Tawk.to gives you a solid free chat. askVela gives you AI that handles orders, cancellations and fair partial refunds on its own — EU-hosted and GDPR-compliant.
Fair flat rate · EU hosting & DPA · Free migration
Tawk.to really is free as a live chat. But once you want AI, a clean brand experience and real automation, the bill starts to grow — and a few gaps stay wide open.
“AI Assist” is billed based on usage — and it answers questions, but doesn’t take action. It won’t handle order status, cancellations or refunds.
The Tawk.to branding in the widget only disappears for around $19 per month. Until then, the provider advertises inside your shop.
No native EU hosting as standard, no DPA by default. For GDPR-sensitive DACH shops, that remains a question mark.
For pure free live chat, Tawk.to scores points — fair enough. For actionable AI, branding and EU data protection, askVela comes out ahead.
| Feature | askVela | Tawk.to |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Fair flat rate | Free + paid extras |
| Free entry plan | ||
| AI replies included | Paid add-on (usage-based) | |
| AI replies with source citations | ||
| AI handles order status & cancellations on its own | ||
| AI negotiates fair partial refunds | ||
| Product recommendations in chat (upsell) | ||
| Knowledge-gap queue → 1-click articles | ||
| Remove branding / whitelabel | Included | Paid add-on (~$19/month) |
| EU hosting / GDPR / DPA | ||
| Native German AI | ||
| Self-hosting available | ||
| Free migration |
Tawk.to answers messages. askVela handles the work behind them — while protecting your margins and your data.
With source citations — no hallucinations. Spots knowledge gaps and suggests ready-to-publish articles.
Recommends the right products in chat and negotiates a fair partial refund before money goes out.
Native German AI, self-hosting available. Your customer data stays in the EU.
We migrate your entire help center for free and build you a ready-to-use demo. Don’t like it at all? We’ll send you 100 € for your time.
Switch nowYou give us access to your existing help center and FAQs — we migrate all content for free and build you a ready-to-use demo. You swap the chat widget with a snippet, just like with Tawk.to. In most cases, you’re live the same day without losing conversations.
Yes. askVela is hosted in the EU, a DPA is included, and the AI is natively German-speaking. Self-hosting is available on request. Your customer data never leaves the EU — a clear difference from tools where hosting and data processing for the DACH region aren’t clearly covered by default.
The basic live chat really is free, and for simple chat Tawk.to is a low-cost option. It starts costing money as soon as you want more: “AI Assist”/AI replies are billed based on usage, removing the Tawk.to branding costs around $19 per month, and trained human agents can be added at an hourly rate. Those add-ons are exactly the business model.
askVela runs on a fair flat rate: unlimited agents and unlimited AI replies, with no billing per seat, ticket, conversation or resolved AI case. Whitelabel and the essentials are included. You pay one predictable price instead of stacking paid extras — we’ll walk you through the exact terms transparently in a call.