Tidio alternatives
The best Tidio alternatives for a small business (2026)
The best Tidio alternatives are Gorgias for ecommerce support actions, Intercom for an AI-led messenger, Help Scout for a smaller shared inbox, Freshdesk for ticket operations, and Mojobase for support connected to the rest of a small business. Choose by the conversations you handle: human replies, chatbot flows and AI resolutions have different billing units.
Updated . Prices and features checked on each company's own site
Why do people look for alternatives to Tidio?
- Tidio separates human-agent billable conversations, Lyro AI conversations and visitors reached by Flows. One headline allowance does not cover all three.
- The free plan's first 50 Lyro AI conversations are a one-off lifetime allowance, rather than a quota that renews every month.
- Growth adds macros, permissions and automatic chat assignment; departments and more extensive ticketing automation sit higher in the plan range.
What are the best Tidio alternatives?
| Tool | Best for |
|---|---|
| Gorgias | Store support that needs order-related actions |
| Intercom | A messenger centered on an AI support agent |
| Help Scout | Email support with a modest free allowance |
| Mojobase | The same people answering customers and running the business |
| Freshdesk | A ticket queue with routing and service levels |
1. Gorgias: best for store support that needs order-related actions
Gorgias specializes in ecommerce, combining email, chat and social with a Shopify connection. Its AI Agent handles questions and actions such as returns and order tracking. It is worth shortlisting when the problem is doing something to an order, rather than simply answering a visitor's question.
- Starter (helpdesk only): $10 per month, flat (not per agent), billed monthly only1
- Feature: Pricing is by tickets per month, never per agent; helpdesk scales from 50 to 5,000 tickets a month2
- AI: AI Agent pre-trained on 18+ verticals, answers support questions, converts shoppers with personalized chat and automates actions like returns and order tracking3
2. Intercom: best for a messenger centered on an AI support agent
Intercom combines a Messenger, shared inbox and help center with Fin, billed per outcome. Fin also works with several other help desks. Choose it when the business wants to design support around an AI agent and can measure the outcomes that drive its bill.
- Essential includes: Messenger live chat; Shared inbox and ticketing system; Pre-built reports; Public help center; Basic automation; Fin AI Agent at $0.99 per outcome (usage-based, on top of seats)4
- Fin AI Agent: $0.99 per outcome on all plans; no charge if Fin cannot answer or the customer asks for a human; at most one charge per conversation. Fin used with another helpdesk: $0.99 per outcome, no seat cost, minimum monthly commitment applies (e.g. 50 outcomes)5
- AI: Fin AI Agent counts an outcome when a customer confirms resolution, does not ask for more help after Fin responds, or Fin completes a workflow (Procedure), including handoffs6
3. Help Scout: best for email support with a modest free allowance
Help Scout starts with a shared inbox and Docs knowledge base. Its free plan allows five users, one inbox and 100 contacts a month. It suits a small support queue that needs readable conversation history more than proactive chat paths for converting website visitors.
- Free plan: Yes: Free plan with up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site, 100 contacts per month, 10 saved replies, 10 tags.7
- Feature: Shared inbox with multiple inboxes, tags, saved replies, snooze, send later and customer profiles8
- Feature: Docs: knowledge base sites (1 on Free, multiple from Standard)9
4. Mojobase: best for the same people answering customers and running the business
Mojobase places email support and website Messenger in Customers beside the CRM, Tasks, Calendar and Handbook. The support AI answers from published Handbook pages, with topic-level Auto and a handoff when unsure. It has no phone, SMS or social support channels, and Numbers does not change store orders.
- Price: $39 a month for the first person and $25 for each after; the first 10 companies pay $29 and $19, for life
- AI: included, with your choice of model, or bring your own
5. Freshdesk: best for a ticket queue with routing and service levels
Freshdesk is a help desk with ticketing, a shared inbox, customer portal and knowledge base. Pro adds intelligent routing, custom reporting and multiple SLA policies. Choose it when the support problem is assigning and monitoring work after a question arrives, rather than generating more website conversations.
- Growth: $19 per agent per month, billed annually (20% off annual); $23 billed monthly10
- Pro includes: Multilingual helpdesk; Custom dashboards and reporting; Intelligent routing; Multiple SLA policies; External collaborators (5,000 included); Freddy AI Copilot available as add-on11
- Additional Freddy AI Agent sessions: $49 per 100 sessions12
How should you choose a Tidio alternative?
Choose a Tidio alternative by separating three jobs: talking to visitors before a sale, resolving customer questions and managing the human support queue. A product can be excellent at one without replacing the other two.
For a store, test a delivery question, a return request and a visitor asking which product to buy. For a service business, use a policy question, a problem that needs investigation and a request for a quote. Record whether the tool answers, takes an action, creates a ticket or hands over the conversation. That result matters more than a general claim about AI.
Tidio's Flows are proactive, no-code chat paths for lead generation and sales. Lyro answers from knowledge material and hands off to people. Live chat and ticketing handle human replies. These are distinct capabilities in Tidio's own product description and pricing page, checked 7 November 2026. Retain Tidio if those three parts already work well together for the business.
What does each alternative actually charge for?
The billing unit is the most important cost difference between Tidio alternatives. Seats, contacts, tickets, AI sessions and outcomes cannot be treated as interchangeable counts of messages.
| Product | Main unit to understand | Verified detail that changes the estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Tidio | Human billable conversations, Lyro conversations, Flows reach | A human-agent message makes a conversation billable; Lyro and Flows replies do not count as human replies |
| Gorgias | Tickets, plus automated interactions | Starter helpdesk is $10 monthly; higher ticket volume changes the plan needed |
| Intercom | Seats plus Fin outcomes | Fin lists $0.99 per outcome, with at most one charge per conversation |
| Help Scout | Users and plan-specific contact limits | The free plan covers 100 contacts per month |
| Freshdesk | Agents plus Freddy sessions | Growth includes 500 initial sessions once per account, then sessions cost $49 per 100 |
| Mojobase | People in the workspace | $39 for the first person and $25 each after; compare support AI needs separately |
Do not assume that a conversation needing a person and an AI response consumes only one product allowance. Ask each vendor how retries, handoffs and reopened questions count. The imported research does not verify Tidio's monthly, non-annual Starter, Growth or Lyro prices, so this comparison leaves those prices out.
Mojobase lists at $139 a month for five people. The first 10 companies pay $29 for the first person and $19 for each after, for life. That workspace price is not a promise of unlimited autonomous support conversations.
When is Mojobase a useful Tidio replacement?
Mojobase is useful when support is part of the owner's daily work alongside sales, delivery and team coordination. A customer conversation sits beside the relationship record, related tasks and the information the team needs to follow through.
The support address uses hosted business Email on your domain or a connected Gmail or Outlook mailbox. Support mail moves into Customers' Inbox, where a conversation has one assignee and an open, waiting or closed state. The website Messenger gives visitors another way to reach the same support operation.
The Handbook is the support AI's source of truth. Publish a clear answer to a delivery or service-policy question, then choose which topics may be handled automatically. When the published material does not cover the question, the conversation goes to a person. The AI support workflow explains that boundary.
For the work around support, your chosen agent can reach permitted Email, Tasks and Handbook material through Mojobase's MCP server. That access follows the connected person's permissions.
Mojobase is built for 1 to 25 people, and it works well for teams up to 100. It does not replace Tidio's sales-oriented Flows, social channels or store actions. Numbers reads Shopify, Amazon and ad-platform reports; it does not cancel, refund or edit an order. Keep a store-focused help desk if those actions dominate support.
The help-center guide explains the published articles behind self-service support.
What do you lose by leaving Tidio?
Leaving Tidio may remove proactive chat flows and store connections that do more than answer support questions. Its integration list includes Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and other website tools, and its channels include Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and email.
Check how much demand those channels and flows create before removing them. A support replacement that makes the inbox easier but stops a useful pre-sale interaction can cost more than its subscription saves. Gorgias belongs on the shortlist for ecommerce operations; Intercom belongs there for an AI-led messenger; Help Scout fits a smaller email queue. None should be chosen simply because it appears above another in a ranking.
How should you test a replacement before changing the widget?
Test the replacement against a sample of real questions and preserve the old queue until each unresolved conversation has an owner. Replacing a website widget is easy; keeping context during the switch requires a plan.
- List the active Flows and the visitor goal each serves.
- Separate public knowledge from private customer information.
- Test an answerable question and one the AI must hand off.
- Confirm what happens outside working hours.
- Check that the support address and outgoing identity still work.
- Compare the bill using the new vendor's actual usage units.
Use the Tidio comparison for the narrower Mojobase decision, and the alternatives hub for other support approaches.
Questions people ask
Is there a free Tidio alternative?
Help Scout's free plan covers five users, one inbox, one Docs site and 100 contacts a month. Tidio itself has a free plan with 50 billable conversations and 10 seats. Its first 50 Lyro conversations are a lifetime allowance, so compare the usage limits as well as users.
Which Tidio alternative is best for Shopify support?
Gorgias is the strongest fit in this shortlist for store-specific support actions, including returns and order tracking. Mojobase reads Shopify sales for Numbers, but that read-only reporting connection is not an order-management integration for a support agent.
How does Tidio's billing differ from Intercom's?
Tidio distinguishes human-agent billable conversations, Lyro conversations and Flows visitors reached. Intercom charges for Fin outcomes alongside help-desk seats. These units are different, so replay a representative month of support rather than multiplying every price by your chat count.
Can Mojobase answer customers automatically?
Yes, for support topics set to Auto. Mojobase's support AI answers only from published Handbook pages and hands uncertain conversations to a person. Other support topics produce drafts for a person to send. Every support AI reply appears in Activity.
Sources
- Gorgias: Starter (helpdesk only). gorgias.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Gorgias: Feature. gorgias.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Gorgias: AI. gorgias.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Intercom: Essential includes. intercom.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Intercom: Fin AI Agent. intercom.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Intercom: AI. intercom.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Help Scout: Free plan. helpscout.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Help Scout: Feature. helpscout.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Help Scout: Feature. helpscout.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Freshdesk: Growth. freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Freshdesk: Pro includes. freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Freshdesk: Additional Freddy AI Agent sessions. freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.