Algomo vs Tidio
Tidio is live chat for ecommerce with an AI agent, Lyro, bolted on, and it is one of the few vendors that names its model: Claude. The split is a per-conversation AI fee on top of a plan, against one monthly amount, and an MCP client against an MCP server.
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Every Tidio cell was read from tidio.com on 3 September 2026; the sources section below links each claim.
|  | Algomo | Tidio |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Main job | Support and inbound sales, on your site | Live chat and AI agent for ecommerce support and sales |
| Published pricing | Yes: a free plan, then $50 to $500 a month, you set it | Free, then $24.17 to $300 a month plus usage; Lyro from $0.50 a conversation |
| Try it before a sales call | Free plan, self-serve | Free plan; 7-day trial, no card |
| Built and operated from | Your own coding agent, over MCP | Their dashboard and Flows builder; Lyro reaches your systems as an MCP client |
| What answers the customer | Frontier lab models | Claude, plus their in-house models, their words |
| Stack | Any: it works from the endpoints your site already calls | Shopify and WordPress apps; 20+ integrations on Premium |
| Acts in the visitor's live session | Yes: co-navigates the page, calls run as the visitor | No: Smart Actions over your APIs; watches visitors, does not co-browse |
| Channels | Web chat only | Live chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, email |
| Handover to humans | Live takeover by your team, conversation attached | Its own inbox, with handoff rules and ticketing |
| Smallest customer it makes sense for | A five-person company, free | Free: 50 conversations a month, 10 seats |
Where Tidio wins
A Shopify or WordPress store whose customers write on WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger should look at Tidio first. Its apps install from those stores, its inbox puts live chat, ticketing, Flows and Lyro in one place, and the free plan carries 10 seats. We answer in web chat on your site, sell no inbox and have no Instagram. Credit, too, for naming the model: Lyro is powered by Claude, in Tidio's own words, which most of this category will not say.
A fee per conversation, or one amount
Tidio's bill is a plan, $24.17 to $300 a month and up, and then Lyro on top from $0.50 a conversation, with $16.67 a month more to take the Tidio badge off the widget. Algomo is one monthly amount you pick. It buys credits, a conversation that actually helped someone costs five, one that went nowhere costs nothing, and the amount is the most you can be charged. There is no overage and nothing to top up; if a month runs hot, you renew early.
[Our pricing in full](/pricing)
Client and server are not the same MCP
Tidio's page says it plainly: connect Lyro once to your CRM, billing platform or database, and it can use every tool that system exposes. That is Lyro as an MCP client reaching into your systems. Algomo is the other way round: the platform is the MCP server, and you build and run the whole thing from Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, ChatGPT or Claude. Configuration, knowledge, workflows and the agent itself are things your coding agent operates, not a dashboard you click through.
Where these rows come from
Fetched 3 September 2026, from tidio.com. The tiers from Free to $300 a month plus usage, the 50 free conversations, the 10 seats, the 7-day trial without a card, the Lyro standalone price from $32.50 a month and the $16.67 branding add-on are on [the pricing page](https://www.tidio.com/pricing/). That Lyro is powered by Claude, the $0.50 a conversation figure and the handoff rules are on [the AI agent page](https://www.tidio.com/ai-agent/). The Smart Actions and the MCP client wording are on [the Lyro actions page](https://www.tidio.com/ai-agent/lyro-actions/). The Series B and the Szczecin founding are on [the about page](https://www.tidio.com/about/). Algomo's cells are read from [this site's pricing page](/pricing).
Questions, answered
We are on Shopify. Does that change anything?
It works, and [our Shopify page](/product/shopify) has the specifics. Tidio's app is the quicker install; Algomo reads the endpoints your storefront already calls, so it is not tied to the platform and moves with you if you leave it.
Do we have to give up live chat?
No. Your team takes over any conversation live, with the transcript attached, and gets notified by email and Slack. What you do not get from us is a ticketing inbox or an Instagram channel; if you need those, keep Tidio for them.
Tidio names Claude. What answers on Algomo, and why would the answers differ?
Frontier lab models, and [the pricing page](https://www.tidio.com/pricing/) lists the ones you can pick for custom agents. The model is a smaller part than it sounds. Tidio trains Lyro on scraped support content and FAQs; Algomo acts in the visitor's signed-in session and calls what your pages call, so it can quote the live price or check the order rather than recite a help article. Both are free to start, so run them side by side and read the transcripts.