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A Tidio alternative that runs inside WordPress
Tidio 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.
Tidio facts from Tidio’s own pages ยท Sources
What Tidio does well
Tidio sells "AI customer service that turns chats into revenue": live chat, the Lyro AI agent, a help desk and Flows automation.
- A free plan (50 human conversations a month, up to 10 seats), and a WordPress plugin that installs from your dashboard.
- Lyro AI Agent answers from your support content, hands chats to a person, and can also run on its own beside another help desk.
- Live chat, email, contact forms, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger in one dashboard.
- Flows: no-code automations for lead capture, quote requests and missed chats.
- A WooCommerce integration that sends product cards from your catalog in the chat.
Who it suits
Small and growing shops and service businesses: the self-serve plans allow up to 10 seats and are priced by conversations; bigger teams move to Plus or Premium through their sales team.
Where Sales Igniter Chat is different: live chat that lives in WordPress
- 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.
Tidio and Sales Igniter Chat, side by side
| Feature | Tidio | Sales Igniter Chat |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | A hosted service with a WordPress plugin | A WordPress plugin. The inbox is in wp-admin, in its own full-screen tab |
| Where conversations are stored | Tidio’s servers (a hosted service) | Your WordPress database (conversations, people, email replies and the AI’s index) |
| How the AI agent is billed | Lyro AI Agent, priced by Lyro conversations a month (any chat with at least one AI reply): $39 for 50, $75 for 100, $350 for 500, $700 for 1,000, billed monthly. More through their sales team | 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: send product cards from your catalog in the chat (every plan). Orders and Easy Digital Downloads aren’t mentioned | Yes: WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads orders, licences and subscriptions, read live |
| Live visitors on a map | A live visitors list (from Starter), not a map | Yes, on a map shipped with the plugin (no map service; nothing leaves your site) |
| Email follow-up in the same conversation | Emails, contact forms and chats in one dashboard, with chats turned into tickets | Yes: unread replies go out by email, and email replies come back into the same chat |
| Pricing per seat (operator) | Not per seat: priced by conversations, with up to 10 seats on the self-serve plans (custom on Plus). Starter is $29 a month for 100 human conversations | 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; Tidio 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 |
| TidioLyro AI Agent with the free live chat plan: $39 a month for 50 Lyro conversations, up to $700 for 1,000 | $350Lyro 500 | Custompriced by their sales team | Custompriced by their sales team |
| You save with Sales Igniter ChatTidio minus Sales Igniter Chat at the first-year price ($99); from the second year ($59) you save $3 a month more | $340a month$4,076 a year97% less | Price on request: above 1,000 AI chats a month, Tidio prices through its sales team | Price on request: above 1,000 AI chats a month, Tidio prices through its sales team |
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. Tidio: monthly list prices from their pricing page (yearly billing gives 2 months free). Lyro can be bought on its own and keeps the free plan’s 50 human conversations a month; more human chats need Starter ($29 a month for 100) or Growth (from $59). The smallest Lyro quota that covers the AI chats is used; above 1,000 a month, Tidio prices Plus and Premium through its sales team. Change the numbers in the cost calculator.
Switching from Tidio
Most of it is settings in one place. Your earlier Tidio conversations stay in Tidio; 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 Tidio
Take Tidio’s chat code or plugin off your site, so visitors see one chat bubble.
Questions about Tidio alternatives
Can I import my Tidio conversations?
No. Sales Igniter Chat doesn’t list an importer for other chat services. Keep Tidio 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$149 a year. Support and updates renew automatically each year and you can cancel at any time. Every operator is included: no per-seat fees. The AI is billed separately by your own AI provider.
Sources
Tidio facts come only from Tidio’s own pages, listed here; Sales Igniter Chat facts from its documentation. Prices are list prices in US$, billed monthly unless marked otherwise.
Try Sales Igniter Chat next to Tidio
Put the chat on your own WordPress site and see the inbox, the AI agent and the widget answer your visitors.
