Chat rooms have always been popular. They aren’t nearly as popular as they were in the mid to late 90’s, but even so chat rooms are always a crowd pleaser. I recently added chat to some of my websites and I have to say that I definitely think chat rooms are a good thing to add. There are a few pros and cons, however, that you should be aware of before adding a chat room.

First and foremost, chat rooms do not result in added content to your site. Unlike forums or blogs, chat conversations are not generally accessible by gusts and visitors after the window is closed. In fact, chats are almost always only visible from the time a visitor enters the chat room. It’s not a very good way to build content, but, people love chatting and by adding a chat room you can give your users yet another way to network and become a community.

Another downside to chat rooms is that they are often times heavy on the server load. You’ll need a good server to run many of the better chat applications. In the end though, chats are instant communication and people don’t like to wait.

If you are looking for a good cheap chat program then I recommend Flash Chat for $5 (yes five dollars). If you have a larger budget (few hundred dollars minimum) and are looking for a solid Java based chat that can support hundreds of users then I recommend Real Chat.