CentriWebIntercom vs Tidio is less a contest than a choice between two kinds of product: Intercom is a full help desk with an AI agent charged per resolved conversation, while Tidio is live chat for smaller shops with an AI add-on sold in conversation bundles. Chatbase, often compared with both, is a third kind again: an AI agent trained on your documents that you place on your site or connect to other tools.
Each vendor’s figures below come from its own pricing and help pages, as at November 2026, in US dollars. Check their pages for current prices. One disclosure: we mention GoHighLevel near the end, and CentriWeb builds many client systems on GoHighLevel.
Three different products
| Intercom | Tidio | Chatbase | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Help desk with inbox, tickets and the Fin AI agent | Live chat and inbox for small teams, with the Lyro AI agent | AI agent trained on your content, placed on your site or connected to other tools |
| How it charges | Per seat, plus US$0.99 per Fin outcome | Plan by billable conversations, Lyro sold in conversation bundles | Plan by message credits, billed yearly on the listed prices |
| Who maintains it | Your support team, often with an admin who owns the setup | The owner or a staff member | Whoever owns the content it is trained on |
| Who it suits | Businesses with a support team and steady ticket volume | Online shops and small service businesses | Businesses with lots of documentation to answer from |
Intercom: a help desk with an AI agent
Intercom’s pricing page lists three seat plans: Essential, shown at US$29 and US$19 per seat a month depending on billing, Advanced at US$85 and Expert at US$132. Platform plans need at least one full seat.
Its Fin AI agent costs US$0.99 per outcome. The page counts an outcome when the customer confirms the issue is resolved, doesn’t ask for more help after Fin replies, or Fin completes a set procedure, including a handoff. You are charged once per conversation, however many questions it answers. Fin can also run on top of another help desk, with a minimum monthly commitment.
For Australian businesses, Intercom’s regional data hosting article lists US, EU and Australian hosting, but only for new workspaces on the Advanced and Expert plans for customers on a contract. Even then, it lists some data, such as billing details and emails, that routes through the US.
Tidio: small-shop chat with an AI add-on
Tidio’s pricing page lists a free plan with 50 billable conversations a month and 10 seats. Starter is US$24.17 a month for 100 conversations, Growth starts at US$49.17 a month for 250 conversations and goes up to 2,000, and Plus starts at US$300 a month plus usage. Starter and Growth come with a seven day free trial.
Its Lyro AI agent is priced separately, starting at US$32.50 a month for 50 Lyro conversations, and your first 50 Lyro conversations are free. Tidio also sells Flows, its automation builder, by the number of visitors reached.
Chatbase: an AI agent trained on your documents
Chatbase’s pricing page lists Basic at US$120 a month billed yearly (US$150 list), with 4,000 message credits a month, and Business at US$400 a month billed yearly (US$500 list), with 15,000. Both include one agent and 40 MB of training content. Extra credits cost US$40 per 1,000, and an extra agent is US$25 a month. There is a seven day trial and no free plan listed.
The page lists integrations with Zendesk, Salesforce, Intercom, HubSpot, Shopify, Slack, WhatsApp, Zapier and others, so it can sit alongside a help desk you already use.
A worked example with your own numbers
Pricing models are easier to compare with a volume in front of you. Suppose your website gets 300 chats a month, and you expect the AI to fully handle 200 of them. These are example figures; use your own.
- Intercom: 200 outcomes at US$0.99 is about US$198 a month for Fin, plus at least one seat. The 100 chats the AI hands over don’t count as outcomes unless Fin completed a set procedure, but a person still has to answer them.
- Tidio: 300 chats is above Starter’s 100 billable conversations, so you would look at Growth, then add the Lyro bundle that covers the conversations you want the AI to take. The pricing page shows bundles from 50 to more than 1,000 a month.
- Chatbase: count messages, not chats. If an average chat has six AI replies, 300 chats is around 1,800 replies. Check how Chatbase counts credits per reply for the model you choose, then see whether Basic’s 4,000 monthly credits cover it.
Do the same sum at double the volume. A tool that is cheapest today may not be cheapest once your site gets busier.
What each one does well
- Intercom suits a business with people answering support every day. The inbox, tickets and AI sit in one place, and per-outcome pricing means you pay for resolved conversations instead of attempts.
- Tidio suits a small online shop or service business that wants live chat on the website now, with a free plan to try it and AI added when volume justifies it.
- Chatbase suits a business whose questions are answered in its documents: product manuals, policies, course material. It focuses on the AI agent and connects to the tools you already have.
Intercom vs Tidio vs Chatbase: questions to decide between them
- Who answers when the AI can’t? If you have a support team, a help desk like Intercom keeps their work in one place. If it is you on your phone, Tidio’s simpler inbox may be enough. With Chatbase, check how handover reaches your team.
- What do the questions look like? Order status and returns suit a shop tool. Detailed product or policy questions suit an agent trained on documents.
- How many conversations a month? Run your number through each pricing model. Per-outcome, per-conversation bundle and per-credit pricing grow differently.
- What must it do besides answer? Booking, checking an order or updating a customer record needs connections. Check each vendor’s integrations list against your own software.
- Where should the data live? If storage location matters to you, read the vendor’s hosting and privacy pages before you sign.
Whichever you pick, the AI is only as good as what it answers from. Our guide to reducing wrong AI answers covers how to test it before customers see it, and our guide to AI customer service covers which questions to hand to AI and which to keep for people.
Tidio alternatives and Chatbase alternatives inside your CRM
If you already use a CRM with its own website chat, you may not need a separate tool. GoHighLevel, for example, has Conversation AI, which can answer on its chat widget and other channels and book into its calendars; our guide to GoHighLevel Conversation AI covers what it handles. Keeping chat and CRM together means every conversation lands on the customer record without an extra connection. For a wider view of what website chat should do, see our guide to AI chatbots on a small business website.
When a built system fits better than a chat tool
A chat tool answers questions. Some businesses need the chat to do the job: check live availability, quote from their own price rules, book a site visit into the right person’s calendar, create the job in their software and hand over to a person with the full history. When it has to work across several of your systems, in your words, a system built and looked after for your business can fit better. That is what our AI services cover.
It does not suit everyone. If you get a handful of chats a week, Tidio’s free plan or Intercom’s entry plan will do. If someone on your team likes setting up tools, any of the three can be set up without outside help. And if the standard plan answers most questions, spending more won’t change much.