Tidio vs Intercom vs Chatbase

Written head to head: Tidio vs Chatbase, with when to choose each side.

Compared on	Tidio Free plan · from $24.17/mo VisitRemove	Intercom Free trial · from $19/seat/mo VisitRemove	Chatbase Free plan · from $32/mo VisitRemove
What it is	Live chat, ticketing and an AI agent (Lyro) for customer service	Customer service helpdesk with a built-in AI agent, Fin	Builds AI support agents trained on a company's own content
Free plan	50 billable conversations a month, 10 seats, live chat and ticketing, 50 Lyro AI Agent conversations (one-off, lifetime), 100 visitors reached by Flows a month	No	50 message credits/month, 1 AI agent, 1 member, limited model access, 1 MB training content; agents are deleted after 14 days of inactivity
Cheapest paid plan	$24.17/mo billed annually (Starter)Tidio pricing	$19/seat/mo billed annually (Essential)Intercom pricing	$32/mo billed annually (Hobby)Chatbase pricing
What it covers	100 billable conversations/month; annual billing is advertised as 2 months free.	Fin AI Agent is charged separately at $0.99 per outcome; minimum of 1 full seat.	700 message credits/month, 1 AI agent, 2 members; yearly option shown as $384 billed annually.
Free trial	7-day free trial of all features and plans, no credit card needed; the account moves to the Free plan at the end unless you upgrade	14-day free trial, no credit card required; includes all features, Fin and add-ons	7-day trial of Hobby, Standard and Pro
Platforms	Web	Web	Web, API
Integrations (vendor's figure)	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated
Open source	No	No	No
Good for	Adding live chat and an AI agent to a small online shop's website Answering repetitive customer questions automatically Collecting leads or quote requests with automated chat flows	Answering routine customer questions automatically before they reach support staff Running a shared support inbox and help centre for a small support team Adding an AI agent to an existing helpdesk such as Salesforce, HubSpot or Freshdesk	Creating a customer-facing AI agent for a website from existing help content Handling first-line customer questions on WhatsApp or Slack Giving a small team a support agent with usage capped by monthly credits
Watch out for	Free plan is limited to 50 billable conversations a month and 100 Flows visitors Lyro's free allowance is a one-off 50 conversations; more needs a paid Lyro quota (from $39 a month, or $32.50 billed annually, for 50 conversations) Starter includes 100 billable conversations a month; Growth starts at 250	No free plan; a 14-day free trial is offered Fin is billed per outcome on top of seat fees, and using Fin with another helpdesk carries a minimum monthly commitment (the page's example is 50 outcomes) Multiple team inboxes and workflow automation start on Advanced; SSO and HIPAA support need Expert	Free plan: 50 message credits a month, and agents are deleted after 14 days of inactivity Each plan includes one AI agent; extra agents cost $25 per agent per month Removing 'Powered By Chatbase' branding is a $99/month add-on
Made by	Tidio	Fin (the company formerly named Intercom)	Chatbase Inc.

Entry prices are the cheapest paid plan, as each vendor publishes it; “What it covers” says what that price is per (a user, a channel, a brand, a number of contacts). The sources are listed on each tool's page.

Every tool in AI customer support tools is on its category page, with the written head-to-heads on Compare.