LiveChat by Text is one of the best-known live chat tools: a polished interface, deep reporting, 200+ integrations and enterprise features like SSO and HIPAA. Its model is simple — you pay for every agent, so the bill grows with your team. Looma comes at it from another angle: it's AI chat that knows your products plus smart on-site search, and plans don't depend on how many people you have. Below: a quick take on each, two fundamental differences, a full feature table, a cost breakdown for a team of 5 agents and a verdict on which fits whom.

The main difference

LiveChat is built around people: agents run the conversations, and the tool makes their work faster and more transparent — reply suggestions, tags, chat summaries, per-agent reports. For a support team with shifts and KPIs, it's a well-thought-out tool.

Looma is built around your catalog: the AI answers shoppers itself, using your product feed and knowledge base, picks products by meaning and takes the conversation to an order, while an agent steps in when they're really needed. That's why Looma doesn't count seats — and two things set it apart fundamentally.

1. Smart search — what chat platforms don't have

Live chat, even the best one, only works with people who write in. Most shoppers don't — they use the site search. That's where a store quietly loses money.

A customer types a product name with a typo, in another language or describes it in their own words — and sees "nothing found". The product is in stock, but to the shopper it doesn't exist. They leave for a competitor, and you never even learn they were there.

Looma adds a dedicated smart search widget to the chat: it forgives typos, understands synonyms and other languages, and searches by meaning rather than exact string match. In analytics you see zero-result searches — a list of what people looked for and didn't find. LiveChat has no product search module, so that leak stays open.

2. AI that knows the catalog, and agents with full context

In LiveChat, the autonomous AI Agent is available on Text plans and billed per resolved case beyond the included allowance. Looma works differently: the AI assistant is the heart of the product. It understands products — specs, synonyms, categories, ratings — so a request like "a quiet No Frost fridge under $600" gets specific models from your feed, not generic phrases. The shopper can place an order or leave contact details right in the chat.

When a human is needed, the conversation goes to an agent with full context: which products and pages the customer viewed, plus an AI lead score — temperature and mood. Chats and leads have statuses, and a conversation nobody has answered in 5 minutes automatically becomes "Unanswered", so it doesn't get lost. All of it sits in one inbox alongside Telegram, Viber, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and email.

Where LiveChat is strong

Let's be fair: LiveChat is a mature and very polished product. For a large support team it offers deep reporting (chats, agents, customers, ecommerce), a work scheduler and staffing prediction, 200+ integrations, WhatsApp, SMS and Apple Messages, in-chat voice and video, and for enterprises — SSO, HIPAA, SLAs and a white-label widget. Ticketing is available on Text plans or via the separate HelpDesk product. Looma focuses narrower: online store sales through AI chat and search, not an enterprise contact center.

Full feature comparison

LiveChat data is from the official livechat.com and text.com sites as of 2026-10-03; verify current features and prices on LiveChat's site. "Not stated" means the feature isn't described on the official pages.

Pricing

LiveChat (as of 2026-10-03) charges per agent per month. Starter is $19 billed annually or $25 monthly, but for 1 user only and with 60-day chat history. Team is $49 / $59 per seat, Business $79 / $89 per seat, Enterprise on request. The trial is 14 days, no card required. The autonomous AI Agent lives on Text plans: Essential at $19/user/mo with 10 resolutions a month, Growth at $79 with 200, and every extra 50 resolutions cost $49.50.

Here's what that looks like for a typical store with a team of 5 agents:

Looma: flat plans — Starter $29/mo (4,142 credits a month, up to 5,000 products, 1 site), Growth $59, Business $149, Enterprise on request. Agents are unlimited on every plan, so your team can grow without new invoices. AI conversations and search run on credits that roll over to the next month, and yearly billing adds bonus credits. You get 200 free test credits to start, and setup takes about 5 minutes — a product feed or store integration plus one script tag. Current plans are on the pricing page →

Which to choose

Comparing several tools? See also Looma vs Intercom → or just try Looma free →