LiveChat vs Olark
An independent, review-free comparison compiled by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Both products are profiled in full, and neither can pay for placement here.
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The short answer
Both sides assessedLiveChat compared with Olark
Olark is the other veteran of website chat, bootstrapped since 2009, and it now prices AI flat where LiveChat meters it: human chat at $29 per agent, and an AI website agent at $400 a month billed annually with unlimited conversations, live-site answers, lead qualification and same-thread handoff. LiveChat has the richer agent console, ecommerce reports and a public-company parent. A support-heavy chat team should stay with LiveChat; a sales-led site that wants every visitor qualified without a usage meter should look at Olark.
Olark compared with LiveChat
Both have sold website chat for well over a decade, but they now price AI in opposite ways. LiveChat sells human chat from $19 to $79 per person billed annually, with richer chat tooling, ecommerce reports and a public-company parent, and its AI Agent is sold separately per resolution. Olark sells human chat at $29 an agent and an AI agent at $400 a month flat with unlimited conversations. A support-heavy chat team that wants the deepest agent console should take LiveChat; a sales-led site that wants an AI agent qualifying every visitor without a meter should take Olark.
Choose LiveChat if
Sales-led and support teams of roughly 3 to 50 agents that want a fast, dependable chat widget with proactive campaigns, real reporting, and a broad developer API, from a profitable public company with a twenty-year operating record, and that are comfortable paying a fixed per-agent price rather than chasing a usage meter.
Choose Olark if
Small and mid-sized sales-led businesses, service firms and universities whose website chat is mainly about answering pre-sale questions and qualifying leads, who want an AI agent with a fixed annual price instead of a per-resolution meter, or who simply want a reliable human chat box at $29 an agent.
Side by side
13 attributes| Attribute | LiveChat | Olark |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Support | Support |
| Starting price | $19 per person per month billed annually ($25 monthly) on the Starter plan, limited to one user (14 days trial) | $29 per agent per month for human live chat; $400 a month billed annually for the AI Website Agent with one seat (14 days trial) |
| Pricing model | Strictly per person per month, billed annually or monthly, with annual materially cheaper. There is no usage meter on the classic LiveChat plans and no free tier. The autonomous AI Agent is not included and is sold on Text's separate platform plans, metered by resolution. ChatBot, HelpDesk, and KnowledgeBase are separate subscriptions rather than modules of a LiveChat plan. | Two published products. Human-only live chat is priced per agent per month. The Standard AI Website Agent is a flat annual subscription covering unlimited AI conversations and one human seat, with additional human seats per agent per month. Custom packages for volume, multiple teams, SSO and legal review are quoted. |
| Free plan | No | No |
| Free trial | 14 days, no credit card required | 14 days on Live Chat, and a free trial of the AI agent on your own site, both without a credit card |
| Best for | Sales-led and support teams of roughly 3 to 50 agents that want a fast, dependable chat widget with proactive campaigns, real reporting, and a broad developer API, from a profitable public company with a twenty-year operating record, and that are comfortable paying a fixed per-agent price rather than chasing a usage meter. | Small and mid-sized sales-led businesses, service firms and universities whose website chat is mainly about answering pre-sale questions and qualifying leads, who want an AI agent with a fixed annual price instead of a per-resolution meter, or who simply want a reliable human chat box at $29 an agent. |
| Setup time | A working widget takes under thirty minutes through a script tag or the Shopify, WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, or Webflow app. Getting to a properly configured deployment (groups, routing rules, chat limits, canned responses, targeted message campaigns, knowledge sources for reply suggestions, and reporting tags) realistically takes one to two weeks. Some verified reviewers describe initial setup as convoluted and difficult to get working correctly, so budget more than the marketing implies if your routing is non-trivial. | The chat box installs in minutes by script tag or CMS plugin. The AI agent trains on the site in about a minute; writing good qualification instructions and testing a draft takes an afternoon to a few days. |
| Learning curve | Low for agents and moderate for administrators. The agent application is conventional and a new hire is productive within a day. The administrative surface is larger than most chat tools because of routing rules, groups, campaign targeting, and the reporting suite, and the two genuinely tricky parts are designing targeted message triggers that help rather than annoy, and understanding which capabilities live on which tier before you commit to a plan. | Low. The human console is simple and has been refined for years, and the agent is configured in plain English rather than with logic trees. |
| Platforms | Web application, Windows and macOS desktop apps, iOS and Android apps, Chat widget with native apps for Shopify, WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and Webflow | Web application, Chat box via script tag, Plugins for WordPress, Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Webflow, Drupal and Magento |
| Compliance | GDPR, as an EU company operating from Poland, HIPAA compliance offered on the Enterprise tier per the published pricing page, Formal SOC 2 or ISO 27001 attestation not verifiable from the vendor's own published pages at the time of review | GDPR tooling and a Data Processing Agreement, WCAG 2.1 AA certified chat box (Classic), third-party tested, Certified B Corp, No SOC 2 or ISO 27001 attestation listed on the vendor's own pages at the time of review |
| Founded | 2002 | 2009 |
| Headquarters | Wrocław, Poland, with an office in Boston, Massachusetts | Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States |
| Ownership | Publicly listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange as Text S.A. (ticker TXT, ISIN PLLVTSF00010), a WIG30 index component. Renamed from LiveChat Software S.A. in 2023. | Bootstrapped and independent; a certified B Corp |
Strengths and limitations
LiveChat
Strengths
- Exceptional vendor stability: founded 2002, listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since April 2014, consistently profitable, with audited quarterly results and group ARR above $89.5 million as of mid-2026. Almost nothing else in this category can be diligenced that thoroughly.
- The agent experience is genuinely refined after twenty years, with message sneak-peek, fast canned responses and tagging, chat supervision and whisper, transfer between groups, and per-agent concurrent chat limits all working the way an experienced chat team expects.
- A complete developer platform available on standard plans rather than gated to enterprise: Customer SDK, webhooks, chat widget JavaScript API, chat APIs, configuration API, and a Reports API, alongside a marketplace of over 200 integrations.
- Deeper reporting than most chat-first competitors, including ecommerce attribution, a per-conversation revenue counter in LiveChat 2.0, agent performance metrics, and Business-tier staffing prediction that forecasts required coverage by time slot.
Limitations
- Strictly per-person billing with no shared licences. Multiple verified Capterra reviewers name this directly, one noting they now need a licence per user rather than a chosen number of licences shared across unlimited users as before. For a rota of part-time agents this is the single most expensive structural choice in the product.
- The autonomous AI Agent is not included in LiveChat plans. Text's own AI page states it is not automatically included and that customers move to the Text platform to get it. Buyers comparing LiveChat against Intercom's Fin or Tidio's Lyro on the LiveChat pricing page are comparing the wrong thing.
- The $19 Starter tier supports exactly one user and keeps only 60 days of chat history, so the advertised entry price is unavailable to any actual team. The step to Team at $49 is a 158 percent increase.
- Repeated price increases are a recurring complaint in verified reviews, with one long-standing customer stating the price has increased dramatically over recent years and the tool is becoming less viable, and another that it is not affordable for small businesses. The September 2025 increase and the end of grandfathering are documented in Text's own investor communications.
Olark
Strengths
- Flat, unlimited AI pricing: $400 a month with no token limits, no resolution charges and no overages, which no major competitor in this category matches.
- The agent reads your live website before answering, so it quotes current prices, hours and policies rather than stale training data.
- Same-thread handoff from AI to a human, with availability checks and an out-of-hours fallback, is the part most DIY chatbots get wrong.
- Seventeen years of operating history as a bootstrapped, B Corp certified company, which is low vendor risk for a chat tool.
Limitations
- It is website chat, not a help desk: no shared email inbox, SLA engine or knowledge base product, so it usually sits beside a help desk rather than replacing one.
- The AI entry price is $400 a month on an annual contract, which is too much for a low-traffic site.
- WhatsApp, SMS, chat ratings and the WCAG-certified chat box are listed against Olark Classic, so check which features apply to the AI product you are buying.
- No security certifications are listed on the vendor's own pages; the security page is a responsible-disclosure policy.
Pricing compared
LiveChat
Strictly per person per month, billed annually or monthly, with annual materially cheaper. There is no usage meter on the classic LiveChat plans and no free tier. The autonomous AI Agent is not included and is sold on Text's separate platform plans, metered by resolution. ChatBot, HelpDesk, and KnowledgeBase are separate subscriptions rather than modules of a LiveChat plan.
- Starter$19
- Team$49
- Business$79
- EnterpriseQuote
Judged as a live chat product on its own, LiveChat is fairly priced in the middle of the market: $49 per person on Team buys unlimited history, unlimited campaigns, full widget customisation, a broad channel set, and a developer API that several competitors reserve for their top tier. Judged as a customer support platform, the arithmetic is less kind. The $19 headline is a one-seat price, the real team entry is $49, ticketing and a help centre are separate subscriptions, the AI agent lives on a different product line, and SSO is quote-only. A five-agent team wanting chat, tickets, and AI deflection is realistically looking at a LiveChat or Text plan plus a HelpDesk plan plus resolution overage, which lands well above Crisp's flat $45 workspace fee and above what Zoho Desk or Freshdesk charge for a bundled equivalent. Buy LiveChat when chat itself is the point, when the reporting and API depth earn their keep, and when a twenty-year-old profitable public vendor is worth something to your procurement process. Do not buy it as the cheap option, because on total cost it is not.
Olark
Two published products. Human-only live chat is priced per agent per month. The Standard AI Website Agent is a flat annual subscription covering unlimited AI conversations and one human seat, with additional human seats per agent per month. Custom packages for volume, multiple teams, SSO and legal review are quoted.
- Live Chat$29
- Standard AI Website Agent$400
- CustomCustom
Olark is priced for a specific buyer and is excellent value for that buyer. A sales-led business with steady website traffic and a small team gets an AI agent with unlimited conversations for $400 a month, which beats per-outcome pricing comfortably once the agent handles more than about 400 conversations a month, and it never punishes a busy month. The human product at $29 an agent is fairly priced against LiveChat's $19 to $79 and Tidio's conversation bundles, and more honest than either about what you will pay. Where the value breaks down is at the extremes: a site with little traffic pays $4,800 a year for a handful of AI conversations, and a support team that needs email ticketing, SLAs or a knowledge base is buying the wrong category of product.
Editorial verdict on each
LiveChat
LiveChat is the most institutionally solid product in small-business live chat, and that is both its argument and its limitation. Twenty-four years of continuous development, a Warsaw Stock Exchange listing with audited quarterly results, consistent profitability, and $89.5 million of group ARR make it the easiest vendor in this category to diligence, and the product earns the reputation: the agent experience is refined, the proactive campaign tooling is genuinely good for sales-led chat, the reporting goes deeper than chat-first rivals attempt, and the developer platform is open on standard plans rather than held hostage to an enterprise contract. What holds it back is commercial structure rather than craft. The $19 headline buys one seat, the real team price is $49 per person, ticketing and a help centre are separate subscriptions, the autonomous AI agent lives on a different product line entirely, SSO and HIPAA are quote-only, and price rises plus the end of grandfathering are a live grievance in verified reviews. Buy LiveChat when chat itself is a staffed, measured function, when reporting and API depth pay for themselves, and when vendor stability is worth a premium. If you want a bundled support stack, a free tier, or AI deflection as the centrepiece, the better answers in this category are elsewhere.
Read the full LiveChat profileOlark
Olark has done the one thing the rest of this category will not: it put a price on its AI agent that does not move with usage. For a sales-led business with steady website traffic, $400 a month for unlimited AI conversations, live-site answers, lead qualification and a clean handoff to a human is better value than any per-resolution model once volume passes a few hundred conversations a month, and it comes from a bootstrapped, B Corp vendor that has been doing this since 2009. The human product at $29 an agent remains a solid, simple chat box. Be clear about the edges: this is website chat, not a help desk, the AI entry price is an annual commitment that a small site will not earn back, and several channels and the certified-accessible chat box belong to the Classic product. Buy Olark if your chat is a sales channel; pair it with a help desk, or choose one instead, if your chat is a support queue.
Read the full Olark profileLiveChat profile last reviewed 2026-10-01; Olark last reviewed 2026-10-01. Pricing is compiled from public sources and can change without notice. See our methodology.
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Frequently asked questions
6 questionsWhat is the difference between LiveChat and Olark?
Olark is the other veteran of website chat, bootstrapped since 2009, and it now prices AI flat where LiveChat meters it: human chat at $29 per agent, and an AI website agent at $400 a month billed annually with unlimited conversations, live-site answers, lead qualification and same-thread handoff. LiveChat has the richer agent console, ecommerce reports and a public-company parent. A support-heavy chat team should stay with LiveChat; a sales-led site that wants every visitor qualified without a usage meter should look at Olark.
Is LiveChat or Olark cheaper?
LiveChat starts at $19 per person per month billed annually ($25 monthly) on the Starter plan, limited to one user (14 days trial). Olark starts at $29 per agent per month for human live chat; $400 a month billed annually for the AI Website Agent with one seat (14 days trial). The billing models differ, so the entry price is rarely the whole cost. LiveChat pricing model: Strictly per person per month, billed annually or monthly, with annual materially cheaper. There is no usage meter on the classic LiveChat plans and no free tier. Olark pricing model: Two published products. Human-only live chat is priced per agent per month.
Does LiveChat or Olark have a free plan?
LiveChat has no free plan. Trial terms: 14 days, no credit card required. Olark has no free plan. Trial terms: 14 days on Live Chat, and a free trial of the AI agent on your own site, both without a credit card.
Who should choose LiveChat?
Sales-led and support teams of roughly 3 to 50 agents that want a fast, dependable chat widget with proactive campaigns, real reporting, and a broad developer API, from a profitable public company with a twenty-year operating record, and that are comfortable paying a fixed per-agent price rather than chasing a usage meter.
Who should choose Olark?
Small and mid-sized sales-led businesses, service firms and universities whose website chat is mainly about answering pre-sale questions and qualifying leads, who want an AI agent with a fixed annual price instead of a per-resolution meter, or who simply want a reliable human chat box at $29 an agent.
What are the best alternatives to LiveChat and Olark?
SaaSTracker profiles 27 products in Customer Support Platforms. The Summer 2026 awards in the category went to Help Scout (Category Leader), tawk.to (Best Value), Plain (Momentum). Every profile is compiled from primary sources, so a shortlist can be built from pricing, limitations, and fit rather than from star ratings.
