Crisp Alternatives 2026: 5 Options, 4 Free
Crisp alternatives: tawk.to, Chatwoot, Tidio, FreeScout and 1 more. Prices and licenses checked October 22, 2026.
•3 min read•Customer Support & Help Desk
Verdict:Leave Crisp when you need more seats or a larger free allowance than its 2-seat, 100-profile free plan gives, or when you want to self-host the support inbox. Crisp's free plan covers 2 seats and 100 customer profiles with no AI credits, and its Mini plan is $45 a month per workspace. Tawk.to is the easiest swap for live chat, since its core chat is free for your whole team and branding removal costs $29 a month. Chatwoot is the self-hosted route: its free hosted Hacker plan covers 2 agents and 500 conversations a month, and you pay for your own server beyond that. Tidio suits a small site that wants chatbots, though its free tier caps conversations at 50 a month. FreeScout is free to self-host and works best when support lives in a shared email inbox rather than a website chat. LiveChat has no free plan, so it makes sense only when a larger support team needs the full suite. Crisp is worth keeping if its polished inbox matters more than the seat cap.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tawk.to | Free (Live chat, ticketing and knowledge base free; AI Assist has a free plan for limited chat volume); paid from $29 per month (remove-branding add-on) | Web browser | Free live chat for any team size | Docs only |
| Chatwoot | Free (Hacker plan: 2 agents, 500 conversations/month, live chat only, 30 days retention); paid from $19 per agent/month, billed monthly (Startups) | Web browser, Self-hosted | Teams that want an open-source support inbox | Docs only |
| Tidio | Free (50 billable conversations per month); paid from $24.17 per month, billed monthly (Starter) | Web browser | Chatbots with a low conversation count | Docs only |
| FreeScout | Free (free self-hosted core; you pay for your own server) | Web browser, Self-hosted | Email support teams that self-host | Docs only |
| LiveChat | Paid from $25 per user/month, billed monthly (Essential; $19 billed annually) | Web browser | Larger support teams needing a full helpdesk | Docs only |
| Intercom | Paid from $29 per seat/month (Essential; the page also shows $19, which appears to be the annual rate; Advanced $85, Expert $132; Fin AI Agent $0.99 per outcome) | Web browser | Customer Support | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You want free live chat for a whole team (tawk.to is the pick)
- You want to self-host the support inbox (Chatwoot is the pick)
- You want chatbots on a site with few conversations (Tidio is the pick)
- Your support runs on shared email, not website chat (FreeScout is the pick)
- You run a larger support team and need a full suite (LiveChat is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Crisp features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Crisp today: Free (2 seats, 100 customer profiles, no AI credits); paid from $45 per workspace/month, billed monthly (Mini, 4 agents) (Crisp pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Why people look for Crisp alternatives
Crisp prices per workspace, not per agent: Free covers 2 agents and 100 customer profiles with no AI credits and no shared email inbox. Mini is $45 a month for 4 agents and 5,000 profiles, Essentials $95 for 10 agents, and Plus $295 for 20+. Extra agents cost $10 each a month, and white labelling, which removes the 'We run on Crisp' mark, is listed only on Plus. AI credits are bundled ($5 on Mini, about 90 automated conversations).
tawk.to
Compared with Crisp: Free live chat, ticketing and knowledge base with no seat limit. AI Assist has a free plan for limited chat volume, and branding removal is $29 a month. You gain unlimited free chat, but lose Crisp's polished shared inbox and its 2-seat cap is replaced by a simpler free tier.
Price: Free (Live chat, ticketing and knowledge base free; AI Assist has a free plan for limited chat volume); paid from $29 per month (remove-branding add-on) (tawk.to pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Free live chat for any team size.
Worth knowing: Live answering by hired agents is $1 per hour.
Chatwoot
Compared with Crisp: Open-source support inbox you can self-host, with a free hosted Hacker plan for 2 agents and 500 conversations a month. You trade Crisp's managed service for a server you run, with no per-seat fee.
Price: Free (Hacker plan: 2 agents, 500 conversations/month, live chat only, 30 days retention); paid from $19 per agent/month, billed monthly (Startups) (Chatwoot pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted. MIT (repo also contains an enterprise folder) (open source).
Project activity: 38.4k GitHub stars · latest release v4.19.1 (Oct 24, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Teams that want an open-source support inbox.
Tidio
Compared with Crisp: Free plan includes 50 billable conversations a month, and Starter is $24.17 a month billed monthly. Crisp's free plan allows 100 customer profiles, so Tidio caps conversations instead and pairs them with chatbots.
Price: Free (50 billable conversations per month); paid from $24.17 per month, billed monthly (Starter) (Tidio pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Chatbots with a low conversation count.
Worth knowing: Annual option includes two months free.
FreeScout
Compared with Crisp: Free self-hosted helpdesk core for shared email inboxes, and you pay only for your own server. It lacks Crisp's website chat widget and profiles, so it suits email support rather than live chat.
Price: Free (free self-hosted core; you pay for your own server) (FreeScout pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted. AGPL-3.0 (open source).
Project activity: 4.6k GitHub stars · latest release 1.8.248 (Oct 17, 2026) · last commit Oct 26, 2026
Best for: Email support teams that self-host.
LiveChat
Compared with Crisp: No free plan, only a 14-day trial with no card needed, and Essential is $25 a user a month billed monthly. It is built for larger support teams, which is more than Crisp's Mini plan at $45 per workspace requires for a small team.
Price: Paid from $25 per user/month, billed monthly (Essential; $19 billed annually) (LiveChat pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Larger support teams needing a full helpdesk.
Other popular options (paid)
Intercom
Compared with Crisp: Per-seat helpdesk and messenger: Essential is listed at $29 a seat per month ($19 appears to be the annual rate), against Crisp's flat $45 for four agents. Fin AI Agent costs $0.99 per outcome; there is no free plan.
Price: Paid from $29 per seat/month (Essential; the page also shows $19, which appears to be the annual rate; Advanced $85, Expert $132; Fin AI Agent $0.99 per outcome) (Intercom pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Which one to pick
Limits of this review
Docs-only for tawk.to, Chatwoot, Tidio, FreeScout, LiveChat: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Crisp. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked 2026-10-22: Crisp, tawk.to, Chatwoot, Tidio, FreeScout, LiveChat, Intercom. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.