We run a chat site. This is the chat we wanted for it.

The problem with chat plugins

Live chat keeps people on your site and gives them a reason to come back. But every chat plugin we tried made us pay for it somewhere else.

• Slow pages. Most load their whole app on every page, for every visitor, whether they chat or not.
• A struggling database. Plugins that keep chat in WordPress ask your database for new messages every few seconds, which shared hosting doesn’t cope with.
• Too many settings. Pages of options and paid add-ons, when all you wanted was people talking.

What we did instead

We left out everything a chat room doesn’t need and built around three rules:

1. Load on click. Nothing heavy loads until someone opens chat.
2. Keep chat off WordPress. Messages and who’s online live on our own chat server, not your database.
3. Let the community chip in. Members can buy Boosts to keep a busy room going, so it doesn’t all fall on you.

It runs on World of Chat every day, so if something annoys our users, we hear about it first.