Some businesses require live chat assistance.
It’s a great way to add trustworthiness to your website and offer support for your services.
Facebook Messenger is the second most downloaded app in the world!
It is so popular, in fact, 2.9 billion people worldwide are using it every month.
WordPress has many good free and premium plugins to add live chat functionality to your website.
These plugins will provide a visible chat button for your visitors or clients to contact you via Facebook Messenger.
Why is Facebook live chat (or any other app) better than dedicated live chat options?
Big companies have in-house chat systems, and they sometimes fail to answer in time. The users leave the website and forget about the whole conversation.
When using third-party apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. users don’t have to stay on your website to get the answerback but instead can receive answers whenever they are, on their favorite chat application.
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In this article, I’ll share what I think are the best Facebook live chat plugins and how to implement them quickly on your WordPress website.
Before we start, let’s clear up some things and answer some FAQs.
What do you need to do/have to use a Facebook live chat plugin on your WP website?
- You need to have a Facebook page (you should be the administrator of the page) and be logged into Facebook.
- You’ll receive messages in your Facebook Messenger app. You don’t need to be logged in to your WordPress dashboard in order to reply to your customers.
- You don’t need a Facebook developer account!
👉 Free WordPress Live Chat Plugins (with Facebook support)
We have to start with Metas’ own plugin. Facebook Chat Plugin is the official plugin made and supported by Facebook (Meta).
The app can create automated responses to questions to help clients while you’re not accessible.
It gets the job done, but some users are unhappy with the app, and continued bad reviews can be seen online.
Chat preview:
For some reason, the plugin doesn’t work for quite some users. Some of the reviews are really bad:
“This plugin should be removed as it doesn’t function properly and the developer is not responding to quite genuine requests for help I am complaining about no response after 4 days, but I see 2 similar posts (similar problems) that have had no reply for more than a week and a month respectively”
~ dzseti (@dzseti)
For me, it worked for the limited time I’ve been testing it. If one thing is for sure, you can rely on Facebook support to answer you when you need help.
Chaty is different than the other live chat plugins.
The chat doesn’t happen on your website but on Facebook (or the Messanger app, or in fact on any of the other supported apps like WhatsApp).
This way is giving the users more flexibility to chat with the website staff in their preferred app, and not from the website interface.
The plugin has more the 700 positive reviews and it is known for working the way it should.
Chat preview:
3. WP – Chatbot
WP – Chatbot is created and developed by MobileMonkey.
The plugin adds live chat functionality and also gives you the option to add chatbot technology.
We all know that chatbots suck, but if you put in the effort you can at least make it tolerable.
Chat preview:
With JivoChat you will get 14 days of full features, and after the period ends you can continue to use the plugin for free.
The plugin is translated into 25 languages, which makes it an excellent choice if you have a non-English website.
You will need to register on their website to use the plugin.
Chat preview:
5. Chaport
Chaport offers 4 plans for its users – Free, Premium, Business, and Enterprise.
Similar to JivoChat you’ll need registration as most of the settings are handled externally (not in your WP dashboard, but on their website).
Chaport supports Facebook and all the other major messaging apps. Currently, it supports 31 languages.
The free plan has 2 operators included, a 60-day chat history, and basic customizations to the chat design.
Chat preview:
Note that there are many other apps on the repository and premium marketplaces, but as with everything I selected only the most updated, supported, and “lively” plugins out there.
If you think there is a live chat plugin that deserves to be on the list, please write it in the comments section below.
Good luck with the communication with your users. 😅
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