MayaTidio alternative: Tidio and Maya compared
Tidio is a website chat product with a free plan, paid plans from $29/mo, a flow builder and an inbox for people and AI (checked 12 Oct 2026). Maya is an AI assistant that talks with your website visitors by voice or text in their language, moves the page, captures leads and takes booking requests. Pick Tidio when a team lives in a shared inbox, and Maya when the visitor needs a spoken answer or a booking.
At a glance
We opened the chat on tidio.com, sent one message and read the scripts the widget loads. Every Tidio cell below carries the date we checked it. Where we did not test something, the cell says so.
| Topic | Tidio (checked 12 Oct 2026) | Maya |
|---|---|---|
| Primary channel | A chat widget on the website. (checked 12 Oct 2026) | A voice and text assistant on your website. On the Reception plan she also answers a Maya business phone line. |
| Pricing model | Tidio's homepage said "Free plan forever". Tidio's site said "Free plan forever" and "Paid plans from $29/mo". Lyro is priced separately; we did not capture that price. (checked 12 Oct 2026) | A flat monthly plan: Connect €299, Booking €499, Reception €899, each plus VAT. 7-day trial, card needed, cancel in one click. |
| Setup effort | The widget is delivered by a small loader script that pulls in the chat widget from code.tidio.co. How long it takes to build flows and train Lyro: not measured. (checked 12 Oct 2026) | One line of code, or the WordPress plugin. The setup scan read a 17-page site in about two minutes in our tests. You then review what she learned and teach her the answers she was missing. |
| Languages | The widget code detects the browser's language. Replies in other languages: not observed, because the email form came first. (checked 12 Oct 2026) | She talks with visitors in 70+ languages. Her page translation covers 39 languages. In our tests she answered in Italian, Romanian and Spanish and translated a page into German. |
| Voice | We found no microphone or speech code in the Tidio widget's scripts. (checked 12 Oct 2026) | Visitors can speak to her in the browser and hear her answer. If the microphone is refused she moves to typed chat. A voice conversation lasts up to 15 minutes by default, and plans include 500, 1,000 or 2,000 voice minutes a month. |
| Page actions | We found no code in the Tidio widget that scrolls or navigates the host page. We saw no page movement. (checked 12 Oct 2026) | Scrolls to a section, goes to another page, opens pop-ups that the setup scan verified, and switches the page to the visitor's language. She never presses pay, checkout or delete buttons. On Shopify and WooCommerce she adds an item to the cart when the shopper asks. |
| Booking | Not tested. (checked 12 Oct 2026) | On Booking and above she takes the booking request in the chat and you confirm it with one click. Reminders carry change and cancel links. |
| Phone | Not tested. (checked 12 Oct 2026) | On the Reception plan she answers a Maya business phone line. That line has to be activated for your business first. |
| Lead capture | On Tidio's own site, our question got no answer until an email was entered. The widget code treats the email form as a pre-chat setting, so a Tidio site owner chooses whether visitors see it. (checked 12 Oct 2026) | She answers first. She saves a lead only after she reads the details back and the visitor confirms. You get an email, and the lead appears on your Leads page. |
| Human inbox | Our research notes record a visual flow builder and one inbox for human, AI and email conversations, and a large small-business install base around Tidio (its site shows a Shopify 4.8 badge). (checked 12 Oct 2026) | Leads and callback requests reach you by email and on the Leads page. Maya is not a help desk. |
What Tidio is genuinely good at
Tidio has real strengths, and for some businesses they decide the question.
- A free plan and a low entry price. Tidio's site said "Free plan forever" and "Paid plans from $29/mo" (checked 12 Oct 2026). Maya has no free plan; its trial is 7 days and needs a card.
- Tools around the chat and a large user base. Our research notes record a visual flow builder and one inbox for human, AI and email conversations, and a large small-business install base around Tidio (its site shows a Shopify 4.8 badge). (checked 12 Oct 2026)
- One inbox for people and AI. If a team answers customers by chat and email all day, a shared inbox is the centre of the job, and Maya does not try to be one.
- A first message that always leaves you a contact. Because the email form is an owner setting, an owner who wants every conversation to start with a way to reach the visitor can ask for it.
Where Maya differs
- She answers first. The visitor does not hand over an email before getting a reply, and she asks for contact details only when the conversation needs them.
- She speaks. A visitor can talk to her and hear the answer, in the same widget as the text chat.
- The page moves. "Show me the pricing" scrolls the visitor there, and "open the tour" opens the site's real pop-up.
- The visitor's language. She answers in the language the visitor writes in. When your site has that language she switches the page with your own language switcher. When it does not, she translates the page for that visitor, labelled "Translated by Maya" with a "Show original" button. You can switch that off.
- Booking and follow-up on Booking and above. She takes the booking request, you confirm it, and the visitor gets reminders by email.
- She says when she does not know. Her answers come from your site and what you teach her, and an unanswered question lands on your list.
The email form
On Tidio's own site, our question got no answer until an email was entered. We typed "Hi! Do you speak Italian?" and a form asked for our email address before anything else. The widget code treats that form as an owner setting, so your own Tidio can be set up to answer first. We did not enter an email, so we did not see the answer to our question or the replies to the other two messages we planned to send (12 Oct 2026).
Price
Tidio's site said "Free plan forever" and "Paid plans from $29/mo" (12 Oct 2026). Lyro, its AI agent, is priced separately, and we did not capture that price. Maya has three plans: Connect at €299 a month, Booking at €499 and Reception at €899, each plus VAT, with a 7-day trial, a card needed to start and one-click cancellation. See pricing for what each plan includes, and the AI receptionist pricing guide for how these products are charged.
Who should pick which
Tidio fits when
- You want to start free or for $29/mo, and you are comfortable pricing Lyro separately when you add it.
- A team answers customers all day and needs one inbox for chat, AI and email.
- You want to build the conversation yourself in a visual flow builder.
- Your visitors are happy typing and a text answer is enough.
Maya fits when
- Your visitors arrive on your website after hours, on a phone or in another language, and need an answer now.
- You want voice on the site and a page that moves while she talks.
- You want the assistant to take the booking request, with your confirmation, and not only answer the question.
- You want a set price per month, and no free tier to outgrow.
For the full list of jobs to test on any assistant, read how to choose an AI assistant for your website.
How we compared
On 12 Oct 2026 we opened tidio.com, opened its chat and sent the first of three planned messages. We did not sign up, enter an email or use a microphone. We could read the scripts the widget loads but not the inside of its frame, so we did not see Lyro's answers. We tested Tidio on its own website, set up by Tidio, and your own Tidio may behave differently. Maya's side comes from our own testing and from what the product does today. Tidio may have changed since.
Questions people ask
Is Maya a replacement for Tidio?
For the part of Tidio that talks to visitors on your website, yes: Maya answers, captures leads and takes booking requests. If your team works conversations in a shared inbox across chat and email, that inbox is a different job. Maya is not a help desk.
How does the price compare?
Tidio's site said "Free plan forever" and "Paid plans from $29/mo" (checked 12 Oct 2026). Lyro, its AI agent, is priced separately and we did not capture that price. Maya is €299, €499 or €899 a month plus VAT, with a 7-day trial and a card needed to start. The plans include different things, so compare them on what you need, not on the entry price.
Does Tidio make visitors enter an email before they get an answer?
On Tidio's own site, our question got no answer until an email was entered (checked 12 Oct 2026). That form is an owner setting in the widget, so a Tidio site can be set up to answer first. We did not enter an email, so we did not see what came after it.
Does Tidio have voice?
We found no microphone or speech code in Tidio's widget scripts (checked 12 Oct 2026). Tidio may offer voice elsewhere in its product, and it may have changed since. Check tidio.com for today's behaviour.
How long does Maya take to set up?
You paste one line of code or install the WordPress plugin. The setup scan read a 17-page site in about two minutes in our tests, and larger sites take longer. You then review what she learned and add any answer she was missing.
What does the Maya trial involve?
7-day trial, card needed, cancel in one click. Plans are Connect €299, Booking €499 and Reception €899 a month, each plus VAT.
Is this comparison up to date?
Facts about Tidio were checked on 12 Oct 2026 and are dated on this page. Products change; check tidio.com for today's behaviour and price.
Ask Maya the same first message: Maya answers live on our homepage. See also the AI receptionist pricing guide, Maya and Intercom Fin compared, AI receptionist versus live chat, how to choose an AI website assistant, the AI voice agent for websites and pricing.