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//12 min read

Tidio vs Fin AI vs Helply: Pricing and Features Compared

BO
Bildad Oyugi
Head of Content

Key Takeaways

  • Helply is a B2B support platform built to turn support into a revenue engine, not a chat widget or a deflection bot. Account context loads on every ticket, and revenue signals route to the people who own the account.
  • Tidio meters you three ways at once, Billable Conversations plus Lyro AI conversations plus Flows visitors, and a conversation resets after 15 minutes of silence, which makes bills hard to predict.
  • Intercom Fin charges $29 to $132 per seat per month plus $0.99 per outcome, and counts a customer who stops replying as resolved, so the bill climbs as Fin improves.
  • Helply keeps the full helpdesk free with unlimited seats and charges per outcome: $0.50 a resolution, $0.25 a draft, and $2.99 for a revenue signal like a churn alert or upsell flag.
  • For a B2B SaaS team, the deciding factor in Tidio vs Fin AI vs Helply is not feature count. It is the billing model and whether support produces pipeline or just closes tickets.

You trialed an AI support agent. The resolution rate looked great. Then the first real invoice landed, and the number was nothing like the demo. The bill went up the month the AI actually started working, which feels backwards.

That reaction is common. Browse the support and SaaS threads on Reddit and the pattern repeats: teams say they love the product but loathe the bill.

One Tidio customer called the pricing "a scam" after their rate doubled and the cancellation was refused. Buyers are not afraid of paying for AI. They are afraid of a number they cannot forecast.

Tidio, Fin AI, and Helply all promise to fix that, and all three can close tickets. Where they split is the billing model, and whether support stays a cost center or starts producing revenue. This Tidio vs Fin AI vs Helply comparison covers features, current 2026 pricing, and what each tool will actually cost you, including where Helply, a B2B support platform built for software teams, pulls ahead.

Tidio vs Fin AI vs Helply: Comparison Table

Features converge across all three tools. The pricing model is where they split.

DimensionTidio (Lyro)Intercom Fin AIHelply
Best forShopify and SMB chatIntercom-native and enterpriseB2B that sells software ($1M–$50M ARR)
What it isLive chat plus AI agentResolution-first AI agent in IntercomB2B support platform: free helpdesk plus AI outcomes
AI agentLyro (up to 67% resolution)Fin (deep multi-step resolution)Helply AI (resolutions, drafts, revenue signals)
How you're billed3 metered quotas plus conversation resetsPer seat plus $0.99 per outcomeFree helpdesk, pay per outcome
Entry priceFree; Starter about $29/mo$29–$132 per seat/mo plus usage$0 helpdesk; $0.50 per resolution
Account context (CRM, Stripe, Gong)LimitedVia integrationsLoaded by default
Revenue signals (churn, upsell, competitor)NoNoYes, routed to CSM and AE
SeatsPer-operator limitsPer seatUnlimited, free

Tidio (Lyro): Best for Shopify Stores and Small Teams That Want Cheap, Fast Chat

Tidio is a live chat and chatbot platform with an AI agent called Lyro. Founded in Poland in 2013, it serves hundreds of thousands of small businesses, and its center of gravity is e-commerce.

If you run a Shopify or WooCommerce store and want a chat widget answering order-status questions within an hour of signup, Tidio is built for that job.

Lyro answers from content you provide and resolves up to 67% of common questions before handing off.

It is a content-grounded chat agent, not a full support platform, so it sits on top of your site rather than running your whole operation.

Tidio Key Features

  • Lyro AI agent. Self-trains on your help content and past chats, answers in multiple languages, and hands off to a human when confidence is low.
  • Live chat and Flows. Real-time chat with a no-code automation builder for lead capture, product recommendations, and cart recovery.
  • E-commerce actions. Native Shopify and WooCommerce integration to preview carts, check orders, and recover abandoned checkouts inside the chat.
  • Multichannel inbox. Web chat, email, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram in one shared view.

Tidio Pricing

Tidio bills on conversations, and three quotas run in parallel: Billable Conversations, Lyro AI conversations, and Flows visitors.

The free plan covers 50 conversations a month.

Paid tiers run from roughly $29 a month (Starter) to $59 (Growth), then jump to $749 (Plus) with nothing self-serve in between.

Lyro is metered separately on top, around $0.50 per AI conversation or bundled into a quota. Check the current numbers on the official Tidio pricing page before you commit, because the structure changes often.

The catch is the meter. A "conversation" resets after 15 minutes of silence, so one customer who steps away mid-chat can burn several billable conversations. Teams report this produces overage charges they did not see coming.

Pros

  • Fast setup. Most teams get a working chat widget live in well under an hour.
  • Strong e-commerce fit. Shopify order actions and cart recovery work out of the box.
  • Low entry price. A free plan and a sub-$60 paid tier make it accessible for small stores.

Cons

  • Unpredictable billing. Users reported that a late-2024 restructure doubled some bills overnight, and the conversation-reset rule creates surprise overages.
  • Thin analytics. Reporting is shallow once you need more than basic deflection stats.
  • A pricing cliff. The $59 Growth plan jumps to a $749 Plus plan with no middle option.
  • Shallow on complex queries. Lyro handles repetitive FAQs well but escalates often on technical, multi-step issues.

Best for: Shopify and WooCommerce stores and small teams that want affordable, fast chat automation and do not need account-level context.

Where Fin Beats Tidio

These two split cleanly. Fin beats Tidio on depth: it resolves complex, multi-step issues like refunds and account changes, and it scales as your workflows and rules grow.

Tidio beats Fin on cost and simplicity: it is faster to deploy, far cheaper for a small team, and it does not stack a per-seat fee on top of per-resolution usage. If you are a Shopify store with mostly repetitive questions, Tidio is the rational pick over Fin.

Why Helply Beats Tidio for B2B:

Tidio does not know your accounts. It treats every chat as a standalone conversation, which is correct for a one-time shopper and wrong for a B2B customer with an ARR figure, a renewal date, and a usage history. For a software company, that gap is the whole game.

Helply loads account context on every ticket and scans each one for churn risk, upsell intent, and competitor mentions.

A renewal-risk message routes to the CSM as a churn alert; a plan-limit complaint routes to the AE as an upsell.

Tidio cannot do this, and its triple-metered conversation billing makes spend hard to forecast.

Helply gives you unlimited free seats and a flat $0.50 per resolution instead of three meters running at once.

If you sell software, Helply's B2B support platform fits where Tidio was never designed to.

Intercom Fin AI: Best for Intercom-Native and Enterprise Teams

Fin is Intercom's AI agent. It is resolution-first, built to close complex tickets end to end, and it runs inside Intercom or bolts onto another helpdesk like Salesforce or Zendesk.

Fin's AI is strong on well-organized help-center content, and large support teams use it to cut cost per resolution. The trade-off is total cost and lock-in.

Fin AI Key Features

  • Multi-step resolution. Handles refunds, cancellations, and account changes, not just FAQ deflection.
  • Action execution. Takes actions in connected systems and hands off to a human with context preserved.
  • Testing and governance. Built-in testing, monitoring, tone controls, and answer inspection before deployment.
  • Works on your helpdesk. Runs on an existing stack (Salesforce, Freshdesk, Zendesk) without a full migration.

Intercom Fin Pricing

Fin is per seat plus usage. Seats run $29 (Essential), $85 (Advanced), and $132 (Expert) per month, and every plan adds "from $0.99 per Fin outcome."

You can also run Fin on your current helpdesk with no seats at $0.99 per outcome.

Add-ons stack up: Copilot is $29 per agent, and the Pro and Proactive Support Plus add-ons are $99 a month each.

The current figures are on the Intercom pricing page.

What Counts as a "Resolution"

A customer who simply stops replying can be counted as resolved and billed. There are also lesser-known charges, including a $0.99 disqualification and a $9.99 qualification.

The structural problem is the incentive. Because you pay per resolution, the bill rises as Fin gets better. On the same ticket volume, lifting the resolution rate from 40% to 80% roughly doubles what you owe. The product improving is what drives the cost up.

For a plain-English breakdown of the resolution definition, the dispute is well documented.

Pros

  • Strong on complex tickets. On clean help-center content, Fin closes multi-step issues reliably.
  • Deep controls. Procedures, tone settings, testing, and external actions give support leaders real governance.
  • Polished experience. The Messenger and inbox are fast and refined.

Cons

  • Cost climbs with success. Per-resolution billing means the better Fin performs, the more you pay.
  • Per seat and per outcome. Seat fees stack on top of usage, so a 10-agent team starts at $290 a month before a single Fin outcome.
  • Disputed billing events. "Customer gave up" counting as a resolution erodes trust in the invoice.
  • Best only inside Intercom. Fin shines when your knowledge already lives in Intercom; scattered docs blunt it.

Best for: Intercom-native teams and enterprises with organized help centers that can absorb variable, usage-based spend.

Where Tidio Beats Fin

For a small team, Tidio beats Fin on economics and setup speed, with no per-seat plus per-resolution stacking.

Fin beats Tidio everywhere depth matters: complex resolution, governance, and scale. If you are an enterprise standardizing on one vendor, Fin is the stronger engine. If you are a five-person store, Fin is overkill you will feel on the invoice.

Why Helply Beats Fin for B2B:

Fin optimizes support to be cheaper to run. Helply optimizes support to produce revenue. That is the difference for a B2B software company, and it shows up in both the model and the math.

On price, Helply's resolutions are $0.50 against Fin's $0.99, and the helpdesk seats are free instead of $29 to $132 each.

On incentives, Helply charges only when AI delivers a real outcome, so you never pay because a frustrated customer stopped replying. On value, Helply does something Fin does not.

It surfaces upsell opportunities and competitor mentions from the same tickets, then routes them to your AE the day they happen.

Fin makes the cost line smaller. Helply adds a revenue line. If you want to compare the two directly, the Helply vs Fin AI breakdown goes feature by feature, and the Intercom Fin alternatives guide covers the wider field.

Helply: The B2B Support Platform Where the Helpdesk Is Free and AI Pays for Itself

Helply is a B2B support platform built for technical companies that sell software. It serves upper-end SMB through mid-market, with a sweet spot at $1M to $50M ARR. It is not a chat widget and not a deflection bot.

The full helpdesk is free forever with unlimited seats and every channel, and the AI layer is billed only when it produces an outcome.

The bigger idea sits on top: every ticket is a window into the health of an account, so support becomes a source of pipeline and retention, not a cost center.

B2B support is a different problem. Volume is lower, stakes are higher, and the accounts are known. A generic chat tool treats a ticket as a question to deflect. Helply treats it as account data.

What Makes Helply Different: The Four Pillars

  • Account Command Center. Every ticket opens with full account context: ARR, renewal date, product usage, and CRM and Stripe data loaded automatically.
  • Account Context. The AI trains on Gong calls, CRM history, Stripe billing, and product usage, not just the support inbox, so the answer to a B2B ticket arrives with the context around it.
  • Revenue Signals. Every ticket is scanned for churn risk, upsell intent, competitor mentions, and feature requests, then routed to the CSM, AE, or Product owner.
  • Revenue Engine. Each outcome ties to a dollar figure on an ROI view that reframes support as a profit center, so the team produces a number the board cares about.

Helply Channels and Features

Channel depth is a strength here, not a checkbox. Slack Connect, Microsoft Teams, Discord, email, in-app chat, SMS, WhatsApp, a customer portal, and a public API all ship first-class.

Every channel feeds the same context layer. Underneath, Helply has full helpdesk parity: shared inbox, ticketing, an AI knowledge base that drafts its own articles, macros, and reporting. You are not giving up helpdesk fundamentals to get the AI.

Helply Pricing (Free Helpdesk Plus Outcomes)

The helpdesk is $0 forever, with unlimited seats, all channels, knowledge base, macros, and reporting. AI is billed per outcome across four categories:

  • Ticket resolution. Resolutions $0.50 each; Drafts $0.25 each.
  • Revenue intelligence. Upsell Opportunities, Churn Detection, and Competitor Monitoring $2.99 each.
  • Product intelligence. Feature Flags $2.99 each; KB gap identified $0.50 each.
  • Knowledge base. Article Creation and Article from AI Recorder $2.99 each.

Support Intelligence, the natural-language query layer across tickets, billing, and product data, is included. Enterprise adds volume credits, SLAs, and SSO.

See the full outcome pricing explainer for how the categories add up.

Pros

  • Free helpdesk, unlimited seats. Bring the whole team on at no per-seat cost, on every channel.
  • Pay for value, not overhead. You are billed when AI delivers an outcome, and a resolution is $0.50, half Fin's rate.
  • Account context by default. CRM, Stripe, Gong, and usage data load on every ticket, so B2B answers are account-aware.
  • Support produces revenue. Churn, upsell, and competitor signals route to the right person automatically, turning tickets into pipeline.

Cons

  • Built for B2B software. If you are a B2C, retail, or pure Shopify operation, Tidio fits your shape better than Helply does.
  • Value tracks usage. Outcome pricing rewards teams that actually put the AI to work; a team that barely uses it sees less return.

Best for: Technical B2B companies that sell software and want support to become a revenue engine without per-seat fees or unpredictable per-resolution bills.

What You'll Actually Pay: The Three Billing Models Side by Side

List prices hide the real difference. Take a B2B SaaS team with 6 agents, about 1,000 tickets a month, and roughly 60% (600) handled by AI.

  • Tidio. Growth at about $59, plus Lyro metered separately for 600 AI conversations, plus Flows. The conversation-reset rule makes a clean total hard to state, which is the point: budget several hundred dollars and expect variance.
  • Fin. 6 Essential seats at $29 is $174, plus 600 outcomes at $0.99 is $594, for roughly $768 a month. Move to Advanced seats or a higher resolution rate and it pushes past $1,000.
  • Helply. $0 for the helpdesk with all 6 seats free, plus 600 resolutions at $0.50 is $300, plus a handful of drafts and revenue signals. Call it $300 to $400, with seats never adding to the bill.

Same workload. The seat-free, outcome-based model lands lowest and stays predictable. It is also the only one of the three where part of that spend pays for itself. A single caught churn or upsell is worth far more than the $2.99 signal that surfaced it.

How to Choose for a B2B Team That Sells Software

Choose Tidio if you run a Shopify or WooCommerce store, chat is your main channel, and most questions are repetitive. It is cheap, fast, and good at that job.

Choose Fin if you already run Intercom or need enterprise-grade governance for complex resolution, and your budget can absorb a bill that grows with usage.

Choose Helply if you sell software and want a free helpdesk with unlimited seats, outcome pricing that only charges when AI delivers, and revenue signals that turn support into pipeline.

For most B2B SaaS teams weighing Tidio vs Fin AI, that third option is the one that fits the actual business.

Final Verdict

In a straight Tidio vs Fin AI comparison, Tidio is the value pick for Shopify and small teams, and Fin is the depth pick for Intercom-native and enterprise operations. Both are built to close tickets.

Helply is built for B2B software companies that want support to do more than close tickets: keep the helpdesk free with unlimited seats, pay only when AI delivers an outcome, and turn churn, upsell, and competitor signals into revenue.

FAQ

What's the difference between Tidio Lyro and Intercom Fin?

Lyro is a chat-first AI agent best for simple, high-volume deflection, while Fin is a deeper resolution engine for complex, multi-step support inside Intercom, billed per outcome.

How much does Intercom Fin cost per resolution?

Fin is $0.99 per outcome on top of $29 to $132 per seat per month, and a customer who stops replying can count as a billed resolution.

Does Tidio charge per conversation?

Yes, Tidio meters Billable Conversations, Lyro AI conversations, and Flows visitors separately, and a conversation resets after 15 minutes of silence.

Is there an AI support tool with no per-seat fees?

Yes, Helply keeps the full helpdesk free with unlimited seats and charges only per AI outcome, starting at $0.50 per resolution.

Which is cheapest for a B2B SaaS team?

For teams that actually use the AI, Helply is usually lowest because seats are free and you pay per outcome, while Tidio and Fin add metered or per-seat costs on top.

Can Tidio or Fin surface churn and upsell signals?

No, both focus on deflection and resolution, while Helply scans every ticket for churn, upsell, and competitor signals and routes them to the right team.

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