tawk.toKayakotawk.to vs Kayako

tawk.to vs Kayako: free live chat or help desk for a small team

A free live chat against a help desk: one prints a price and one quotes. What decides between tawk.to and Kayako, 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 tawk.to if budget is zero and you can live with the tawk.to branding or pay $29 to remove it. Pick Kayako if you want an AI agent billed only per resolved ticket, with no seat fee. For five people it is $58 or more a month on tawk.to, and a quote on Kayako, before AI; Sellio Mini is $45 for the workspace. tawk.to and Kayako both include website chat in the price; only Kayako has email. Neither tawk.to nor Kayako includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. A team of two to ten choosing between tawk.to and Kayako for chat and tickets at one price has a third option below.

At a glancetawk.totawk.toKayakoKayako
Built aroundFree chat for unlimited agents · paid add-ons per featureTickets and a customer journey · AI billed per resolution
Entry plan$0 · unlimited agentsQuote · Kayako One
Chat in the price$0 · $29/mo to remove brandingQuote · widget included
AI agentAI Assist from $29/mo · small free tier$1 per resolution · Kay AI Agent
Copilot for agentsIn AI AssistIn Kay
Free planYes · the core product is freeNone · talk to a pricing expert

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    tawk.totawk.to

    As a chat in the free dashboard; tickets are emails converted into a simple queue. Kayako raises a ticket where tawk.to keeps a conversation.

    KayakoKayako

    As a ticket that shows the customer's journey across the site and past conversations. tawk.to has no ticket queue behind its conversations.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    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; Kayako prints no figure to set beside it.

    KayakoKayako

    No seat price is printed for Kayako One; older plans were $15 to $60 per agent. No figure for five people here; tawk.to prints $58.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    tawk.totawk.to

    AI Assist from $29 a month with a small free tier; it drafts and answers from your knowledge base. Kayako meters AI ($1 per resolution) above the seats as well.

    KayakoKayako

    Kay, the AI agent, is $1 per resolved ticket, with no seat fee; escalations are not charged. tawk.to meters AI (AI Assist from $29/mo) above the seats as well.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    tawk.totawk.to

    Website chat and email tickets; no native WhatsApp, Instagram or Telegram. Kayako adds email, which tawk.to lacks.

    KayakoKayako

    Email, live chat, Messenger and X; no WhatsApp, Instagram or Telegram in the inbox. email is here and not on tawk.to.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    tawk.totawk.to

    A knowledge base, a CRM, and human agents for hire at $1 an hour. Kayako is a help desk instead.

    KayakoKayako

    A help center, SLAs, automation rules and reporting. tawk.to is a free live chat instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    tawk.totawk.to

    Minutes: paste the widget and start chatting. Kayako is a sales conversation, then a white-glove onboarding.

    KayakoKayako

    A sales conversation, then a white-glove onboarding. tawk.to is minutes.

Sources: tawk.to pricing · Kayako 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 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
The Kayako conversation view: the ticket with the customer journey timeline beside it
KayakoKayako. The Kayako conversation view: the ticket with the customer journey timeline beside it

Pricing references: tawk.to pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06); Kayako pricing page (recorded 2026-09-13; needs verification). Prices change; confirm current terms with each vendor.

tawk.to, Kayako 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.

Featuretawk.totawk.toKayakoKayakoSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Free chat; add-ons per feature.
Quote; AI per resolution
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
Unlimited agents.
None
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
The product.
Widget included
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
Ticketing by email on the free plan.
Included
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
Messaging channels in beta.
Not offered
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Messaging channels in beta.
Messenger and X only
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Beta.
Not offered
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Not offered.
Slack integration
From Mini: two-way threads; a reply there reaches the customer

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
AI Assist from $29/mo, trained on the knowledge base.
Kay
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
Add-on subscription.
$1 per resolution
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Hands to agents.
Escalates free of charge
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

Tickets
Basic email tickets.
Ticket-first
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Triggers.
Automation rules
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Basic reporting.
Reporting
From Essentials: response times, resolution, CSAT; topics and email reports on Plus

Apps

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

Which one, for whom

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.
  • You want a free plan to start on; Kayako offers no trial.
  • You want native desktop apps, which Kayako does not ship.

Pick Kayako if

  • You want an AI agent billed only per resolved ticket, with no seat fee.
  • A ticket view that shows the customer's journey matters to you.
  • You need email in the price, which tawk.to does not include outright.
  • You need a ticket queue, which tawk.to does not have.

The third option: Sellio

  • Two to ten of you answer chat, messaging and email. Compare Sellio's workspace plans with $58 or more a month on tawk.to, and a quote on Kayako for five people, including each product's limits.
  • The AI invoice should be known in advance: tawk.to meters AI (AI Assist from $29/mo) above the seats and Kayako meters AI ($1 per resolution) above the seats, where Sellio's credit is included and capped by you.
  • You need Telegram and WhatsApp in the base price, which neither tawk.to nor Kayako includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

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. Kayako quotes per team, so two, five and ten people are three conversations with sales. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $13 less than tawk.to and against a quote on Kayako for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included.

Where the two agree, and where they split

tawk.to is a free live chat built around free chat for unlimited agents; Kayako is a help desk built around tickets and a customer journey. Only tawk.to has a free plan (the core product is free); Kayako offers no trial. tawk.to and Kayako both include website chat in the price; only Kayako has email. Neither tawk.to nor Kayako includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. tawk.to (AI Assist from $29/mo) and Kayako ($1 per resolution) both meter AI above the seats. Kayako has tickets and tawk.to does not, and only tawk.to ships desktop apps. tawk.to is minutes; Kayako is a sales conversation, then a white-glove onboarding.

What each price leaves out

tawk.to: AI Assist from $29 a month, with a small free tier. Kayako: Kay AI Agent $1 per resolved ticket; escalations and deflections are free. Beside tawk.to's AI Assist from $29/mo and Kayako's $1 per resolution, 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

Kayako does not print the figures above in a form a fetch can read (Seat prices are not printed; the AI agent is $1 per resolution. Older plans ran $15 to $60 per agent.), so they are marked unverified here beside tawk.to's, and Kayako'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
    tawk.totawk.toSee vendorNot quoted
    KayakoKayakoSee 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.

    tawk.totawk.to · Not applicable; the core is free
    KayakoKayako · None printed; book a session
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

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

Continue your research

FAQ

tawk.to vs Kayako: the questions people ask

tawk.to is a free live chat built around free chat for unlimited agents; Kayako is a help desk built around tickets and a customer journey. Kayako has tickets and tawk.to does not, and only tawk.to ships desktop apps.

  • Entry plan: tawk.to $0 (unlimited agents); Kayako Quote (Kayako One).
  • Chat in the price: tawk.to $0 ($29/mo to remove branding); Kayako Quote (widget included).
  • Sellio: one inbox for every channel: WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, which neither tawk.to nor Kayako has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

The shared inbox page puts Sellio beside tawk.to and Kayako on the same rows.

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.

Get startedRead the docs

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