The Tidio alternative that turns website chats into structured leads
Tidio is a customer service suite with live chat, a help desk, and the Lyro AI agent, each metered and priced separately. Collectchat is a website chatbot that collects structured leads, books calls, and takes payments, with AI answers for visitors’ questions included in every plan.
Free forever plan. No credit card required.
Why choose Collectchat over Tidio
Pricing
- 50 free AI answers every month.
- 1,000 AI answers on Standard, $29/mo billed yearly.
- Unlimited responses and no branding from $29/mo, billed yearly.
- 50 free Lyro conversations, once. Then Lyro stops.
- Lyro is extra: $39/mo for 50, $700/mo for 1,000 (monthly billing).
- Removing branding needs Growth plus an add-on.
Interface
- A guided chat that asks your questions one at a time.
- Visitors can type a question anytime and get an AI answer.
- Use as a widget, shareable page, or inline embed.
- A support widget for live chat, Lyro, and Flows.
- One inbox for chat, email, and social messages.
- Flows built from triggers, conditions, and actions.
Features
- Native appointment booking in the chat.
- Stripe, PayPal, and Razorpay payments.
- Phone number verification with SMS OTP.
- Each chat saved as a response, sent to Google Sheets or your CRM.
- Booking through a Calendly link.
- No payment step in Flows.
- No phone OTP.
- Form answers saved as contact properties.
What it costs, and what you get
Real numbers from Tidio’s pricing page (October 2026), then a feature-by-feature look at lead capture, AI answers, and live chat.
| Feature | Collectchat | Tidio |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs | ||
| Cost of ~1,000 AI replies a month Collectchat Standard: 1,000 AI answers for $29/mo billed yearly ($39 monthly). Tidio: the 1,000-conversation Lyro tier, $583.33/mo billed yearly ($700 monthly), added to a Tidio plan. | ✅ $29 / mo | 👎 $583 / mo |
| How AI usage is counted A Lyro conversation covers all of Lyro’s replies in one thread (a thread closes after 15 minutes idle). Collectchat counts each AI answer, so a visitor who asks three questions uses three. | 👎 Per answer | ✅ Per chat thread |
| Price per AI reply or conversation Tidio Lyro: $39 ÷ 50 = 78¢ down to $700 ÷ 1,000 = 70¢ each, billed monthly (65¢ to 58¢ billed yearly). Collectchat has no per-answer fee: Standard’s 1,000 answers work out to about 3¢ each. | ✅ Included | 👎 58¢ to 78¢ |
| Free AI allowance Collectchat’s 50 free AI answers reset every month. Tidio’s 50 free Lyro conversations are a one-time quota; once used, Lyro stops working. | ✅ 50 / mo | 👎 50, once |
| Cheapest plan with monthly AI Tidio’s paid Lyro quota starts at 50 conversations a month for $32.50/mo billed yearly ($39 monthly). | ✅ Free | 👎 $32.50 / mo |
| Cost of 10,000 AI replies a month Collectchat Unlimited: 10,000 AI answers for $149/mo billed yearly ($199 monthly). Tidio: more than 1,000 Lyro conversations needs a custom Plus or Premium plan (Plus starts at $300/mo plus usage). | ✅ $149 / mo | 👎 Custom quote |
| Lowest paid plan Billed yearly. Monthly: Collectchat Lite $19, Tidio Starter $29. Starter’s Lyro quota is the one-time 50. | ✅ $14 / mo | 👎 $24.17 / mo |
| Remove platform branding Collectchat: Standard, $29/mo billed yearly. Tidio: Growth (from $49.17/mo billed yearly) plus a $16.67/mo No Tidio Branding add-on. | ✅ Standard | 👎 Growth + add-on |
| Collecting leads and data | ||
| Website chat widget A chat bubble that greets people on the page. | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
| Validated email and phone fields Ask for contact details in typed, checked fields. | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
| Branch on earlier answers Send visitors down different paths based on what they said. | ✅ Lite | ✅ Free |
| File uploads Let visitors attach files (10 MB per file on both). | ✅ Lite | ✅ Free |
| Native appointment booking Let people pick a time inside the conversation. Tidio Flows link out to Calendly. | ✅ Lite | 👎 Calendly link |
| Accept payments in the chat Stripe, PayPal, or Razorpay. Tidio’s Flows actions include no payment step. | ✅ Lite | ❌ |
| Phone number OTP verification Confirm real phone numbers with an SMS code before you follow up. | ✅ Standard | ❌ |
| Each chat saved as its own response Collectchat keeps a results table with one row per chat. Tidio saves form answers as properties on the visitor’s contact record, exportable to CSV. | ✅ Free | 👎 Contact fields |
| Lead capture on the free plan Collectchat counts finished chats. Tidio counts every unique visitor a Flow messages, then sells 2,000 for $24.17/mo billed yearly ($29 monthly). | ✅ 100 chats / mo | 👎 100 visitors / mo |
| Unlimited lead capture Collectchat Standard has unlimited responses. Tidio’s largest Flows tier is 100,000 visitors reached for $299/mo billed monthly; more needs a custom plan. | ✅ Standard | 👎 100K cap |
| AI answers | ||
| Answers from your website Collectchat reads up to 50 public pages per site. Tidio scans up to 100 pages per scan and 500 URLs in total. | 👎 50 pages | ✅ 500 URLs |
| Answers from your files Upload documents the AI can answer from. | ✅ PDF, Word, CSV, TXT | ✅ PDF, CSV |
| Website re-read automatically Keep answers current when your site changes. On lower Tidio plans you re-sync URLs by hand. | ✅ Weekly | 👎 Plus / Premium |
| Unanswered questions to review See what the AI could not answer and add the answer. | ✅ Free | ✅ |
| AI hands off to a human Pass the visitor to a live agent when the AI cannot help. | ❌ | ✅ |
| AI actions (order lookups, API calls) Lyro Actions talk to external systems. The first Action is free; full access needs a paid Lyro quota. | ❌ | ✅ Paid Lyro |
| AI product recommendations Lyro syncs Shopify or WooCommerce products and recommends them, with a paid Lyro quota. | ❌ | ✅ Paid Lyro |
| Live chat and support | ||
| Live chat inbox for your team Tidio Free covers 50 human-handled conversations a month. At the cap you cannot see or reply to new chats until it resets. | ❌ | ✅ Free |
| Ticketing and email inbox Turn emails and chats into tickets your team works through. | ❌ | ✅ Free |
| Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp inbox Reply to social messages from the same place. | ❌ | ✅ Free |
| Team seats Collectchat: 1 team member on Standard, unlimited on Unlimited. Tidio: 10 seats on Free, Starter, and Growth. | 👎 Standard | ✅ 10 free |
| Setup and integrations | ||
| WordPress & Shopify install Add it to your site without code. | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
| Shareable chat page A hosted page with its own link. | ✅ Free | 👎 Starter |
| Google Sheets Send each lead to a spreadsheet. | ✅ Standard | 👎 Via Zapier |
| Zapier and CRM integrations Tidio includes app integrations such as HubSpot, Salesforce, and Zapier on every plan. | ✅ Standard | ✅ Free |
| Native Shopify actions Order status, product availability, coupons, and cart details in the chat. | ❌ | ✅ Growth |
Why small businesses switch from Tidio to Collectchat
Works 24/7 automatically
Your chatbot greets visitors, answers their questions with AI, books calls, and takes payments around the clock. Nobody has to be online, and there is no inbox to staff.
AI answers included in your plan
50 AI answers a month on Free, 500 on Lite, 1,000 on Standard, and 10,000 on Unlimited. No per-answer fee, and if you run out, the chatbot keeps collecting leads and skips AI answers until the allowance resets.
Leads, not chat transcripts
Every answer is saved as a structured response with a validated email and phone number. The AI fills in details mentioned early, so visitors aren’t asked twice.
500+ integrations
Send each response to Google Sheets, Mailchimp, Salesforce, Slack, or a webhook, or reach 5,000+ apps through Zapier.
No coding required
Describe your goal and AI builds the first version, or start from 50+ templates in the drag-and-drop builder.
Deploy anywhere
Run it as a website chat widget, a shareable page, or an inline embed, on WordPress, Shopify, Wix, or any custom site.
When Tidio might fit instead
No tool wins every use case. Tidio is the stronger choice when customer support, not lead capture, is the main job:
- You need a live chat inbox where your team replies in real time, with ticketing and email in the same place.
- You want an AI agent that hands tricky questions to a human, and that also answers on Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
- You run a Shopify store and want AI and Flows that look up orders, check stock, send coupons, and recommend products.
- You need Lyro to call your own systems through Actions, or enterprise options like SSO and managed AI on Premium.
But when the goal is turning website visitors into structured leads, with booking, payments, and verified phone numbers in the same chat and AI answers included in the price, Collectchat is the simpler, cheaper fit.
Listen to what our customers say
Trusted by 50,000+ businesses worldwide
“Collectchat has been an invaluable tool for our business. It's allowed us to easily convert our website visitors and collect important information.”
Ester Bonafonte
“We're heavy users of Collectchat, from internal bots like 'Ask the CEO anonymously' and onboarding feedback, to external recruitment bots that bring in ~90% of our job applications.”
Pauliina Uuttu
“The result looks great, much more attractive to potential respondents than the regular Google Forms questionnaires.”
Shai Alter
Learning Developer, OTI
“Collectchat has been super useful for us and we have certainly seen a growth in our subscriptions per month. With the contribution of this widget, we have even seen an average 30% increase in the total monthly subscriptions.”
Evi Katsoulieri
Marketer, GrowthRocks
“The templates are amazing. Very easy to set up and very powerful. It's a great service that it's the equivalent of having a 24/7 employee that does a great onboarding experience for your prospects.”
Victor Bustillos
Founder, Webjoy.co
“Interactive form worked like magic, increased Yatramantra's conversion to 3 times and significantly reduced the cost of agents, who used to ask the same questions to every customer.”
Saran Kumar
CTO, Yatramantra
Frequently asked Questions
It depends on the job. If you need a team inbox for live chat and tickets, pick another help desk. If you want your website to capture and qualify leads on its own, Collectchat is a strong Tidio alternative: a website chatbot that asks your questions, books calls, takes payments, and answers visitors’ questions with AI. See how it works for lead generation.
For AI, yes. Tidio’s Lyro AI agent is priced on top of your plan: $39/mo for 50 conversations or $700/mo for 1,000, billed monthly ($32.50 and $583.33 a month billed yearly). Collectchat includes 50 AI answers a month for free, 1,000 on Standard ($29/mo billed yearly, $39 monthly), and 10,000 on Unlimited ($149/mo billed yearly). One difference to weigh: Tidio counts a Lyro conversation per chat thread, while Collectchat counts each AI answer. Compare all plans on the pricing page.
Yes. Tidio Free includes 50 human-handled conversations a month, 10 seats, Flows that can reach 100 unique visitors a month, and 50 Lyro AI conversations once (they do not renew, and Lyro stops when they are used). Collectchat Free includes 3 chatbots, 100 responses a month, and 50 AI answers every month.
No. Collectchat is fully automated, with no live chat inbox and no human handoff. When the AI is not sure, it says your team will follow up, and the chatbot collects the contact details you need to do that. You get each new lead by email or WhatsApp. If your team needs to chat with visitors in real time, Tidio is the better fit. Learn more about the website chat widget. Also comparing other tools? See Collectchat as an Intercom alternative or a Chatbase alternative.
Yes. Tidio Flows can ask questions with email validation, show a form inside the widget with email, phone, dropdown, and file fields, branch on answers, save them as contact properties, and pass them to Zapier or an API call. The differences: Flows are metered by unique visitors messaged (100 a month free), booking is a Calendly link, and there is no payment step or phone OTP. Collectchat adds native appointment booking, payments, and SMS verification, and saves every chat as its own response.
Lyro is a full AI support agent: it works across channels, hands off to humans, calls APIs, and recommends Shopify products. Collectchat’s AI answers are focused on your website visitors. They come from your website (up to 50 pages, re-read weekly), your files (PDF, Word, CSV, or TXT up to 10 MB), and FAQ answers you write, which always win. Replies are up to three short sentences in the visitor’s language, never make up prices, dates, or policies, and decline off-topic questions. Then the chatbot carries on with your questions.
On Collectchat, the chatbot keeps running and keeps collecting leads. It skips AI answers until your monthly allowance resets, and there is never a per-answer charge. Unanswered questions show in Results, where you can save an answer as an FAQ.
Yes. Export your Tidio contacts to CSV, then rebuild your lead flows with Collectchat’s drag-and-drop builder or Create with AI. Add your website, files, and FAQs for AI answers, and paste one snippet into your site or install on WordPress or Shopify. Test booking, payment, and integration steps before you go live.
If you have more questions, feel free to contact us .