Chatlio vs tawk.to (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, we pick tawk.to: it is third in our ranking of help desk and live chat tools, and it grades higher too, 3.0 against 2.4.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
tawk.to grades higher on value for money and the free plan. They get the same grade on features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Chatlio
Website live chat that your team answers from Slack, Teams or Discord
tawk.to
Free live chat, ticketing and help center, with paid add-ons
Which one is for you
Pick Chatlio if
- Fits if your team already lives in Slack, Teams or Discord
- Works for a small site that wants live chat and nothing else
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you want triggers, saved replies or bots, because Mini lacks them and Team is $70
- Tight if you get many chats, as plans cap conversations from 250 up to 20,000 a month
- Not for you if you want a mobile app of its own, since replies happen inside your chat app
- Watch out: Slack restricted accounts and single-channel guests cannot answer without an invite to each channel
- Watch out: Team's $70 is shown as a launch price, with $100 as the regular price
Pick tawk.to if
- Fits if you want chat on your site and don't want to pay per seat
- Works for anyone who'd rather hire someone to answer chats, at $1 an hour
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if the "Powered by tawk.to" badge bothers you, as removing it costs $29 a month per site
- Watch out: AI Assist is free only for limited volume; paid plans start at $29 a month
- Not for you if you need phone support, as voice agents (from $49 a month plus usage) were still waitlist-only
- Too light for teams that need lots of integrations, with only Shopify and WordPress listed and no API
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAChatlioFair | 3.0GPAtawk.toVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | B$30 a month for 2 operators, $15 each, inside the category's cheaper quarter of $19. Team is $70 for 5. | AThe whole platform is free, chat, inbox, tickets, help center and CRM, with no seat charges, which is free and substantial. You'd pay only for add-ons: $29 a month for the AI agent or for removing the badge. |
| Free plan and trial | CA 30-day free trial on every plan with no card needed. No free plan. | AFree outright for every seat, with no cap on chats in the listing. The catch is the "Powered by tawk.to" badge on your widget, chat page and help center, which costs $29 a month per site to remove. |
| Features | CLive chat, styling, visitor context, hours and an API. It does that job fully, but it is a smaller job than a help desk, with no ticketing. | CWebsite chat, chat pages for businesses without a site, an inbox for chat, email and forms, tickets, a help center, a CRM, and people you can hire to answer for $1 an hour. The gap: no phone, as voice agents were still waitlist-only. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You install the widget and link a chat app. | CNo store rating on record. It's free to start, but you still paste the chat box into your site, set up the help center and, if you want it, teach the AI agent. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb widget answered through Slack, Teams or Discord, with an API and webhooks, but no app of its own. | BWeb, Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android apps, so every device is covered. What keeps it off an A is the connections: the listing names just Shopify and WordPress, and no API. |
| Best for | website chat answered from Slack | free website chat for any size of team |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Chatlio and tawk.to. How we grade
Price against what you get
Chatlio starts at $30 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. tawk.to starts at $29 a month and scores 2.3.
They score the same, and tawk.to starts $1 a month lower. Of the other help desk and live chat tools on the chart, 22 score higher than Chatlio for less, and 19 score higher than tawk.to for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Chatlio also covers shared inbox, workflow automation and chatbots.
- tawk.to also covers help desk, help center and AI support agent.
At a glance
| Chatlio | tawk.to | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $30 per month for 2 operators, billed monthly | $29 per month for the AI Assist or Whitelabel add-on |
| Free plan | None | The whole platform is free: live chat, inbox, ticketing, knowledge base, chat pages and CRM, with no seat charges. A "Powered by tawk.to" badge stays unless removed for a fee. |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial on every plan, no credit card required | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Chatlio LLC | tawk.to |
| Price read from | chatlio.com | tawk.to |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Chatlio
- Replies happen inside Slack, Teams or Discord; there is no separate Chatlio mobile app.
- Mini has no triggers, saved replies, custom bots or white-label widget; those start at Team.
- Slack restricted accounts and single-channel guests cannot answer chats without being invited to each one.
- Plans cap conversations per month, from 250 on Mini to 20,000 on Scale.
tawk.to
- Removing the "Powered by tawk.to" badge from the widget, chat page and knowledge base costs $29 a month per property.
- AI Assist is free only for limited volume; paid plans start at $29 a month.
- Hired chat agents cost $1 an hour and dedicated virtual assistants from $7 an hour.
- Voice Agents (from $49 a month plus usage) and Data Enrichment (from $59 a month) were waitlist-only when read.
Key features
Chatlio
- Answer chats from Slack, Teams or Discord
- Each visitor conversation opens in its own channel, so several teammates can join one chat and several chats can run at once.
- Widget styling and CSS access
- Every plan allows unlimited domains, full widget customization and CSS changes; the Team plan and up adds a white-label widget.
- Triggers and pre-chat questions
- Automatic chat invitations, pre-chat questions for lead qualification and saved replies are included from the Team plan.
- Visitor context
- Operators see where the visitor is on the site, their location, browser and operating system, plus data sent with the JavaScript identify call.
- Operating hours and offline mode
- Set hours for the widget; outside them it can show an email form or hide itself.
- API and webhooks
- A widget API, server API and webhooks come on every plan, for example to export transcripts to other systems.
tawk.to
- Live chat widget
- A chat box for websites that can be styled to match a brand, plus chat pages that turn a link into a conversation for businesses without a site.
- Inbox and ticketing
- Chat, email, form and messaging conversations arrive in one dashboard, with free ticketing for issues that need follow-up.
- Knowledge base
- A free hosted help center where customers can look up answers, which the AI Assist add-on also draws on.
- AI Assist
- AI agents and workflows that answer routine questions and hand off to a person with the conversation's history attached.
- Hired chat agents
- Trained human agents who answer chats on your behalf around the clock for $1 an hour, offered as a paid service.
- CRM and pipeline
- Contact records built from conversations, segments and tags, a deal pipeline and booking activities in the same dashboard.
Plans
Chatlio
Mini$30
per month for up to 2 operators, billed monthly
2 operators, 1 widget and 250 conversations a month, with reports, API and webhooks.
Team$70
per month for up to 5 operators, billed monthly
5 operators, 2 widgets, 2,000 conversations; adds triggers, saved replies, bots. Shown as a launch price; regular $100.
Business$200
per month for up to 15 operators, billed monthly
15 operators, 10 widgets, 6,000 conversations a month and priority support.
Scale$500
per month for up to 50 operators, billed monthly
50 operators, 25 widgets, 20,000 conversations a month, invoice payment and a direct line to the founder.
tawk.to
Free$0
Live chat widget, shared inbox, ticketing, a hosted knowledge base, chat pages and contacts, with the tawk.to badge shown. AI Assist has a free tier for limited volume.
AI Assist$29
per month and up
Add-on: AI agents that answer from your knowledge base and AI workflows that route and follow up, handing off to a person when needed.
Whitelabel$29
per property / month
Add-on: removes the tawk.to badge and puts the chat page, knowledge base and ticketing emails on your own domain and address.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Chatlio or tawk.to?
As of Nov 13, 2026, tawk.to is cheaper to start with: $29 a month, against $30 a month for Chatlio. Chatlio starts at $30 per month for 2 operators, billed monthly, and tawk.to starts at $29 per month for the AI Assist or Whitelabel add-on.
Which has a free plan, Chatlio or tawk.to?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only tawk.to has a free plan. Chatlio does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do Chatlio and tawk.to run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only tawk.to lists macOS, Windows, iOS and Android apps. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.