12 Free AI Chat Widgets to Boost Customer Support & Engagement   

While browsing a website, you might encounter a chat widget that suddenly asks if you need assistance. Did you know this simple interaction can turn a visitor into a loyal customer?

As they say, sometimes, a little help is all it takes to seal the deal!

In 2024, Chat widgets are critical for businesses aiming to boost customer engagement and support. In fact, a survey states that 41% of consumers prefer a live chat widget on websites, thanks to its real-time assistance, reduced wait times, and personalized interactions.

In this ultimate guide, I’ll share the top 12 free AI chat widgets, highlighting their key features and benefits to help you upgrade customer engagement and satisfaction.

What is a Free AI Chat Widget?

A chat widget is a powerful tool that allows businesses and website owners to integrate real-time chat capabilities into their websites. Designed to enhance customer engagement, a chat widget leverages artificial intelligence to provide instant responses to visitor inquiries, improving user experience significantly.

With a free AI chat widget, businesses can automate customer support by answering frequently asked questions, qualifying leads, and guiding users through various processes, all while being available 24/7. These widgets are typically easy to set up and customize, enabling users to align the chat interface with their brand’s look and feel.

Moreover, many free online chat widgets for websites offer features such as analytics, which help businesses track user interactions and refine their customer service strategies over time. Overall, an AI chat widget is an essential resource for improving communication and providing seamless support to customers without incurring additional expenses.

Why it is Important to Have a Free Chat Widget on your Website

Integrating a chat widget on your website can significantly boost your customer interaction and overall business performance. Here are five key benefits:

Improved Customer Engagement

A free chat widget for websites allows for real-time communication with visitors, fostering immediate engagement. This instant connection can make users feel valued and heard, which often leads to higher satisfaction and loyalty. Engaging with customers in real-time can also encourage them to explore more of your offerings, increasing the chances of conversions.

24/7 Availability

With a chat widget, businesses can offer support around the clock without needing staff on-site at all hours. This ensures that customer inquiries are addressed promptly, even outside of regular business hours. By providing continuous support, businesses can capture leads and resolve issues anytime, increasing customer retention and satisfaction.

Automated Support

Many free chat widgets come equipped with AI capabilities, allowing them to handle common inquiries automatically. This not only saves time for your customer support team but also provides quick answers to customers, reducing wait times and improving the overall user experience. Automation helps in qualifying leads, answering FAQs, and guiding users through processes seamlessly.

Improved Conversion Rates

By having a chat widget on your website, you can address customer concerns in real time, reducing friction in the decision-making process. When customers receive instant assistance, they are more likely to complete a purchase or sign up for services. Engaging with visitors at critical moments can significantly boost conversion rates and drive sales.

Valuable Insights and Feedback

Chat widgets often come with analytics features that allow businesses to track user interactions and gain insights into customer behavior. By analyzing chat transcripts, businesses can identify common questions, pain points, and preferences. This information can inform product development, marketing strategies, and overall customer service improvements, ultimately enhancing the customer experience and fostering growth.

Now, let’s have a quick look at the top 12 free chat widgets in 2024!

Top 12 Free Chat Widgets to Consider This Year

Here’s a comprehensive analysis of the best free chat widgets that I’ve either personally tried or am currently using. We’ll look into the pros and cons of each to equip you with the information you need for a smart selection.

1.ProProfs Chat

Best for 24/7 Delightful Customer Support With AI Chatbots

As a current user of ProProfs Chat, I can confidently say it’s been an invaluable asset for our customer support operations. The AI-powered chatbot allows me to offer round-the-clock assistance, schedule appointments, and even capture leads, all without any manual intervention. It’s comforting to know that no customer is ever left hanging, even outside of our regular business hours.

Plus, the real-time audio and video chat feature adds a personal touch to our customer interactions. And when things get a bit more complex, the built-in screenshare feature allows customers to share their screens for step-by-step guidance. 

I particularly appreciate its ability to train the chatbot using our internal knowledge base. It’s like having a support agent that’s constantly learning and improving, providing more accurate answers to common queries over time. The automatic chat routing is also a lifesaver, ensuring visitors are connected to the right department instantly, leading to faster resolutions.

What you will like:

• Pre-chat form to capture customer details
• Automatically save transcripts for easy access and download of chat operator conversations
• Post-chat surveys to gather feedback and improve customer experience
• Chat invitation popups to proactively engage website visitors

What you may not like:

• Lacks an on-premise version
• Dark user interface option is not available

Pricing: A forever free plan with all premium features is available for small teams. Paid plan starts from $19.99/operator/month.

2. Tawk.to

Best for Free and Freemium Live Chat With Basic Features

Tawk.to is ideal for small businesses looking for a free or freemium live chat solution. With essential features included at no cost, it helps you engage customers effectively without breaking the bank. Plus, with its ability to monitor customer activity, you can stay on top of inquiries and ensure a seamless experience. 

I like how it lets you tag and assign conversations to team members, ensuring the right person responds at the right moment. To streamline support, Tawk.to provides a free, customizable Knowledge Base that benefits both teams and customers alike.

With features like live chat, ticketing, and video and voice add-ons, you have all the tools you need to connect with customers when and where they need you most. 

What you will like: 

• Real-time monitoring to understand visitor behavior and preferences
• Detailed analytics to track performance and gain insights
• Free customizable knowledge base to enhance support and provide quick answers
• Video and voice add-ons to enrich customer interactions and improve communication

What you may not like:

• Limited integration options
• The ticketing system only supports Tawk.to’s knowledge base and doesn’t allow data imports

Pricing: Free for all users.

Also Read : 11 Best Tawk.to Alternatives for Improved Customer Service in 2024

3.  Botsify

Best for Conversational Forms

Botsify makes connecting with your website visitors effortless, helping you qualify leads with ease. With its conversational forms, you can effortlessly gather important information. Just create a form, tweak it to suit your needs, and start generating leads—it really is that simple!

The user-friendly omnichannel chatbot platform ensures smooth communication across Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and your website, making your customer service shine. You can embed your chatbot anywhere, so you’re always just a click away from helping someone out.

Plus, If a visitor needs a little extra help, a human agent can step in and resolve their questions in no time. In my opinion, Botsify not only streamlines your operations but also helps build meaningful connections with your customers. 

What you will like: 

• Seamless integration with a range of third-party tools and APIs
• Conversational forms to qualify leads and engage website visitors
• Human takeover for a smooth transition from chatbot to live agent
• Story Tree  to design and visualize chatbot flows using branching logic

What you may not like:

• AI training process can be complex and time-consuming
• The chatbot builder interface may encounter minor glitches occasionally

Pricing: Starts at $49/month (14-day free trial available)

Also Read : Top 10 Botsify Alternatives to Consider in 2024

4. Kommunicate

Best for Integrating Human and Bot Support

Kommunicate makes customer support seamless with its intelligent chatbots. If your chatbot can’t find an answer, you can easily transfer the conversation to a human agent or set up custom rules for handoffs. This ensures your customers always get the help they need.

With support for over 100 languages, you can engage with a truly global audience, making communication easy for everyone. Plus, Kommunicate works seamlessly across all devices—whether on web, mobile apps, or tablets—so your customers can reach out from anywhere.

I’m impressed by how it personalizes the chat widget to align with your brand by customizing the theme and language, creating a consistent and inviting experience for your visitors. With Kommunicate, connecting with your customers has never been simpler!

What you will like: 

• Customizable chat widget to align with your brand’s unique style.
• Multilingual chatbots to connect with a global audience
• User-friendly interface for a seamless experience
• Compatibility with web, mobile apps, and tablets to ensure  seamless performance

What you may not like:

• The pricing may seem higher for startups
• Some users reported issues with customer support

Pricing: Starts at $83.33/month (30 days free trial available)

Also Check : 11 Kommunicate Alternatives for Customer Support Automation in 2024

5. Landbot

Best for Live Chat Analytics

Landbot makes it simple to create engaging chatbots with its drag-and-drop builder. You don’t need any coding skills to design advanced conversational flows that are flexible and quick to set up. You can launch your chatbots on the web as pop-ups, or landing pages, and connect with customers on messaging channels like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

With Landbot, you can boost conversions by reducing response times and personalizing the customer journey from start to finish. More interestingly, the chatbots recommend products in a friendly way, using users’ previous searches, preferences, and past purchases. 

When I used Landbot, I found its analytics feature to be one of its finest attributes. It provided me with valuable insights into chatbot performance and customer interactions. This data was crucial for understanding how well my chatbots were performing and where I needed to make improvements.

What you will like:

• Surveys to gather feedback and improve services
• Integrates with popular platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger
• Stripe and PayPal integration for accepting payments and donations directly through chat
• Pre-built chatbot templates to save time and streamline your setup

What you may not like:

• Limited A/B testing options
• Pricing can be high for small businesses

Pricing: Starts at $45/month (A free plan is available with limited features)

6. Smartsupp

Best for Automated Customer Engagement & Service

Smartsupp offers a complete solution for customer support by automating all or part of your customer interactions, even after working hours. This means your business can handle inquiries around the clock, allowing the chatbot to address common questions while you decide when it’s time to bring in a live agent. 

With real-time chat, Smartsupp allows you to engage customers in a way that builds lasting brand loyalty, leading to increased engagement and higher sales. The chat window can be fully customized to align with your brand, creating a visually appealing experience that captures attention right from the start.

Smartsupp’s AI-powered chatbot tags conversations and contacts automatically, making it easier to capture, nurture, and convert leads without any manual effort. The feature I admire most is how it helps combat cart abandonment, ensuring that customers stay engaged and complete their purchases, even when you’re not available.

What you will like: 

• Pre-designed micro-chatbot templates for quick setup and smoother interactions
• Offline messaging forms to take inquiries when agents are not around
• Contact form to capture contact information of visitors
• Real-time visitor tracking to analyze visitors’ browsing behavior

What you may not like:

• Chatbots are included in the free plan
• Absence of in-app payment functionality

Pricing: Starts at $10/ month(A free plan is available with limited features).

Also Read : 10 Best Smartsupp Alternatives for Enhanced Customer Support in 2024

7. Chatling

Best for Personalized Customer Support

Chatling provides personalized customer support that adapts to individual needs, ensuring tailored and relevant interactions. I found it really user-friendly as it doesn’t require coding skills. You can easily drag and drop elements to build conversational flows that feel natural and engaging.

Training your AI chatbot is also quite simple. You can upload your documents, add your website, and connect other data sources so the chatbot can learn automatically. Plus, you can customize how your chatbot looks to match your brand perfectly.

One of the features I liked most is the analytics. You can track how your chatbot is performing and make improvements over time. And it’s great for lead generation too! You can capture leads directly from your chatbot, helping your business grow. 

What you will like: 

• Comprehensive analytics to monitor chatbot’s performance
• Conversational AI for engaging customer conversations
• Drag-and-drop builder to create chatbots easily and intuitively
• Multiple AI models to enhance and optimize your chatbot’s performance

What you may not like: 

• Limited third-party integration options
• Limited options for searching or filtering saved chats

Pricing: Starts at $15/month (A free plan is available with limited features).

8. IntelliTicks

Best for Conversational Landing Pages

IntelliTicks proved to be a valuable asset for our sales team, significantly enhancing our lead generation and qualification process. Its conversational landing pages transformed our traditional marketing by engaging visitors in real-time conversations.

The seamless integration with our existing CRM system provided a comprehensive view of the customer journey, enabling us to tailor our sales approach effectively. Plus, the AI-powered chatbot’s ability to provide prompt and relevant answers to FAQs was appreciated by our customers, resulting in increased engagement and improved customer satisfaction.

Overall, IntelliTicks exceeded our expectations in terms of streamlining our sales process and improving our conversion rates. The time and cost savings, coupled with increased customer satisfaction, made it a worthwhile investment for our business. 

What you will like:

• Automated FAQ answers to provide instant responses to common inquiries
• Instant lead alerts across Desktop, Mobile, and Email platforms
• Conversational forms to capture customer insights and feedback in a more captivating manner
• AI-human transfer for quick resolution of complex queries

What you may not like:

• Free plan includes only 60 chat per month
• The chatbot cannot send emails directly

Pricing: Starts at $20/month (A free plan is available with limited features)

9. Zendesk

Best for Zendesk Users

Zendesk allows you to create bots to deflect common questions and provide instant answers 24/7 across all service channels, ensuring your customers never have to wait. 

It makes collaboration easier with features like internal ticketing and private notes, which empower your agents to work effectively together. Plus, it streamlines the support experience by offering tailored tools and integrations specifically designed for existing Zendesk users.

What I like the most is that Zendesk’s AI maintains high data security standards, ensuring your customer information is safe. For businesses needing extra protection, the Advanced Data Privacy and Protection add-on offers the highest level of security.

What you may like:

• Self-service options to enable customers to resolve issues independently
• Integrated ticketing system for streamlined issue tracking and management
• Social media integration to handle customer inquiries across multiple platforms
• Quick and easy to set up 

What you may not like: 

• Self-service options are not available in basic plan
• Improvement is required in Answer Bot function

Pricing: Starts at $55/month(Free trial is available)

Also Read : Zendesk Alternatives: 10 Best Customer Support Software in 2024

10. ChatBot

Best for AI-Generated Customer Support

ChatBot is another popular tool that offers quick, accurate responses to customer inquiries, reducing wait times and enhancing overall satisfaction. Plus, it lets you train your ChatBot using knowledge base or text articles, allowing it to provide accurate responses.

When personalized assistance is needed, it seamlessly transfers chats to live agents, ensuring customers get the help they need. You can track important metrics like conversions and purchases to measure your bot’s performance and make improvements as necessary.

Moreover, you can create questions, forms, and surveys to collect, verify, and process user data efficiently. One notable feature of ChatBot is its ability to tailor conversations to customers using both preset and custom conditions. If you’re aiming for smoother and more effective interactions, I highly recommend it.

What you will like: 

• Chat tags to categorize conversations for easier browsing and analysis
• Messenger bot to provide automatic 24/7 responses on your Facebook page
• Intuitive visual editor to preview and customize your chatbot
• Analytics and reporting to track the chatbot’s performance and gain insights

What you may not like:

• The starter plan provides access to chat history for only 7 days
• Some users reported issues with customer support

Pricing: Starts at $52/month( Free trial available).

11. HubSpot

Best for Converting Sales and Engaging Customers With Free Live Chat

I’ve used HubSpot in the past, and found its free live chat tool helpful for engaging customers in real-time, helping convert leads into sales seamlessly. Plus, customizing the live chat widget to match my brand’s style was quite easy.

What I loved most was how easy it was to integrate the chatbot builder (no coding required), which was a huge relief! I was able to create bots to qualify leads, book meetings, and answer common questions without any hassle. 

Plus, the chat conversations are automatically saved in HubSpot’s free CRM, so my team and I had a clear view of every interaction, making follow-ups hassle-free. Overall, HubSpot made customer engagement seamless and efficient, and it’s the perfect option for any business looking to enhance its communication strategy.

What you will like: 

• Multilanguage support to improve customer satisfaction across different regions
• Customize chat flow to drive higher satisfaction and conversion rates
• Chat transcripts for better follow-up, analysis of customer inquiries
• Automated lead qualification for streamlining your sales process 

What you may not like: 

• Some users may find the interface a bit tricky to navigate
• A/B testing is not available on the lower plans

Pricing: Starts at $15/month(A free plan is available with limited features).

Explore : 10 Best HubSpot Chat Alternatives to Boost Your Engagement in 2024

12. Chatango

Best for Live Group Chat for Websites

Chatango is a versatile tool that brings real-time communication to your website, making it easy to connect with visitors. The tool offers easy integration, allowing you to add a live chat feature to your site without any hassle. It lets you create customizable chat rooms, which helps foster community discussions and connect with users in real time.

Its interface is user-friendly, making it simple to manage conversations and respond quickly to inquiries. I like the anonymous chatting feature, which encourages more visitors to participate without the pressure of signing up. 

Additionally, Chatango’s mobile compatibility ensures you stay connected with your audience on the go. Chatango is a fantastic tool for enhancing user interaction on your website, making it a top choice for anyone looking to boost engagement easily.

What you will like: 

• Mobile compatibility for convenient communication on the go
• It’s completely free for everyone
• The user interface is easy to navigate
• Detailed insights to help improve communication strategies

What you may not like: 

• There are limited options for emoticons and screen designs
• The section for blocked users is not easily accessible

Pricing: Free for all users.

How to Install ProProfs Free Chat Widget on Your Website

Getting the ProProfs Free Chat Widget set up on your website is quick and simple. There are two ways to do it: 

• Using Code Snippet
• Google Tag Manager

1. Installation Using Code Snippet

Step 1: Log into your ProProfs Chat account and go to Settings > Channels > Website. You’ll see a code snippet here. Copy this code and insert it right before the  </body> tag in your website editor.

Step 2: Alternatively, you can send these instructions straight to your developers by clicking the ‘Mail Instructions‘ button.

Step 3: A new window will appear. Fill in the recipient’s name, the email subject, and any extra instructions in the message box. Once your message is ready, click ‘Send’.

2. Installation Using Google Tag Manager

Step 1: Log into your ProProfs Chat account. Select ‘Install Chat’ on the dashboard, or go to Settings > Channels > Website.

Step 2: Select the ‘Install via Google Tag Manager’ option.

Step 3: A popup window for Google Sign-In will show up. Enter your Google Tag Manager (GTM) account credentials.

Step 4: The installation process will start. Once completed, you will see a message indicating ‘Installed’.

There you have it! The ProProfs Live Chat widget is now installed and ready to use on your website!

Level up Your Support Game With the Best Free Chat Widget!

Choosing the right free chat box widget can greatly boost your customer engagement and support effectiveness. Each of the top 12 free options listed here offers unique features and benefits tailored to different business needs. 

However, if you’re looking for a comprehensive solution that combines user-friendliness with powerful features, ProProfs Chat is the right fit. With its AI-driven automation, seamless integrations, and 24/7 support capabilities, ProProfs Chat ensures that your customers receive timely assistance and meaningful interactions. 

So, don’t hesitate to explore ProProfs Chat and upgrade your customer support experience to the next level in 2024!