Tidio vs Crisp
Tidio and Crisp side by side: what each one is, what it costs to start, and whether you can try it free. Everything below comes from the vendors' own sites and other public sources, not from hands-on testing.
Neither tool is ranked above the other here. These are research-based profiles, not hands-on tests. Starting price is the lowest listed paid plan per month (annual-billing equivalent where the vendor lists one), as shown on the vendor's own site when we last checked. Prices change, so confirm on the vendor's site. How this site works.
At a glance
| Tidio | Crisp | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Customer Support & Chatbots | Customer Support & Chatbots |
| Starting price | Free; paid plans from $24.17/mo (checked October 2026) | Free; paid plans from $45/mo (checked October 2026) |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Profile | Read profile | Read profile |
Prices are in US dollars unless shown otherwise. Confirm the current price on the vendor's site before you buy.
Key differences
Both list a free tier, so you can try each before paying.
Tidio has the lower starting price ($24.17/mo against $45/mo for Crisp). The cheapest plan rarely has the same limits or features, so compare plans before choosing on price.
Both are in our Customer Support & Chatbots category.
About each tool
T
Tidio
Live chat and helpdesk with Lyro, an AI agent that answers from your content. Free plan; Starter is $24.17 a month billed annually.
Strengths
- Tidio's pricing page lists live chat, ticketing, email management, live video calls, a visual Flows builder, an AI reply assistant and Copilot on the Free plan, with 10 seats.
- Tidio's help center says Lyro works in English plus 47 other languages and can be enabled on live chat, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and email tickets.
- Tidio says Lyro learns from FAQ pages, uploaded files, manual Q&A pairs, URLs and solved chats, and Lyro's handoff can transfer the chat, keep it, or create a ticket with a transcript.
- Tidio says Lyro Smart Actions can handle tasks such as order updates, lead qualification and routing tickets, and Guidance lets you set tone and escalation rules; the free Lyro tier includes one Guidance item and one Smart Action, paid tiers up to three of each.
- Tidio's FAQ lists integrations with Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce, Wix, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zendesk, Zoho CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Pipedrive, and says every plan has a 7-day free trial with no credit card.
- Tidio's FAQ says data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest (AES-256), hosted on AWS in EU data centers, and a DPA is available on request; its AI Terms say input and output are not used to train foundation models exposed to other customers, with opt-out of improvement training via support.
Limitations
- Lyro on the Free plan has a non-renewable lifetime quota of 50 conversations; monthly Lyro quotas (50 to 1,000 conversations) need the paid Lyro AI Agent add-on, from $32.50 a month. A Lyro conversation counts at the first Lyro reply in a new thread, and a thread closes after 15 minutes of inactivity, so one visitor can use several. The help article does not say what happens when a paid Lyro quota runs out.
- Features are tiered: the pricing page puts macros, advanced analytics, user permissions and automatic chat assignment at Growth, departments, custom branding and Slack notifications at Plus, and SSO, compliance features and pay-per-resolution billing at Premium; removing Tidio branding is a $16.67 a month add-on on Growth.
- The Terms of Service say Tidio is not obligated to provide a refund for any reason and that no refund covers more than three months of service; the FAQ says no refunds are given for the rest of the billing period after you cancel. The AI Terms say AI output may be inaccurate and must be verified, and Tidio's privacy policy says some data may be processed in the United States.
C
Crisp
Shared inbox and live chat platform with Hugo, an AI agent billed through monthly credits. Free plan available; paid plans start at $45 a month per workspace.
Who it is for
Small and growing support teams that want live chat and a shared inbox, with optional AI replies. Crisp bills per workspace with a set number of seats per plan, and lists a Plus plan with 20+ seats and Enterprise for larger organizations.
Strengths
- Crisp lists a Free plan with 2 seats and 100 customer profiles that includes the website chat widget, shared inbox, mobile apps, chat SDKs, contact form and e-commerce integrations.
- Crisp says Hugo is included by default from the Mini plan with monthly credits ($5 Mini, $25 Essentials, $75 Plus), and that workflows are not billed as Hugo usage.
- Crisp's help center says Hugo learns from website content, knowledge base articles, Q&A snippets and TXT, CSV or PDF files, and can use native integrations and custom MCP servers to look up data or take actions within rules you set.
- Crisp's help center says Hugo is not trained on all conversations in your inbox and does not automatically learn from resolved conversations.
- Essentials adds an omnichannel inbox, workflow builder, knowledge base and routing rules. Crisp lists channels including email, WhatsApp Business Platform, Instagram DM, Messenger, SMS, Line and Viber, plus phone through Aircall or Ringover.
- With Pay-As-You-Go turned on, Crisp says Hugo keeps answering after included credits run out, and you can set billing limits. Crisp lists a 14-day free trial and 50% off for nonprofits and students via a promo code.
Limitations
- The Free plan includes no Hugo credits, and Free is capped at 2 seats and 100 customer profiles.
- Hugo is metered in USD credits that reset monthly. Without Pay-As-You-Go (off by default), Hugo stops answering when credits run out and new conversations go to human operators.
- Crisp's help center estimates a Hugo-handled conversation at about $0.05 to $0.10, and says cost varies with message length, knowledge size, language and the model chosen. Trial usage also consumes credits.
- Pricing is per workspace, so cost steps up when you pass a plan's seat count (Mini 4, Essentials 10, Plus 20+). The pricing page lists additional agents at $10 a month per seat for Plus, and some integrations and extra contacts are opt-in extras.
