Why teams look for a Tidio alternative
Tidio is a capable chat tool, and many small stores start with it. The trouble usually shows up when the bill arrives. Tidio meters three things separately: billable conversations, Lyro AI conversations and Flows visitors. A team can hit the limit that matters most to it while the headline price still looks fine.
This guide compares Tidio with the tools small teams most often shortlist next to it. The prices come from each vendor's public pricing page as checked in October 2026. Vendors change prices, so check the current page before you buy.
What Tidio actually meters
Tidio's pricing page lists the free plan at 50 billable conversations a month, 50 Lyro AI conversations as a lifetime allowance, and 100 Flows visitors. The Starter plan starts from $24.17 a month on the Annually option for 100 billable conversations.
Three details decide most bills:
- Billable conversations are the chats Tidio counts against your plan each month.
- Lyro AI conversations are the chats the AI handles. The free plan's allowance is a lifetime allowance, not a monthly one.
- Flows visitors are the people who reach a scripted Flow. Check the free plan's exact Flows limit on Tidio's pricing page before you rely on it.
How the alternatives price their AI
- SuperBot. Free plan: 200 conversations a month, no card. Entry paid plan: $25 a month for 2,000 conversations. What is metered: Conversations.
- Chatbase. Free plan: 50 message credits a month, 1 agent. Entry paid plan: Hobby $40 a month for 700 credits. What is metered: Message credits.
- Chatling. Free plan: 200 AI credits, 1 agent, 1 seat. Entry paid plan: Starter $25 a month for 1,750 credits. What is metered: AI credits, 0.5 to 25 per message by model.
- SiteGPT. Free plan: No free plan, 7-day trial with a card. Entry paid plan: Starter $59 a month, or $39 a month billed yearly. What is metered: Messages, 4,000 a month on GPT-4.1-mini.
Each row uses a different unit. A credit, a message and a conversation are not the same thing, so compare them on your own chat volume rather than the headline number.
Where each option fits
Chatbase suits teams that want to build and tune several agents. Its free plan deletes agents after 14 days of inactivity, and removing its branding is a $99-a-month add-on.
Chatling suits teams that want a credit-based bot with a few seats. Credit cost per message depends on the AI model, and branding removal is a $35-a-month add-on, included on Scale.
SiteGPT suits a single site owner who trains one bot on pages. It has no free plan, and its Starter plan includes one team member.
SuperBot suits teams that want one support agent, a shared inbox for handoff and no per-model message math. The free plan covers 200 conversations a month without a card. Starter is $25 a month for 2,000 conversations, and Pro is $60 a month with unlimited conversations. Every plan includes unlimited teammates.
Tidio is the stronger choice if your main need is a scripted flow builder, because its Flows are built for that job. If most of your traffic needs answers drawn from your own content, test the AI side on real questions before you decide.
A quick way to compare
Take the last 30 days of chats and count three numbers: total conversations, conversations the AI should answer, and conversations that need a scripted path. Those three numbers show which meter will run out first.
If you have 300 conversations a month, Tidio's Starter plan at 100 billable conversations will not cover you, so you will need a higher plan. Check that plan's conversation limit on Tidio's pricing page before you assume a price. On SuperBot, the same 300 conversations fit inside the $25 Starter plan.
Questions to ask every vendor
- Which unit is my bill counted in, and how many units does my average chat use?
- What happens when I reach the limit: the chat stops, the AI pauses, or I pay more?
- Can a person take over the chat, and does the transcript come with it?
- Which of my own sources can the AI learn from, such as PDFs, help articles or product pages?
- Is the price on the pricing page the price I will pay after the trial, and is it billed monthly or yearly?
What to do this week
- Export 30 days of chats and count conversations, AI-handled chats and flow-handled chats.
- Write down each tool's current meter from its pricing page, with the date you checked it.
- Run the same 20 real customer questions through two trials, and score the answers yourself.
- Decide what should happen when the AI cannot answer, and test whether each tool hands the chat to a person.
- Pick the plan that covers your real volume, then review it again after 30 days.