By platform
Live chat on the platform you already use
The script tag is the same everywhere. What differs is where the platform hides the field, which plan unlocks it, and the one mistake that makes a working install look broken.
Last checked 1 September 2026
The short answer
How do you add live chat to any website?
Paste one script tag before the closing body tag. That is the whole answer on every platform below, and anyone telling you otherwise is describing their own plugin rather than the web.
The parts worth reading are the platform specific ones: 4 of these 8 platforms gate custom code behind a paid plan, Shopify locks its checkout below Plus, and Webflow and Squarespace both refuse to run injected code in the editor, which is the single most common reason a correct install looks broken.
Pick your platform
Where the field is, and what unlocks it
| Platform | Where the script goes | Plan requirement |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress | Before the closing body tag, added by our plugin or by a header and footer snippet plugin. | None |
| Shopify | In theme.liquid, immediately before the closing body tag. | The checkout pages are locked on every plan except Shopify Plus, so no chat widget from anyone appears during checkout unless you are on Plus. |
| Webflow | Project Settings, Custom Code, Footer Code. | Custom code needs a paid Site plan. It cannot be published on the free webflow.io staging domain. |
| Squarespace | Settings, Advanced, Code Injection, Footer. | Code Injection requires a Business plan or above. The Personal plan does not have it. |
| Wix | Settings, Custom Code, add code to Body end, on all pages. | Custom code requires a Premium plan with a connected domain. Free Wix sites cannot add third party scripts. |
| React | In index.html before the closing body tag, or appended once from a top level effect. | None |
| Next.js | In the root layout, using the next/script component with a lazy loading strategy. | None |
| plain HTML | Immediately before the closing body tag. | None |
Checked 1 September 2026 against each platform's own documentation. Plan gates change, so if one of these is out of date we would rather be told than left alone.
The four mistakes that account for most broken installs
Testing in the editor. Webflow, Squarespace and Wix all strip custom code from their editing and preview modes on purpose. The widget is not broken. Publish and open the real URL in a private window.
A caching plugin eating the loader. On WordPress, WP Rocket, LiteSpeed, Autoptimize and Perfmatters all offer to combine or delay JavaScript, and all of them can swallow a third party loader. Exclude the widget file rather than turning the optimisation off.
Putting it in the head. Several platforms offer a Head field. A chat widget is not needed for your content to render, so loading it before your content is backwards on every platform, every time.
Editing a parent theme. On WordPress and Shopify, a script pasted straight into a theme file works perfectly and then vanishes on the next theme update or theme switch, usually weeks later, usually unnoticed until somebody asks why nobody replies.
What you are adding to the page
Whichever platform you are on, a chat widget is a third party script and it costs something. How much varies by roughly a factor of thirty across this category, which is a bigger spread than most people expect.
| Widget | Transfer size |
|---|---|
| Tawk.to | 749KB |
| Zendesk Chat | 533KB |
| Drift | 464KB |
| LiveChat | 385KB |
| Intercom | 301KB |
| Crisp | 155KB |
| LiveAgent | 79KB |
| TGLiveChat | ~26KB |
Competitor figures are DebugBear's measurements, not ours. Ours is measured by gzipping the files we serve.
The bottom line
The install is one tag on every platform here. The things that actually cost people an afternoon are the plan gate they did not know about and the editor preview that never shows custom code.
Pick your platform above and the page tells you where the field is, which plan you need, and the exact thing that will make a correct install look broken.
Frequently asked questions
Which platforms can I add live chat to?
Which platforms block third party chat widgets?
Do I need a plugin or is a script tag enough?
Where exactly does the script go?
Will the widget appear on my checkout pages?
Why does my widget work locally but not on the live site?
How much does a chat widget slow a page down?
Is there a free plan?
Sources and references
- DebugBear: How Do Different Chat Widgets Impact Site Performance? Published 14 July 2019, updated 10 November 2025. Source of the competitor weight figures.
- Shopify: which pages you can and cannot edit The checkout restriction below Shopify Plus.
- Webflow: custom code in project settings Why custom code does not run in the Designer and needs a paid Site plan.
- Squarespace: code injection The Business plan requirement and what code injection does not reach.