tawk.toTidiotawk.to vs Tidio

tawk.to vs Tidio: $58 against $49 a month

A free live chat against a live chat and AI for small business: Tidio is $9 a month cheaper for five people. What decides between tawk.to 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 tawk.to if budget is zero and you can live with the tawk.to branding or pay $29 to remove it. Pick Tidio if you run a Shopify or WordPress store and want a bot answering FAQs by tonight. For five people, Tidio is $9 a month cheaper than tawk.to ($58 or more a month on tawk.to against $49 or more on Tidio), before AI. Sellio Mini is $45, $4 under Tidio. tawk.to and Tidio both include website chat in the price; only Tidio has email, WhatsApp and Instagram. Neither tawk.to nor Tidio includes Telegram outright. A team of two to ten choosing between tawk.to and Tidio for chat and tickets at one price has a third option below.

At a glancetawk.totawk.toTidioTidio
Built aroundFree chat for unlimited agents · paid add-ons per featureThe chat widget and Lyro · billed by conversations, not seats
Entry plan$0 · unlimited agents$24.17/mo · Starter: 100 conversations
Chat in the price$0 · $29/mo to remove brandingFrom $49.17/mo · Growth: 250+ conversations
AI agentAI Assist from $29/mo · small free tierLyro from $32.50/mo · 50 conversations
Copilot for agentsIn AI AssistIncluded · reply assistant
Free planYes · the core product is freeYes · 50 conversations a month

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    tawk.totawk.to

    As a chat in the free dashboard; tickets are emails converted into a simple queue. Tidio has no ticket queue either.

    TidioTidio

    As a chat in the widget, often answered first by the Lyro bot; a busy month counts against the conversation cap. tawk.to has no ticket queue either.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    tawk.totawk.to

    Seats are free and unlimited. The money goes on add-ons: branding removal, AI Assist, video, hired agents. $58 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 $58 on tawk.to.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    tawk.totawk.to

    AI Assist from $29 a month with a small free tier; it drafts and answers from your knowledge base. 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. tawk.to meters AI (AI Assist from $29/mo) above the seats as well.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    tawk.totawk.to

    Website chat and email tickets; no native WhatsApp, Instagram or Telegram. Tidio adds email, WhatsApp and Instagram, which tawk.to lacks.

    TidioTidio

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

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    tawk.totawk.to

    A knowledge base, a CRM, and human agents for hire at $1 an hour. Tidio is a live chat and AI for small business instead.

    TidioTidio

    Flows, the visual bot builder, and email campaigns for small ecommerce teams. tawk.to is a free live chat instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    tawk.totawk.to

    Minutes: paste the widget and start chatting. Tidio is an hour.

    TidioTidio

    An hour: install the app on Shopify or WordPress and switch on Lyro. tawk.to is minutes.

Sources: tawk.to 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 tawk.to dashboard: the visitor list, the chat and the ticket queue
tawk.totawk.to. The tawk.to dashboard: the visitor list, the chat and the ticket queue
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: tawk.to pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06); Tidio pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06). Prices change; confirm current terms with each vendor.

tawk.to, 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.

Featuretawk.totawk.toTidioTidioSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Free chat; add-ons per feature.
By billable conversations; AI by conversation packs.
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
Unlimited agents.
50 conversations a month, 10 seats.
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
The product.
Yes.
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
Ticketing by email on the free plan.
Paid plans.
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
Messaging channels in beta.
Paid plans.
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Messaging channels in beta.
Paid plans.
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Beta.
Not a channel.
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Not offered.
Not offered.
From Mini: two-way threads; a reply there reaches the customer

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
AI Assist from $29/mo, trained on the knowledge base.
Lyro, trained on your site and FAQs.
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
Add-on subscription.
From $32.50/mo for 50 conversations.
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Hands to agents.
Lyro hands to an operator.
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

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

Apps

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

Which one, for whom

Pick tawk.to if

  • Budget is zero and you can live with the tawk.to branding or pay $29 to remove it.
  • You want to hire human chat agents by the hour.
  • Time to the first reply is minutes here and an hour on Tidio.
  • Its pricing model suits you better than Tidio's: free live chat; paid add-ons per feature.

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 $9 a month less than on tawk.to ($49 against $58), before AI.
  • You need email, WhatsApp and Instagram in the price, which tawk.to does not include outright.

The third option: Sellio

  • Two to ten of you answer chat, messaging and email. Compare Sellio's workspace plans with $58 or more a month on tawk.to against $49 or more on Tidio for five people, including each product's limits.
  • The AI invoice should be known in advance: tawk.to meters AI (AI Assist from $29/mo) 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 and tickets raised from a chat, which neither tawk.to nor Tidio includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

tawk.to: $58+ a month for five ($0 for chat, $29 to remove branding, $29+ for AI Assist); it does not print a per-seat rate to extend to two or ten. 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, $13 less than tawk.to and $4 less than Tidio for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included.

Where the two agree, and where they split

tawk.to is a free live chat built around free chat for unlimited agents; Tidio is a live chat and AI for small business built around the chat widget and Lyro. Both have a free plan: tawk.to's is the core product is free, Tidio's is 50 conversations a month. tawk.to and Tidio both include website chat in the price; only Tidio has email, WhatsApp and Instagram. Neither tawk.to nor Tidio includes Telegram outright. tawk.to (AI Assist from $29/mo) and Tidio (Lyro from $32.50/mo) both meter AI above the seats. Neither tawk.to nor Tidio has a ticket queue, and both ship desktop apps. tawk.to is minutes; Tidio is an hour.

What each price leaves out

tawk.to: AI Assist from $29 a month, with a small free tier. Tidio: Lyro AI from $32.50 a month for 50 conversations, sold separately or bundled. Beside tawk.to's AI Assist from $29/mo 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
    tawk.totawk.toSee vendorNot quoted
    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.

    tawk.totawk.to · Not applicable; the core is free
    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

tawk.to vs Tidio: the questions people ask

tawk.to is a free live chat built around free chat for unlimited agents; Tidio is a live chat and AI for small business built around the chat widget and Lyro. Neither tawk.to nor Tidio has a ticket queue, and both ship desktop apps.

  • Entry plan: tawk.to $0 (unlimited agents); Tidio $24.17/mo (Starter: 100 conversations).
  • Chat in the price: tawk.to $0 ($29/mo to remove branding); Tidio From $49.17/mo (Growth: 250+ conversations).
  • Sellio: Telegram, which neither tawk.to nor Tidio has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the tawk.to 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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