Drifttawk.toDrift vs tawk.to

Drift vs tawk.to: $2,442 apart for five people

A conversational marketing platform against a free live chat: tawk.to is $2,442 a month cheaper for five people. Where Drift and tawk.to split, and a third option for small teams.

By Khalid Nouri, founder of SellioPricing check dates are listed with each vendor below

Try the third optionSellio pricing

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The short answer

Pick Drift if you want a sales chatbot that qualifies visitors and books meetings, not a support inbox. Pick tawk.to if budget is zero and you can live with the tawk.to branding or pay $29 to remove it. For five people, tawk.to is $2,442 a month cheaper than Drift ($2,500 a month on Drift against $58 or more on tawk.to), before AI. Sellio Mini, at $45, comes in $13 below tawk.to. Drift and tawk.to both include website chat in the price. Neither Drift nor tawk.to includes email, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. For a team of two to ten weighing Drift against tawk.to, the third option below puts chat and tickets at one workspace price.

At a glanceDriftDrifttawk.totawk.to
Built aroundSales conversations · a marketing tool, not a help deskFree chat for unlimited agents · paid add-ons per feature
Entry planFrom $2,500/mo · Premium, yearly contract$0 · unlimited agents
Chat in the priceFrom $2,500/mo · one contract for the whole team$0 · $29/mo to remove branding
AI agentBy contract · part of the Salesloft platformAI Assist from $29/mo · small free tier
Copilot for agentsBy contractIn AI Assist
Free planNone · sales-led, no trialYes · the core product is free

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    DriftDrift

    As a chat with a website visitor that Drift tries to qualify and route to a sales rep or a meeting. tawk.to has no ticket queue either.

    tawk.totawk.to

    As a chat in the free dashboard; tickets are emails converted into a simple queue. Drift has no ticket queue either.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    DriftDrift

    There are no support seats: one annual contract from $2,500 a month covers the revenue team. $2,500 for five people, against $58 on tawk.to.

    tawk.totawk.to

    Seats are free and unlimited. The money goes on add-ons: branding removal, AI Assist, video, hired agents. $58 for five people, against $2,500 on Drift.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    DriftDrift

    AI chat and qualification are part of the Salesloft platform and priced in the contract. tawk.to meters AI (AI Assist from $29/mo) above the seats as well.

    tawk.totawk.to

    AI Assist from $29 a month with a small free tier; it drafts and answers from your knowledge base. Drift meters AI (by contract) above the seats as well.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    DriftDrift

    Website chat, email sequences and meeting booking; no WhatsApp, Instagram or ticket queue. The same set as tawk.to.

    tawk.totawk.to

    Website chat and email tickets; no native WhatsApp, Instagram or Telegram. The same set as Drift.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    DriftDrift

    Account-based marketing, playbooks, meeting booking and Salesloft's sales engagement suite. tawk.to is a free live chat instead.

    tawk.totawk.to

    A knowledge base, a CRM, and human agents for hire at $1 an hour. Drift is a conversational marketing platform instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    DriftDrift

    Weeks: a sales-led onboarding with playbooks and routing, and Salesloft has said the product is winding down. tawk.to is minutes.

    tawk.totawk.to

    Minutes: paste the widget and start chatting. Drift is weeks.

Sources: Drift pricing · tawk.to pricing. Each vendor’s own comparison of the other is linked so you can weigh both sides against ours.

What each one looks like

A look at the agent workspace. Interfaces can vary by plan and product version.

The Drift conversation view: a visitor chat with routing to a rep and a meeting booker
DriftDrift. The Drift conversation view: a visitor chat with routing to a rep and a meeting booker
The tawk.to dashboard: the visitor list, the chat and the ticket queue
tawk.totawk.to. The tawk.to dashboard: the visitor list, the chat and the ticket queue

Pricing references: Drift pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06; needs verification); tawk.to pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06). Prices change; confirm current terms with each vendor.

Drift, tawk.to and Sellio, side by side

Fifteen things a support team checks. A dash means the product does part of it or charges extra for it.

FeatureDriftDrifttawk.totawk.toSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Annual platform contract from $2,500/mo.
Free chat; add-ons per feature.
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
Sales-led only.
Unlimited agents.
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
The core of the product, aimed at lead capture.
The product.
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
Sales email sequences; not a support inbox.
Ticketing by email on the free plan.
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
Not a channel.
Messaging channels in beta.
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Not a channel.
Messaging channels in beta.
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Not a channel.
Beta.
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Slack notifications for sales alerts.
Not offered.
From Mini: two-way threads; a reply there reaches the customer

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
AI for qualification and booking rather than support answers.
AI Assist from $29/mo, trained on the knowledge base.
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
By contract.
Add-on subscription.
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Routes to reps.
Hands to agents.
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

Tickets
No ticketing.
Basic email tickets.
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Playbooks for lead routing.
Triggers.
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Pipeline and conversion reporting; no CSAT.
Basic reporting.
From Essentials: response times, resolution, CSAT; topics and email reports on Plus

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Browser and mobile.
Desktop apps.
Native Windows and macOS apps

Which one, for whom

Pick Drift if

  • You want a sales chatbot that qualifies visitors and books meetings, not a support inbox.
  • You already run Salesloft and want chat inside the same platform.
  • Time to the first reply is weeks here and minutes on tawk.to.
  • Its pricing model suits you better than tawk.to's: drift's pricing page redirects to Salesloft. Published figures come from third-party summaries and Salesloft's own materials; Salesloft has announced the product is being wound down.

Pick tawk.to if

  • Budget is zero and you can live with the tawk.to branding or pay $29 to remove it.
  • You want to hire human chat agents by the hour.
  • Five people cost $2,442 a month less than on Drift ($58 against $2,500), before AI.
  • You want a free plan to start on; Drift offers no trial.

The third option: Sellio

  • Your team is two to ten people on chat, messaging and email. Weigh workspace pricing against $2,500 a month on Drift against $58 or more on tawk.to for five people; the billing units and included features differ.
  • You want a ceiling on AI spend: Drift meters AI (by contract) above the seats, tawk.to meters AI (AI Assist from $29/mo) above the seats, and Sellio stops at the cap you set.
  • You need Telegram and tickets raised from a chat, which neither Drift nor tawk.to includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

Drift: $2,500 a month for five (one annual contract, from $2,500 a month); it does not print a per-seat rate to extend to two or ten. tawk.to: $58+ a month for five ($0 for chat, $29 to remove branding, $29+ for AI Assist); it does not print a per-seat rate to extend to two or ten. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $2,455 less than Drift and $13 less than tawk.to for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included.

Where the two agree, and where they split

Drift is a conversational marketing platform built around sales conversations; tawk.to is a free live chat built around free chat for unlimited agents. Only tawk.to has a free plan (the core product is free); Drift offers no trial. Drift and tawk.to both include website chat in the price. Neither Drift nor tawk.to includes email, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. Drift (by contract) and tawk.to (AI Assist from $29/mo) both meter AI above the seats. Neither Drift nor tawk.to has a ticket queue, and only tawk.to ships desktop apps. Drift is weeks; tawk.to is minutes.

What each price leaves out

Drift: AI features are part of the Salesloft platform and priced by contract. tawk.to: AI Assist from $29 a month, with a small free tier. Beside Drift's by contract and tawk.to's AI Assist from $29/mo, Sellio includes an AI credit with each paid plan. Usage consumes that credit; additional credits cost extra, and you can set a spending cap.

How these figures were read

Drift does not print the figures above in a form a fetch can read (Drift's pricing page redirects to Salesloft. Published figures come from third-party summaries and Salesloft's own materials; Salesloft has announced the product is being wound down.), so they are marked unverified here beside tawk.to's, and Drift's pricing page should be checked before you decide.

How to decide in an afternoon

  1. Step 1

    Count agents and channels

    Anyone who replies is a seat. List the channels customers actually use.

    5 people reply5 seats
    Website chat61%
    WhatsApp27%
    Email12%
  2. Step 2

    Price the AI you would use

    Estimate monthly conversations the AI could close, then apply each vendor's per-resolution or per-session rate.

    1,200 conversations × 40% AI closes480
    DriftDriftSee vendorNot quoted
    tawk.totawk.toSee vendorNot quoted
    Sellio$0.05$19

    Illustrative AI-only estimate; vendor units differ. Pack billing is rounded up. Sellio assumes Mini’s $5 credit and $0.05 per conversation.

  3. Step 3

    Trial the shortlist

    Check each vendor’s trial, free plan or demo terms. Where access is available, test one real channel before committing.

    DriftDrift · None; sales-led contracts
    tawk.totawk.to · Not applicable; the core is free
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

    Confirm trial access and limits, then evaluate one real channel on each.

Continue your research

FAQ

Drift vs tawk.to: the questions people ask

Drift is a conversational marketing platform built around sales conversations; tawk.to is a free live chat built around free chat for unlimited agents. Neither Drift nor tawk.to has a ticket queue, and only tawk.to ships desktop apps.

  • Entry plan: Drift From $2,500/mo (Premium, yearly contract); tawk.to $0 (unlimited agents).
  • Chat in the price: Drift From $2,500/mo (one contract for the whole team); tawk.to $0 ($29/mo to remove branding).
  • Sellio: email, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, which neither Drift nor tawk.to has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the Drift and tawk.to rows is on the shared inbox page.

Still have a question? Contact us or browse the docs.

Or the third option: one price, every channel.

Sellio puts website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and email in one inbox with tickets and an AI agent, for $45 to $295 a month per workspace.

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