Head-to-head · Help Desk Software
Tidio vs Kayako
Tidio leads on 1 check, Kayako on 2, and 3 are even. Who comes out ahead on the 6 yes/no, price and count checks where we have data for both products. The editor score weighs everything else too.
Our verdict
- Highest scoreTidio · 9.2/10
- Free planonly Tidio
- Most featuresKayako · 5 of 6
Tidio scores higher on our rubric for help desk software: 9.2 against 6.1 out of 10; our editors rank them #1 and #21.
Tidio offers free plan; Kayako doesn't publish it. Kayako offers sla management; Tidio doesn't publish it. Kayako offers help center; Tidio doesn't publish it.
Tidio is the better fit for SMBs and online stores that want chat, AI and ticketing together. Kayako is the better fit for teams wanting usage-based AI support.
- Tidio fits best
SMBs and online stores that want chat, AI and ticketing together
- Kayako fits best
Teams wanting usage-based AI support
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Side by side
| Feature | Tidio 9.2/10 Visit ↗ | Kayako 6.1/10 Visit ↗ |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Editor score | 9.2 | 6.1 |
| Ranking | #1 in Help Desk Software | #21 in Help Desk Software |
| Best for | SMBs and online stores that want chat, AI and ticketing together | Teams wanting usage-based AI support |
| Pricing model | Free plan + paid | Paid |
| Starting price | $24.17/user/mo | Not published |
| Free plan | ✓ (best) | Not published |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Deployment | Cloud, Desktop, Mobile | Cloud, Mobile |
| Platforms | Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android |
| Support | Email, Live chat, Docs | Docs |
| Compliance | SOC 2, GDPR, PCI DSS, 2FA | SOC 2, GDPR, SSO/SAML, 2FA, PCI DSS, ISO 27001 |
| Integrations | 19 integrations | 5,000+ integrations |
| Built for | Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise | Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise |
| Features Tidio 3/6 · Kayako 5/6 | ||
| Shared inbox | ✓ | ✓ |
| SLA management | Not published | ✓ (best) |
| Help center | Not published | ✓ (best) |
| Ticket automation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Customer portal | Not published | Not published |
| API access | ✓ | ✓ |
| Specs | ||
| Included agent seats | 10 | Not published |
| Our review | ||
| Pros |
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| Cons |
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| Our verdict | Tidio is an all-in-one customer service platform that brings a ticketing help desk, website live chat, the Lyro AI agent and no-code Flows automation into one inbox, alongside email, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. Its help desk turns… Read the review → |
Kayako is a customer service and help desk platform for support teams managing conversations across email, chat, social, and voice. Its core workspace brings those channels into a unified inbox alongside ticketing, a knowledge base,… Read the review → |
Strengths and trade-offs
Tidio — where it wins
- Lyro AI agent (powered by Claude) answers from your own content and turns what it can't solve into tickets
- Live chat, email, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp in one shared inbox with ticketing
- Free plan with 10 seats; strong Shopify actions for order status, refunds and product recommendations
Where it doesn't
- Conversation-based pricing needs modelling at high volume
- Lyro and Flows have their own usage quotas on top of the plan
- Very large, rule-heavy ticket operations may want deeper enterprise governance
Kayako — where it wins
- Unified inbox covers email, chat, social, and voice conversations
- Includes ticketing, help center, chat, automation, reporting, and SLAs
- Kay AI Agent charges $1 per resolved ticket with no seat fees
Where it doesn't
- Kay AI Agent charges per resolved ticket rather than a flat subscription
- Kayako One pricing requires contacting a pricing expert
- The platform spans many functions, which may exceed simpler support needs
- Tidio9.2/10 · Free plan · paid from $24.17/mo (annual) · 7-day trial
An all-in-one help desk with live chat, the Lyro AI agent and Flows automation in one inbox, from a free plan.
Visit TidioFull verdict → - Kayako6.1/10 · Paid
Kayako combines multichannel ticketing with usage-based AI support.
Visit KayakoFull verdict →
Tidio vs Kayako: the full comparison
Tidio is the better help desk for most small and growing teams in 2026. It gives you live chat, the Lyro AI agent, no-code automation and ticketing in one inbox, with a free plan and published prices, and it is noticeably stronger for online stores. Kayako is a capable, broad support platform with SLAs, a help center and voice, but its main plan is priced through a sales conversation, and it is built for teams that run a heavier, ticket-centric operation. In our directory, Tidio scores 9.2/10 and Kayako 6.1/10.
We compared both products using their official product and pricing pages, Tidio's Shopify App Store listing and user ratings, and the researched profiles in our help desk software directory, all checked in October 2026.
Tidio vs Kayako at a glance
| Tidio | Kayako | |
|---|---|---|
| Our rating | 9.2 / 10 | 6.1 / 10 |
| Best for | Small and mid-size teams and online stores whose support starts in chat | Teams that want a broad, ticket-centric support suite with SLAs |
| Free plan | Yes: 50 billable conversations a month, 10 agent seats, ticketing included | No free plan published |
| Published pricing | Yes: Starter $24.17 and Growth $49.17 per month billed annually, Plus $300 a month | Kayako One pricing is quoted by a pricing expert |
| AI agent | Lyro, powered by Anthropic's Claude; Tidio says it automates around 67% of inquiries | Kay AI Agent, billed per resolved ticket |
| Live chat | Core of the product: visitor list, live typing preview, Flows automation | Live chat widget included in Kayako One |
| Channels | Chat, email, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp in one inbox | Email, chat, social and voice in one inbox |
| Ticketing | AI-powered tickets with notes, tags and intent-based organization | Full ticketing, automation rules and SLA management |
| Ecommerce | Shopify app rated 4.8/5 (1,352 reviews); Lyro handles order status, refunds, order edits and product recommendations | Shopify and Stripe integrations |
| User ratings | G2 4.6/5 (about 1,960 reviews), Capterra 4.7/5 | Not used in our scoring |
| Free trial | 7 days of the full feature set | Through sales |
The short answer: who should choose which?
Choose Tidio if you want a help desk your team can start using today without a sales call, if most of your customers reach you through website chat or social messages, if you want an AI agent that answers from your own content and hands anything it cannot solve to a person as a ticket, or if you run an online store. Tidio's free plan and published tiers make it easy to start small and grow, and its Shopify depth is a real differentiator.
Choose Kayako if you run a larger, ticket-heavy support operation that needs formal SLA management, a customer help center and voice in the same workspace, and you are comfortable negotiating pricing with a sales team. Kayako's breadth is its strength, but that breadth also means more to configure, and its main plan's cost is not published.
For most small and mid-size businesses, the deciding factors are speed to value, price transparency and AI that works on day one. On all three, Tidio has the edge.
AI agents: Lyro vs Kay
Both products now sell an AI agent, and this is where the gap is widest for small teams. Tidio's Lyro is powered by Anthropic's Claude and answers customer questions in natural language from your own support content: help articles, FAQs and website pages. You share the content and activate it; there is no script to build. Tidio says users automate around 67% of customer inquiries with Lyro. When a question falls outside what Lyro knows, it creates a ticket so a person can answer, which keeps customers from hitting a dead end.
Lyro is billed per conversation rather than per message, so a long back-and-forth still counts once, and usage is capped so Lyro pauses at your limit instead of surprising you with a bill. Every Tidio account starts with 50 free Lyro conversations to test it. And if you ever need Lyro on another platform, Lyro Connect adds it to Zendesk or Salesforce on Tidio's Plus and Premium plans.
Kayako's Kay AI Agent is designed to resolve customer issues automatically and is billed per resolved ticket, with no seat or setup fees. Paying only for resolutions is a reasonable model, but it also means your AI spend moves with volume in a way that is harder to predict, and Kayako does not publish a free allowance to try it the way Tidio does. For a team that wants to see AI working before committing budget, Tidio is the easier, lower-risk start.
Live chat and messaging
Live chat is where Tidio started, and it shows. Agents see visitors on the site in real time, the pages they have viewed and, on Growth and above, what a visitor is typing before they hit send. Canned responses, automatic assignment and conversation history keep a small team fast, and Flows, Tidio's no-code automation builder, lets you greet visitors on specific pages, capture leads, answer common questions with buttons and start proactive chats. Email, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp land in the same inbox, so chat is never an island.
Kayako includes a live chat widget in Kayako One and brings email, chat, social and voice into one inbox. That is a broad channel mix, and voice in particular is something Tidio does not focus on. But Kayako's chat is one feature of a large ticketing suite, while Tidio's whole product is designed around turning conversations into answers and sales.
Help desk and ticketing
This is Kayako's strongest ground. It offers full ticketing with automation rules, reporting and analytics, a knowledge base, a customer help center and SLA management, which matters if you have contractual response times to meet. Teams running a formal, queue-driven support desk will appreciate that depth.
Tidio's help desk is lighter by design and, for most small and mid-size teams, exactly enough. It turns incoming emails, live chats and social messages into tickets that can be assigned to available operators, with internal notes and custom tags, and it automatically organizes conversations by customer intent so urgent requests stand out. Because tickets, chat and Lyro share one inbox and one customer history, there is less switching and less to set up. If you outgrow it on governance, Lyro Connect lets you keep Tidio's AI on an enterprise help desk.
Ecommerce and Shopify
For online stores, Tidio wins clearly. Its Shopify app is rated 4.8 out of 5 from 1,352 reviews, and on Shopify Lyro goes beyond answering questions: within the rules you set, it can check order status, handle refunds, cancellations and order edits, and on product pages it can start conversations, compare products, recommend items and add them to the cart. When your team steps in, they see the customer's orders and live cart and can send products, discounts or order updates from the Tidio inbox.
Kayako integrates with Shopify and Stripe, which is useful for looking up customer and payment context. It does not position itself as an ecommerce sales assistant the way Tidio does.
Pricing
Tidio publishes its prices and lets you start free. The Free plan includes 50 billable conversations a month, 10 agent seats and ticketing; Starter costs $24.17 a month and Growth $49.17 a month, both billed annually; Plus costs $300 a month and Premium is custom-priced. Lyro and Flows have their own quotas, and every new account gets 7 days of the full feature set. You can estimate your exact cost with the calculator on Tidio's pricing page before you buy.
Kayako splits pricing between the Kay AI Agent, billed per resolved ticket, and Kayako One, the help desk itself, whose price is handled by a pricing expert. That can work for larger teams that expect to negotiate, but it makes a quick, like-for-like budget comparison harder, and smaller teams cannot simply sign up and start.
Integrations and security
Both connect to the tools support teams already use. Tidio integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, WordPress, Wix, Adobe Commerce, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zendesk, Pipedrive, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Google Analytics and Zapier, plus Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. Kayako lists Slack, Stripe, Shopify, Zendesk, Salesforce, Twilio, HubSpot, Zapier, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Chargebee, Jira and GitHub.
On security, Tidio lists SOC 2, GDPR and PCI DSS among its compliance coverage, supports two-factor authentication, and offers SSO on Premium. Kayako lists SOC 2, GDPR, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, SSO and two-factor authentication. Both are credible choices for teams handling customer data.
Ease of use and setup
Tidio's reviewers consistently praise how quickly they get started, and its G2 rating of 4.6 out of 5 from about 1,960 reviews reflects that, with ease of use and setup among the most mentioned positives. Kayako's broader scope, from SLAs to help center to voice, is powerful but means more configuration before the platform pays off. If your team is small or you need results this week, Tidio is the faster path.
Our verdict
Tidio is the better choice for most teams. It combines live chat, an AI agent trained on your own content, no-code automation and a help desk in one approachable product, with a free plan, published pricing and the strongest ecommerce features in this comparison. Kayako remains a solid option for larger, ticket-heavy support operations that need SLAs, a help center and voice and are ready to buy through sales. Read our full Tidio review, see how Tidio ranks among Kayako alternatives, or visit Tidio to start free.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Tidio better than Kayako?
For most small and mid-size businesses and online stores, yes. Tidio offers a free plan, published pricing, the Lyro AI agent and strong Shopify features in one inbox. Kayako suits larger, ticket-centric teams that need SLAs, a help center and voice and are comfortable with sales-led pricing.
Which is cheaper, Tidio or Kayako?
Tidio is easier to budget for: it has a free plan and paid plans from $24.17 a month billed annually. Kayako does not publish the price of Kayako One, and its Kay AI Agent is billed per resolved ticket.
Does Tidio or Kayako have the better AI agent?
Tidio's Lyro is powered by Anthropic's Claude, learns from your own support content, hands off to humans as tickets and comes with 50 free conversations to try. Kayako's Kay is billed per resolved ticket. For teams that want to test AI before paying, Tidio is the stronger start.
Which is better for Shopify stores?
Tidio. Its Shopify app is rated 4.8 out of 5 from 1,352 reviews, and Lyro can handle order status, refunds and order edits and recommend products on product pages.
Can I use Tidio's AI with another help desk?
Yes. Lyro Connect, on Tidio's Plus and Premium plans, adds Lyro to Zendesk or Salesforce.
All help desk software comparisons → · Full ranking →
Guides on help desk software
- Best help desk software of 2026: the right choice for every support teamAug 2026
- Best Help Desk Software for Advanced Reporting: Zendesk, Freshdesk, and IntercomOct 2026
- Help Desk Software Alternatives: What to Compare Before You SwitchOct 2026
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Last updated · How we research and update