How we checked this
We opened livechat.com/pricing and livechat.com/pricing-legacy on October 20, 2026, including the billing FAQ that prints both toggles. New trials are Text Essential at $25 a user a month or $19 annual ($228 a year). Growth is $99 a month or $79 annual. The legacy grid still lists Starter, Team, and Business.
What it actually does
LiveChat is a product of Text S.A., Wroclaw (US: Text, Inc., Boston). Still live at livechat.com. The parent renamed from LiveChat Software S.A. in 2023. WSE ticker TXT, not Nasdaq. The Text pricing page says 30,000-plus customers. The legacy pricing page still says 35,000-plus. July 2026 earnings used 35,000 customers.
The public pricing page is now Text, the next product from the same company. New trials land on Essential or Growth, with an AI Agent in the seat. Existing LiveChat customers keep their old plan and price. The legacy Starter, Team, and Business grid is still at /pricing-legacy/. Neither page we opened prints a $52 ChatBot plan. WhatsApp on the Text page is in the same inbox as website chat. Marketplace apps can still add their own fees.
It is not Tidio. Tidio is a cheaper widget with Lyro and a real free plan. It is not Crisp. Crisp is a Nantes helpdesk with WhatsApp on Essentials at $95. It is not Chatbase. You are not pasting PDFs into a bot you own. It is not ManyChat. Comment-to-DM is a different aisle. It does not answer the business phone. Twilio SMS in the inbox is not missed-call text-back. No reviews SKU. No GBP. No Jobber, Housecall Pro, Dentrix, Mindbody, or Clio. Native names are Shopify, WooCommerce, HubSpot, Salesforce.
Who should buy it
Buy it
Buy Text Essential if the people who will answer chat can each pay $25 a month, or $19 on annual billing ($228 a year). Growth is $99 a month or $79 annual ($948 a year). There is no seat minimum and no seat cap on those two plans. Trial is 14 days, no card. The legacy page still caps Starter at one user and prices Team at $59 a month or $49 annual, Business at $89 or $79. That legacy FAQ still says 15 percent off a year. The cards do not. The Text FAQ says annual saves about 24 percent on Essential and about 20 percent on Growth.
The catch
The reason not to buy is the seat math, then the paper. Two people on Text Essential are $50 a month, or $38 on the annual rate. They are not forced onto a second tier. Growth is the jump, at $99 a person monthly, and it is where the larger AI allowance sits. Essential includes 10 AI resolutions a month. Growth includes 200. Another 50 resolutions are $49.50 on either plan. Another 100,000 API calls are $29.50. Terms: Massachusetts law, auto-renew, no refunds, cancel through support chat. Help Center says you keep access until period end. ToS may cut it immediately. Capterra, Robert E., 1-star, February 2025: charged after cancel, chargeback. Trustpilot indexed: cancelled, charged anyway, twice, LiveChat plus KnowledgeBase. Michela d, Legal Services, 1-star, December 2025: missed chats, disconnects.
