Customer Comms & Support
Staying in touch after the sale: shared inboxes, help desks, live chat, SMS and WhatsApp tools that keep customers close and reduce churn.
Start here: comparisons
Reviews
Crisp
Crisp is a live chat, shared inbox, and chatbot suite priced per workspace, not per agent. A free 2-seat plan and flat team pricing make it unusually kind to small teams that would get punished by per-seat tools - as long as you land on the right tier, because the seat counts are hard caps.
Free for 2 seats; Mini $45/mo (4 seats), Essentials $95/mo (10 seats), Plus $295/mo (20+ seats), all flat per workspace. Seat counts are hard caps - you can only add extra seats ($10/mo) on Plus. AI credits bundled per tier; prices exclude VAT; 14-day full trial
Freshdesk
Freshdesk is an established, full-featured help desk with per-agent pricing. Strong for teams that want real ticketing, SLAs, and reporting - just know the 'free' plan is now a 6-month trial, the annual price locks you for the year, and the two Freddy AI layers bill on top.
Free for up to 2 agents, 6 months only (not forever - confirm at signup); Growth $19, Pro $55, Enterprise $89 per agent/mo (annual rates; monthly higher, and annual locks the term with no mid-term refund). Freddy AI Agent $49 per 100 sessions (first 500 free); Freddy AI Copilot $29/agent/mo add-on; 14-day trial
Help Scout
Help Scout is a clean shared inbox, help desk, and knowledge base with a real free tier for 5 users and honest per-user pricing. Built for teams that want email-style support without an enterprise ticketing feel - just mind the single free inbox and the AI meter.
Free for 5 users / 1 inbox; Standard $25, Plus $45, Pro $75 per user/mo (these are the annual rates - monthly costs more; Pro has a 10-user minimum). Extra inbox $10/mo. AI Answers $0.75 per resolution, billed in arrears
Tidio
Tidio is a live chat and chatbot tool aimed at ecommerce, with a free plan and the Lyro AI agent. Solid product, but you pay on two separate meters - billable human conversations plus a Lyro AI bill on top - so the real cost climbs faster than the sticker, and the jump above Growth is brutal.
Free (50 billable conversations/mo, 10 seats, 50 lifetime Lyro chats); Starter $29/mo ($24.17 annual), Growth $59/mo ($49.17 annual, 250+ conversations), Plus from $749/mo. A billable conversation is one a human agent touches - Lyro AI is billed separately from ~$32.50/mo; 7-day trial