Live chat is perfect solution to keep your website visitors with instant support. No matter if you manage a big a small website, live chat feature adds more scores to your website success. Choosing the right chat software is quite important to simplify and professionalize your support process. Hence, we evaluated the most popular live chat softwares/service and generated a list of top 10 solutions.

The top 10 live chat softwares are provided in two categories: server installer and web app. Server installer requires both server and client end installation while web app can be added directly as regular website software. The first 5 ranks are all server solutions and rest ones are web apps.

Sightmax
One of the most powerful live chat solutions programmed on asp.net platform. Using the latest .net and database technologies, sightmax provides secure and fast communication tunnel for small to large website solutions. It has 52 languages included and multiple packages for different requirements. Spotlights of sightmax include

• Group/private chat enabled
• Real time analytics/monitoring
• Social media included
• Live view of chat history

Because sightmax is windows software that requires server end installation. If you don't have a server yet or don't want to manage the service by yourself, the sightmax group provides a hosted service where you just need to purchase the amount of operators directly.

Sightmax official site: www.sightmax.com

Livechatinc
The mission of livechatinc is to deliver fast & simple communication between ecommerce owners and shoppers. The software project is supported by 28 passionate IT professionals and trusted by thousands of happy clients. Livechatinc provides total of 3 plans with small technical difference. The biggest advantage of livechatinc is its simplity where you can make quick integration.

Livechatinc official site: www.livechatinc.com

Comm100 Live Chat
Comm100 live chat is designed with the goal to make online chat easy for anyone without professional training needed. Being an award winning chat solution, their service is serving more than 100,000+ registered business users around the world and rated Top 3 in "2013 Best Enterprise Chat Software" on TopTenReviews. 15 days free trial available with no billing info required.

For more details, please visit website www.comm100.com/livechat

Chat4support
A similar live chat solution with sightmax but provides much better price. Chat4support has all necessary functions included for live chat communication like stats report, canned message, keywords research and ticket system. You can also capture screenshot if needed. As low As $6/month you can make full use of available features. You can also purchase the server edition by one time payment if you want to have full control.

Chat4support official site: www.chat4support.com

Liveperson
The most popular choice by lots of business sites. Liveperson is a hosted service based cloud technologies, the service provides much more than traditional chat softwares. It comes chat, voice, personalized messages and video chat, it's able to learn from every interaction, creating a feedback loop that enriches intelligence and optimizes future engagements, further enhancing business results.

Liveperson official site: www.liveperson.com

CraftySyntax
Craftysyntax is a php/mysql web application that's provided for both commercial and free editions. Because of the very few system requirements, you can setup easily on all hosting servers and do needful customization based your requirements. There's no difference in using craftysyntax comparing to all other website softwares. The most important is you can integrate to your existing site easily from code behind.

Craftysyntax official site: www.craftysyntax.com

Mibew Web Messenger
Mibew Messenger (also known as Open Web Messenger) is an open-source live support application written in PHP and MySQL. It enables one-on-one chat assistance in real-time directly from your website. Both admin and client end is pretty clean setup and you won't find a problem in using all functions.

Mibew official site: www.mibew.org

FlashChat
FlashChat is a fully customizable chat software based php/mysql technologies. FlashChat includes a set of advanced administrative options so that you can easily manage rooms, users, bans, messages, and much more. It provides full documentation on how to integrate the service to your existing website, especially for most existing cms sites. You can try out for free or purchase via $5 one time fee.

FlashChat official: www.tufat.com/script2.htm

LivechatScript
This is a hosted service where you just need to emble the codes directly. It comes with free and pro versions. The paid version costs $9.99/month and you have full access to its functions. The free version provides less features and there's link back to official site.

Livechatscript site: www.livechatscript.com
Livechatscript Pro site: www.livechatscriptpro.com

PHPFreeChat
PHPFreeChat is a simple ajax based website chat software. There's no database required but most leading features are incluced. You can easily install and customize to fulfill your different requirements. This software provides multiple languages support with professional translation.

PHPFreeChat official site: www.phpfreechat.net

Free or paid solution?

There're both paid and free solutions available for live chat service. Which should you go? Absolutely, the paid version provides much more features and actually more professional with better support. You should evaluate your business requirements then decide which will serve you right. For example if you operate a huge business that requires high security and professional support, you can never choose freeware. If you just run a personal store or just want to launch simple chat to your visitors, you don't have to pay for it.