Crisp vs tawk.to Comparison 2026
tawk.to gives away the chat widget entirely, unlimited agents, no expiry, and earns instead from three optional extras: removing the branding at $29 a month, an AI chatbot from $29, and hired human agents who answer for you at $1 an hour. Crisp's free plan caps out faster, extra agents cost $10 a month each there, but adds the ticketing, reporting and unified inbox that tawk.to's own listing says to buy Crisp or Intercom for instead.
Shared inbox priced per workspace, not per seat
Live chat that is free, with paid extras
At a glance
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Crisp | tawk.to | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $45 | Free |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Not stated |
| Free trial | 14 days | Not stated |
| API | Yes |
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.
Only on this side
- Covers social media management
- Works with Instagram
- Works with Facebook
- Works with WhatsApp
tawk.to
Live chat that is free, with paid extras
tawk.to gives away the live chat widget itself, with unlimited agents and no seat count, and earns from three things around it: taking the branding off, an AI bot answering from your knowledge base, and hired human agents who answer chats for you by the hour. That last one is unusual enough to be the reason to look. The free product is not a trial and does not expire.
Why people weigh these two
- tawk.to instead of Crisp
- tawk.to gives you the live chat widget entirely free with paid extras, the fit when site chat is the only channel you need.
- Crisp instead of tawk.to
- Crisp prices per workspace instead of per seat, from $45, and adds the ticketing, SLAs and reporting a support team's manager would actually read.
Which one should you pick
Pick Crisp if you need more than a chat widget: a shared inbox across email and social, reporting a manager will actually read, and AI credits bundled into the subscription. tawk.to's own listing names Crisp directly as the category to buy once ticketing and SLAs matter.
Pick tawk.to if a free, unlimited-agent chat widget is genuinely all the site needs, and a small badge in the corner is an acceptable trade. Leave the branding on and it costs nothing at all; removing it is $29 a month, and the $1-an-hour hired agent service is worth reading twice, since nothing else in this category is priced that way.
Common questions
- Does tawk.to's free plan really have no agent limit?
- Yes, its own listing states unlimited agents with no seat count at any point, and the product itself is not a trial and does not expire. Crisp's free plan is more limited: additional agents beyond the first cost $10 a month there.
- Why does tawk.to's own listing recommend Crisp?
- Because tawk.to is a chat widget, not a helpdesk: its own listing says directly that ticketing, SLAs and reporting a manager will read call for Crisp or Intercom instead. tawk.to's strength is the free widget and the unusual $1-an-hour hired agent option.
- What does tawk.to actually charge for?
- Three optional things: removing the powered-by badge at $29 a month, an AI chatbot called AI Assist from $29 a month with its own free tier for low volume, and hired human agents who answer chats for $1 an hour. The chat widget itself stays free regardless.
- Which is cheaper for a small team of three or four agents?
- tawk.to, if the branding is left on: free with no agent cap. Crisp's free plan would charge $10 a month for each agent beyond the first, so a team of four would cost $30 a month there, or move to Pro at $45 a month per workspace for unlimited agents instead.
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.