ADA website compliance covers what it means for small business sites.
Mistakes I see when businesses add chat
The biggest one is turning chat on and then not staffing it. A widget that says online but takes an hour to reply does more harm than a contact form. Set office hours, use the offline message, and be honest about reply times.
The second is letting the bot pretend to be a person. People forgive a bot that says it's a bot. They don't forgive feeling tricked. The third is never reading the transcripts. Your chat log is free market research: the same questions coming up again and again tell you what your website isn't explaining.
And if your chat is mostly there to catch buyers, pair it with something that tells you which companies are on your site. My roundup of website visitor identification tools covers that side.
Where chat fits in your week
Think about the hours you can cover. If you're a one-person business, live chat during your working day plus an offline form at night is perfectly fine. Visitors don't expect instant replies at 2am from a small company; they expect a clear promise and a reply when you said you'd reply.
If you've got a small team, agree who owns chat on each shift and what happens when that person's in a meeting. Most of the tools above let you route chats or pass them to a colleague. Use that, and make sure the handover note travels with the conversation, so the customer never has to explain their problem twice. That one habit does more for your reviews than any widget colour.
My advice if you're leaving Olark
Write down the five questions customers ask most in chat, then run each shortlisted tool against them for a week. Watch how quickly you can answer, how the conversation lands in your other systems, and how the widget looks on a phone. Ignore the feature you'll never use. A small business usually needs fast replies and clean handover far more than it needs another dashboard.
Want your tool on this list? Featured spots and reviews here are paid partnerships. Here's how to partner with me.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need AI in my live chat tool?
Not always. AI agents can handle common questions out of hours, but a small business with a handful of chats a day may do better with fast human replies and a clear offline message.
Can I host live chat software myself?
Yes, some options are open source and can be self-hosted, which gives you more control over your data. It also means you look after updates and security yourself.
How do I check a chat widget is accessible?
Try it with a keyboard only and with a screen reader, and check it against the WCAG standards published by W3C. If you can't open, use and close it without a mouse, keep looking.
Are these tools ranked?
No. They're listed A to Z, not in order of preference, and every description is based on the vendor's own website.
