Live Helper Chat
Live Helper Chat ships MCP support, making self-hosted customer chat an AI-queryable endpoint
Comparison · Support
Chatway vs Kayako
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Chatway and Kayako — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Chatway vs Kayako: at a glance
What is Chatway?
Chatway's bot learned to read the store; now the store can listen back
Chatway is a live chat widget for small e-commerce sites, weighted toward WooCommerce and Shopify, with an AI support agent attached. The last three weeks added the two things that decide when and where the agent operates: webhooks that push conversation, contact, assignment and resolution events out to external tools from the existing Developer Tools panel, with per-event subscriptions and delivery logs; and AI Availability settings that schedule the agent by weekly time range, timezone and special dates rather than leaving it always on. Underneath, self-service and routing shipped earlier in August.
What is Kayako?
Kayako's public changelog has been silent since mid-2022 — the radar is showing a stalled product.
Kayako has not posted a public changelog entry since June 2022. The most recent communication was a CEO apology over a performance incident and a series of link-only release-notes posts pointing to a Help Center article. The visible operational picture is an established customer-support product no longer broadcasting product motion.
Chatway vs Kayako: editorial side-by-side
Chatway
6.3SUPPORT
Chatway's bot learned to read the store; now the store can listen back
◆ Current state
Chatway is a live chat widget for small e-commerce sites, weighted toward WooCommerce and Shopify, with an AI support agent attached. The last three weeks added the two things that decide when and where the agent operates: webhooks that push conversation, contact, assignment and resolution events out to external tools from the existing Developer Tools panel, with per-event subscriptions and delivery logs; and AI Availability settings that schedule the agent by weekly time range, timezone and special dates rather than leaving it always on. Underneath, self-service and routing shipped earlier in August.
◆ Where it's heading
The product keeps widening from a widget into a support stack, and the recent work is about control and connection rather than new answering ability. The August spark grounded the AI agent in live store data; since then Chatway has added the Help Center it can point to, routing that decides who takes a conversation, an outbound event stream so other systems can react, and now a schedule that says when the AI is allowed to be the one responding. The consistent thread is that merchants are being given switches over an agent they were first given a reason to trust.
◆ Prediction
With events flowing out and a schedule governing the agent, the obvious next gap is inbound control — triggering Chatway actions from outside, or handing off to a human on a rule rather than a reply. The entries do not indicate which, and no API beyond webhooks is mentioned.
Kayako
0.0SUPPORT
Kayako's public changelog has been silent since mid-2022 — the radar is showing a stalled product.
◆ Current state
Kayako has not posted a public changelog entry since June 2022. The most recent communication was a CEO apology over a performance incident and a series of link-only release-notes posts pointing to a Help Center article. The visible operational picture is an established customer-support product no longer broadcasting product motion.
◆ Where it's heading
Direction is hard to read from public changelog activity alone, but the trajectory implied by the silence is unmistakable: either the product moved its release communication elsewhere, or development pace slowed enough to stop justifying a regular changelog. Either way, prospects watching only the public surface see no momentum.
◆ Prediction
Without renewed public activity, Kayako will continue to be perceived as legacy in a category where Zendesk, Intercom, and HelpScout are publishing prominently. A customer-facing changelog refresh would be the lowest-effort signal to send, and is the most likely next move if the product is in fact still under active development.
Alternatives to Chatway and Kayako
Other Support products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Chatway or Kayako.
Formbricks
Formbricks 6.0 RC cycle reveals commercial hardening: lower self-hosted cap, MCP OAuth, and Act as Beta
SolarWinds Service Desk
SolarWinds Service Desk is loading its Labs pipeline with native Entra ID automation, IT asset tracking, and compliance-ready task management.
Freshchat
Freshchat keeps product moves off the public record — changelog offers nothing to track.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk's changelog feed contains only marketing copy — no substantive release data available.
TeamViewer
TeamViewer's scraped feed contains only community marketing fragments—no actual release data.
See all Chatway alternatives → · See all Kayako alternatives →
Recent activity from Chatway and Kayako
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 16d agoChatwayConnect Chatway to other tools with Webhooks
- 19d agoChatwayMore control over AI agent availability
- 23d agoChatwayIntroducing the Chatway Affiliate Program
- 27d agoChatwayRoute chats based on visitor replies
- 1mo agoChatwayCreate your own Help Center
- 1mo agoChatwayYour AI agent can now access WordPress & WooCommerce data ⚡
- 4y agoKayakoKayako Engineering Update
- 4y agoKayakoKayako Release Notes - April 2022
- 4y agoKayakoKayako Release Notes - February 2022
- 4y agoKayakoRecent performance issues
- 4y agoKayakoKayako Release Notes - January 2022
- 4y agoKayakoPlanned Maintenance Outage
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Chatway and Kayako?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Chatway is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Chatway better than Kayako?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Chatway is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Support products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Chatway?
Top Chatway alternatives in Support are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Chatway alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/chatway for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Kayako?
Top Kayako alternatives in Support are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Kayako alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/kayako for the full list with editorial commentary on each.