Customer support

Should you build your own LiveChat?

Provide reliable website chat with routing, transcripts, and canned replies

With trade-offs · the basics, with limitations
Price $25/moEstimated savings $228/yrEstimated time multi-dayCategory Customer supportCatalog votes 0

The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a real weekend or multi-day project. For LiveChat, provide reliable website chat with routing, transcripts, and canned replies. The hard boundary is global chat delivery, mobile apps, staffing tools, integrations, and support, plus channel integrations and support operations.

ENOriginal research content in English. Original prompt preserved in English.

The complete prompt
Build a personal replacement for LiveChat in an empty repository.
Use Next.js 15, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, WebSockets, and Docker Compose; do not offer alternative stacks.
The core loop is: receive website chat messages, route them into a shared inbox, reply from one place with canned replies, and retain searchable transcripts of every conversation.
Make the first run work locally with one documented command.
Store all user data locally by default and make export straightforward.
Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials.
Implement one workspace, agents, contacts, inboxes, conversations, messages, labels, and assignment.
Provide a website chat widget with reconnect, unread counts, file limits, and clear availability state.
Create a shared inbox with filters, collision warnings, notes, canned replies, and searchable history.
Add email notifications, browser notifications, and an immutable assignment and status log.
Implement spam controls, attachment scanning hooks, retention settings, export, and contact deletion.
Ship Docker Compose, backups, health checks, migrations, and a documented admin recovery flow.
Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states.
Add input validation, safe filenames, and graceful handling of unavailable APIs.
Write focused tests for the core transformation and one end-to-end happy path.
Create a README with setup, architecture, permissions, data location, and backup steps.
Do not add accounts, billing, telemetry, analytics, or a hosted control plane.
Deliberately leave out many social and messaging channels.
Deliberately leave out AI agents trained on proprietary support data.
Deliberately leave out enterprise workforce management, SSO, and compliance.
Finish by running the tests and listing the exact commands used.

The prompt opens pre-filled in your agent. Review it before running. · this prompt is generated from the build plan · improve it via PR

Original prompt preserved in English.

What would building your own look like?

Receive website chat messages, route them into a shared inbox, reply from one place with canned replies, and retain searchable transcripts of every conversation.

What you will need

Why paying can still make sense

People still pay for LiveChat because support software survives because missing or misrouting one customer message is expensive and every channel behaves differently. The recurring cost buys message delivery, webhooks, threading, identity, permissions, attachments, notifications, spam, search, uptime, and retention, not just the visible interface.

What you lose

xglobal chat delivery, mobile apps, staffing tools, integrations, and support

xomnichannel integrations

xlarge-scale deliverability

xAI resolution tuning

xenterprise routing and compliance

Share on X ↗"I just replaced LiveChat ($25/mo) with one prompt"
Free alternatives

Prefer something ready-made?

ChatwootA proper support inbox with chat, email and a help center; free software, billable server chores.36kAug 2026Open source↗ZammadA serious ticket desk with email, chat, SLAs and a knowledge base; setup is the first ticket.5.8kAug 2026Open source↗LibreDeskA modern email-and-live-chat desk in one compact stack, because apparently that was allowed.2.7kAug 2026Open source↗

View all 7 alternatives to LiveChat →· Licença, instalação e limitações em cada alternativa.

Plans and pricing

How much does LiveChat cost?

In your currency · US DollarChecked on 10/20/2026
Monthly billing
$25/mo · per person
Per year
$300/yr
Annual billing
$228/yr24% cheaper than paying monthly
Buy on the official site

You complete the purchase on LiveChat’s site. Vibe Radar does not handle payments.

PlanMonthlyAnnual (per month)What is included
starter$25/user$19/user1 user; track up to 100 visitors; 1 recurring campaign; 60-day chat history; 3 AI reply-knowledge sources
team$59/user$49/userUnlimited users at the per-user rate; track up to 400 visitors; unlimited campaigns and chat history; 10 AI reply-knowledge sources
business$89/user$79/userTrack up to 1,000 visitors; unlimited campaigns/history; work scheduler, staffing prediction and advanced reporting
enterprisecustom-Custom visitor-tracking limit; SSO, HIPAA support, white-label widget, SLA and dedicated onboarding

Free tierno free tier (14-day trial; no credit card required)

Billing termsmonthly + annual

Additional costsPrice multiplies by paid users. ChatBot.com is a separate product starting at $52/month billed annually; SMS, WhatsApp and several other channels are marketplace integrations and can carry separate provider/usage charges.

verified 2026-10-20 · source ↗

Build or buy

Is it cheaper to build or buy LiveChat?

Adjust the numbers: hours to build, your hourly rate, running costs and the subscription price.

Subscribe
Build it yourself
Horizon
Subscribe$456
Build it yourself$3,320

Over 24 months, subscribing is cheaper.

Starting hours estimated from the analysis (multi-day). Does not price what you give up (support, integrations, security).

Frequently asked questions
Can I rebuild LiveChat?

Kinda. The core of LiveChat is buildable in a weekend with the prompt on this page, but there are real gaps: global chat delivery, mobile apps, staffing tools, integrations, and support, omnichannel integrations. Read the honest list above before committing.

How much does LiveChat cost?

LiveChat costs about $25/mo (Essential, checked 10/20/2026), which is $228 per year.

What do I lose by replacing LiveChat?

Honestly: global chat delivery, mobile apps, staffing tools, integrations, and support; omnichannel integrations; large-scale deliverability; AI resolution tuning; enterprise routing and compliance. If any of those are load-bearing for you, keep paying.

Is there an open-source alternative to LiveChat?

Yes: Chatwoot (A proper support inbox with chat, email and a help center; free software, billable server chores.) Zammad (A serious ticket desk with email, chat, SLAs and a knowledge base; setup is the first ticket.) LibreDesk (A modern email-and-live-chat desk in one compact stack, because apparently that was allowed.) All 7 curated free alternatives are at https://viberadar.si/livechat/alternatives. The prompt is for when you want it exactly your way.

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