Crisp alternative

A Crisp alternative for when there's no team to share it with.

Crisp's flat per-workspace pricing and clean shared inbox are a good deal for a small support team. But a shared inbox only helps if a team lives in it. The Night Reception is for the owner who doesn't: there's no inbox to check, the front desk handles the conversation and briefs you in the morning.

See it with your website See the comparison

Free forever for our first 25 signups — chat widget and morning briefings. No credit card.

Side by side

Crisp vs The Night Reception

Crisp is priced for teams and built for collaboration. The Night Reception is priced for nobody-in-particular to staff — because nobody does.

	Crisp	The Night Reception
Team fit	Built for teams that live in a shared inbox together.	Built for a sole owner-operator with no team and no inbox to check.
Someone has to staff it	Yes. The shared inbox is where a team does support.	No. The front desk answers on its own from facts you approve.
After-hours coverage	Covered if you staff it; AI replies draw on metered credits.	Answers after hours with nobody on the desk.
AI answers	Metered by credits on every paid plan. Mini $45/mo includes $5 of credits (≈ 90 conversations); Essentials $95/mo includes $25 (≈ 450); Plus $295/mo includes $75 (≈ 1,350).	AI front desk answers from the facts you approve. Part of the free tier.
Booking	A shared inbox and clean UI for a team; a teammate handles the next step.	Visitors can request an appointment straight from the chat, using the booking link you give us.
Morning briefing	—	A short email briefing of every conversation, in your inbox.
Price	Per workspace, not per seat. Free $0 (2 seats, basic chat + shared inbox, no AI); Mini $45/mo (4 seats); Essentials $95/mo (10 seats, knowledge base + chatbot builder); Plus $295/mo (20+ seats).	Free forever for the first 25 signups. No per-seat or per-resolution pricing.

Crisp pricing and features checked on crisp.chat, 2026-09-26. A dash means the feature wasn't in that vendor's listed core product when we checked — an add-on or integration may still exist. The free tier has no AI; AI runs on credits on every paid plan. Check the vendor's current page before you decide.

Honest fit

Who should switch — and who shouldn't

Switch to The Night Reception if…

You have no team to put in the inbox. A shared inbox with one person in it is a more complicated chat window than you need.
You don't want to manage AI credits. Crisp's AI is metered by credits on paid plans; here it's part of the free tier, unmetered per conversation.
You want to be briefed, not to log in. The point isn't to sit in a support tool; it's to know what happened while you were closed.
You want the conversation to end in a booking. The front desk shares your booking link and captures the request.

Stay on Crisp if…

Your team lives in the inbox. If two or more people genuinely work support together, a shared inbox is the right shape and a solo front desk is not.
You value per-workspace pricing. Not being billed per seat is a real advantage for a team, as long as the tier's seat cap fits.
You want a knowledge base and chatbot builder. Crisp includes those on Essentials; The Night Reception is a front desk, not a support platform.

How to switch

From Crisp to a front desk, in about 10 minutes

See it with your website. Enter your website and try the front desk for yourself. Start here.
Send us your approved facts and booking link. Services, hours, the questions visitors actually ask, and the link you use for appointments. The front desk answers only from these.
Paste one snippet on your site. Add the JavaScript snippet we send you just before the closing </body> tag. On Wix that's Settings > Custom Code; on WordPress it goes in your theme or a header/footer plugin. We walk you through it.
Remove the Crisp snippet when you're ready. Run both for a few days if you like, then delete the old widget. No exports or migrations — it's one line of code.

Questions

Crisp alternative FAQ

Is Crisp free?

There's a real free tier: $0 for 2 seats with basic chat and a shared inbox, but no AI. AI runs on credits on every paid plan — Mini $45/mo, Essentials $95/mo, and Plus $295/mo. We checked crisp.chat on 2026-09-26.

How does Crisp's AI pricing work?

By credits. Mini includes $5 of credits (≈ 90 conversations), Essentials $25 (≈ 450), and Plus $75 (≈ 1,350). The Night Reception doesn't meter AI conversations; they're part of the free tier.

Is Crisp cheaper per person than other chat tools?

It's priced per workspace, not per seat, so the comparison depends on your team size and which tier you need. That advantage shrinks to nothing when the "team" is just you.

Do I need to staff The Night Reception?

No. The front desk answers on its own from the facts you approve. If it doesn't know something, it says so and takes a message for you.

What does the free tier include?

The chat widget on your site and the morning briefings. It's free forever for the first 25 signups. No credit card, no account to create.

No team? You still deserve a front desk.

Keep Crisp if your team works support in it together — or hand the evening shift to a front desk that answers, books, and briefs you. See it with your website first — no signup, nothing installed.

See it with your website