Best Live Chat Apps for Shopify in 2023

Here’s your guide to the best live chat apps for Shopify.

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If you’re ready to invest in the best live chat apps for Shopify, you’re in the right place. Shopify is among the most popular tools for eCommerce in the world. Both easy to use and packed full of features, Shopify can give you all the tools you need to thrive in the digital world. It even has a fantastic app marketplace, which allows you to extend the functionality of your store.

Within the app marketplace, you can find a wide selection of plugins designed to work natively with Shopify. Options range from SEO solutions to inventory management tools. Today, we’re going to be looking at one of the most popular functions for customer experience: live chat.

More than 41% of customers now expect to see live chat on a website.

With the right live chat solution, you can communicate with your customers while they’re interacting with your business through Shopify.

1. LiveChat

livechat - best live chat apps for shopify

Let’s start with the most popular and best-known Live Chat solution of them all. LiveChat is the ultimate software for connecting with customers, used by more than 32,000 companies, including Adobe, PayPal, and McDonalds.

LiveChat benefits from being wonderfully customizable and easy to use. You can design your chat widget in your brand colors, qualify leads with custom AI chatbot automations and forms, and even showcase your products with stunning chat-based cards.

To ensure that you’re always improving your ecommerce standing, LiveChat also comes with access to reporting and analytics tools where you can track your sales and chat ROI. One of the best things about LiveChat is how easy it is to blend human and AI interactions. You can start by assisting customers with a bot, then allow escalation to a team member when your client needs it.

The number of analytics and insights available from LiveChat is truly incredible. There’s everything from agent activity tracking to a live real-time dashboard, ticket management, and so much more. For agents working with your business, you also get various management tools like smart or manual chat routing and work scheduling

Pricing 💲

Free trial is available for 14 days, and you don’t need a credit card to sign up. After that, the cheapest plan starts at $16 per month per agent, when you pay annually. The next package is $33 per month, followed by the most expensive option at $50 per month. There’s also the option to get a quote for an Enterprise package. The more you pay, the more chat options you get, including Apple Business Chat and SMS. More expensive packages also come with better analytics.

Pros 👍

  • Huge range of omnichannel conversation options
  • AI and human-agent interaction
  • Integrations with countless tools, including Shopify
  • Beautiful customization elements
  • Extensive monitoring and ticketing

Cons 👎

  • Can get expensive for beginners

Best for ✅

If you’re looking for a comprehensive omnichannel messaging solution, LiveChat is the perfect pick for you. This service is one of the most reliable on the market, and it’s ideal if you need to track the ROI of your campaigns. You’ll even be able to customize your chat however you choose.

2. Tidio Chat

tidio chat - best live chat apps for shopify

Designed to improve customer connections, Tidio promises a convenient way to reach out to clients when you’re building your Shopify store. This product, used by over 300,000 customers, is ideal for delivering conversations at scale, through both human agents and chatbots.

Built with ease of use in mind, Tidio Chat supports clients with a huge selection of tools for reaching clients, including live-chat and email integrations, and a comprehensive backend environment for tracking discussions. There’s the option to embed chatbots which can send your own pre-set messages. You can also automate a range of interactions through Tidio when trying to sell more.

Intelligent insights allow you to see what clients are typing in real-time, and there’s a lot of customization options if you need to ensure you’re showcasing your brand in the best way possible. Tidio also comes with the option to connect to your marketing emails so that you can interact with clients through various mediums effectively.

Integrations go far beyond just a connection with Shopify. You can connect all kinds of third-party software solutions to track your client conversations wherever they take place. You’ll also get access to multiple language options for those global interactions.

Pricing 💲

Pricing starts with a free forever plan, which comes with essential chat functions and mailing features for smaller businesses. As you upgrade, chatbots and communicator technology starts at around 18 euros per month. The chatbot function gives you access to your AI bots, while Communicator means you can see more on the backend of your conversations. There are add-on options like email marketing for 10 euros per month too.

Pros 👍

  • Great free forever plan
  • Excellent integration options
  • Lots of tracking and insight options
  • Great connections to email marketing
  • Custom AI bots for reaching your clients

Cons 👎

  • Can be expensive to access all the extras

Best for ✅

Tidio is an excellent choice for beginners, with free plans that last forever, and a fantastic set of extra features, like integrations and add-ons. If you’re keen to offer excellent customer support through more than just Facebook Messenger, Tidio has you covered.

3. HubSpot

hubspot - best live chat apps for shopify

HubSpot’s live chat software is particularly appealing for smaller businesses, because you can start unlocking the features without spending anything. HubSpot offers a quick and simple way to connect with customers, enabling seamless integration with your CRM, and powerful backend tracking. The well-designed interface makes it simple to take full advantage of your chat system.

HubSpot can integrate with all kinds of tools, including Shopify, Facebook, and even EventBrite. This makes it a good pick if you want to create a consistent chat experience across all channels. HubSpot also gives you access to AI chatbots you can use to strengthen your customer service strategy. You don’t have to find an agent to be available at all times if you have your own pre-programmed bot.

Suitable for use with various smartphone apps, HubSpot keeps the conversation with your customers going on any channel. You can easily customize your chat widget to match your brand image, and there’s all kinds of routing strategy if you need help sending conversations to the right people.

The back-end tracking and CRM integration also ensures that you can enjoy a more contextual experience when chatting to your customers. There’s no need to worry about having to ask your client to repeat themselves.

Pricing 💲

HubSpot has a free forever plan for chat, which is nice if you’re just a small company. However, you will need to be willing to have HubSpot’s advertising embedded into your chat widget, which might not appeal to everyone. As you upgrade your HubSpot functionality by investing in things like the sales and marketing hubs, there’s a more premium version of live chat to unlock as part of the full-service wrap.

Pros 👍

  • Free forever plan for people in a budget
  • Integration with your CRM
  • Powerful range of external features available
  • Access to customization options
  • AI and human agent integration

Cons 👎

  • Can get quite expensive
  • A little basic on the free plan

Best for ✅

If you’re looking for a basic live chat solution that can integrate with your CRM, HubSpot’s free forever plan can be the perfect investment. However, there are some limitations to what you can do with this basic package. If you’re already using HubSpot for other functions, the live chat solution is ideal for your needs.

4. Shopify Chat

shopify chat - best live chat apps for shopify

Shopify Chat is perhaps the most obvious choice for live chat support if you’re already a Shopify customer. The solution is available for free within the Shopify marketplace. The best feature of Shopify Chat is how easy it is to use. You can get your new customer service strategy up and running in no time. The more you use it, the more you’ll notice your connections with customers growing.

Shopify Chat also links to Shopify Ping, so you can share products with your customers and offer the option to make purchases without any confusion. Based on the mode of operations you choose, Shopify Live Chat is a winning online sales channel with tons of functionality to offer. You can add customizations to your Live Chat system, and provide real-time feedback to frequently asked questions (FAQ).

Shopify Chat also comes with access to the Kit virtual assistant, to help you respond to customers faster, run email campaigns, and maintain customer discussions. There’s automated customer order lookup so you can find client details, and convenient status and tracking features for self-service too.

Pricing 💲

As mentioned above, if you already have a Shopify store, then you’ll love Shopify Chat. That’s because you don’t have to pay anything to download the service. Though there are other chat functions out there with more capabilities, Shopify Chat is an easy way to jump into a new kind of service with your Shopify store. You will need a Shopify store and Shopify Ping to get started.

Pros 👍

  • Free access for Shopify customers
  • Mobile friendly design, great for clients
  • Quick and easy installation
  • Integrates with various channels
  • Support for Shopify Kit and Shopify Ping

Cons 👎

  • Quite basic compared to other apps
  • Doesn’t save customer information

Best for ✅

Shopify Live Chat is one of the easiest options for customers on Shopify keen to get started with Live Chat service. You can easily jump in with minimal knowledge about how Live Chat works, and start giving customers amazing online experiences, without spending a fortune.

6. Richpanel

richpanel - best live chat apps for shopify

Richpanel is still a reasonably new helpdesk solution for eCommerce brands. It launched in 2020 and has, since then, helped over 1,500 businesses provide better support to their customers online.

Richpanel allows you to support your customers via email and live chat. In addition, comes with useful live chat features, including self-service scenarios, chatbots, and agent routing.

Your agents can also send private messages to fellow team members, enabling them to work out a solution behind the scenes. You can also build a library of power replies to quickly help your agents respond to FAQs. Agents can also add tags, assign priority, and order cancellations or refunds, with just a few clicks.

Pricing 💲

If you’re a Shopify user, you can try Richpanel for free for up to 100 conversations a month. After this, three premium plans unlock increasingly more conversations, ranging from 1000 to 5000 per month.

You can pay monthly or opt for annual billing to save two months. The monthly pricing starts at $300 per month, unlocking the WooCommerce, Facebook, and Instagram integrations. In addition, you can integrate with Magento for $600 a month and get revenue analytics reports. The most expensive plan, at $900 per month, permits you to support multiple brands and stores.

Pros 👍

  • Richpanel’s pricing plans don’t cap the number of agents you can register. Each premium plan allows for unlimited support agents.
  • A free program for Shopify users is available
  • Depending on your pricing tier, you can access 24/7 support via live chat, email, and phone.
  • Its performance analytics help you identify where your team can improve.

Cons 👎

  • The software might be more expensive for small teams, as they can’t benefit from per-agent pricing
  • Richpanel is still relatively new, and, as a result, some of its features are still under development
  • There’s no freemium version for WooCommerce or Magento users

Best for ✅

Richpanel is a great live-chat software for new Shopify users, as plans don’t severely limit your access to its live chat features.

Or, if you have a colossal team of customer support agents, you might also find Richpanel a more affordable option as you expand.

6. LiveAgent

liveagent - best live chat apps for shopify

LiveAgent is a proactive, easy-to-use solution which aims to augment things like Facebook messenger conversations with customers of your online store. LiveAgent is actually a comprehensive ticket system, rather than just a basic Shopify app. It ensures that no request or question sent by your customers will go unnoticed. Whichever platform customers choose for contacting you, the conversation transforms into tickets and stays in a universal inbox.

You can give agents access to your tickets on the web or through android and iOS phones. Plus, there’s a built-in CRM to help you deliver better helpdesk experiences based on your customer’s needs. Live Agent comes with access to tons of great features. As one of the best Shopify chat apps, there’s everything from multi-language support, to tracking for various conversations at once.

Whether you’re trying to reduce cart abandonment by connecting with customers in the moment, or you just want to use your chat window to answer questions before checkout, LiveAgent has you covered. You can also integrate with other tools to increase your conversion rate.

Pricing 💲

LiveAgent pricing is a little more expensive than some live chat tools, because it’s a full ticketing system for omnichannel conversations. You’ll be able to access basic features through a free package, but premium options start at $15 per agent per month, and increase to either $29 per agent per month, or $39 per agent per month for further features.

Pros 👍

  • Free options for beginners
  • Support for multiple languages
  • Omnichannel customer service management
  • CRM integrations and analytics
  • Immersive ticket management system
  • Full helpdesk software to increase sales.

Cons 👎

  • May be too much for a beginner ecommerce business
  • Can be expensive

Best for ✅

If you’re looking to boost customer satisfaction through every stage of client interaction, LiveAgent makes tracking clients easy. You can go beyond offering just a chat window, by providing assistance every step of the way, from discovery through to checkout.

7. Zendesk Chat

zendesk chat - best live chat apps for shopify

When it comes to customer service workflows, Zendesk is one of the better-known tools on the market. Offering everything from automated popup triggers to offline forms, routing for your chat box and a customizable chat button, Zendesk is a delight to use. This Shopify live chat app also works with other leading CMS systems like WordPress, HubSpot, Wix, Squarespace and many others.

Zendesk is particularly impressive because it allows you to track which pages your customers are using in the moment. This means that you can proactively start a chat to boost sales, or wait for ecommerce store shoppers to message you. You can also reply to your chats through a mobile app.

Great for marketing automation and multi-channel conversations, Zendesk helps to ensure that the right conversations get your agents at the right time. You can even bring conversations from your Facebook page and other locations into the same space. Shopify store owners get a full user-friendly environment to upsell, cross sell and support clients. Analytics and reporting are built-in, along with custom welcome message options and user-friendly personalization.

Pricing 💲

Unlike other chat apps, Zendesk is an industry-leading ticketing system with tons of extra features. The price is higher than you’d expect for tools like tawk.to, or WhatsApp. However, you can convert more website visitors with each chat feature. Pricing starts at £39 per month.

Pros 👍

  • Social media and omnichannel access
  • Apps for mobile agents
  • Extensive chat history and routing
  • Analytics and reporting
  • Support for abandoned carts
  • Full ticketing system

Cons 👎

  • Can be quite expensive
  • More than just live chat

Best for ✅

If you need something that goes beyond the live chat experience offered by most simplistic tools on the Shopify app store, this is the product for you. You’ll get a huge range of capabilities to delight customers and track conversions.

Choosing the best Live Chat App for Shopify

Whether you’re looking for a pure chat solution, or a fully featured ticketing system, there are tons of options out there. Many live chat solutions work with everything from BigCommerce to WordPress and Shopify, with various customizations to help you strengthen your relationship with your brand. Beyond the options mentioned here, there are also various other tools like Gorgias and Chatra which might be worth exploring depending on your unique needs.

If possible, consider trying some of the functions of your favorite live chat apps before making an investment. There are tons of options which come with their own free trials, even if a full free service isn’t available. Additionally, keep in mind that you might need more than just live chat to deliver a competitive customer experience.

Though Live Chat does strengthen your relationship with your customers, it often works best when linked to things like ticketing and CRM management.

Rebekah Carter

Rebekah Carter is an experienced content creator, news reporter, and blogger specializing in marketing, business development, and technology. Her expertise covers everything from artificial intelligence to email marketing software and extended reality devices. When she’s not writing, Rebekah spends most of her time reading, exploring the great outdoors, and gaming.

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