JivoChat
osTicket
| Feature | JivoChat | osTicket |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $19/mo | Free / from $12/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.1 / 5 | 4 / 5 |
| Best For | small-businesses, ecommerce, multilingual-teams, sales-teams | small-businesses, budget-conscious-teams, self-hosted-advocates, it-departments |
| Founded | 2012 | 2003 |
| Live Chat | ✓ | ✗ |
| Phone Calls | ✓ | ✗ |
| ✓ | ✗ | |
| Social Media | ✓ | ✗ |
| Crm | ✓ | ✗ |
| Visitor Monitoring | ✓ | ✗ |
| Ticket Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Email Piping | ✗ | ✓ |
| Custom Fields | ✗ | ✓ |
| Sla Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Agent Collision Avoidance | ✗ | ✓ |
| Knowledge Base | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ JivoChat Pros
- Good free plan
- Omnichannel support
- CRM built-in
- Easy setup
✗ JivoChat Cons
- Interface dated
- Limited automation
- Paid features add up
✓ osTicket Pros
- Completely free self-hosted version
- Active open-source community
- Highly customizable
- Supports multiple departments
✗ osTicket Cons
- Dated user interface
- Requires server management
- Limited automation compared to paid tools
The Verdict
JivoChat is built for small businesses and ecommerce, with a focus on live-chat and phone-calls. osTicket targets small businesses and budget conscious teams and leads with ticket-management and email-piping.
On pricing, osTicket is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $12/mo compared to $19/mo for JivoChat. That $7/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Both tools are a solid fit for small businesses — in those cases, the decision often comes down to workflow style and how your team prefers to organize work.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.