Crisp vs Respond.io Comparison 2026
Crisp charges a flat $45 a month per workspace no matter how many contacts message you. Respond.io prices on monthly active contacts instead, $79 a month for Starter at 1,000 contacts, so the bill moves with audience size rather than staying fixed. A quiet month costs the same on Crisp as a busy one; on Respond.io, its own listing warns the price climbs steeply and a viral month is exactly when it moves.
Shared inbox priced per workspace, not per seat
One inbox for DMs across every messaging app
At a glance
- Crisp starts cheaper, at $45.
- Only Crisp has a free tier.
Side by side
Crisp | Respond.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $45 | From $79 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Paid subscription |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial (they differ) | 14 days | 7 days |
Crisp
Shared inbox priced per workspace, not per seat
Crisp puts live chat, email, and the social inboxes into one thread per customer, and charges for the workspace rather than for each person in it. For a small team that pricing is the reason to look: adding a second and third person changes nothing on the bill. The free tier is a real chat widget rather than a countdown, which makes it a fair place to start.
Our note
Per-workspace pricing is the whole argument, and it gets stronger with every person you add. At one seat it is unremarkable; at five it is a fraction of what the per-seat inboxes charge for the same job.
Respond.io
One inbox for DMs across every messaging app
Respond.io pulls Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and the rest into a single queue, so a brand deal conversation does not get lost because it started on the wrong app. Routing and automation sit on top, and a person can take over from the bot mid-thread. Pricing counts the contacts you talk to each month, which punishes a big audience of light senders.
Why people weigh these two
- Respond.io instead of Crisp
- Respond.io does the same one-inbox job across every messaging app, at $79 with no free tier, where Crisp starts free and charges $45 per workspace.
- Crisp instead of Respond.io
- Crisp prices per workspace instead of by monthly contacts reached, so a large quiet audience does not raise the bill the way it can on Respond.io.
Which one should you pick
Pick Crisp if you want a price that does not move with how many people message you or how many agents answer them. Free covers light solo use indefinitely, and Pro at $45 a month per workspace stays flat whether the inbox is quiet or busy.
Pick Respond.io if a full-time person, or a small team, is dedicated to answering messages across channels and routing sponsorship enquiries apart from support. Starter is $79 a month for 1,000 monthly active contacts, but its own listing warns to watch that slider closely, since the price climbs steeply and a viral month is exactly when it moves.
Common questions
- What actually changes Respond.io's price?
- Monthly active contacts, meaning people you exchange messages with, not agents or channels. Starter is $79 a month at 1,000 contacts. Crisp's price is unaffected by contact volume; it is a flat $45 a month per workspace regardless of how many people message in.
- Is Respond.io a bad fit for a sudden spike in messages?
- Its own listing warns exactly that: the price climbs steeply with the contact slider, and a viral month is exactly when it moves. Crisp's flat per-workspace price would not react to a spike in messages the same way, since it does not meter contacts at all.
- Which is cheaper for one person handling a manageable inbox?
- Crisp, clearly, and its own listing for Respond.io agrees: one person with a manageable inbox is paying $79 a month there to replace a habit. Crisp's free plan is built for exactly that light, single-person case.
- Can a bot hand off to a person mid-conversation on either platform?
- Respond.io's listing describes that directly: an automation can hand over without the reader noticing a seam. Crisp's listing does not describe a comparable handoff feature; its AI credits work differently, metered separately from the subscription by tier.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.