Comparison with prices
5 Tidio alternatives in 2026, with the price each one publishes
Tidio is live chat for websites, with a help desk and an AI agent called Lyro. This page shows what it costs on its own pricing page, how Lyro is charged, and five other tools with a published price.
What is a good alternative to Tidio?
Short answer
Tidio has a free plan with 50 billable conversations a month. On annual billing, Starter is $24.17 a month and its Lyro AI agent starts at $32.50 a month for 50 AI conversations. Alternatives with a published price are CertuAI ($75 a month with 1,600 AI replies on WhatsApp), Crisp (free plan, WhatsApp from $95 a month), tawk.to (free live chat, AI from $29 a month), Chatbase (free plan, paid from $40) and Intercom ($0.99 per outcome plus seats). Prices checked on 10 October 2026.
Who makes this page. CertuAI makes this page, and CertuAI is on it, listed first for that reason and not because someone outside the company ranked it. Every fact about another company comes from that company's own page, with the address next to it. Where CertuAI is the weaker choice is written below, in its own section.
What Tidio costs
On 10 October 2026, tidio.com/pricing opened with its Annually switch on, which the page describes as 2 months free. With that switch on, Starter is $24.17 a month with 100 billable conversations, Growth starts at $49.17 a month from 250 billable conversations, and Plus starts at $300 a month plus monthly usage. Premium is by quote. There is a Free plan at $0 with 50 billable conversations.
Month to month costs more. The price list the same page loads has Starter at $29 and Growth from $59 on monthly billing. That list also has a second, lower set of prices for some countries, so the number you see can differ from ours. We quote the standard list only.
Lyro, the AI agent, is charged on top, per AI conversation. It starts at $32.50 a month for 50 Lyro AI conversations with the annual switch on; the page's price list has $39 on monthly billing, and $700 a month for 1,000. Every account gets its first 50 Lyro conversations free, once. Starter includes those 50 as a one-off, not every month.
What counts. A billable conversation is one that includes a message from a human agent; replies from Lyro and from Flows do not count as agent replies. A Lyro conversation is one with at least one AI reply, and the page says it stays one conversation "even if Lyro replies a dozen times or more".
WhatsApp. The plan table ticks the WhatsApp integration on every plan, Free included. Its WhatsApp page (tidio.com/integrations/whatsapp) says each connected number gets 1,000 free support messages a month, counting replies from Lyro and Flows, and that on a paid plan messages above 1,000 cost the local WhatsApp rate with no markup from Tidio.
The free trial lasts 7 days with no credit card, and the account then moves to the Free plan unless you upgrade. Self-serve plans allow up to 10 agents.
Tidio and CertuAI, side by side
| What | Tidio | CertuAI |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes: 50 billable conversations a month, up to 10 agents | None |
| Lowest paid plan | Starter: $24.17 a month on annual billing, 100 billable conversations | Start: $75 a month, 1,600 AI replies |
| AI agent | Lyro, charged on top: from $32.50 a month for 50 AI conversations on annual billing | Included in every plan |
| What you are paying for | Conversations: billable ones a person answered, and Lyro AI conversations | AI replies a month |
| Integration ticked on every plan, Free included | Every plan: 1 WhatsApp number on Start, 3 on Pro and Max | |
| Meta's WhatsApp fees | 1,000 free support messages a month per number; above that, the local WhatsApp rate with no markup | Not mentioned on the pricing page; ask before you send campaigns |
| People on the account | Up to 10 agents on self-serve plans | 5 on Start, 10 on Pro, 25 on Max |
| CRM | Connects to tools such as HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive | Included in every plan |
| Free trial | 7 days, no credit card, then the Free plan | 7 days, no card, then a paid plan |
| Public review rating | 4.6 on G2, 4.7 on Capterra, 4.7 on Shopify, as shown on its page | None to show |
On a phone, swipe the table sideways. Tidio: tidio.com/pricing and tidio.com/integrations/whatsapp. CertuAI: its pricing page. Prices checked on 10 October 2026.
A conversation and a reply are not the same unit
These plans are not directly comparable. Tidio charges Lyro per AI conversation, however many replies it takes. CertuAI charges per AI reply. To put them side by side you have to assume how many replies one conversation takes, and that number is yours, not ours.
Tidio Lyro, per AI conversation. $39 a month for 50 is $0.78 per conversation on monthly billing ($32.50 for 50 is $0.65 on annual billing). $700 a month for 1,000 is $0.70.
CertuAI, under a stated assumption. Per 1,000 AI replies, CertuAI works out to $46.88 on Start, $24.00 on Pro and $24.90 on Max. Start is $75 for 1,600 AI replies. If one conversation takes 5 AI replies, that is 320 conversations, or $0.23 each. If it takes 10 replies, 160 conversations, or $0.47 each. Those figures only hold if you use the whole plan.
At low volume Tidio costs less. A shop with 50 AI conversations a month pays Tidio $39 on monthly billing for Lyro, or nothing for the first 50. CertuAI Start is $75 a month however little you use.
The sums also leave things out. Tidio adds live chat, tickets and a website widget. CertuAI adds the CRM. Use the sums to see the size of the gap, not as a quote.
When Tidio is the better choice
- You want to start free and stay free. Tidio has a free plan with 50 billable conversations a month, and the trial falls back to it. CertuAI has no free plan.
- You sell through a website or an online store. Tidio is live chat for websites first, with a visitor list, Flows that start a chat when a visitor does something, and native Shopify actions in its feature list.
- You want published reviews. Its pricing page shows 4.6 on G2, 4.7 on Capterra and 4.7 on Shopify. CertuAI has no public rating.
- Your conversations are long. Lyro counts one conversation even if it replies a dozen times. On CertuAI every AI reply counts.
- You need little. For a few dozen AI conversations a month, Tidio costs less than CertuAI Start at $75.
- WhatsApp fees matter to you. Tidio's page says 1,000 free support messages a month per number and no markup above that. CertuAI's pricing page does not mention Meta's fees.
When CertuAI fits better
- WhatsApp is your main channel, not a website widget. CertuAI is built around a WhatsApp number that the AI answers by itself.
- You want the AI agent in the plan price. On CertuAI it is part of every plan. On Tidio, Lyro is charged on top of the plan after the first 50 conversations.
- You have a lot of short conversations. At 5 AI replies each, Start works out to $0.23 a conversation if you use the whole plan, against $0.70 to $0.78 on Lyro.
- You want the CRM in the same price. Every CertuAI plan includes one, and each chat becomes a contact in it.
Where CertuAI falls short
- No free plan. After the 7 days you choose a paid plan, and the lowest one is $75 a month.
- No public review ratings. CertuAI has no rating on a review site to show you. You have to judge it by trying it.
- A monthly reply limit. Start covers 1,600 AI replies a month. A busy number needs Pro or Max.
- WhatsApp first. CertuAI is built around WhatsApp, with Instagram and Messenger next to it. Its pricing page lists no connection to help desks or sales tools such as Zendesk, Salesforce or HubSpot.
- US dollars only. Prices are in US dollars, so check that your card accepts dollar payments.
5 alternatives to Tidio, one by one
CertuAI is first because CertuAI makes this page. The others are in no ranked order. Each has facts read on that company's own page, with the address.
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1. CertuAI
An AI agent that answers your customers on WhatsApp by itself, for owners of small businesses. Start $75 a month (1,600 AI replies, 1 WhatsApp number, 5 people), Pro $120 a month (5,000 AI replies, 3 WhatsApp numbers, 10 people) and Max $249 a month (10,000 AI replies, 3 WhatsApp numbers, 25 people). A CRM is included in every plan, and Instagram and Messenger messages are answered on every paid plan. 7 days free, no card, counted from when your WhatsApp connects. The price follows the number of AI replies a month, not the number of seats. See CertuAI plans and prices.
CertuAI makes this page. Source: certuai.com/pricing, checked on 10 October 2026.
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2. Crisp
A shared inbox with a website chat widget, priced as a flat rate per workspace and not per conversation. It has a free plan with 2 seats. WhatsApp Business is part of the omnichannel inbox on the Essentials plan: $95 a month per workspace, with 10 seats and $25 of AI credits included, which Crisp describes as around 450 automated conversations.
Source: crisp.chat/en/pricing, checked on 10 October 2026.
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3. tawk.to
Live chat software that is free, with ticketing and a help center. Its page says an AI chatbot for your website, AI Assist, starts from $29 a month, and that removing the "Powered by tawk.to" label costs $29 a month.
Source: tawk.to/why-free, checked on 10 October 2026.
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4. Chatbase
A builder for AI agents trained on your own content, sold by message credits. It has a free plan with 50 message credits a month. Paid plans start at $40 a month (Hobby) with 700 credits, and that is the first plan where its plan table ticks WhatsApp.
Source: chatbase.co/pricing, checked on 10 October 2026.
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5. Intercom
A help desk with an AI agent called Fin. Fin costs $0.99 per outcome on every plan, charged at most once per conversation, and the page says you pay nothing when Fin cannot answer. The help desk itself is priced per seat a month, on top of that.
Source: intercom.com/pricing, checked on 10 October 2026.
How we checked
We opened each company's own page on 10 October 2026 and wrote down what it said, with the address. We did not use review sites, sales calls or older lists. We did not convert any currency: $ always means US dollars, and a price in euros stays in euros.
Some pages open on yearly billing and some on monthly billing. Each price above says which one it is. Where a page shows different prices in different countries, we say so and quote the standard list.
Prices change. If you are reading this months from now, open the addresses below before you decide anything.
Questions people ask
How much does Tidio cost?
On 10 October 2026 its pricing page listed a Free plan with 50 billable conversations a month. With the annual switch on, Starter was $24.17 a month with 100 billable conversations, Growth started at $49.17 a month and Plus at $300 a month plus usage. On monthly billing the page's price list has Starter at $29 and Growth from $59.
How much does Lyro, the Tidio AI agent, cost?
Lyro is charged per AI conversation, on top of the plan. It starts at $32.50 a month for 50 Lyro AI conversations with the annual switch on, or $39 on monthly billing, and the page's price list has 1,000 conversations at $700 a month. Every account gets its first 50 Lyro conversations free, once.
Does Tidio work with WhatsApp?
Yes. Its plan table ticks the WhatsApp integration on every plan, including Free. Its WhatsApp page says each connected number gets 1,000 free support messages a month, and that on a paid plan messages above that cost the local WhatsApp rate with no markup.
Is there a free alternative to Tidio?
Tidio itself has a free plan. Among the alternatives on this page, tawk.to offers free live chat, and Crisp and Chatbase publish free plans. CertuAI does not: it has 7 days free with no card, and then you choose a paid plan.
Which Tidio alternative is built for WhatsApp?
CertuAI is built around WhatsApp: every plan includes at least one WhatsApp number and the AI agent, and Start costs $75 a month with 1,600 AI replies. It has no free plan, so for a website chat with little traffic Tidio or tawk.to costs less.
Who wrote this comparison, and is it paid?
CertuAI wrote it, and CertuAI is one of the options on the page, listed first for that reason. Nobody paid to be included and no link here earns a commission. Every fact about another company comes from that company's own page, with the address shown, and was checked on 10 October 2026.
Want to see it answer before you choose? Build your agent and watch it answer with your own business information. 7 days free, no card, counted from when your WhatsApp connects. Plans from $75 a month.
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