Deskwhale vs Tawk.to
Tawk.to gives away more than we do — and charges for the one thing this page is about: an AI that answers for you.
Everything below was checked against Tawk.to’s own pages on 1 October 2026. Prices change — if you are reading this much later, check the links at the bottom.
| Tawk.to | Deskwhale | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Unlimited chats, unlimited agents, ticketing, a knowledge base and mobile apps — all free, with a “Powered by tawk.to” badge on the widget. | Free to start, no credit card. Add operators as you need them. |
| Paid from | The free tier stays free; you pay to remove the branding and for add-ons such as AI Assist. | — |
| AI | AI Assist is a paid add-on from $29/month. It trains on your knowledge base and can crawl your site. | Included. Answers strictly from the knowledge base you write, and hands off to a person when the answer is not in it. |
When Tawk.to is the better choice
Genuinely — these are not softened weaknesses, they are things Tawk.to does that Deskwhale does not do at all.
- Tawk.to is more generous on the free plan than Deskwhale is: unlimited agents and conversations, plus ticketing and CRM at no cost.
- It has mobile apps for operators. Deskwhale does not — if your team answers from a phone, Tawk.to wins outright.
- It covers Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram and SMS. Deskwhale is a website widget only.
When Deskwhale is the better choice
- The AI is included, not an add-on. On Tawk.to the bot costs $29/month on top of free; on Deskwhale it is part of the free start.
- No badge on your widget. Tawk.to’s free tier carries “Powered by tawk.to” until you pay to remove it.
- Four bot modes, including draft-only and answer-only-while-offline. Tawk.to’s automation is built around triggers and canned shortcuts rather than a bot that writes replies.
The short version
Deskwhale is a live chat widget with an AI bot that answers from your own knowledge base, and stops when it runs out of it. It has no mobile apps, no WhatsApp or Instagram, no ticketing and no CRM integrations — if you need those, take Tawk.to and do not look back. If you want a chat on your site and a bot that will not invent your refund policy, this is the simpler trade.
Try it on your own site
One snippet, free to start. You will know within a day whether it fits.
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