Comparisons / AI Agents & Chatbots
Fin (formerly Intercom) vs Tidio Lyro
Fin (formerly Intercom) bills per resolution and Tidio Lyro bills flat rate. Which one is cheaper changes as your volume grows, so the headline rates will not tell you.
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Which One to Pick
Pick Fin (formerly Intercom) if
- Existing Intercom customers. If you already run Intercom, Fin is close to a default. The integration advantage is real and the deployment cost is genuinely low. You are mostly deciding whether the per-resolution economics work at your volume.
- Teams with low to moderate ticket volume. Under roughly 2,000 resolutions a month, per-resolution pricing is predictable and comfortably cheaper than headcount. This is where the model is genuinely well suited.
- Teams that need quality over cost. Where a wrong answer is expensive, Fin's confidence gating and maturity justify the premium. Paying more per resolution to resolve fewer things badly is a reasonable trade.
Look elsewhere if: Do not buy Fin if you have high ticket volume and a tight support budget. Above roughly 5,000 monthly resolutions the per-resolution model works against you, and the better you tune it the worse the economics get. Teams in that position should model the invoice at their actual volume before committing, and look seriously at flat-rate or per-seat alternatives.
Pick Tidio Lyro if
- Small businesses testing AI support. The free plan and $24.17 Starter tier make this the cheapest honest way to find out whether an AI agent helps your team at all.
- Small Shopify stores. Product recommendations and order context at a fraction of Gorgias's cost. Shallower, but appropriately so for low volume.
- Teams with no technical staff. Drag-and-drop building and a customisable widget mean nobody needs to write code or read documentation.
Look elsewhere if: Tidio is the wrong choice for larger teams, and reviewers say so directly — it does not scale well for complex support workflows or bigger organisations. It is also the wrong choice if you will land on the Plus tier, because from $300 a month plus usage you are paying platform prices for an SMB product; compare Freshdesk and Gorgias at that budget instead. Reviewers additionally note limited out-of-the-box integrations, so check yours before committing.
Evidence Scores Compared
Five criteria verifiable from published material. Green at 3.0 and above, red below. Not a performance rating.
| Criterion | Fin (formerly Intercom) | Tidio Lyro |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing transparency | ||
| Capability | ||
| Independence | ||
| Independent evidence | ||
| Cost predictability | ||
| Overall | 4.2 | 4.2 |
Pricing Compared
Different billing models, so the only honest comparison is total cost at your own volume. The arithmetic at 500, 5,000 and 50,000 tickets.
| Fin (formerly Intercom) | Tidio Lyro | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $29 /seat/mo | $24.17 /mo |
| Billing model | Per resolution | Flat rate |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Buy without a sales call | Yes | Yes |
| Who owns it | Salesforce (pending) | Independent |
| Independent review evidence | G2 4.5/5 from 3,409 | G2 4.7/5 from 1,751 |
| HIPAA | Yes | No |
| Best for | Teams already on Fin who can absorb variable per-resolution billing | Small and mid-size businesses that need an agent live within a day |
Fin (formerly Intercom) pricing
- Essential — $29 /seat/mo. Fin included at $0.99 per outcome
- Advanced — $85 /seat/mo. Multiple team inboxes, workflow automation
- Expert — $132 /seat/mo. SSO, identity management, HIPAA support
- Fin AI Agent standalone — $0.99 /outcome. No seats. 50-outcome monthly minimum. Works on Salesforce, HubSpot and others
- Fin sales qualification — $9.99 /qualification. Ten times the support rate for the same mechanical act
- Copilot add-on — $29 /agent/mo billed annually. $35 billed monthly. 10 conversations a month free per agent
- Pro add-on — $99 /mo. 1,000 conversations analysed, 2,000 Operator credits; extra credits $0.01
- Proactive Support Plus — $99 /mo. Includes 500 messages, then per unit
Fin costs $0.99 per resolution. That is the headline and it is genuinely published, unlike most enterprise competitors. Underneath it you also need Intercom seats, which one user reported at a $74 monthly seat fee before any AI usage.
The arithmetic is where this becomes contentious. At 10,000 resolutions a month, Fin costs $9,900 before seat costs. In many markets that exceeds the loaded cost of the support agents it replaces. The model works well at low volume and inverts at high volume, which is the opposite of how software pricing usually behaves.
The structural criticism is sharper than a simple cost complaint. Because you are charged per successful resolution, improving your help content, tuning your prompts, and getting Fin to work better all directly increase your bill. One support leader described it as being financially punished for making the product work. That is not a pricing tier problem; it is the model.
For context, Sierra prices on a similar outcome basis at roughly $1.50 per resolved interaction, negotiated rather than published. Fini publishes $0.69. Per-seat competitors like Zendesk and Freshdesk avoid the dynamic entirely but charge whether or not the AI does anything.
Tidio Lyro pricing
- Free — $0. Up to 50 conversations per month
- Starter — $24.17 /mo. 100 visitor conversations, 50 one-time Lyro AI conversations
- Growth — $49.17 /mo. 2,000 visitor conversations, advanced analytics
- Plus — $300 /mo. Starts at $300 plus monthly usage charges, with Lyro conversation volume quoted. An April third-party roundup put this tier at a flat $749; Tidio's own page now shows a starting figure plus usage, so the flat number is not republished
- Premium — Custom. Quoted. From 3,000 Lyro conversations a month, pay-per-resolution billing available, and the only tier carrying the guaranteed 50% Lyro resolution rate
Tidio has five tiers. Free covers 50 conversations a month. Starter is $24.17 monthly for 100 visitor conversations plus a one-time allowance of 50 Lyro AI conversations. Growth is $49.17 for 2,000 visitor conversations with advanced analytics and starter AI features. Plus starts at $300 a month plus usage and adds multisite support, multilingual chat, API access and a dedicated success manager. Premium is quoted rather than priced, starts at 3,000 Lyro conversations a month, offers pay-per-resolution billing, and is the only tier carrying Tidio's guaranteed 50% Lyro resolution rate.
Two details in that structure matter more than the headline prices. First, visitor conversations and Lyro AI conversations are metered separately, so the tier that covers your traffic may not cover your AI usage. Second, Starter's 50 Lyro conversations are a one-time allowance rather than monthly, which means the $24.17 tier is not a way to run an AI agent continuously.
The gap between Growth at $49.17 and a Plus tier starting at $300 plus usage is the thing to plan around. That is at least a six-fold step with no intermediate plan, and the usage element means you cannot size it from the page. A business growing out of Growth has no gradual upgrade path, and once Plus is in play Tidio is no longer competing with cheap tools: it is competing with Freshdesk at $55 per agent and Gorgias Pro, both of which do considerably more.
The honest read is that Tidio is excellent value at the bottom and poor value in the middle. Below Growth it is the best cheap option in this directory. At Plus it is difficult to justify against platforms in the same price band.
Both Tools in Depth
Fin (formerly Intercom)
Two things changed in mid-2026 and both matter more than any feature on this page. Intercom renamed itself Fin in May, folding the company identity into the product. A month later, on 15 June 2026, Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire it for approximately $3.6 billion, with closing expected in the fourth quarter of Salesforce's fiscal 2027. The deal has not closed, so Fin is still buyable on its own terms today — but anyone signing a multi-year term should ask directly how Fin and Salesforce's own Agentforce will coexist, because Salesforce now owns both.
Fin is the autonomous support agent formerly sold as Intercom's, and by most accounts the most polished product in this category. Intercom itself has been around since 2011, which matters here: Fin arrives attached to a mature help desk, an established content model, and an inbox that support teams already know. Where newer entrants have to solve both the agent problem and the workflow problem, Fin only had to solve one.
That maturity shows in deployment. Because Fin trains on help-centre content and past conversations already inside Intercom, teams that are Intercom customers can have it answering real tickets in hours rather than weeks. This is the single most consistent piece of praise it receives, including from people who are otherwise critical of it.
The controversy is entirely about price. Fin is billed at $0.99 per resolution on top of Intercom seat costs that start around $74 per seat per month. The rate is published, which is more than most competitors manage, but the model itself is what generates the complaints, and the complaints are loud, numerous, and unusually specific.
Resolution quality and confidence gating
Fin answers from your existing content and declines when confidence is low, passing the conversation to a human rather than guessing. This is the correct behaviour and it is implemented better here than in most cheaper tools, which tend to answer confidently regardless. The trade-off is that a conservatively-gated agent resolves fewer tickets, and since you pay per resolution, a well-tuned Fin is also a more expensive Fin.
Custom actions
Fin can call your APIs mid-conversation to look up an order, check a subscription state, or trigger a workflow. This is what separates an agent that answers questions from one that resolves them. Setting this up is engineering work, not configuration, and teams routinely underestimate it during evaluation.
Tidio Lyro
Tidio is the entry point to this category. It began as a live chat and chatbot platform for small and mid-sized businesses and added Lyro, an autonomous AI agent that Tidio states resolves up to 67% of common customer questions without human intervention using help centre content and training data. G2 lists more than 1,750 reviews at 4.7 stars — the highest average of any tool in this directory, and on a review base large enough to take seriously, unlike several enterprise products here with a couple of hundred.
The product's defining characteristic is accessibility. There is a real free plan covering 50 conversations a month, the builder is drag-and-drop, and reviewers consistently describe onboarding as quick. For a small team that wants to find out whether an AI agent helps at all before committing money, Tidio is the lowest-risk way to answer that question.
Where it becomes complicated is scaling. Tidio meters two things separately — visitor conversations and Lyro AI conversations, and the tier structure has a gap that will catch people. Growth at $49.17 covers 2,000 visitor conversations. The next tier, Plus, starts at $300 a month plus usage charges. There is nothing between them, so a business that outgrows Growth faces a step of at least six times rather than a gradual one, and the usage element means the real figure is not knowable from the page. An April third-party roundup put Plus at a flat $749; Tidio's own page now shows a starting price plus usage, so we publish that instead.
Lyro AI agent
Lyro handles common questions autonomously from your help content, with Tidio citing up to 67% resolution. That figure sits in the middle of the claims in this category — below Ada's 83% and MavenAGI's 93%, above Intercom's reported 30 to 50%. As with all of them, the measurement event is unpublished, so the comparison is between marketing figures rather than between measured performance.
AI email resolution
Lyro scans and resolves common email enquiries as well as chat, which is a genuine addition rather than a checkbox — many cheap tools are chat-only, and email is where the harder tickets arrive.
Where Each One Breaks
Strengths and weaknesses on both sides, stated plainly.
Fin (formerly Intercom)
What works
- Product quality conceded even by the reviewers complaining about the price
- Fastest deployment in the category on content already in Intercom
- Confidence gating is well implemented
- Handoff preserves context because it is the same product, not an integration
- Publishes its rate, which most enterprise competitors here do not
The product quality is not seriously disputed, including by its critics. Reddit threads complaining about the price routinely open by conceding that Fin works — one described it as probably the most polished AI agent available, immediately before objecting to the cost. Deployment speed on existing Intercom content is the fastest in the category. Confidence gating is well implemented, and the handoff into the human inbox preserves context because it is not an integration but the same product. Intercom also publishes its rate, which sounds like a low bar until you notice that most enterprise competitors in this directory publish nothing at all.
What does not
- Every successful resolution is billable, so improving the system raises the bill
- An r/SaaS thread of 70+ comments reported billing rising 120% after enabling AI
- An analysis of 215 Intercom reviews repeatedly calls the per-resolution charge a trap
- Cannot be bought standalone; it needs Intercom seats underneath, reported around $74
- The resolution definition that decides your invoice is easy to miss during a trial
The pricing model is the defining problem and it is structural rather than a matter of tiers. Because every successful resolution is billable, every improvement you make to the system increases your costs — a support leader on r/CustomerSuccess described being financially punished for making Fin work well. Public reports of bill shock are numerous and specific: one r/SaaS thread with 70+ comments described billing rising 120% after enabling AI, and an analysis of 215 Intercom reviews found the per-resolution charge repeatedly characterised as a trap. You also cannot buy Fin standalone; it requires Intercom seats underneath, reported around $74 each. Finally, the resolution definition that determines your invoice is not something most buyers examine closely during a trial, and it should be the first thing they check.
Tidio Lyro
What works
- Genuine free plan covering 50 conversations per month
- Highest G2 average in this directory at 4.7 stars from over 1,750 reviews
- Lyro claims up to 67% resolution of common questions
- Deploys in hours with no-code tools
- Shopify integration supports product recommendations
- Visual automation builder usable without engineering
Tidio has the strongest independent evidence base relative to its price of anything in this directory: 4.7 stars from more than 1,750 G2 reviews, which is both the highest average here and a large enough sample to trust. The free plan is genuine rather than a disguised trial. Reviewers consistently highlight smooth onboarding, quick deployment, a customisable widget matching brand, and solid WordPress integration, plus usable desktop and mobile apps. Lyro handling email as well as chat is a real advantage over chat-only competitors at this price. And the visual builder means a non-technical owner can maintain the whole thing, which for a small business is the difference between a tool that stays configured and one that decays.
What does not
- Enormous pricing gap between Growth at $49 and a Plus tier starting at $300 plus usage
- Lyro AI conversations metered separately from visitor conversations
- Starter includes only a one-time allowance of 50 Lyro conversations
- Limited out-of-the-box integrations, per reviewers
- Reviewers report it does not scale well for larger teams
The tier structure is the main problem. Jumping from $49.17 to a tier that starts at $300 plus usage, with no intermediate plan, leaves growing businesses with no gradual upgrade path, and at that level Tidio is competing against products that do substantially more. Metering visitor conversations separately from Lyro AI conversations makes the effective cost harder to predict than the headline suggests, and Starter's 50 Lyro conversations being a one-time allowance rather than monthly is a detail that will surprise people who expected to run an agent on the cheapest paid tier. Reviewers report limited out-of-the-box integrations and note that some advanced features sit only in higher tiers. Most importantly, multiple reviewers say it does not scale well for larger teams or complex workflows, which is fair for a product built for small businesses, but worth believing before you grow into it.
Where Each One Lands
Our reading of each, unchanged from its own review page.
Fin (formerly Intercom)
Fin is the best autonomous support agent most teams can buy today, and whether you should buy it is almost entirely a maths question rather than a product question. Under roughly 2,000 resolutions a month it is excellent and the pricing is fair. Above 5,000 the model turns against you, and it turns against you faster the better you make it work. Model your actual volume before signing, and read the resolution definition carefully.
Tidio Lyro
Tidio is the best cheap answer in this directory and the clearest way for a small business to test whether AI support helps before spending real money. A genuine free tier, 4.7 stars from over 1,750 reviews, email as well as chat resolution, and deployment measured in hours. The reservation is entirely about growth: the leap from $49 to a tier starting at $300 plus usage, with nothing between, means you should decide now whether you will outgrow Growth, because if you will, you are better off starting on a platform that scales gradually.
Frequently Asked
Questions people search about Fin (formerly Intercom) and Tidio Lyro.
Is Intercom the same as Fin?
They are now the same company. Intercom renamed itself Fin in May 2026, folding the company name into its AI agent product. Comparisons that still treat them as two things are out of date.
How much does Lyro AI agent cost?
Free for 50 conversations a month, then from $24.17 on paid plans. The conversation allowance is capped separately from your Tidio seats.
Who owns Fin?
Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire Fin, formerly Intercom, for approximately $3.6B on 15 June 2026. The deal is expected to close in Q4 of Salesforce FY2027 and has not closed, so Fin still operates independently today.
Is Tidio good for a small business?
It is one of the better cheap options — fast to install, genuinely useful free tier, and Shopify and WordPress plugins. It cannot look up an order, which caps what it can resolve.
Is Fin worth it for a small team?
Under roughly 2,000 monthly resolutions, usually — it is the most capable agent available and the seat cost is modest at five or six agents. Above that the per-resolution model compounds against you faster than headcount would.
What is the Tidio pricing cliff?
The step from Growth to the tier above is steep: $49.17 to a Plus tier starting at $300 a month plus usage, with nothing in between. Model your conversation volume before growth forces the upgrade.
How much does Fin actually cost?
$0.99 per resolution, plus Intercom seats underneath at a reported ~$74 per seat per month. At 10,000 monthly resolutions that is $9,900 in usage before seat costs.
How much does Tidio cost?
Free for 50 conversations a month, then $24.17 Starter and $49.17 Growth. Plus starts at $300 a month plus usage and Premium is quoted. Visitor conversations and Lyro AI conversations are metered separately.
What counts as a resolution?
This is the question that determines your invoice, and vendors define it differently. We are documenting each vendor's definition from their own materials; until that is published we will not summarise Intercom's for you second-hand.
Is the free plan actually free?
Yes, covering up to 50 conversations per month rather than expiring after a trial period. Note that Starter's 50 Lyro AI conversations are a one-time allowance, not monthly.
Sources
Every external fact above traces to one of these.