Tidio vs Zendesk: $24.17 against $55, for two different jobs
How to read this page: every number below was read from the vendor’s own public pricing page on the date shown, and the pages are re-checked daily. Currencies differ because that is what each vendor showed an EU visitor. Some links on this page are affiliate links — if you subscribe through one we earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Per our method, that never changes a number or a verdict. Source links always point to the vendor’s plain page.
Prices as this vendor showed them to a visitor in the United States — USD. A reader elsewhere may be quoted a different figure — we publish what we were served, never a conversion.
Plan
Price
Free
Free
Starter
$24.17/mo
Growth
$49.17/mo
Plus
$300/mo
Source: https://www.tidio.com/pricing/ · read 2026-10-13 (UTC) · Priced by billable conversations rather than by seat — the ladder counts customer conversations, not agents. A Monthly / Annually switch opens on Annually and is labelled '2 MONTHS FREE', which checks out exactly: $24.17 against $29 is $290.04 a year rather than $348, or 16.65% off. Two plans are 'Starts at' prices that rise with volume. There is a real free tier. Read in a browser on the date shown above with the switch clicked both ways. Recorded in euros until the date shown above; the page quotes US dollars to every market we read it from, and the figures were correct throughout — only the currency label was wrong.
Prices as this vendor showed them to a visitor in the United States — USD. A reader elsewhere may be quoted a different figure — we publish what we were served, never a conversion.
What this vendor quotes in each market, as its own page printed it — not one price converted three ways.
Plan
United States USD · 2026-10-13
United Kingdom GBP · 2026-10-13
Suite Team
$55
£45
Suite Professional
$115
£89
What the record says
Tidio opens at $24.17 after a free tier. Zendesk's published entry is $55, with $115 above it. Read as numbers that looks decisive, and read as products it is not a fair fight: Zendesk is sold as a support suite with ticketing and agent seats behind it, Tidio as a chat widget that grows.
The honest use of this page is to size the decision, not to make it. If a chat box on a shop is the job, Tidio's floor is a fraction of Zendesk's and the rest of Zendesk is capacity you would be buying and not using. If inbound support already arrives by mail, chat and social at once, the comparison stops being about the monthly figure.
One thing the ladder does say plainly: Zendesk publishes no free tier on the page we read, and Tidio does. For a site testing whether live chat earns its keep at all, that is the difference between an experiment and a purchase.
Beyond the price tag
The entry price
Tidio $24.17 a month against Zendesk $55. Tidio also publishes a free tier; Zendesk does not.
The step above
Tidio $49.17 against Zendesk $115. The proportion holds as you climb.
What you are actually buying
Zendesk prices as a per-agent support suite. Tidio prices as a chat widget. Comparing the two on monthly figures alone flatters whichever one you were already going to pick.
What this does not tell you
Agent seats, ticket volume and which channels are included. A per-agent price behaves very differently from a per-site price once a second person answers the chat.
Questions people actually search
Which is cheaper, Tidio or Zendesk?
Tidio, on published entry prices: $24.17 against $55. Whether it is cheaper for you depends on how many agents answer, which this record does not measure.
Can Tidio replace Zendesk?
That is a feature question and this page does not answer it. On price the two are far apart; on scope Zendesk sells ticketing and multi-channel support that a chat widget does not include.
Does Zendesk have a free plan?
Not on the pricing page we read. Its lowest published Suite plan is $55 a month.
THE VERDICT, ONE MORE TIME
Our pick on price alone: Tidio — $24.17 a month against $55. But price alone is a poor guide when one ladder is a widget and the other is a ticketing suite, and this page only measures price.
This verdict is scoped to published price. Tidio's first paid step is $24.17 with a free tier beneath it; Zendesk's lowest published Suite plan is $55 and it prices per agent. The two are not the same product, and the gap partly measures scope rather than value.
Both ladders come from each vendor's own pricing page, read on the date shown beside every table. Per-agent and per-site pricing are recorded as published, not converted into a common unit, because any such conversion would be our assumption rather than the vendor's price. The method →
Found a price that no longer matches the vendor’s page? Tell us — corrections are dated and stay on the page.