Chaty is one of the best free chat button widgets you can put on a website, and I give it 4 out of 5. It shows a floating button that opens WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS, a phone call or any of 20+ other channels, and the chat continues in that app. It runs on 300,000+ WordPress sites with 1,229 five-star reviews, and the free WordPress plugin has no time limit.
The pricing is the part to read twice. On WordPress you pay per site ($59 a year for one site, or $169 lifetime). On chaty.app and the Shopify app you pay by monthly visitors, and the free plan stops counting at 500 visitors, so a busy store moves to $15 to $399 a month.
The bigger point: Chaty multiplies the doors into your business, and every door still leads to a person. If those chats are turning into a queue, the gap is answering, which is where eesel's AI helpdesk teammate fits. Beautek, for example, had eesel answer 77 website chats in one month and turn 20 of them into sales tickets.
What is Chaty?
Chaty is a floating chat button for websites, made by Premio, a small company that also builds Chatway and other apps for WordPress, Shopify, Wix and Ecwid. The button opens a short column of channels, and the visitor taps the one they already use.
I build AI agents for support at eesel, so I spend a lot of time on the bit right after a customer clicks "contact us". Widgets matter more than people think. One buyer once ran a 67-question test of the eesel agent, rated the answers solid, and still walked away because the eesel chat widget felt slow and kept getting stuck. So I came to Chaty with one question first: is it light and fast? It is, and that is a big part of why it is so popular.
The same widget is sold in three ways:
- WordPress plugin on WordPress.org, free, with 300,000+ active installs and a paid Pro license from Premio.
- Shopify app on the Shopify App Store, rated 4.9 from 328 reviews.
- chaty.app, a hosted version with a code snippet for any other website, including Wix.
One naming note: Chaty is not chaty.ai, which is an unrelated AI receptionist, and not the Chaty social chat app. This review is about Premio's widget.
How does the Chaty widget work?
Chaty is a set of links with a good design around them. Per the WordPress listing, a WhatsApp click opens WhatsApp Web on desktop and the WhatsApp app on mobile. Messenger opens a Facebook chat window, email opens the visitor's mail app, and the phone icon starts a call.
From the engineering side, that design is clever. There is no server holding your conversations, no API account and no message templates, and the listing says Chaty is GDPR compliant because "all data is stored on your website". It is also why the plugin stays light.
The trade-off is that every channel lands somewhere different. WhatsApp chats arrive on a phone, Messenger chats in your Facebook inbox, texts on another phone, emails in a mail app.
Chaty adds channels, it does not merge them. For a solo owner, that is fine. For a team, it means no shared inbox, no assignment and no single history, which is the difference I explain in omnichannel vs multichannel support.
What features does Chaty have?
The feature list is long for a button. Everything below comes from Premio's own listings.
25 channels and a WhatsApp popup
You can pick from 25 channels, including WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram DMs, Telegram, Viber, Line, WeChat, SMS, phone, email, Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, Google Maps and a custom link. The free plugin also has a contact form channel and a WhatsApp popup that looks like a WhatsApp chat window before sending the visitor on.
On mobile this is the nicest part of the product. A shopper who would never wait on a live chat window will happily send a WhatsApp message and read your reply on the bus.
Agents, merge tags and preset messages
Pro adds agents: several people under one channel, so a visitor can pick "Sales" or "Support" on WhatsApp. It is basic ticket routing, done by the visitor instead of by software.
Pro also adds a preset WhatsApp message with {title} and {url} tags, so the first message tells you which page the customer came from. On WooCommerce, the chat popup can show the product name, price and description. That one detail saves a lot of "which product?" back and forth.
Triggers and targeting
You can show the widget on exit intent, after a delay or after a scroll, and target it by page, country, traffic source, date and opening hours. These are the same ideas I cover in live chat triggers, applied to a button. Hiding WhatsApp outside working hours is the practical one: it stops customers writing into silence at 2am, which is also why proactive chat needs a plan for who replies.
Analytics
Pro sends click events to Google Analytics and shows widget analytics in Premio's dashboard. As with every button widget, the data stops at the click. You learn which channel got tapped, not what was asked or how long the reply took, so your first response time stays invisible.
How much does Chaty cost?
Chaty has two price models, and which one you get depends on where your site is built. That is the single most useful thing to know before installing it.
Chaty for WordPress: priced per site
The WordPress plugin is free forever. Pro is sold by Premio as a license per number of sites, on Premio's Chaty page, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
| Sites | 1 year | 2 years | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 website | $59 | $89 | $169 |
| 5 websites | $129 | $199 | $329 |
| 50 websites | $209 | $329 | $569 |
| 500 websites | $419 | $619 | $999 |
| 1,000 websites | $569 | $869 | $1,399 |
Premio's WordPress pricing names no visitor limit. For an agency running client sites, the 50-site license at $209 a year works out to about $4 per site.
Chaty on chaty.app and Shopify: priced per visitor
Everywhere else, you pay for the number of unique visitors who can see the widget each month. The counter resets monthly. Per chaty.app pricing, going over means you are "asked to upgrade or wait till your billing period resets".
| Plan | Visitors a month | Billed monthly | Billed yearly (per month) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 500 | $0 | $0 |
| Basic | 10,000 | $15 | $12.50 |
| Pro | 50,000 | $39 | $33 |
| Growth | 150,000 | $79 | $66 |
| Growth | 300,000 | $139 | $116 |
| Growth | 500,000 | $199 | $166 |
| Growth | 1,000,000 | $319 | $266 |
| Growth | 2,000,000 | $399 | $333 |
Basic and up add agents, the chat view popup, traffic source and country targeting, scheduling, WhatsApp preset tags, Google Analytics and custom CSS. The Shopify listing uses the same tiers and bills every 30 days in USD.
Which Chaty plan should you buy?
Plug in your own numbers. The calculator picks the chaty.app tier for your traffic and, if you are on WordPress, compares it with the per-site license.
Type your monthly visitors and pick your platform to see which Chaty plan you need and what it costs over time.
A WordPress site with 20,000 visitors a month pays $118 over two years for Pro, against $792 for chaty.app's Pro tier billed yearly. Same widget, same features, nearly 7x the price depending on where you install it.
Where the listings disagree
I checked every listing and found a few gaps worth knowing:
- Yearly discount. chaty.app says "Save 20%", the Shopify listing says "save 17%". The math agrees with Shopify: $150 a year against $180 is about 17%.
- Yearly totals. Shopify lists Pro at $390 a year and Growth at $790, while chaty.app's per-month yearly prices work out to $396 and $792.
- Install count. chaty.app says "400,000+ websites", WordPress.org shows 300,000+ active installs.
- What is free on WordPress. The WordPress FAQ lists country, traffic source and hours targeting in the free plan, while the Pro list on the same page includes them. Expect to need Pro for targeting.
What do Chaty users say?
The ratings are about as high as plugin ratings get. On WordPress.org, 1,229 of 1,244 reviews are five stars and 5 are one star. On Shopify it is 317 five-star reviews out of 328, and Chaty's Trustpilot page shows 4.7 from 30 reviews.
The detailed praise is about how light and easy it is, often from people managing many sites:
"I manage about 30 local business websites. They want their clients to have quick and easy access to call or text them. This is easy to install, lightweight, and graphically pleasing. Plus, it works!"
"Excellent Chat widget, simple, small, and sleek, user options to email me, connect on WhatsApp and LInkedIn, who needs a contact page?! Job done."
The complaints cluster around the visitor counter and upgrade prompts on the hosted version. On Shopify reviews, a UK mobility store wrote that it "was a little annoyed when the cycle stopped mid month", then realised it was the free plan's limit. A one-star Shopify review from August 2026 says the app "appears to count store visits even when it isn't being used". Premio replied to both.
On WordPress, the recurring theme is that customizing past the basics means Pro:
"Unfortunately you have to pay for the Premium version to customize anything more than the place holder text and to translate the Plugin, WPML string translations do not work."
And one Reddit post sums up the product's scope better than any review. A tour operator trying to restore a WhatsApp booking flow noted:
"I only have "Chaty", which just adds a floating widget, not the booking flow."
I found no G2 or Capterra listing for Chaty, so the marketplaces and Trustpilot are the public record.
Where does Chaty fall short?
None of these are bugs. They are the edges of what a button can do, and they are worth knowing before you build a support process on it.
- No inbox. Each channel lands in its own app. There is no assignment, no shared history and no way to see what a teammate already promised.
- No AI or automatic answers. The WhatsApp preset message and the contact form are the only automated pieces. "Where is my order?" still needs a person, where an AI agent could answer it.
- No helpdesk link. Nothing in the listings connects chats to Zendesk, Gorgias or Freshdesk, so WhatsApp sits outside your ticketing system and your reports.
- A visitor meter on hosted plans. On chaty.app and Shopify, 500 visitors a month is a small number for a store, and the widget waits for next month once you pass it.
- Translation and deeper styling need Pro. Per the WordPress review above, sites that need multilingual chat should budget for the license.
Premio's own answer to the first two is a separate product, Chatway, which adds a live chat inbox and an AI Support Agent. Per Chatway's pricing, it has a free plan with 50 conversations a month, Plus at $39 a month with 200 conversations, and AI at $0.50 per resolved conversation. That is worth a look if you want to stay in the Premio family.
Who should use Chaty?
Ask one question: who answers, and from where?
| You are... | Verdict |
|---|---|
| A WordPress or WooCommerce site, owner answers from their phone | Free plugin, add Pro at $59 a year if you want agents |
| An agency running many client sites | Pro 50-site license, about $4 per site a year |
| A small Shopify or Wix store under 10,000 visitors | Basic at $15 a month works |
| A store with 2-5 people splitting questions by topic | Works, using agents and opening hours |
| A support team already running a helpdesk | Skip; you need WhatsApp inside the helpdesk |
| A brand getting dozens of repeat questions a day | Skip; the bottleneck is answering, not the button |
What are the alternatives to Chaty?
Split them by what happens after the click.
- Another button. Smartarget does a WhatsApp-only version from $6.25 a month, and Elfsight sells chat widgets too. On Wix, my Wix Smart Chat review covers the built-in option.
- A live chat with an inbox. Tools like Tidio and Crisp keep the conversation on your site. My live chat for ecommerce roundup compares them.
- A WhatsApp API inbox. Providers put WhatsApp in a shared team inbox; start with the API provider list.
- WhatsApp inside your helpdesk, with AI answering. See Gorgias WhatsApp and Zendesk WhatsApp, then put an AI teammate on top.
For the full field, see my best WhatsApp chatbot list, and for WooCommerce stores, my AI for WooCommerce support picks.
Chaty review verdict: is it worth it?
4 out of 5. For what it sets out to do, Chaty is excellent. It is light, it covers 25 channels, the free WordPress plugin is generous with no time limit, and the Pro license is cheap, especially for agencies. Reviewers also keep mentioning fast support from Premio.
I take a point off for the visitor meter on hosted plans, which makes the same widget cost several times more off WordPress, and for the listing inconsistencies on what is free. And for support teams, it solves the smallest part of the problem. Getting customers to message you is easy; answering them all is the work.
Where does eesel fit next to Chaty?
The two do different jobs: Chaty gets the visitor into WhatsApp or Messenger, and eesel answers them once they are there. eesel is an AI teammate platform, and for this job the relevant teammate is the AI helpdesk teammate.
It connects to a WhatsApp Business number, Facebook Messenger and SMS, answers from your knowledge base, docs and past tickets, and hands the conversation to your team by topic or confidence.
If you would rather keep the chat on your site, eesel's chat bubble is one script tag. For WooCommerce stores there is a WooCommerce integration and a free eesel plugin that connects the store to the agent.
Two customers show what that looks like in practice. Beautek, a German B2B equipment supplier, runs eesel as the chat on its site in German. In one month it answered 77 website chats live and created 20 Zendesk tickets from chat, most of them sales leads with the buyer's details attached. Compare that with a Chaty contact form, which emails you the lead and stops there.
Question Beauty gets short Messenger and chat messages, often just a product name and "price?". eesel answers in the customer's language with a product link and checks Shopify before any order reply. In one month it handled about 990 tickets, sent about 960 replies and closed about 280 without a person, while refunds and complaints went to the team with a note.
The pattern I see most is simple: a button like Chaty comes first, then the volume, then the question of who answers at 2am. My guides on automating WhatsApp support and WhatsApp auto replies cover the steps in between.
Try eesel
If Chaty is already sending more WhatsApp and Messenger questions than you can answer from your phone, eesel's AI helpdesk teammate can take the repeat ones: order status from your store, product questions from your help center, and a clean handoff for refunds. It starts free with 100 credits, and paid plans begin at $299 a month for 500 credits, where one chat is one credit (eesel pricing).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Chaty?
Chaty is a floating chat button widget made by Premio. A visitor clicks it, picks WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS, a phone call or one of 20+ other channels, and the conversation continues in that app. It is not a live chat inbox or a chatbot.
Is Chaty free?
On WordPress, yes: the free plugin has no time limit and covers unlimited channels and the WhatsApp popup. On chaty.app and Shopify, the free plan stops at 500 unique visitors a month, after which you upgrade or wait for the reset. This Chaty review covers both routes in the pricing section.
How much does Chaty cost?
Chaty Pro for WordPress is $59 a year for one site or $169 lifetime. On chaty.app it is billed by monthly visitors: Basic $15, Pro $39 and Growth from $79 up to $399 a month for 2,000,000 visitors. For the cost of answering the chats themselves, see eesel pricing.
Does Chaty have AI or a chatbot?
No. Chaty routes visitors to your messaging apps and a person replies. Premio sells AI separately in Chatway, its live chat product. If you want WhatsApp questions answered automatically, look at a WhatsApp AI chatbot or eesel for WhatsApp.
Does Chaty work with Shopify and WooCommerce?
Yes. The Shopify app is rated 4.9 from 328 reviews, and the WordPress plugin works with WooCommerce, adding product name merge tags in Pro. Shopify stores weighing a fuller setup can read my Shopify WhatsApp integration guide.
What is a good Chaty alternative for support teams?
If you only need buttons, Chaty is hard to beat. If chats are piling up, you need an inbox plus something that answers, like eesel's AI on WhatsApp and its chat bubble. Plans start at $299 a month for 500 credits, where one chat is one credit.