Crisp
Live chat + chatbot + helpdesk for startups.
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Book free discovery call →Quick summary of Crisp
Crisp is a customer messaging and support platform founded in 2015 by Baptiste Jamin and Valerian Saliou in France. Positioned as the cost-effective alternative to Intercom, with flat-rate pricing instead of per-seat fees. Core features: live chat widget, unified inbox (chat + email + Facebook Messenger + Twitter + Instagram + Telegram), MagicReply (AI suggested responses), basic chatbot with conditional logic, knowledge base / help center, mobile apps, CRM with contact properties, and a developer API. Best for solo founders, early-stage SaaS, and indie companies up to ~$1M ARR who need live chat + help center without Intercom's enterprise pricing. Basic tier free with 2 agents; Mini $45/month flat for unlimited agents, Essentials $95/month adds help centre, Plus $295/month adds workflows + analytics. Direct competitors: Intercom (more AI-mature, more expensive), Plain (developer-focused), HubSpot Service Hub (CRM-integrated), Drift (sales-chat focused), Tidio (similar cheaper alternative), Tawk.to (free with paid agent add-on), Front (shared inbox focus). Crisp wins on flat pricing and value for solo/small teams; Intercom wins on AI resolution; Plain wins on developer-tool audiences.
⏱ 30-second verdict
- Flat $45/month vs Intercom's $39/seat — major savings at any team size
- Free tier with 2 agents covers solo founders for months
- No Fin-equivalent AI agent for autonomous ticket resolution
About
Free tier with 2 seats and unlimited chats. Paid tiers add chatbot, knowledge base, status pages, and CRM-light features.
🎯 Why it's useful
For solo founders or 2-person teams, the free tier is enough to do real customer support. Way cheaper than Intercom.
💜 Our take
The shared inbox + email forwarding model means you can run support from your existing email setup.
Key Features
Integrations
✓ Best for
Early-stage startups and small teams needing affordable, all-in-one customer support without complexity. Founders who want live chat without the enterprise price tag of competitors like Intercom.
✗ Not ideal for
Large enterprises requiring advanced reporting, custom workflows, or dedicated support. Teams that need phone support or prefer best-of-breed point solutions over integrated platforms.
How indie founders use Crisp
Solo founder live chat
Install the widget in 5 minutes, get pinged on your phone when someone messages. Free tier covers you forever as a one-person team.
Unified inbox
Chat, email, Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram all in one Crisp inbox. No more switching between platforms to answer customer questions.
Help centre + self-service
Build a public knowledge base on Essentials+ tier. Customers self-serve before chatting; ticket volume drops 30-50% for typical SaaS.
Basic chatbot triage
Conditional logic chatbot greets visitors, gathers context, routes to right agent. Less powerful than Fin but free at Pro tier.
Crisp is the Intercom alternative for founders who looked at Intercom's pricing and said 'absolutely not.' Free tier covers live chat with 2 agents. Pro at $45/month flat (not per-seat) covers most early-stage SaaS support needs. After paying Intercom for a year, switching to Crisp can save $5,000-10,000 annually with surprisingly little feature drop-off. The pitch is honest: Crisp does live chat, help centre, basic chatbot, shared inbox for email + Messenger + Twitter DMs, MagicReply (AI suggested responses), and basic CRM. It's not as polished as Intercom and the AI features lag (no Fin-equivalent that resolves tickets autonomously), but for 80% of indie SaaS support needs, the gap is irrelevant. The pricing model is the killer feature. Free tier is genuinely usable (2 agents, basic chat). Pro at $45/month gives unlimited agents and most features. Unlimited at $95/month adds the help centre, file uploads, custom branding, and advanced automations. Compare that to Intercom's $39/seat/month and the math is obvious: a 5-person support team is $195/month on Crisp vs $495/month on Intercom Essential. For founders the practical wins: install in 5 minutes (one script tag), inbox combines all channels (chat, email, Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram), basic chatbot with conditional logic, knowledge base for self-service, and the ability to take chat live on your mobile when you're a one-person company. Push notifications for new chats are reliable enough that you can use Crisp on a phone for support coverage. The trade-offs: the UI feels a few iterations behind Intercom's. AI features are basic (suggested responses, summaries) — no autonomous resolution like Fin. Customer-facing chat widget is functional but less polished. And the deeper enterprise features (advanced segmentation, complex workflows, journey orchestration) just don't exist on Crisp. My take: if you're at sub-$1M ARR and need live chat, use Crisp. The free tier is enough to start. Upgrade to Pro the moment you need a second agent or basic automation. Switch to Intercom when (a) you specifically need Fin's AI resolution, (b) you're hiring a dedicated support team and want deeper analytics, or (c) the per-seat pricing penalty no longer matters at your scale. Below those triggers, Crisp wins on price by enough to make the slightly-worse UI a fair trade.
Pricing
Basic
- ✓2 agent seats
- ✓Live chat widget
- ✓Email + Twitter DM inbox
- ✓Basic mobile apps
Mini
- ✓Unlimited agents
- ✓MagicReply (AI suggestions)
- ✓Triggers + automations
- ✓Office hours + routing
Essentials
- ✓Help Center / knowledge base
- ✓Live chat translations
- ✓File transfer
- ✓Custom branding
Plus
- ✓Workflows + advanced automation
- ✓Analytics dashboard
- ✓Priority support
- ✓API + webhooks unlimited
Free (2 seats, unlimited chats) · Pro $25/mo · Business $75/mo · Custom pricing for advanced features
Frequently asked questions
Is Crisp free?
Yes. The Basic tier supports 2 agents, live chat widget, email and Twitter inbox, and basic features. Most solo founders never need to upgrade. Mini at $45/month flat adds unlimited agents and AI suggestions.
Crisp vs Intercom, which should I pick?
Crisp for cost savings and simpler support needs at sub-$1M ARR. Intercom for Fin AI resolution, deeper analytics, and enterprise-grade automation. Crisp is dramatically cheaper at any team size (flat $45 vs $39/seat). Intercom is meaningfully more capable on AI.
Crisp vs Plain, what's the difference?
Crisp for traditional SaaS support with live chat, help centre, and a chat widget. Plain for developer-tool support with Slack-first workflow, deep API integration, and a more 'engineering team' culture. Different audiences — Crisp for broad SaaS, Plain for developer-focused B2B.
Can I migrate from Intercom to Crisp?
Yes. Crisp has importers for chat transcripts, contacts, and help centre articles. The migration is straightforward technically (replacing the chat widget script + importing data). The workflow rebuild (automations, segments) is the real work — plan for a week or two for non-trivial setups.
Does Crisp work for non-English audiences?
Yes. Crisp supports 50+ languages with auto-translation in chat — your agent can respond in English, the customer sees their native language and vice versa. Notable for international SaaS where Intercom's translation features are similar but pricier.
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