One is a support desk that scaled to enterprises. The other answers your website visitors and books them in.
Tidio is the biggest name in this category and it earned that position honestly: it is a full customer-service platform with a shared inbox, ticketing, a large integrations directory and enough compliance paperwork to satisfy an enterprise procurement team. If you have a support team with shifts and escalation paths, that is the shape of tool you want.
Chatly is aimed at the other end of the market: the owner-operator whose website is the whole storefront and whose "support team" is themselves, at 9pm, on a phone. The product goal is not to deflect tickets. It is to stop the 11pm visitor who wanted to know whether you cover their suburb from leaving without saying anything.
The difference that matters most on the invoice is the billing model. Tidio prices by conversation, so a good month — more visitors, more questions — costs more, and you cannot know the bill in advance. Chatly is flat monthly. Each paid plan includes an allowance of premium AI replies, and when it runs out the chat keeps answering on basic for the rest of the month rather than switching off or billing you again.
| Chatly | Tidio | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing model | Flat monthly, no per-conversation charge | Priced by conversation volume |
| Entry paid price | $29/mo | Around $24/mo, billed annually |
| Free plan | Permanent, unlimited basic AI chat (fair use) | Free tier available |
| Books appointments in the chat | Yes, built in | Via integrations |
| Knowledge setup | Crawls your existing website | Configured per workspace |
| Built for | Owner-operators and small teams | Support and CX teams |
Tidio details are from public pages and were last reviewed in September 2026. Prices and plans change — check theirs before deciding.