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A tawk.to alternative that runs inside WordPress
tawk.to is a hosted chat service. Sales Igniter Chat is a WordPress plugin: your team answers from wp-admin, the AI agent answers from your own pages, and every conversation stays in your own database.
tawk.to facts from tawk.to’s own pages ยท Sources
What tawk.to does well
tawk.to calls itself "a free omnichannel inbox and communication platform for small businesses": live chat, ticketing, a knowledge base and a CRM, with paid add-ons.
- Live chat, ticketing, a knowledge base and a CRM free of charge, with unlimited team members.
- Add-ons priced per property, not per seat: AI Assist from $29 a month, Whitelabel $29 a month.
- See who is on your site and what they’re reading, in real time.
- One-click installers for WordPress, Shopify, Wix and 50+ other platforms.
- Round-the-clock live support from their own team.
Who it suits
Small businesses that want free live chat for the whole team, and pay only for extras such as the AI agent or removing the branding.
Where Sales Igniter Chat is different
- Inside WordPress. A plugin, not a separate service: the inbox opens from wp-admin, and operators are WordPress users.
- Your own database. Conversations, people, email replies and the AI’s index are stored in your WordPress database.
- The AI answers from your own pages, docs and products, shows its sources, and quotes prices only from your store.
- Orders beside the chat. WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads purchases, licences and renewals, read live.
- Email follow-up. A reply the visitor missed goes out by email; their answer lands back in the same chat.
- No per-seat fees, and the AI is billed by your own provider at its token price.
The tawk.to live chat widget and Sales Igniter Chat, side by side
| Feature | tawk.to | Sales Igniter Chat |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | A hosted service with a WordPress plugin (one-click install) | A WordPress plugin. The inbox is in wp-admin, in its own full-screen tab |
| Where conversations are stored | tawk.to’s servers (a hosted service) | Your WordPress database (conversations, people, email replies and the AI’s index) |
| How the AI agent is billed | AI Assist add-on, per AI message: Hobby is free with 100 message credits a month; Growth $29 a month for 1,000; Business $99 for 5,000; Enterprise $399 for 20,000. Extra credits $30 per 1,000 | Your own AI key, at the provider’s token price, with a monthly budget. No per-chat fee from us |
| WooCommerce and EDD orders beside the chat | Not listed on their pricing or add-ons pages | Yes: WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads orders, licences and subscriptions, read live |
| Live visitors on a map | Yes: see who is on your site and what they’re reading, in real time (free) | Yes, on a map shipped with the plugin (no map service; nothing leaves your site) |
| Email follow-up in the same conversation | Email lands in the same shared inbox as chats, with free ticketing | Yes: unread replies go out by email, and email replies come back into the same chat |
| Pricing per seat (operator) | No per-seat fees: unlimited team members free; add-ons are priced per property | No per-seat fees: add every operator as a WordPress user |
What it costs each month
Licence plus AI, for one site. Sales Igniter Chat includes every operator; tawk.to is priced here for one operator.
| AI chats a month | 500 | 2,000 | 10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales Igniter Chat, first year$99 licence ($8.25 a month) + AI on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash with your own key | $10.32 | $16.51 | $49.56 |
| Sales Igniter Chat, from the second year$59 a year ($4.92 a month) + the same AI | $6.98 | $13.18 | $46.23 |
| tawk.toFree live chat, plus AI Assist from $29 a month (Growth: 1,000 AI message credits) | $44.00Growth | $129Business | $699Enterprise |
| You save with Sales Igniter Chattawk.to minus Sales Igniter Chat at the first-year price ($99); from the second year ($59) you save $3 a month more | $34a month$404 a year77% less | $112a month$1,350 a year87% less | $649a month$7,793 a year93% less |
Our figures: 3 AI replies per chat, about 3,450 tokens in and 285 out per reply (measured on our own site; a small sample), at DeepSeek V4.1 Flash’s list price of $0.30 per million tokens in and $1.20 out. tawk.to: AI Assist uses one message credit for every AI message, so an AI chat of 3 replies uses 3 credits. The cheapest AI Assist plan that fits is used, with extra credits at $30 per 1,000; monthly prices from their help centre. Change the numbers in the cost calculator.
Switching from tawk.to
Most of it is settings in one place. Your earlier tawk.to conversations stay in tawk.to; new ones start in Sales Igniter Chat.
- 1
Install the plugin
Upload Sales Igniter Chat under Plugins, activate it, and enter your licence key. The chat bubble shows straight away.
- 2
Set up the widget
Your colours, greeting and reply time line under Widget, with a live preview. Set office hours and who answers first under Routing and hours.
- 3
Switch on the AI agent
Add your own AI key, choose what the AI may read (help docs, pages, products) and click Re-index now. Ask it questions with Try it first.
- 4
Connect email
Add a mailbox under Settings, Email, so replies a visitor missed go out by email and their answers come back into the chat.
- 5
Invite your team
Give everyone who answers chats the Chat operator role. Each one turns on notifications for their phone and browser.
- 6
Remove tawk.to
Take tawk.to’s chat code or plugin off your site, so visitors see one chat bubble.
Questions about tawk.to alternatives
Can I import my tawk.to conversations?
No. Sales Igniter Chat doesn’t list an importer for other chat services. Keep tawk.to for your history, and new conversations start in Sales Igniter Chat.
Where are my conversations stored?
In your own WordPress database, in the plugin’s own tables. When the AI answers, the conversation goes to the AI provider you chose; by default only to hosts that keep no data, and with emails and phone numbers hidden.
Does it work without the AI agent?
Yes. Without an AI key, chats go to the people who are online, and to email when nobody is.
What does the AI cost?
You pay your AI provider directly, at their token price, with no per-chat fee from us. On our own site an AI chat has cost about $0.0019. A monthly budget (US$20 by default) stops AI answers when it’s reached.
How much is Sales Igniter Chat?
US$99 for one site for the first year, then US$59 a year; US$299 for 10 sites, then US$149 a year. Support and updates renew automatically each year and you can cancel at any time. Every operator is included: no per-seat fees. The AI is billed separately by your own AI provider.
Sources
tawk.to facts come only from tawk.to’s own pages, listed here; Sales Igniter Chat facts from its documentation. Prices are list prices in US$, billed monthly unless marked otherwise.
Try Sales Igniter Chat next to tawk.to
Put the chat on your own WordPress site and see the inbox, the AI agent and the widget answer your visitors.
