Best Tidio Alternatives: 10 Competitors Compared (2026)

The best Tidio alternative depends on what you want instead. Here’s our pick for each need, and why it fits:

• For AI answers at a flat monthly price: Resolve247, the AI chatbot we make. It keeps answering past its monthly allowance, and nothing is charged automatically. It answers from your own content and works on any website, or inside HubSpot’s free live chat or Crisp chat, where your team takes over.
• For live chat and a shared inbox priced per team rather than per person: Crisp. Each paid plan includes monthly credits for its AI agent, Hugo.
• For free live chat: tawk.to. There’s no limit on how many people answer chats, and you add AI credits only when you want them.
• For the closest swap to Tidio’s live chat: LiveChat. Like Tidio, it pairs live chat with an AI agent, and every plan brings WhatsApp and Messenger into the same inbox.
• For AI that also answers on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger: Chatbase. Its entry plan covers those channels as well as your website.
• For AI that handles your Shopify orders: Gorgias. From its Basic plan, its AI refunds, cancels, and edits orders in the inbox your team uses.
• For a full help desk to grow into: Freshworks, Help Scout, Intercom, or Zendesk. Each gives you ticketing, email, and reporting once your team has outgrown live chat.

We compared these ten Tidio alternatives and competitors on price with AI switched on, what happens at the AI’s limit, where your team answers chats, and Shopify fit. We checked each one on the provider’s own pages on 12 November 2026. Jump to the costs or how to switch.

Disclosure: we make Resolve247, one of the ten tools here. The reviews are in alphabetical order and cover the same points for every tool. Where another tool is the better fit, we say so.

Quick Verdict: The Best Tidio Alternative for Each Type of Team

Tidio combines live chat, a help desk, and an AI agent called Lyro. Its alternatives come in four types: live chat with AI, help desks with AI, help desks for online shops, and standalone AI chatbots.

Tool and type	Pick it if you want…	Where your team answers
Crisp Live chat with AI (shared inbox and Hugo)	Live chat and a shared inbox priced per workspace rather than per seat, with AI credits in each paid plan	Crisp’s inbox and apps: email and Messenger from Mini; Instagram, WhatsApp, and SMS from Essentials ($95)
LiveChat Live chat with AI (with tickets, priced per seat)	The closest swap to Tidio’s live chat, with WhatsApp and Messenger in the same inbox on every plan	LiveChat’s inbox, with WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS, and email on every plan
tawk.to Live chat with AI (free chat, paid AI add-on)	Free live chat for any number of agents, with AI credits when you want them	tawk.to’s inbox and apps, with email, WhatsApp, Messenger, and SMS
Freshworks Help desk with AI (Freshchat and Freshdesk)	Live chat now and a full help desk later, with a free plan for human chat	Freshchat or Freshdesk, with email on every plan; Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and SMS from Growth
Help Scout Help desk with AI (email-first shared inbox)	Email-first support with a chat widget, and AI you pay for each chat it resolves, with a spending cap you set	Help Scout’s inbox, with email, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp on Standard
Intercom (Fin) Help desk with AI (chat widget and Fin, its AI agent)	One AI agent across chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, and voice, paid per outcome (a chat it resolves, or hands over by your rules)	Intercom’s inbox
Zendesk Help desk with AI (full suite)	Ticketing, service-level targets (response-time goals), and reporting for a team that has outgrown live chat	Zendesk’s agent workspace, with email, plus messaging and social channels from Suite Team
Gorgias Help desk for online shops, with AI	AI that refunds, cancels, and edits Shopify orders, priced per ticket (customer conversation) rather than per person	Gorgias’s inbox, with email, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp
Chatbase Standalone AI chatbot	AI that also answers on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger, with Shopify order actions	Chatbase’s Helpdesk, from its Basic plan ($150 a month)
Resolve247 Standalone AI chatbot for any website, or AI inside HubSpot or Crisp chat	AI answers from your own content, each with its source, on a flat monthly plan	Inside HubSpot or Crisp chat, or by email, Slack, or Help Scout

Tidio Alternatives at a Glance

Here’s what each tool costs with its AI switched on. The 300-chat column assumes the AI answers every chat first and two people take over the rest (method).

Tool	Cheapest plan with website AI (yearly price)	At 300 chats a month	How the AI is billed, and what happens at the limit (by default)	Free plan or trial
Tidio (for reference)	Free plan plus Lyro, from $39 ($32.50); Starter $29 ($24.17)	$239, or $379 after auto-upgrade	Per Lyro conversation, about $0.70 to $0.78 each. At 95% of an allowance, it moves you up a tier (new monthly projects).	Free plan; 7-day trial
Chatbase	Hobby $40 ($32)	$150 (Basic, with its Helpdesk)	Credits per reply, 1 to 5 by AI model. When credits run out, the AI stops until they renew.	7-day trial
Crisp	Mini $45 per workspace (no yearly price published)	$95 (Essentials)	AI credits in each plan, with optional Pay-As-You-Go. When credits run out, the AI stops and new chats go to your team.	Free plan (no AI); 14-day trial
Freshworks	Freshchat Growth $23 per agent ($19), plus Freddy AI	$193	$49 per 100 sessions (24 hours with one customer each). When sessions run out, the AI stops and chats go to your team.	Free plan (no AI); 14-day trial
Gorgias	Starter $40, monthly only (AI can’t act on orders); Basic $90 ($77)	$315	Per AI interaction, plus a fee per ticket. Past the allowance, it keeps going at $1.50 per AI interaction.	7-day trial
Help Scout	Standard $30 per user ($25), plus Scout AI	$224	$0.75 per resolution, with no allowance to run out. You can set a spending cap.	Free plan (email only); 15-day trial
Intercom (Fin)	Essential $39 per seat ($29), before new-customer offers	$304	$0.99 per outcome, with no allowance to run out. You can set a limit.	14-day trial
LiveChat	Essential $25 per user ($19), 10 AI resolutions a month	$198 (Growth)	Packs of 50 resolutions for $49.50. When a pack runs out, the AI stops until you add one (an FAQ from Text, LiveChat’s maker, says packs are added automatically).	14-day trial
Resolve247	Starter $35 ($29), 2,000 AI messages a month	$35	Flat monthly plan. Past the allowance, it keeps answering, and nothing is charged automatically.	30-day trial, no card
tawk.to	AI Assist free for 100 credits a month; Growth $29 ($24.17)	$29, or $80 on its default model	Credits per reply: 1 to 10+ by AI model (3 on the default Auto). When credits run out, the AI won’t join new chats.	Free live chat
Zendesk	Suite Team $69 per agent ($55)	$508	Per automated resolution; 5 per agent included. Past those, it bills extra; you can set it to pause the AI.	14-day trial

Prices are in US dollars, from each provider’s page on 12 November 2026. Each is one month on monthly billing, with the monthly price when billed yearly in brackets, where the provider publishes one.

Why Do People Leave Tidio?

The bill is the reason people give most often. Tidio prices its live chat, its AI (Lyro), and its automations separately, and Lyro is the part of the bill that grows fastest. Here’s how the pricing works, from Tidio’s pricing page and help centre on 12 November 2026:

• Three allowances, each priced on its own: conversations your team answers, Lyro AI conversations, and visitors reached by Flows (Tidio’s automations).
• Lyro has its own price ladder, from $39 a month for 50 conversations to $700 for 1,000, about $0.70 to $0.78 each. The free plan’s 50 Lyro conversations are a one-off, and Lyro stops working once they’re used (Tidio help).
• Automatic upgrades: on new monthly projects, Tidio moves you to the next tier when you reach 95% of an allowance. It’s on by default, and you can switch it off (Tidio help).
• Growth tops out at 2,000 team-answered conversations ($349 a month) and 10 seats. Beyond that, Plus starts at $300 a month plus usage, as a custom plan.

Many older lists still give Plus as $749 a month. That figure isn’t on Tidio’s pricing page today, and Premium is priced by quote.

Tidio’s pricing page, monthly view, 12 November 2026

Here’s how those allowances add up for a shop with 300 chats a month:

Reviews tell the same story. We read 173 dated reviews of Tidio on the Shopify App Store, Trustpilot, and WordPress.org, plus independent Reddit threads. Of about 100 dated complaints, 45 are about money, from bills well above a plan’s headline price to price rises on existing plans. A store in Germany wrote on the Shopify App Store in April 2026: “Tidio has a feature that upgrades your package automatically. This is in theory a good idea during Seasonal sales. However, it doesn’t downgrade automatically after that.” Slow or hard-to-reach support comes second, and few reviewers leave over the AI’s answers. On Tidio’s Starter and Growth plans, its own support comes from the Lyro AI agent and by email; live chat with Tidio’s team starts on Plus (Tidio help). Each review below says how the provider helps its own customers.

For every plan, add-on, and limit, see our Tidio pricing guide.

The 10 Best Tidio Alternatives and Competitors, Reviewed

Chatbase

Chatbase is a standalone AI chatbot: you train an AI agent on your content and put it on your website and other channels.

Chatbase’s pricing page, monthly view, 12 November 2026

Best for: teams that want AI on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger as well as their website, with Shopify order actions.

Pricing: Hobby is $40 a month, or $32 billed yearly, for 700 message credits, and a reply costs 1 to 5 credits depending on the AI model you pick. Basic is $150, or $120 billed yearly, for 4,000 credits (Chatbase pricing).

At the AI limit: your AI agents stop responding until the credits reset, unless you turn on auto-recharge, which buys more credits automatically at $40 per 1,000 (Chatbase docs).

Where your team answers: in Chatbase’s Helpdesk, which you need for live handover to a person (Chatbase docs). Chatbase lists it on the Basic plan (Chatbase pricing).

Shopify: its AI can help customers browse and buy products, and track, return, and exchange orders (Chatbase docs).

Help from the provider: help docs and a Contact Support page for signed-in users. Priority support and a success manager are Enterprise only (Chatbase docs, pricing).

Compared with Tidio: built around AI rather than live chat, with a choice of AI models. Its Shopify order actions come with every plan, Hobby included, while Tidio’s ready-made order-status action for Lyro is on Plus and Premium.

Good to know: Hobby includes two team members, Basic three, and Business five (Chatbase pricing; more in our Chatbase review).

Crisp (Hugo)

Crisp is live chat and a shared inbox with its own AI agent, Hugo. You pay one price per workspace rather than per person, and each paid plan includes a set amount of AI credits.

Crisp’s pricing page, per workspace, 12 November 2026

Best for: small teams that want live chat and AI in one inbox, priced per team rather than per seat.

Pricing: Mini is $45 a month per workspace for four seats and $5 of AI credits (Crisp’s estimate: around 90 automated conversations). Essentials, at $95, has 10 seats and $25 of credits, and adds Instagram, WhatsApp, and SMS (Crisp pricing). There’s no published yearly price.

At the AI limit: Hugo stops answering and passes incoming conversations to your team, unless you switch on Pay-As-You-Go, which charges for AI use beyond the credits. Crisp doesn’t publish that rate (Crisp help).

Where your team answers: Crisp’s inbox. Hugo can be set to hand over when it can’t find an answer or the visitor asks for a person.

Shopify: Hugo can look up order details for Shopify and WooCommerce stores (Crisp help).

Help from the provider: chat in Crisp’s widget or app, or email (Crisp terms).

Compared with Tidio: priced per workspace, with a set amount of AI credits in each paid plan, where Tidio sells Lyro on its own price ladder.

Good to know: beyond about 90 AI conversations a month, you need Essentials, or Pay-As-You-Go on Mini (our Hugo pricing guide).

Freshworks (Freshchat and Freshdesk)

Freshworks sells Freshchat (live chat and messaging) and Freshdesk (a help desk). Both use Freddy AI Agent, bought in packs of sessions.

Freshworks’ pricing page, billed yearly view, 12 November 2026

Best for: teams that want live chat now and a full help desk later, from the same provider.

Pricing: Freshchat Growth is $23 an agent a month, or $19 billed yearly, plus Freddy AI Agent at $49 per 100 sessions. A session is 24 hours of chat with one customer (Freshworks FAQ). Freshdesk Omni Growth (Freshdesk with chat built in; $35, or $29 billed yearly) includes a one-off batch of 500 sessions.

At the AI limit: Freddy stops and hands chats to your team, unless you’ve set it to recharge (Freshworks FAQ).

Where your team answers: Freshchat or Freshdesk. Freshchat’s Free plan covers human chat for up to 10 agents, without AI. Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and SMS start on Growth.

Shopify: ready-made Freddy workflows check order status, past orders, and refund status (Freshworks help).

Help from the provider: email 24/7, and phone and chat 24 hours a day, five days a week, for Freshdesk customers (Freshworks).

Compared with Tidio: a bigger help desk to grow into, with AI bought by the session.

Good to know: each session costs $0.49, so Freddy’s part of the bill rises with every chat it joins.

Gorgias

Gorgias is a help desk built for online shops, with an AI Agent that can work on orders. It’s priced by tickets (customer conversations) rather than seats.

Gorgias’s pricing page, monthly view with AI Agent, 12 November 2026

Best for: Shopify stores that want the AI to refund, cancel, and edit orders in the same inbox.

Pricing: Basic is $90 a month, or $77 billed yearly, for 300 tickets and 30 AI interactions (chats its AI handles), with up to 500 seats. Starter, at $40, is sold monthly only, covers 50 tickets, and leaves out the AI’s order actions (Gorgias pricing).

At the AI limit: the AI keeps going, and each extra AI interaction costs $1.50. Every chat the AI resolves also counts as a ticket (Gorgias help). We found no setting on Gorgias’s pricing or help pages to pause the AI at the allowance.

Where your team answers: Gorgias’s inbox, which takes email, chat, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.

Shopify: from Basic, its AI can refund orders in full or in part, cancel and edit them, update addresses before fulfilment, and start returns (Gorgias AI Agent).

Help from the provider: live chat in the dashboard and email, 24/7, on every support tier. A dedicated success manager depends on your store’s yearly Shopify sales (Gorgias pricing).

Compared with Tidio: like Tidio, it charges by conversation rather than per seat. From Basic, its AI also does order work such as refunds and cancellations.

Good to know: its AI answers on Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp for Shopify stores connected to Gorgias.

Help Scout

Help Scout is a help desk built around a shared email inbox. Its chat widget is called Beacon, and its AI agent, Scout, is charged for each chat it resolves.

Help Scout’s pricing page, billed yearly view, 12 November 2026

Best for: email-first teams that want a chat widget and AI on the side, with a cap on what the AI can spend.

Pricing: Standard is $30 a user a month, or $25 billed yearly. Scout costs $0.75 per resolution, billed at the end of each month, and new accounts get three months of resolutions free (Help Scout pricing). The Free plan, for up to five users, is email only.

At the AI limit: there’s no set allowance. You can set a monthly spending cap, and at the cap Scout switches off in the chat widget until the next billing cycle (Help Scout docs).

Where your team answers: Help Scout’s inbox, which also takes Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. SMS works through an integration on Standard.

Shopify: your team can refund, cancel, and edit orders from the Shopify sidebar (Help Scout docs). Scout can’t read orders yet; Help Scout lists its connections to other apps as coming soon (Help Scout).

Help from the provider: priority email support on Standard and above, from a team that works 24 hours a day, six days a week (Help Scout, pricing).

Compared with Tidio: priced per user rather than by conversation, and Scout is paid for each chat it resolves, up to a cap you set.

Good to know: Scout answers in the chat widget and inside your own app, if you have one; Help Scout lists email answers as coming soon (Help Scout). More in our Help Scout pricing guide.

Intercom (Fin)

Intercom is a help desk with a chat widget, the Messenger. Its AI agent, Fin, answers on chat, email, and many other channels. Fin is paid per outcome.

Intercom’s pricing page, billed yearly view, with a new-customer offer, 12 November 2026

Best for: teams that want one AI agent across chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS, and voice.

Pricing: Essential is $39 a seat a month, or $29 billed yearly (Intercom’s page shows a lower offer for new customers). Each Fin outcome costs $0.99: a chat Fin resolves, or one it hands over by following a procedure (step-by-step instructions) you’ve set up (Intercom pricing, Intercom help).

At the AI limit: there’s no allowance by default. You can set a hard limit that turns Fin off and hands new chats over the way you’ve set up (Fin help).

Where your team answers: Intercom’s inbox.

Shopify: with Intercom’s Shopify app, Fin can read order status, and your team can cancel orders, edit addresses, and issue full refunds from the inbox (Intercom help).

Help from the provider: Messenger and email, answered by Fin AI Agent and by people, 24/7 on Essential. Intercom aims to reply within 1 hour for urgent issues and 4 hours for others (Intercom support policy).

Compared with Tidio: more channels and a bigger platform, paid per seat plus per outcome.

Good to know: Fin is also sold for other help desks, from $49 a month, including 50 outcomes.

LiveChat (by Text)

LiveChat is live chat and a help desk with an AI Agent, and the closest product to Tidio on this list. It’s made by the company Text, which sells ChatBot.com on the same plans.

LiveChat’s pricing page, billed yearly view, 12 November 2026

Best for: teams that want a like-for-like swap for Tidio’s live chat, with WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS, and email in the same inbox on every plan.

Pricing: Essential is $25 a user a month, or $19 billed yearly, with 10 AI resolutions a month. Growth is $99 a user, or $79 billed yearly, with 200 AI resolutions. Extra resolutions come in packs of 50 for $49.50 (LiveChat pricing).

At the AI limit: LiveChat says the AI Agent stops taking new chats until you add a pack (LiveChat). One of Text’s own FAQs says packs are added automatically (Text help).

Where your team answers: LiveChat’s inbox.

Shopify: the AI recommends products from your Shopify catalogue as cards the shopper can add to the cart in one tap, and your team sees the shopper’s cart (LiveChat).

Help from the provider: chat on Text’s site or in the Text app, 24/7, on every plan. A dedicated Product Expert is Enterprise only (Text pricing).

Compared with Tidio: a similar mix of live chat and AI, priced per user, with AI resolutions included.

Good to know: at 300 chats a month, Growth works out cheaper than Essential plus packs.

Resolve247

Resolve247 is the AI support chatbot we make for small and medium businesses. It runs on any website, or as the AI inside your HubSpot or Crisp chat, so a team already on either keeps its inbox. It answers 82% of customer questions without a human (from 71% to 94%, depending on the business). If it ever hallucinates, that month is free. Elston Baretto, founder of the web host Tiiny Host, says it “has reduced our support workload by 50%” (on our testimonials page).

Our pricing page, monthly view, 12 November 2026

Best for: small teams that want AI answers from their own content, each showing its source, on a flat monthly plan.

Pricing: Starter is $35 a month, or $29 billed yearly, for 2,000 AI messages a month (each AI reply is one message), with a 30-day free trial and no card needed (Resolve247 pricing).

At the AI limit: it keeps answering, and nothing is charged automatically. The allowance is a soft limit: if you regularly go over it, we get in touch to talk about whether a bigger plan makes sense (Resolve247 pricing).

Where your team answers: inside HubSpot or Crisp chat, or by email, Slack, or Help Scout, with the conversation so far. The AI hands over when it isn’t sure, and our own widget always shows a Contact a Human button.

Shopify: add one script to your theme, and it answers shipping, returns, and product questions from your store’s pages. Its Tool Use feature lets a developer add order look-ups or simple actions through your store’s API (AI chatbot for ecommerce).

Help from the provider: ask our own chatbot, then press Contact a Human to reach us, or email us. We also help with setup over a screen-share or by email. Enterprise adds priority support and a dedicated success manager (Resolve247, pricing).

Compared with Tidio: a flat monthly plan that never moves you to a more expensive one without your agreement.

Good to know: to chat live with visitors yourself, run Resolve247 inside HubSpot’s free live chat (up to two users) or Crisp chat, and your team takes over there. Teams that want the AI itself to answer on Messenger, Instagram, or WhatsApp as well as website chat are better matched to other tools on this list. So are shops that want the bot to track or change Shopify orders without a developer.

tawk.to

tawk.to is free live chat, ticketing, and apps for any number of agents. Its AI, AI Assist, is a paid add-on with a small free allowance.

tawk.to’s add-ons page, 12 November 2026

Best for: the smallest budgets: free live chat your team answers, with AI when you want it.

Pricing: live chat is free. AI Assist is free for 100 message credits a month. Its Growth plan is $29 a month, or $290 a year, for 1,000 credits. Extra credits cost $30 per 1,000 and don’t expire (tawk.to help). New AI agents start on the Auto model, at 3 credits a reply. Switch to the model tawk.to recommends, at 1 credit a reply, and the same credits cover three times as many replies. Other models cost up to 10 credits or more (tawk.to help).

At the AI limit: AI Assist can carry on with the chats it’s already in, but won’t join new ones until you buy credits or they reset (tawk.to help).

Where your team answers: tawk.to’s inbox and apps, which also take email, WhatsApp, Messenger, and SMS.

Shopify: your team sees order details in a Shopify tab next to the chat (tawk.to help).

Help from the provider: live chat 24/7, with a person on request and replies usually within minutes, or email, answered within one business day as a goal (tawk.to).

Compared with Tidio: free human chat for any number of agents, where Tidio’s Free plan covers 50 team-answered conversations a month.

Good to know: AI Assist tries to hand chats to a person even when your team is offline (tawk.to help).

Zendesk

Zendesk is a full help desk suite, with AI agents on every plan billed per automated resolution.

Zendesk’s pricing page, billed yearly view, 12 November 2026

Best for: teams that have outgrown live chat and need ticketing, service-level targets, and reporting.

Pricing: AI on website chat starts with Suite Team, at $69 an agent a month or $55 billed yearly. Support Team ($25, or $19) has no live chat or messaging. Each agent seat includes 5 automated resolutions a month. After that, each resolution costs $2.00 pay-as-you-go, or $1.50 if you commit in advance (Zendesk pricing).

At the AI limit: by default Zendesk bills the extra resolutions. You can turn off overage (billing past the allowance), which pauses the AI agents and sends chats to your team (Zendesk help).

Where your team answers: Zendesk’s agent workspace, across chat, email, and social channels.

Shopify: with Zendesk’s free Shopify app, your team can view, refund, and cancel orders in a ticket (Zendesk Marketplace, Zendesk help).

Help from the provider: web form and phone in local business hours, five days a week. Zendesk aims to answer critical issues in about 30 minutes and others in 24 to 48 hours; 24/7 support is a paid add-on (Zendesk).

Compared with Tidio: a much bigger help desk, priced per agent, with AI billed for each chat it resolves.

Good to know: Zendesk introduced “resolution tiers” on 18 May 2026. Accounts on that model get a monthly allowance in dollars (from $2 per agent seat on Suite Team). Each resolution is charged against it at its tier’s price, which Zendesk doesn’t publish (Zendesk help; our HubSpot vs Zendesk comparison). Ask Zendesk which billing model your account will use before you sign up.

Other Tidio Alternatives Worth Knowing

Four more tools come up in other lists. For a wider list of AI support chatbots, see our customer service chatbots list.

• HubSpot: free live chat for up to two users, tied to your contacts. Its AI agent, Customer Agent, needs Service Hub Professional ($100 a seat a month on an annual commitment, plus $1,500 onboarding). Resolve247 can answer inside HubSpot chat on any HubSpot plan.
• Re:amaze: a help desk for online shops. Its AI reads Shopify and WooCommerce orders. Basic is $29 a user a month, with 5 AI resolutions per user included, then $0.85 each.
• Chatwoot: an open-source inbox you can host yourself, or use in the cloud free for two agents without AI. Its AI, Captain, comes with paid plans, from $19 an agent a month with 300 credits.
• Zoho SalesIQ: live chat for teams already on Zoho. Its answer bot trained on your web pages is on the Enterprise plan, at $25 an operator a month or $20 billed yearly.

How Much Do Tidio Alternatives Cost?

At 300 website chats a month, these ten Tidio alternatives cost from $29 (tawk.to, on the AI model it recommends) to $508 (Zendesk Suite Team) on monthly billing. That assumes the AI answers every chat first and two people take over the rest. Tidio Starter with Lyro costs $239 for the same month, or $379 once its auto-upgrade moves you up a tier. That upgrade is on by default for new monthly projects.

Tool	100 chats	300 chats	1,000 chats
Tidio, with Lyro	$75, or $110 after auto-upgrade	$239, or $379 after auto-upgrade	$759, or $789 after auto-upgrade
Chatbase (Basic)	$150	$150	$150 to $230, on models at 1 or 2 credits a reply
Crisp	$95	$95	$295
Freshworks	$95	$193	$536
Gorgias	$105	$315	$1,165
Help Scout	$115	$224	$608
Intercom (Fin)	$153	$304	$830
LiveChat	$149	$198	$644
Resolve247	$35	$35	$55
tawk.to	$29	$29, or $80 on its default model	$89, or $219 on its default model
Zendesk	$248	$508	$1,418

A month on monthly billing, in US dollars, from each provider’s page on 12 November 2026.

Billed yearly, the same 300-chat month runs from $24 (tawk.to, on the model it recommends) to $388 (Zendesk), with Tidio at $199; Crisp publishes no yearly price.

Not sure of your monthly chats? Lyro counts each chat it joins, so if it answers every chat first, your Lyro tier is a rough guide: on the 300-conversation tier, read the 300-chat column.

How we worked it out:

• The month: about three AI replies per chat, with two people answering the rest in the tool’s own inbox or the inbox it hands chats to.
• Plans: the cheapest published plan that covers the month, plus published top-ups and overage. Where credits never expire, we counted only those used, at the pack’s price per credit. Gorgias at 100 chats is Starter ($40, monthly only) plus its published ticket and AI overage.
• Per-resolution billing: we used each provider’s own resolution rate. Intercom says Fin averages 76%, Help Scout says Scout resolves 73%, and Gorgias says it automates 60% of support. Zendesk and LiveChat publish no average, so we used 65%.
• Tidio: by Tidio’s own average, Lyro resolves 75% of chats, so your team answers the other 25%. Each chat counts as one Lyro conversation, as Tidio’s pricing FAQ says. Its help centre adds that a thread closes after 15 minutes of inactivity, and a new message then counts as another conversation (more in our Tidio pricing guide).
• Lower resolution rates don’t change the cheapest four: at a 50% resolution rate, Help Scout, LiveChat, Intercom, Gorgias, and Zendesk still cost $173 to $418 a month, more than tawk.to, Resolve247, Crisp, and Chatbase.
• Bigger teams: Freshworks ($23), Help Scout ($30), Intercom ($39), LiveChat ($25 on Essential, or $99 on Growth, the plan used from 300 chats), and Zendesk ($69) charge per person, so add that much a month for each extra teammate. Crisp includes four seats on Mini, 10 on Essentials, and 20 on Plus; Gorgias three on Starter and up to 500 from Basic; Chatbase three on Basic; and Tidio 10. tawk.to has no seat limit. Resolve247’s chatbot needs no seats: your team takes over by email, Slack, or Help Scout, or in HubSpot’s free live chat for up to two users.
• Left out: one-off fees and new-customer offers (we used list prices).

Three of the lower figures come with conditions worth knowing:

• tawk.to: $29 assumes the model tawk.to recommends; its default Auto model averages $80. When credits run out, the AI won’t join new chats.
• Crisp: Mini ($45) covers around 90 Hugo conversations, so 300 chats need Essentials ($95). On Mini, Hugo stops at the end of its credits unless Pay-As-You-Go is on.
• Chatbase: $150 is Basic, which includes the Helpdesk your team answers in. On Hobby, the AI alone averages $48 to $84, on models at 1 or 2 credits a reply. At zero credits, the AI stops until the credits renew, unless auto-recharge is on.

Resolve247 Starter is $35 a month, or $29 billed yearly, and 300 chats use 900 of its 2,000 AI messages. The chatbot needs no seats, so your two people can take over in HubSpot’s free live chat at no extra cost. It keeps answering past its allowance and charges nothing automatically. At 1,000 chats, Resolve247 Core, at $55 a month, is the lowest figure in the table.

Is There a Free Tidio Alternative?

Yes. Tidio itself has a Free plan, with 50 team-answered conversations a month and 50 Lyro conversations in total, and several alternatives are free for human chat:

• tawk.to: live chat free for any number of agents, plus 100 AI credits a month.
• Crisp Free: live chat for two seats, with no AI credits.
• HubSpot Free: live chat for up to two users, tied to your contacts, with no AI agent. Resolve247 can answer inside it from $35 a month.
• Freshchat Free: human chat for up to 10 agents, with no AI.
• Chatwoot: free in the cloud for two agents without AI, or open source to host yourself.

Free AI allowances are small: tawk.to’s 100 credits cover about 33 AI replies a month on its default Auto model, or 100 on the model it recommends, which is about 11 or 33 chats at three replies a chat.

What Is the Best Tidio Alternative for Shopify?

If you want the AI to do order work, look at Gorgias. From its Basic plan, its AI can refund, cancel, and edit Shopify orders in the same inbox your team uses. Here’s what the others do with Shopify:

• Chatbase: the AI helps customers track, return, exchange, and place orders.
• Crisp, Intercom, and Freshworks: the AI looks up order details or status.
• LiveChat: the AI recommends products that shoppers add to the cart from the chat.
• Help Scout, tawk.to, and Zendesk: your team sees and manages orders next to the chat.
• Resolve247: one script in your theme, on any Shopify plan except Shopify Starter (how to add it on Shopify), and it answers shipping, returns, sizing, and product questions from your store’s pages. With Tool Use, a developer can connect it to your store’s API for order look-ups (AI chatbot for ecommerce).

On WooCommerce? Crisp’s Hugo and Re:amaze’s AI look up WooCommerce orders, and LiveChat shows your team the shopper’s cart and last order (LiveChat).

If you stay on Tidio, its Shopify actions for your team start on Growth. Lyro’s ready-made “Get order status” action comes with Plus and Premium, and Tidio is testing it with selected Lyro AI Agent subscribers (Tidio help).

Mainly Used Lyro? Three Ways to Replace It

If Lyro was the part of Tidio you used most, first decide where your team will answer chats, then pick the Lyro alternative that fits that inbox:

1. AI inside the chat or help desk you keep or move to. Crisp includes Hugo from its Mini plan ($45 a month). HubSpot’s Customer Agent needs Service Hub Professional, and Intercom sells Fin for other help desks from $49 a month. Resolve247 answers inside HubSpot chat on any plan, Free included, from $35 a month, or inside Crisp chat.
2. A standalone AI chatbot that hands chats to your team. Chatbase hands them to its own Helpdesk, from its Basic plan ($150 a month). Resolve247 sends them to your email, Slack, or a Help Scout mailbox on every plan.
3. A full swap to one of the live chat tools or help desks above, using the AI built into it.

Already on HubSpot or Crisp? See Resolve247 inside HubSpot chat or inside Crisp chat, or start a free trial.

When Is Tidio Still the Right Choice?

Tidio is still a good fit if you want live chat, automations, and AI in one inbox at entry-level prices. Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp come on every plan, with up to 10 seats at no extra cost. At around 100 chats a month, Tidio’s Free plan with Lyro’s 100-conversation tier costs $75, less than eight of the ten alternatives in our cost table, as long as auto-upgrade is off. A store in Switzerland wrote on the Shopify App Store in October 2026: “Tidio is the first that delivers the all-in-one experience we were looking for.”

If you like Lyro, Tidio also sells it on its own, from $39 a month, to add to the tools you already use. To run Lyro inside Zendesk, Intercom, or Salesforce, you need Lyro Connect, which comes with Tidio’s custom plans.

If you stay, check whether automatic upgrades are on for your project. Tidio’s help centre explains how to switch them off, so a busy month doesn’t move you to a dearer tier. Annual plans aren’t auto-upgraded at all and cost about 17% less, though Tidio’s terms don’t promise refunds for unused time.

How to Choose the Right Tidio Alternative

Your set-up and your monthly chats change the answer most. Start from the row that matches you:

Your set-up	About 300 chats a month	About 1,000 chats a month
Shopify store that wants the AI to handle orders	Chatbase ($150), Gorgias ($315)	Chatbase ($150 to $230), Gorgias ($1,165)
Any website, AI to answer questions	tawk.to ($29 to $80, by AI model), Resolve247 ($35), Crisp ($95)	Resolve247 ($55), tawk.to ($89 to $219), Chatbase ($150 to $230)
Already on HubSpot or Crisp	Resolve247 inside your chat ($35); Hugo on Crisp ($95); Customer Agent on Service Hub Professional	Resolve247 inside your chat ($55); Hugo on Crisp ($295); Customer Agent on Service Hub Professional
A team that wants a help desk	Freshworks ($193), LiveChat ($198), Help Scout ($224)	Freshworks ($536), Help Scout ($608), LiveChat ($644)
A team that needs service-level targets, or AI on many channels	Intercom ($304), Zendesk ($508)	Intercom ($830), Zendesk ($1,418)

Each figure is one month on monthly billing for two people, from the cost table. Customer Agent’s price is in Other Tidio alternatives.

On WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace? Our platform lists cover the install for each: WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace.

How to Switch From Tidio Without Losing Your History

None of the ten tools lists a Tidio importer on the pages we read, so move the parts that matter yourself, in this order:

1. Switch off Tidio’s auto-upgrade first, so a busy week during the move doesn’t push you up a tier (Tidio help).
2. Export your contacts to a CSV file. Tidio allows this on every plan (Tidio help).
3. Save the chat transcripts you need. Tidio lets you download them only one at a time, with no bulk export (Tidio help). If you use HubSpot or Salesforce, connect Tidio’s integration before you switch: from then on, it saves each solved conversation to the contact’s record.
4. Copy Lyro’s knowledge (the pages, files, and Q&A it learned from), so the new AI starts from the same answers. The only export of Lyro’s sources in Tidio’s help centre is through its API, on Plus, so on other plans, note the pages and files and copy your Q&A by hand.
5. List the Flows (automations) that earn their keep, and check the new tool can run each one before you cancel.
6. Run the new tool on a test page for a week, then put it on every page in place of Tidio’s widget.
7. Cancel at the end of your billing period, then remove Tidio’s app or plugin and any Tidio script left in your theme. Plan changes take effect from your next billing cycle, and Tidio’s terms don’t promise refunds for unused time (Tidio terms).

If you’re moving to a help desk, the third-party Help Desk Migration service lists Tidio as a source (Help Desk Migration).

Moving to Resolve247? Point it at the pages Lyro learned from, and it’s trained in minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Tidio alternative?

The best Tidio alternative depends on why you’re leaving. Resolve247, which we make, gives AI answers at a flat monthly price. Crisp prices per workspace. tawk.to’s live chat is free, and LiveChat is the closest swap. Chatbase’s AI also answers on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. Gorgias handles Shopify orders; Freshworks, Help Scout, Intercom, and Zendesk are full help desks.

Who are Tidio’s main competitors?

Tidio’s main competitors fall into four types. Crisp, LiveChat, and tawk.to are live chat with AI. Freshworks, Help Scout, Intercom, and Zendesk are help desks with AI. Gorgias is a help desk for online shops. Chatbase and Resolve247, which we make, are standalone AI chatbots, for teams that mainly used Lyro.

Is there a free Tidio alternative?

Yes. Tidio itself has a Free plan, with 50 team-answered conversations a month and 50 Lyro conversations in total. tawk.to’s live chat is free for any number of agents, with 100 AI credits a month, and Crisp, HubSpot, and Freshchat have free plans for human chat.

What is the best Tidio alternative for Shopify?

Pick Gorgias, from its Basic plan, for AI that refunds, cancels, and edits orders in your team’s inbox. Chatbase’s AI helps customers track, return, and exchange orders; Crisp’s Hugo and Intercom’s Fin look up order details. Resolve247 answers shipping, returns, and product questions from your store’s pages, and its Tool Use feature lets a developer add order look-ups.

Can I add AI to the chat my team already uses, instead of Lyro?

Yes. Resolve247 answers inside HubSpot chat on any HubSpot plan, Free included, or inside Crisp chat. HubSpot’s Customer Agent needs Service Hub Professional, and Crisp’s paid plans include its AI, Hugo. Intercom sells its AI, Fin, for other help desks. Tidio’s Lyro Connect runs Lyro inside Zendesk, Intercom, or Salesforce on Plus and Premium (one Tidio page says Premium only).

How much does Tidio cost in 2026?

Tidio’s Starter plan is $29 a month on monthly billing ($24.17 billed yearly), and Growth runs from $59 to $349. Lyro AI is sold separately, from $39 a month for 50 conversations, and it runs on the Free plan too (Tidio’s pricing page, 12 November 2026). Our Tidio pricing guide covers every plan, add-on, and limit.

How do I move my chat history out of Tidio?

Export contacts to CSV on any plan, and download the transcripts you need one at a time, since Tidio has no bulk export. The switching checklist covers the rest.

Is Tidio reliable?

Tidio holds 4.8 on the Shopify App Store (1,356 reviews), 4.8 on WordPress.org (395 ratings), and 3.5 on Trustpilot (225 reviews), all checked on 12 November 2026. In the reviews we read, most complaints are about billing and support, and about one in five mentions missed messages, notifications, or install problems.

So, Which Tidio Alternative Should You Pick?

The right Tidio alternative is the one that fixes your reason for leaving at a price you can plan for. Shortlist two tools from the Quick Verdict, then:

1. Test both on ten of your customers’ real questions, including one your content doesn’t answer, to see how each hands over.
2. Price your own month with the cost table, using your real chat count.
3. Switch with the checklist, and cancel Tidio at the end of your billing period.

If the bill is why you’re leaving, or you mainly used Tidio for Lyro, try Resolve247 alongside the other Tidio alternatives on your shortlist. It answers from your own content and shows the source of every answer. On a flat monthly plan from $35, it keeps answering past its allowance. Start your free 30-day trial: no card needed, and nothing is charged automatically.