tawk.toOlarktawk.to vs Olark

tawk.to vs Olark: free live chat or live chat for a small team

A free live chat against a live chat software: tawk.to is $87 a month cheaper for five people. What decides between tawk.to and Olark, 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 Olark if you want an AI chat agent at a flat monthly price with no usage meter. For five people, tawk.to is $87 a month cheaper than Olark ($58 or more a month on tawk.to against $145 on Olark), before AI. Sellio Mini is $45, $13 under tawk.to. tawk.to and Olark both include website chat in the price. Neither tawk.to nor Olark includes email, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. A team of two to ten choosing between tawk.to and Olark for chat and tickets at one price has a third option below.

At a glancetawk.totawk.toOlarkOlark
Built aroundFree chat for unlimited agents · paid add-ons per featureA simple chat box · AI agent at a flat price
Entry plan$0 · unlimited agents$29/agent/mo · human-only chat
Chat in the price$0 · $29/mo to remove branding$29/agent/mo · the whole product is chat
AI agentAI Assist from $29/mo · small free tier$400/mo flat · unlimited AI conversations, 1 seat
Copilot for agentsIn AI AssistNone
Free planYes · the core product is freeNone · trial, no card

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. Olark has no ticket queue either.

    OlarkOlark

    As a chat in the box on your site, with transcripts emailed afterwards. tawk.to has no ticket queue either.

  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, against $145 on Olark.

    OlarkOlark

    $29 buys a human agent seat; the AI Website Agent is $400 a month flat with one seat included. $145 for five people, against $58 on tawk.to.

  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. Olark folds AI ($400/mo flat) into the plan instead.

    OlarkOlark

    A flat $400 a month for unlimited AI conversations, with no token or per-outcome charge. tawk.to meters AI (AI Assist from $29/mo) above the seats instead.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    tawk.totawk.to

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

    OlarkOlark

    Website chat only; no email inbox, WhatsApp, Instagram or Telegram. The same set as tawk.to.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    tawk.totawk.to

    A knowledge base, a CRM, and human agents for hire at $1 an hour. Olark is a live chat software instead.

    OlarkOlark

    Transcripts, reports and integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot and help desks. 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. Olark is minutes.

    OlarkOlark

    Minutes: paste the snippet. tawk.to is minutes.

Sources: tawk.to pricing · Olark 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 Olark agent console: the chat list and the conversation with visitor details
OlarkOlark. The Olark agent console: the chat list and the conversation with visitor details

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

tawk.to, Olark 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.toOlarkOlarkSellio

Pricing

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

Channels

Website live chat
The product.
The whole product
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
Ticketing by email on the free plan.
Transcripts only
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.
Not offered
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 notifications
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.
AI Website Agent
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
Add-on subscription.
$400 a month flat
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Hands to agents.
Hands to a human seat
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

Tickets
Basic email tickets.
Chats only
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Triggers.
Chat rules only
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Basic reporting.
Chat reports
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.
  • Five people cost $87 a month less than on Olark ($58 against $145), before AI.
  • You want a free plan to start on; Olark offers a free trial.

Pick Olark if

  • You want an AI chat agent at a flat monthly price with no usage meter.
  • Website chat is the only channel and simplicity beats features.
  • You want the AI in the seat price ($400/mo flat) rather than tawk.to's meter at AI Assist from $29/mo.
  • Its pricing model suits you better than tawk.to's: per agent per month for human chat; a flat monthly price for the AI agent.

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 against $145 on Olark 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 Olark folds AI ($400/mo flat) into the plan, where Sellio's credit is included and capped by you.
  • You need Telegram and tickets raised from a chat, which neither tawk.to nor Olark 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. Olark on Live chat: $58, $145 and $290 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $13 less than tawk.to and $100 less than Olark for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $195 under Olark.

Where the two agree, and where they split

tawk.to is a free live chat built around free chat for unlimited agents; Olark is a live chat software built around a simple chat box. Only tawk.to has a free plan (the core product is free); Olark offers a free trial. tawk.to and Olark both include website chat in the price. Neither tawk.to nor Olark includes email, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. tawk.to meters AI (AI Assist from $29/mo) above the seats; Olark folds AI ($400/mo flat) into the plan. Neither tawk.to nor Olark has a ticket queue, and only tawk.to ships desktop apps. tawk.to is minutes; Olark is minutes.

What each price leaves out

tawk.to: AI Assist from $29 a month, with a small free tier. Olark: AI Website Agent $400 a month flat, extra human seats $29 each. Beside tawk.to's AI Assist from $29/mo and Olark's $400/mo flat, 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 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
    OlarkOlarkAssumed $0$0
    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
    OlarkOlark · Free trial, no card
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

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

Continue your research

FAQ

tawk.to vs Olark: the questions people ask

tawk.to is a free live chat built around free chat for unlimited agents; Olark is a live chat software built around a simple chat box. Neither tawk.to nor Olark has a ticket queue, and only tawk.to ships desktop apps.

  • Entry plan: tawk.to $0 (unlimited agents); Olark $29/agent/mo (human-only chat).
  • Chat in the price: tawk.to $0 ($29/mo to remove branding); Olark $29/agent/mo (the whole product is chat).
  • Sellio: email, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, which neither tawk.to nor Olark has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the tawk.to and Olark 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.

Get startedRead the docs

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