OpenAgent vs Tidio at a glance
| Feature | OpenAgent | Tidio |
|---|---|---|
| Built for ecommerce | Yes — Shopify-first | Yes — strong Shopify support, SMB-oriented |
| Native order actions | Track, return, exchange, refund, subscriptions | Order status, cancellations, refunds, address changes via Lyro Actions |
| AI pricing model | Included in flat plan, no per-conversation fee | ~$0.50 per Lyro conversation; add-on from $32.50/mo |
| Number of meters | None on text — voice minutes only | Plan conversations, Lyro conversations, Flows visitors |
| Entry pricing (July 2026) | Free tier, then $149 Desk | Free tier, then $24.17 Starter with 10 seats |
| Cost at ~2,000 AI conversations/mo | $149 Desk plan, flat — text is unlimited | ~$1,000 in Lyro fees plus plan cost |
| Seats | 5 on Desk, 15 on Front Desk | 10 seats from the Starter plan — a genuine advantage |
| Channels | Chat, email, WhatsApp, IG, Messenger, Slack; voice higher up | Varies by plan and add-on |
| Performance guarantee | Not offered | Premium tier advertises a guaranteed 50% Lyro resolution rate |
| Product recommendations & cart recovery | Built in | Available through flows and actions |
| Analytics | Resolution rate, CSAT, revenue influenced | Chat, Lyro, and conversion reporting |
Why ecommerce teams choose OpenAgent over Tidio
One flat price instead of three meters
Tidio bills plan conversations, Lyro conversations, and Flows visitors separately. OpenAgent charges one flat price per business with text conversations unlimited, so there is one number to forecast.
No per-conversation AI fee
Lyro is priced around $0.50 per AI conversation as published in July 2026, so cost tracks volume directly. OpenAgent's AI is included in the flat plan — unlimited text conversations on Desk at $149 and on Front Desk at $399.
Deeper autonomous action coverage
Returns and exchanges with label generation, refunds inside merchant-set caps, subscription management, product recommendations, and cart recovery are first-class behaviours rather than configured flows.
Every channel in the plan
Web chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram DM, Facebook Messenger, and Slack are included on Desk, with voice and telephony on Front Desk — worth comparing against Tidio's per-plan channel and add-on structure.
A help desk built for AI escalation
OpenAgent's shared inbox is designed around the agent handing off with full transcript and order context, rather than a live chat inbox with an AI layer added to it.
Pricing compared
One flat plan per business as of August 2026: Free ($0, one AI agent on website chat), Desk $149 (every text channel unlimited, 5 seats, help desk and all messaging channels), Front Desk $399 (adds the AI receptionist on a real phone number, 500 voice minutes then $0.25/minute against a spend cap you set, 15 seats, white-label, SSO). Text conversations are never counted, so there is no per-conversation AI fee and no separate automation meter.
As published in July 2026: Free ($0, 50 billable conversations), Starter $24.17/mo (100 billable conversations, 10 seats), Growth from $49.17/mo (up to 2,000 billable conversations), Plus from $300/mo plus usage, and Premium quoted by sales with a guaranteed 50% Lyro resolution rate. Lyro is a separate add-on from $32.50/mo, with a published rate of about $0.50 per Lyro conversation; Flows starts around $24.17/mo from 2,000 visitors reached. Confirm current figures on tidio.com/pricing.
Tidio is excellent value at low volume — a free tier and a $24 plan with ten seats are hard to beat. Past a few thousand AI conversations a month the picture inverts: around $0.50 per Lyro conversation means roughly $1,000 in AI fees at 2,000 conversations, against $149 flat for OpenAgent's Desk plan with text unlimited and more channels bundled.
Choose OpenAgent when
- Your AI conversation volume is high enough that a per-conversation fee is material
- You want one allowance to forecast rather than three separate meters
- You need returns, exchanges, refunds, and subscription changes handled autonomously end to end
- You want WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger included rather than plan-dependent
- You want support conversations to recommend products and recover carts as a default behaviour
Choose Tidio when
- You are a small store with modest conversation volume and a tight budget
- Ten seats on a low-cost plan matters more to you than bundled AI volume
- You want a well-liked live chat inbox first and AI second
- A contractual resolution-rate guarantee is what gets the purchase approved internally
- You already run Tidio Flows and that rule-based automation is doing real work
Switching from Tidio
Moving from Tidio to OpenAgent is quick because both already connect to Shopify. Export your help content and the FAQ material Lyro was trained on, import it into OpenAgent's training panel, reconnect your store with OAuth, swap the widget snippet, and configure escalation and availability rules. Order actions work immediately. Two things deserve deliberate attention: audit your Tidio Flows and decide which represent genuine business logic worth recreating rather than workarounds for what the AI could not do, and keep a note of your current Lyro resolution rate so you have a fair baseline to judge the new agent against.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to switch from Tidio?
Join the ecommerce teams resolving more tickets, answering 24/7, and turning support into a revenue channel with OpenAgent.