Live chat that lands in your support inbox.
One script tag puts a chat bubble on your site. Every chat lands in the same inbox as your email, with the same AI drafts, on every plan.
Start freeWhat the widget does
What the chat widget does today, with the limit stated next to the thing it limits.
Same inbox as email
A chat opens the same conversation thread that an email or a form message would, with the same AI drafts and the same assignee. There is no second console to watch.
Replies appear as they are sent
Replies appear in the widget as they are sent, so the visitor does not have to refresh the page or wait for an email to arrive.
Presence from your real availability
Presence comes from each teammate's availability and schedule, in their own timezone, rather than from anyone's session. It is off by default, so the widget shows nothing about who is around until you turn it on.
Read receipts for your team, an unread badge for the visitor
Your team gets read receipts on a chat reply. The visitor gets an unread badge on the bubble.
Screenshots and files
Visitors can attach up to 3 per message, 5 MB each, 10 MB total, images and text files.
Help-center articles in the widget
The widget offers help-center articles when you turn on article deflection. Until you do, it is a plain chat.
On every plan
Live chat is included on Free, Pro and Premium, with unlimited chats and no plan cap on teammates. The Powered-by footer shows on Free and Pro, and Premium ($30 a month) can hide it. It is not a chat-first product: no routing, no queues, no shifts, no chatbots, no SLAs.
Install it in one tag
The widget is one script tag. Copy it from Settings, under Channels, Live chat, and paste it into your site; the key in the URL is that workspace's own embed key.
<script src="https://acornreply.com/embed/YOUR_EMBED_KEY.chat.js" async></script>The web contact form uses the same embed key and its own script tag, so you can run chat, the form, or both.
No framework, no stylesheet injected into your page, and the script is under 14 KB.
When nobody is online
By default the message waits in the inbox for a person. If the visitor left an email, the reply reaches them there.
You can turn on an AI answer for when nobody is available. It is off until you do.
Chat replies do not count toward the outbound-email cap. Only a reply that goes out as an email does: when the visitor is no longer in the chat and there is an email address on the thread.
Questions people ask
The twelve questions people ask before they put a chat widget on a small site, answered for the team that would have to staff it.
What is a free live chat widget for a small website?
It is a chat bubble you add to your site with one script tag, at no monthly fee, so a visitor can type a question instead of writing an email. Tawk.to is very widely deployed and free to use, and it is chat only. AcornReply includes the widget on every plan and lands each chat in the same inbox as your support email, so the answer comes from the same place as everything else.
Best free live chat for a small business website?
If chat is the only thing you need, Tawk.to is the usual answer: free to use, very widely deployed, and funded by paid extras such as removing the branding or hiring agents. It is chat only, so it complements a support desk rather than replacing one. AcornReply Free puts the widget and a shared inbox for your support email in one tool, with 20 AI drafts in total and 500 outbound emails a month. There is a wider field in the live chat software roundup at acornreply.com/best/live-chat-software.
Do I need live chat or is email support enough?
Email is enough for most small teams, and it is the channel customers already know how to use. Chat earns its place when questions arrive before a purchase, where a two-minute answer changes the outcome and a two-hour one does not. If you cannot answer quickly during your posted hours, honest hours and an email fallback beat a widget that goes quiet. In AcornReply the choice is not either-or: chat and email arrive in the same inbox, so turning chat on adds a door rather than a second tool.
Live chat vs chatbot for customer support?
A chat widget puts a person on the other end; a chatbot answers without one. AcornReply ships the widget, and out of the box a person answers: every chat waits in the inbox with an AI draft ready to edit. What the AI does in the widget is one setting with modes, not a row of switches, and it is off until you choose one. Set it to show help-center articles (article deflection), or to let the AI answer when nobody is available; it does one or the other, never both.
Is there a support tool with live chat and a shared inbox?
Yes. AcornReply is one: chat, your forwarded support email and the web contact form all land in the same inbox, on the same conversation thread, with the same AI drafts and the same assignee. Crisp is another, in a chat-first shape, putting chat, an inbox and a knowledge base together. The difference is which channel the tool is built around, so choose by the one you will actually run.
What is a cheaper alternative to tawk.to?
Nothing is cheaper, because Tawk.to is free to use. The cost sits elsewhere: it is chat only, so it complements a desk rather than replacing one, and somebody still has to be there to answer. AcornReply Free costs nothing either, and it covers chat and your support email in one place, with 20 AI drafts in total and 500 outbound emails a month. If those limits fit, the comparison is about staffing and about the second tool you would otherwise run for email.
What is a cheaper alternative to crisp chat?
Crisp's free tier caps the number of agents, so the bill arrives when you add a person rather than on day one; see crisp.chat/en/pricing for today's cap. AcornReply caps usage rather than people: every plan takes as many teammates as you like, and Pro is $20 a month flat for the whole organization. Moving over is self-serve: give Settings your Crisp website id and an API token, and the importer brings your help-center articles and their images across in the background, knowledge base only, never conversation history. Crisp is chat-first, with breadth across chat, an inbox and a knowledge base; AcornReply is email-first, with chat as one more door into the same inbox.
How do I add live chat to my website without a monthly fee?
Paste one script tag into your site and the bubble appears. AcornReply Free has no monthly fee and includes unlimited chats, 20 AI drafts in total and 500 outbound emails a month. The tag pulls in no framework, injects no stylesheet into your page and is under 14 KB, so it will not fight the site you already have.
Can a two person team run live chat?
Yes, if you are honest about hours. Two people cannot watch a widget all day, so turn on presence, which comes from each teammate's availability and schedule and is off by default, and let the rest arrive as messages you answer later. In AcornReply an unanswered chat is simply a conversation in the inbox with an AI draft waiting, and if the visitor left an email the reply reaches them there. The trap is not the tool, it is a widget that implies a live answer and then goes quiet.
What happens to live chat messages when nobody is online?
By default the message waits in the inbox for a person. If the visitor left an email, the reply reaches them there. You can turn on an AI answer for when nobody is available, and it is off until you do.
Do I need a chatbot or a person answering chat?
For a small team, a person, and that is the default here: every chat waits in the inbox for somebody to reply, with an AI draft ready to edit. If you want more than that, one setting decides what the AI does in the widget, and it is off until you pick a mode. You can have it show help-center articles (article deflection), or have it answer when nobody is available, one or the other. A bot earns its keep when volume is high and the same question arrives all day; below that, a drafted reply a person sends is quicker to set up and harder to get wrong.
Best customer support tool that does chat email and a help center?
AcornReply does all three: the chat widget, your forwarded support email and a help center, in one inbox, with Pro at $20 a month flat for the whole organization. Crisp does all three too, in a chat-first shape, putting chat, an inbox and a knowledge base together. The question is which channel you want the tool built around: if support mostly arrives as email and chat is a convenience, the email-first shape fits; if chat is the main event, the chat-first one does.