Crisp chat alternatives in 2026: priced for 3, 5 and 10 people

Most people searching for Crisp chat alternatives aren't trying to pay less. Crisp is the cheapest of the tools we could price with AI included in the team-size comparisons below, and its free plan is real. They're searching because they hit a wall: a fifth teammate that turns a $45 plan into a $95 one, a 5,000-profile cap, AI that goes quiet when its monthly credits run out, or a security questionnaire asking for a SOC 2 report that Crisp says it doesn't have.

So this post does two jobs. It prices the same team, at 3, 5 and 10 people, on Crisp and its main alternatives, with the arithmetic on the page. And it tells you plainly where Crisp still wins, which is more often than you'd expect.

One disclosure: Talvo is one of them, and it's our product. It gets the same pros-and-cons treatment as the other boxed tools, and it goes last on purpose. Every price below is a list price from the vendor's own pages, checked October 21, 2026.

Quick picks, by the problem you're trying to solve

Why people leave Crisp, and what each wall costs

Crisp's plans are flat per workspace, which is why they look so good on a pricing page. The walls are in the limits.

Seats are the one most people hit first. Mini includes four seats and can't add more, so the fifth person means the Essentials plan: $45 becomes $95, a $50 jump for one hire. Essentials covers ten. The eleventh person means Plus at $295, a $200 jump. The $10-per-extra-agent price that Crisp's pricing page mentions sits in the Plus column of its comparison table, so it reads as a Plus-only option.

Then profiles. Customer profiles are capped at 5,000 on Mini, 50,000 on Essentials and 200,000 on Plus, and a Capterra reviewer names the cap as the thing that makes Crisp expensive as a contact list grows. Channels are capped too: a workspace connects one account each of Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp Business, Viber, Line and Telegram, email excepted, so a second WhatsApp number means asking Crisp for a higher limit at a price it doesn't publish.

The AI has its own wall. Crisp's Hugo agent runs on monthly credits of $5, $25 or $75 by plan. When they're gone and pay-as-you-go is off, Hugo stops answering and conversations go to your humans. You can switch pay-as-you-go on with a spending cap, but Crisp doesn't publish its rate.

Last, the paperwork. Crisp's own help article says it hasn't been through a SOC 2 audit, and its pricing page lists no SSO/SAML or HIPAA on any tier. Its data is hosted in the EU, which some buyers want and some can't use.

None of this is a defect. It's the trade for a low sticker price, and some walls have cheaper fixes than switching.

What Crisp costs today, in one table

The full breakdown lives in Crisp pricing; these are the numbers this post uses.

Crisp lets you switch to yearly billing inside the app, but it doesn't publish a yearly price or discount, so every Crisp figure here is monthly. There's a 14-day trial with all features.

Nine ways to bill an AI answer

This matters more than the seat price once AI volume climbs.

Three families show up. Crisp, Tidio and Freshchat charge when the AI spoke, whether or not the customer got helped. Intercom, LiveChat and Talvo charge when a conversation ends as an answered one, with different rules about what that means. Help Scout and Zendesk add a check, voiding the charge if the customer asks for more help or (as Zendesk's article implies) if a second model can't verify the answer. Our AI resolution pricing comparison walks through each in detail.

Talvo's rule is close to Fin's and LiveChat's: one conversation, counted once, only if no teammate sent a message. A handoff is never billed. We're not claiming it's stricter than Fin's. The difference is the price.

One team, every tool: what 3, 5 and 10 people pay

Three teams, list prices, monthly billing, each tool on its cheapest plan that includes chat and an AI agent. The assumption that moves everything: every AI-handled conversation counts as billable. For Crisp and Tidio that's exactly how they bill. For Help Scout, Zendesk, Intercom and Talvo it's a ceiling, because handoffs and objections shouldn't be charged. Crisp's AI usage uses its own $0.05 to $0.10 estimate, with extra credits at face value since the pay-as-you-go rate isn't published.

The arithmetic, for the plans in play:

• Talvo: 3 people is Starter at $49 plus 200 resolutions over the 100 included at $0.49 ($98). 5 people at 1,000 is Scale at $299 (2,000 included), cheaper than Growth at $149 plus 500 extra ($394). 10 people at 3,000 is Scale plus 1,000 extra ($490).
• Tidio: Growth for the human conversations (600 for $129, 1,000 for $179, 2,000 for $349) plus Lyro ($210 for 300, $700 for 1,000). *Lyro at 3,000 a month isn't sold self-serve; the figure assumes the $0.70 self-serve rate holds, which Tidio's sales team may price differently.
• Help Scout: Standard at $30 a user plus $0.75 per resolution.
• LiveChat (Text): Essential at $25 a user, 10 resolutions included, extras in packs of 50 for $49.50.
• Intercom: Essential at $39 a seat plus $0.99 per outcome.
• Zendesk: Suite Team at $69 a seat monthly, 5 resolutions per agent included, extras at the $2.00 pay-as-you-go rate.

Chatwoot and Freshchat aren't in the table because we can't price their AI honestly: Chatwoot doesn't say how many Captain credits one answer uses, and Freshchat bills its AI in sessions rather than resolutions. On seats alone, Chatwoot Startups is $19 per agent a month (so $95 for five, before AI) and Freshchat Growth is $19 per agent on annual billing, $23 monthly.

On annual billing, the per-resolution tools drop. Talvo's cheapest fit becomes $119, $249 and $739 for the three teams (3 people at 300 resolutions fits the Growth plan at $119 with 500 included). Help Scout is $300, $875 and $2,500. Intercom's Essential plan is $384, $1,135 and $3,260. Crisp doesn't publish a yearly price, so we can't put a number against it.

There's one place where the table flips, and it's easy to miss because it sits at a smaller AI volume. Take five teammates and light AI use. Crisp needs Essentials at $95, because Mini stops at four seats. Talvo's Starter plan covers five teammates for $49 and includes 100 AI resolutions. Every extra resolution is $0.49, so Talvo costs less than Crisp Essentials until you reach about 195 resolutions a month, where Talvo hits $95. Past that, Crisp's credits stretch further. That's a price comparison only: Essentials includes WhatsApp and Instagram channels, a help center on your own domain and no-code workflows that Talvo's Starter plan doesn't, while Starter has things of its own, like booking pages and NPS surveys (the CSAT star rating is on every plan). Four teammates or fewer? Crisp Mini at $45 beats Talvo Starter at $49 before AI is even counted.

If free is the budget: six free plans compared

For a two-person shop, the paid-plan math doesn't apply.

Crisp Free is the better chat-only choice for two people, and Freshchat's ten agents are generous without the AI. Tidio and Talvo include some AI at no cost: Tidio's 50 are lifetime, Talvo's 25 reset monthly but are a beta allowance.

The Crisp chat alternatives worth pricing, one at a time

Four tools get a pros-and-cons box here: the ones with no post of their own on this site, plus Talvo. The others get a paragraph and a link to where we price them properly.

Tidio, Help Scout, Intercom and Zendesk in brief

Tidio is the closest thing to Crisp's audience: small teams, quick setup, a generous free plan, and Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp on every plan, Free included, where Crisp keeps Instagram and WhatsApp for its $95 Essentials plan. The catch is the bill's shape: human conversations, Lyro AI conversations and Flows visitors are metered separately, and Lyro runs about $0.70 a conversation at the top self-serve tier, 7 to 14 times Crisp's own estimate. See Tidio pricing, Talvo vs Tidio and Tidio alternatives.

Help Scout is the pick when support is an inbox first and a chat widget second: $25 per user on annual billing ($30 monthly), $0.75 per AI resolution, SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA with a BAA on Pro. Against Crisp the arithmetic is unforgiving, since three people on Standard are $90 a month before any AI and Crisp Mini covers them for $45. See Help Scout pricing, Talvo vs Help Scout and Help Scout vs Intercom.

Intercom (now Fin) is what many Crisp users picture as the grown-up version: a polished Messenger, a long compliance list (SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA on Expert) and US, EU or Australian hosting. Essential is $39 per seat monthly ($29 annual), Fin is $0.99 per outcome, and product tours and surveys sit behind a $99-a-month add-on. Salesforce completed its acquisition of Fin on September 10, 2026. For five seats and 1,000 AI conversations that's $1,185 a month against Crisp's $120 to $170; see Intercom pricing, Crisp vs Intercom and Talvo vs Intercom.

Zendesk is for teams outgrowing chat, not teams looking to save money. Suite Team ($55 per agent annually, $69 monthly) is the cheapest plan with live chat, each agent gets 5 AI resolutions a month, then it's $1.50 committed or $2.00 pay-as-you-go. You get voice, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA through an add-on and SAML SSO. See Zendesk pricing and Talvo vs Zendesk.

Chatwoot

Chatwoot is the answer to "what's the open source alternative to Crisp." The Community Edition is free forever, and you host it. Chatwoot also sells a cloud service: a Hacker plan (2 agents, 500 conversations, live chat only), then $19, $39 and $99 per agent a month on Startups, Business and Enterprise. Captain, its AI, comes with 300, 500 or 800 credits on those plans and costs $20 per 1,000 beyond that; the pricing page doesn't say how many credits one answer burns, so we can't turn that into a per-conversation price.

Be honest with yourself about hosting. The free edition leaves out Captain AI, SSO, voice, custom branding and SLA policies, and "free" has a server and maintenance cost. Chatwoot says it has SOC 2 Type II compliance, which probably covers the cloud service, not your own install.

Freshchat

If your reason for leaving Crisp is "WhatsApp and SMS should not cost $95 a month," look here. Freshchat's Growth plan, at $19 per agent on annual billing, lists Facebook, Instagram, SMS, WhatsApp, LINE and Google Business Messages, along with the Freddy AI agent. Free covers up to 10 agents. SAML SSO is listed on every tier, and Freshworks publishes SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001. Voice runs through a separate Freshcaller product.

Two cautions. Monthly billing costs more: Growth is $23 per agent month to month. And Freddy bills per session, a 24-hour window on chat, at $49 per 100 after 500 free sessions per account (once, not monthly). Sessions are counted per interaction window, not per resolution.

LiveChat (sold as Text)

LiveChat's pricing page is now titled "Text Live Chat Pricing": new trials are sold as Text plans, and LiveChat's page says existing customers keep their LiveChat plan, though a press report says those legacy plans were repriced by about 20% from April 2026. Essential is $19 per user on annual billing and $25 monthly; Growth is $79 or $99. There's no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Essential includes 10 AI resolutions a month, Growth 200, and extras auto-refill at $49.50 per 50, or about $0.99 each. Text is SOC 2 Type 2 audited and sells a Shopify integration and SMS through Twilio. For a five-person team, Growth is $395 to $495 a month before extra AI.

Talvo

Talvo is a customer messaging platform: live chat widget, AI agent, shared inbox, two-way email, a knowledge base with a hosted help center, and automation in one product. It charges per workspace, not per seat. Starter is $49 a month for 5 teammates and 100 AI resolutions, Growth $149 for 15 and 500, Scale $299 for 25 and 2,000. Past the allowance, a resolution is $0.49. Annual billing brings those to $39, $119 and $249.

The AI answers only from your published articles, names the article it used, and hands off to a person with the thread intact when it isn't confident. Adding a teammate up to your plan's limit never changes the bill, which is the opposite of Crisp's seat steps, though Talvo has its own: Starter stops at five.

Where Talvo is weaker than Crisp

Crisp has been around longer, has a pile of reviews, and does several things we can't. Crisp lists WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS, Viber, Line and phone channels. Talvo has the website widget and two-way email. WhatsApp, SMS, Instagram and Messenger are on our roadmap as planned, and we won't treat a roadmap line as a feature.

Crisp includes mobile and desktop apps on every plan. Talvo works in the phone's browser with a mobile-adapted inbox and push notifications, with no App Store or Google Play app yet.

Crisp also lists 100+ integrations on Plus, while Talvo's integrations are a REST API, signed webhooks and Slack. Crisp is EU-hosted; Talvo processes data in the United States, with no region choice. On audits, they're closer than people assume: neither has a SOC 2 report, SAML SSO or HIPAA support. If a buyer's checklist requires any of them, neither tool clears it. For a direct feature comparison, see Talvo vs Crisp.

Stay on Crisp if...

Stay if your customers write to you on WhatsApp, Instagram or SMS and you want them in one inbox. Stay if your team is four people or fewer, or ten with modest AI use, because $45 or $95 is hard to beat anywhere. Stay if EU hosting matters, if you like the mobile apps, or if your AI volume is small enough that a few dollars of credits cover it. And stay if the only thing bothering you is one cap, because a call to Crisp about a custom limit costs less than a migration.

Leave when the walls start costing you. The cleanest triggers are the fifth seat when you also want AI billed per answered conversation, a contact list heading past 50,000, a customer asking for a SOC 2 report you can't produce (most of the other tools here publish one), or more connected channel accounts than Crisp's one-of-each rule allows.

For the pure per-seat versus flat-price question, per-seat vs flat pricing explains why flat tools get complicated at the edges.

Moving off Crisp without losing your help center

1. 1Export your contactsPull a CSV of your contacts out of Crisp. Talvo's importer takes name, email, company and phone columns and matches people by email, so re-running is safe.
2. 2Import the help centerPaste the public address of your Crisp help center. Talvo reads the same pages your customers see, and every article arrives as a draft you review before the AI can use it.
3. 3Swap the widgetReplace Crisp's snippet with Talvo's one script tag, just before the closing body tag.
4. 4Forward your support emailPoint your support address at the forwarding address in Settings → Inbox so replies thread into the same conversation.
5. 5Run both for a couple of weeksKeep Crisp's widget live somewhere low-traffic while you check answers, then remove it.

What doesn't move: past conversations stay in Crisp, so keep the account on Free for reference rather than deleting it. Crisp workflows and triggers have to be rebuilt in the new tool, and anything running on a channel the new tool doesn't have can't follow you. The switching guide lists every step for Talvo. For other tools, check whether they import your help center by URL before you commit.

If you want to test your own numbers first, the free support cost calculator prices your team across several of these tools.