Crisp

What is Crisp?

Crisp is affordable live chat and customer support software that bundles live chat, a shared inbox, a chatbot, and AI features into a single tool. Requests from multiple channels — website chat, email, and on higher plans also WhatsApp, Instagram, or SMS — are routed into one shared inbox so small teams can handle them centrally. This is complemented by a no-code chatbot, a knowledge base, and an internal AI CoPilot (including MagicReply for AI-drafted answers) that helps agents draft replies and summarise conversations. Crisp is aimed primarily at startups, small businesses, and solo operators looking for an affordable alternative to large support suites.

The verdict: for a small team, Crisp is the cheapest way to combine live chat, a shared inbox, and a chatbot in one tool — and the free plan is permanently free and takes only minutes to set up.

To see how Crisp stacks up against the established competition, check our overview of the best AI tools for customer service 2026, where Crisp competes as the most affordable AI live chat.

Crisp: Strengths and weaknesses

Crisp's greatest strength is its value for money: even the free plan includes a fully functional website chat and shared inbox, and the paid tiers are significantly cheaper than many established competitors. The interface is clean and quick to set up, and the AI features — chatbot, CoPilot, automatic summaries, and multilingual replies — are sensibly integrated. Because Crisp is based in France and hosts its data in the EU, it is an attractive choice for privacy-conscious European businesses.

Weaknesses show up in the feature depth compared to larger platforms: reporting and automation are solid but less comprehensive than enterprise solutions, and some advanced features such as the ticketing system and white-labelling are only available on higher plans. AI credits are capped depending on the plan, which can lead to additional costs at very high conversation volumes.

Pricing and plans

Crisp is billed per workspace per month — not per agent, and not per resolved conversation. That's where the savings come from: large support suites often charge for every extra seat or every resolved ticket, so the bill grows with your team. With Crisp it stays a predictable flat rate.

At the top end sits Plus ($295/month) with the "AI-First Support Suite", a ticketing system, over 100 integrations, and white-labelling. Below it, Essentials ($95/month) brings omnichannel support (WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS), workflow automation, a knowledge base, and analytics; Mini ($45/month) adds an email inbox, shortcuts, and chat triggers for up to four agents. And the Free plan ($0) already covers two agents, website chat, and the shared inbox — permanently free, just without AI credits. A custom-priced Enterprise plan is available for larger organisations. All paid plans can be trialled free for 14 days.

So the lowest-friction way in is the free plan: try it first, and only upgrade once you actually need AI features, omnichannel, or automation.

Crisp alternatives compared

For most small teams, Crisp itself stays the cheapest option. If you do decide against it, there's one clear alternative — and two special cases. The direct alternative is Tidio: similarly affordable, also with a free plan, but with stronger Shopify and WooCommerce integration — the natural pick if you run an e-commerce store. Only two special cases favour the pricier platforms: if you need heavy AI automation and are willing to pay per resolved conversation, Intercom and its Fin AI agent are the fit; if you run a large support team with high ticket volume, Zendesk AI is. In both cases you'll pay noticeably more — Crisp's argument stays the predictable flat rate per workspace instead of billing per agent or per resolved request.

Who is Crisp for?

For very large organisations with complex routing, reporting, or ticketing requirements, more comprehensive platforms such as Intercom or Zendesk AI are the more natural choice. But for everyone else — startups, small support teams, and solo founders who want to bundle live chat, a shared inbox, and a chatbot at a manageable price, without the feature overhead and cost of an enterprise suite — Crisp is the right fit. If you also value EU hosting and data privacy, you'll find a credible provider here.