LiveChat alternative

A LiveChat alternative you buy once and host yourself

LiveChat is a hosted SaaS platform billed per agent, per month. ZChat takes the opposite approach: a complete live chat product with widget, dashboard, desktop console, and an AI chatbot with human handoff, installed on your own server with a one-time perpetual license.

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How the two models compare

The differences below are about the delivery model, hosted subscription versus owned software, which is usually the reason teams go looking for an alternative in the first place.

Decision	ZChat	Hosted SaaS (LiveChat and similar)
Cost model	One-time license from $299, no per-agent fees	Monthly subscription per agent seat
Data location	Your server and your SQL Server database	Vendor-controlled cloud storage
Adding agents	Add agents freely within your license tier	Every new agent increases the monthly bill
AI chatbot	Bring your own provider: local Ollama, OpenAI, or Anthropic, with no AI markup	Provider-defined AI features and pricing
If you stop paying	Software keeps running; you keep the database	Access ends with the subscription
Try before buying	Free unlimited localhost evaluation of the full product	Time-limited hosted trial

Everything included

Widget, web dashboard, Windows desktop agent, departments, canned replies, transcripts, analytics, webhooks.

AI with human handoff

The chatbot answers from your knowledge base and hands the visitor to a human agent with the transcript intact.

Security hardened

Rate limits, upload validation, HMAC-signed webhooks, audit log, and GDPR export and erasure tools.

Runs where you run

Windows or Linux, IIS or Nginx, VM or Docker, with SQL Server as the data store.

Is switching from a hosted platform hard?

The visitor-facing switch is one script tag: remove the hosted widget snippet and add the ZChat widget snippet. On the back end you install the server, run the SQL scripts, and invite your agents. The free localhost evaluation lets you rehearse the whole rollout before touching production.

What does ZChat cost compared to a subscription?

ZChat licenses are one-time: $299 for one production domain, $499 for up to 10 domains, or $999 for unlimited domains and agents. A year of updates is included, and the software keeps working even if you never renew update coverage. There is no per-agent meter, so the price does not grow with your team.

Do I lose the convenience of a hosted platform?

You take on hosting the way you already host your website: a Windows or Linux server with SQL Server. In exchange you control uptime windows, data retention, backups, branding, and integrations, and your support stack stops being a monthly line item.

Can I keep my chat history if I switch?

Transcripts created in ZChat live in your own SQL Server database from day one, with CSV export built in. History from your previous provider can usually be exported from that platform and archived alongside.

Try it on your own server

Evaluate the full product free on localhost.

The download is the real product, not a demo: server, dashboard, widget, SQL scripts, and a localhost trial license. One command sets up the demo database and opens the dashboard.

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Owned customer support software

Deploy live chat on your own terms, not on someone else's pricing model.

ZChat gives you the installable server, web dashboard, website widget, and desktop agent tools in one self-hosted product you buy once and keep. Run it on infrastructure you trust and connect AI only if and how you want it.

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Deployment

Install on Windows or Linux, behind IIS or Nginx, in a VM, or in Docker if that fits your stack.

Commercial model

One-time purchase, perpetual license, and no monthly per-agent bill attached to growth.

AI Flexibility

Use Ollama locally or connect OpenAI and Anthropic with your own provider accounts.