tawk.to vs Smartsupp
Both put a chat widget on your site for no money, but the free offers stop in very different places. tawk.to publishes no limit on chat volume, agents or seats for its free live chat, and earns its income from branding removal, AI Assist and hired agents. Smartsupp's free plan allows one operator and 25 conversations a month, then moves you to published annual plans from $17 a month. Smartsupp is registered in Czechia, while tawk.to is a Nevada company, and neither page we read states where the chat data is hosted, so ask both before sending sensitive data.
Sebastiaan SmitsFounderVendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
Choose tawk.to ifyou want to test whether visitors chat at all, have several agents, and do not want a ceiling on conversations while you find out. You can live with a company whose owner the pages we read do not name.
Choose Smartsupp ifyou run a small shop, want a plan you can price by operator count, and prefer a vendor registered in the Czech Republic. A paid-plan trial of 14 days before committing also matters to you.
tawk.to and Smartsupp side by side
| tawk.to | Smartsupp | |
|---|---|---|
| Our live chat rank | #8 of 18 | #2 of 18 |
| Established in | United States | Czechia |
| List price, 8 November 2026 | Live chat free forever; Remove branding $29/month, AI Assist from $29/month, hired agents $1/hour | Billed annually: Solo $17, Plus $25, Expert $83 a month; Mira AI Agent $16 a month; free plan for 1 operator |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Self-hostable | — | — |
| Built for | Sites testing whether their visitors will use chat at all | Small Central European ecommerce teams wanting cheap chat hosted in the EU |
| Not for | Regulated businesses handling sensitive personal or financial customer information | Companies needing deep CRM or order system integration |
Both are reviewed in full in our live chat ranking: tawk.to and Smartsupp.
Where they differ
tawk.to 3 · Smartsupp 2 · open 1- 01
Where the free chat stops
tawk.to calls its live chat Free Forever, and the pricing page we read publishes no chat volume, agent or seat limits. Smartsupp's Free plan is also Free Forever, but it has 1 operator, 25 conversations per month and 14-day history. A shop with two people answering and steady traffic will meet Smartsupp's ceiling in the first busy week. On the pages we read, tawk.to does not show a ceiling at all, which is the whole appeal for a site still testing demand.
Edge: tawk.to
- 02
Seats, bundles and the fourth agent
Smartsupp sells operators in bundles: Solo has 1 operator, Plus has 3, and Expert has 5 or more, so a fourth agent pushes you to the Expert plan at $83 a month billed annually. tawk.to publishes no agent or seat limits and sells hired chat agents at $1 per hour instead. If your team grows in steps, tawk.to has no step to climb on the pages we read, while Smartsupp has two steps, and the second costs far more than the first.
Edge: tawk.to
- 03
What the paid side actually sells
tawk.to charges $29 a month to remove its branding, from $29 a month for AI Assist, $1 per hour for hired chat agents and from $7 per hour for virtual assistants, each written with a $ sign and no currency named. Smartsupp lists Solo at $17, Plus at $25 and Expert at $83 a month billed annually, with Ultimate starting at $280 a month. One sells software upgrades and people, the other sells plan sizes. Read the dollar figures as list prices only.
Depends on the buyer
- 04
AI answers and their limits
Smartsupp's Mira AI Agent costs $16 a month billed annually for one website, with 100 conversations a month, upgradable to 5,000, and a free tier of 10 conversations plus 25 after onboarding. Its plans also carry AI reply assists: 50 on Solo, 250 on Plus, 500 on Expert. tawk.to's AI Assist has a free plan for sites with limited chat volume, but the page gives no threshold. Smartsupp is clearer about what you get for the money, and the add-on stays optional.
Edge: Smartsupp
- 05
Channels and where agents reply from
tawk.to says one inbox handles Messenger, SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, Gmail and Outlook, and it ships native apps for iOS, Android, macOS and Windows so agents can answer from a desktop or phone. Smartsupp lists chat on your website, Facebook DMs and WhatsApp DMs, plus a mobile SDK to add the widget into your own app. For breadth of channels in one view, tawk.to shows more on the pages we read, including email and SMS, which suits a small support desk.
Edge: tawk.to
- 06
The registered company behind each widget
tawk.to inc. has a Las Vegas, Nevada address, and its terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the State of Nevada. Smartsupp.com, s.r.o. is registered in Brno and incorporated under Czech law, with a footer naming it a member of ABUGO Group. Neither page names an owner or states a hosting model or self-hosting option, so the practical difference is jurisdiction and a named group only, which is thin evidence either way.
Edge: Smartsupp
When neither fits
If you need deep CRM or order-system connections, or an open-source widget you can run yourself, neither is the obvious fit. Tidio is a common alternative among small shops, and Chatwoot is the one to look at if self-hosting matters.
tawk.to or Smartsupp: questions
3 answersDoes Smartsupp offer a trial and tawk.to does not?
Smartsupp's Solo, Plus and Expert plans each carry a 14-day free trial. Ultimate and the unlimited AI agents option go through sales with no trial. The tawk.to pricing page we read mentions no free trial, though its live chat is free anyway.
Which one is cheaper once I want my own branding only?
tawk.to lists Remove branding at $29 a month, written with a $ sign and no currency named. Smartsupp's cheapest paid plan, Solo, is $17 a month billed annually. Whether Smartsupp's free plan shows its branding is not stated, so check that before comparing.
Can either run on my own servers?
Neither product has a hosting model or self-hosting option stated on the pages read. tawk.to's terms forbid copying or reverse engineering the service's source code. Smartsupp's terms mention open-source software only as part of third-party materials.
Sources
Checked 8 November 2026- tawk.to pricing page: free live chat, branding removal at $29, AI Assist, hired agent and assistant hourly rates, no trial mentioned.
- tawk.to terms of service: Nevada entity address, governing law, ban on copying source code.
- tawk.to home page: inbox channels, native apps, no owner named.
- Smartsupp pricing page: Free plan limits, operator bundles, annual plan prices, Mira limits, 14-day trials.
- Smartsupp terms of service: Brno entity incorporated under Czech law.
- Smartsupp home page: channels listed, mobile SDK, ABUGO Group footer line.