Tidio vs tawk.to (2026)

tawk.to is free software with paid extras. Its pricing page says the live chat is "free for life" if you keep the "Powered by tawk.to" branding, and lists free knowledge base and ticketing. The paid items on 3 November 2026 were branding removal at $29 a month, AI Assist "from as little as $29/month", hired chat agents at $1 an hour, and virtual assistants from $7 an hour. There are no seat fees on the software.

Tidio is a metered product with a small free tier. Free covers 50 billable conversations a month, 10 seats, 50 Lyro AI conversations for the lifetime of the account and Flows for 100 unique visitors a month. Starter is $24.17 a month for 100 billable conversations with 50 one-off Lyro conversations; Growth starts at $49.17; Plus starts at $300 a month plus monthly usage; Premium is on request. Lyro is also sold standalone from $32.50 a month for 50 AI conversations, and Flows from $24.17 a month for 2,000 visitors reached.

Tidio's page shows an annual toggle ("2 months free") but did not label which billing cycle its dollar figures reflect, and its Growth card and comparison table disagreed on the included conversations (from 250 vs up to 2,000). Confirm both on the vendor call.

Humans answer everything, about 300 chats a month, 4 agents

tawk.to: $0 with branding, or $29 without. Tidio: 300 billable conversations is past Starter's 100, so Growth at from $49.17 before any AI. tawk.to is the clear winner when people do the work.

Small store wants AI to answer first, about 200 AI answers a month

Tidio: a Starter or Growth plan plus Lyro sized for 200 AI conversations (Lyro tiers run 50 to 1,000 a month, from $32.50 for 50). tawk.to: AI Assist from $29 plus $29 to remove branding. Both land in a similar range; compare the exact Lyro tier price against tawk.to's AI Assist quote for your volume.

Nobody on the team can staff chat during the day

tawk.to's unusual option is hired agents at $1 an hour: 8 hours a day for 22 days is about $176 a month for a person answering chats. Tidio has no equivalent; you would rely on Lyro and Flows. If a human voice matters, that tawk.to option has no direct competitor at that price.

Neither gives meaningful AI answering away. Tidio's free Lyro allowance is 50 conversations for the life of the account, not per month; after that Lyro is a paid tier. tawk.to's AI Assist starts at $29 a month. The question to ask both is the same: what does the AI do when the answer is not in your content? A bot that guesses on a refund policy costs more than it saves. Our guide to AI chatbots giving wrong answers has a test plan.

If AI answering is the main reason you want a chat tool, compare against products that include AI in the plan price. Our chatbot pricing comparison lays out how the main vendors charge for it.

Both install with a script tag or a platform plugin, so swapping the widget takes minutes. What takes time is everything around it: canned responses and shortcuts, automation (Tidio Flows have no tawk.to equivalent to import into), knowledge base articles, and agents' habits. Export chat history before you cancel either one.

For WordPress, Shopify or Wix sites, check that the old plugin is removed, not just disabled, or two widgets can load. If the new widget does not appear, our chat widget not showing guide covers the usual causes.

Conferbot is a chatbot builder with live chat built in: an AI agent trained on your site through the AI knowledge base answers first, and hands the conversation to a person in the live chat inbox when needed, on every plan. The same bot runs on your website and on WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram and other channels.

The free plan includes 600 conversations a month, more than either vendor's free automation allowance; paid plans are $19, $39 and $59 for 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 conversations, with branding removal from Starter. Team seats are 2, 3, 5 and 15 by plan, so a large team of human agents with no automation is still cheaper on tawk.to.

For Tidio

• "Are these prices monthly or annual billing, and how many billable conversations does Growth include for us?"
• "What counts as a billable conversation, and what happens when we pass the limit mid-month?"
• "What does each Lyro tier from 50 to 1,000 AI conversations cost?"

For tawk.to

• "What does AI Assist cost at our volume, beyond the $29 starting price?"
• "How are hired agents trained on our business, and in which hours and languages?"
• "What are the free plan's limits for 'sites with limited chat volume'?"

Plan prices, allowances and add-on prices were read from tidio.com/pricing and tawk.to/pricing on 3 November 2026. Tidio's page did not label its billing cycle and gave two figures for Growth's included conversations; both are flagged above. tawk.to's page did not list agent limits or video and voice pricing. We did not run either product in production for this page. Corrections are welcome via contact. Disclosure: Conferbot is our product, and its section is labeled.

Head-to-heads: Crisp vs Tidio, Tidio vs Intercom. One-on-ones: Tidio alternatives, Conferbot vs tawk.to. Live chat reading: how to set up live chat on a website, LiveChat alternatives, after-hours support with a chatbot, and the free chat widget designer. More reading: Shopify chatbot, WordPress chatbot, human hand-off, typing indicator generator, chatbots for small business.