9 best Chatra alternatives for online stores in 2026

Why do store owners look for Chatra alternatives?

Chatra is a good live chat, and I'd say that first. It holds 4.6 stars from 306 reviews on the Shopify App Store, merchants name its support reps in their reviews, and it shows each shopper's cart next to the chat on paid plans. My Chatra review scores it 3.5 out of 5 for small stores that want people on chat.

The reasons people leave come from how the product is priced and where it is going. Here is Chatra's current plan page:

1. Every agent is a paid seat. Essential is $31 per agent a month and Pro is $41, or $25 and $33 billed yearly, per Chatra's plans page. Three people on Pro pay $123 a month. The free plan used to help here, but it now stops at 5 chats a month:

"Was a great free live chat for small businesses allowing 20 chats per month, however this has now been reduced to 5 which almost forces you into paying to upgrade."

Plinthy, Shopify review

2. The live chat stops growing at Pro. Reports, chat ratings, operating hours, agent groups, Slack, Help Scout, Zapier and the REST API are all Pro only. There is no WhatsApp channel, and the real-time visitor list shows 10 people at once per paid seat.

3. No AI agent. Chatra's bot is a tree of reply buttons you build by hand. A shopper who types "Do you ship to PO boxes?" instead of tapping a button waits for a person. My explainer on AI chatbots vs live chat shows where each one fits.

4. The roadmap moved to Brevo. The Chatra joins Brevo FAQ says Chatra keeps working, but "we will not be releasing any new features in Chatra. They will be released in Brevo Conversations only." It also says moving your conversations and settings to Brevo "is not possible for now."

So the question is not whether Chatra still works. It does. The question is which of those four reasons is yours, because each one points to a different tool.

Which Chatra alternative fits your reason for leaving?

Pick your main reason and your store platform. The shortlist comes from the same vendor pricing pages as the rest of this post.

Pick why you are leaving Chatra and where your store runs to see a top pick, a backup and the monthly cost for three people.

The 9 Chatra alternatives at a glance

Prices are each vendor's lowest paid plan on October 21, 2026, using yearly billing where the vendor offers it. "Not listed" means I did not find it on the vendor pages I read.

Chatra is the only tool in the table with no AI that answers typed questions. Every other row either includes an AI agent or sells one as an add-on, and they bill for it in five different ways.

How I picked these

I started from what ChatGPT recommends when a Chatra user asks for alternatives, then checked every tool against the reasons in the first section:

• Price for a small team. What three people answering chat pay a month, on the vendor's own pricing page.
• Live chat quality. Triggers, offline messages, mobile apps and the shopper context agents see.
• AI. Whether an AI agent can answer typed questions, what it reads, and the unit it bills by.
• Store fit. Shopify and WooCommerce support, and whether anyone, person or AI, can act on an order from the chat.
• Momentum. Whether the tool is still adding features, which is the gap Chatra's freeze leaves.

Shopify App Store ratings come from each app's listing on the same day. I did not run every tool on a live store, so behavior comes from vendor docs and merchant reviews.

What do three people on chat pay with each tool?

Chatra's per-seat pricing is the reason most store owners start looking, so here is the same team priced everywhere: three people answering chat, monthly billing, cheapest plan that fits.

The cheapest upgrade from Chatra is often a downgrade in price. Crisp Mini covers a fourth seat for less than half of Chatra Essential. The trade appears once AI enters the bill, which is where Tidio, Gorgias and eesel earn or lose their price. My chatbot cost guide has the wider picture.

1. Tidio: chat, inbox and AI in one app

Best for: small stores that want Chatra's simplicity plus an AI agent, without a second tool.

Tidio is the closest thing to "Chatra with AI." It installs on Shopify and WordPress, puts chat, email, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp in one inbox, and adds Lyro, an AI agent that answers typed questions from your help content and store data. It is also the most reviewed app on this list, with 4.8 stars from 1,355 Shopify reviews.

What it fixes from Chatra

• AI that reads, not buttons. Lyro checks order status and product availability, recommends in-stock products and sends discount codes, per Tidio's Shopify page. Tidio's pricing page says customers average a 75% resolution rate with Lyro.
• Seats stop mattering. Self-serve plans include up to 10 agents, and you pay by billable conversations, which are chats where a person replied.
• WhatsApp. Chatra does not have it; Tidio does.

Where it falls short

• Three meters: billable conversations, Lyro conversations and Flows visitors are priced separately, so the real bill takes a minute to work out. My Tidio pricing post walks through it.
• The free Lyro allowance is 50 conversations once, not every month.
• Refund and cancel requests go to a person by default.

"There is still room for improvement, particularly in making AI responses more flexible and improving customization options for automation."

Metrix Premium Chassis Parts, Shopify review

Pricing

Prices from Tidio pricing. The Tidio Lyro deep dive covers the AI.

Verdict: Pick Tidio if you want the smallest jump from Chatra with AI included and you are fine with usage-based pricing. Skip it if AI volume will be high, where Lyro's per-conversation price adds up. Tidio alternatives covers the neighbours.

2. Crisp: a flat price for a growing team

Best for: teams of 3 to 10 who want one inbox for chat, email and social without paying per seat.

Crisp charges per workspace, not per agent, which is the direct fix for Chatra's seat pricing. $45 a month on Mini covers 4 seats, chat triggers, a shared email inbox and unlimited data retention. Essentials at $95 adds WhatsApp Business, Instagram, SMS, a workflow builder, a knowledge base and the AI chatbot.

What it fixes from Chatra

• Flat pricing. Adding a fourth person costs nothing on Mini; on Chatra it is another $31.
• AI on a meter that stays small. Hugo, Crisp's AI agent, draws from dollar credits at about $0.05 per conversation, per hugo.ai, and Mini includes $5 of credits.
• Order context for Hugo. On Shopify, Hugo can read order details and tracking and update a shipping address while the order is still editable, per Crisp's Shopify guide.

"Crisp was a go-to for our support team because it lets you handle tickets super easily, very user friendly and AI is just the cherry on the cake."

Petit Cube, Shopify review

Where it falls short

• Hugo's Shopify tools stop at reading orders and editing addresses; refunds and cancellations are done by your team in the inbox.
• Crisp's own help center says it "hasn't been over any SOC2 audit," per its SOC 2 article.
• WhatsApp and Instagram start on Essentials, not Mini.

Pricing

Prices from Crisp pricing. See my Crisp pricing breakdown and Crisp AI review for more.

Verdict: Pick Crisp if three or more people answer chat and Chatra's per-seat bill is the main pain. Skip it if you need AI to refund or cancel orders on its own. Crisp alternatives has the next options.

3. tawk.to: the free human chat

Best for: stores where people answer every chat and the budget is zero.

tawk.to gives away live chat, ticketing and a knowledge base, with no seat limit and no chat cap. It has been free since it launched in October 2013, and it makes money from four add-ons and from hired agents who answer chats for you at $1 an hour, per its why free page. If Chatra's 5-chat free plan or its per-seat price is the problem, tawk.to removes both.

What it fixes from Chatra

• Free for the whole team. Its pricing is "per property, not per seat," per the add-ons page.
• AI if you want it. AI Assist answers from your knowledge base and hands off to a person, with a forever-free tier for limited volume and paid plans from $29 a month.
• Night cover with people. Hired agents at $1 an hour is unusual, and useful for a store that wants humans on chat around the clock.

"I'm giving Tawk 4 stars because they provide a great service for free. There are definitely more 'polished' options out there, but they all come with a monthly fee now."

Trustpilot reviewer, May 2026

Where it falls short

• The "Powered by tawk.to" badge stays unless you pay $29 a month.
• I found no Shopify order lookups or cart view on its pricing and add-ons pages, so Chatra's cart contents panel has no clear match.
• Its Shopify app sits at 3.6 stars from 89 reviews, lower than Chatra's.

Pricing

Prices from tawk.to add-ons.

Verdict: Pick tawk.to if you want Chatra's job done for $0 and your team answers chats itself. Skip it if you liked seeing the shopper's cart in Chatra. My tawk.to alternatives list covers what free chat trades away.

4. LiveChat (Text): the polished upgrade

Best for: stores where one or two people sell through chat all day and want the best agent app.

LiveChat now sells new trials as Text by LiveChat, which adds a shared inbox, ticketing and an AI Agent to the chat on one subscription. Existing LiveChat customers keep their plans, per the pricing page. For a Chatra user who mostly wants a better live chat, this is the step up in polish: a live Shopify catalog for sharing products, ticketing for follow-ups, and an AI Agent on every plan.

What it fixes from Chatra

• Product selling in chat. The live Shopify catalog lets agents drop products into the conversation, a step beyond Chatra's cart view.
• AI included. Essential has 10 AI resolutions a month, Growth has 200, and extra packs of 50 cost $49.50.
• Security paperwork. Text is SOC 2 Type 2 audited and GDPR and CCPA compliant.

"One thing I dislike about LiveChat is that some advanced features can feel a bit expensive for smaller teams."

Aditya G., G2

Where it falls short

• Per-user pricing, like Chatra's, so seat costs still climb with the team.
• Essential keeps 60 days of conversation and file history.
• No free plan, only a 14-day trial.

Pricing

My LiveChat pricing post has worked examples, and Tidio vs LiveChat is the head-to-head.

Verdict: Pick LiveChat if chat is a sales channel for you and a small team lives in it. Skip it if per-seat pricing is why you are leaving Chatra; Crisp solves that better. The LiveChat AI review covers its agent.

5. Gorgias: a helpdesk built around orders

Best for: growing Shopify stores where most chats are about orders, returns and refunds.

Gorgias is where stores go when chat stops being the whole job. It is an ecommerce helpdesk that puts chat, email, SMS, voice and social in one inbox, with Shopify order data and actions next to every ticket. It bills by tickets, never by seat.

What it fixes from Chatra

• Orders you can act on. Agents edit, refund and cancel orders inside the ticket. Gorgias AI Agent can cancel unfulfilled orders, edit a shipping address, remove or replace an item and reship lost orders, per its AI Agent actions doc.
• No seat math. Basic, Pro and Advanced allow up to 500 seats.
• A real AI agent. It works on email and chat, and you pay only when it handles a conversation without a person.

"While the AI is not always fully accurate yet due to occasional hallucinations, we're hopeful ongoing improvements will help it provide accurate and helpful support the vast majority of the time."

Ramy Brook, Shopify review

Where it falls short

• Two meters: every ticket costs a helpdesk fee, and an AI-resolved one adds an automation fee on top, per the Gorgias billing doc.
• Cancellations and address edits are made in Shopify only and are not passed to 3PL apps.
• More setup than a chat widget; it replaces your inbox.

Pricing

Prices from Gorgias pricing. For worked examples, see Gorgias AI Agent pricing and my Gorgias live chat guide.

Verdict: Pick Gorgias if order questions are most of your chats and you are ready for a full helpdesk. Skip it if you mainly answer pre-sale questions, where it is more tool than you need. Gorgias alternatives for Shopify covers the rest.

6. Re:amaze: one inbox for several stores

Best for: brands running more than one store, or on platforms beyond Shopify, that want a full helpdesk.

Re:amaze, owned by GoDaddy, is a helpdesk for online stores with unlimited email inboxes, live chat, social, an FAQ center and chatbots on every plan. Pro adds unlimited brands, so several stores share one inbox. It sits at 4.4 stars from 181 Shopify reviews.

What it fixes from Chatra

• Order tools for agents. In the conversation, agents view and pin orders, refund, cancel and create draft orders, per Re:amaze for Shopify.
• An AI agent on a clear unit. It bills $0.85 per resolution after an allowance of 5, 10 or 20 per user seat, and escalated threads are not counted, per its billing doc.
• A flat option. Starter is $59 a month for unlimited team members, up to 500 responded conversations.

"I can definitively say this is probably the overall best option I have managed a team on, with a rich blend of features for the price."

My Pet Chicken, Shopify review

Where it falls short

• Per-user pricing on Basic, Pro and Plus.
• I found no AI-side refund or cancel action documented; those stay with your agents.
• No SOC 2 or ISO claim on the vendor pages I checked.

Pricing

Prices from Re:amaze pricing. My Re:amaze pricing post has the detail.

Verdict: Pick Re:amaze if you run several brands or want a helpdesk with a flat Starter plan. Skip it if one Shopify store is all you have; Gorgias goes deeper there. For AI on top of it, see AI for Re:amaze.

7. Shopify Inbox: free chat from Shopify itself

Best for: Shopify stores that want free chat and a basic AI agent without another vendor.

Shopify Inbox is Shopify's own chat app, free, with 4.6 stars from 5,806 reviews. It connects to your catalog, inventory and policies automatically, and the optional Inbox agent answers product questions in the tone and rules you set. When a shopper signs in with Shop, the agent can use their purchase history from across Shopify, per the listing.

What it fixes from Chatra

• Price. $0 for the whole team, against $31 a seat on Chatra Essential.
• An AI agent. Something Chatra will not add, here included for free and trained by the ratings you give its chats.
• Nothing to connect. Catalog, inventory and policies come in on install.

"This is good, requires a little learning. Would be great if it could take other actions additional to answering, for example, making a note on the order if it refers to one."

Roofing Supplies UK, Shopify review

Where it falls short

• Shopify only.
• The agent answers; it does not act on orders, as the review above points out.
• Some merchants turn it off after mistakes:

"This app has the potential to be a useful tool but as forewarned, it can make mistakes, and it does. I have had to disable it due to repeated mistakes that have negatively impacted my bottom line."

Signastyle Home, Shopify review

Pricing

Free on the Shopify App Store. My Shopify Inbox guide covers setup.

Verdict: Pick Shopify Inbox if you are on Shopify and want Chatra's job done for free with a light AI on top. Skip it if you need social channels or sell off Shopify. More picks in Shopify live chat apps.

8. Brevo Conversations: where Chatra's features went

Best for: stores that already email customers with Brevo and want chat in the same account.

Brevo owns Chatra, and Chatra's FAQ says new features ship in Brevo Conversations only. So if you like Chatra's style and want a tool that is still being built, this is the obvious place to look. Brevo now sells chat inside its sales packages, next to email marketing, a CRM and meetings, per the Brevo feature table.

What it fixes from Chatra

• Free chat for one person. Sales Free includes live chat and the Conversations mobile app at $0.
• The Chatra features you know. Sales Essentials adds chatbot scenarios, targeted chats, saved replies, invisible mode, chat ratings and a live visitor list with Shopify and BigCommerce cart contents.
• WhatsApp and an AI chatbot, on Sales Advanced, plus phone calls.

Where it falls short

• Your Chatra history does not come with you. Per Chatra's FAQ, moving conversations and settings is "not possible for now."
• The AI chatbot that answers open-ended questions is on Sales Advanced only, which pairs with Brevo's Professional or Enterprise marketing plans, from $449.08 a month.
• Brevo is a marketing suite first, so the pricing page takes a while to map to "I just want chat."

Pricing

Prices from Brevo's feature table, which lists them as "starting from" figures.

Verdict: Pick Brevo Conversations if you already use Brevo for email and want chat beside it. Skip it if AI answers are why you are leaving Chatra, since that sits on the top package.

9. eesel: an AI teammate for your store's chat

Best for: stores that want chats answered at any hour, from their own content and order data, with a clean handoff to a person.

eesel is not another chat inbox. It is an AI teammate you hire for support: it joins your store, reads your pages, help center and policies, and answers shoppers through a chat bubble you add with one script tag. With the Shopify integration it recommends products as add-to-cart cards, checks stock, looks up orders and tracking, and can start a return, refund or cancel an unfulfilled order, with a person approving each action if you want. One honest note: eesel has no Chatra integration, so it replaces the Chatra widget rather than sitting inside it, and hands chats to your helpdesk as tickets.

Three published customers show the store side:

• Beautek, a supplier to beauty and tattoo studios, answered 77 website chats live in German in a month and created 20 Zendesk tickets from chat for sales leads.
• ClutchLoop answered 27 website chats in the customer's own language and made 76 live product lookups in Shopify for prices, colors and stock.
• Question Beauty handled 990 Gorgias tickets in a month and looked up 290 Shopify orders before answering.

What it fixes from Chatra

• AI that answers typed questions, in the shopper's language, from your real store data instead of a button tree.
• Order actions, not just a cart view. Refunds, returns, cancellations and address changes, each with an optional approval step.
• No seat fee. Unlimited agents and seats; one chat is one credit however long it runs.

Where it falls short

• It is the AI layer, not a human chat app. If your team wants to answer chats live, pair it with a helpdesk such as Gorgias or Zendesk.
• $299 a month is more than three Chatra seats; it pays off when AI handles enough chats to free real hours.
• Shopify withholds customer names, emails and street addresses from apps, so the agent works from order data, not full customer profiles.

Pricing

Prices from eesel pricing. Paying a year upfront gets two months free.

Verdict: Pick eesel if after-hours chats and repeat order questions are the work you want off your plate. Skip it if you only need a free chat box your team answers by hand; tawk.to or Shopify Inbox does that.

What to check before you switch from Chatra

A chat widget takes five minutes to install and a week to replace well. These are the six things I'd check on your own store first.

1. History export. Chatra's customer email export sits under Reports, and its REST API, both on Pro. If you are on Essential, upgrade for a month or save what you need from email transcripts before you cancel. Brevo will not import it either.
2. Offline messages. Chatra switches to messenger mode when nobody is online, so shoppers can still leave a message. Make sure the new tool does the same, or that an AI answers instead.
3. Proactive triggers. Write down every Chatra trigger, its page and its delay, and rebuild them. My guide to live chat triggers has the ones worth keeping, and proactive chat covers the rest.
4. Mobile notifications. Chatra has mobile apps on every plan. Answer a test chat from your phone on the new tool before you switch.
5. Platform fit. Shopify Inbox is Shopify only. Gorgias supports Shopify and WooCommerce on all plans, and BigCommerce from Basic. Check your store builder first.
6. Total monthly cost. Add seats, AI and add-ons, not just the headline plan. The AI line is where most surprises are.

Then run both widgets for a week on different pages, compare reply times and missed chats, and cut over. My checklist of live chat features covers the smaller details.

Which Chatra alternative should you pick?

Start from your reason for leaving, not the feature list:

• Lower price: Shopify Inbox on Shopify, tawk.to anywhere else, or Crisp Mini if you want a flat paid plan.
• Better live chat: LiveChat for one or two sellers, Crisp for a team.
• AI that answers: Tidio for the cheapest start, eesel when the AI should also act on orders. My list of AI live chat apps ranks the wider field.
• A real helpdesk: Gorgias for one Shopify store, Re:amaze for several.
• Staying with Brevo: Brevo Conversations, accepting that history starts fresh.

If you are comparing more widely, my Chatway alternatives and Willdesk alternatives roundups cover the same shoppers' questions from other starting points, and live chat for ecommerce lists options without AI.

Try eesel on your store's chat

If Chatra's button bot left you answering "where is my order?" by hand, eesel takes those chats: it reads your store pages and Shopify orders, answers in the shopper's language, and passes the tricky ones to your team as a ticket. ClutchLoop's chat checks live prices and stock in Shopify instead of guessing from an old page. Try eesel free with 100 credits and run it on last month's real questions before a shopper sees it.