Teams look for a Tidio alternative when the bill stops being one number: human conversations, Lyro AI conversations and Flows visitors are metered separately, and branding removal is a paid add-on. Most move to a per-seat live chat tool, to a vendor with a free or self-hosted tier, or to a helpdesk-first product with chat attached.
Sebastiaan SmitsFounderShort answer: The first three alternatives to Tidio in our live chat ranking are LiveChat, Smartsupp and Lime Connect (formerly Userlike). Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. Choose LiveChat if you want per-user pricing and a mature chat inbox rather than conversation tiers. All 12 alternatives below are ranked products from Best Live Chat Software in 2026, and each says where it differs from Tidio.
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Tidio's pricing page sells billable conversations, Lyro AI conversations and visitors reached with Flows as three quotas, each with its own slider and price. Lyro starts at $32.50 a month for 50 conversations and Flows at $24.17 for 2,000 visitors, on top of the Customer Service plan. A shop with chat, a bot and proactive popups pays for all three.
Tidio counts a conversation once a human agent replies or starts it. Starter covers 100 of them at $24.17 a month, Growth starts at $49.17 for 250, and the page lists Growth as running up to 2,000. A support-heavy shop with long tails of customer replies reaches the next slider step sooner than a seat count would suggest.
Removing the Tidio branding is an add-on listed at $16.67 a month. Departments, multiproject, OpenAPI and custom branding are listed under Plus, which starts at $300 a month plus usage. A team that needs only departments or API access therefore moves from a $49.17 plan to a $300 plan.
| Alternative | Headquarters | Free option | Pricing | Key difference | Switch if | Our rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LiveChat | Poland | No free tier | Per agent per month, published; 14-day trial only | The specialist that does website conversations and little else | you want per-user pricing and a mature chat inbox rather than conversation tiers | #4 |
| Smartsupp | Czechia | Yes | Free plan for one operator; paid plans by operator bundle, published; AI agent extra | Czech chat for small shops, with an AI shopping assistant as an add-on | your team is one to five people and conversation counts keep rising | #2 |
| Lime Connect (formerly Userlike) | Germany | Yes | Free plan for one seat on the website channel; Pro with three seats from a published monthly price; AI agent extra | German-hosted chat with WhatsApp and messaging channels included | you want a German vendor and WhatsApp as a main channel | #1 |
| Chatwoot | United States | Yes | Self-hosting free and open source (MIT); cloud free plan for two agents, then per agent per month, published | Open source shared inbox you can host on your own server | you want to host the chat inbox yourself or pay per agent only | #5 |
| HelpCrunch | United States | No free tier | Per seat per month, published; AI agent conversations extra | Chat, shared inbox, knowledge base and email campaigns in one | you also send email campaigns and popups and want them in the same tool | #3 |
| Freshchat | United States | Yes | Free tier; paid per agent per month, published; AI sessions extra | Freshworks messaging product with a free tier and AI add-on | you expect to grow into a full support desk and want a free tier first | #12 |
| tawk.to | United States | Yes | Free; paid add-ons for branding removal, AI Assist and hired agents | Genuinely free chat widget, paid for branding removal and AI | you want free chat software and will pay only for staffing or AI | #8 |
| Zoho SalesIQ | India | Yes | Free tier; paid per operator per month, published | Chat plus visitor tracking, cheap if you run Zoho already | your customer records already live in Zoho CRM or Zoho One | #11 |
| Trengo | Netherlands | No free tier | Plans with set users and conversations, published; extra users and AI conversations charged | Dutch shared inbox where website chat is one channel | WhatsApp and email make up most of your support volume | #7 |
| LiveAgent | Slovakia | No free tier | Per agent per month, published, in four bundled plans; 30-day trial | Chat, tickets and calls from one Slovak vendor at one price | email tickets and call centre features matter as much as the chat widget | #9 |
| Olark | United States | No free tier | Human chat per agent per month, published; AI website agent at a published flat monthly fee; 14-day trial | Accessible chat widget, now led by a flat-fee AI website agent | you want one flat AI price with no usage meter | #10 |
| Tiledesk | Italy | Yes | Self-hosting free and open source; cloud published per month | Italian open source chat with a visual conversation designer | you want to run the stack on your own servers or build custom AI agents | #13 |
Poland · Per agent per month, published; 14-day trial only
Same Polish origin, sold per user: Essential is $19 and Growth $79 per user a month on annual billing, with a 14-day trial and no card. AI resolutions are capped at 10 (Essential) or 200 (Growth) a month, with extra packs of 50 at $49.50. Tidio's ten included seats become a per-person bill here.
Switch from Tidio if you want per-user pricing and a mature chat inbox rather than conversation tiers.
Czechia · Free plan for one operator; paid plans by operator bundle, published; AI agent extra
A Brno company selling by operator count, not by conversation volume. A free plan gives one operator and 25 conversations a month with 14 days of history. Paid plans run unlimited conversations: Solo $17, Plus $25 (three operators) and Expert $83 (five or more), billed annually. The Mira AI agent is a separate $16 plan.
Switch from Tidio if your team is one to five people and conversation counts keep rising.
Germany · Free plan for one seat on the website channel; Pro with three seats from a published monthly price; AI agent extra
Now sold as Lime Connect by Lime Connect (Userlike) GmbH in Cologne. Free covers one seat, one website channel and 200 conversations. Pro needs at least three seats and unlimited conversations, listed at 105 or 87 euros a month by billing period before VAT. The AI Agent is a separate add-on from 99 euros a month.
Switch from Tidio if you want a German vendor and WhatsApp as a main channel.
Lime Connect (formerly Userlike), #1 of 14 in our live chat ranking →
United States · Self-hosting free and open source (MIT); cloud free plan for two agents, then per agent per month, published
Open source outside its enterprise folder, which is under a separate licence, with a free Community Edition you host yourself. Cloud pricing is per agent: Hacker $0 for two agents and 500 conversations, then $19, $39 and $99 per agent a month. Cloud runs on AWS servers in the United States. Its Captain AI credits cost $20 per 1,000.
Switch from Tidio if you want to host the chat inbox yourself or pay per agent only.
United States · Per seat per month, published; AI agent conversations extra
Combines live chat with email marketing, popups and a knowledge base in one account, priced by seats and monthly email volume chosen on sliders rather than by conversations. A 14-day trial needs no card and migration is stated as free. AI conversations are sold as extensions from 100 a month. We could not read per-seat prices from the page.
Switch from Tidio if you also send email campaigns and popups and want them in the same tool.
United States · Free tier; paid per agent per month, published; AI sessions extra
From Freshworks Inc., with a free tier for up to 10 agents that holds website chat, a team inbox and email. Social messengers, SMS and WhatsApp start at Growth, $19 per agent a month on annual billing, then Pro $49 and Enterprise $79. The Freddy AI Agent includes 500 sessions, then $49 per 100.
Switch from Tidio if you expect to grow into a full support desk and want a free tier first.
United States · Free; paid add-ons for branding removal, AI Assist and hired agents
Free software for chat as long as the small Powered by tawk.to label stays; removing it costs $29 a month. Its own page contrasts this with per-seat pricing. AI Assist starts at $29 a month and staffed chat agents are offered at $1 an hour.
Switch from Tidio if you want free chat software and will pay only for staffing or AI.
India · Free tier; paid per operator per month, published
Visitor tracking and chat from Zoho. The free plan gives three operator licences, 10,000 tracked visitors and 100 chat sessions a month. Basic, Professional and Enterprise are priced per operator, annually; we could not read the amounts. It is bundled in Zoho One and Zoho CRM Plus, so Zoho CRM users pay least for it.
Switch from Tidio if your customer records already live in Zoho CRM or Zoho One.
Netherlands · Plans with set users and conversations, published; extra users and AI conversations charged
A Utrecht company built around a shared inbox for WhatsApp, email and social channels, with a website widget included. Boost is 299 euros a month on annual billing (349 monthly) for 10 users and 500 conversations a month; Pro is 499 (599) for 20 users. Broadcasting is an add-on. It costs far more than Tidio's entry plans.
Switch from Tidio if WhatsApp and email make up most of your support volume.
Slovakia · Per agent per month, published, in four bundled plans; 30-day trial
A ticket-first helpdesk by Quality Unit with chat included. Starter is $19 per agent a month ($15 annual) for up to five agents, Team $35 ($29) and Business $59 ($49), with a 30-day trial and no card. It states no AI fees: AI runs on your own provider account. Data centres sit in the EU, US and Singapore.
Switch from Tidio if email tickets and call centre features matter as much as the chat widget.
United States · Human chat per agent per month, published; AI website agent at a published flat monthly fee; 14-day trial
Human chat is $29 per agent a month with a 14-day trial and no card. The Standard AI Website Agent is a flat $400 a month billed annually with unlimited conversations and one human seat, extra seats at $29. There is no per-conversation AI meter.
Switch from Tidio if you want one flat AI price with no usage meter.
Italy · Self-hosting free and open source; cloud published per month
An Italian company (Tiledesk S.r.l.) whose code is on GitHub under the MIT licence for self-hosting. Cloud plans are Pro, 149 euros a month for three users and 3,000 conversations, and Business at 499 for five users, with a 14-day trial. It is built around AI agents and a design studio.
Switch from Tidio if you want to run the stack on your own servers or build custom AI agents.
Tidio stays a sound choice for a small online shop that wants one widget with chat, a Flows bot and Lyro AI in a single dashboard. The Free plan covers 50 billable conversations with 10 seats, the trial runs 7 days without a card and falls back to Free, and Flows templates cover quote requests and missed conversations. If your monthly human conversation count sits well below 250 and you use Flows and Lyro lightly, three small meters can still cost less than a per-seat tool for a team of five.
Open Tidio's analytics and note last month's billable conversations, Lyro conversations and Flows visitors. Tidio bills these separately, so a replacement must be compared against the sum, not against the Customer Service plan alone. Per-seat tools such as LiveChat or Freshchat turn the same volume into a user count.
Lyro answers from your support content, so save the FAQ and knowledge sources you uploaded before downgrading. Plan to rebuild bot rules and Flows in the new tool by hand, and keep your own copies of any conversations you still need.
Install the new widget on a low-traffic page while Tidio stays live elsewhere. Tidio says one widget shares appearance and operating hours across all your sites, so check that the replacement lets you set them per site if you run several stores.
Several vendors publish a free tier. Smartsupp gives one operator and 25 conversations a month, Chatwoot cloud gives two agents and 500 conversations, Freshchat covers up to 10 agents, and Lime Connect offers one seat with 200 conversations.
tawk.to is free with its branding left in place. Each caps something, so compare the limit that matters to you.
On published per-seat prices, Smartsupp Plus at $25 a month covers three operators and Expert $83 covers five or more, both billed annually.
Chatwoot Startups would be $95 for five agents at $19 each. Freshchat Growth is the same $95 at $19 per agent. Count the AI add-ons before concluding.
Yes, two of them: Chatwoot publishes a free Community Edition for your own infrastructure under the MIT licence for its non-enterprise code, and Tiledesk publishes its code on GitHub under MIT.
Tidio itself is a hosted service. Self-hosting trades subscription fees for your own server and upkeep work.
No. Its pricing page lists 10 seats on Free, Starter and Growth and custom seats on Plus and Premium.
It charges by billable conversations, Lyro conversations and Flows visitors reached, so the bill follows volume. LiveChat, LiveAgent, Olark and Freshchat do the opposite and charge per agent.
It depends on whether you want a meter. Olark charges a flat $400 a month with unlimited conversations, LiveAgent states no AI fees but runs on your own AI provider account, and Freshchat sells 100 Freddy sessions for $49.
Tidio's Lyro is metered, starting at $32.50 for 50 conversations.
Tidio was founded in 2013 in Szczecin, Poland, according to its about page. Its terms name Tidio Poland as the data controller. Among alternatives, LiveChat (Text S.A.) is in Wrocław, Smartsupp in Brno, Lime Connect in Cologne, Trengo in Utrecht and Tiledesk in Galatina.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Written, edited and fact-checked by Sebastiaan Smits. Last reviewed 22 October 2026. How we review.
