Simple live chat for small business: a bubble, an inbox, a flat bill
Most live-chat platforms are built for support teams and priced like it. GreetMode is built for the owner who answers everything personally: a chat bubble on your site, one inbox for replies, and a bill that never moves. This page walks through the eleven things owners compare, with verified GreetMode facts throughout and rival approaches described only in general terms.
1. Best-fit customer
GreetMode fits solo owners and tiny teams — shops, trades, freelancers, cafés, clinics, and small services — who reply to visitors themselves. If you have a support department with shifts and managers, you need a bigger platform and should buy one. If you are the department, keep reading.
2. Monthly cost
Standard $14.99/month covers up to 3 sites; Multi $19.99/month covers 4–6 sites (7+ sites: custom plan via /contact). Both are flat monthly subscriptions billed through Stripe — not lifetime deals, not one-time payments, no meters running in the background.
3. Per-agent fees
There are none — no per-agent fees and no per-conversation fees. Your teenager helping on Saturdays, your partner covering holidays, your busiest week of the year: none of it changes the invoice. Team platforms typically meter seats; that's fair for teams and wasteful for shops of one.
4. Number of websites
One plan covers the portfolio: up to 3 sites on Standard, 4–6 on Multi, one owner dashboard for all of them, custom plans for 7+ via /contact. Run the shop site and the side project on the same bill — add a site, paste the snippet, reply in the same inbox.
5. Installation
If you can paste text, you can install GreetMode: one script tag per site — https://www.greetmode.com/widget-1.js with your site id in data-site — into your HTML, WordPress footer, Squarespace Code Injection, or Wix Custom Code. Full steps live at /install, and most owners finish in about five minutes with no developer and no rebuild.
6. Replying from your phone
The owner inbox is web-only and works in any phone browser — deliberately no app to download, update, or learn. Bookmark it on your home screen and answer from the counter, the van, or the sofa. Bigger platforms typically ship native apps; teams love them, owners rarely need them.
7. Live human chat
Visitors type, you reply — live per-site threads sync through the backend with fast polling. No queues, no routing trees, no departments: every conversation lands in one inbox. It covers exactly what a small shop's chat needs to do, and nothing it doesn't.
8. AI automation and bots
GreetMode has no AI automation and no chatbots — every reply is typed by a human, by design. Your visitors always reach you, never a script. If bots, auto-flows, or AI drafting are on your must-have list, a larger platform serves that honestly — GreetMode is for owners who consider the personal reply the feature.
9. Offline message capture
You can't be online at midnight, and you don't have to be. Your open/closed hours drive the online/offline display; when you're away, visitors leave a message instead of bouncing. Unread badges, an owner banner, and reply alerts make sure you see it first thing and follow up fast.
10. Integrations
GreetMode integrates with nothing — no CRM, no helpdesk, no marketplace, no connectors to configure or break. Owners who use none of those tools get simplicity; owners embedded in a stack should take that as a clear signal to choose a platform with the integrations they need.
11. Support-style features
The daily toolkit: canned replies for your repeat questions ("What are your hours?", "Do you deliver?", "How do I book?"), chat color matching so the bubble looks like your site, and open/closed hours controlling the display. Contact and support run through the /contact form — one channel, answered by a human.
Who should choose which?
Choose GreetMode if: you answer chat yourself, you want to be live today in about five minutes (pick a plan, pay through Stripe, set a password, paste the snippet), and you want the bill fixed at $14.99 or $19.99 a month.
Choose a bigger platform if: you need bots or automation, a multi-seat team inbox with roles, native mobile apps, or CRM and helpdesk integrations. Those are real needs for growing teams — compare them honestly at our alternatives hub and buy the tool that fits the business you have.