Live chat in PrestaShop without a subscription: why self-hosted is smarter

A visitor is unsure about a size, a delivery time or whether a part will fit. If they can ask straight away, they often simply order. If they have to find a contact form and wait a day, they are gone. That is why a live chat is one of the fastest ways to get more out of the visitors you already have.

The problem with most chat services

Well-known chat tools run as a service from a third party. That makes them easy to start with, but it comes at a price:

1. Paying every month, often per agent, and the price grows with your usage or with the features you need.
2. Your conversations live with someone else. Names, email addresses and everything customers type are stored on the chat provider's servers.
3. Extra third-party scripts on every page, which you have to mention in your privacy and cookie policy.
4. Dependency: if the service shuts down, changes its prices or you cancel, you lose your chat and often your history too.

What is a self-hosted chat?

With a self-hosted chat everything runs on your own server, inside your own webshop. The chat widget, the dashboard for your team, the conversations and the files customers send are stored in your own PrestaShop database and on your own hosting. There is no external account and no visitor data leaves your server.

That has three big advantages:

1. Pay once instead of a monthly subscription.
2. Your data stays yours, which makes your privacy story a lot simpler.
3. No dependency on someone else's prices or survival.

To be honest: what works differently?

A self-hosted chat deliberately makes different choices than the big chat services. Good to know up front:

1. Messages arrive within a few seconds rather than at exactly the same moment. The chat checks for new messages every few seconds. Because of that it works on almost any standard hosting plan, without a special server.
2. No separate app needed. The dashboard for your team is a normal web page, which you can also open on your phone.
3. Access through a secret link. Instead of accounts with passwords, you use one secret dashboard URL. Treat that link like a password and only share it with your team.

What should a good webshop chat offer?

1. As many agents as you like, at no extra cost.
2. An email notification as soon as a visitor starts a chat, so you do not have to watch a screen all day.
3. Opening hours per day, with the option to leave a message outside those hours.
4. Letting customers send a photo or document, for example of a broken part or an order form.
5. Colours and position that match your shop.
6. For multiple shops: separate settings and separate agents per shop.

Cloverfield Visitor Chat

That is exactly why we built Cloverfield Visitor Chat. The chat runs entirely inside your own PrestaShop, without a subscription and without an external service. You add unlimited agents, get an email for every new chat, set your opening hours per day, and customers can send images, PDFs and Office files up to 5 MB. Those files stay on your own server. You match the widget to your branding, and in multistore every shop has its own settings. You pay once and then use it for as long as you like.

In short

1. A live chat turns hesitant visitors into buyers.
2. Third-party chat services cost money every month and store your conversations elsewhere.
3. A self-hosted chat runs inside your own shop: pay once, and your data stays yours.