A tawk.to alternative where the AI answers first
tawk.to is free live chat: your team answers every message, and its AI Assist is a paid add-on. With SupportVia, an AI answers first from your own pages, shows the page it read, and hands the chat to your team in one click when a customer needs a person. It costs $29 a month, and chats your team answers are never counted.
Try it on your own website
Free for 7 days or 50 AI conversations, no card needed. Live in about ten minutes.
How tawk.to charges for AI, as of October 2026
- Live chat is free, for life.
- Removing the “Powered by tawk.to” line costs $29 a month.
- AI Assist, its AI that answers chats, costs “from as little as $29 a month”, in its pricing page’s words, and there’s a free plan for sites with few chats.
- Its AI Assist page says the AI cites its sources and lists human hand off.
- Hired chat agents, people tawk.to provides to answer for you, are $1 an hour.
Neither page lists every AI Assist tier, so check it for the volume you expect before comparing.
As of October 2026. Prices change, so check the vendor’s own page before you decide. Sources: tawk.to pricing, tawk.to AI Assist, tawk.to WordPress plugin
What tawk.to does well
tawk.to gives any website a live chat for free, with no limit on the people who answer it. For a business where someone is always at the desk, and every customer wants a person anyway, that’s hard to beat.
It also sells things SupportVia doesn’t: hired agents who answer for you by the hour, and an AI add-on for those who want one inside tawk.to.
What changes when your chat answers itself
With tawk.to on its own, a question asked at 11 at night waits for someone on your team. With SupportVia, the AI answers first, from your website, your Q&As and your notes. Prices, policies, hours and contact details come from there, not from what the AI happens to know.
- Read more links: up to five under an answer, to the pages it used, so customers can check it and so can you.
- When nothing you’ve written covers the question, it says it isn’t sure and offers a person, instead of guessing.
- When it hands over, your team gets a note on what the customer needs. The note stays in the inbox; customers never see it.
- While the customer waits for a person, the chat asks for their name and email, and the conversation waits in your inbox as a lead.
- Once a teammate replies, the AI stops; a reply it was still writing is dropped, until you hand the chat back.
Priced per plan, not per chat
Starter is $29 a month with 150 AI conversations, Growth $79 a month with 500, and Pro $199 a month with 1,500. Prices are in US dollars or rupees (₹), plus taxes where they apply.
Plans count AI conversations only, as a monthly allowance. Chats your team answers are unlimited on every plan, so the people side of tawk.to you rely on today isn’t counted. Past the allowance, new chats go to your team. Once we agree a limit with you, you can switch on extra AI conversations at $0.30 to $0.40 each, up to a monthly cap you set.
The chat’s own words (its buttons, status and messages) come in 8 languages, or follow the visitor’s browser.
tawk.to and SupportVia, side by side
| Question | tawk.to | SupportVia |
|---|---|---|
| How it’s priced | Live chat free. Branding removal $29 a month | Three plans: Starter $29, Growth $79, Pro $199 a month. Teammates included (2, 5, unlimited) |
| How the AI is charged | AI Assist add-on, “from as little as $29 a month” | AI conversations in the plan: 150, 500 or 1,500 a month. Past the allowance, new chats go to your team. Once we agree a limit with you, you can switch on extra AI conversations at $0.30 to $0.40 each, up to a monthly cap you set. Chats your team answers aren’t counted. Your own AI account works on every plan (up to 1,000 conversations a month on Starter, up to 5,000 on Growth and no monthly cap on Pro) and never uses your AI conversations |
| Handing the chat to a person | Your team answers every chat. With AI Assist, the AI answers from your knowledge base first; its AI Assist page lists human hand off | On every plan. The customer asks, the AI offers a person when nothing it knows covers the question, or an error sends the chat over. A note goes with it, and once a teammate replies the AI stops |
| Shows where an answer came from | With AI Assist: its page says the AI cites its sources | Up to five “Read more” links under an answer, to the pages it used |
| Several websites | Its WordPress plugin page says there’s no limit on the sites you can add the chat to | One snippet for every website in a workspace, each with its own look and knowledge. Plans are sized for up to 2, 5 or 15 websites; write to us to set yours up |
| Currency | Its pricing pages list US dollars | US dollars or rupees (₹), plus taxes where they apply. Hosted in the United States |
| Free plan or trial | Free plan for live chat, and for AI Assist at low volume | 7 days or 50 AI conversations free, whichever comes first, no card. No free plan |
| Who answers first | Your team, unless you add AI Assist | The AI, from your pages; your team one click behind it |
As of October 2026. Prices change, so check the vendor’s own page before you decide. Sources: tawk.to pricing, tawk.to AI Assist, tawk.to WordPress plugin
“Not covered by the pages we checked” means the vendor’s pages we read didn’t say, not that it can’t. Our guide to chatbots that give wrong answers sets out the rules behind SupportVia’s column.
Switching in an afternoon
- Start free and add your website. Check the import preview: what it kept, what it left out, and the logo and color it found.
- Ask the questions your customers ask in the playground. Nothing there is stored or counted. Add Q&As and notes for anything missing.
- Remove the tawk.to code from your site and paste SupportVia’s one line in its place.
The install guides have the exact steps for WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow and any other website. Your tawk.to history stays with tawk.to: SupportVia doesn’t import chats from other tools.
Choose tawk.to if
- You want free chat, answered only by people, and someone is always there to reply.
- You’d like to hire chat agents by the hour rather than answer yourself.
- You don’t need AI answers at all.
Other tawk.to alternatives
Other tools on this list that tawk.to’s buyers often look at, as of October 2026. Each page has the figures and sources.
What SupportVia doesn’t do
- No channels beyond the chat on your website: no WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, SMS or email.
- No mobile app for your team. The inbox runs in the browser, with desktop alerts and the waiting count in the tab.
- No ticketing, tags, canned replies or assignment rules.
- No actions: the AI answers and hands over. It doesn’t book, refund or look up orders.
- No free plan. There’s a 7-day trial, no card needed.
- No hired agents: your own team answers what the AI hands over.
tawk.to alternative: questions people ask
Is there a free plan?
No. You start with a free trial of 7 days or 50 AI conversations, whichever comes first, no card needed. After that, plans start at $29 a month.
Can I test it before removing tawk.to?
Yes. Add your website and ask your own questions in the playground, which stores and counts nothing. Each website also has a preview page that runs the chat, so you can try it before it goes on your site.
Does the AI answer in other languages?
The chat’s own words (its buttons, status and messages) come in 8 languages, Spanish among them. The AI’s search through your pages works best with English words, so questions typed in Spanish or another language match less well. Try the questions your customers ask in the playground before you decide.
Are my team’s chats counted?
No. Plans count AI conversations only. Chats your team answers are unlimited on every plan.
Read next
Answer every customer. Start free today.
Add your website, check what it learned, and paste one line. Your team sees the first conversation in the inbox.