5 Best Tidio Alternatives for Marketing Agencies

Intercom is a popular customer messaging platform that combines live chat, help desk, and marketing automation in one interface. The platform allows businesses to create custom chatbots that can greet visitors, answer FAQs, and route inquiries to human agents. Intercom’s bots are built using a visual flow builder, making it accessible to non‑technical users while still supporting advanced logic like user segmentation and dynamic content insertion. The platform also offers a robust set of integrations with popular CRMs, email services, and e‑commerce platforms, enabling seamless data flow between the chatbot and back‑end systems. Intercom’s strengths lie in its deep CRM integration and the ability to trigger automated sequences based on user behavior. For instance, a visitor that spends a certain amount of time on a pricing page can automatically receive a follow‑up message asking if they need help. The platform’s help desk features allow teams to manage tickets, assign priority, and track resolution time—all within the same interface. While Intercom does not provide a dedicated WYSIWYG editor for chat widgets, it offers a range of brand customization options, such as color schemes and custom CSS. The knowledge base feature allows teams to upload documents and build searchable FAQs, but it does not combine RAG with a knowledge graph. Intercom’s chatbot logic is primarily rule‑based, which can limit the depth of conversational understanding. Pricing for Intercom is divided into three main tiers: Essential, Pro, and Premium. Essential starts at $39/month for 1,000 contacts, Pro at $99/month for 2,000 contacts, and Premium at $199/month for 10,000 contacts. Each tier expands the number of contacts, available features, and support options. Contacting Intercom for quotes is recommended for enterprise plans. Overall, Intercom is a solid choice for agencies that need robust ticketing, CRM integration, and a unified messaging hub. However, agencies that require advanced AI knowledge retrieval or a no‑code visual editor may find Intercom’s capabilities limited.

Drift is a conversational marketing platform that focuses on turning website visitors into qualified leads. Its chatbot enables real‑time engagement, scheduling meetings, and collecting contact information. Drift’s bot builder uses a drag‑and‑drop interface, allowing marketers to design conversations that ask targeted questions, route prospects to the appropriate sales team, and trigger calendar events. The platform also supports integration with popular CRMs such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and Marketo, ensuring that captured leads are automatically synced for follow‑up. One of Drift’s core strengths is its focus on sales acceleration. The bot can qualify leads using pre‑defined scoring criteria, and once a lead meets the threshold, the bot can schedule a meeting directly in the sales rep’s calendar. Drift also offers a messaging inbox that aggregates conversations from chat, email, and social media, providing a single pane of glass for sales teams. Drift does not feature a dedicated no‑code visual editor for chat widgets, nor does it provide a dual knowledge base. Its knowledge base is primarily a collection of FAQs and web articles. The bot’s conversational logic is rule‑based, which means it can handle predefined paths but may struggle with open‑ended queries. Pricing for Drift is available on a quote‑based model. The standard plan starts at $1,000 per month for 10,000 contacts, with additional tiers for higher contact counts and advanced features such as custom bots and integrations. Drift’s pricing is typically higher than many chatbot platforms, reflecting its focus on enterprise sales teams. Drift is ideal for agencies that prioritize sales lead generation and meeting scheduling. Its deep integration with CRMs and calendar systems makes it a strong choice for B2B companies, but agencies needing advanced AI or knowledge retrieval capabilities may find Drift lacking.

ManyChat is a chatbot platform that specializes in social‑media messaging, particularly on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The platform offers a visual flow builder that lets marketers design conversational experiences without coding. ManyChat supports broadcast messages, automated funnels, and dynamic content based on user attributes. It also provides integration with e‑commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, allowing merchants to send product recommendations and order updates directly within the chat. ManyChat’s strengths lie in its ease of use for social media marketing. It offers a free plan that includes basic chatbot functionality, making it accessible for small businesses and agencies with limited budgets. Paid plans unlock advanced features such as tagging, broadcasting to larger audiences, and integration with email marketing tools like Mailchimp. However, ManyChat is limited to messaging channels and does not provide a traditional website chat widget. While it does not have a WYSIWYG editor for web widgets, it offers customization of bot appearance on supported platforms. The platform also lacks a dual knowledge base; its knowledge management is limited to FAQs and broadcast templates. Pricing for ManyChat is tiered: Free plan is available, Pro at $10/month (per user) includes advanced automation, and Premium at $49/month (per user) adds broadcast to 100,000 contacts and additional integrations. The plans are billed monthly. ManyChat also offers a ‘Chatbot for Shopify’ add‑on for deeper e‑commerce integration. ManyChat is best suited for agencies that need to engage customers on social media channels and drive sales through messenger. For agencies that require a website chat widget or advanced AI knowledge retrieval, ManyChat may not be the ideal solution.

HubSpot offers a comprehensive inbound marketing and sales platform that includes a built‑in chatbot builder. The chatbot can be embedded on a website, integrated with HubSpot’s CRM, and programmed to collect leads, answer FAQs, or guide visitors through a sales funnel. The drag‑and‑drop bot builder lets marketers design conversational flows, add conditional logic, and insert dynamic content such as contact fields. HubSpot’s biggest advantage is its tight integration with the HubSpot CRM, marketing, and sales hubs. When a visitor interacts with the chatbot, the system automatically creates or updates a contact record, triggers email sequences, and assigns tasks to sales reps. The platform also offers a knowledge base that can be surfaced through the chat, though it relies on standard FAQ articles rather than a hybrid RAG and knowledge‑graph approach. HubSpot provides a free starter plan that includes basic chat functionality, a Starter plan at $45/month for 1,000 contacts, and a Professional plan at $450/month for 10,000 contacts. Each tier adds more contacts, advanced features like chat analytics, and priority support. HubSpot’s chat widget can be styled with CSS, but it does not have a dedicated WYSIWYG editor. For agencies that already use HubSpot for marketing or sales, the chat bot offers seamless integration and a unified view of visitor data. However, agencies that require a dedicated visual editor or advanced knowledge retrieval may find HubSpot’s capabilities limited.