Olark vs Tidio: Human Live Chat or Live Chat With an AI Chatbot for Your Online Store?
Olark and Tidio both put a chat box on your website, but they are built around different ideas. Olark started in 2009 as live chat for real people and still sells it per agent; it now adds an AI website agent at one flat yearly price with unlimited conversations. Tidio combines live chat, a help desk inbox and Lyro, its AI agent, with a free plan, and charges by how many conversations your team and the AI handle. Whether you are asking about Olark vs Tidio or Tidio vs Olark, this guide answers the same question: which one fits a small store or a startup website today. We checked plans, prices and features on olark.com and tidio.com in November 2026.
Quick answer: pick Tidio if you run a small online store, want to start for free and want an AI chatbot to answer routine questions: the free plan covers 50 human-handled conversations a month with up to 10 seats, Starter costs 24.17 a month billed yearly, and Lyro AI starts at 32.50 a month for 50 AI conversations. Pick Olark if you want plain, human-staffed live chat priced per agent ($29 a month) rather than per conversation, or if your site gets enough traffic that an AI agent with unlimited conversations at $400 a month billed annually beats paying per AI chat. With Tidio you pay nothing at the start; with Olark you get simple per-agent pricing and, on the AI agent, no usage meter.
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Olark vs Tidio Pricing and Features Compared
Sources: olark.com/pricing and olark.com/features; tidio.com/pricing (default view: billed annually, "2 months free"; euros in the browser from our location, US dollars with the same figures in the page code) and tidio.com, checked 12 November 2026. Tidio's homepage gives "paid plans from $29/mo" for monthly billing. Prices exclude VAT or sales tax.
For one or two people answering chats, the two cost about the same, and Tidio is cheaper if you stay inside its free 50 conversations. The gap opens with AI: Tidio sells AI answers in small monthly packs, so a store with modest traffic pays tens of dollars a month, while Olark's AI agent is one flat $400 a month with no limit, which only pays off once a lot of visitors chat. Olark's human-only plan is priced per agent, not per conversation.
Olark: Human Live Chat Since 2009, Now With an AI Website Agent
Olark says more than 12,000 businesses have used it since 2009; it is backed by Y Combinator and is a certified B Corp. Its pitch has moved from live chat to "more than a chatbot": an AI agent that trains on your own site in about a minute, answers questions, qualifies visitors and brings in a human in the same conversation when needed. The human-only live chat is still sold, as the same product its customers have used for years.
Plans (checked November 2026, US dollars):
- Live Chat, no AI, $29 per agent a month: full-featured human live chat, with a 14-day free trial and no credit card. You can add the AI agent later without reinstalling.
- Standard AI Website Agent, $400 a month billed annually ($4,800 a year): unlimited AI conversations around the clock, automatic FAQ and knowledge updates, lead capture and qualification, proactive messages, white-glove support and one human seat. Each extra human agent adds $29 a month, so two agents cost $429 and three $458.
- Custom: regional routing, multiple teams, advanced integrations, custom workflows, SLAs and SSO, through sales.
What the Olark pricing page and feature list add: there is no overage and no conversation limit once the AI agent is on, which Olark sets against tools that charge by tokens or by AI answer. Leads land in HubSpot or Salesforce with the transcript attached, and Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot can query your chat data through an MCP connection. Olark has no help desk of its own: it sends conversations to the one you use. Its integrations page lists plugins for Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento and WordPress, plus Mailchimp and Zapier.
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Tidio: Live Chat, Help Desk and the Lyro AI Agent With a Free Plan
Tidio brings live chat, email, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp into one inbox, with ticketing, chat automation (Flows) and Lyro, its AI agent. It promotes a free plan forever, paid plans from $29 a month on monthly billing and cancellation in two clicks, and says more than 300,000 businesses use it. Tidio installs on Shopify, WordPress and Wix, and offers Zapier, an OpenAPI and more than 120 integrations.
Plans (checked November 2026; default view billed yearly, figures as shown on the pricing page):
- Free, 0: 50 billable conversations a month, 50 Lyro AI conversations once (not renewed), 100 visitors reached by Flows, up to 10 seats, live chat, ticketing, email and social inbox, desktop and mobile apps.
- Starter, 24.17 a month: 100 billable conversations, live visitors list, operating hours and basic analytics.
- Growth, from 49.17 a month: from 250 billable conversations, with advanced analytics, user permissions, automatic chat assignment, automatic replies, live typing preview, viewed pages history and macros.
- Plus, from 300 a month plus usage: premium support, a dedicated success manager, departments, several projects, custom branding, ticketing automations, OpenAPI and a custom number of seats.
- Premium: by quote, from 3,000 Lyro conversations, with a guaranteed 50% Lyro resolution rate, pay-per-resolution billing and SSO.
- Add-ons: Lyro AI Agent from 32.50 a month for 50 AI conversations, Flows from 24.17 a month for 2,000 visitors, and removing Tidio branding for $16.67 a month.
What the Tidio pricing page and the Lyro AI agent page add: a conversation only becomes billable when a human on your team replies, so spam and replies by Lyro or Flows do not count toward the human limit. Every plan gets a 7-day free trial without a credit card, after which the account falls back to Free. Lyro runs on Claude from Anthropic plus Tidio's own models, and can also be bought on its own for Zendesk, Intercom, Salesforce and other help desks. Tidio says its customers average a 75% resolution rate with Lyro; that is the company's own figure.
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Tidio vs Olark: Feature by Feature
Free plan and trial
Tidio wins for a founder with no budget: its free plan stays free, with 50 human-handled conversations a month and 10 seats. Olark has no free plan; you get 14 days of Live Chat and a free preview of the AI agent on your own site.
AI chatbot
Tidio's Lyro is sold in packs from 50 AI conversations a month, so you can start small and pay more as the AI handles more. Olark's AI agent has one flat price with unlimited conversations, which suits busy B2B or lead-generation sites but is a big step for a small shop.
Help desk and channels
Tidio has built-in ticketing and brings email, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp into the same inbox. Olark focuses on website chat and passes conversations to the help desk you already use; WhatsApp and SMS are listed for Olark Classic.
Sales and lead capture
Olark's AI agent is built around lead capture and qualification, with proactive triggers and leads sent to HubSpot or Salesforce with the transcript. Tidio leans toward ecommerce, with Flows that collect visitor data and quote requests, sales Flows templates and native Shopify actions; it reports sales, leads and bookings per conversation.
Team size
Olark charges $29 for each extra human agent. Tidio does not charge per seat up to 10 agents, but charges by conversations, so a larger team with few chats suits Tidio, and a small team that handles many chats may find Olark's per-agent price easier to predict.
What Changed Since the 2026 Version of This Comparison
- Olark has its own AI agent: the Standard AI Website Agent, powered by Olark's Aiden engine, at $400 a month billed annually with unlimited conversations. Human-only Live Chat is still $29 per agent a month.
- Tidio prices: the old text said Tidio goes up to $39 a month. Starter is now 24.17 a month billed yearly ($29 monthly), Growth starts at 49.17, Plus at 300 plus usage, and Lyro AI is a separate add-on from 32.50.
- Tidio's free plan: 50 billable conversations a month and a one-time pack of 50 Lyro AI conversations.
- Removed: the unsourced "89% of consumers switch after poor support" statistic, generic "mistakes to avoid" filler and third-party review links.
Olark or Tidio: Which Should You Choose?
- You run a small Shopify, WordPress or Wix store and want to start free: Tidio Free, then Starter.
- You want an AI bot for order and shipping questions on a small budget: Tidio with a Lyro pack.
- You only want real people chatting, priced per agent: Olark Live Chat at $29 per agent.
- You run a busy B2B site and want every visitor qualified around the clock: Olark's AI agent, which also sends leads to HubSpot or Salesforce. Compare email tools for those leads in Mailchimp vs Pardot.
- You need a full help desk for email and social messages: Tidio, or see Tidio vs Zendesk and Zendesk vs Olark.
- You are comparing Olark with other chat tools: Olark vs LiveChat and Olark vs Intercom.
Olark and Tidio Alternatives
More Tidio comparisons: Tidio vs Olark (older guide), LiveChat vs Tidio, Tidio vs Intercom, Tidio vs Crisp and Help Scout vs Tidio. More Olark comparisons: Olark vs Tawk.to and Freshdesk vs Olark. Help desks: Intercom vs Zendesk; chatbots for Messenger and Instagram: ManyChat vs Chatfuel. Free tools: free Intercom alternatives, free Zendesk alternatives and free HubSpot Service Hub alternatives. To host chat and support yourself: open-source Intercom alternatives, open-source Zendesk alternatives, open-source Zendesk AI alternatives and open-source Freshdesk alternatives.
How Founders Use Live Chat to Win Customers
Live chat is one of the fastest ways to learn what stops people from buying: every question in the chat box is a gap in your website or offer. Read our guide on the benefits of live chat software for customer service, the customer support tools for startups and online customer service for ecommerce. Turn chat visitors into email subscribers with the tools in Omnisend vs Brevo and Klaviyo vs Constant Contact, and validate your startup idea before you pay for traffic.
The questions people ask in chat are also good article topics. The F/MS AI SEO Tool turns your keywords into articles built to rank on Google and to be cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity, and those articles can feed the knowledge base that Lyro or Olark's AI agent learns from. F/MS Marketing Services help you get backlinks and guest posts that build your authority.
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FAQ: Olark vs Tidio
What's the difference between Tidio and Olark?
Tidio combines live chat, a help desk inbox for email and social messages, chat automation and the Lyro AI agent, with a free plan and prices based on conversations. Olark is website live chat priced per human agent ($29 a month), with an optional AI website agent at $400 a month billed annually and unlimited conversations.
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Which is cheaper, Olark or Tidio?
Tidio for most small teams: its free plan covers 50 human-handled conversations a month and Starter costs 24.17 a month billed yearly ($29 monthly), while Olark has no free plan and charges $29 per agent a month. Olark can work out cheaper for one or two agents who handle more chats than Tidio's conversation tiers include, because Olark prices per agent (checked November 2026).
What do I lose by going with Tidio instead of Olark?
Mainly the flat pricing: Tidio counts human and AI conversations and you buy more as you grow, while Olark charges per agent and its AI agent has unlimited conversations. You also give up Olark's lead-qualification focus and its HubSpot and Salesforce hand-off with transcripts, though Tidio connects to many tools through Zapier, its OpenAPI and 120+ integrations.
Does Olark have a free plan?
No. Olark offers a 14-day free trial of Live Chat without a credit card and a free preview of its AI agent built on your own website. Tidio has a free plan that does not expire.
Does Olark have an AI chatbot now?
Yes. The Standard AI Website Agent, powered by Olark's Aiden engine, answers questions, captures and qualifies leads and hands over to a human in the same chat. It costs $400 a month billed annually and includes one human agent seat.
How does Tidio's Lyro AI agent work and what does it cost?
Lyro answers customer questions from your support content and hands over to a human when needed. Every account gets 50 Lyro conversations once; paid packs start at 32.50 a month for 50 AI conversations, billed yearly. Lyro runs on Claude from Anthropic and Tidio's own models, and can also be added to Zendesk, Intercom or Salesforce.
Which works better with Shopify?
Both install on Shopify. Tidio has a Shopify app with native Shopify actions and sales Flows templates; Olark offers a Shopify live chat app and plugins for WooCommerce, BigCommerce and Magento.
Which fits our stage best?
Pre-revenue or a small store: Tidio Free or Starter. A few people answering chats on a growing site: Olark Live Chat or Tidio Growth, depending on whether you prefer per-agent or per-conversation pricing. A busy B2B site that wants every visitor qualified: Olark's AI agent.
What other tools should I compare?
LiveChat (now sold to new customers as Text), Intercom and Zendesk for bigger support teams, Crisp and Tawk.to for low-cost chat, and the free and open-source Intercom and Zendesk alternatives if you want to host chat yourself.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
