⚖ Honest comparison · August 2026

ChatNest vs the alternatives — no spin

A factual side-by-side of ChatNest, Tidio, Tawk.to, Intercom and Chaty — real free-plan limits, real prices and who each one actually suits. Prices checked August 2026.

Side by side

The comparison table

What mattersyou ChatNest Tidio Tawk.to Intercom Chaty
Free plan Yes — £0, 1 bot, 100 AI messages per day, refills daily. No card. Yes — 50 live chats/mo, but the 50 free AI (Lyro) conversations are lifetime, they never refill. Yes — live chat is free forever; AI Assist free tier: 100 message credits/mo. No — 14-day trial only. Yes — unlimited click-to-chat buttons (WhatsApp, Messenger, 20+ channels).
Paid plans from £15/mo flat (Starter: 3 bots, 500 msgs/day, 100 pages). $24.17/mo billed annually (platform); real AI (Lyro) from $39/mo. Chat software $0; AI Assist from $29/mo. $29/seat/mo + $0.99 per AI outcome (50-outcome minimum ≈ $49 floor). $59/yr (single-site licence).
Realistic monthly cost for a small business £0 – £29 $0 – $50 $0 – $29 $300 – $1,000+ $0 – $5
AI trained on your content Yes — crawls your pages, docs and FAQs; answers only from your knowledge base, so it never makes things up about your business. Yes — Lyro trains on your site and help centre. Yes — AI Assist uses a knowledge base + crawled pages. Yes — Fin trains on your help centre content. No — buttons that open WhatsApp/Messenger; no AI answering.
No-code install One-line script — works on any website. Widget Widget SDK + setup WordPress plugin
WordPress plugin Yes — official plugin (WordPress.org review in progress) plus a dedicated WooCommerce version. Yes Yes No Yes — native
WooCommerce stores Yes — dedicated plugin. Integrations Partial Ecommerce integrations Widget only
Multilingual Yes — widget UI in 7 languages (EN, FR, DE, ES, IT, NL, PT), auto-matched to the visitor's browser; replies in the customer's language. Yes Yes Yes N/A
Live chat / human handoff Yes — live inbox, the bot hands over when it should. Yes Yes — free Yes Via WhatsApp/Messenger
Pricing model Flat monthly tiers (messages + pages crawled). No per-conversation meter. Tiers + AI quota packs Free core + AI add-on Per seat + per AI outcome Yearly licence

Prices verified from each vendor's public pricing page in August 2026 and can change. The free-plan notes matter most: Tidio's 50 free AI conversations are a one-time lifetime allowance, and Chaty has no AI answering at all — it opens your WhatsApp or Messenger.

Straight talk

Where each one genuinely wins

Who it's for

If you run a small business or an online store, ChatNest is the one that fits

You want a bot that answers your customers' questions from your pages, docs and FAQs — with zero code, no per-conversation meter, and a free plan you can genuinely run on:

  • £0 to start — 100 AI messages a day, every day, no card.
  • Flat pricing — £15, £29, £49 or £149. The price doesn't climb with every conversation.
  • Grounded answers — the bot only knows what you teach it; it won't invent policies or prices.
  • WordPress and WooCommerce native — including a dedicated WooCommerce plugin.
  • Multilingual — widget and replies in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese, auto-matched to the visitor.

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