Best Tidio Alternatives in 2026: 9 Compared With Real Prices

We checked every price on the vendor's own pricing page on October 5–6, 2026. Prices are in US dollars, billed yearly unless we say otherwise, before tax. CRMsoftware.pro is our own product, so we list its limits too. We do not give made-up scores or claim tests we did not run: each tool gets its real price, its pros and cons, and who it suits.

Why teams look for a Tidio alternative

Tidio is easy to set up and works well for a small store. Teams usually start looking when one of these becomes a problem:

• Two meters on one bill. Tidio counts billable conversations (any conversation with a reply from a person) and, separately, Lyro conversations (any conversation with at least one reply from the AI agent). Starter is $24.17 a month billed yearly ($29 monthly) for 100 billable conversations. Growth starts at $49.17 ($59 monthly) for 250. Lyro AI starts at $32.50 a month billed yearly ($39 monthly) for 50 AI conversations.
• AI gets expensive with volume. On Tidio's own calculator, Growth with 250 billable conversations plus Lyro on 500 conversations is $340.83 a month billed yearly, or $409 monthly.
• The free AI runs out for good. The free plan includes 50 billable conversations a month, but its 50 Lyro conversations are a one-time allowance that does not renew.
• Ten agents is the ceiling on self-serve plans. More seats need Plus, which now starts at $300 a month plus usage. Many comparison posts still quote the old $749 Plus price.
• No sales pipeline. Tidio is a support and chat tool. If your chats are leads, you still need a separate CRM.

Tidio alternatives at a glance

What a 5-person team really pays

"From" prices hide the AI bill. Here is one realistic month: 5 people, 500 chats, the AI answers every chat first and fully resolves half of them, and the other 250 go to a person. Billed yearly, list prices, before tax.

The pattern is clear: when you pay per AI conversation, the AI line grows faster than the seat line. On CRMsoftware.pro's Launch plan ($19), the 1,000 included AI messages cover roughly 330 AI-answered chats a month. Your mix will differ, so run your own numbers in our free AI chatbot pricing calculator.

The 9 best Tidio alternatives

1. CRMsoftware.pro: best for AI chat plus a CRM

CRMsoftware.pro puts an AI chat and voice agent on your website, trained on your own content, with human handover, a unified inbox and a sales pipeline in the same workspace. A chat can become a contact and a deal, and the AI can book a meeting. The AI replies in 95+ languages.

• Price: Free (3 users, 100 AI messages and 3 AI voice minutes a month, 1 bot, 1 website); Launch $19/mo for 8 users and 1,000 AI messages; Growth $49 for 20 users and 3,000 AI messages; Scale $99 for 50 users and 10,000. Monthly billing: $24, $59 and $119.
• Pros: users and AI messages are included, so the bill does not grow per chat; WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Messenger and Slack from Launch; installs on Shopify, WordPress and Wix and can import a product feed; bookings, quotes and invoices built in.
• Cons: not a full ticketing help desk with SLAs; the email inbox is in beta; the API and HubSpot/Salesforce sync start on Scale.
• Best for: small businesses where the same people answer customers and close sales.

2. Crisp: closest swap with flat pricing

Crisp is the most direct replacement for Tidio: a chat widget, shared inbox and AI agent, priced per workspace instead of per conversation. Mini is $45 a month for 4 seats, Essentials $95 for 10 seats, Plus $295 for 20. The AI runs on credits; Crisp's help center puts a full AI-handled conversation at about $0.05–$0.10, and Essentials includes $25 of credits.

• Pros: predictable bill; clean shared inbox; email, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger in one place.
• Cons: the free plan has no AI; Mini caps you at 4 seats; no sales pipeline.
• Best for: small teams that want Tidio's simplicity without per-conversation billing.

3. tawk.to: best free live chat

tawk.to is free live chat with no limit on agents or chats. AI Assist comes with 100 message credits a month, and removing the tawk.to branding starts at $29 a month per website.

• Pros: free for any number of agents; ticketing, knowledge base and a CRM-style contact list included.
• Cons: the AI allowance is small; branding removal and some features are paid add-ons; fewer automation options than paid tools.
• Best for: teams that need human live chat and have no software budget.

4. Intercom: best AI agent at scale

Intercom's Fin is one of the most capable AI support agents. Essential is $19 per seat per month billed yearly ($29 monthly), Advanced $85, Expert $132, and Fin costs $0.99 per outcome. There is a 14-day trial and no free plan.

• Pros: strong AI agent, help center and reporting; good for product-led SaaS.
• Cons: seat plus per-outcome pricing adds up; more than a small store needs.
• Best for: growing support teams that will use the help center and AI heavily. See our full list of Intercom alternatives if the price is the issue.

5. Gorgias: best for Shopify stores

Gorgias is a help desk built for ecommerce and is priced by tickets, not seats. Starter is $10 a month for 50 tickets (monthly billing only); Basic is $50 a month billed yearly ($60 monthly) for 300 tickets; Pro $300 for 2,000; Advanced $750 for 5,000. Extra tickets cost $0.40 ($0.36 on Pro). The AI Agent is $0.90 per interaction on yearly plans ($1.00 monthly), and each AI interaction also counts as a help desk ticket.

• Pros: order lookups and actions for Shopify and BigCommerce inside the help desk; no per-seat pricing; revenue reporting on Pro.
• Cons: AI interactions are billed and also use up tickets; overkill for a store with a few chats a day.
• Best for: Shopify brands with a busy support inbox.

6. Freshchat: best free plan for a larger team

Freshchat is free for up to 10 agents, and paid plans start at $19 per agent per month billed yearly. The Freddy AI Agent costs $49 per 100 sessions. Freshdesk Omni, which adds full ticketing, starts at $29 per agent.

• Pros: the most generous free seat count here; WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and SMS channels.
• Cons: Freshchat and Freshdesk Omni overlap, which makes the choice confusing; AI sessions are not the same as resolutions.
• Best for: teams of 5–10 that want messaging channels at a low per-agent price.

7. LiveChat: best for human-led sales chat

LiveChat is $19 per seat per month billed yearly on Starter, which has one user; Team is $49 per seat. An AI reply assistant is included, and the full AI agent is sold through its sister product Text, from $19 per user per month billed yearly. There is a 14-day trial.

• Pros: polished agent app with mobile apps; many integrations.
• Cons: per-seat pricing gets expensive; the AI agent and a CRM are separate purchases.
• Best for: sales teams with people online during business hours.

8. Chatbase: best if you only need an AI chatbot

Chatbase builds an AI agent from your website and documents. Hobby is $32 a month billed yearly ($40 monthly) for 700 message credits and 2 seats; Standard $120 ($150) for 4,000 credits; Pro $400 ($500) for 15,000. The free plan has 50 credits a month, and free agents are deleted after 14 days without activity.

• Pros: quick to train on your content; works across chat, email and voice; clear credit-based plans.
• Cons: it is an AI layer, not a full team inbox; few seats per plan; the free plan is only for testing.
• Best for: teams that already have an inbox and want to add an AI agent.

9. Chatwoot: best open-source option

Chatwoot can be self-hosted for free or used in the cloud: Startups is $19 per agent per month, Business $39. The free cloud plan covers 2 agents and 500 conversations a month with 30-day data retention. Its Captain AI uses credits, with extra credits at $20 per 1,000.

• Pros: open source; you can keep data on your own servers; many channels including WhatsApp and email.
• Cons: self-hosting needs technical skills; the cloud plans are priced per agent.
• Best for: technical teams that want control over their data.

Free Tidio alternatives

Tidio has a free plan, but its AI allowance is a one-time 50 conversations. Here is what the free plans include today.

Need a full help desk instead?

If you are leaving Tidio because you need ticketing, SLAs and routing for a large team, look at help desks: Zendesk Suite Team is $55 per agent per month billed yearly, and Freshdesk Omni starts at $29. Our guide to Zendesk alternatives compares them.

How to choose

How to switch from Tidio in a week

1. Export the contacts and conversation history you want to keep before your renewal date.
2. Load your FAQ, help pages and policies into the new tool's AI and test it with 20 real questions from your Tidio inbox.
3. Rebuild your most-used Flows as a welcome message and a few routing questions. Our ecommerce chatbot welcome messages are a quick start.
4. Recreate saved replies. The live chat canned responses template saves time.
5. Set the handover rule: when does the AI pass a chat to a person, and who gets it?
6. Run both widgets on different pages for a few days, then remove the Tidio script.

Sources

• Pricing pages checked Oct 6, 2026: Tidio (plans, calculator and FAQ definitions), Gorgias (plans and AI Agent FAQ), Chatbase.
• Pricing pages checked Oct 5, 2026: Crisp, tawk.to, Intercom, Freshchat, Freshdesk Omni, LiveChat, Chatwoot, Zendesk, CRMsoftware.pro.
• Crisp help center: Hugo pricing and billing explained, checked Oct 5, 2026.