Fe/male Switch: Your Startup Facilitator & Incubator for Women
2026-10-30 22:45 Tool comparisons

Olark vs LiveChat (2027): Live Chat and AI Agent Prices, Free Trials and Which One Fits a Small Startup Team

Olark vs LiveChat: Which Live Chat and AI Agent Fits a Small Startup Team in 2027?

Olark and LiveChat are two of the oldest website live chat tools, and both have rebuilt themselves around AI agents. Olark still sells simple human live chat per agent and adds an AI Website Agent for one flat yearly price with unlimited conversations. LiveChat has changed more: new customers now sign up for Text, the next product from the team behind LiveChat, with per-user plans that bundle an AI Agent, a shared inbox and ticketing. We checked plans, prices, trials and AI limits on olark.com and livechat.com on 30 October 2026, so this comparison shows what a startup actually gets and pays in 2027.
Quick answer: choose LiveChat (Text) if you want the cheapest way to start, chat plus WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS and email in one inbox, and an AI Agent included: Essential costs $19 per user a month billed yearly with 10 AI resolutions a month, Growth $79 with 200. Choose Olark if your chat is mostly about turning website visitors into leads and you expect a lot of AI conversations: its AI Website Agent costs $400 a month billed yearly, with no limit on conversations, and human-only chat is $29 per agent. Both offer a 14-day free trial with no credit card.
Are you getting customers from ChatGPT yet?

More and more traffic is coming from Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.

👉 Rank on ChatGPT

Olark vs LiveChat at a Glance

OlarkLiveChat (now Text by LiveChat)
Built forWebsite chat that answers questions, qualifies leads and hands off to a humanChat, AI Agent, inbox and tickets for support and sales teams, strong on ecommerce
Human-only planLive Chat, no AI: $29 per agent a monthNo AI-free plan; Essential $19 per user a month billed yearly ($25 monthly)
AI planStandard AI Website Agent: $400 a month billed yearly ($4,800), 1 human seat included, +$29 per extra agentAI Agent in every plan: Essential 1 agent and 10 resolutions a month; Growth ($79 per user yearly, $99 monthly) 10 agents and 200 resolutions
How AI is countedUnlimited conversations, no token costs or overagesPer AI resolution; extra packs of 50 for $49.50
Free trial14 days for Live Chat, no credit card; free preview of the AI agent on your own site14 days on Essential and Growth, no credit card, no automatic charge
ChannelsWebsite chat, email follow-up; WhatsApp and SMS on Olark ClassicWebsite, in-app, WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS (Twilio) and email in one inbox
Tickets and help deskNot built in: sends chats to Zendesk, Help Scout, Front and othersTicketing in the same workspace
IntegrationsHubSpot, Salesforce, Shopify, WordPress, Zapier (2,000+ apps), webhooks, MCP serverCatalog of 200+ apps: Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Webflow, Klaviyo, HubSpot, Text MCP and API
Limits to watchWCAG-certified chatbox, WhatsApp and SMS are marked "Olark Classic"Essential: 50 live visitors tracked, 60-day history; Growth: 400 visitors, unlimited history
Bigger teamsCustom: regional routing, multiple teams, SSO, custom SLAsEnterprise: custom AI agents, SSO and audit logs, white-label widget, SLAs
Sources: olark.com (pricing, features, integrations) and livechat.com (pricing, legacy LiveChat pricing, features), checked 30 October 2026, default view, US dollars.

Olark and LiveChat in 2027: What Each One Does

Olark: human live chat plus a flat-price AI Website Agent

Olark has been selling live chat since 2009 and says more than 12,000 businesses use it. It is backed by Y Combinator and is a certified B Corp. The product is clearly still being developed: its new AI agent is "powered by Aiden, Olark's latest AI engine", trains on your live website in about a minute, answers from your current pages and uploaded documents, qualifies visitors against criteria you write in plain English, and hands the chat to a person in the same thread when it cannot help or the visitor asks for one. The feature list adds proactive triggers (pages viewed, time on site, scroll depth, return visits, UTM source), A/B testing of two assistant setups, an AI Analyst in beta, transcript export and an MCP server for connecting Claude and other AI tools to your chat data.
  • Live Chat, no AI: $29 per agent a month. The classic Olark product: visitor insights (location, pages viewed, visit history), saved responses, groups and routing rules, pre-chat and offline forms, email follow-up, searchable transcripts. 14-day free trial, no credit card.
  • Standard AI Website Agent: $400 a month billed yearly ($4,800 a year). Unlimited AI conversations with no token limits or overages, lead capture and qualification, proactive engagement, account management and one human seat. Extra human agents cost $29 each: two agents $429 a month, three $458.
  • Custom: regional routing, multiple teams, advanced integrations, custom SLAs and SSO, through sales.
  • Integrations: HubSpot, Salesforce, ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, Zendesk, Help Scout, Front, Slack (beta), Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, WordPress, Webflow and Zapier for over 2,000 apps; see Olark integrations.
  • The catches: no ticketing or help center of its own (chats are pushed to your help desk), and WhatsApp, SMS, chat ratings and the WCAG 2.1 AA certified chatbox are marked "Olark Classic" on the feature list.
Best for: B2B startups, schools, agencies and service businesses whose website chat is mainly a lead source, and teams that expect many AI conversations and want a bill that does not grow with traffic. Read the full Olark pricing page before you commit: the AI plan is billed yearly.
Is your startup on ChatGPT?

More and more traffic is coming from Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.

👉 Rank on ChatGPT

LiveChat, now Text by LiveChat: chat, AI Agent and tickets per user

LiveChat is now sold to new customers as Text by LiveChat. Its pricing page says that LiveChat pricing for new trials "now lives here, as Text plans": Text keeps the live chat and adds a shared inbox, ticketing and an AI Agent in one workspace, on one subscription. It comes from the team behind LiveChat.com, HelpDesk.com and ChatBot.com. Existing LiveChat customers keep their plan, price and login. You see who is browsing your site and which pages they view, start chats based on behaviour, and let the AI Agent answer from your website, help articles and product data, check order status in Shopify or WooCommerce, and hand a chat to a person or turn it into a ticket.
  • Essential: $19 per user a month billed yearly ($228 a year), $25 on monthly billing. 1 AI Agent, 10 AI resolutions a month, tracking for 50 live visitors, 60 days of conversation history, 10,000 API calls a month.
  • Growth: $79 per user a month billed yearly ($948 a year), $99 monthly. 10 AI Agents, 200 AI resolutions a month, 400 live visitors, unlimited history, multilingual chat in 48 languages, 20,000 API calls a month.
  • Enterprise: custom. Custom AI agents built for you, SSO and audit logs, white-label widget, SLAs and a product expert.
  • AI resolutions: one resolution means the AI directly solved a customer question; several questions in the same chat count once. Extra packs of 50 cost $49.50 on Essential and Growth.
  • Every plan: website and in-app chat, Messenger, SMS through Twilio, WhatsApp and email in one inbox, AI Copilot for your team, live Shopify catalog, workflows, 24/7/365 support, and web and desktop apps. The widget meets WCAG 2.2 AA, and Text lists SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR and CCPA.
  • Trial and discounts: a 14-day free trial without a credit card, and you are never charged automatically when it ends. Non-profits and schools can ask for extra discounts. See LiveChat pricing.
Already on LiveChat? The old plans are still listed on the LiveChat legacy pricing page: Starter $19, Team $49 and Business $79 per person a month billed yearly ($25, $59 and $89 monthly). Text features are not included in LiveChat plans; you can move to Text or run both side by side while you decide. The company now operates as Text, Inc.; see text.com.
Best for: online shops, SaaS and consumer startups that want sales chat, support tickets and messaging apps in one inbox, and small teams that want to start for less than $20 a seat.
Boost Your SEO by Getting Featured in Our Blogs and get a backlink.

We publish content about startups, education, tech, funding, etc. that ranks well not only in Google but also in Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.

👉 Get featured now!

What a Small Team Pays: Olark vs LiveChat

The two tools charge for AI in opposite ways. LiveChat (Text) includes a small number of AI resolutions per plan and sells more in packs; Olark charges one flat price and does not count conversations. For a team of three on annual billing, our sums from the list prices look like this:
  • Fewer than about 200 AI resolutions a month: Text Growth ($237 for three users) is cheaper than Olark's AI agent ($458 for three agents).
  • Around 400 AI resolutions a month: the two are close: Text Growth plus four extra packs is about $435, Olark's AI agent $458.
  • Above that: every extra 50 resolutions on Text adds $49.50, while Olark's price stays the same, so Olark gets cheaper the busier your chat is.
  • No AI at all: Olark Live Chat is $87 for three agents; LiveChat no longer sells a plan without AI to new customers, but Text Essential at $57 includes a small AI allowance.
These are estimates. Olark counts conversations and Text counts resolutions, so the units differ, and taxes, extra channels and Marketplace apps can add costs.

What Changed Since the Old Version of This Comparison

  • LiveChat became Text for new customers. New trials get Text plans (Essential, Growth, Enterprise). The old Starter, Team and Business plans are kept for existing LiveChat customers only.
  • Olark has its own AI agent now. The old article said Olark needs third-party tools for chatbots; it now sells a Standard AI Website Agent for $400 a month billed yearly.
  • Prices changed shape. The old "Olark from $29 per operator, LiveChat from $25 per seat" comparison is replaced by the current plans above, including the cost of AI.
  • Removed: statistics without a source (such as "79% of consumers expect immediate responses"), links to third-party review and listicle sites, and a generic "common mistakes" section.

Which One Should You Choose?

  • Pre-launch or very small traffic: start with a free trial of either. Text Essential at $19 a seat is the cheapest way to get chat plus a little AI; if you only want humans chatting, Olark Live Chat at $29 per agent is simpler.
  • B2B lead generation: Olark. Its agent is built to qualify visitors and capture contact details, uses UTM source and return visits as triggers, and costs the same however many conversations it handles.
  • Ecommerce: LiveChat (Text). Shopify and WooCommerce order lookups, a live Shopify catalog, Messenger and WhatsApp in one inbox and revenue reports per chat.
  • Support with tickets: LiveChat (Text) has ticketing built in. With Olark you also need a help desk such as Zendesk or Help Scout.
  • Busy chat, many AI answers: Olark's flat price wins above roughly 400 AI resolutions a month (our estimate above).
  • Existing LiveChat customer: nothing forces you to move; compare your legacy plan with Text before switching.

How Founders Use Live Chat and AI Agents

Most early-stage startups do not need a big help desk. A chat widget on the pricing and signup pages, answered by a founder during the day and by an AI agent at night, is often enough to catch the first leads and learn what customers ask. Write down every question that comes up twice: those are your FAQ, your onboarding emails and your next blog posts.
Comparing other tools for the same job? Read Olark vs Intercom and Zendesk vs Olark for help-desk platforms, and ManyChat vs Chatfuel for chatbots on Instagram and Messenger. If you want to own your data or pay nothing, see our lists of open-source Intercom alternatives, open-source Zendesk alternatives, free Zendesk alternatives and open-source Freshdesk alternatives.
Chat only helps if people find your website. The F/MS AI SEO Tool writes articles from your keywords that are built to rank on Google and to be cited by AI assistants, and the questions your chat collects are a cheap way to validate your startup idea before you build more.
Boost Your SEO by Publishing Your Startup Press Release with us.

We publish content about startups, education, tech, funding, etc. that ranks well not only in Google but also in Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.

👉 Publish Press Release

FAQ: Olark vs LiveChat

What is the main difference between Olark and LiveChat?

Olark is website live chat with an AI Website Agent sold at one flat price with unlimited conversations, and it has no ticketing of its own. LiveChat, now sold to new customers as Text by LiveChat, bundles chat, an AI Agent, a shared inbox for WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS and email, and ticketing, priced per user with a monthly allowance of AI resolutions.

Is LiveChat still available in 2027?

Yes. LiveChat's pricing page now shows Text plans for new trials, from the same team. Existing LiveChat customers keep their plan, price and login, and the old Starter, Team and Business plans are listed on a separate legacy pricing page.

How much does Olark cost?

When we checked in October 2026, human-only Live Chat cost $29 per agent a month, and the Standard AI Website Agent cost $400 a month billed yearly ($4,800 a year) including one human seat, with extra agents at $29 each. Custom plans are quoted by sales.

How much does LiveChat (Text) cost?

Essential is $19 per user a month billed yearly or $25 monthly, with 10 AI resolutions a month. Growth is $79 per user a month billed yearly or $99 monthly, with 200 AI resolutions. Extra packs of 50 AI resolutions cost $49.50. Enterprise is custom.

Do Olark and LiveChat have free trials?

Yes. Olark offers a 14-day free trial of Live Chat with no credit card, plus a free preview of its AI agent on your own website. Text by LiveChat offers 14 days free on Essential and Growth with no credit card and no automatic charge when the trial ends.

Which is cheaper for a small team?

For a few people with modest AI use, Text Essential ($19 per user yearly) or Growth ($79) is cheaper. Once you need several hundred AI answers a month, Olark's flat $400 AI agent can cost less, because its price does not grow with conversations.

Does Olark have ticketing or a help desk?

No. Olark pushes chats and transcripts to help desks such as Zendesk, Help Scout and Front. LiveChat (Text) has ticketing in the same workspace.

Which tool is better for ecommerce?

LiveChat (Text) is stronger for online shops: Shopify and WooCommerce order lookups by the AI Agent, a live Shopify catalog in every plan, and Messenger and WhatsApp in the same inbox. Olark also installs on Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce.

Where can I submit a guest post about my startup?

You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Get a quality backlink.

Can I use AI to write SEO articles that bring visitors to my chat?

Yes. The F/MS AI SEO Tool writes articles from your keywords that are built to rank on Google and in AI assistants, so more of the right visitors reach the pages where your chat widget sits.

About the Author

Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.