The read · 12 Oct 2026
Floating chat buttons own the top
The biggest plugins in this category are its simplest: a floating button that opens WhatsApp or another chat app. Joinchat leads with 700K+ installs, Click to Chat follows at 600K+, and Chaty and Social Chat fill out the top four. Full live chat with an agent inbox sits further down, with 3CX at 100K+ and Tidio at 70K+.
Joinchat holds 23% of the category's installs. That's a large share, though no single plugin controls the market. The top is hard to crack because every leader keeps shipping. Joinchat and Chaty both released four days ago, and Click to Chat 14 days ago. None of them looks like a sleepy incumbent a newcomer could pick off.
The Facebook plugin is running on autopilot
The exception is the Facebook Chat Plugin. It's still on 70K+ sites, but its last release was 1,560 days ago, more than four years. It also has the weakest ratings in the top twelve. If anywhere in the top tier is open to a challenger, it's those sites. Nothing in the data shows another plugin winning them over yet.
Downloads nearly doubled, but installs barely moved
Category downloads rose 89.9% over the last 90 days. The data doesn't show why. Whatever the cause, the extra downloads haven't produced a new contender. The only climber with real volume is WPChat, which went from 3K+ to 6K+ installs and now ranks 40th in the category. Every other plugin that moved, up or down, gained or lost a few dozen installs.
Below the leaders, the category looks neglected. Among plugins with enough data to judge, those showing weak upkeep outnumber the well-maintained ones by almost three to one. LeadBack fell from 600+ to 400+ installs. Teapot Support, Roomlio Group Chat and spinpack all closed between 28 and 30 September with no recorded reason. mklasen's FAQ closed on 30 July at its author's request. Each had a few installs at most.
The top of this market is well defended by maintained, highly rated button plugins. The rise in downloads and the Facebook plugin's stalled development suggest demand that the leaders could still lose. For now, they're the ones holding it.
