IntercomTidioIntercom vs Tidio

Intercom vs Tidio: $425 against $49 a month

A customer messaging platform against a live chat and AI for small business: Tidio is $376 a month cheaper for five people. What decides between Intercom and Tidio, and a third option for small teams.

By Khalid Nouri, founder of SellioPricing check dates are listed with each vendor below

Try the third optionSellio pricing

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The short answer

Pick Intercom if your support lives in the website messenger and in-app, and you want product tours and outbound messages in the same tool. Pick Tidio if you run a Shopify or WordPress store and want a bot answering FAQs by tonight. For five people, Tidio is $376 a month cheaper than Intercom ($425 a month on Intercom against $49 or more on Tidio), before AI. Sellio Mini is $45, $4 under Tidio. Intercom and Tidio both include website chat and email in the price; only Tidio has WhatsApp and Instagram. Neither Intercom nor Tidio includes Telegram outright. A team of two to ten choosing between Intercom and Tidio for chat and tickets at one price has a third option below.

At a glanceIntercomIntercomTidioTidio
Built aroundThe Messenger · tickets came laterThe chat widget and Lyro · billed by conversations, not seats
Entry plan$29/seat/mo · Essential: inbox and Messenger$24.17/mo · Starter: 100 conversations
Chat in the price$29/seat/mo · Essential, with ticketsFrom $49.17/mo · Growth: 250+ conversations
AI agentFrom $0.99 per outcome · Fin, printed on the pricing pageLyro from $32.50/mo · 50 conversations
Copilot for agents$29/agent/moIncluded · reply assistant
Free planNone · 14-day trialYes · 50 conversations a month

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    IntercomIntercom

    As a message in the Messenger, with ticketing available from Essential. Tidio has no ticket queue behind its conversations.

    TidioTidio

    As a chat in the widget, often answered first by the Lyro bot; a busy month counts against the conversation cap. Intercom raises a ticket where Tidio keeps a conversation.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    IntercomIntercom

    $29 buys the inbox, Messenger and ticketing. Advanced at $85 adds workflows and round-robin routing. $425 for five people, against $49 on Tidio.

    TidioTidio

    Ten seats are included; what you pay for is conversations, from 100 on Starter to 250 or more on Growth. $49 for five people, against $425 on Intercom.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    IntercomIntercom

    Fin is $0.99 or more per outcome on every plan, printed on the pricing page, on top of seats. Tidio meters AI (Lyro from $32.50/mo) above the seats as well.

    TidioTidio

    Lyro is bought in packs: from $32.50 a month for 50 conversations, on top of the plan. Intercom meters AI (from $0.99 per outcome) above the seats as well.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    IntercomIntercom

    Messenger and email on every plan; WhatsApp, SMS and phone are pay-as-you-go lines. Tidio adds WhatsApp and Instagram, which Intercom lacks.

    TidioTidio

    Website chat, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and email, with native Shopify and WordPress apps. WhatsApp and Instagram are here and not on Intercom.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    IntercomIntercom

    Product tours, banners, surveys and outbound campaigns; Proactive Support Plus is $99 a month. Tidio is a live chat and AI for small business instead.

    TidioTidio

    Flows, the visual bot builder, and email campaigns for small ecommerce teams. Intercom is a customer messaging platform instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    IntercomIntercom

    An afternoon for a website-first team: install the Messenger, invite the team, answer. Tidio is an hour.

    TidioTidio

    An hour: install the app on Shopify or WordPress and switch on Lyro. Intercom is an afternoon for a website-first team.

Sources: Intercom pricing · Tidio pricing. Each vendor’s own comparison of the other is linked so you can weigh both sides against ours.

What each one looks like

A look at the agent workspace. Interfaces can vary by plan and product version.

The Intercom Inbox: a conversation list with the Messenger thread and the customer profile
IntercomIntercom. The Intercom Inbox: a conversation list with the Messenger thread and the customer profile
The Tidio inbox: the conversation list, the chat and Lyro's suggested answers
TidioTidio. The Tidio inbox: the conversation list, the chat and Lyro's suggested answers

Pricing references: Intercom pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06); Tidio pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06). Prices change; confirm current terms with each vendor.

Intercom, Tidio and Sellio, side by side

Fifteen things a support team checks. A dash means the product does part of it or charges extra for it.

FeatureIntercomIntercomTidioTidioSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Per seat; Fin per outcome; channels metered
By billable conversations; AI by conversation packs.
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
None; 14-day trial
50 conversations a month, 10 seats.
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
The Messenger, all plans
Yes.
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
All plans
Paid plans.
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
Pay-as-you-go
Paid plans.
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Via integration
Paid plans.
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Not native
Not a channel.
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Slack notifications
Not offered.
From Mini: two-way threads; a reply there reaches the customer

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
Fin, trained on your help center
Lyro, trained on your site and FAQs.
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
From $0.99 per outcome, on top of seats
From $32.50/mo for 50 conversations.
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Fin hands to a teammate
Lyro hands to an operator.
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

Tickets
Included from Essential
Ticketing on paid plans, email-style.
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Visual builder, Advanced and up
Flows, visitor-count limited.
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Reports; custom on higher plans
Analytics on Growth and up.
From Essentials: response times, resolution, CSAT; topics and email reports on Plus

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Browser and mobile only
Desktop apps available.
Native Windows and macOS apps

Which one, for whom

Pick Intercom if

  • Your support lives in the website messenger and in-app, and you want product tours and outbound messages in the same tool.
  • Fin's AI quality matters more to you than its per-outcome price.
  • You need a ticket queue, which Tidio does not have.
  • Time to the first reply is an afternoon for a website-first team here and an hour on Tidio.

Pick Tidio if

  • You run a Shopify or WordPress store and want a bot answering FAQs by tonight.
  • Conversation volume is small enough that paying by conversation is cheaper than seats.
  • Five people cost $376 a month less than on Intercom ($49 against $425), before AI.
  • You need WhatsApp and Instagram in the price, which Intercom does not include outright.

The third option: Sellio

  • Two to ten of you answer chat, messaging and email. Compare Sellio's workspace plans with $425 a month on Intercom against $49 or more on Tidio for five people, including each product's limits.
  • The AI invoice should be known in advance: Intercom meters AI (from $0.99 per outcome) above the seats and Tidio meters AI (Lyro from $32.50/mo) above the seats, where Sellio's credit is included and capped by you.
  • You need Telegram, which neither Intercom nor Tidio includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

Intercom on Advanced: $170, $425 and $850 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. Tidio: $49+ a month for five (from $49.17 for 250 conversations; seats are not the limit); it does not print a per-seat rate to extend to two or ten. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $380 less than Intercom and $4 less than Tidio for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $755 under Intercom.

Where the two agree, and where they split

Intercom is a customer messaging platform built around the Messenger; Tidio is a live chat and AI for small business built around the chat widget and Lyro. Only Tidio has a free plan (50 conversations a month); Intercom offers a 14-day trial, no card. Intercom and Tidio both include website chat and email in the price; only Tidio has WhatsApp and Instagram. Neither Intercom nor Tidio includes Telegram outright. Intercom (from $0.99 per outcome) and Tidio (Lyro from $32.50/mo) both meter AI above the seats. Intercom has tickets and Tidio does not, and only Tidio ships desktop apps. Intercom is an afternoon for a website-first team; Tidio is an hour.

What each price leaves out

Intercom: Fin AI agent from $0.99 per outcome on every plan; Copilot $29 per agent per month yearly ($35 monthly). WhatsApp, SMS and phone are pay-as-you-go. Tidio: Lyro AI from $32.50 a month for 50 conversations, sold separately or bundled. Beside Intercom's from $0.99 per outcome and Tidio's Lyro from $32.50/mo, Sellio includes an AI credit with each paid plan. Usage consumes that credit; additional credits cost extra, and you can set a spending cap.

How to decide in an afternoon

  1. Step 1

    Count agents and channels

    Anyone who replies is a seat. List the channels customers actually use.

    5 people reply5 seats
    Website chat61%
    WhatsApp27%
    Email12%
  2. Step 2

    Price the AI you would use

    Estimate monthly conversations the AI could close, then apply each vendor's per-resolution or per-session rate.

    1,200 conversations × 40% AI closes480
    IntercomIntercom$0.99$475
    TidioTidioSee vendorNot quoted
    Sellio$0.05$19

    Illustrative AI-only estimate; vendor units differ. Pack billing is rounded up. Sellio assumes Mini’s $5 credit and $0.05 per conversation.

  3. Step 3

    Trial the shortlist

    Check each vendor’s trial, free plan or demo terms. Where access is available, test one real channel before committing.

    IntercomIntercom · 14-day trial, no card
    TidioTidio · 7-day trial
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

    Confirm trial access and limits, then evaluate one real channel on each.

Continue your research

FAQ

Intercom vs Tidio: the questions people ask

Intercom is a customer messaging platform built around the Messenger; Tidio is a live chat and AI for small business built around the chat widget and Lyro. Intercom has tickets and Tidio does not, and only Tidio ships desktop apps.

  • Entry plan: Intercom $29/seat/mo (Essential: inbox and Messenger); Tidio $24.17/mo (Starter: 100 conversations).
  • Chat in the price: Intercom $29/seat/mo (Essential, with tickets); Tidio From $49.17/mo (Growth: 250+ conversations).
  • Sellio puts every channel in one inbox: Telegram, which neither Intercom nor Tidio has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the Intercom and Tidio rows is on the shared inbox page.

Still have a question? Contact us or browse the docs.

Or the third option: one price, every channel.

Sellio puts website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and email in one inbox with tickets and an AI agent, for $45 to $295 a month per workspace.

Get startedRead the docs

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