AcornReply vs Tawk.to
A free chat widget against a shared inbox that also does chat. This page scores them row by row, including the rows Tawk.to wins.
The short answer.
Use Tawk.to if you need free chat today and email is not a channel you run. Use AcornReply if you want chat, email and a help center in one inbox, with a human answering from it. Price is not the dividing line, because both have a free way in: the dividing line is whether you already answer a support email address, and whether an unanswered chat needs somewhere sensible to wait. Tawk.to is chat only, so it complements a support desk rather than replacing one.
Which one fits you.
Choose Tawk.to if
- Chat is the only channel you want, and there is no support budget.
- Chat is a channel you staff for its own sake, up to hiring agents to sit on it.
- The site has no support email address behind it for a reply to fall back to.
Choose AcornReply if
- Email is a channel you actually run, and chat is one more door into it.
- Nobody owns support, so an unanswered chat has to wait somewhere sensible.
- You want every message to arrive with a reply already drafted in your voice.
- You want a help center the drafts are written from, in the same product as the inbox.
Scored side by side.
| Feature | Tawk.to | AcornReply | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
Price Tawk.to wins on price. The rest of the table is what each free option includes. | Free, with paid extras | Free tier, then flat per organization | Tawk.to |
Live chat widget | Included, the whole product | Included on every plan, same inbox as email | Tie |
Built to staff chat as a channel AcornReply has no routing, queues, shifts, chatbots or SLAs. | Yes, chat is the whole product | No, chat is one door into an email inbox | Tawk.to |
Email support in the same tool | Not included | Included | AcornReply |
Vendor branding on the widget | Removable as a paid extra | Removable on Premium | Tie |
Pricing, side by side.
Tawk.to sets out why it is free at tawk.to/why-free: the product is free to use, and paid extras such as removing the branding or hiring agents fund it. AcornReply Free is free as well, with usage limits rather than a teammate limit. Pro is $20 a month and Premium is $30, flat for the whole organization, so the bill does not move when someone joins. On price alone Tawk.to wins and this page is not going to argue with free. The question worth asking is what each free option covers once email is part of the job.
Frequently asked questions
Is Tawk.to the only free way to put chat on a small site?
No, there is more than one. Tawk.to is free to use and funds itself through paid extras such as removing the branding or hiring agents, and it is chat only. AcornReply Free includes the chat widget on the free plan, with usage limits rather than a teammate limit, and every chat lands in the same inbox as your email and your contact form.
Can two people run chat without a live queue?
Yes, as long as unanswered chats have somewhere to go. In AcornReply they wait in the same inbox as your email, and if the visitor left an email the reply reaches them there. Presence comes from each teammate's availability and schedule, and it is off by default, so the widget is not claiming somebody is watching when nobody is.
Does AcornReply answer chat with a bot instead of a person?
By default a person. AcornReply writes the draft and a human sends it, so chat works the way the rest of the inbox does. You can turn on an AI answer for when nobody is available. It is off until you do.
Already decided to leave Tawk.to?
This page is for choosing. If you have chosen, the Tawk.to alternative page covers what changes when you move, including what to do with your existing archive.