What is Tidio?
Tidio is live chat and helpdesk software with a strong e-commerce focus. It combines a shared inbox, the Lyro AI agent and Flows, a rule-based automation builder. Each part has its own price and meter.
Where Tidio shines
Tidio is easy to try for free, including on Shopify, WordPress and Wix. Even the Free plan includes 10 seats, ticketing, and Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and email. For Shopify stores, Growth adds order actions right inside the chat window.
How Askly is different
Lyro and Askly both reply to customers in their own language. The difference shows when a person takes over. Tidio’s help center says its widget language option does not translate conversations automatically.
Tidio lets agents translate incoming messages with AI. With Askly, your team writes in its own language and Askly translates both ways, live. No local hires needed.
With Askly, localization is done on day one. Other tools hand you strings to translate. Tidio’s widget has ready packs for some languages; for others, you translate each phrase yourself.
Tidio counts a Lyro conversation after the AI’s first reply, whatever the outcome. Askly counts only answers: chats the AI finished without a human reply. When your team finishes a chat, it does not count.
Tidio meters three things separately: human conversations, Lyro conversations and Flows visitors. Each has its own limit; even Flows is free only up to 100 visitors a month. Askly AI Support Agent has one number to watch, and unlimited users.
One knowledge base serves everything: every language and every channel. Fix an answer once and it improves everywhere. Switch modes any time: Fully AI, AI + Team, or Fully Human.
Written conversations stay in the EEA, in Frankfurt and the Netherlands. That makes data protection questions easier to answer.
Pricing: what you actually pay
Take a typical SME: five support people and about 500 chats a month. Say the AI answers first in every chat and solves half. Your team finishes the other 250.
On Tidio, five seats cost nothing, since every self-serve plan includes 10. The 250 human chats need Growth: €49.17 a month on annual billing. Lyro for 500 conversations adds another €291.67 a month.
That is about €341 a month, or €409 on monthly billing. Tidio shows the same figures in euros or dollars, depending on location. The Lyro fee is the same whether the AI solves a chat or not.
Hit the human conversation limit and your team cannot reply. That lasts until you upgrade or the quota resets. On monthly billing, Tidio auto-upgrades at 95% of a quota unless you opt out.
Without a Lyro package, a Tidio account gets 50 Lyro conversations, once. When they run out, Lyro stops until you buy a package. Beyond 1,000 a month, you need a custom plan, with Plus from €300 plus usage.
Askly AI Support Agent Starter costs €195 a month with 6-month billing, excluding VAT. It covers up to 500 answers a month, with unlimited users. That is about €146 a month less than Tidio on annual billing.
The team’s 250 AI-finished chats fit Starter with room to spare. Starter is the right plan here. Flex, at €359, raises the limit to 1,000 answers and adds priority support.
Want Askly to do the setup? That is €1,500, paid once. At Tidio, Lyro as a managed service sits in Premium, priced through sales.
Results that speak for themselves
BusTruckParts (used truck parts) serves buyers from more than 100 countries, each in their own language. Read the case study
Klick (electronics e-commerce) switched from Zendesk and moved 80% of its customer communication into Askly. Read the case study
At Confido (private healthcare), the AI resolves 72% of patient questions. Read the case study
The verdict: which should you choose?
Tidio makes sense for a small shop with few chats and no AI needs yet. At that stage, Tidio’s Free plan is hard to beat.
Askly is the better choice when:
- You want one meter instead of three and a budget you can plan.
- Your customers write in many languages and Askly translates both ways.
- You want only AI-finished answers to count.
- You want to save about €146 a month at 500 chats.
