Overview

Crisp brings inbound conversations from different channels into one collaborative inbox, with live-agent chat, a website chatbot and visitor tracking. It also targets inbound sales and marketing teams, making it relevant beyond customer support. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Nantes, France, Crisp says it is bootstrapped and has more than 600,000 users.

Key features

One inbox across web and apps

The shared inbox gives teams a common place to handle conversations across channels. Crisp’s chat widget works on websites and web apps, as well as native iOS and Android apps and React apps. That reach helps teams maintain a consistent contact point across digital properties, while the plan’s seat limits determine how many agents can share the workload.

Self-service, AI and workflows

The help center lets companies create and manage articles for customers who prefer self-service. AI can be trained on website content, PDFs, help articles, past conversations and private snippets, while no-code workflows cover internal automation and customer-facing AI agents. Those tools make Crisp more than a live-chat widget, but AI use is constrained by plan credits and automated-conversation allowances.

Integrations, API and security

The integrations directory includes 2,000 options across CRM, CMS, marketing, messaging and teamwork, including Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, Slack, WhatsApp and Jira. A REST API provides access to and control over data such as conversations and contacts, which gives teams room to connect Crisp to their own systems. Crisp says it does not sell data, uses encrypted backups and GDPR protections, and limits customer-data access on a need-to-know basis. Public network channels use TLS with forward secrecy and HSTS; messaging servers are hosted in the Netherlands and plugin servers in Germany, with replicated architecture and databases.

Pricing

Crisp has a free plan, paid plans billed monthly per workspace and a 14-day trial of all features with no card required. The trial is useful for assessing the broader feature set before committing, but teams should compare their expected seats, customer profiles and AI use against each tier rather than treating the free plan as a like-for-like preview of ongoing use.

Free: Free, billed Forever. It includes 2 seats, unlimited conversations and 100 customer profiles, but no AI credits. It suits a small team that needs shared conversations and can do without AI automation; the profile cap and lack of AI are its main constraints.
Mini: 45.00 USD per month, billed per month per workspace. It raises the allowance to 4 seats and 5,000 customer profiles, with around 90 automated conversations and $ 5 in included AI credits. This is the entry paid option for teams that have outgrown the free seat or profile limits, but its automation allowance remains modest.
Essentials: 95.00 USD per month, billed per month per workspace. It includes 10 seats, 50,000 customer profiles, around 450 automated conversations and $ 25 in AI credits. It is the more suitable step for a growing support team needing broader agent capacity and more room for automation.
Plus: 295.00 USD per month, billed per month per workspace. It provides 20+ seats, 200,000 customer profiles, around 1,350 automated conversations and $ 75 in AI credits. This tier is aimed at larger teams with substantially higher capacity needs; the higher monthly commitment makes it harder to justify if those limits would go unused.
Enterprise: custom pricing with dedicated onboarding, a personalized SLA, enhanced rate limits, custom features and team training. It is the option for organizations that need those tailored services rather than a fixed published tier.

Platforms

Crisp supports Android, iOS, macOS, Windows and web, and offers an API. The widget’s support for native mobile and React apps extends its use beyond browser-based websites, while desktop apps cover macOS and Windows.

Who it's for

Crisp suits customer-support, inbound-sales and marketing teams that want a shared omnichannel workspace with help articles, integrations and automation in the same platform. The free tier can serve a small team handling unlimited conversations, provided two seats, 100 profiles and no AI credits are enough. Teams needing AI, more agents or larger customer-profile allowances should budget for a paid plan. Organizations that only need a narrower messaging tool, or cannot make the plan quotas work, may be better served by a more specialized alternative.

Pros and cons

Pros: A collaborative inbox, chat widget, help center and automation cover several customer-contact needs in one product, reducing the need to piece together separate tools.
Pros: AI training can draw on several kinds of company content, including private snippets and past conversations, giving teams multiple ways to ground customer-facing automation.
Pros: The free plan includes unlimited conversations, and the no-card 14-day trial provides a way to explore all features before paying.
Cons: Free includes only 2 seats and 100 customer profiles, with no AI credits, so it is a limited fit for teams expecting to automate or grow their customer records.
Cons: Paid plans cap automated conversations and AI credits, requiring teams with heavier automation needs to consider higher monthly tiers.
Cons: Enterprise has custom pricing, so larger organizations cannot compare its cost from a fixed public monthly rate.

Alternatives

For a focused SMS chatbot search, browse SMS Chatbot Software; for broader agent chat choices, see Live chat software or Social Media Customer Service Software.

ConvoCore is worth considering for teams seeking an API and web-based option with a free tier of 500 monthly credits, estimated at about 182 messages, and a $29.00 USD per month Starter plan. Choose Clickatell SMS API when pay-as-you-go outgoing SMS is the priority; its message prices vary by destination and message type. AthenaText has a free tier with no credits or AI replies and a $49.00 USD per month Core plan, making its free allowance less useful for active AI replies than Crisp’s unlimited non-AI conversations. Gupshup is another messaging option, with a stated 0.001 USD per-message fee and WhatsApp fees billed at actuals. Jack The Butler may suit teams looking for free, open-source software without per-message or per-room fees, though hosting and AI API usage may cost extra. Sarufi offers a Developer plan with 1,000 messages per month. Sinch Engage has SMS plans including Basics with 3,000 SMS per month for one user and three automation workflows, and Conversations with 10,000 SMS per month for two users. Smstools offers U.S. SMS from €0.025 per message, with no subscription and volume discounts.

Verdict

Choose Crisp if your team wants an all-in-one customer-support workspace spanning shared conversations, help content and automation, and its seat, profile and AI allowances fit your workload. Its free plan is a practical starting point for small teams that do not need AI credits. Look elsewhere if you need more automation than the included quotas support without moving to a higher-cost tier, or if your needs are limited to a specialized messaging tool.

	Crisp	Velaro Live Chat
Free plan	Yes
Free trial	Yes
Paid from	$45/mo
Platforms	Android, api, iOS, macOS, Web, Windows	Web, iOS, Android
Free plan	Yes	No
Paid from	$45/mo	$19/mo
Website chatbot	Yes	Yes
Live agent chat	Yes	Yes
Visitor tracking	Yes	Yes
Chat channels	omnichannel	omnichannel
Included agent seats	2 agents	1 agents
Listed integrations	2,000 apps	20 apps

Crisp vs Velaro Live Chat

Crisp

Velaro Live Chat