Chatlio vs Crisp (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Crisp grades higher than Chatlio: 2.6 against 2.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Chatlio grades higher on value for money. Crisp grades higher on features and platforms. They get the same grade on the free plan and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Chatlio
Website live chat that your team answers from Slack, Teams or Discord
Crisp
Live chat and shared inbox priced per workspace, not per seat
Which one is for you
Pick Chatlio if
- Fits if your team already lives in Slack, Teams or Discord
- Works for a small site that wants live chat and nothing else
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you want triggers, saved replies or bots, because Mini lacks them and Team is $70
- Tight if you get many chats, as plans cap conversations from 250 up to 20,000 a month
- Not for you if you want a mobile app of its own, since replies happen inside your chat app
- Watch out: Slack restricted accounts and single-channel guests cannot answer without an invite to each channel
- Watch out: Team's $70 is shown as a launch price, with $100 as the regular price
Pick Crisp if
- Fits if you want one flat monthly price instead of per-conversation billing
- Works for a team of up to 4 on a Shopify, WooCommerce or WordPress store that mostly needs chat and email
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you're on your own, since the first paid plan is $45 a month
- Pricey if you need WhatsApp, Instagram or a help center, as they start on Essentials at $95 a month
- Tight if you lean on the AI agent, as Mini's $5 of credits covers around 90 conversations and top-up prices aren't listed
- Tight if you stay free: 2 seats, chat and a contact form only, 100 customer profiles and no AI
- Watch out: ticketing needs Plus at $295, and a workspace connects one account per messaging channel
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAChatlioFair | 2.6GPACrispGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | B$30 a month for 2 operators, $15 each, inside the category's cheaper quarter of $19. Team is $70 for 5. | CMini is $45 a month for 4 seats, about $11 each, but $45 for one person. A team of five needs Essentials at $95 for 10 seats, $19 a head, a little under the middle of help desks. That's also where WhatsApp, Instagram and a help center start. |
| Free plan and trial | CA 30-day free trial on every plan with no card needed. No free plan. | CA free plan with 2 seats, the chat widget, a contact form and the apps, plus a 14-day trial. The cap you'll hit is 100 customer profiles, and there's no email channel and no AI. |
| Features | CLive chat, styling, visitor context, hours and an API. It does that job fully, but it is a smaller job than a help desk, with no ticketing. | BChat with a live visitor map, a shared inbox for email, social, WhatsApp, SMS and phone, the Hugo AI agent, a chatbot and workflow builder and a multilingual help center. Across the plans it covers the job, though ticketing needs Plus. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You install the widget and link a chat app. | C4.43 from 522 App Store ratings, below most support apps here. The chat box is quick to add, but the chatbot builder and channel connections take setting up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb widget answered through Slack, Teams or Discord, with an API and webhooks, but no app of its own. | AWeb, Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android apps, with Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce, Slack, HubSpot, Zapier, Stripe and Salesforce, and an API. Every device type is covered. |
| Best for | website chat answered from Slack | flat-priced chat and inbox for small teams |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Chatlio and Crisp. How we grade
Price against what you get
Chatlio starts at $30 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Crisp starts at $45 a month and scores 3.0.
Crisp scores higher, and starts $15 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other help desk and live chat tools on the chart, 22 score higher than Chatlio for less, and 2 score higher than Crisp for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Chatlio also covers workflow automation and chatbots.
- Crisp also covers help center and AI support agent.
At a glance
| Chatlio | Crisp | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $30 per month for 2 operators, billed monthly | $45 per workspace / month, with 4 seats |
| Free plan | None | 2 seats, the website chat widget, a contact form and shared inbox, mobile and desktop apps, store integrations and 100 customer profiles. No AI credits. |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial on every plan, no credit card required | 14-day free trial of any plan |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Chatlio LLC | Crisp IM SAS |
| Price read from | chatlio.com | crisp.chat |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Chatlio
- Replies happen inside Slack, Teams or Discord; there is no separate Chatlio mobile app.
- Mini has no triggers, saved replies, custom bots or white-label widget; those start at Team.
- Slack restricted accounts and single-channel guests cannot answer chats without being invited to each one.
- Plans cap conversations per month, from 250 on Mini to 20,000 on Scale.
Crisp
- The Free plan has 2 seats, chat and contact forms only, 100 customer profiles and no AI.
- AI use is capped by credits: $5 on Mini, $25 on Essentials and $75 on Plus. The pricing page does not say what extra credits cost.
- WhatsApp, Instagram, a help center and analytics need Essentials at $95 a month; ticketing and white labelling need Plus.
- A workspace connects one account per messaging channel; more require higher limits. Agents beyond 20 on Plus cost $10 a month each.
Key features
Chatlio
- Answer chats from Slack, Teams or Discord
- Each visitor conversation opens in its own channel, so several teammates can join one chat and several chats can run at once.
- Widget styling and CSS access
- Every plan allows unlimited domains, full widget customization and CSS changes; the Team plan and up adds a white-label widget.
- Triggers and pre-chat questions
- Automatic chat invitations, pre-chat questions for lead qualification and saved replies are included from the Team plan.
- Visitor context
- Operators see where the visitor is on the site, their location, browser and operating system, plus data sent with the JavaScript identify call.
- Operating hours and offline mode
- Set hours for the widget; outside them it can show an email form or hide itself.
- API and webhooks
- A widget API, server API and webhooks come on every plan, for example to export transcripts to other systems.
Crisp
- Chat widget
- A customizable chat box for websites with a live visitor map, proactive messages and, from Essentials, video and audio chat and live translation.
- Shared inbox for every channel
- Chat, contact forms, email, Messenger, Telegram and X from Mini; WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS, Viber, LINE and phone from Essentials.
- Hugo AI agent
- An AI agent answers customers from Mini up, paid from included AI credits. Essentials adds knowledge training, an internal copilot and writing help.
- Chatbot and workflow builder
- A no-code builder for AI chatbots and automated flows with conditions, webhooks and CRM triggers, from the Essentials plan.
- Help center
- A multilingual help center with its own domain, search and SEO settings, included from Essentials.
- Unlimited conversations
- Every plan is a flat monthly price per workspace with no cap on the number of conversations handled.
Plans
Chatlio
Mini$30
per month for up to 2 operators, billed monthly
2 operators, 1 widget and 250 conversations a month, with reports, API and webhooks.
Team$70
per month for up to 5 operators, billed monthly
5 operators, 2 widgets, 2,000 conversations; adds triggers, saved replies, bots. Shown as a launch price; regular $100.
Business$200
per month for up to 15 operators, billed monthly
15 operators, 10 widgets, 6,000 conversations a month and priority support.
Scale$500
per month for up to 50 operators, billed monthly
50 operators, 25 widgets, 20,000 conversations a month, invoice payment and a direct line to the founder.
Crisp
Free$0
2 seats, website chat and a contact form in a shared inbox, 100 customer profiles and Shopify, WooCommerce and WordPress links. No AI.
Mini$45
per workspace / month, with 4 seats
Adds email, Telegram, Messenger and X, canned replies, internal notes, full history and the AI Agent with $5 of credits, around 90 automated conversations.
Essentials$95
per workspace / month, with 10 seats
Adds WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS and phone, a help center, a workflow and chatbot builder, analytics, round-robin and $25 of AI credits (about 450).
Plus$295
per workspace / month for 20 seats, plus $10 per extra agent
Adds a ticketing portal, white labelling, Stripe and Salesforce, AI spam filter and summaries, and $75 of AI credits, around 1,350 automated conversations.
EnterpriseCustom
A custom plan arranged with Crisp for larger needs.
Ways to pay less
Chatlio
No public discounts listed.
Crisp
- Nonprofit
50% off for nonprofits
Crisp's pricing FAQ offers nonprofits a 50% discount through a promo code requested in chat.
- Education
50% off for students
Crisp's pricing FAQ offers students a 50% discount through a promo code requested in chat.
- Other savings
20% off extra workspaces
Accounts paying for several Essentials or Plus workspaces can get 20% off three additional workspaces by asking Crisp in chat.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Chatlio or Crisp?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Chatlio is cheaper to start with: $30 a month, against $45 a month for Crisp. Chatlio starts at $30 per month for 2 operators, billed monthly, and Crisp starts at $45 per workspace / month, with 4 seats.
Which has a free plan, Chatlio or Crisp?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Crisp has a free plan. Chatlio does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do Chatlio and Crisp run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Crisp lists macOS, Windows, iOS and Android apps. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.