Live chat isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore. 53% of online adults prefer live chat for instant support over email or phone, and businesses implementing it see a 48% increase in revenue per chat hour compared to non-chat periods. If you’re running a WordPress site without live chat, you’re leaving money—and frustrated customers—on the table.
Here’s how to add live chat to your WordPress website in minutes, including free plugin options, complete setup instructions, and a comparison that’ll help you choose the right solution for your business.
Why WordPress Sites Need Live Chat
Live chat solves a fundamental problem: customers have questions at the exact moment they’re ready to buy, and they won’t wait 12 hours for an email response.
Live chat agents handle 3-5 conversations simultaneously (versus one phone call at a time), reducing support costs by 15-33%. That’s because chat is fundamentally more efficient than phone support—your team can copy-paste product links, send screenshots, and reference previous conversations without putting anyone on hold.
But the real magic happens at the conversion stage. Live chat users report 20% higher conversion rates compared to non-chat users in e-commerce. When someone lands on your pricing page or checkout, they’re at peak purchase intent. A well-timed chat prompt captures that moment: “Questions about shipping?” or “Need help choosing the right size?”
The industry average first response time for live chat is 2 minutes 40 seconds, and resolution time averages 7 minutes. Compare that to email support (12+ hours for first response) and the value becomes obvious. You’re not just adding a communication channel—you’re removing the friction that kills conversions.
Best WordPress Live Chat Plugins (Free & Paid)
WordPress makes it easy to add live chat through plugins. Here are your main options, broken down by pricing and capabilities:
Free Options
Tawk.to — Completely free with unlimited agents and chats. It’s the most popular free option with over 1 million active installs and a 4.0★ rating. The catch? It lacks AI automation and real-time translation, and performance is rated “fair” among WordPress users (it may slow down your site). Good for low-volume sites on a tight budget.
HubSpot Chat — Free plugin with CRM integration and basic bots. Rated 4.3★ with 600,000+ active installs. Great if you’re already in the HubSpot ecosystem, but the free version limits chatbot functionality. Paid features start at $12/month for advanced automation and reporting.
Tidio — Free plan with unlimited chats, contacts, and history. Rated 4.4★ with 10,000+ active installs. The AI can solve ~70% of customer inquiries without human intervention, which is impressive for a free tier. Includes WooCommerce integration and connects to Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Paid plans start at $23/month for advanced AI features and routing.
Crisp — Free plan includes helpdesk functionality and AI bots. Rated 4.4★ with 200,000+ active installs. Paid plans from $20/month add features like an internal search engine and advanced analytics. Solid choice for service businesses that need helpdesk features alongside live chat.
Premium Options
LiveChat — From $16/month with a 14-day free trial. Offers 200+ integrations, advanced routing, and AI Assist features. Rated 4.4★ with 100,000+ active installs. Specifically confirmed compatible with Elementor and Divi page builders, which matters if you’re using those tools. GDPR-compliant with EU server options.
Zendesk Chat — From $55+/agent monthly. Enterprise-grade with CRM integration, multi-channel support, and advanced analytics. GDPR-compliant with robust reporting, but expensive for small businesses. Better suited for teams of 10+ agents or enterprises with complex support needs.
Intercom — Premium pricing that’s steep for SMBs. Robust CRM integration and detailed analytics, but better suited for sales teams than pure support. Has a learning curve and works best when you’re already using other Intercom products.
Askly — AI-powered chat platform with unified inbox (website, Facebook, Instagram), real-time translation in 100+ languages, and abandonment detection. Claims up to 60% time saved and 50% automation of repetitive questions through AI that learns from your team’s actual responses. 2-minute install with no development required. 14-day free trial, pricing from $49/month.
How to Add Live Chat to WordPress (Step-by-Step)
The basic process is the same for most plugins. Here’s the standard installation workflow that works for Tidio, HubSpot, LiveChat, Askly, and most other WordPress chat plugins:
Step 1: Install the Plugin
Log into your WordPress dashboard, then:
- Navigate to Plugins → Add New
- Search for your chosen live chat plugin (e.g., “Tidio,” “HubSpot,” “Askly”)
- Click Install Now next to the plugin
- Click Activate once installation completes
Time required: Under 2 minutes
Step 2: Create Your Account
Most plugins require you to create an account to manage conversations:
- After activation, you’ll see a welcome screen or setup wizard
- Enter your email and create a password (or sign up with Google/Facebook)
- Confirm your email address
- Complete basic business information (name, website URL, industry)
Some plugins will automatically detect your WordPress site details and pre-fill this information. Time required: 1-2 minutes
Step 3: Configure the Chat Widget
This is where you customize the chat experience to match your brand and business needs:
Appearance Settings
- Match widget colors to your brand (upload logo, set primary/accent colors)
- Choose widget position (bottom-right is standard, bottom-left for right-to-left languages)
- Select widget size (compact, standard, or large)
- Write your welcome greeting (e.g., “Hi! How can we help you today?”)
Business Hours
- Set your availability schedule (or enable 24/7 if using AI automation)
- Create an away message for offline hours (“Our team is offline. Leave a message and we’ll respond within 24 hours.”)
- Configure email fallback when agents are unavailable
Welcome Messages and Triggers
- Write targeted greetings for different pages (homepage vs. pricing vs. checkout)
- Set up proactive chat triggers (e.g., “Can I help you find the right product?” after 30 seconds on a category page)
- Create exit-intent offers to capture abandoning visitors (“Wait! Here’s 10% off your first order”)
Time required: 5-10 minutes
Step 4: Set Up Team Members (If Applicable)
For multi-agent teams, you’ll need to add your support staff:
- Navigate to Team or Agents in your dashboard
- Add team members by email (they’ll receive an invitation)
- Assign roles (admin can change settings, agent can only chat, viewer can only see reports)
- Configure routing rules (round-robin distributes chats evenly, skill-based routes by expertise, geographic routes by time zone)
Time required: 3-5 minutes
Step 5: Test the Chat
Before going live, verify everything works:
- Open your website in an incognito/private browser window (so you see what visitors see)
- Trigger the chat widget and send a test message
- Verify the message appears in your dashboard
- Test on mobile devices (60%+ of traffic is mobile)
- Check page load speed with a tool like GTmetrix to ensure the plugin isn’t slowing your site
Send a few test messages from different pages to verify your routing and welcome messages work correctly. Time required: 5 minutes
Total setup time: 15-25 minutes for a basic configuration. Advanced features (AI automation rules, CRM integrations, detailed analytics) take additional time but can be configured later.
WordPress Live Chat Setup for Specific Platforms
If you’re using a popular page builder or e-commerce plugin, here’s what you need to know about compatibility and setup:
WooCommerce Integration
WooCommerce integration is critical for e-commerce sites. The right integration lets you:
- Recover abandoned carts — Detect when customers leave items in their cart and send personalized offers via chat (“Still interested in those running shoes? Here’s free shipping to complete your order.”)
- Access order history — Let agents view customer purchase history during conversations so they can reference past orders or suggest complementary products
- Make product recommendations — Suggest products based on browsing behavior (“I see you’re looking at mirrorless cameras. The Sony A6400 is our most popular model for beginners.”)
Tidio, LiveChat, and Askly all offer native WooCommerce integration. Most handle this through a separate WooCommerce plugin or API connection that syncs customer data and order information into the chat interface.
Elementor & Divi Compatibility
LiveChat is specifically confirmed compatible with Elementor and Divi page builders. Most modern chat plugins work with these builders since they inject the chat widget via JavaScript (which doesn’t conflict with page builder markup), but always test with your specific theme before committing to a plugin.
If you’re using a custom theme or builder, install the plugin on a staging site first and verify it doesn’t conflict with your CSS or JavaScript. Check the plugin’s reviews for mentions of your theme—existing users will call out compatibility issues.
Multilingual WordPress Sites
If you serve international customers, real-time translation is non-negotiable. Multilingual live chat with real-time translation breaks language barriers instantly, letting one agent support customers in dozens of languages without hiring multilingual staff.
Most free plugins (Tawk.to, HubSpot) lack real-time translation. You’ll need a premium solution like Askly, which offers translation in 100+ languages and automatically opens in your customer’s preferred language by default (based on browser settings).
Why this matters: One Askly client reports that “with Askly one agent provides support in 25+ languages, cutting our budget by 75%.” That’s the difference between hiring a multilingual team and using smart automation to scale globally without scaling headcount.
AI Automation vs. Human-Only Live Chat
Here’s a crucial decision point that affects both your costs and customer experience: Do you want human-only chat, or AI-powered automation?
Human-only chat means your team manually responds to every message. This works if you have:
- Low chat volume (under 50 conversations/month)
- Complex, high-touch sales requiring personal interaction (B2B enterprise software, consulting services)
- A large support team with bandwidth to handle real-time conversations
The downside? Your team will spend 60-70% of their time answering the same questions over and over. “What’s your return policy?” “Do you ship to Alaska?” “Is this product vegan?” These questions are important, but they don’t require human judgment—and they prevent your team from focusing on complex issues that do.
AI-powered chat uses machine learning to automate repetitive questions. AI chatbots can resolve up to 70% of customer inquiries without human intervention, according to WordPress plugin data. Instead of your team answering “What’s your return policy?” 50 times a week, the AI handles it instantly with a consistent, accurate answer.
The best AI implementations learn from your team’s responses. Askly’s AI chatbot is trained on your actual customer conversations and website content—it doesn’t require manual training or complex setup. It learns by watching your team work, then starts handling similar questions on its own. The AI knows what conversations to direct to your team and what it can handle with ease.
Smooth transitions are key. When a customer asks something the AI can’t handle (“Can I swap my order from blue to red before it ships?”), it should seamlessly hand off to a human agent with full context. The customer shouldn’t have to repeat themselves.
Businesses using Askly’s AI automation report 60% time saved and the ability to automate 50% of repetitive questions. For US e-commerce and service businesses, AI automation isn’t optional—it’s how you scale support without scaling costs.
Live Chat Best Practices for WordPress Sites
Once your chat is installed, follow these practices to maximize ROI:
1. Target High-Value Pages with Proactive Chat
Don’t just sit and wait for visitors to initiate chat. Set up proactive triggers on pages where purchase intent is highest:
- Pricing pages: “Questions about our plans? I’m here to help.”
- Product pages: “Need help choosing between these options?”
- Checkout: “Having trouble completing your order?”
- High-bounce pages: If analytics show people leaving a specific page, trigger a chat offer to understand why
Proactive chat on these pages captures customers at peak intent. You’re not interrupting—you’re offering help at the exact moment they need it.
2. Set Realistic Response Time Expectations
The industry average first response time is 2 minutes 40 seconds. Customers expect speed—but they also hate being ignored after starting a conversation.
If you can’t respond within 3 minutes consistently, consider:
- Enabling AI automation to handle immediate questions while your team catches up
- Setting clear away messages (“Our team is currently helping other customers. We’ll respond within 10 minutes.”)
- Collecting email so customers can leave and get a response later without staying glued to the chat window
1 in 5 unanswered chats damages customer trust more than not offering chat at all. It’s better to be offline with a clear “We’ll email you back” message than to be online and ignore incoming chats. Set expectations you can actually meet.
3. Unify Your Channels
Your customers don’t just message you on your website. They also DM on Instagram, message on Facebook, and email your support team. Managing these channels separately means slower responses, missed messages, and frustrated customers.
Unify those channels into one inbox. Askly’s unified inbox centralizes website, Facebook, and Instagram messages so your team can reply from one place, from any device. That means faster response times (no channel-switching), better context (see all previous conversations), and less chance of missed messages.
4. Use Chat Data to Improve Your Website
Your live chat conversations are a goldmine of customer feedback. Look for patterns:
- Questions about features that should be obvious — Your product descriptions aren’t clear enough. Add an FAQ section or rewrite copy.
- Confusion about pricing or plans — Your pricing page needs work. Maybe you need a comparison table or clearer feature breakdowns.
- Repeated questions about shipping or returns — Make this information more prominent. Add it to product pages, not just buried in your footer.
Many customer engagement platforms offer analytics dashboards that surface these patterns automatically. Askly, for example, tracks conversation topics and shows you which questions come up most frequently—so you know exactly what content to add to your site.
5. Measure and Optimize
Track these metrics to understand whether live chat is actually improving your business:
- First response time — How quickly does your team (or AI) respond to the first message?
- Resolution time — How long does it take to fully resolve a customer’s issue? (Industry average: 7 minutes)
- Chat-to-conversion rate — What percentage of chat visitors make a purchase?
- CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) — How satisfied are customers with their chat experience? (Send a quick survey after each chat)
If your first response time is above 3 minutes consistently, you need more agents or AI automation. If your resolution time is significantly above 7 minutes, you need better training, clearer documentation, or better tools (like access to order history during chats).
If your chat-to-conversion rate is low, test different proactive messages or review conversations to understand why people chat but don’t buy. Maybe they’re asking questions that reveal friction in your checkout process.
Askly: AI-Powered Live Chat Built for WordPress
If you want the best of both worlds—human touch when needed, AI automation for routine questions—Askly is worth a look. Here’s what makes it different:
2-Minute Installation — Add Askly to your WordPress site without any coding. Compatible with every website platform. No developer required, no complex setup wizard. Install the plugin, activate it, and you’re live.
AI That Learns From Your Team — Unlike chatbots that require manual training (building decision trees, writing scripts), Askly’s AI watches your team respond to customers and learns to handle similar questions. It’s trained on real customer conversations, not canned responses. The AI improves every day as your team works, without extra effort.
Real-Time Translation in 100+ Languages — Serve international customers without hiring multilingual staff. Askly opens in the customer’s preferred language (based on browser settings) and translates conversations in real-time. Your agent types in English, the customer sees Spanish. The customer replies in Spanish, your agent sees English. No switching between tabs or using Google Translate.
Unified Inbox Across Channels — Centralize website, Facebook, and Instagram messages. Reply from one place, whether you’re at your desk or on your phone. No more switching between platforms or missing messages because they came through a different channel.
Abandonment Detection — Askly detects when visitors are about to leave (mouse movement toward the back button, time on page, scroll behavior) and triggers personalized offers to complete the transaction. “Wait! Here’s 10% off your first order” or “Need help finding your size?” These targeted interventions can recover sales that would otherwise be lost.
Full Conversation History — Every conversation between customers and your AI or team is saved and analyzed. When a customer returns, your team sees the full history. The AI acts as a team member, not a separate tool—so handoffs are seamless and customers never repeat themselves.
14-Day Free Trial — Test Askly risk-free with no credit card required. See how AI automation and real-time translation work with your actual customers before committing.
Askly customers report results like:
- “We’re so happy to use Askly! It’s incredibly easy and intuitive.” — Rode Luhaäär, Procommerce CEO
- “Helps to close deals. First proof was 1000€ additional sale already during Askly free trial.” — Andres Pärn, Inpuit Board Member
- “Grows revenue and customer’s loyalty. We use it daily to provide better customer support.” — Sandra Polberg, Hookusbookus CMO
Compare that to competitors: One Askly client saw 300% more chats versus their previous Zendesk setup. That’s not just a better tool—it’s a fundamentally different approach to customer engagement.
Pricing: Plans start at $49/month (Starter plan for up to 300 chats/month and 1-2 agents). Business plan supports up to 1,000 chats/month for 3-5 agents. Enterprise plans available for custom needs, high volume, or dedicated support. All plans include the core AI automation and multilingual features.
WordPress Live Chat Plugin Comparison
Here’s a quick reference table to help you choose:
| Plugin | Price | AI Automation | Translation | WooCommerce | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tawk.to | Free | No | No | Via API | Budget-conscious, low volume |
| HubSpot | Free - $12+/mo | Basic bots | No | Yes | HubSpot users, CRM integration |
| Tidio | Free - $23+/mo | Yes (~70% automation) | No | Yes | E-commerce, multi-channel |
| Crisp | Free - $20+/mo | Yes | No | Via API | Service businesses, helpdesk |
| LiveChat | $16+/mo | AI Assist | No | Yes | Teams needing advanced routing |
| Askly | $49+/mo | Yes (self-learning) | 100+ languages | Yes | E-commerce, multilingual, AI + human blend |
If you’re a US-based e-commerce or service business looking to scale support without scaling costs, the comparison is clear: You need AI automation, multilingual capabilities, and a unified inbox. Askly delivers all three in a 2-minute setup.
Ready to add live chat to your WordPress site? Start your free 14-day trial with Askly and see how AI-powered chat can transform your customer support and boost conversions—no credit card required.