Looking for Elfsight alternatives? Elfsight is a widget marketplace with 80+ embeddable widgets: social feeds, galleries, countdowns, forms, reviews, and a chat button. Most people searching for an alternative want one of two things. Either another widget marketplace with a broader free tier, or a proper communication tool because the Elfsight chat widget is a static contact button, not a real chat product.
TL;DR: Elfsight is a widget marketplace, not a chat tool. If you want a similar marketplace, Common Ninja, Embeddable, and Tagembed are the closest direct competitors with usable free tiers. If you specifically want the chat/contact widget done right (AI chatbot, real-time messaging, WhatsApp, unified inbox), Boei is the right pick from $19/month, EU-hosted in Amsterdam. Other chat-only picks range from free (tawk.to, GetButton) to $40/month (Kommunicate).
| Tool | Type | Starting Price | AI Chatbot | Best For | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boei | Chat widget | $19/mo with AI | Included | Included | Chat/contact widget done right |
| Common Ninja | Widget marketplace | Free / from $5/mo | No | Link only | Direct Elfsight marketplace swap |
| Embeddable | Widget marketplace | Free / from $25/mo | No | No | Lighter widget alternative |
| Tagembed | Social widgets | Free / from $19/mo | No | No | Social media aggregation |
| Tidio | Chat widget | Free / $24.17/mo | Per conversation | $59/mo extra | E-commerce chat |
| Crisp | Chat widget | Mini $45/mo | Plus $295/mo | Essentials+ | Built-in knowledge base |
| tawk.to | Chat widget | Free | $29/mo add-on | No | Zero budget |
| Chatbase | AI chatbot | $40/mo ($32/mo annual) | Included | Via integration | Standalone AI chatbot |
| GetButton | Contact button | Free | No | No | Simple contact button |
| LiveChat | Chat widget | $20/agent/mo | Separate product | Via integration | Agent teams |
| Chatfuel | Social DM bot | $14.39/mo | Included | Yes | Social media DMs |
| HubSpot Service Hub | Chat + CRM | Free / $45/mo | Included | Higher plans | HubSpot users |
| Kommunicate | Chat widget | $40/mo | Included | Yes | Mobile apps |
Skip the comparison, try Boei free. AI chatbot, live chat, unified inbox, and 50+ channels from $19/month. EU-hosted in Amsterdam. Start your 7-day free trial (no credit card required).
One widget, five tools' worth. Boei combines AI chatbot, live chat, unified inbox, built-in CRM, and 50+ contact channels (WhatsApp, email, SMS, Messenger, forms, more). From $19/month, EU-hosted in Amsterdam, used by 17,000+ businesses (4.7/5 on G2, 5/5 on Capterra, 4.7/5 on Trustpilot). Most teams pay for each of these tools separately.
Before diving into the alternatives, here is why website owners leave Elfsight for chat and contact needs. Four issues come up repeatedly.
1. AI chatbot is separate and limited. Elfsight recently added an AI Chatbot widget that can train on custom data and hold real conversations. But it is a standalone widget, separate from their chat contact button. The free plan allows only 50 messages. You may need two Elfsight widgets (chat + AI chatbot) to cover basic needs, while alternatives bundle everything in one.
2. No real-time messaging. The Elfsight chat widget does not offer actual live chat. It redirects visitors to WhatsApp, Messenger, or email by opening those apps. There is no built-in inbox, no conversation history, and no way to respond in real time.
3. Per-widget pricing adds up. Elfsight charges per widget and per site. Want a chat button, a contact form, and a social proof notification? You are paying for three separate widgets. Costs add up fast for businesses with multiple sites.
4. The chat widget lacks depth. Compared to dedicated tools, the Elfsight chat widget has limited customization. You cannot set up automated flows or route conversations to team members. There is no conversation analytics or deep CRM integration.
Also see: Free Elfsight Alternatives.
Elfsight's free plan caps each widget at 200 monthly views and forces a Made with Elfsight badge. That is tight for most production sites. If a working free tier is the main reason you are looking, these are the picks worth testing first.
The honest read: there is no single tool that gives you the full Elfsight widget catalog for free. Common Ninja covers the broadest set. For the chat widget specifically, Boei's free plan is more useful than Elfsight's because there is no monthly view cap and the channel list is wider.
Boei is the Elfsight alternative built for chat, not website widgets. Where Elfsight gives you a gallery of small embeds, Boei is one chat widget with an AI chatbot and live agent handoff. WhatsApp, a shared inbox, and a built-in CRM come included. Hosted in Amsterdam, GDPR by default. Rated 4.7/5 on G2 by 17,000+ businesses.
The AI trains on your website, PDFs, products, and past support replies. Products sync via CSV or Google Sheets. From the Starter plan, the agentic AI books via Google Calendar, fires webhooks, calculates quotes, and looks up order status. It also hands off to a human agent. The same AI runs on the website widget and on WhatsApp. Pricing is flat. Starter is $19/month on annual billing with 2,000 AI credits. Growth is $49/month with the deal pipeline and API. Business is $129/month with white-label. See the full pricing breakdown.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Best for: Sites that need a real chat/contact widget with AI plus CRM. Skip Boei if what you actually wanted was a widget marketplace (galleries, feeds, countdowns).
Pricing: From $19/month flat (Starter, annual). Growth $49/month. Business $129/month. 7-day free trial, no credit card.
Common Ninja is the closest like-for-like alternative to Elfsight. It is a widget marketplace with a similar catalog: social feeds, reviews, countdowns, sliders, audio players, FAQ accordions, comparison tables, pricing tables, and dozens more. If you came here because you want the same shape of product (a gallery of embeddable plugins) just at a better price or with a more workable free tier, this is the swap.
The free plan is genuinely usable. Most widgets in the catalog have a free tier without the per-widget monthly view cap that Elfsight applies. Branding shows on free widgets, but you can remove it on paid plans. The editor is clean and the widgets render fast. Integrations cover Shopify, WordPress, Wix, Webflow, Squarespace, and most major CMS platforms.
Common Ninja's chat-related widgets (a contact form widget, a WhatsApp chat link widget) are exactly as thin as Elfsight's. They are link launchers, not communication tools. There is no AI chatbot, no inbox, no live messaging. If you want the chat widget specifically to do real work, pair Common Ninja with Boei or use Boei alone. If the contact-button pattern is all you actually need, our GetButton alternatives guide compares the floating button tools head to head. If you want the rest of the widget catalog (galleries, social proof, countdowns), Common Ninja is the right home for those.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Best for: Site owners who want the Elfsight shape (a marketplace of embeddable widgets) with a more usable free tier.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans from around $5/month per widget. Bundles available for multiple widgets.
Embeddable takes a narrower slice of the widget market than Elfsight. It focuses on interactive widgets that actually do something: forms, calculators, quizzes, popups, lead capture, and AI agents. Less of the social-feed and gallery stuff, more of the conversion tools.
The pitch is no-code interactive widgets that you embed on WordPress, Shopify, Wix, or anywhere with a script tag. Built-in features cover A/B testing, lead capture, and integrations with HubSpot and Mailchimp. Templates exist for the most common patterns (price calculators, lead qualification quizzes, booking forms).
The catalog is smaller than Common Ninja or Elfsight, so this is not a one-to-one swap if your existing setup leans heavily on social feeds or visual widgets. But for sites whose Elfsight usage is mainly about forms and lead capture, Embeddable is often cleaner and the analytics are better.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Best for: Sites that use widgets mainly for lead capture and interactive content rather than visual social proof.
Pricing: Free tier available. Starter from $25/month. Pro $45/month. Business $185/month.
Tagembed is a specialist. Where Elfsight and Common Ninja spread across 80+ widget types, Tagembed concentrates on social media feed aggregation and reviews widgets. It pulls feeds from Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Vimeo, and a long list of review sites (Google, Yelp, Trustpilot, Airbnb, Booking).
The depth on social and reviews is the differentiator. Filters let you exclude posts by keyword, hashtag, or user. Moderation tools let you approve content before it appears. The widget loads as a wall, slider, or grid, with custom CSS available on paid tiers. This is what you reach for when the Elfsight Instagram or Google Reviews widget is the only one you actually use and you want a deeper version of it.
For anything outside social feeds and reviews, Tagembed will not cover you. No contact forms, no countdowns, no chat widgets. Pair it with Boei for chat or Common Ninja for the rest of the marketplace catalog.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Best for: Sites that mainly want strong Instagram, TikTok, or Google Reviews walls and not a general widget marketplace.
Pricing: Free plan available. Starter from $19/month. Growth from $29/month. Advance from $79/month.
Tidio has carved out a strong position in e-commerce. It is popular among Shopify and WooCommerce stores. It combines live chat with AI-powered chatbots for product recommendations, order status, and abandoned cart recovery.
The AI chatbot, called Lyro, resolves a good share of customer questions without human help. It learns from your FAQ content and support docs, then handles conversations naturally. The catch is per-conversation pricing. Lyro is billed per conversation, so costs can rise fast for high-traffic stores.
WhatsApp integration exists but requires the Tidio+ plan starting at $59/month. That puts it out of reach for smaller businesses. The free plan works for basic live chat. But the best features like AI, WhatsApp, and advanced analytics are locked behind higher tiers.
Weaknesses:
Best for: E-commerce stores that want AI-assisted sales and support with deep platform integrations.
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans from $24.17/month (annual). Lyro AI conversations billed separately per conversation.
Crisp is a French-built customer messaging platform with live chat, a shared inbox, a knowledge base, and chatbot features in a clean interface. EU hosting is a fair pick for GDPR, though Boei is also EU-hosted in Amsterdam and includes AI plus 50+ channels from $19/month, where Crisp gates AI behind the $295/month Plus (AI-First Support Suite) plan.
The platform supports around six messaging channels: email, live chat, Messenger, and Instagram. WhatsApp lives on the Essentials and Plus tiers, and AI-powered chatbot features only unlock on Plus at $295/month. The free tier gives you basic live chat for two agents, a fair starting point for small teams.
Crisp stands out with co-browsing and video chat on higher plans. Support agents can see a visitor's screen or start a video call from the chat widget. These features are useful for complex support cases but come at a premium price. For more EU-hosted chat picks, see our Crisp alternatives guide.
Weaknesses:
Best for: Teams that want a polished French-built live chat with co-browsing, and don't mind paying $295/month to unlock AI.
Pricing: Free for 2 agents. Mini at $45/month. Essentials at $95/month. Plus (AI-First Support Suite) at $295/month.
tawk.to is the most well-known free live chat tool on the market. It gives you a full live chat widget with no usage limits, no conversation caps, and no time restrictions. The core product is free, making it the obvious pick for businesses that cannot invest in paid tools yet.
The trade-off is clear: you get live chat and only live chat. There is no built-in AI chatbot, no WhatsApp integration, and no multi-channel features. If you want AI to handle conversations, tawk.to offers it as a paid add-on at $29/month. That somewhat undercuts the free positioning.
The widget is customizable and the dashboard works fine, but the interface feels dated next to newer competitors. Branding removal also requires a paid upgrade. If you strictly need a free live chat box on your website, tawk.to delivers.
Weaknesses:
Best for: Solo entrepreneurs and small businesses that need free live chat and nothing more.
Pricing: Free. AI assistant add-on at $29/month. Branding removal at $19/month.
Chatbase focuses on one thing: letting you build an AI chatbot trained on your own data. You upload documents, paste your website URL, or connect your knowledge base. Chatbase then creates a conversational AI that answers visitor questions from that content.
The platform does not try to be a multi-channel hub. WhatsApp is available via integration, but there is no Messenger and no shared inbox for your team. It is primarily an AI chatbot widget that you embed on your site. If you want to automate FAQ responses and cut support tickets, this simplicity is a plus.
Pricing starts at $40/month with a fair number of AI conversations included. The chatbot matches your brand colors. You can adjust the AI personality and response style. It connects with Slack and Zapier for notifications. But the core experience is a standalone chat bubble. For more AI-chatbot picks, see our Chatbase alternatives guide.
Weaknesses:
Best for: Businesses that want a simple AI chatbot without a full communication platform.
Pricing: From $40/month (or $32/month annual). Free tier available with limited messages.
GetButton is the closest alternative to what Elfsight actually does with its chat widget. It gives you a floating button that links to various messaging apps. You pick from 20+ channels and the widget shows them as clickable icons. When a visitor clicks one, it opens that app.
There is no AI, no live chat inbox, no conversation tracking, and no automation. GetButton is upfront about this: it is a contact button, not a messaging platform. The widget just makes it easy for visitors to reach you through their preferred app. It is free for basic use.
The lack of any intelligence or inbox means you manage conversations across multiple apps by hand. For businesses that get a few inquiries per day, this works. For anything more, you will feel the limits fast.
Weaknesses:
Best for: Freelancers and micro-businesses that want a simple floating button linking to their messaging apps.
Pricing: Free. Premium plans available for customization.
LiveChat is a mature, production-ready live chat platform built for support teams. It has a solid agent dashboard with chat routing, canned responses, workload management, and performance analytics. If you have five or more agents handling customer chats, LiveChat is built for that.
The platform does not include an AI chatbot. That is a separate product called ChatBot, sold on its own. WhatsApp works through third-party connectors but is not a native feature. This split approach means you may end up paying for multiple products to get what some alternatives bundle in one plan.
Per-agent pricing at $20/month per agent means costs grow with your team. A ten-person support team costs $200/month before adding AI or integrations. The product is polished and reliable, but the pricing model gets expensive for growing teams.
Weaknesses:
Best for: Businesses with dedicated support teams that need agent management tools.
Pricing: From $20/agent/month. ChatBot sold separately from $19/user/month (annual).
Chatfuel specializes in AI-powered chatbots for social media. It covers Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp. If your customer conversations happen mainly on social channels, Chatfuel is built for that.
The platform has a visual flow builder for creating automated conversation sequences. You can set up lead qualification, product catalogs, appointment booking, and FAQ automation. The AI uses OpenAI models to handle natural language beyond the scripted flows.
The limit is the narrow channel focus. Chatfuel does not provide a website chat widget in the usual sense. It is built for social platforms. If you need live chat on your website alongside social messaging, you will need a second tool.
Weaknesses:
Best for: Businesses whose customer interactions happen mainly on Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.
Pricing: From $14.39/month. Usage-based pricing on higher tiers.
If your business already runs on HubSpot's CRM, the Service Hub's chat features plug right into your contact records, deals, and tickets. Every chat conversation shows up in the contact timeline. Your team gets full context without switching tools.
The free tier includes basic live chat and a simple chatbot builder. AI features, WhatsApp, and advanced automation need the Starter plan at $45/month or higher. The chatbot builder is decent but less powerful than dedicated AI platforms. It works best for structured flows, not open-ended AI conversations.
For businesses not already on HubSpot, adopting Service Hub just for chat does not make sense. The value comes from CRM integration. But for current HubSpot users, adding chat to their website is effectively free. It also gives conversation context that standalone tools cannot match.
Weaknesses:
Best for: Businesses already using HubSpot CRM that want chat in their existing workflow.
Pricing: Free tier available. Starter at $45/month. WhatsApp on Professional plan and above.
Kommunicate positions itself as a support automation platform with strong mobile app integration. It offers native SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter. This makes it easy to embed chat into mobile apps, not just websites.
The AI chatbot is built on large language models and trains on your docs and FAQ content. It works with Dialogflow, Amazon Lex, and IBM Watson for teams that use existing NLU tools. WhatsApp and Telegram are available on all paid plans.
At $40/month as the entry point, Kommunicate is not cheap. The price makes sense if you need mobile app chat with AI. But for website-only use, several alternatives on this list offer more value for less.
Weaknesses:
Best for: Companies that need AI-powered chat in their mobile apps alongside their website.
Pricing: From $40/month. 30-day free trial available.
| Feature | Elfsight | Common Ninja | Embeddable | Tagembed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes (200 views/mo cap) | Yes (broader) | Yes (basic) | Yes (limited updates) |
| Catalog breadth | 80+ widgets | 100+ widgets | Forms, quizzes, calculators | Social feeds, reviews |
| Entry paid plan | $5/mo per widget | ~$5/mo per widget | $25/mo | $19/mo |
| Best free pick | No | Common Ninja | Embeddable | Tagembed (social) |
| Feature | Elfsight Chat | Boei | Tidio | tawk.to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real-time messaging | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AI chatbot in chat widget | Separate widget | Included from $19/mo | Per conversation | $29/mo add-on |
| Static link only | Included | $59/mo plan | Not available | |
| Total with AI + WhatsApp | Not possible | $19/mo | $80+/mo | Not possible |
Still weighing your options? Boei replaces the Elfsight stack with one widget: AI, live chat, CRM, WhatsApp, and 50+ channels from $19/month. Try it free for 7 days.
Common Ninja is the closest direct marketplace swap. Similar catalog (social feeds, countdowns, sliders, FAQ accordions, pricing tables), similar shape, more workable free tier without Elfsight's monthly view cap on most widgets. Embeddable is a lighter alternative if your usage is mainly forms, quizzes, and calculators. Tagembed is the specialist for social feed and reviews aggregation.
For the chat and contact widget specifically, Boei offers the best mix of features and price. It bundles AI chatbot, live chat, unified inbox, built-in CRM, and 50+ channels (WhatsApp, Messenger, email, SMS, forms) in one widget that runs on the website and on WhatsApp from the same training. Plans start from $19/month (Starter, annual). Unlike Elfsight's chat widget, it provides actual messaging rather than a static link launcher.
Yes, Elfsight recently added an AI Chatbot widget that trains on your custom data and holds real conversations. It starts with a free plan (50 messages) and paid tiers for more volume. However, it is a separate widget from the chat contact button. You need two Elfsight widgets to get both multi-channel contact links and AI chat, which adds to the per-widget cost. Dedicated tools like Boei bundle AI chatbot and multi-channel contact in a single widget.
Elfsight is a widget marketplace with 80+ widget types including social feeds, galleries, forms, countdowns, and chat buttons. Each widget serves a different purpose, and chat is just one of many. A dedicated chat tool like Boei, Tidio, or Crisp focuses on visitor communication. It offers deeper features like AI chatbots, conversation routing, analytics, and real-time messaging.
Boei, Tidio, Crisp, Chatfuel, HubSpot, and Kommunicate all support WhatsApp. Pricing varies a lot. Boei includes WhatsApp from $19/month (Starter plan). Tidio requires the $59/month add-on. Crisp includes WhatsApp on Essentials at $95/month. Chatfuel includes WhatsApp on all paid plans from $14.39/month.
Yes. For widget marketplaces, Common Ninja has the broadest free tier across its catalog. Tagembed has a free plan for social feeds. Embeddable has a free tier for forms and quizzes. For the chat widget specifically, Boei has a free plan with 50+ channels, tawk.to is fully free for live chat, and GetButton is free for the multi-channel contact button. See the Free Elfsight Alternatives section above for the full picture.
Boei and GetButton both let you show multiple messaging channels in a single widget. Boei supports over 50 channels including WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, Signal, live chat, email, and phone. GetButton supports 20+ channels as clickable links. Most other tools on this list focus on fewer channels but offer deeper features within those channels.
Elfsight is a solid widget marketplace. The right alternative depends on what you actually want.
If you want another widget marketplace (social feeds, countdowns, galleries, sliders, forms in one catalog), Common Ninja is the closest direct swap with a more workable free tier. Embeddable is lighter and better for forms and quizzes. Tagembed is the deepest pick for social and reviews aggregation.
If you want the chat/contact widget done right, Boei is the answer. 50+ channels in one widget, AI chatbot, real-time messaging, unified inbox, built-in CRM from $19/month (Starter, annual) with 2,000 AI credits. EU-hosted in Amsterdam. 7-day free trial, no credit card needed.
Try Boei free and see how it compares to the Elfsight chat widget.
Article by
Ruben is the founder of Boei, with 12+ years of experience in conversion optimization. Former IT consultant at Ernst & Young and Accenture, where he helped product teams at Shell, ING, Rabobank, Aegon, NN, and AirFrance/KLM optimize their digital experiences. Now building tools to help businesses convert more website visitors into customers.
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