European Alternatives to Tawk.to
Looking for a European alternative to Tawk.to? The chat widget is provided by tawk.to inc. of Las Vegas, Nevada, whose legal terms are governed by Nevada law and whose privacy policy says it is located in the United States and does all processing there, relying on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework for transfers. Chat is free, while removing the "Powered by tawk.to" branding costs $29 a month and its AI Assist chatbot starts from $29 a month.
The European tools below contract through EU, EEA or UK entities and state their hosting, from Crisp and Smartsupp for website chat to Zammad, LiveAgent and Trengo for teams that need a full inbox.
How we rank these tools — 4-step process
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1
European ownership, verified
The company is headquartered and incorporated in the EU, EEA, the UK, Switzerland or Israel, and processes customer data in Europe or Israel. A US parent company disqualifies a tool from this page regardless of where its servers are.
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2
Category fit and hands-on review
What the tool actually does, who it suits, and where it falls short — checked against the vendor’s own documentation, changelog and pricing page rather than its marketing copy.
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3
Compliance and pricing check
GDPR posture, hosting location and the prices quoted on this page are verified against the vendor’s public pricing before publication, and re-checked when we revisit the category.
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Position on this page
Placement on this page can be paid, and that can affect which tools appear here and the order they appear in. It never buys a good review: a tool that fails the checks above is not here at any price, and payment does not change the shortcomings we write about. A vendor can ask us to correct a factual error — not to remove a criticism.
Vendors can pay for visibility on this page. It never changes what an entry says about a product, including the criticism, and we earn nothing when you click through to a vendor. Paid placement can affect which tools appear here and the order they appear in. Editorial policy
12 European Alternatives to Tawk.to
Crisp
Chat widget, shared inbox and CRM from a Nantes company
Userlike
German website and WhatsApp messaging with AI agents, now Lime Connect
Smartsupp
Live chat with chatbots and lead capture for online shops
LiveAgent
Help desk where live chat, tickets and calls share one queue
Trengo
Shared inbox joining live chat, WhatsApp, email and voice
Tiledesk
Chat widget and chatbot studio with an on-premise install option
Brevo Conversations
Live chat and chatbot module inside Brevo's marketing suite
Customerly
Live chat and help center with an AI agent that resolves tickets
Gleap
Chat widget with bug reporting and AI agents for software teams
Zammad
Open-source helpdesk whose chat channel starts on the Professional plan
Superchat
Berlin messaging inbox where website chat sits beside WhatsApp
Dixa
Danish contact-center platform with chat, email and phone queues
Key takeaways
- Tawk.to is free with a "Powered by tawk.to" badge, and removing the badge costs $29 a month according to the vendor's own pricing page.
- Tawk.to's privacy policy says the company is located in the United States and does all processing there, relying on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework for European transfers.
- Tawk.to's terms cap liability at the amount paid and never more than $500, and make the customer responsible for backups of data held on its hardware.
- Crisp (France), Smartsupp (Czechia) and Userlike (Germany) are the closest widget-first European replacements, and Crisp and Userlike keep a usable free plan.
- Tiledesk is the only tool here whose own pages offer self-hosting for a chat and chatbot stack, and Zammad is the other open-source option, with chat on its Professional hosted plan.
Why people leave Tawk.to
Tawk.to is the chat widget that many small sites install first because it costs nothing.
Its own pricing page says the live chat is free for life as long as the small "Powered by tawk.to" badge stays on the widget, and the company says it earns money from three side products: removing the badge for $29 a month, an AI Assist chatbot from $29 a month, and a service where trained human agents answer chats for $1 an hour.
The vendor also claims support around the clock and 27 languages. For a hobby shop or a local club that is a fair offer.
The reasons to look elsewhere start with the paperwork. The contracting party is tawk.to inc., and the partner agreement in its terms gives an address in Las Vegas and names Nevada law.
The privacy policy says the company is located in the United States and does all processing there, and that transfers from Europe rest on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. EEA customers are pointed to a separate Data Processing Addendum. None of that is hidden, but the chat transcripts of your visitors sit with a US company under US law.
A second reason has nothing to do with geography. The terms cap liability at what you paid, never more than $500, and say that you are responsible for backing up data that resides on tawk.to hardware.
On a free plan that is a reasonable thing to write down. On a widget that now holds order questions, email addresses and complaints, it changes how much you should be willing to keep only there. The tools below are paid or paid-for-scale products, so the comparison is about what a bill buys.
- The contract and the processing are American Tawk.to inc. contracts under Nevada law, and the privacy policy states that all processing happens in the United States. The company is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, which gives a lawful transfer route today, but a framework can be challenged and replaced. A French, German or Czech vendor makes the question disappear, because the processing relationship is intra-EEA from the first day.
- The free price is tied to a badge and to caps in the terms The branding stays unless you pay $29 a month, and the terms list removing or altering the tawk.to logo as prohibited conduct. Liability is limited to the amount paid, at most $500, and the terms add that you must keep your own backups. A client-facing agency or a shop with a brand guide will hit the badge quickly, and a compliance officer will read the caps.
- Paid add-ons are priced by the vendor, not by the seat The AI Assist bot starts at $29 a month and the hired-agent service costs $1 an hour. Those are cheap for what they do, but the human agents answer on your behalf from a third party. European tools sell the answering layer as software only: Customerly meters AI at $0.45 per AI conversation, Gleap charges €0.29 per Kai Support resolution, Dixa charges €0.35 per Mim conversation, and Crisp prices operators per workspace.
- A chat widget turns into a shared inbox sooner than expected Tawk.to lists an omnichannel inbox, knowledge base and CRM pipeline among its products, and for many sites that is enough. When WhatsApp, email and phone enter the picture, a purpose-built inbox such as Trengo, Superchat or Dixa is a more natural home than a chat-first tool with modules added around it.
What you have to replace, not just match
Before choosing, list what the widget does for you today. At minimum it is a script tag on every page, a mobile app that notifies your agents, a set of canned replies and triggers, and a transcript archive.
Tawk.to's navigation also lists a knowledge base, chat pages, a CRM pipeline, activities, feedback surveys and automation. If your team uses only the widget and the app, nearly every European tool in this list covers it; if you rely on chat pages (a shareable link with a hosted chat window) or the CRM pipeline, check that the replacement has the equivalent before you cancel.
The harder thing to replace is the price of zero. A free tool never needs a budget line, a purchase order or a renewal date.
Moving to Crisp's Pro plan at €25 a month, Smartsupp's Solo plan at $17 a month on annual billing or LiveAgent from $15 per agent creates all three. Teams that move to a per-agent product also need to decide who counts as an agent, because tawk.to's model, in the vendor's own words, is agent-centric rather than seat-based, and a helpdesk will count every person who answers.
Finally, replace the staffing option on purpose. If you use the $1 an hour agent service to cover nights and weekends, no European tool on this page offers the same thing as part of the product. You would be buying an AI agent (Smartsupp's Mira, Customerly's Aura, Gleap's Kai Support, Dixa's Mim, Tiledesk's AI agents) or an outsourcing contract, and either decision is separate from the choice of widget.
The alternatives compared
| Position | Tool | Headquarters | Pricing | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Crisp | Nantes, France | Free (2 operators) / Pro €25/month per workspace / Unlimited €95/month | EU (France) |
| #2 | Userlike | Cologne, Germany | Free tier / Team from about €90/month | EU (Germany) |
| #3 | Smartsupp | Brno, Czech Republic | Free / Solo $17, Plus $25, Expert $83 per month billed annually ($24, $35, $117 monthly); Ultimate from $280/month | EU (Czech Republic) |
| #4 | LiveAgent | Slovakia | Small Business $15 / Medium Business $29 / Large Business $49 / Enterprise $69 per agent per month, billed annually | EU (Slovakia) |
| #5 | Trengo | Utrecht, Netherlands | From €19 per user per month | EU (Netherlands) |
| #6 | Tiledesk | Galatina (Lecce), Italy | Pro EUR 149 per month (EUR 124 billed annually) / Business EUR 499 per month (EUR 416 billed annually) / Enterprise custom; self-hosting available | EU (Italy) |
| #7 | Brevo Conversations | Paris, France | Free (300 emails/day, unlimited contacts) / from about €8/month | EU (France) |
| #8 | Customerly | Dublin, Ireland | Core $19, Growth $69, Ultimate $99 per seat/month (10, 20 and 50 AI conversations included); further AI conversations $0.45 each; Aura AI agent alone $0.45 per AI conversation with no seats; prices shown in USD with a EUR switch | EU (Ireland) |
| #9 | Gleap | Schwarzach (Vorarlberg), Austria | Starter €29/month, Team €149/month, Pro €299/month (billed yearly), plus €0.29 per Kai Support resolution; Enterprise from €999/month; 7-day free trial | EU (Austria) |
| #10 | Zammad | Berlin, Germany | Free self-hosted / from about €7/agent/month | EU (Germany) |
| #11 | Superchat | Berlin, Germany | Free €0; Basic €89, Professional €149, Advanced €299 per month as listed on the pricing page; Custom on request; WhatsApp conversations started by the company cost €0.04 to €0.13 | EU (Germany) |
| #12 | Dixa | Copenhagen, Denmark | Growth €89, Ultimate €139, Prime €179 per agent/month (20% less billed annually); Mim AI agent €0.35 per conversation | EU (Denmark) |
How each alternative compares to Tawk.to
- Which law reaches it. EU (France). Tawk.to is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. EU.
- Source code. Closed source, as Tawk.to is.
- Independently checked. GDPR.
Best for: Small teams that want a tawk.to-style widget from a French company with a free tier.
Crisp, from Nantes and founded in 2015, is what a tawk.to administrator will recognise within an hour: a script-tag widget, a shared inbox, canned replies, a knowledge base and a lightweight contact database. The free Basic plan allows two operators and keeps 30 days of conversation history. The Pro plan at €25 a month per workspace includes four operators and adds the chatbot, the knowledge base and automation.
The pricing unit is the workspace, not the person, so the Unlimited plan at €95 a month holds as many operators as you have. That is the reverse of a helpdesk and close to tawk.to's own agent-centric logic. Video calls, screen sharing and MagicBrowse, which lets an agent see the visitor's screen with permission, sit on the top tier.
What Crisp does better than Tawk.to
- Contract with a French company instead of a Nevada one
- Workspace pricing, so extra operators on Unlimited cost nothing
- Video calls and screen sharing from the widget on the top tier
- Startup and non-profit pricing is offered
Where Crisp is a step down from Tawk.to
- Free plan is limited to two operators and 30 days of history
- Chatbot and knowledge base require the Pro plan
- No hired-agent service like the $1 an hour offer
Standout against Tawk.to. Crisp is the only tool here that prices by workspace and still offers video calls from the chat window.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Germany). Tawk.to is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. German data centres.
- Source code. Closed source, as Tawk.to is.
- Independently checked. ISO 27001, GDPR.
Best for: Regulated or German-speaking businesses that need audit logs, SSO and German data centres.
Userlike, from Cologne and now sold under the Lime Connect brand, answers the question tawk.to's privacy policy raises. The product page states that processing happens in German data centres and that the company holds ISO 27001. It adds IP restrictions, audit logging, redaction of sensitive text in conversations, SAML single sign-on and configurable automatic deletion, none of which appear on tawk.to's free plan.
A free tier exists with one widget and one operator seat, so a solo user can test before paying. Paid plans start at about €90 a month for the Team plan, and the full AI features need the Corporate or Flex plan. WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, SMS and email join the website chat in one inbox.
What Userlike does better than Tawk.to
- Processing in Germany instead of the United States
- ISO 27001, audit logging and SAML single sign-on
- Redaction of sensitive content inside conversations
- Messaging channels in the same inbox as website chat
Where Userlike is a step down from Tawk.to
- About €90 a month is a large step up from free
- Full AI capabilities sit on the higher plans
- Strongest fit is German-speaking and regulated markets
Standout against Tawk.to. Userlike offers conversation redaction and audit logs together with German hosting, a combination tawk.to does not list.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Czech Republic). Tawk.to is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. Germany, on Amazon Web Services (AI features use OpenAI Ireland, where data may leave the EU).
- Source code. Closed source, as Tawk.to is.
Best for: Online shops that want live chat plus an AI agent answering from the product catalogue.
Smartsupp, from Smartsupp.com, s.r.o. in Brno, lists tawk.to among the tools it replaces. It has a free tier and a 14-day trial, and paid plans billed annually run at $17 a month for Solo, $25 for Plus and $83 for Expert, or $24, $35 and $117 on monthly billing. Ultimate starts at $280 a month. For a shop the useful extra is Mira, an AI agent that can be trained on up to 30,000 products.
Read the hosting line before you sign. Smartsupp states in its DPA that data is stored in Germany on Amazon Web Services, so the contract is Czech but the infrastructure underneath is American. Its AI features also use OpenAI Ireland, where data may leave the EU. That is a better position than tawk.to's United States processing, though a shop that wants every message kept in the EU should leave the AI off.
What Smartsupp does better than Tawk.to
- Contract with a Czech company and storage in Germany
- AI agent trained on the shop catalogue, up to 30,000 products
- Entry price of $17 a month on annual billing
- Chatbot and automation workflows beside the live chat
Where Smartsupp is a step down from Tawk.to
- Hosted on Amazon Web Services under the German servers
- AI features use OpenAI Ireland, where data may leave the EU
- Ultimate at $280 a month is a steep step from Expert at $83
Standout against Tawk.to. Smartsupp is the only tool here whose AI agent is built to answer from a shop catalogue of up to 30,000 products.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Slovakia). Tawk.to is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Source code. Closed source, as Tawk.to is.
- Independently checked. GDPR (data processing agreement available).
Best for: Support teams that want tickets, chat and calls in one queue from a Slovak company.
LiveAgent comes from Quality Unit, s. r. o. in Slovakia, and it starts as a helpdesk. Ticketing, live chat and a call centre share one product, with agent tiers at $15 (Small Business), $29, $49 and $69 (Enterprise) per agent per month on annual billing. Every tier includes proactive, behaviour-triggered chat invitations and an AI Answer Assistant that drafts replies from past tickets.
Moving here from tawk.to is a change of category more than a change of vendor. There is no permanent free tier, only a 30-day trial without a card, and the price follows the number of agents. A team of two who answer chat part time may find the bill hard to justify; a team of eight handling email tickets, calls and chat in one queue may find it cheaper than three separate subscriptions.
What LiveAgent does better than Tawk.to
- Tickets, chat and calls in a single queue
- Proactive invitations included on every tier
- A 24/7 AI support agent with human handoff
- Slovak contracting entity under EU law
Where LiveAgent is a step down from Tawk.to
- No permanent free plan, only a 30-day trial
- Per-agent pricing climbs with team size
- No visual flow designer for lead qualification
Standout against Tawk.to. LiveAgent folds a call centre into the same queue as chat and tickets, which no widget-first tool here does.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Netherlands). Tawk.to is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. EU (Netherlands).
- Source code. Closed source, as Tawk.to is.
- Independently checked. GDPR.
Best for: Small and mid-sized teams that run support across WhatsApp, email and chat in one inbox.
Trengo, a Dutch company founded in 2017 and based at Stadsplateau 30 in Utrecht, treats website chat as one of several channels. Email, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, SMS, voice and chat land in one timeline per customer, with assignment, internal notes and @mentions. It describes itself as an official WhatsApp Business Solution Provider, which matters if your customers already message a business number.
Pricing starts at €19 per user a month, and the Essentials plan is listed at roughly €99 for five users. A 14-day trial gives access to all features. Expect a change in how the team thinks: tawk.to is a chat window that a site owner watches, and Trengo is a service desk that a support team staffs.
What Trengo does better than Tawk.to
- WhatsApp, email and voice in the same inbox as web chat
- Visual flowbot builder for repeated questions
- Dutch entity with conversation data in EU data centres
- Internal notes and assignment for multi-person teams
Where Trengo is a step down from Tawk.to
- Per-user pricing from €19 against a free widget
- Reporting is lighter than dedicated analytics platforms
- Pricing and conversation caps have changed over time, so confirm current terms
Standout against Tawk.to. Trengo is the tool here that is described as an official WhatsApp Business Solution Provider.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Italy). Tawk.to is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. Self-hosting or private cloud available.
- Source code. Open source, where Tawk.to is not: you can read what it does rather than take the description on trust.
- Independently checked. GDPR.
Best for: Technical teams that want chat and bots on infrastructure they control.
Tiledesk, from Tiledesk S.r.l. in Galatina near Lecce, is open source and offers self-hosting or a private cloud. Its Design Studio builds AI agents for sales, support or onboarding with lead qualification and routing, and one flow can deploy to web, WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS, email and voice. For a tawk.to user worried about where transcripts go, running the stack yourself ends the discussion.
It is priced for companies, not hobby sites. Pro costs €149 a month (€124 billed annually) for three users, 20 AI agents, 5 million AI tokens and 3,000 conversations a month; Business costs €499 (€416 annually) for five users and 50 AI agents. Qualifying open-source projects can apply for free access, but there is no free commercial tier.
What Tiledesk does better than Tawk.to
- Self-hosting or private cloud for chat and bots
- Open-source code that can be inspected
- One flow deployed across web, WhatsApp, SMS, email and voice
- White-label option for agencies
Where Tiledesk is a step down from Tawk.to
- No permanent free commercial plan
- Self-hosting needs someone to run the infrastructure
- Setup is steeper than a plug-in widget
Standout against Tawk.to. Tiledesk is the only tool here that combines open-source code with a chatbot designer and a self-host option.
- Which law reaches it. EU (France). Tawk.to is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. EU.
- Source code. Closed source, as Tawk.to is.
- Independently checked. GDPR.
Best for: Small businesses that want chat added to an email and CRM tool they already use.
Brevo Conversations is the live chat and chatbot module inside the Paris company's marketing suite, with a universal inbox that collects messages. Brevo was founded in 2012 as Sendinblue and took its new name in May 2023. The surrounding product covers email, SMS, WhatsApp, a CRM and transactional email, so a visitor who chats can end up in a contact list and a pipeline in the same account.
That is a different proposition from tawk.to's single-purpose widget. Brevo's pricing page is built on email volume, with a free plan that stores unlimited contacts and sends up to 300 emails a day, and our tool page covers the email side rather than chat limits. Check the Conversations plan details on the vendor's page before you count on a given number of agents or chats.
What Brevo Conversations does better than Tawk.to
- Chat contacts flow into email, SMS and a CRM in one account
- French company processing in the EU
- Free plan for the account with unlimited contacts
Where Brevo Conversations is a step down from Tawk.to
- Chat is a module, not the product, so depth is lower
- Our tool page gives no chat-specific plan limits
- Configuration across a broad suite takes longer than a widget
Standout against Tawk.to. Brevo Conversations puts live chat in the same account as email, SMS and WhatsApp campaigns, with a CRM behind all of them.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Ireland). Tawk.to is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. AWS data centres in the EU; AI processing on Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Pinecone in the EU; Stripe (EU and US) and OneSignal push notifications (US) also process data.
- Source code. Closed source, as Tawk.to is.
Best for: SaaS teams that want most chats closed by an AI agent before a person joins.
Customerly Limited in Dublin builds around Aura, an AI agent that trains on your help centre, resolves conversations end to end and hands over to a human with context. Seats cost $19, $69 and $99 a month on Core, Growth and Ultimate, with 10, 20 or 50 AI conversations included and $0.45 for each further one. Aura can also be bought alone at $0.45 per AI conversation with no seats.
The vendor is specific about data: customer data sits in AWS data centres in the EU, and the AI sub-processors Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Pinecone are listed as processing in the EU.
Stripe processes in the EU and the United States, and OneSignal push notifications in the United States. Its GDPR and privacy pages were last updated in 2021, so ask for the current data processing agreement. Against tawk.to's AI Assist at $29 a month, the cost per resolved chat is easier to forecast here.
What Customerly does better than Tawk.to
- AI usage metered per conversation with a published rate
- Customer data in EU AWS data centres
- Help centre, flows, surveys and mobile apps in one suite
- Irish entity with a published subprocessor list
Where Customerly is a step down from Tawk.to
- No free tier, only a free trial
- Prices show in dollars first, with a switch to euros
- Stripe and OneSignal process some data in the United States
Standout against Tawk.to. Customerly sells its AI agent without seats, at $0.45 per AI conversation, stated on the page.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Austria). Tawk.to is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. EU region (application servers and database in Frankfurt) or US region, chosen at signup.
- Source code. Closed source, as Tawk.to is.
Best for: Product teams that want chat and bug reports in the same widget inside an app.
Gleap GmbH in Schwarzach, Austria, aims at teams that ship software. The widget lives inside a web or mobile app, and a user who reports a problem can attach a screenshot, console logs and a session replay, so whoever answers sees what the user saw. Plans are Starter at €29 a month, Team at €149 and Pro at €299, billed yearly, with a 7-day trial and imports from Intercom, Zendesk and Freshdesk.
The EU region (application servers and database in Frankfurt) is chosen at signup, and the privacy policy is open about optional AI providers that process outside an EU-only boundary. Kai Support, the AI agent, adds €0.29 per resolution. For a shop with a simple website chat, most of this is surplus; for a SaaS company answering bug reports in tawk.to, it removes a lot of back and forth.
What Gleap does better than Tawk.to
- Bug reports with screenshots, logs and replay beside chat
- EU region in Frankfurt selectable at signup
- Seats unlimited from the Team plan
- Imports from Intercom, Zendesk and Freshdesk
Where Gleap is a step down from Tawk.to
- Written for software teams, not general website chat
- Starter allows one seat and one project, with Gleap branding
- Some optional AI providers process outside the EU
Standout against Tawk.to. Gleap attaches a session replay and console logs to a chat message, which no other tool here does.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Germany). Tawk.to is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. Your own infrastructure, or German cloud.
- Source code. Open source, where Tawk.to is not: you can read what it does rather than take the description on trust.
Best for: Organisations that want tickets and chat on their own servers, with an IT team.
Zammad, from Berlin, is an open-source helpdesk that turns email, phone, chat, social messages and web forms into tickets. Self-hosting costs no licence fee, and a hosted cloud version starts at €7 per agent a month on EU infrastructure. The chat feature, SmartChat, creates a ticket from every conversation, so a chat that ends without a solution is still tracked.
That makes it the opposite of tawk.to's lightness. The hosted pricing places the chat channel on the Professional plan, so the €7 entry price does not buy a widget by itself. In exchange you get a knowledge base with visibility controls, LDAP and SAML single sign-on, reporting, search over large ticket archives and more than 40 interface languages.
What Zammad does better than Tawk.to
- Self-hosting with no licence fee, or EU-hosted cloud
- Every chat becomes a tracked ticket
- LDAP and SAML single sign-on for larger organisations
- Knowledge base with public, customer and agent visibility
Where Zammad is a step down from Tawk.to
- Chat starts on the Professional hosted plan
- Helpdesk interface is heavier than a chat widget
- Self-hosting requires infrastructure skills
Standout against Tawk.to. Zammad is the only tool here that is both open source and free to self-host as a full ticketing system.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Germany). Tawk.to is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. Servers in Germany (as stated on the vendor's website).
- Source code. Closed source, as Tawk.to is.
Best for: Companies whose customers mostly message on WhatsApp and also want chat on the site.
Superchat, from SuperX GmbH in Berlin and founded in 2020, began as a way to run WhatsApp from a shared inbox. The web widget shows live chat, WhatsApp, Instagram and email so a visitor picks a channel, and every conversation lands in one inbox with assignment, notes, and mobile and desktop apps. The vendor states servers in Germany and ISO 27001.
The price structure is the catch for a tawk.to user. The Free plan offers one seat and 30 active contacts, but the web widget is listed starting at the Professional plan, €149 a month, with Basic at €89 and Advanced at €299. Conversations that a customer starts on WhatsApp are free for the first 1,000 a month, and those your company starts cost €0.04 to €0.13 each.
What Superchat does better than Tawk.to
- WhatsApp, Instagram and email beside web chat in one inbox
- Servers in Germany and ISO 27001 stated by the vendor
- Customer-started WhatsApp conversations free up to 1,000 a month
- Mobile and desktop apps for agents
Where Superchat is a step down from Tawk.to
- Web widget starts at €149 a month, far from free
- Company-started WhatsApp conversations are charged per message
- No self-hosting stated
Standout against Tawk.to. Superchat is the only tool here that bills WhatsApp conversations by who started them.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Denmark). Tawk.to is run from the United States, so the CLOUD Act obliges the provider to hand over data on a valid order regardless of which country the servers are in.
- Where the data sits. EU customers: Amazon Web Services in Ireland, daily backup elsewhere in Europe; the privacy policy says other customers' data may be stored in the US.
- Source code. Closed source, as Tawk.to is.
Best for: Support teams whose phone line carries as much work as chat and email.
Dixa ApS in Copenhagen, founded in 2015, puts phone, email, chat and social into one queue, with the contact centre included in every plan. Per-agent pricing runs at €89 on Growth, €139 on Ultimate and €179 on Prime, with 20% off on annual billing; the Mim AI agent costs €0.35 per conversation. There is no self-serve trial, because new customers start with guided onboarding.
Dixa is not on the list of tools that replace tawk.to, and it would be an overshoot for most free-widget users. Its fit is a team with an existing phone queue that wants chat in the same place. Its own pages are straightforward about hosting: EU customers sit on Amazon Web Services in Ireland with a daily backup elsewhere in Europe, and the privacy policy says other customers' data may be stored in the US.
What Dixa does better than Tawk.to
- Phone, email, chat and social in a single queue
- Contact centre included in every plan
- Danish contracting entity under Danish law
Where Dixa is a step down from Tawk.to
- From €89 per agent, against a free widget
- AWS under the Irish hosting, so a US provider is in the chain
- No self-serve trial; onboarding is guided
Standout against Tawk.to. Dixa includes the contact centre in every plan, so a call lands in the same queue as a chat message.
What actually breaks when you switch
Plan the switch around the transcripts and the widget, because those are the parts that do not carry over.
Tawk.to keeps chat history on its side and the terms tell you to back up your own data, so export what you need before cancelling an account: contacts, transcripts you may have to produce later, and your list of canned replies and shortcuts. Several European tools import from other helpdesks, for example Gleap from Intercom, Zendesk and Freshdesk, but an import from a free chat widget is usually a CSV and some patience.
Expect a week of overlap. Install the new script tag, keep tawk.to visible during a trial, and move triggers, offline messages and operating hours one by one. Agents need the new mobile app, and any Shopify, WordPress or Zapier connection has to be recreated. Contracts also differ: tawk.to's terms give no refund on downgrade or cancellation, while paid European plans mostly bill monthly or yearly, so a yearly plan should wait until you have finished the trial.
Is Tawk.to compliant with GDPR if I am based in the EU?
The company says it is, and it publishes the pieces that make a transfer lawful on paper: a Data Processing Addendum for customers in the EEA, a list of sub-processors, and certification under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework with its UK and Swiss extensions. Its terms also say that the Federal Trade Commission has jurisdiction over its compliance with those frameworks. In other words, a lawyer can build an argument that using it is allowed.
What the paperwork cannot change is where the work happens. The privacy policy says processing takes place in the United States, so a visitor's chat transcript leaves the EU every time. Whether that is acceptable is a risk decision for your data protection officer, who will weigh the framework, the sensitivity of what visitors type and the availability of European options at a similar price.
Can I keep using the free widget and just add a European tool for the sensitive pages?
Yes, and some teams do. A widget on the marketing pages can stay as it is, while pages where people type order numbers, health details or account data get a European tool behind a login. The drawback is two inboxes, two sets of canned replies and two notification apps, which is the cost most small teams are trying to avoid.
If you go that way, choose the second tool for the job it does best. Gleap fits a logged-in product area, Superchat or Trengo fit a service desk where WhatsApp matters, and Crisp's free plan fits an additional site with two operators.
Which one to pick
If you want the same shape of product with a French contract, pick Crisp; if you run a shop and want an AI agent that answers from your catalogue, pick Smartsupp, keeping its AWS and OpenAI Ireland notes in mind.
If you must explain your tool to an auditor, Userlike (German hosting, ISO 27001, audit logs) or the self-hosted route through Tiledesk or Zammad gives the strongest answer. Customerly and Gleap suit software companies, the first through its per-conversation AI agent, the second through bug reports attached to chat.
If chat is really a shared inbox in disguise, start with Trengo or Superchat and accept the higher price; if tickets and calls matter as much as chat, look at LiveAgent or Dixa.
Brevo Conversations only makes sense when you already live in Brevo. And if tawk.to is working, your data protection officer is comfortable with the Data Privacy Framework and you value a free plan above everything, keeping it is a defensible decision; this page exists for the teams where that answer has changed.
Frequently Asked Questions
For a widget that is quick to install and has a real free plan, Crisp from Nantes is the closest match, and Smartsupp from Brno is the usual choice for online shops. Userlike (now Lime Connect) suits teams that want German hosting and ISO 27001. All three put the contract with an EU company, which tawk.to inc. in Nevada does not.
Crisp has a free Basic plan for two operators with 30 days of conversation history, Userlike has a free tier with one widget and one operator seat, and Smartsupp has a free tier plus a 14-day trial. Zammad is free if you host it yourself. None of them matches tawk.to's no-cap free offer for a large team, so count agents before you decide.
According to its pricing page, the "Powered by tawk.to" label is how the company keeps the chat free, and removing it costs $29 a month. The terms list removing or altering the logo as prohibited conduct. European vendors have branding rules of their own: Gleap's Starter plan, for example, still shows "Powered by Gleap".
Superchat and Trengo are built around a shared inbox where website chat is one channel beside WhatsApp, email and social messages. Trengo describes itself as an official WhatsApp Business Solution Provider. Superchat lists its web widget from the €149 Professional plan, so check which tier you need before comparing it with a free widget.
Tiledesk lists self-hosting or private cloud for its open-source chat and chatbot stack, and Zammad can be run on your own servers as a free open-source helpdesk. Both need someone who can maintain infrastructure. The other tools on this page are hosted services only, as far as their own pages say.
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