Last updated: April 2026
Crisp is a polished omnichannel customer support platform trusted by 10,000 companies worldwide. Their flat per-workspace pricing is a refreshing change from per-seat tools like Intercom. But the paid tiers still climb fast: Mini $45/mo, Essentials $95/mo, Plus $295/mo. And Crisp does not include email marketing campaigns. Grivo gives you the AI support agent, live chat and a drag-and-drop email campaign builder starting at $0 forever, with Pro at $19/month.
The average SaaS team runs 5 separate tools for chat, email, and contact management - typically $80 to $200 per month combined. Grivo replaces them with one inbox at a fraction of the combined cost.
Crisp is a strong product. Customers like Emma, Air France, Decathlon and Reedsy run on it. Most teams looking around fall into three buckets:
Crisp's Free plan is generous on features but limits you to 2 team seats. The moment you onboard a third team member, you are pushed to Mini at $45/month. For three- or four-person bootstrapped startups, that is the first wall.
Crisp ships AI features as a credit pool: $5 of credits on Mini, $25 on Essentials, $75 on Plus. The Omnichannel AI Support Agent only unlocks at Essentials ($95/month). Grivo's AI support agent is included in every paid plan with no credit meter.
Crisp's shared inbox handles inbound email beautifully. But there is no campaign builder for outbound: no drag-and-drop blocks, no scheduled sends, no list segmentation. To run welcome flows or product announcements, you still need Mailchimp or Brevo. Grivo bundles email campaigns in every plan.
| Feature | Grivo | Crisp |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $0 (free forever) | $0 free / $45/mo Mini |
| Free plan seats | Unlimited | 2 seats |
| Most popular paid plan | Pro $19/mo | Essentials $95/mo |
| AI support agent trained on website | ✓ | ✓ Omnichannel AI Support Agent (Essentials+) |
| AI credits included | Unlimited fair use | $5 (Mini) / $25 (Essentials) / $75 (Plus) |
| Email campaigns / marketing | ✓ drag-and-drop builder | Email inbox only, no campaign builder |
| Live chat shared inbox | ✓ | ✓ omnichannel inbox |
| Workflow automation | Basic | ✓ (Essentials+) |
| Knowledge base / Help Center | Roadmap | ✓ |
| WhatsApp / Messenger / Instagram | Roadmap | ✓ (8+ channels) |
| Custom email domain | Pro included | Mini plan and above |
| Workflow automation builder | Basic | Essentials+ |
| White labelling | Pro included | Plus plan only ($295/mo) |
| Ticketing system | Light ticketing | Plus plan only |
| Status page | Roadmap | ✓ |
| Mobile apps | Web responsive | iOS + Android |
| Setup time | ~2 minutes | ~10-15 minutes |
| Ideal for | SaaS, indie hackers, SMBs | SMBs and mid-market support teams |
Crisp's strength is omnichannel inbound: chat, email, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, SMS - all in one shared inbox. What it does not include is outbound email marketing. To send a welcome sequence to leads captured in your Crisp widget, you still need Mailchimp ($20/mo), Brevo ($25/mo) or ConvertKit ($29/mo).
Grivo bundles a real drag-and-drop email campaign builder with templates, scheduled sends, list segmentation, and open/click tracking. The lead a visitor gives through your widget becomes a campaign subscriber in the same dashboard, no Zapier needed.
Crisp's pricing page advertises "a flat pricing per workspace", which is genuinely a great model vs per-seat tools. Grivo follows the same model. The difference is the absolute number: Crisp Essentials is $95/month for 10 seats and $25 of AI credits; Grivo Pro is $19/month with unlimited seats and unlimited AI usage on fair-use limits.
For a 5-person SMB team, Grivo replaces Crisp Essentials at roughly 20% of the cost - and adds email campaigns that Crisp does not include.
Crisp's AI tooling is sold as an "AI credits" pool: $5 of credits on Mini, $25 on Essentials, $75 on Plus. Useful AI features like the Omnichannel AI Support Agent only unlock at Essentials. Workflow automations, smart replies, auto-summaries and Lyro-style answer generation all consume credits.
Grivo's AI support agent is included in Pro for $19/month with no per-message credit meter. The price is the price.
Crisp white labelling is locked to the Plus plan at $295/month per workspace. For agencies, SaaS resellers and anyone who needs the widget to carry their own brand, that gap is meaningful. Grivo Pro removes Grivo branding at $19/month.
A small agency running widgets across 5 client sites would pay $1,475/month for white labelling on Crisp Plus, vs $95/month on Grivo Pro for the same brand-clean experience.
We are not going to pretend Crisp is not stronger on omnichannel. Their shared inbox spans 12+ channels including WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, SMS, Telegram and email. They ship a hosted Knowledge Base on Essentials and above. They have polished iOS and Android apps and a public status page.
Grivo's focus today is the website widget plus email channel, with omnichannel and a hosted help center on the roadmap. If most of your support volume comes through WhatsApp or Instagram, Crisp is the right tool right now.
Honest answer: Crisp is the right call in several specific cases.
For SaaS startups and SMBs that want AI support agent + live chat + email campaigns in one tool with simple flat pricing, Grivo is the cleaner fit.
Most teams move in 30-60 minutes. Here is the order:
Crisp Settings -> Contacts -> Export. Pull your CRM as CSV.
grivo.io. No credit card. Invite your full team - no per-seat fee.
Point Grivo at your website and docs URL. The chatbot trains in 1-2 minutes.
Drop the CSV. Tag by source. The lists feed your campaign builder.
Remove the Crisp script tag. Paste the Grivo one-liner. Customise colours, welcome message and lead-capture fields.
Create a welcome sequence using Grivo's drag-and-drop email builder. Schedule it. Done.
Grivo is our recommendation. The other notable options:
Lyro AI agent for SMBs and e-commerce. Starter $24.17/mo, Growth $49.17/mo. Strong on Shopify integrations.
Read full Tidio vs Grivo comparison →Per-seat $29-$132 + Fin AI per outcome. Enterprise feature breadth, enterprise price.
Read full Intercom vs Grivo comparison →Per-seat $19-$79. 200+ integrations. Reliable live chat, less native AI.
Read full LiveChat vs Grivo comparison →Suite Team to Enterprise from $55-$169 per agent/mo. Closer to enterprise helpdesk.
Read full Zendesk vs Grivo comparison →Free live chat, monetised through paid agents and removed branding. Limited AI.
Read full Tawk.to vs Grivo comparison →