ChatbotGen vs Tidio
Tidio is a live-chat inbox that grew an AI agent. ChatbotGen is an AI agent that never needed an inbox. Which one you want depends on whether humans are answering too.
Tidio pricing and docs checked in August 2026.
The short answer
Tidio is the better tool if you have a support team that answers chats themselves and wants AI to take the easy half. Its shared inbox is the product, it includes ten agent seats even on the cheap plans, and its Shopify integration is deeper than ours.
ChatbotGen is the better tool if you want the bot to be the answer rather than the triage. We train directly on PDFs and DOCX, which Tidio does not accept at all; we add Telegram; we connect WhatsApp by QR instead of the Meta Cloud API; and one flat price covers your messages instead of three meters that each move independently.
ChatbotGen
Best for AI-first automation on WhatsApp with documents as the knowledge base
Your knowledge lives in PDFs and on your website, WhatsApp is your main channel, and you want one predictable number on the invoice.
Tidio
Best for e-commerce teams that keep humans in the loop
You run a Shopify store, several people answer chats, and you want one inbox for web, email, Instagram and Messenger with AI handling the repetitive half.
ChatbotGen vs Tidio, feature by feature
Every cell comes from each product's own documentation or pricing page.
| Feature | ChatbotGen | Tidio |
|---|---|---|
| Web widget | Yes. One <script> line on any site. | Yes. Live chat with human agents, with Lyro (the AI) layered on top. |
| Yes, by scanning a QR code from the dashboard. Live in minutes, with no Meta Business verification and no approved templates. | Official Meta WhatsApp Cloud API: a company-owned number and verification inside a Facebook integration flow. No QR path. | |
| Telegram | Yes, by pasting a bot token. | Not listed among the channels on its integrations page. |
| Other channels | None yet. No Instagram, Messenger, SMS or voice. | Email with a shared inbox, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. Plus Shopify, WooCommerce, Zendesk, HubSpot, Salesforce and Zapier. |
| Training sources | Website crawl, PDF/DOCX/TXT files, question-and-answer pairs, free text. | URL scraping (capped at 500 URLs), CSV of Q&A pairs (500 rows per file), manual Q&A, and a Zendesk help-center import. No direct PDF or DOCX upload. |
| Languages | Replies in the visitor's language. Product, documentation and support in English and Spanish. | Lyro answers in 48 languages, natively rather than translating through English. |
| AI model choice | Model-agnostic via OpenRouter: Gemini by default, with Claude and GPT available. | No choice: Lyro runs on Claude. |
| AI tools / actions | Lead capture, human handoff, appointment booking, and live property search against the Wasi CRM. | Lyro Smart Actions (order status, lead qualification, product recommendations), a visual Flows builder, and Zapier. |
| Free tier | Yes. Build and train a chatbot free, no card, with a demo message allowance. | Yes, with a catch: $0 with 50 billable conversations a month and 10 seats, but only 50 Lyro conversations in total, not per month. |
| Trial | 7 days free on the Starter plan, card required. | 7 days of paid features, no card required. |
| List price | $29 / $79 / $199 per month (USD). | Starter $29 a month, Growth from $59 a month; Plus quoted from $300 a month plus usage. |
| Billing model | Flat monthly subscription with a message allowance. No per-seat charge and no per-resolution charge. | Three independent meters stacked on the base plan: human conversations, Lyro conversations and Flows visitors. Lyro conversations are quoted at $0.5 each. |
Tidio figures read from its official site in August 2026. Prices change; verify before you decide. ChatbotGen prices are those on our own pricing page as of August 2026.
Pros and cons, both ways
ChatbotGen
Pros
- WhatsApp by QR: a number is connected in minutes, with no Meta Business verification to sit through.
- Spanish as a first-class language: interface, documentation and support, not half-translated.
- Flat, predictable pricing: $29, $79 or $199 a month with a clear message allowance.
- No per-seat charge: adding teammates to the workspace does not move the bill.
- Training is direct: paste a URL or upload PDFs; there are no flows to design.
- One bot across three channels: web, WhatsApp and Telegram share the same training.
Cons
- No Instagram, Messenger, SMS or voice channels.
- Not a visual flow builder: there are no decision trees to draw step by step.
- Not a help desk suite with tickets, SLAs and a shared email inbox.
- Fewer native third-party integrations than the largest platforms.
- The message allowance is monthly: very high support volume needs a custom quote.
Tidio
Pros
- 10 seats included even on the free plan and on Starter: almost nobody is that generous with human agents.
- A real omnichannel inbox: web, email, Instagram and Messenger in one place.
- Lyro answers natively in 48 languages, with no English round-trip.
- A mature visual Flows builder for deterministic automation.
- Genuinely fast to set up: most teams are live in under an hour.
- Deep Shopify and wider e-commerce stack integration.
Cons
- Pricing transparency is its number-one complaint: three stacked meters make the real bill well exceed the advertised base.
- The free plan's 50 Lyro conversations are lifetime, not monthly; many sites exhaust them in the first week.
- No PDF or DOCX upload: knowledge goes in by URL scraping or CSV.
- No model choice.
- A large gap between Growth and Plus, with little in between.
- Annual contracts cannot be downgraded or refunded mid-term.
Three differences that actually decide it
Tidio will not read your PDFs
This surprises people. Lyro's knowledge base takes scraped URLs (capped at 500), CSV files of question-and-answer pairs at 500 rows each, manually typed pairs, and a Zendesk help-center import. Tidio's own help docs state you cannot point it at a PDF. If your product knowledge lives in manuals, price lists or policy documents, you will be converting them by hand. ChatbotGen ingests PDF, DOCX and TXT directly alongside the website crawl.
One meter versus three
Tidio's 2026 structure stacks three independently metered sliders on the base plan: billable human conversations, Lyro AI conversations, and Flows visitors. Each has its own allowance and its own overage, and Lyro conversations are quoted at $0.5 apiece. That is why pricing transparency is the most repeated complaint in its reviews — reviewers describe a $29 base becoming several hundred in practice. ChatbotGen has one meter: messages per month, on a $29, $79 or $199 plan. Worth being fair, though: Tidio includes ten agent seats even on Starter, and if you need ten humans in an inbox, that is real money we do not charge for either.
The free plans are not comparable
Tidio's free plan looks generous at 50 billable conversations a month and 10 seats, but its 50 Lyro AI conversations are a lifetime allowance rather than a monthly one — once they are gone the AI stops replying, which is the single most repeated deal-breaker in its reviews. ChatbotGen's free plan is also demo-scoped, and we would rather say so plainly: it is for building and testing a bot, not for running one in production. Going live starts with the 7-day Starter trial.
What people ask when comparing these two
Is Tidio's free plan really free?
The plan is, but the AI on it is not really usable long-term: the 50 Lyro conversations are a one-off lifetime allowance, not a monthly refill. After that the AI stops answering while the live-chat part keeps working. Checked in August 2026.
Can Tidio train on a PDF?
No. Lyro's sources are scraped URLs, CSV question-and-answer files, manual pairs and a Zendesk import; Tidio's help documentation says a URL pointing at a PDF will not work. ChatbotGen accepts PDF, DOCX and TXT uploads directly.
Does Tidio support Telegram?
Telegram is not listed among the channels on Tidio's integrations page, which shows the web widget, email, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. ChatbotGen supports Telegram by pasting a bot token.
Which is cheaper, ChatbotGen or Tidio?
The advertised entry prices are the same at $29 a month. The difference is what happens next: Tidio meters human conversations, Lyro conversations and Flows visitors separately, so the real bill depends on three numbers. ChatbotGen's $29 covers 2,000 messages, full stop. Prices checked in August 2026.
How does each one connect to WhatsApp?
Tidio uses Meta's official WhatsApp Cloud API: you supply a company-owned number and complete Meta's verification inside a Facebook integration window. ChatbotGen connects by scanning a QR code from the dashboard, which takes minutes. The official API is the more formal route and supports outbound templates; the QR route is far faster to start.
Which is better for a support team with several agents?
Tidio, honestly. Its shared inbox is the core product and it includes ten seats even on the entry plan. ChatbotGen has a conversation inbox with human takeover, but it is built around the bot answering rather than around a rota of agents.
The real comparison takes five minutes
Paste your website URL, let it train, and ask it the same questions you would ask Tidio. Building and training is free, no card required.