Tidio alternatives in 2026: 8 options for teams that outgrew live chat

Tidio was easy when two of you answered the chat bubble. Now 8 people work chat and email, the bill runs on 3 separate meters, and the self serve plans stop at 10 seats.

Below are 8 Tidio alternatives, with the monthly bill for 5, 15 and 30 agents, the AI pricing and the steps to get your data out. Deskwoot is ours, so it comes first, gaps included.

Quick answer: what these Tidio alternatives cost a team of 15

Monthly bill: 15 agents, billed annually where the page offers it, with the AI share from the cost section below, before tax and WhatsApp or SMS fees. Prices come from each vendor's own pricing page, in US dollars, checked on October 28, 2026.

Two terms in the AI column. Pricing per resolution (or per outcome) means you pay only when the AI closes a conversation without a person. Pricing per conversation means you pay when the AI takes part, whatever the result.

Which one fits your team

• Chat and email in one inbox, pricing per agent and AI counted at a few cents: Deskwoot (ours), from $3.20 per agent a month billed annually.
• Chat is still most of the work and you want one flat bill: Crisp. Essentials costs $95 a month for up to 10 seats.
• No software budget: tawk.to. Chat, ticketing and a knowledge base are free; removing its branding costs $29 a month.
• Chat is a sales channel and you want AI resolutions in packs: LiveChat, from $19 per user a month billed annually.
• You sell software and the chat lives inside your app: Intercom.
• Email tickets are now half the job and you need routing and reporting: Zendesk, or Freshdesk with Freshchat.
• A Shopify store with many occasional helpers: Gorgias, priced by tickets with 500 seats from the Basic plan.
• 2 or 3 people, mostly chat, lots of Instagram and Messenger: stay on Tidio for now.

If all you need is a widget for a small team, our live chat software roundup covers more chat tools.

4 signs your team has outgrown Tidio

None of these makes Tidio a bad tool. They are where its plan design starts to work against a team of 5 to 30.

1. You are about to hire person number 11

Tidio's pricing FAQ says self serve plans take up to 10 agents. After that comes Plus, which starts at $300 a month plus usage and goes through sales.

2. The Growth tier keeps climbing

Growth starts at $59 a month for 250 billable conversations and steps up to $349 for 2,000.

Each tier is a monthly limit. The pricing page shows no price for going over one, only the next tier.

3. The AI line is bigger than the team line

Lyro, Tidio's AI agent, is sold in monthly tiers from $39 for 50 conversations to $700 for 1,000.

A team with 600 AI conversations a month needs the 750 tier at $525. That is more than 3 times the $159 Growth tier that covers 700 conversations answered by people.

4. You need routing

Automatic assignment starts on Growth. Departments (sending chats to the right team) and Tidio's API appear only on Plus and Premium in the plan comparison.

How Tidio bills, in plain words

Tidio sells 3 products, each with its own meter, alone or as a bundle.

Billable conversations

This is the meter on the Customer Service plans. A conversation counts once someone on your team writes in it or starts it.

Messages you never answer are free, replies from Lyro or Flows don't count, and a long thread counts once.

Lyro AI conversations

Any conversation where Lyro replied at least once. It counts once, even when the customer leaves and comes back later.

Every account gets 50 one time; a monthly allowance needs a Lyro plan.

Flows visitors

Flows are Tidio's rule based automations, built with drag and drop. This meter counts the unique visitors your Flows reach.

100 visitors a month are free, and 2,000 cost $29 a month.

One chat can count twice

A chat that Lyro opens and a person finishes counts on 2 meters: once as a Lyro conversation and once as a billable conversation. Count it twice when you forecast.

Seats

A seat is a person who logs in to answer customers. Tidio includes 10 on Free, Starter and Growth, and 10 is also the ceiling on those plans.

Source: Tidio's pricing page, checked on October 28, 2026. Annual billing gives 2 months free. The trial lasts 7 days, needs no card, and drops the account to the Free plan when it ends.

The 8 Tidio alternatives

After our own tool, the list runs from the closest swap for a chat team to tools built for bigger ticket loads.

Deskwoot: no seat cap, AI per conversation

Deskwoot is ours. It fits a chat team that now also answers email and needs more than 10 seats: one inbox, pricing per agent and AI counted per conversation.

Pick something else if Instagram and Messenger bring in your sales or Flows run your marketing.

The inbox takes 13 channels: website chat, email, WhatsApp, Telegram, LINE, SMS, X DMs, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, phone calls from a 3CX system and a REST API.

Pricing is per agent a month:

• Hacker: free for 1 agent
• Startup: $3.20 billed annually ($4 monthly)
• Business: $6.40 ($8)
• Enterprise: $9.60 ($12)

Paid plans have no seat cap, so person number 11 adds one seat instead of a new plan.

AI is counted per conversation, once a month, when Fynn (the AI agent, on paid plans) or Copilot works in it, or a voice message in it is transcribed.

Startup includes 50 a month, Business 100 and Enterprise 300. After that each costs $0.07, $0.05 or $0.03 from a prepaid balance.

For a store leaving Tidio: the chat widget installs with one snippet and greets visitors by time on page, page address or a returning visit.

Shopify and WooCommerce orders show next to the conversation, where agents refund or cancel them. Fynn answers "where is my order?" from the order number and shipping postal code.

The gaps, plainly:

• No TikTok DMs yet.
• No Tidio importer: contacts come in from a CSV file, and a conversations CSV brings only the first message of each conversation.
• "Powered by Deskwoot" stays on the widget below Enterprise.
• Startup stops at 1,000 new conversations a month, after which the widget takes no new chats until the next month.
• History stays visible for 6 months on Startup and 1 year on Business.
• There is no live visitor list and no drag and drop builder like Flows.

We compare Deskwoot with Crisp, Intercom, Zendesk and Freshdesk in more detail.

If the gaps don't hit you, the next step is the 7 day trial: Enterprise, no card, up to 30 seats including yours. When it ends, you pick a paid plan or keep 1 agent on the free Hacker plan.

Crisp

Crisp is the closest swap if chat is still the center of your day. It charges per workspace, with seats included, according to Crisp's pricing page, checked October 28, 2026:

• Free: 2 seats
• Mini: $45 a month, 4 seats
• Essentials: $95 a month, 10 seats
• Plus: $295 a month, 20 seats

Its comparison table offers extra seats at $10 a month each only on Plus. So person number 11 moves you from $95 to $295.

The shared email inbox starts on Mini. WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, SMS, LINE and Viber come with the omnichannel inbox on Essentials.

Each paid plan includes credits for Hugo, the Crisp AI agent: $5, $25 and $75, which Crisp equates to around 90, 450 and 1,350 automated conversations.

Crisp's help article on Hugo billing says credits are used by tokens and puts a full conversation at about $0.05 to $0.10. It also says Hugo stops answering when the credits run out unless you switch on Pay As You Go.

Watch for: the pricing page shows monthly prices only (yearly billing is switched on inside the app) and no price for Pay As You Go. Trial: 14 days, no card.

LiveChat

LiveChat suits teams that treat chat as a sales channel. Proactive campaigns, live visitor tracking and selling through Shopify are on both self serve plans.

On October 28, 2026 the LiveChat pricing page sold new plans under the name Text, from the team behind LiveChat. Its FAQ says existing LiveChat customers keep their plan and price, and that Text plans have a different feature mix, so check which product a quote is for.

• Essential: $19 per user a month billed annually ($25 monthly), with 60 days of conversation history
• Growth: $79 ($99), with unlimited history

AI is billed per resolution. Essential includes 10 a month and Growth 200, and each extra pack of 50 costs $49.50, so about 99 cents a resolution.

The page says website chat, WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS and email land in one inbox, and it sets no fixed user cap for self serve teams.

Watch for: 60 days of history on Essential is short for a team that handles returns and warranty questions. Trial: 14 days, no card.

tawk.to

tawk.to gives away live chat, ticketing, a hosted knowledge base and chat pages. According to its pricing page, checked October 28, 2026, it charges for extras:

• removing its branding: $29 a month
• AI Assist: from $29 a month, with a free tier for sites with little chat volume
• hired chat agents: $1 an hour

The same page puts no price on seats.

It fits a team with no software budget, or one that wants to try a second tool without a contract.

The AI pricing is thin: the page gives a starting price and no volume numbers for either tier, so ask before you plan a month around it.

Intercom

Intercom fits software companies where chat lives inside the product. According to Intercom's pricing page, checked October 28, 2026, seats are billed annually:

• Essential: $29 per seat a month, shown at $19 for new customers (35% off, without saying for how long)
• Advanced: $85
• Expert: $132

Advanced and Expert include 20 and 50 free Lite seats for colleagues who read along but don't reply.

Fin, the Intercom AI agent, costs $0.99 per outcome. An outcome counts when the customer confirms the answer helped, asks for nothing more after Fin replies, or when Fin finishes a set procedure, handoffs included.

It is charged once per conversation at most, however many questions Fin answers.

WhatsApp and SMS are charged per message, and Copilot costs $29 per agent a month billed annually.

Watch for: round robin assignment and multiple team inboxes start on Advanced, so a team of 15 that needs routing pays $85 a seat. Trial: 14 days, no card.

Zendesk

Zendesk is the pick when email tickets, routing and reporting matter more than the widget. According to Zendesk's pricing page, checked October 28, 2026:

• Support Team: $19 per agent a month billed annually ($25 monthly), for email and ticketing
• Suite Team: $55 ($69), where messaging, live chat and telephony start
• Suite Professional: $115 ($149)

AI agents come with every plan and are billed per automated resolution, a request the AI settles without a person. The Team plans include 5 a month per agent and Professional 10.

More cost $1.50 each if you commit to a volume, or $2.00 as you go.

Watch for: coming from Tidio, Suite Team is your real entry price, and the AI bill rises with every resolution. Trial: 14 days of Suite Professional.

Freshdesk and Freshchat

Freshworks splits the job in 2: Freshchat for chat and messaging, Freshdesk for email tickets.

Freshchat Free covers up to 10 agents with the widget, a shared inbox and a connected email address. Paid plans per agent a month, billed annually, according to the Freshchat and Freshdesk pricing pages, checked October 28, 2026:

• Freshchat: $19, $49 and $79
• Freshdesk: $19, $55 and $89

Social messengers and WhatsApp start on Freshchat Growth.

Freddy AI Agent is billed per session, at $49 per 100. On chat, a session is everything between one customer and the AI within 24 hours.

Each account gets 500 free sessions, once. Freddy Copilot costs $29 per agent a month on Pro and Enterprise.

Watch for: chat plus tickets means 2 products and 2 bills. The pages show annual prices, and the toggle says annual billing saves 20%. Trial: 14 days of Enterprise.

Gorgias

Gorgias is built for Shopify stores and charges by tickets instead of people. According to its pricing page, checked October 28, 2026:

• Starter: $10 a month for 50 tickets and 3 seats, monthly only
• Basic: $60 ($50 billed annually) for 300 tickets
• Pro: $360 ($300) for 2,000 tickets
• Advanced: $900 ($750) for 5,000 tickets

Basic, Pro and Advanced each come with 500 seats. Extra tickets cost $0.40 each on Starter, $40 per 100 on Basic and $36 per 100 on Pro and Advanced.

AI Agent comes in bundles of 30, 190 or 530 automated interactions at about $0.85 to $1.00 each, and $1.50 for each one above the bundle. Every automated interaction also counts as a ticket.

Watch for: the bill follows your order volume, so November costs more than March. We worked through one small store's Black Friday month in Gorgias alternatives for small Shopify stores. Trial: 7 days, no card.

What 5, 15 and 30 agents pay

The same team runs through every tool. Each agent handles 200 customer conversations a month.

The AI answers first in 60% of them and settles half of those alone, and people reply in the other 70%. So 5 agents mean 1,000 conversations, 600 that the AI joins and 300 it settles.

Each vendor bills its own unit. Tidio and Deskwoot count the conversations the AI joins, Crisp counts tokens, Freshworks counts sessions, and the others count resolutions or outcomes.

Totals are per month, billed annually where the page offers it, before tax and before WhatsApp or SMS fees. The math uses the same assumptions for every tool.

How each line was built

• Deskwoot: $6.40 per agent plus AI conversations above 100 at $0.05. Startup would come to $54.50 for 5 agents, but 1,000 conversations is exactly its monthly cap, so Business is the safer plan. Copilot use in the conversations your people answer also counts, and would raise these numbers.
• Crisp: Essentials ($95) covers 5 people, Plus ($295) covers 15, and 30 people need Plus with 10 extra seats ($395). AI uses Crisp's own estimate of $0.05 to $0.10 per conversation, minus the $25 or $75 credit in the plan, at monthly prices.
• LiveChat: $19 per user, plus packs of 50 resolutions at $49.50 for everything above the 10 included (6, 18 and 36 packs). Growth, with 200 resolutions included and unlimited history, comes to $494, $1,878 and $3,954.
• Intercom: $29 per seat plus 300, 900 or 1,800 outcomes at $0.99. At the $19 price for new customers: $392, $1,176 and $2,352.
• Zendesk: $55 per agent plus resolutions above 5 per agent at $2.00 as you go. With committed resolutions at $1.50: $687.50, $2,062.50 and $4,125.
• Freshchat: $19 per agent plus 600, 1,800 or 3,600 sessions at $49 per 100, once the 500 free sessions are used up. Freshdesk Growth for email tickets adds $95, $285 or $570.
• Gorgias, 5 agents: every answered conversation is a ticket. Pro ($300) plus its AI bundle ($171 for 190) plus 110 interactions at $1.50.
• Gorgias, 15 agents: Advanced ($750) plus its AI bundle ($477 for 530) plus 370 at $1.50.
• Gorgias, 30 agents: Advanced plus 1,000 extra tickets ($360) plus the bundle plus 1,270 at $1.50. Above 5,000 conversations a month, Gorgias also sells custom plans.
• Tidio, 5 agents: 700 conversations with a human reply need the 800 tier of Growth ($159 a month, $132.50 billed annually). 600 Lyro conversations need the 750 tier ($525, or $437.50 billed annually). Billed monthly, the total is $684.
• Tidio, 15 and 30 agents: both teams are past the 10 seat limit, so Plus applies: from $300 a month plus usage.

What the numbers show

With AI priced per resolution or outcome, the AI line passes the seat line once the AI does real work. At 30 agents it is about two thirds of the Intercom, Zendesk and Gorgias bills.

Seat limits create jumps of their own: Tidio at person number 11, Crisp at 5 and again at 11.

With little AI the gap shrinks. Without any AI, 5 agents pay:

• $32 on Deskwoot Business
• $95 on Crisp Essentials, LiveChat Essential or Freshchat Growth
• $145 on Intercom Essential
• $149.17 on Tidio Growth (1,000 conversations, billed annually)
• $275 on Zendesk Suite Team
• $300 on Gorgias Pro

Getting your data out of Tidio

Do the exports while your paid plan is still running. The steps come from Tidio's help center.

1. Export contacts

In Customers, open All contacts, click Customize and tick every property you want to keep, because the CSV only holds the columns shown in your list. Then select the contacts and click Export.

Tidio's help article on the contacts list says this works on every plan, Free included.

2. Save the conversations you need

Tidio's help article on chat transcripts says they export one at a time: open the conversation, use the three dots menu in the visitor panel and choose the CSV export. There is no batch download.

For bulk, Tidio's API reference says the API returns the full conversation of a contact. The pricing page lists API access only on Plus and Premium.

3. Write down your Flows

Note each trigger, message and path. Your next tool will need them rebuilt as chat triggers, automation rules or bot instructions.

4. Keep what Lyro learned from

Lyro reads your website and the FAQ you uploaded or scraped. Those are your files, and the next AI agent can read the same ones.

5. Time the cancellation

Tidio applies plan changes from the next billing cycle and keeps your paid features until then. On annual billing, cancel before the renewal date.

When Tidio is still right

Stay if most of these describe you:

• 2 or 3 people answer, and fewer than 100 conversations a month need a human. Starter covers that for $29 a month, and the Free plan gives you 50 with 10 seats.
• Instagram and Messenger bring in your customers. Tidio connects both on every plan, Free included.
• Flows do real sales work for you, such as popups and bot paths, and you would have to rebuild them by hand.
• Lyro answers well and the volume is small. 50 Lyro conversations cost $39 a month.

The trouble starts at the edges: person number 11, a Lyro tier that costs more than the team, or a growing share of email that needs routing. If none of that is close, a switch buys you little.

Test on a normal week

Whatever you pick, test it on an ordinary week of real customers instead of a demo.

For Deskwoot, enter your team size and AI share in the estimator on the pricing page to see the monthly bill.

The next step is that week: start the 7 day trial (no card, up to 30 seats including yours), paste the widget snippet on one test page, forward a copy of your support email and compare the week with Tidio's.

If it doesn't fit, Tidio is untouched and the Hacker plan stays free for 1 agent.