A Tidio alternative with a real helpdesk behind the bot
Tidio pairs live chat and ticketing with Lyro, an AI agent sold as its own add-on and metered separately. Helpo puts grounded AI answers, a takeover-ready inbox and tickets in one plan priced on usage.
The short version
Tidio is a polished live-chat product with a capable AI agent bolted on, and its Flows builder is genuinely good at lead-gen. The friction is the billing model: human conversations, Lyro AI conversations and Flows visitors are three separate meters. Helpo is one product with one meter — AI questions — and every answer is grounded in your own docs with a citation.
Teams who want the AI to answer accurately from their own documentation first, with citations, and a proper ticket queue for what it can't handle.
Teams who want a mature live-chat suite with a visual no-code flow builder for sales and lead-gen, and don't mind metering AI separately.
Side by side
What each product does out of the box. Compared as of September 2026.
| Capability | Helpo | Tidio |
|---|---|---|
| Knowledge & AI | ||
| AI answers grounded in your own docs (RAG) | ||
| Citations on every AI answer | ~ | |
| Site crawl as a knowledge source | ~ | |
| Shopify / WooCommerce catalog as knowledge | ~ | |
| Confidence threshold → hand off to a human | ||
| Helpdesk | ||
| Embeddable chat widget | ||
| Shared real-time inbox | ||
| One-click human takeover | ||
| Tickets with lifecycle & assignment | ||
| Lead capture mid-conversation | ||
| Platform | ||
| Typed REST API + OpenAPI docs | Plus plan and up | |
| Webhooks | ||
| Per-seat pricing | No — seats included | No — billable conversations |
| Start free without a card | ||
Why teams move from Tidio to Helpo
One meter, not three
Tidio bills billable conversations, Lyro AI conversations and Flows visitors on separate counters. Helpo meters one thing, AI questions, with a daily allowance on every plan — and the inbox, widget and tickets come with it.
Citations on every answer
Each Helpo reply shows the source chunk it came from, so you can see exactly which doc a customer was quoted — and fix the doc when the answer is wrong.
Escalations become tickets
When the AI hands off, Helpo opens a ticket with an owner, a status and reminders. A chat that scrolls out of the inbox is not a queue.
Commerce-aware knowledge
Connect Shopify or WooCommerce and your catalogue becomes a knowledge source, so the AI answers stock and variant questions from live data rather than a static article.
Pricing, plainly
Free with 100 AI questions a day and no card. Pro is $19.99/mo for 500 AI questions a day, then $0.50 per 100.
Plans priced by billable conversations, from a free tier up to $300/mo plus usage, with the Lyro AI agent sold as a separately metered add-on.
Competitor pricing as published on their website; check their pricing page for current figures.
Common questions
Is Helpo a good Tidio alternative?
Yes, if your volume is mostly repeat questions and you want them answered from your own docs with a citation, then escalated into a real ticket queue. Helpo bundles the widget, inbox, takeover and tickets on one usage-based plan instead of metering AI separately. Tidio is the better pick if you want its visual Flows builder for sales funnels and lead-gen campaigns.
Can I move my Tidio knowledge base across?
Yes. Point a Helpo crawl at the same help centre or website URLs you gave Lyro, upload any files, and swap the embed snippet. Most teams are live the same day.
Does Helpo have a visual flow builder?
No. Helpo answers from retrieval rather than scripted branches, and captures leads mid-conversation with an AI tool instead of a flow. If your support depends on hand-built decision trees, Tidio's Flows will suit you better.
How is Helpo's AI billed?
By AI question, with a daily allowance on every plan: 100 on Free, 500 on Pro, 1,000 on Premium and unlimited on Ultimate. Past it, Free pauses the AI until the next day and Pro and Premium bill $0.50 per 100. Human replies from your team are never metered, and team seats are included.
Switching from Tidio?
Tell us about your current setup and we'll map out a migration — usually a same-day job.