Why is tawk.to free? It's probably not what you think.
A late entrant to live chat, now serving roughly 1 in 3 people online — without charging for the software, without traditional advertising, and without press.
We launched in October 2013, late to a crowded market.
Live chat already had dozens of incumbents. We watched, we listened, and we noticed the same gaps everywhere we looked. Late entry turned out to be an advantage — we got to start by learning from everyone else's mistakes.
- 01Unattractive SaaS pricing models
- 02Poor vendor reliability and accountability
- 03Missing features across competing applications
- 04No multi-tenant chat for managing many sites at once
- 05Staffing costs as the real barrier to adoption
- 06Competitors who didn't use their own products
· Sources: Datanyze, BuiltWith. No traditional advertising. No press.
Three things we charge for. Everything else is free.
The platform stays free because the business runs on optional services — not on locking the software behind plans.
Remove the 'Powered by tawk.to' badge from your widget. Keeping the badge is free, forever.
An automated AI chat agent. Forever-free tier for limited chat volume; paid plans scale from $29/mo.
Don't want to staff your own chat? Hire ours — the same agents we use to support our own customers.
The reason it works: the staffing cost is the cost.
Charging for software is a small slice of what it actually takes to run live chat 24/7. Most of the cost is people. We solved that side instead.
Figures from tawk.to's Why Free page: typical SaaS at $40/seat/mo and the full annual cost of staffing one 24/7 agent, vs. tawk.to's hired-agent service.
But how can someone else's agents represent my business?
Short answer: agents don't memorise your business — they look it up. The same way your best in-house rep would.
- 01
Knowledge base, not memory
Every hired agent works from your knowledge base in real time. If it's documented, they can find it.
- 02
We use it ourselves
Our own team supports our customers using the same dashboard, the same software, and the same hired agents you'd get.
- 03
Real-world testing across many use cases
Internal use of the platform across diverse customer use-cases tests and improves the software the rest of the world uses for free.
“You should never pay to communicate with your own customers.”
Equal access to opportunity: every business — regardless of size or location — deserves the same tools to talk to the people they serve. That's why the software is free, and why it stays free.
Everything in the platform. No plan gates.
Sign up once. Use any of it, all of it, in any combination. No upgrades, no per-feature pricing, no asterisks.
Live Chat
The chat widget.
Chat Pages
Turn a link into a live conversation.
Knowledge Base
A free, hosted help centre.
Ticketing
Smart ticketing software.
CRM
Built-in contacts.
Messaging
betaFacebook, Google RCS, Telegram, SMS.
Phone
betaCalls in the dashboard.
In-Chat Payments
alphaCharge inside the conversation.
AI Assist
AI agent automation.
Hire Chat Agents
Trained agents at $1/hr.
Hire Virtual Assistants
Virtual assistants at $7/hr.
“If you're focused on your competitors, you're not focused on your customer.”
When we started in 2013, every analyst said the live chat market was full. Nokia, Kodak, Blackberry, Yahoo — every leader on every chart eventually gets replaced. The media wants overnight successes so they have someone to tear down. Ignore them.
Listen instead to your real customers, to your vision. Careful planning, a solid strategy, and a unique angle can compete in any market — regardless of timing.
If you're a founder building in a crowded space and want a sounding board, we'll find time to talk. We were a late entrant once, too.
People prefer to message. Make it free for them to start.
Sign up in under a minute. No credit card. No time limit. Every feature, on day one.