10 Best Live Chat Tools in 2026

Trengo positions itself as a team inbox for all your customer communication channels, and it delivers on that promise quite well. The platform brings together WhatsApp, email, live chat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and even SMS into a single interface that feels surprisingly organized. What sets Trengo apart is its focus on team collaboration. You can assign conversations to specific team members, add internal notes, mention colleagues for input, and track who's working on what. For businesses juggling multiple communication channels, this prevents the chaos of messages falling through the cracks. The WhatsApp Business integration is particularly strong. You can use it for customer support, send automated notifications, and even run marketing campaigns—all while staying compliant with WhatsApp's business policies. For businesses in regions where WhatsApp is the dominant communication channel, this alone might justify the investment. Trengo also includes a flow builder for creating automated responses and routing rules. It's visual and intuitive enough that non-technical team members can set up fairly sophisticated automations. Common use cases include auto-replies outside business hours, routing inquiries to specialized teams, and sending satisfaction surveys after conversations close. The platform works well for small to mid-sized businesses that communicate across many channels but want to keep everything manageable without enterprise-level complexity.

Intercom is a customer communication platform that combines AI-powered chatbots, live chat, help center, and email automation for customer support and engagement.

Sendbird provides chat and messaging infrastructure. In-app chat, voice, and video—communication features as a service. The features are comprehensive. The scale is proven. The integration is documented. Applications adding chat features use Sendbird for communication infrastructure.

Freshdesk is a customer support platform that helps teams deliver exceptional service. Ticketing organizes customer conversations across channels. Automation routes tickets and suggests responses. Knowledge base enables customer self-service. AI features summarize tickets and assist agents. Support that scales without losing the personal touch.

Gorgias handles customer support for e-commerce businesses. Integrate with Shopify, access order data, resolve issues faster—support designed around how online stores work. The e-commerce integration is deep. Agents see order history immediately. Automation handles common questions. E-commerce brands wanting support that understands their business choose Gorgias for store-integrated customer service.

Front is a customer communication platform that brings email, social, and messaging into a shared inbox. Collaborate on customer messages with internal comments and assignments. Automate workflows to route messages and respond faster. Analytics show team performance and customer satisfaction. Integrations with CRM and tools you already use. Turn chaos into streamlined communication for support, sales, and success teams.

Ably is a realtime messaging platform for building live, interactive experiences. Features pub/sub messaging, presence, and push notifications with 99.999% uptime SLAs.

Help Scout is a help desk platform designed for customer-centric teams. Shared inbox feels like email for customers, organized for teams. Docs creates self-service knowledge bases. Beacon adds live chat and help center to your site. Customer profiles show conversation history. Support software that keeps customers feeling like people, not tickets.

Chatwoot is an open-source customer engagement platform. Live chat, email, social media, and WhatsApp in one inbox. Self-host for complete control or use the cloud version. Canned responses and automation save agent time. Team collaboration features assign and discuss conversations. The open-source alternative to Intercom and Zendesk that you can customize and own.

Kustomer provides CRM-powered customer service. Complete customer timeline, AI-powered assistance, and omnichannel support—service that knows everything about every customer. The customer view is complete. The AI assists agents. The channels are unified. Support teams wanting complete customer context choose Kustomer for CRM-integrated service.