tawk.toZoho Desktawk.to vs Zoho Desk

tawk.to vs Zoho Desk: $58 against $70 a month

A free live chat against a help desk: tawk.to is $12 a month cheaper for five people. Where tawk.to and Zoho Desk 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 tawk.to if budget is zero and you can live with the tawk.to branding or pay $29 to remove it. Pick Zoho Desk if you already run Zoho CRM or Books and want support in the same suite. For five people, tawk.to is $12 a month cheaper than Zoho Desk ($58 or more a month on tawk.to against $70 on Zoho Desk), before AI. Sellio Mini, at $45, comes in $13 below tawk.to. tawk.to and Zoho Desk share no channel in the base price; only tawk.to has website chat; only Zoho Desk has email, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram. Between them tawk.to and Zoho Desk cover every channel Sellio ships. For a team of two to ten weighing tawk.to against Zoho Desk, the third option below puts chat and tickets at one workspace price.

At a glancetawk.totawk.toZoho DeskZoho Desk
Built aroundFree chat for unlimited agents · paid add-ons per featureEmail tickets · part of the Zoho suite
Entry plan$0 · unlimited agents$7/user/mo · Express, yearly
Chat in the price$0 · $29/mo to remove branding$40/user/mo · Enterprise, with SalesIQ
AI agentAI Assist from $29/mo · small free tierIn the plan · Zia on Professional and up
Copilot for agentsIn AI AssistZia · Professional and up
Free planYes · the core product is freeYes · 3 agents, email tickets

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. Zoho Desk raises a ticket where tawk.to keeps a conversation.

    Zoho DeskZoho Desk

    As a ticket from email, a form or a messaging app, in a queue with blueprints for the process. 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, against $70 on Zoho Desk.

    Zoho DeskZoho Desk

    $7 buys email tickets on Express; WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram start on Standard at $14; live chat needs Enterprise. $70 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. Zoho Desk folds AI (in the plan) into the plan instead.

    Zoho DeskZoho Desk

    Zia's answer bot and generative AI are included by plan, with a token allowance, rather than metered per conversation. 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. website chat is here and not on Zoho Desk.

    Zoho DeskZoho Desk

    Email and social on every plan; WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and Messenger from Standard; chat on Enterprise. email, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram are 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. Zoho Desk is a help desk instead.

    Zoho DeskZoho Desk

    The Zoho suite: CRM, SalesIQ, Projects and Books share the account. 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. Zoho Desk is a day.

    Zoho DeskZoho Desk

    A day: connect the mailbox, set departments and a blueprint. tawk.to is minutes.

Sources: tawk.to pricing · Zoho Desk 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 Zoho Desk ticket view: the queue, the ticket with Zia's suggestions and the contact
Zoho DeskZoho Desk. The Zoho Desk ticket view: the queue, the ticket with Zia's suggestions and the contact

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

tawk.to, Zoho Desk 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.toZoho DeskZoho DeskSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Free chat; add-ons per feature.
Per user; AI in the plan
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
Unlimited agents.
3 agents
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
The product.
Enterprise, via SalesIQ
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
Ticketing by email on the free plan.
All plans
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
Messaging channels in beta.
Standard and up
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Messaging channels in beta.
Standard and up
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Beta.
Standard and up
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Not offered.
Slack and Teams integrations
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.
Zia answer bot
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
Add-on subscription.
In the plan, token allowance
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Hands to agents.
Creates a ticket
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

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

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Desktop apps.
Browser and mobile
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 $12 a month less than on Zoho Desk ($58 against $70), before AI.
  • You need website chat in the price, which Zoho Desk does not include outright.

Pick Zoho Desk if

  • You already run Zoho CRM or Books and want support in the same suite.
  • Email tickets with WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram at a low seat price.
  • You need email, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram 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

  • Your team is two to ten people on chat, messaging and email. Weigh workspace pricing against $58 or more a month on tawk.to against $70 on Zoho Desk for five people; the billing units and included features differ.
  • You want a ceiling on AI spend: tawk.to meters AI (AI Assist from $29/mo) above the seats, Zoho Desk folds AI (in the plan) into the plan, and Sellio stops at the cap you set.
  • You want native Windows and macOS apps and a free plan that never expires beside the paid tiers, which tawk.to and Zoho Desk have only in part.

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. Zoho Desk on Standard: $28, $70 and $140 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 $25 less than Zoho Desk for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $45 under Zoho Desk.

Where the two agree, and where they split

tawk.to is a free live chat built around free chat for unlimited agents; Zoho Desk is a help desk built around email tickets. Both have a free plan: tawk.to's is the core product is free, Zoho Desk's is 3 agents, email tickets. tawk.to and Zoho Desk share no channel in the base price; only tawk.to has website chat; only Zoho Desk has email, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram. Between them tawk.to and Zoho Desk cover every channel Sellio ships. tawk.to meters AI (AI Assist from $29/mo) above the seats; Zoho Desk folds AI (in the plan) into the plan. Zoho Desk has tickets and tawk.to does not, and only tawk.to ships desktop apps. tawk.to is minutes; Zoho Desk is a day.

What each price leaves out

tawk.to: AI Assist from $29 a month, with a small free tier. Zoho Desk: Zia answer bot from Standard; generative AI on Professional and up with a token allowance. Beside tawk.to's AI Assist from $29/mo and Zoho Desk's in the plan, 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

Zoho Desk does not print the figures above in a form a fetch can read (Per user per month, billed yearly; monthly costs more. The page could only be read in a local currency, so the dollar figures are Zoho's US list prices from published summaries.), so they are marked unverified here beside tawk.to's, and Zoho Desk'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
    Zoho DeskZoho DeskAssumed $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
    Zoho DeskZoho Desk · 15-day 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 Zoho Desk: the questions people ask

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

  • Entry plan: tawk.to $0 (unlimited agents); Zoho Desk $7/user/mo (Express, yearly).
  • Chat in the price: tawk.to $0 ($29/mo to remove branding); Zoho Desk $40/user/mo (Enterprise, with SalesIQ).
  • Sellio: one inbox for every channel: all five channels on every paid plan, where tawk.to and Zoho Desk each include only some.

The shared inbox page puts Sellio beside tawk.to and Zoho Desk 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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