Table of Contents
- What is Tidio?
- What does Tidio mean by a billable conversation?
- How does Tidio work?
- What features does Tidio offer?
- Live chat, typing preview, and visitor list
- Ticketing and email
- Lyro AI Agent
- Flows
- Does Tidio integrate with Slack?
- Other Tidio integrations and CRM
- How much does Tidio cost in 2026?
- How much does the Lyro AI Agent cost?
- What does Tidio cost at your volume?
- Can you remove the "Powered by Tidio" branding?
- Is there still a Tidio Communicator plan?
- What are the pros and cons of Tidio?
- Pros
- Cons
- What do users say about Tidio?
- Is Tidio HIPAA compliant?
- Who should use Tidio?
- What are the best Tidio alternatives?
- 1. SiteGPT: best for answers trained on your own content at a flat plan price
- 2. Crisp: best like-for-like live chat replacement at a flat workspace price
- 3. Tawk: best free live chat replacement
- 4. Chatbase: best content-trained agent with a free plan
- The stack: which tool does which job
- Tidio vs SiteGPT: which one fits?
- How to choose between Tidio and its alternatives
- Frequently asked questions
- Basics
- What is Tidio?
- What does Tidio mean?
- What is Tidio used for?
- Is Tidio a CRM?
- Pricing
- Is Tidio free?
- How much does Tidio cost?
- How much does the Tidio chatbot cost?
- Does Tidio charge per agent?
- Does Tidio have a free trial?
- Features and integrations
- Does Tidio integrate with Slack?
- Does Tidio show what visitors are typing?
- Can you remove Tidio branding?
- Does Tidio offer white label?
- Does Tidio work with Shopify and WordPress?
- Alternatives
- What are the best Tidio alternatives?
- Is there a free Tidio alternative?
- Is Tidio or SiteGPT better for customer service?
- Which is cheaper, Tidio or Crisp?
- Sources

- Tidio is a helpdesk first. It combines live chat, ticketing, email, no-code Flows, and the Lyro AI agent. It holds 4.6 out of 5 on G2 from 1,962 reviews.
- Tidio pricing has three meters. Starter is $29 a month, or $24.17 a month billed annually, for 100 billable conversations. Lyro AI conversations and Flows visitors are billed on top.
- Lyro costs more as volume grows. 50 AI conversations cost $39 a month, 300 cost $210, and 750 cost $525, on monthly billing.
- The Tidio Slack integration is plan-gated. Tidio lists it on the Plus and Premium plans. Plus starts at $300 a month plus usage.
- Alternatives depend on the job. SiteGPT answers from your own content on a flat plan from $59 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly. It is not a helpdesk. Crisp or Tawk is the like-for-like live chat replacement.
Aspect | Verdict |
Best for | Small teams and online stores that want live chat, tickets, and AI in one inbox |
Free plan | Yes. 50 billable conversations a month, 50 one-time Lyro conversations, 100 Flows visitors |
Paid pricing | Starter $29 a month, or $24.17 billed annually. Growth from $59, or $49.17 billed annually. Plus from $300 plus usage |
Lyro AI Agent | From $39 a month, or $32.50 billed annually, for 50 AI conversations |
Biggest strength | Human chat, ticketing, Flows, and AI in one tool with a free start |
Biggest limitation | Three separate quotas. Slack, departments, and OpenAPI need Plus |
Free trial | 7 days, no credit card |
G2 rating | 4.6 out of 5 from 1,962 reviews |

What is Tidio?

- Customer service. Live chat, ticketing, and email handled by your team.
- Lyro AI Agent. An AI agent that answers from your service content.
- Flows. Rule-based chat paths that you build without code.
What does Tidio mean by a billable conversation?
- Unanswered messages are free. Spam and messages you do not reply to do not count.
- Bot replies are not agent replies. Answers from Flows and Lyro do not make a conversation billable.
- Lyro has its own counter. A Lyro conversation is any conversation with at least one Lyro reply, and it draws from the Lyro quota.
How does Tidio work?
- Install the widget. Add Tidio to a website, a Shopify store, or a WordPress site.
- Connect channels. Tidio lists Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and email as channels for the same inbox.
- Add automation. Build Flows for set paths, and give Lyro your service content.
- Answer and hand off. Lyro replies first when it can. Your team takes over in the inbox, the desktop app, or the mobile app.
What features does Tidio offer?
Live chat, typing preview, and visitor list
Ticketing and email
Lyro AI Agent
- FAQ upload
- FAQ scraper
- Website scraper
- Import of Zendesk articles
Flows
Does Tidio integrate with Slack?
- New chat and lead alerts post to the Slack channels you choose.
- Notification rules decide which chats, alerts, and summaries reach each channel.
- The team discusses a chat in Slack, then assigns and answers it in the Tidio panel.
Question | Tidio | SiteGPT |
Slack integration | Yes | Yes |
Plan needed | Listed on Plus and Premium | Growth and above |
Lowest price with Slack | From $300 a month plus usage | $129 a month, or $79 a month billed yearly |
Other Tidio integrations and CRM
How much does Tidio cost in 2026?
Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing (per month) | Billable conversations | Notable features |
Free | $0 | $0 | 50 a month | 50 one-time Lyro conversations, 100 Flows visitors |
Starter | $29 | $24.17 | 100 a month | Live chat, ticketing, live visitors list, basic analytics |
Growth | From $59 | From $49.17 | From 250, up to 2,000 | Live typing preview, macros, permissions, advanced analytics |
Plus | From $300 plus usage | From $300 plus usage | Custom | Departments, multiproject, custom branding, OpenAPI, custom seats |
Premium | Custom | Custom | Custom | From 3,000 Lyro conversations, pay-per-resolution billing, SSO |
How much does the Lyro AI Agent cost?
Lyro conversations a month | Monthly price | Cost per AI conversation |
50 | $39 | $0.78 |
150 | $110 | $0.73 |
300 | $210 | $0.70 |
750 | $525 | $0.70 |

What does Tidio cost at your volume?
Billable conversations a month | Plan | Monthly price | Cost per conversation |
100 | Starter | $29 | $0.29 |
400 | Growth | $89 | $0.22 |
800 | Growth | $159 | $0.20 |
1,500 | Growth | $249 | $0.17 |
More than 2,000 | Plus or Premium | Contact sales | Not published |
Line | Math | Monthly cost |
Growth, 400 billable conversations | 1 x $89 | $89 |
Lyro, 300 AI conversations | 1 x $210 | $210 |
Remove Tidio branding | 1 x $20 | $20 |
Total | Sum of the three lines | $319 |
Can you remove the "Powered by Tidio" branding?
Is there still a Tidio Communicator plan?
What are the pros and cons of Tidio?
Pros
- A real free plan. 50 billable conversations a month cost nothing, with no trial clock.
- A trial with no card. The 7-day trial opens every paid feature without payment details.
- One inbox for human work. Live chat, tickets, email, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp land in one place.
- Unanswered chats are free. A conversation is billable only after a human agent replies.
- AI and rules together. Lyro answers open questions, and Flows handle set paths.
- Low entry price. Starter is $24.17 a month billed annually.
- Mobile and desktop apps. Agents can reply away from the browser.
Cons
- Three meters to manage. Human conversations, Lyro conversations, and Flows visitors each have a quota and a price.
- Lyro adds up. 300 AI conversations cost $210 a month, which is more than seven times the Starter price.
- The free Lyro allowance is one-time. The 50 free Lyro conversations do not refresh each month.
- Slack and OpenAPI are gated. Both are listed on Plus, which starts at $300 a month plus usage.
- Seats stop at 10 on self-serve plans. A larger team needs Plus.
- No HIPAA business associate role. Tidio's terms say Tidio is not a HIPAA Business Associate.
What do users say about Tidio?
Is Tidio HIPAA compliant?
Who should use Tidio?
- Run a small team or an online store and want live chat and tickets in one inbox
- Want to start free and pay later
- Need human agents on Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp
- Want rule-based Flows next to an AI agent
- Handle fewer than 2,000 human conversations a month
- Want most questions answered by AI and need one fixed bill for it
- Need Slack alerts or API access on a small budget
- Have more than 10 agents and no budget for Plus
- Handle patient data and need a signed BAA
What are the best Tidio alternatives?
# | Tool | Best for | Starting price | Main trade-off |
1 | Answers trained on your own content at a flat plan price | $59 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly | Not a helpdesk. No ticketing, no free plan | |
2 | A like-for-like live chat and inbox replacement at a flat workspace price | Free for 2 seats. Mini is $45 a month per workspace | Included AI credits are small: $5 on Mini, $25 on Essentials | |
3 | Free live chat with no conversation quota to buy | Free platform. AI Assist from $29 a month | Removing the badge costs $29 a month | |
4 | A content-trained agent with a free plan | Free for 50 message credits. Hobby is $40 a month | Helpdesk starts on Standard at $150 a month |
1. SiteGPT: best for answers trained on your own content at a flat plan price

- Content sources: URLs, sitemaps, files, raw text, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, Notion, GitHub, and YouTube.
- Pricing: Starter is $59 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly, with 4k GPT-4.1-mini messages a month. Growth is $129, or $79 billed yearly, with 10k messages. Scale is $429, or $259 billed yearly, with 40k messages.
- Integrations: Slack, Crisp, Messenger, Google Chat, Freshdesk Messaging, and Zoho SalesIQ from Growth. Zendesk from Scale. There is no Intercom or HubSpot integration today.
- Trade-off: there is no free plan, and the 7-day trial needs a credit card. Starter has no chat integrations and refreshes content manually.
- Rating: 4.9 out of 5 from 12 reviews on G2.
- Best for: teams whose questions are mostly answered by content they already have, and who want a fixed monthly price.
2. Crisp: best like-for-like live chat replacement at a flat workspace price

- Pricing: Free includes 2 seats. Mini is $45 a month with 4 seats. Essentials is $95 a month with 10 seats. Plus is $295 a month with 20 seats or more, according to Crisp pricing.
- AI: plans include AI credits of $5 on Mini, $25 on Essentials, and $75 on Plus.
- Trade-off: the omnichannel inbox, knowledge base, and routing rules start on Essentials. The ticketing system and white labelling start on Plus.
- Best for: teams that want the price to stay flat as conversation volume grows. SiteGPT runs inside Crisp from the Growth plan, as the AI chatbot for Crisp guide explains.
3. Tawk: best free live chat replacement

- Pricing: the platform is free. AI Assist has a free tier for limited volume, and paid plans start at $29 a month. Whitelabel costs $29 a month, according to the Tawk add-ons page.
- Trade-off: the free widget carries a "Powered by" badge until you pay to remove it.
- Best for: teams with no software budget that want human live chat today. More free options are in the free chatbot for website guide.
4. Chatbase: best content-trained agent with a free plan

- Pricing: Free includes 50 message credits a month. Hobby is $40 a month with 700 credits. Standard is $150 a month with 4,000 credits and the helpdesk. Yearly billing takes 20% off, according to Chatbase pricing.
- Trade-off: removing the Chatbase badge costs $99 a month. Free agents are deleted after 14 days of inactivity.
- Best for: small teams that want a free tier first. The Chatbase review covers the plans in depth.
The stack: which tool does which job
Layer | Job | Tool |
Helpdesk and live chat | Shared inbox, tickets, email, and human agents | Tidio, Crisp, or Tawk |
Rule-based automation | Set chat paths for quotes, carts, and missed chats | Tidio Flows |
Knowledge-trained answer layer | Answers questions from your website, files, and documents | SiteGPT, or Tidio Lyro |
Human escalation | Takes over when the AI cannot help | Your agents in the helpdesk |
Tidio vs SiteGPT: which one fits?
Criterion | Tidio | SiteGPT |
Core job | Live chat and helpdesk with an AI agent add-on | Chatbot that answers from your own content |
Ticketing and shared email inbox | Yes | No |
AI content sources | FAQ upload, FAQ scraper, website scraper, Zendesk articles | URLs, sitemaps, files, raw text, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, Notion, GitHub, YouTube |
Billing unit | Billable conversations, Lyro conversations, Flows visitors | Messages |
Entry paid price | $29 a month, or $24.17 billed annually | $59 a month, or $39 billed yearly |
Entry AI quota | 50 Lyro conversations for $39 a month | 4k GPT-4.1-mini messages a month on Starter |
Free plan | Yes | No |
Free trial | 7 days, no card | 7 days, card required |
Slack | Listed on Plus and Premium | Growth and above |
Remove branding | $20 a month, or $16.67 billed annually | $59 a month, or $39 billed yearly |
HIPAA | Terms say Tidio is not a Business Associate | BAA on Enterprise only |
How to choose between Tidio and its alternatives
If you need... | Pick... | Why |
Live chat and tickets in one inbox, starting free | Tidio | The free plan covers 50 billable conversations a month |
Rule-based chat paths for a store | Tidio | Flows are part of the platform |
AI answers from your website and documents on a fixed plan | SiteGPT | Plans have fixed prices and message quotas |
Slack for less than $300 a month | SiteGPT Growth | Slack is included at $129 a month, or $79 billed yearly |
A shared inbox with no conversation quota | Crisp | It charges one flat price per workspace |
Human live chat at no cost | Tawk | The platform is free |
A content-trained agent to test for free | Chatbase | The free plan has 50 message credits a month |
A signed BAA | SiteGPT Enterprise, or another vendor that signs one | Tidio's terms say it is not a HIPAA Business Associate |









