Live chat is the one support channel customers now expect you to have, and two names keep coming up in the same breath: LiveChat and Crisp. I went through both products’ current dashboards and pulled their October 2026 pricing so you don’t have to. Here’s an honest, hands-on comparison.
Last updated: October 2026. Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links — if you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Quick Answer
- Choose LiveChat if you want the most mature live chat stack — shared inbox, ticketing, and an AI Copilot included from your very first dollar — starting at $19/user/month.
- Choose Crisp if budget leads the decision: it has a genuinely useful free plan (2 seats, chat widget, shared inbox) and flat per-workspace pricing from $45/month that doesn’t punish you for hiring more agents.
- Both include a 14-day free trial on paid plans, so the smartest move is to run each one for an afternoon and see which inbox your team actually enjoys.
A quick note on the “Text” rebrand
Before the comparison, one thing that confused me and will probably confuse you: LiveChat’s pricing page now shows plans under the Text brand. Text is the newer product from the team behind LiveChat — it keeps the live chat you came for and adds a shared inbox, ticketing, and an AI Agent in the same workspace, on one subscription. Existing LiveChat customers keep their current plan and price untouched; new signups get the Text plans. Those are the plans I compare below.
What is LiveChat?
LiveChat is one of the most established names in live chat, with more than 35,000 customers including PayPal, IKEA, McDonald’s, Mercedes-Benz and Ryanair. Two decades of iteration show: the dashboard is purpose-built for agents, with chat supervision, canned responses, and reporting that goes deep enough to predict staffing needs on the top plan.
LiveChat prices per user, so a five-agent team pays five licenses. The important part for 2026: the AI features are included in every plan, not sold as a separate add-on. Even the entry plan ships with an AI Copilot that drafts replies and an AI Agent that handles routine questions.
What is Crisp?
Crisp approaches the same problem from the opposite direction. It is built around a shared inbox that pulls in chat, email, and social messages, and it is used by 10,000 companies including Air France and Decathlon. Its biggest draw for small teams is the free plan: a real website chat widget and shared inbox for two seats, free forever, no credit card.
Crisp prices per workspace, not per seat — one flat fee covers your whole team, with seat allowances included in each tier. That single difference changes the math completely as you hire, which I break down below.
LiveChat vs Crisp: Head-to-Head Comparison (October 2026)
| Feature | LiveChat | Crisp |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $19/user/mo (billed annually) | Free plan; paid from $45/mo per workspace |
| Pricing model | Per user | Flat per workspace |
| Free plan | No — 14-day trial, no credit card | Yes — 2 seats, chat widget, shared inbox, forever |
| AI included? | Yes — AI Copilot + AI Agent on every plan (10 AI resolutions/mo entry, 200/mo Growth) | AI credits on paid plans ($5–$75/mo); full AI Agent reserved for Plus ($295/mo) |
| Channels | Chat, email, ticketing, Shopify selling, social messaging | Chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram, and other messaging apps |
| Standout strength | Deepest live chat polish: supervision, reporting, staffing prediction | Free plan + flat pricing that scales well with headcount |
| Best for | Teams that live in chat all day and want mature tooling | Lean teams watching budget and hiring over time |
Prices verified from livechat.com/pricing and crisp.chat/en/pricing in October 2026. Annual billing; monthly billing costs more.
Pricing: per-seat vs flat-fee is the whole story
This is where the LiveChat vs Crisp decision actually gets made. LiveChat charges per user; Crisp charges one flat fee per workspace with seats included. Here is what the same team costs on each platform’s entry paid tier:
| Team size | LiveChat Essential | Crisp (cheapest plan that fits) |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 agents | $19–$38/mo | Free (2 seats included) |
| 3 agents | $57/mo | $45/mo (Mini, 4 seats) |
| 5 agents | $95/mo | $95/mo (Essentials, 10 seats) |
| 10 agents | $190/mo | $95/mo (Essentials, 10 seats) |
The pattern is clear: solo founders and two-person teams save money with Crisp’s free plan, and any team larger than three saves with Crisp’s flat pricing. LiveChat only wins on price if you genuinely need its deeper live chat tooling — and at that point you are usually comparing features, not just invoices.
AI features: LiveChat includes them, Crisp gates them
Here is the one place LiveChat clearly wins on value. On LiveChat, the AI Copilot and AI Agent are part of every plan — the entry tier includes 10 AI resolutions per month and Growth includes 200, with extra packs of 50 available for $49.50. You can start automating on day one for $19.
Crisp takes the opposite route: paid plans include monthly AI credits ($5 on Mini, $25 on Essentials, $75 on Plus), but the full AI Agent — the thing that answers from your helpdesk articles and web content automatically — is a Plus plan feature at $295/month. Crisp markets it as automating 50% of inquiries, which is a strong claim, but reaching it means a meaningful jump in budget.
So: if AI-assisted support is your priority and budget is tight, LiveChat gives you more AI for less money. If you want AI as a full autonomous agent and can pay for it, Crisp’s Plus tier is built exactly for that.
When to Choose LiveChat
LiveChat makes sense when chat is the core of your support:
- You have several agents who need supervision, takeover, and shared canned responses — the collaboration tooling is the most mature in the category.
- You want AI included from the cheapest plan, not gated behind a premium tier.
- You sell online: Shopify selling is built into the entry plan, and reporting goes down to staffing prediction on the top tier.
The trade-off: there is no permanent free plan, and per-user pricing scales linearly with headcount.
Ready to try it? Check LiveChat’s current plans here →
When to Choose Crisp
Crisp wins when budget and flexibility lead:
- You are just starting and want a real chat widget and shared inbox for $0 — the free plan is a working product, not a demo.
- Your team is growing: flat per-workspace pricing means hiring another agent does not multiply your bill.
- You need omnichannel early — WhatsApp, Instagram, and email land in the same inbox from the Essentials tier up.
The trade-off: the full AI Agent requires the $295/mo Plus plan, and seat allowances mean you should check the tier matches your headcount before committing.
Ready to try it? Start Crisp’s 14-day full-access trial here →
Verdict
For most very small teams in 2026, I lean Crisp — a genuinely free plan plus flat pricing is hard to beat when every dollar counts, and it grows with you. But the moment your team is paying anyway and chat becomes the main support channel, LiveChat is the better buy: its AI is included from the first dollar, and the agent tooling is simply more refined.
A practical path: start free on Crisp, and if you outgrow it, move to LiveChat. Both have trials, so an afternoon of testing each will tell you more than any comparison table — including mine.
Still deciding? Read our LiveChat vs Tidio comparison for the AI-first alternative, or browse the full directory of 37+ AI customer service tools →