WP Manifestindependent plugin directory
manifest / integrations / free-support-chat-widget-wordpress

Free Support Chat Widget by Brane

A Free Support Chat Widget plugin for Wordpress. Absolutely free. Easy embed and then talk to your customers.

by Brane Labs · github.com/brane-labs/free-support-chat-widget-wordpress · website

★ 0stars

Install

Download source zip No release zip yet

This is the repository archive. It installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow.

Install straight from GitHub with WP-CLI:

wp plugin install https://github.com/brane-labs/free-support-chat-widget-wordpress/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
No built-in updater. New versions won't appear under Dashboard → Updates. Install new releases yourself, or let Git Updater track the repository.
Readme github.com/brane-labs/free-support-chat-widget-wordpress ↗

Free Support Chat Widget for WordPress

A free live chat plugin for WordPress websites. Visitors message you from any page, and you reply from the Brane app on your phone. No monthly fee, no seat limits, no chatbot. Just a real support chat for your business, shop, club or blog.

Free Support Chat Widget by Brane is a lightweight WordPress live chat plugin made by Brane Labs. It adds a customer support chat button to every page of your site, with your brand colour, a light or dark theme and the corner of your choice. Every message lands in the free Brane app on iPhone and Android, with a push notification the moment it arrives, so you can answer customers from anywhere.

Features

  • 100% free live chat. No paid plan, no per agent pricing and no cap on conversations.
  • Reply from your phone. Answer website visitors from the Brane app on iOS or Android.
  • Instant notifications. Get a notification for every new chat message, not when you next open a dashboard.
  • Real people, not a chatbot. The chat tells visitors they are talking to a person.
  • Replaces your contact form. A chat is a conversation visitors can come back to, and you can reply days later. If they have left your site, your reply is emailed to them.
  • No app needed for visitors. They chat right on your page after giving an email address and a date of birth.
  • Brand colours. Pick a colour with the visual colour picker or type any hex code.
  • Light or dark theme.
  • Bottom left or bottom right.
  • Custom welcome message.
  • Live preview on the settings page as you change things.
  • Embed the chat in a page. Paste [brane_chat_embed] into your Contact or Support page and the chat sits right in the page, full width.
  • Use your own button. Hide the floating chat bubble and open the chat from a menu link, a button or a shortcode.
  • One on / off switch. Turn the chat on or off for the whole site in one click.
  • Lightweight and fast. The loader is about 5KB and loads nothing else until somebody opens the chat.
  • Mobile friendly. The chat opens full screen on phones.
  • Works with any theme and page builder, including Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder and the block editor.

How to install the plugin

1. Download the zip

Go to the latest release and download free-support-chat-widget.zip under Assets.

Use the release zip rather than GitHub's green Code > Download ZIP button. The release zip has the right folder name, so future updates install over it cleanly.

2. Upload it to WordPress

  1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
  2. Go to Plugins > Add New Plugin.
  3. Click Upload Plugin at the top of the page.
  4. Choose free-support-chat-widget.zip and click Install Now.
  5. Click Activate Plugin.

You will now see a Brane menu in the WordPress sidebar.

3. Set up your support chat

Open Brane > Support Chat and follow the steps on the page:

  1. Get the Brane app from the App Store or Google Play, and allow notifications so you hear about every message straight away.
  2. Create a username with your brand, for example yourbrand or yourbrandsupport (letters and numbers only), and add your logo as the profile photo.
  3. Paste your username into the plugin.
  4. Make it yours. Choose your brand colour, light or dark, left or right, and a welcome message.
  5. Switch it on and click Save changes.

That is it. Visit your site and the support chat is there.

Installing by FTP

Unzip the file and upload the free-support-chat-widget folder to /wp-content/plugins/, then activate it on the Plugins screen.

Embed the chat in a page

Want the chat inside your Contact or Support page instead of, or as well as, a floating button? Paste this shortcode into the page, in a Shortcode block or any text block:

[brane_chat_embed]

The chat appears full width, using your username, colours and theme. It is 640 pixels tall by default. Set your own height in pixels or as a share of the screen:

[brane_chat_embed height="800"]
[brane_chat_embed height="80vh"]

The page embed shows wherever you paste it, even with the floating chat switched off. On a page that has it, the floating button is left off so the chat is not there twice.

Open the chat from your own button

Choose My own button only to hide the floating chat bubble, then use any of these:

Method Example
Shortcode [brane_chat_button text="Chat with us"]
Menu link Add a Custom Link to your menu with the URL #brane-chat
CSS class Add the class brane-open-chat to any button or block

These also work with the floating button switched on.

Settings

Setting Options
Support chat Floating chat on or off
Username Your Brane username
Theme Light or dark (visitors can switch)
Position Bottom left or bottom right
Brand colour Any colour or hex code
Unread badge colour Any colour or hex code
Welcome message Text shown before a visitor starts
Chat button Floating button, or your own button only
Button label Read out by screen readers
Visitor sign up Optionally ask for a photo, a name and bio, or interests

Frequently asked questions

Is this live chat plugin really free?

Yes. The plugin and the Brane app are free, with no limit on chats.

Do website visitors need to install anything?

No. Visitors chat on your website. Only you need the Brane app.

Is it a chatbot or AI chat?

No. It is live chat with a real person: you.

How do I get notified of new chat messages?

Allow notifications in the Brane app. Each new message sends a notification to your phone.

Will it slow down my WordPress site?

No. The script is about 5KB and the chat itself only loads when a visitor opens it.

Does it work with caching and optimisation plugins?

Yes. If a plugin that delays or combines JavaScript stops the chat appearing, exclude embed.brane.chat from it.

What data is shared?

While the floating chat is on, your pages load the chat from embed.brane.chat with your username and design settings. Visitors who start a chat give an email address and date of birth, and their messages are delivered to your Brane account. See the Brane terms and privacy policy. Pages carrying the page embed load the chat panel from the same place. Nothing is sent while the floating chat is off and no page carries the page embed.

Requirements

  • WordPress 5.8 or later
  • PHP 7.4 or later
  • A free Brane account

Building the zip yourself

./bin/build-zip.sh

The installable zip is written to dist/free-support-chat-widget.zip. Publishing a GitHub release builds the same zip and attaches it automatically.

License

GPLv2 or later. Made by Brane Labs.