Comparison
TGLiveChat vs Tawk.to: Both Free, One Lives in Your Pocket
This is a weird comparison because both are free. Tawk.to has about 20% of the live chat market, which is massive. They got there by being free and having a ton of features. TGLiveChat is free too, but it takes a completely different approach. Let's break it down.
TGLiveChat
Lightweight live chat that sends every message to Telegram. You reply from your phone. No dashboard to keep open, no separate app to download. Just Telegram doing what Telegram does best: instant notifications and fast replies.
Tawk.to
The most popular free live chat out there. Over 20% market share. Comes with ticketing, a knowledge base, CRM (paid), AI Assist (paid), and you can even hire chat agents from them for $1/hour. It's a full support platform that happens to be free at its core.
The real difference isn't features
Tawk.to gives you more stuff. That's not even debatable. Ticketing, knowledge base, visitor monitoring, screen sharing, video chat, automated triggers. It's a full support platform.
But here's the thing. All of that lives inside Tawk.to's dashboard. You need to be logged into their web app or have their mobile app open. It's another tab. Another app. Another thing to check.
TGLiveChat takes the opposite approach. There is no dashboard for replying (well, there is one now at /inbox, but the core idea is Telegram). A visitor sends a message, your phone buzzes with a Telegram notification, you reply right there. Same app you use to text your friends and coordinate with your team.
So the question isn't "which has more features." It's "where do you want your customer conversations to live?" If the answer is Telegram, that's us. If the answer is a dedicated support platform with all the bells and whistles, that's Tawk.to.
Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | TGLiveChat | Tawk.to |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free (100 chats/mo) | Free (unlimited) |
| Paid plan price | $12/mo (Pro) | $19/mo (remove branding) |
| Revenue model | Paid plans | Upsells + paid add-ons |
| Reply from | Telegram app | Tawk.to dashboard/app |
| Setup time | 2 minutes | 5-10 minutes |
| Widget size | ~10KB gzipped | ~200KB+ |
| Ticketing system | No | Yes (built-in) |
| Knowledge base | No | Yes (built-in) |
| AI Assist | Not yet | Yes (paid add-on) |
| CRM | Basic visitor info | Yes (paid add-on) |
| White-label / remove branding | Yes (Pro plan, $12/mo) | Yes ($19/mo) |
| Canned responses | Yes (via Telegram /r) | Yes |
| Pre-chat forms | Yes | Yes |
| Working hours | Yes | Yes |
| Visitor tracking | Basic (page, referrer, country) | Detailed |
| File sharing | Images | Files + images |
| Chat history | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-language widget | Yes (EN/AR) | Yes (45+ languages) |
| Shadow DOM isolation | Yes | No |
| Mobile app for agents | Telegram (already installed) | Tawk.to app (separate download) |
| Simultaneous chats | Unlimited (Telegram handles it) | Unlimited |
| Agent-to-agent chat | Yes (it's just Telegram) | Yes (built-in) |
Where Tawk.to genuinely wins
Let's be real. Tawk.to has a lot of stuff we don't. Here's what they do better:
- +Ticketing system. Visitors can submit tickets, your team can assign and track them. We don't have this.
- +Knowledge base. Built-in help center where you write articles and visitors search for answers. Solid self-service option.
- +AI Assist. Their AI can suggest answers from your knowledge base. It's a paid add-on ($29/mo), but it works.
- +Unlimited free chats. No limits on their free plan. Our free plan caps at 100 chats/month.
- +Screen sharing and video chat. You can see a visitor's screen or hop on a video call. That's cool and we don't have it.
- +Hire chat agents. Tawk.to lets you hire their chat agents for $1/hour. If you don't want to reply yourself, they'll do it for you.
Where TGLiveChat wins
We're smaller, simpler, and that's the point. Here's where we come out ahead:
- +You reply from Telegram. No new app, no new dashboard. Telegram notifications are fast. You're already there. That means faster response times in practice.
- +Way lighter widget. ~10KB vs ~200KB+. On mobile or slow connections, this matters. Your site loads faster.
- +Shadow DOM isolation. Our widget's CSS is completely isolated from your site. No style conflicts. Tawk.to's widget can sometimes clash with your page styles.
- +12 themes. Glass, Modern, Terminal, Synthwave, Arcade, Void, and more. Tawk.to lets you customize colors, but the overall look is pretty standard.
- +Cheaper white-label. Remove our branding for $12/mo (Pro plan). Tawk.to charges $19/mo just for branding removal.
- +Lifetime deal available. $149 once, never pay again. Tawk.to doesn't offer this.
Let's talk about widget weight
This sounds nerdy, but it matters more than you'd think. Tawk.to's widget loads over 200KB of JavaScript. TGLiveChat loads about 10KB. That's a 20x difference.
Why should you care? Because every KB of JavaScript your site loads slows it down. Google measures this. Core Web Vitals care about this. If you're running an e-commerce store or a landing page where conversion matters, a 200KB chat widget is genuinely hurting you.
Tawk.to loads more because it does more (screen sharing, video, triggers, etc.). That's fair. But if you just need live chat, you don't need all that JavaScript sitting on every page load.
The response time argument
Here's something nobody talks about in these comparison articles. The best live chat tool is the one you actually check. It doesn't matter if Tawk.to has a better dashboard or more features if your messages sit there unread for 3 hours.
With TGLiveChat, a new message hits your Telegram the same way a friend's message does. You hear it, you see it, you reply. There's no "let me log into the support dashboard" step. There's no "oh I forgot to open the Tawk app today."
This is the whole bet TGLiveChat is making. You'll respond faster when the messages show up in an app you're already glued to. And faster responses mean happier customers, more sales, and fewer people bouncing from your site.
Common questions
Wait, Tawk.to is completely free?
Yep. Tawk.to is genuinely free for the core live chat. They make money from paid add-ons like AI Assist ($29/mo), removing branding ($19/mo), hiring chat agents ($1/hr), and their CRM. The base product is free with no chat limits.
So why would I pick TGLiveChat over something free and unlimited?
Because free and unlimited doesn't matter if you don't check it. Tawk.to requires you to have their dashboard open or their app installed. TGLiveChat sends everything to Telegram, which you're probably already using. The best live chat tool is the one you actually respond to.
Is Tawk.to's widget really that much bigger?
Yeah. Tawk.to loads a lot more JavaScript because it does a lot more. If page speed matters to you (it should), TGLiveChat's ~10KB widget is noticeably lighter. On slow connections or mobile, you'll feel the difference.
Can I use both at the same time?
Technically yes, but that's kind of chaotic. You'd have two chat bubbles on your site. Pick one. If you want Telegram replies, go TGLiveChat. If you want a full support suite with ticketing and knowledge base, go Tawk.to.
Does Tawk.to have a Telegram integration?
Not natively. You can hack something together with Zapier or webhooks, but it's not the same as TGLiveChat where Telegram IS the product. Every message, every notification, every reply happens in Telegram.
Want to try the Telegram approach?
Free plan, no credit card, takes 2 minutes. If you'd rather reply from Telegram than a dashboard, give it a shot.