Tidio alternative
tufu vs Tidio
Tidio sells its Lyro AI as a separate bill. tufu's $49 Team has the AI in it, plus human handoff. Our numbers and theirs, side by side.
Start free
Plans from US$19 a month
Free US$0 · Starter US$19 · Team US$49 · Scale US$249 a month. One price for the whole team. No seats, ever.
The biggest difference
AI on its own bill: from $39 a month for 50 Lyro conversations, up to $700 for 1,000, on top of any plan. tufu's Team is $49 a month with the AI in it.1
- Tidio pricing and documentation as read on October 25, 2026; check tidio.com for current terms.
All prices are in US dollars (USD).
Shop Help tufu and Tidio, row by row
marks the stronger side on each row, by our reading.
| What buyers compare | tufu | Tidio |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | Answers. One reply is one answer on the included AI; stronger models count as more. | Three meters, each bought on its own: human conversations (any your team replies in), Lyro conversations (any the AI replies in at least once)2, and visitors reached by Flows.1 |
| Free plan | Free is $0: 1 bot, 100 answers a month on tufu's AI and 500 on your own AI key, with human handoff. “Powered by tufu” is shown. | 50 Lyro conversations for the life of the account, not each month: once they're used, Lyro stops answering and the quota never resets. 50 human conversations each month and 10 seats.1 |
| Entry plan | Starter at $19 a month: 1,000 answers, up to 3 bots. Team at $49 a month billed monthly, or $490 a year: 4,000 answers, up to 20 bots and unlimited teammates. Free is $0, with 100 answers a month. | Lyro from $39 a month billed monthly for 50 AI conversations, or $390 a year, up to $700 a month for 1,000. Live chat plans: Starter at $29 a month, Growth from $59.1 |
| Remove branding | Included in Team. | Not on Free or Starter. On Growth, a $20 a month add-on billed monthly, or $200 a year; included on Plus, from $300 a month plus usage on either billing.1 |
| Seats | Unlimited teammates on every plan. Free: 1 bot. Team: up to 20 bots. | 10 on Free, Starter and Growth; a custom number on Plus and Premium.1 |
| When the allowance runs out | The bot pauses on tufu's AI until next month, and visitors can still ask for a person if your bot offers it. Nothing is billed after the fact: on Team, add a prepaid pack, or let auto-recharge buy one under a monthly limit you set. | At the human limit, your team can't see or reply to new messages until the quota resets. On new monthly plans, auto-upgrade is on by default: at 95% of an allowance, Tidio moves you to the next tier.1 |
| Human handoff | On every plan: a ping with a summary and, when your docs cover it, a drafted reply. You answer by replying to the email, no login needed. On Team, in Slack too. | Lyro moves the chat to your live inbox by default, or keeps it, or opens an email ticket. Your team answers in Tidio's inbox, its iOS, Android and desktop apps, or by replying to the offline email.1 |
| Keeping it current | On Team, websites, GitHub and Confluence can be read again every week. On Free, rebuild a source when your docs change. | Website URLs, Q&A pairs, CSV and PDF files, a Zendesk Help Center import and product sync. Re-scan by hand; a weekly re-sync is on Plus and Premium, and a re-sync drops your edits to the Q&A pairs.1 |
| Where it answers | A chat bubble on your site, an Ask console in your docs, a WordPress plugin, email, Slack and Discord. | More places than tufu: Lyro answers in the website chat and, if you switch them on, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and email, on every plan, Free included. 47 languages besides English.1 |
| Actions | Booking links on every plan: the chat offers your Calendly or Cal.com link with the visitor's name and email filled in. Anything else that needs doing (a refund, a plan change) goes to a person, with a reply drafted. | On Growth, agents cancel, refund and re-address Shopify orders from the inbox. Lyro Actions call your APIs and MCP servers: 1 on Free, 3 with paid Lyro.1 |
| Security | No SOC 2 report. Our AI providers don't train on your data. With your own key, your agreement with that provider applies. How we handle it: our security page. | A SOC 2 Type II report from a 2026 audit, GDPR and CCPA, data stored in the EEA on AWS, and a DPA on request. SSO on Premium.1 |
- Tidio pricing and documentation as read on October 25, 2026; check tidio.com for current terms.
- Tidio's help center: a Lyro thread closes after 15 minutes without messages, and the visitor's next message is counted against your quota once more. Its pricing FAQ says a customer who leaves and comes back later still counts as a single conversation.
See it answer from your own docs.
In fairness
When Tidio is the better choice
- You want the AI on Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and email too, from the Free plan.
- You run a Shopify store and want to cancel, refund or re-address orders from the chat inbox.
- You want a full live chat: a live visitors list, typing preview, video calls, macros and Flows.
- You want the AI to call your own APIs or MCP servers through Lyro Actions.
- Your buyers ask for a SOC 2 Type II report, or your customers write in one of 47 languages.
If none of those is you, and your support is a small team's side job, tufu is built for that. Try it free on a real site and see the whole loop before you pay anything.
Set it up before your next support email.
Free to start, no card needed. Point it at your site and it's answering in about ten minutes.