Chatstack - Start a conversation with your Customers 5.9.10900

**Chatstack** is a software solution primarily known for providing **self-hosted live chat software** to businesses. Its main purpose, as the tagline suggests, is to "Start a conversation with your Customers" right on your website.

Here is a summary of the key features and characteristics of Chatstack:

### 1. Core Identity: Self-Hosted Live Chat

* **Self-Hosted Solution:** This is Chatstack's most significant distinguishing feature. Unlike most competitors that charge monthly subscription fees and host your data on their servers, Chatstack is installed on your own **PHP and MySQL server** (Linux or Windows hosting).
* **Pricing Model:** It uses a **one-time purchase** licensing model (starting from \$189, though this can vary), meaning there are **no recurring monthly fees** for the core live chat functionality.
* **Data Control and Security:** Because it is self-hosted, you retain complete control over your chat transcripts and customer data, which is a major benefit for businesses with strict data privacy requirements (e.g., in healthcare or finance).

### 2. Key Features

* **Real-Time Visitor Monitoring:** Allows agents to see who is currently browsing the website, their geographical location, the pages they are viewing, and their browsing history.
* **Proactive Chat:** Enables agents to initiate a chat invitation to a visitor based on their activity (e.g., spending a long time on a pricing page).
* **Cross-Platform Apps:** Provides applications for operators to manage chats from:
* **Web** (Browser-based interface)
* **Desktop** (Windows, Mac, Linux apps)
* **Mobile** (iPhone/iOS and Android apps, though these may be an extra one-time purchase).
* **Customization:** The chat widget is fully customizable with your own branding, logo, colors, and welcome messages.
* **Offline Messaging:** When no operator is available, the chat widget converts to a form, allowing customers to leave a message that is emailed to the team.
* **Canned Responses:** Allows agents to use pre-written responses to quickly answer common questions.

### 3. WordPress Integration

Chatstack offers solutions to integrate the chat service into a WordPress website:

* **Standard Plugin:** There is a traditional Chatstack plugin that helps you easily embed the necessary HTML code for their main self-hosted live chat product onto your WordPress site.
* **AI Chatbot Plugin:** A newer product called **"ChatStack AI Chatbot"** is available on the WordPress repository. This separate offering allows you to embed an AI-powered chatbot (trained on your content) into your site, which can answer product questions, including those for WooCommerce stores.

**Note on Reviews:** While the self-hosted and no-monthly-fee model is attractive, some user reviews have noted issues with the software being **buggy** and slow, particularly the mobile and desktop applications, and have pointed out that support can be slow.