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A Crisp alternative that runs inside WordPress
Crisp is a hosted chat service. Sales Igniter Chat is a WordPress plugin: your team answers from wp-admin, the AI agent answers from your own pages, and every conversation stays in your own database.
Crisp facts from Crisp’s own pages ยท Sources
What Crisp does well
Crisp calls itself "the one complete suite for AI-first customer support": a chat widget, shared inbox, AI agent (Hugo), knowledge base and CRM, priced per workspace.
- A flat price per workspace with seats included: 4 on Mini, 10 on Essentials, 20 on Plus.
- A free plan with the chat widget, a shared inbox, mobile apps and 2 seats.
- From Essentials, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, SMS and more in the same inbox.
- A live geolocation map of the visitors on your site, on every plan.
- Ready-made integrations for WordPress, WooCommerce, Shopify and PrestaShop, and data hosted on servers in Europe.
Who it suits
Their plans run from solo founders (Free) and early-stage companies (Mini) to medium-sized businesses that want one AI-first inbox for chat, email, social and messaging apps (Plus).
Where Sales Igniter Chat is different: self-hosted live chat
- Inside WordPress. A plugin, not a separate service: the inbox opens from wp-admin, and operators are WordPress users.
- Your own database. Conversations, people, email replies and the AI’s index are stored in your WordPress database.
- The AI answers from your own pages, docs and products, shows its sources, and quotes prices only from your store.
- Orders beside the chat. WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads purchases, licences and renewals, read live.
- Email follow-up. A reply the visitor missed goes out by email; their answer lands back in the same chat.
- No per-seat fees, and the AI is billed by your own provider at its token price.
Crisp and Sales Igniter Chat, side by side
| Feature | Crisp | Sales Igniter Chat |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | A hosted service. A WordPress plugin adds the chat widget (every plan) | A WordPress plugin. The inbox is in wp-admin, in its own full-screen tab |
| Where conversations are stored | Crisp’s cloud, on servers in Europe | Your WordPress database (conversations, people, email replies and the AI’s index) |
| How the AI agent is billed | AI credits in the plan, in dollars: Mini includes $5 (around 90 automated conversations), Essentials $25 (around 450), Plus $75 (around 1,350). Not on the free plan | Your own AI key, at the provider’s token price, with a monthly budget. No per-chat fee from us |
| WooCommerce and EDD orders beside the chat | WooCommerce, Shopify, Adobe Commerce and PrestaShop integrations sync orders and customer data (every plan). Easy Digital Downloads isn’t listed | Yes: WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads orders, licences and subscriptions, read live |
| Live visitors on a map | Yes: a live geolocation map of active visitors (every plan) | Yes, on a map shipped with the plugin (no map service; nothing leaves your site) |
| Email follow-up in the same conversation | A shared email inbox from Mini ($45 a month): customer emails are answered in the same Crisp inbox as chats | Yes: unread replies go out by email, and email replies come back into the same chat |
| Pricing per seat (operator) | Priced per workspace with seats included: Mini $45 (4 seats), Essentials $95 (10), Plus $295 (20, then $10 a month per extra seat) | No per-seat fees: add every operator as a WordPress user |
What it costs each month
Licence plus AI, for one site. Sales Igniter Chat includes every operator; Crisp is priced here for one operator.
| AI chats a month | 500 | 2,000 | 10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales Igniter Chat, first year$99 licence ($8.25 a month) + AI on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash with your own key | $10.32 | $16.51 | $49.56 |
| Sales Igniter Chat, from the second year$59 a year ($4.92 a month) + the same AI | $6.98 | $13.18 | $46.23 |
| CrispMini, $45 a month with 4 seats, and its AI credits: about $0.06 per automated conversation | $67.78Mini | $151Mini | $596Mini |
| You save with Sales Igniter ChatCrisp minus Sales Igniter Chat at the first-year price ($99); from the second year ($59) you save $3 a month more | $57a month$690 a year85% less | $135a month$1,615 a year89% less | $546a month$6,552 a year92% less |
Our figures: 3 AI replies per chat, about 3,450 tokens in and 285 out per reply (measured on our own site; a small sample), at DeepSeek V4.1 Flash’s list price of $0.30 per million tokens in and $1.20 out. Crisp: monthly list prices from their pricing page. Their AI credits are in dollars ($5 buys around 90 automated conversations), so we count conversations above a plan’s credits at the same rate, about $0.056 each; their pricing page doesn’t list a separate price for extra credits. The cheapest plan that fits is used: Mini, Essentials or Plus. Change the numbers in the cost calculator.
Switching from Crisp
Most of it is settings in one place. Your earlier Crisp conversations stay in Crisp; new ones start in Sales Igniter Chat.
- 1
Install the plugin
Upload Sales Igniter Chat under Plugins, activate it, and enter your licence key. The chat bubble shows straight away.
- 2
Set up the widget
Your colours, greeting and reply time line under Widget, with a live preview. Set office hours and who answers first under Routing and hours.
- 3
Switch on the AI agent
Add your own AI key, choose what the AI may read (help docs, pages, products) and click Re-index now. Ask it questions with Try it first.
- 4
Connect email
Add a mailbox under Settings, Email, so replies a visitor missed go out by email and their answers come back into the chat.
- 5
Invite your team
Give everyone who answers chats the Chat operator role. Each one turns on notifications for their phone and browser.
- 6
Remove Crisp
Take Crisp’s chat code or plugin off your site, so visitors see one chat bubble.
Questions about switching from Crisp
Can I import my Crisp conversations?
No. Sales Igniter Chat doesn’t list an importer for other chat services. Keep Crisp for your history, and new conversations start in Sales Igniter Chat.
Where are my conversations stored?
In your own WordPress database, in the plugin’s own tables. When the AI answers, the conversation goes to the AI provider you chose; by default only to hosts that keep no data, and with emails and phone numbers hidden.
Does it work without the AI agent?
Yes. Without an AI key, chats go to the people who are online, and to email when nobody is.
What does the AI cost?
You pay your AI provider directly, at their token price, with no per-chat fee from us. On our own site an AI chat has cost about $0.0019. A monthly budget (US$20 by default) stops AI answers when it’s reached.
How much is Sales Igniter Chat?
US$99 for one site for the first year, then US$59 a year; US$299 for 10 sites, then US$149 a year. Support and updates renew automatically each year and you can cancel at any time. Every operator is included: no per-seat fees. The AI is billed separately by your own AI provider.
Sources
Crisp facts come only from Crisp’s own pages, listed here; Sales Igniter Chat facts from its documentation. Prices are list prices in US$, billed monthly unless marked otherwise.
Try Sales Igniter Chat next to Crisp
Put the chat on your own WordPress site and see the inbox, the AI agent and the widget answer your visitors.
