ThriveDesk – Live Chat, AI Chatbot, Helpdesk & Customer Support Ticket System vs Simple Ajax Chat – Add a Fast, Secure Chat Box

⭐ Lightweight and fast, persistent chat solution! ⭐ Fully self-hosted: No 3rd-party account required 🙂 Simple Ajax Chat makes it easy for your visitors to chat with each other on your website. Simply add a shortcode to any post or page and done! Instant chat forum anywhere. The chat form is fully customizable with many options, so you can create the perfect chat box for your visitors. 👉 Check out a Live Demo of Simple Ajax Chat at WP-Mix » 👉 Pro version supports unlimited chat forms! Simple Ajax Chat is fully self-hosted with NO 3rd-party service required. Many (if not all) of the other free chat plugins require registration and monthly service from a 3rd-party provider. With Simple Ajax Chat, there is no 3rd-party: WordPress is all that’s required. Own your chats! Difference between SAC free and SAC Pro The main difference between SAC free and SAC Pro? Easy: SAC free supports 1 chat form SAC Pro supports unlimited chat forms Pro can do everything free can do and SO much more. Customize each chat form with unique features. SAC Pro is an all new plugin written with smarter, faster code and all the latest techniques. Get SAC Pro » SAC Features The simplest possible persistent chat Fully self-hosted: No 3rd-party account required Ajax goodness loads new chats without page refresh Smart chat processing optimizes for performance Works with all browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.) Works with all mobile devices (iPhone, Android, etc.) Display easily via shortcode or template tag Display chat box in multiple locations Regularly updated & “future proof” Supports custom CSS styles Strong anti-spam security Clean HTML markup More Features Plug-&-play: no configuration required Built-in control panel to edit and delete chats Define your own list of banned words and phrases Display chat messages in ascending or descending order Display custom content before/after the chat form Option to play sound alert for chat messages Option to restrict chat to logged-in users Option to restore default plugin settings Option to enable browser notifications Export all chat messages via CSV file Supports emoticons and emojis 🙂 Customize Everything Limit maximum number of chat messages Limit maximum length of each chat message Advanced customization via filter hooks Option to use textarea for larger input field Option to use logged-in username as the chat name Option to enable/disable URL field for chat names Load JavaScript only when chat box is displayed Customize the update interval for Ajax requests Customize the fade-in colors for new chats Customize the fade-duration for new chats Plus much more! 👉 That’s a LOT of features, but the Pro version has WAY more. Compare features (free vs. pro) » Exclusive Pro Features Enable Google reCaptcha (invisible) for all chat forms Choose from six form styles, or use custom styles Advanced chat management tools and user statistics Mute any user so they are not allowed to chat Ban any non-admin users from any chat session Enable customizable emoji picker for any chat form Display user avatars next to chat messages Display the user role next to chat messages Define your own Bang (!bang) shortcuts Email notifications for new chat messages Limit number of users for any chat form Create private chat boxes between users Banned phrases in text messages and user names Fine-grain control over allowed chat content Built with vanilla JavaScript (jQuery not required) Optionally display inline images in chat messages Automatically clear chat messages and send email alert Display a “current online users” widget for any form Displays a max-character counter for messages Display a role-based chat box on the WP Dashboard Choose from six sound alerts for new chat messages Option to include your own CSS and JavaScript 👉 Learn more and get SAC Pro » Privacy This plugin collects voluntary user chat data (i.e., Name, Chat Message, and optional URL field). It also gives the administrator the option to collect or not collect user IP information. Aside from those two things, this plugin does not collect or store any user data. This plugin uses a few cookies for the chat functionality. It does not connect to any third-party locations. Minimal impact on privacy. Translations This plugin supports translation into any language » Developer Simple Ajax Chat is developed and maintained by Jeff Starr, 15-year WordPress developer and book author. Support development I develop and maintain this free plugin with love for the WordPress community. To show support, you can make a donation or purchase one of my books: The Tao of WordPress Digging into WordPress .htaccess made easy WordPress Themes In Depth Wizard’s SQL Recipes for WordPress And/or purchase one of my premium WordPress plugins: BBQ Pro – Blazing fast WordPress firewall Blackhole Pro – Automatically block bad bots Banhammer Pro – Monitor traffic and ban the bad guys GA Google Analytics Pro – Connect WordPress to Google Analytics Head Meta Pro – Ultimate Meta Tags for WordPress REST Pro Tools – Awesome tools for managing the WP REST API Simple Ajax Chat Pro – Unlimited chat rooms USP Pro – Unlimited front-end forms Links, tweets and likes also appreciated. Thank you! 🙂

Help desk, live chat and AI chatbot for WordPress and WooCommerce A customer asks “where is my order?”. Your agent opens the ticket and the order is already there: shipping status, payment, purchase history, and the buttons to refund or cancel it. No second tab, no copying order numbers, no extra plugin. ThriveDesk is customer support software built for WordPress and WooCommerce from day one. It puts live chat, an AI chatbot, a shared inbox and a support ticket system in one place, and this plugin connects it to your site in under five minutes. Rated 4.8/5 on G2 and 4.7/5 on Capterra. Start your free 7-day trial – no credit card required. Live chat for WordPress and WooCommerce Add the live chat widget to any page without touching code, and talk to visitors from the web app or the mobile apps. The widget is 20 KB and loads only on the pages you enable it on. Match the widget to your brand: colors, launcher, position and welcome text Several agents can help the same customer at once Customers can drop screenshots and files straight into the chat Ask for the right details with a custom pre-chat form Business hours and holiday notices, so nobody waits on an empty office Hide the widget on the pages where you do not want it Sound and push notifications, so no chat goes unanswered WooCommerce stores see the customer’s order history beside the chat AI chatbot that answers from your own content NEO, the ThriveDesk AI chatbot, learns from your knowledge base, your documents and your website. It answers the routine questions on its own and hands the rest to a person with the whole conversation attached. Auto-replies to common questions, 24/7 Drafts replies for agents to review before sending Tags and prioritizes incoming tickets Hands off to a human agent with full context Picks up new training content the moment you add it Test it in the AI Playground before you switch on auto-reply AI Copilot helps the humans too: it summarizes long threads, writes a first draft from the conversation history and suggests the next step. We are honest about what AI customer support can do. In the first months, expect NEO to resolve 20–45% of first-tier requests. A well-trained setup reaches up to 90%. It supports your team; it does not replace them. Helpdesk and support ticket system Every email, live chat and contact form submission becomes a trackable ticket in a shared inbox, so nothing is lost in a personal mailbox. Sales, billing and technical support can each have their own inbox, and the ticketing system scales from one person to a customer service team. Collision detection: two agents never answer the same ticket @mentions and private notes your customers never see Canned responses for the answers you give every day Tags, labels and custom fields for routing and reporting Snooze, schedule a reply, and undo send Split a ticket in two, or merge duplicates Bulk assign and bulk close Automation rules: route by keyword, assign round-robin, escalate after a set time, enforce SLAs Reports for volume, response time, resolution rate and customer satisfaction (CSAT) The WooCommerce help desk: orders, refunds and subscriptions inside the ticket The WooCommerce integration is built and maintained by ThriveDesk, not a third-party connector. From inside any ticket or chat, an agent can: See the customer’s complete order history and lifetime value Check shipping status without opening a tracking link Cancel or refund an order Add, edit or remove order items View and cancel subscriptions, with WooCommerce Subscriptions and WPSubscription Only do what their role allows: refunds and cancellations can be limited to the agents you choose Store data is fetched from your site on demand and cached locally. It is not copied to ThriveDesk servers. Customer portal and knowledge base on your own site WPPortal – put the [thrivedesk_portal] shortcode on any page and customers can open tickets, follow replies and search your help articles without leaving your site WooCommerce My Account – add a Support tab to My Account, so customers find their tickets next to their orders Search before you ask – require a search of your help center and chosen post types before the new-ticket button appears; a good help center cuts email volume by up to 30% Knowledge base – a public help center with your own domain, AI-assisted writing, nested categories, version history and search that understands “can’t log in” means the password reset article Support from anywhere Agents can reply, assign, tag and chat from the ThriveDesk iOS and Android apps, with real-time updates and dark mode. Works with Ecommerce – WooCommerce, WooCommerce Subscriptions, WPSubscription, Easy Digital Downloads, SureCart, Freemius, Envato, Stripe, Paddle CRM and automation – FluentCRM, FunnelKit, Zapier, Pabbly Connect, FlowMattic Forms – any contact form plugin can create tickets, and the plugin recognizes Contact Form 7, WPForms, Fluent Forms, Forminator, Ninja Forms, Formidable Forms, SureForms, MetForm, JetFormBuilder, Everest Forms, Jotform and more Team tools – Slack, GitHub, plus an API, webhooks and SmartApp for connecting any external data source without code Any theme – works with every theme that follows WordPress standards; no page builder required Switching from Zendesk or Help Scout Migration from Zendesk and Help Scout is free and handled by the ThriveDesk team: conversations, contacts and history come across intact. Themesgrove saves $4.2K a year since moving from Help Scout. What customers say “I’ve been using ThriveDesk for a while now to manage my online store’s customer service, and the experience has been incredibly smooth.” alamin2002, WordPress.org review, April 2026 “ThriveDesk is the best live chat we’ve ever used.” Crypto Cloud, WordPress.org review Pricing The plugin is free. Every ThriveDesk plan includes live chat, and every plan starts with a 7-day free trial and no credit card. See plans and pricing. Documentation and support Help center – setup guides for the plugin, live chat, the AI chatbot and every integration Support forum – ask here and the ThriveDesk team will answer Status page