Tidio alternatives and competitors: 9 tools compared (2026)

Tidio alternatives in 2026 come in two kinds: chat tools with a team inbox behind the widget, and AI chatbot builders that compete with Tidio's Lyro agent. Crisp, Freshchat, Intercom, Help Scout, HubSpot Service Hub and Sektra belong to the first kind, and Chatling, SiteGPT and Chatbase to the second. For each of the nine, this guide gives what the tool is built for, what its entry and middle plans include, how AI is priced and where prices start. Every figure was checked on the vendor's own pages in November 2026, and since we build Sektra, that entry should be read with that in mind.

What is Tidio?

Tidio is a live chat and help desk tool for websites, with the Lyro AI agent and Flows, its chat automations, sold beside the customer service plan. Plans are sized by billable conversations a month, meaning chats, emails or social messages that a person on the team replies to. They start at about $24 a month on annual billing after a free plan, and Lyro is a separate add-on billed per AI conversation. Tidio pricing goes through the plans, the Lyro packs and the add-ons, which this guide does not repeat.

Tidio alternatives compared

How to choose a Tidio alternative

The channel mix separates the chat tools from the chatbot builders. Crisp, Freshchat, Intercom, Help Scout and Sektra put website chat in a team inbox beside email, and each adds WhatsApp or social messengers on some plan. Chatling, SiteGPT and Chatbase start from the bot, with a widget on the site and an inbox on the middle plans where a person can take over a conversation.

AI billing is the second thing to compare, because Tidio sells Lyro as a separate pack of AI conversations and each alternative meters AI differently. Intercom, Help Scout and HubSpot charge per resolved conversation, at $0.99, $0.75 and $0.50, and Freshchat charges per session. Crisp includes dollar credits in each plan, the chatbot builders sell monthly quotas of messages or credits, and Sektra includes a monthly allowance of bot replies in the seat price.

Team size matters because the pricing units differ. Freshchat, Intercom, Help Scout, HubSpot and Sektra price per seat, so the bill follows headcount, while Crisp includes 4, 10 or 20 seats in a flat workspace price. The chatbot builders include between 1 and 5 members on their entry and middle plans, which fits a business where a few people supervise the bot.

Live chat alternatives to Tidio with a team inbox

1. Crisp: chat and a shared inbox on a flat workspace price

Crisp is a chat-first support suite whose plans are priced per workspace, with seats included and no charge per conversation. Mini, the entry paid plan, includes 4 seats, the website chat widget, a shared email inbox, chat triggers and private notes. Essentials is the middle plan, with 10 seats, an omnichannel inbox for WhatsApp Business, Instagram and SMS, a chatbot builder, a knowledge base and routing rules.

AI is metered in dollar credits included with each plan: $5 a month on Mini and $25 on Essentials, which Crisp puts at around 90 and 450 automated conversations. A Free plan covers 2 seats with the chat widget, and paid plans start at $45 a month for the workspace. Crisp suits a small team that wants chat, email and a bot for one fixed monthly figure.

2. Freshchat: live chat from Freshworks priced per agent

Freshchat is the messaging product from Freshworks, built for teams that answer customers in a chat widget on a website or inside a mobile app. Its Free plan covers up to 10 agents with the widget, a shared inbox and a connected support mailbox. Growth, the entry paid plan, adds Facebook and Instagram messengers, SMS, WhatsApp and reporting, and Pro, the middle plan, adds multilingual conversations, routing and multiple SLA policies.

The Freddy AI Agent is billed per session, at $49 per 100 sessions after a one-time allowance of 500, and on chat one session covers 24 hours of exchanges with a customer. Freddy AI Copilot for agents is an add-on at $29 per agent a month on Pro and Enterprise. Paid plans start at about $19 per agent a month on annual billing. Freshchat fits a team that wants chat on a per-agent price, including one that already uses Freshdesk for tickets.

3. Intercom: a website Messenger with the Fin AI agent

Intercom is built around its Messenger, the chat window that sits on a website or inside a product, and around Fin, its AI agent. Essential, the entry plan, includes Messenger live chat, a shared inbox with ticketing, a public help center and basic automation. Advanced is the middle plan and adds a workflow builder, several team inboxes, round-robin assignment and a multilingual help center.

Fin costs $0.99 per outcome on every plan and is charged at most once per conversation, and Intercom also sells it on its own for use with another help desk. Copilot for agents is free for 10 conversations per agent a month, then $29 per agent a month on annual billing. Seats start at about $29 a month on annual billing, and there is no free plan. Intercom suits a software company with a high volume of chat, and Intercom alternatives covers its field.

4. Help Scout: an email help desk with live chat

Help Scout is a help desk built around shared email inboxes, with live chat and a Docs knowledge base attached to the same queue. Standard, the entry paid plan, includes 2 inboxes, live chat and SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, and one basic SLA policy. Plus is the middle plan, with 5 inboxes, round-robin routing, unlimited AI drafts and a customer portal.

Envoy, the AI agent that answers customers directly, is an add-on at $0.75 per resolution, and Help Scout offers a three-month free trial of it. The Free plan covers 5 users, 1 inbox and 100 contacts a month, and paid plans start at about $25 per user a month on annual billing. Help Scout suits a team whose customers write email first and use chat as a second channel, and Help Scout vs Intercom compares it with the chat-first approach.

5. HubSpot Service Hub: live chat on the HubSpot CRM

Service Hub is HubSpot's support product, built so that chats and tickets sit on the same contact record as sales and marketing. The free tools cover up to 2 users with ticketing, team email and live chat that carries HubSpot branding. Starter, the entry paid plan, adds ticket automation and several ticket pipelines. Professional, the middle plan, adds the help desk workspace, a knowledge base and the Customer Agent, with a required one-time onboarding fee of $1,500.

AI is paid for in HubSpot credits. The Customer Agent uses 50 credits for each conversation it resolves, which is $0.50 at the listed $10 per 1,000 credits, and Professional includes 3,000 credits a month. Starter lists at $20 per seat a month, and Professional at about $90 per seat a month on an annual commitment. It suits a team whose sales or marketing already runs on HubSpot.

6. Sektra: live chat inside an AI shared inbox

Sektra, which we build, is an AI shared inbox in which website chat sits beside Gmail, Outlook, IMAP and WhatsApp Business conversations with the same owners, notes and rules. A bot can answer visitors first from the help center and hand over to a person, and the conversation continues by email or WhatsApp after the visitor leaves. Starter, the entry plan, covers 2 shared inboxes and up to 10 seats, and a chat widget brings its own inbox outside that limit. Team is the middle plan, with 10 shared inboxes, up to 50 seats and the complete client history in the memory layer, the record Sektra keeps of what each side promised.

Every AI feature is part of the seat price, with no fee per conversation or per resolution. The bot's replies come out of a monthly allowance, and chats go straight to a person once it is used. Pricing starts at $18 per seat a month on Starter or $29 on Team, billed yearly, and the pricing page lists what each plan includes. Sektra suits a team whose clients reach it by chat, email and WhatsApp and should see one continuous conversation, and the live chat page shows how the widget works.

AI chatbot builders that compete with Tidio's Lyro

7. Chatling: an AI chatbot builder priced by credits

Chatling is an AI chatbot builder, in which a team trains an agent on a knowledge base of its own content and places it on the website as a chat widget. The Free plan includes 200 AI credits a month for 1 agent and 1 seat, and Starter, the entry paid plan, raises that to 1,750 credits with 2 agents and 2 seats. Growth, the middle plan, includes 6,000 credits, 5 agents and 5 seats, and adds round-robin routing for chats handed to a person.

Chatling's unit of price is the AI credit: the number a reply uses depends on the AI model selected, and extra credits cost $10 a month for each 1,000. Paid plans start at about $21 a month on annual billing, and removing the Chatling badge is a $35 a month add-on below the Scale plan. Chatling suits a business that mainly wants a bot answering from its own content, with people stepping in for the exceptions.

8. SiteGPT: a website chatbot priced by monthly messages

SiteGPT is a website chatbot trained on a company's pages and files, built to answer visitors and collect leads. Starter, the entry plan, includes 1 chatbot, up to 4,000 messages a month, 1,000 pages of training content and 1 member. Growth is the middle plan, with 2 chatbots, up to 10,000 messages, 4 team members and a mobile inbox where a teammate can take over a chat from the bot.

Pricing follows the monthly message quota, and a pack of 5,000 further messages is a $39 a month add-on on annual billing. WhatsApp and AI email support are sold the same way, at $39 a month for each number or inbox. Plans start at about $39 a month on annual billing, with a 7-day trial that requires a card and no free plan. SiteGPT fits a business that wants a bot on its site, with escalations passed to a help desk it already runs.

9. Chatbase: AI support agents priced by message credits

Chatbase is a platform for building AI support agents that are trained on a company's own sources and deployed on a website, WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram. Hobby, the entry plan, includes 700 message credits a month, 1 agent and 2 members. Basic is the middle plan, with 4,000 message credits, 3 members, a help desk inbox for conversations escalated to people and integrations with tools such as Zendesk, Intercom and HubSpot.

Chatbase sells capacity as message credits, and further credits cost $40 per 1,000 through an automatic top-up. Plans start at about $32 a month on annual billing with a 7-day trial, and the pricing page lists no free plan. Chatbase suits a team that wants an AI agent across its site and messaging channels and plans its usage in message credits.

Where Sektra fits

Sektra fits a team for which website chat is one of several channels the same clients use. A chat lands in the shared inbox beside Gmail, Outlook and WhatsApp conversations, with an owner, internal notes and the same rules and service levels as email. The bot answers from the help center with its sources shown, and it hands over to a person when the visitor asks or when it has no answer. The pricing page lists the plans, and Sektra vs Intercom sets it beside a chat-first platform.

Tidio alternatives by type of team

A small team that wants chat and email on a fixed monthly price can look at Crisp, and a team that prefers a per-agent price with a free plan at Freshchat. A software company with a high volume of chat points to Intercom, email-first support with a knowledge base to Help Scout, and a team on HubSpot CRM to Service Hub. A business that mainly wants a bot answering from its own content can compare Chatling, SiteGPT and Chatbase on their quotas. A team whose clients use chat, email and WhatsApp with the same people is the case for Sektra.

Two numbers drive the usage and AI lines of the bill under every pricing model in this guide: last month's conversations and the share an AI agent handled. Both are worth counting before a switch, and Tidio pricing works through them for Tidio itself. Each tool here has a free plan or a free trial, which allows a week of real chats to be run through the shortlist before the widget on the site is replaced. How to add live chat to a website covers the settings to decide before a new widget goes live.