Live chat is changing the game in the customer support and service world. From improving customer experience, driving sales to growing retention, live chat has arrived as a new, useful way to engage and support customers.
Take a look at these statistics:
- Live chat can bring a significant improvement in marketing awareness (+29%), early-stage sales development (+32%), and post-sales customer support (+39%)
- Website visitors that engage with a business via live chat are worth 4.5 times more than visitors that don’t.
- Average order value increases by 10% when reviewing the sales from customers who engaged in a live chat before making a purchase than those that didn’t.
What do these numbers mean?
It’s simple: your Shopify store needs a live chat.
However, finding the best Shopify live chat app can become a nightmare when you have so many choices—405 options, to be exact.
That’s why, as eCommerce helpdesk experts, we want to share a list of the best 14 live chat software for Shopify to help you find the app that works for your business. You’ll learn their main features, pros, cons, and pricing options—all in this post.
Let’s go.
1. Gorgias Live Chat
Gorgias is the best help desk ticketing system for eCommerce merchants. It provides you with all the features you need to create an incredible customer support experience, improve team performance, and increase sales.
One of Gorgias’ most noticeable features is its tight integration with eCommerce platforms, including Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce. Hence, Gorgias can pull relevant data like order tracking numbers, last order details, loyalty points, etc., from your Shopify dashboard and show it in front of you.
Another exciting feature Gorgias offers is chat campaigns, which allow you to prompt chat messages on specific pages of your website. This way, you can quickly start conversations and guide specific visitors through the checkout process.
If you’re running a Shopify store, you can be sure Gorgias will integrate well with your website. It’s quick to install, easy to use, and affordable for eCommerce business owners.
Pricing: Start from $50/month. A 7-day free trial available.
Main features:
- Support omnichannel communication, i.e., email, live chat, phone, and social media
- See full live chat and message history with a specific customer across different channels in one view
- Support for multiple stores
- Chat in real-time with customers currently on your store
- Respond in one click using pre-made templates
- See which pages customers are on and their purchase history
- Trigger live chat and popup form on important pages like checkout page
- Perform actions like rewarding loyalty points without leaving the chat
- Set up automated responses and bot for common tickets like “Where’s my order?”
Pros:
- Clean and intuitive user interface
- Offer affordable pricing plans
- Deep integration with Shopify and Shopify Plus
- Support many powerful live chat features
- Fantastic customer support team
Cons:
- Focus on live chat and helpdesk only.
2. Tidio Live Chat
With approximately 1,014 reviews, Tidio Live Chat is currently the highest-rated live chat app on the Shopify App Store. Tidio merges live chat, bots, and marketing automation to provide you with a comprehensive live chat app.
Pricing: Start from $18 a month. A free plan available.
Main features:
- Support customers 24/7 with chatbots
- Reduce cart abandonment rate with the Abandoned Cart Bot works
- Free to design the live chat widget the way you want
- Customize the live chat to match with your brand
- Monitor results and automate chats with AI
Pros:
- Clean and modern user interface
- Many automation and bot templates
- Multiple languages supported
- Rich widget customization options
Cons:
- Not tight integration with Shopify and other ecommerce platforms
- Pricing plans are a bit high for Shopify merchants
3. Chatra Live Chat
Chatra Live Chat claims to help you “sell more, answer questions, and alleviate concerns to help visitors place an order.” It also allows you to see shopper’s cart contents in real-time to identify the most valuable customers and provide tailored assistance.
Pricing: Start from $19 per month. A free plan available.
Main features:
- Contact customers stuck on the checkout
- See who’s on your website, where they’re from, and what they have in their cart
- Answer chat messages sent by Facebook users to your store’s page directly from the app
- Create group chats with other agents
- Save previous conversation history
- Correct answers after sending the chat message
Pros:
- Support a free forever plan
- Provide useful live chat features like typos correction and group chats
Cons:
- Most advanced features aren’t available in the free plan
- Lack of customization options
4. Zendesk Chat
Developed by Zendesk, Zendesk Chat is a live chat app for Shopify stores. It allows you to communicate with customers over your Shopify storefront, mobile apps, and popular messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and Line.
If you’re a Zendesk customer using the Team plan or above, you can use Zendesk Chat for free.
Pricing: Start from $14 per agent per month. A 14-day free trial available.
Main features:
- Send targeted and behavior-based messages to customers
- Use pre-chat and offline forms to collect customer information
- Support chat ratings to gather customer feedback
- Share files like screenshots, product guides, or GIF images with customers
Pros:
- It’s a good choice if you’re using Zendesk Support Suite
- Support all essential features of a typical live chat app
Cons:
- Not-user-friendly interface and steep learning curve for beginners
- Expensive pricing plans for Shopify store owners
- Bad customer support team
- A lot of technical errors when installing and using the app
- Not suitable for eCommerce businesses
5. Pure Chat
Another best live chat app for Shopify in this list is Pure Chat. This app focuses solely on live chat, which means if you want to manage customer requests across channels, from live chat to email and social media, you’ll have to switch to another app like Gorgias.
Pure Chat currently supports two plans: Growth and Pro. The Pro plan offers you unlimited websites, 10 agents, up to 1000 SMS notifications, and Pure Chat branding removal.
Pricing: Start from $49 per month. A 30-day free trial available.
Main features:
- Unlimited chats
- Advanced widget customization
- Security roles like admin, power users, and operators
- Canned responses
- Chat notifications
- File transfer
- Realtime analytics
Pros:
- All features are the same in both Growth and Pro plans
- Extensive integrations
- Allow customizing the look and feel of chat widget
Cons:
- Technical errors occur when installing the app
6. Tawk.to Live Chat
Tawk.to Live Chat is an agent-centric chat application for Shopify stores. The best thing about this app is it’s 100% free—there’s no limit to the number of agents, chat volumes, or sites you can add widgets to.
Pricing: Free.
Main features:
- Video and voice
- Agent messaging, screen sharing
- Desktop notifications
- 1880+ emoji
- JavaScript API
- Unlimited history
- Fire transfer
- Report and analytics
Pros:
- Support 27 languages
- Easy to set up, free forever, and secure
- Available on web browser, desktop, macOS, iOS, and Android
Cons:
- Too many features cause the app not to be user friendly
- Need to pay a small fee to remove the “Powered by tawk.to” branding
- The customer support team isn’t always responsive
7. Omega Live Chat
If you currently support your customers through Facebook Messenger, you may want to install Omega Live Chat for your store. This app allows you to connect your Shopify store with your Facebook page, and then a Facebook Messenger icon will appear on your website.
Pricing: $4.99 per month. A free plan available.
Main features:
- Add a live chat button to your website to chat directly with customers
- Schedule the working time to enable or disable live chat
- Save the history of conversations with customers.
- See a full overview of interactions on one page
- Leave an offline message to get back later when your customer supports are unavailable
- Connect to your Facebook page and live chat through Facebook messages
Pros:
- Simple and easy to use
- The pricing plan is affordable for eCommerce merchants
Cons:
- The chat function sometimes doesn’t work
- Errors happen when trying to connect the app with Facebook page
- Not an ideal choice if you need a professional live chat app
8. Re:amaze Live Chat
Re:amaze is a helpdesk, live chat, ticketing, chatbot, and FAQ for small, medium, and enterprise businesses. It allows you to handle support tickets across channels, including emails, live chat Facebook pages, Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, SMS, VOIP, and WhatsApp.
Re:amaze Live Chat aims to help you support customers faster by chatting with them in real-time. It offers many features that are similar to Gorgias’ and other live chat apps.
Pricing: Start from $40 per month. A 14-day free trial available.
Main features:
- Support multiple stores
- Send products to customers in chat
- Support rules and automation to streamline workflow
- Allow to build chatbots to help, guide, and sell to customers
- Offer Live Chat and Bots to automatically engage specific types of customers
Pros:
- Flexible pricing no contract
Cons:
- The user interface is a bit outdated and not user friendly
- Macros and rules need improvement
9. LiveChat
LiveChat is a messaging app that offers many unique features for its live chat service. It can be integrated with most customer relationship management (CRM) like Zendesk and website platforms like Shopify.
Pricing: Start from $19 per month. A 14-day free trial available.
Main features:
- See a real-time view of a customer’s cart
- Send product recommendations known as Product Cards right in the live chat widget
- Get more detailed customer information with Customer Insight
- Support more than 170 integrations
- Provide in-depth analytics, multi-channel capabilities, and data security
Pros:
- Chat window loads fast and easy to use
- Clean and well-designed user interface
Cons:
- Not optimized for Shopify since LiveChat is also a CRM
10. JivoChat Live Chat
JivoChat is an all-in-one business messenger that teams use to talk to customers everywhere: live chat, phone, email, and social. The app also includes a built-in CRM allowing you to follow up and convert leads into actual sales.
Pricing: Free or start from $19 per month. A 14-day free trial available.
Main features:
- Track visitors and chat with them in real-time
- See the message that visitors are typing before they hit send
- Support canned responses
- Transfer and invite agents to join the open chats with customers
Pros:
- A forever free basic plan is supported
- Prices are affordable for Shopify merchants
Cons:
- Don’t support rules and automation
- Not integrate deeply with Shopify
11. Shopify Chat
Shopify Chat is Shopify’s native live chat function that allows you to have real-time conversations with customers visiting your Shopify store. It’s an extension to the messaging capabilities already available within Shopify Ping.
Note that all your chats are managed in Shopify Ping. Shopify also asks your customers to provide a phone number or email address to start a chat with you. Their information will be added to your Customer list in Shopify or matched to an existing customer.
Pricing: Free
Main features:
- Add and customize a chat button on your online store
- Respond to customers in real-time while they’re at your store
- Recommend products and share promotional offers in chat
- Capture customer’s contact information
- Track Shopify sales using your sales channel overview and Analytics pages
Pros:
- Clean and intuitive interface
- Free forever
Cons:
- A bit complicated for beginners to install the app
- To use Shopify Chat, you must use Shopify Ping on your desktop (shopifying.com) or install it on an iOS, iPad, or Android device to receive and respond to messages.
12. Facebook Chat Box by Autoketing
Apart from Omega Live Chat, you can use Facebook Chat Box by Autoketing to connect with customers through Facebook Messenger.
Pricing: Free.
Main features:
- Send messages to your Facebook page through Messenger
- Show a popup with a discount code to encourage customers to join your email list
- Send a friendly reminder message to abandoned customers
- Show detailed notifications about the order status
- Create automated marketing campaigns through Messenger
Pros:
- Free forever
- Simple and easy to use
Cons:
- Can’t control when the chat box pops up
- Lack of customization options, rules, and automation
13. Formillia Live Chat
Formillia Live Chat offers free live chat and premium services for your Shopify store. You can use this app to chat with your visitors live if they have any questions or need support from your store.
Pricing: Start from $29.99 per month. A 15-day free trial available.
Main features:
- See the number of active visitors on your website and start live chats with them. View each visitor’s page URL, referring site, new users vs. returning, and more.
- Support a Helper Bot to automatically respond to common questions at any time
- Customize the text of the live chat buttons, chat forms, and offline email forms
- Enable proactive chat to trigger live chat automatically with a visitor after a defined number of seconds
- Support file sharing, email messaging, desktop notifications, custom banners, and other style options
Pros:
- Easy and simple to use
- Fast connect with customers
Cons:
- Many features are available at higher plans
- Lack of rules and automation
14. eDesk Live Chat
eDesk is a comprehensive customer help desk designed for eCommerce. It helps you create a positive experience for customers across your marketing channels: email, live chat, social media, and online store.
Pricing: Start from $55 per month. A 14-day free trial available.
Main features:
- Respond faster with snippets and templates
- Built-in autoresponder
- Instantly respond with live chat
Pros:
- Good customer service team
- Clean and intuitive user interface
Cons:
- Pricing plans are steep for Shopify merchants
- Not optimized for ecommerce
- Lack of essential live chat features
Now you’ve learned the top 14 Shopify live chat software. Let’s move on to discover which features you should consider when choosing a live chat for your business.
The features you really need in a Shopify live chat app
Like any other customer service solution, live chat support tools often come with many features—some of which you may not even understand and probably don’t need.
So, what are the features you really need from a live chat app?
Here’s what to remember: Any software you invest in should be less about features and more about how those features are beneficial to your business.
With this in mind, the best live chat software should empower your business to do 3 main things:
- Cut the response and handle times
- Reduce back and forth and customer frustration
- Increase sales and customer retention
… and must have the four following features:
- Flexibility to customize things like which pages to show a live chat box, welcome message, chat availability, automated workflows, and other things.
- Proactive chat capability, meaning you can get proactive about moving customers through the buyer journey, answering common questions, etc.
- Integration with your help desk software. The best choice is using a live chat solution that is a part of a help desk platform, for example, Gorgias.
- Tight integration with Shopify to ensure you see the full picture of your customers’ details and your live chat will be right there for them whenever they need it.
Which Shopify live chat app do you choose?
In an ideal world, there would be a Shopify live chat app that works for all stores.
But on the planet Earth, there’s no one-size-fits-all app for live chat software. As one of the most important customer service tools, it’s worth spending some time on before making a decision.
Our advice for you is to try a couple of apps above and check if they offer what you need. Your chosen live chat app should be the one that helps you increase customer satisfaction, make your agents’ job easier, and boost your bottom line.
In case you want a customer support tool solely focused on ecommerce, we recommend you give Gorgias a try. This is the ultimate solution that can bring your customer experience to a whole new level.
Ready to switch? Join our buyout program to get full access to Gorgias at almost no cost. Don’t miss it out!