Comparison
The Tidio alternative for WordPress: AI answers without per-conversation fees
Tidio is one of the most popular chat tools on WordPress, with 70,000+ active installs. Its live chat, shared inbox and mobile apps are genuinely good. Its AI agent, Lyro, is where costs add up: it is billed per AI conversation, separately from your chat plan. If your main goal is AI answers from your own site plus leads for your team, a WordPress-native assistant can do that for a fraction of the cost.
Maqsood R.Founder, HolaReply · Updated · 6 min read
We make HolaReply. Every fact about Tidio below comes from tidio.com (pricing, Lyro, privacy and security pages) and its WordPress.org page, checked on 25 September 2026. Sources are at the end.
The short answer
- HolaReply is a Tidio alternative for WordPress sites that want AI answers from their own pages and products without per-conversation fees.
- HolaReply runs inside WordPress on your own Google Gemini, OpenAI or Anthropic Claude key, usually a few dollars per 1,000 questions, and hands every lead to your team.
- Tidio’s Lyro AI costs from $39 a month for 50 AI conversations ($32.50 billed annually) on top of the chat plan, and its free plan includes 50 Lyro conversations once, not monthly.
- Choose Tidio if you need human live chat, a shared inbox across Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and email, and mobile apps.
Choose HolaReply if…
- you want AI answers from your own pages and products without paying per AI conversation
- you want conversations and leads stored in your own WordPress database
- you want locked topics (prices, quotes, allergens) that always go to your team
- you want a team inbox for replying, with no seat-based pricing on the free plan
Choose Tidio if…
- you need real-time human live chat with mobile and desktop apps
- you want Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and email in one inbox
- you want automation flows for marketing and lead generation
- you are happy to pay per AI conversation for a hosted, managed AI agent
HolaReply is free for WordPress, on WordPress.org; Pro and Business are paid once.
At a glance: HolaReply vs Tidio
| HolaReply | Tidio | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A WordPress plugin: AI answers, leads, team inbox | A hosted customer service platform; the plugin connects your site to it |
| Where AI answers come from | Your pages, posts and WooCommerce products, indexed in WordPress | Your support content: FAQs, website and help centre, scraped into Lyro |
| How the AI is paid for | Your own Gemini, OpenAI or Claude key (about $1.70 per 1,000 answers on Gemini Flash), or HolaReply AI credits ($12 per 1,000 answers) | Lyro: from $39/mo for 50 AI conversations ($32.50 billed annually); $700/mo for 1,000 (monthly billing) |
| Free AI allowance | Unlimited on your own key (Google’s free tier for testing) | 50 Lyro conversations, one-off |
| Human live chat | Coming to Business; today, enquiries go to your team | ✓ All plans, with mobile and desktop apps |
| Other channels | Website chat | ✓ Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, email |
| Lead capture | ✓ Free, only when needed, never twice | ✓ Through Flows and pre-chat surveys |
| Topics the AI must never answer | ✓ Locked topics | Not listed as a feature |
| Where conversations are stored | Your WordPress database | Tidio’s servers, mainly in the EEA |
| Personal details sent to the AI | — Removed first (names, emails, phones, companies) | Not stated |
| Price | Free · Pro from $79, paid once · Business from $129, paid once | Free · Starter $24.17/mo annually ($29 monthly) · Growth from $49.17/mo annually · Plus from $300/mo; Lyro extra |
| On WordPress.org | Free on WordPress.org | 70,000+ active installs, 4.7/5 from 396 reviews |
| Download free |
Tidio counts a “billable conversation” as one that includes a reply from a human agent; Lyro conversations are counted separately.
What Tidio does well
- A complete live chat. Live chat, ticketing, a shared inbox and mobile and desktop apps, even on the free plan.
- Every channel in one place. Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and email next to your website chat.
- A managed AI agent. Lyro learns from your support content, uses Claude and Tidio’s own models, and forwards what it can’t answer to a person.
- Flows for lead generation and automation.
If your team works in live chat all day, Tidio is hard to beat.
Where the cost of Tidio’s AI adds up
Tidio’s chat plan and its AI are priced separately. On monthly billing, Lyro is $39 for 50 AI conversations, $75 for 100, $350 for 500 and $700 for 1,000. Here is what AI answers cost for a site with about 1,000 AI conversations a month:
| HolaReply | Tidio | |
|---|---|---|
| Plugin or plan | Free, or Pro from $79, paid once | Starter $24.17/mo (billed annually) |
| AI for about 1,000 conversations | About $1.70 in Gemini usage | Lyro 1,000 tier: $700/mo on monthly billing |
| Roughly per month | About $3–9 | About $700+ |
Tidio’s annual billing lowers Lyro prices (the 50-conversation tier is $32.50/mo billed annually). HolaReply’s AI cost depends on your AI provider, model and question length.
Where HolaReply is different
1. It lives inside WordPress
HolaReply indexes your published pages, posts and WooCommerce products into your own database, updates the index when you edit, and stores conversations and leads there too. There is no second account and nothing to re-scrape.
2. Built never to guess, with locked topics
It answers only from your content, shows the source, and says when it doesn’t know. Topics you lock are never answered by the AI and go straight to your team.
straight from the growers.
Trade packs for kitchens, bakeries and shops. Order by the kilo or by the pallet.
Shop wholesaleView product
Answers from your own pages, with the source shown.
3. Leads without seat limits
Questions it can’t answer become enquiries with the whole conversation, and it asks for an email only at the right moment. With Pro, your team works them in the Sales Desk and replies reach the visitor by chat and email.
Try it right here. The chat on this page is HolaReply. Ask a question about it, then ask for a person.
“How is HolaReply different from Tidio?”“Can I talk to someone?”
Open the chat4. Privacy by default
HolaReply removes names, email addresses, phone numbers and company names before any question reaches the AI provider.
Can you use both?
Yes, but not as two chat buttons. If your team needs Tidio for live chat and social inboxes, keep Tidio. If what you need is an AI that answers from your site and captures leads, HolaReply does that on its own. Running both chat widgets on one page confuses visitors, so pick one per site.
Switching from Tidio
Get HolaReply and add your AI key
Gemini, OpenAI or Claude, or HolaReply AI credits with no key. For Gemini, use a key with billing for a live site; Google requires it if you serve visitors in the EU, UK or Switzerland.
Choose what it reads
Pages, posts and products. Move your Lyro FAQs into HolaReply’s knowledge base.
Set your locked topics and email capture
Decide which questions always go to a person, and when the chat asks for an email.
Remove the Tidio widget
Deactivate the Tidio plugin so visitors see one assistant. Export anything you need from Tidio first.
Test on your phone
Answered, unanswered, locked, and a request for a person.
Questions people ask
Is Tidio’s AI free?
The free plan includes 50 Lyro AI conversations once, not every month. After that, Lyro is a paid add-on from $39 a month for 50 conversations ($32.50 billed annually).
Does HolaReply have live chat like Tidio?
Not yet. Today, enquiries go to your team, and Pro adds the Sales Desk where your team replies by chat and email. Live chat handover is coming to the Business plan.
Can HolaReply connect to WhatsApp or Messenger?
Not today. If you need a shared inbox across social channels, Tidio is the better fit.
Where does Tidio store conversations?
Tidio says it mainly processes data in the EEA, on AWS. Tidio LLC is a US company, so some data may be transferred. HolaReply stores conversations in your own WordPress database.
Is HolaReply on WordPress.org?
Yes. HolaReply is on WordPress.org: search for HolaReply in Plugins → Add New Plugin, or download the zip and upload it.
Sources
Checked on 25 September 2026. Prices and features change; tell us in the chat if something here is out of date and we will fix it.
- Tidio pricing (plans, Lyro, billable conversations FAQ)
- Tidio Lyro AI agent
- Tidio privacy policy
- Tidio security
- Tidio on WordPress.org
- Gemini API pricing
Founder of HolaReply. He builds AI assistants that answer only from a business’s own website, and checks every fact in these guides against the products’ own pages.
More by Maqsood R. →AI answers from your own site, without per-conversation fees.
Free for WordPress, on WordPress.org. No per-message fees on your own Gemini, OpenAI or Claude key (about $1.70 per 1,000 answers on Gemini Flash), or optional HolaReply AI credits.