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If you want to make your website livelier, then adding a website chat widget is perhaps one of the more effective solutions for increasing user engagement and growing your community.
By putting a proper website chat widget on your site, you will get real-time feedback from site visitors regarding your product, services, or content. For sites that sell services or products, a chat widget will definitely help you communicate with your visitors in real-time and potentially make more sales.

This is a collection of 10 free website chat widgets that you can install on your websites.

1. Chatango

Chatango is a customizable chat room add-on that anybody can install in their website. The main advantage of using this website chat widget is that users can have their own avatar. It also offers different user roles that give participants privileges for becoming moderators and administrators.

2. Meboo.me

Meboo.me is a product of Meebo.com — a popular web-based IM platform service. Whether you are using Typepad, Blogger or WordPress, Meebo.me is just ideal for any of these platforms. The most advantageous part of adding a Meebo.me chat box in your webpages is that it is compatible with Gtalk, Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, as well as with Facebook. Hence, the visitors of your website do not need to register to interact through it. They can use their existing Gtalk or Facebook username to stay in touch with your website.

3. JWChat

JWChat is an Ajax-powered chat script. It only uses JavaScript and HTML, making it an ideal solution for those who want to quickly get a chat widget up and running. It functions like a traditional IM client, with system sounds notifying you of events like if someone sent an IM, support for emoticons, and more.

4. CBox

CBox attempts to merge the features of traditional desktop IM clients with the benefits of the social web. The user interface is straightforward, the installation is a snap, and is plug-and-play because it only relies on client-side JavaScript and HTML. CBox is free, but there is a premium version available for $2.00 a month with additional features like bigger bandwidth, no ads displayed, and custom word filters.

5. Mibew Web Messenger

Mibew Web Messenger, which also calls itself Open Web Messenger, is a free and open source chat messenger that was built with PHP and MySQL. This chat application was developed with live customer support in mind, but works well in other contexts.

6. AjaxChat for WordPress

This free website chat script is a plug-in for adding live chat functionality to a WordPress installation. It enables WordPress users to chat with other visitors on your blog without refreshing the browser.

7. AJAX Chat

As you can probably conclude by its name, AJAX chat uses client-side JavaScript to enable you to run a robust chat client on your website. It can also be used as a shoutbox, a site feature that allows your visitors to quickly leave a message and "shout out" to other visitors and the site admins.

8. phpFreeChat

This free PHP-based chat system is highly customizable and is packed with features you’d only expect in desktop clients. It supports the ability to create multiple chat rooms, private messages, custom themes using CSS, and Ajax for a smooth and seamless user experience.

9. iJab

This web-based IM client, developed using the Google Web Toolkit is free and uses Ajax to simulate a client desktop IM client. iJab can be a great solution for implementing a similar Facebook chat feature that people can use within their web browser while perusing your website.

10. Ajax IM

Ajax IM is a slick and open source web-based IM client for your website. It’s lightweight, weighing only 78KB on a good day (i.e. when minified). By default, it affixes itself at the footer of your web pages, similar to Facebook’s web-based chat client.