What is Crisp?

Crisp is a customer messaging platform built around a shared team inbox, with AI features layered on top: an AI chatbot ("Hugo") that can answer customer questions, a knowledge base for self-service, a lightweight CRM, and campaign tools for proactive outreach. Everything lives behind one flat, per-workspace subscription rather than Intercom-style seat-based pricing, which keeps costs predictable as a support team grows.

Crisp positions itself explicitly as an AI-first customer support suite now, bundling live chat, email, and social channels into a single inbox so agents don't have to switch between tools to answer a ticket, whichever channel it came in on.

Who it is for

Crisp is aimed at small and mid-sized teams — often a handful of support agents — that want a single, affordable tool covering live chat, a shared inbox, a chatbot, and a knowledge base, without paying per-seat pricing that scales awkwardly as headcount grows. It's a good fit for startups and small e-commerce or SaaS businesses that need broad channel coverage on a tight budget. Larger enterprises with complex ticketing workflows, deep integrations, or dedicated support-ops teams are more likely to outgrow it and look at something like Zendesk or Intercom instead.

Key features

Shared team inbox — chat, email, and other channels land in one inbox so agents aren't juggling separate tools
AI chatbot (Hugo) — an AI agent that can handle routine customer questions and hand off to a human when needed
Knowledge base — a self-service help center customers can search before ever opening a ticket
Lightweight CRM — track customer and lead details alongside the conversation history
AI campaigns — proactive, triggered messaging to leads or customers rather than purely reactive support
Flat per-workspace pricing — cost doesn't scale per agent seat within a plan's included allowance, which is unusual in this category

Pricing

Crisp offers a free plan (2 agent seats, 100 customer profiles), then paid plans starting at $45/month (4 agents, 5,000 profiles), $95/month (10 agents, 50,000 profiles), and $295/month (20+ agents, 200,000 profiles). Additional agent seats beyond a plan's allowance cost $10/month each. AI credits for automated chatbot conversations are billed separately on top of the base plan, starting free with roughly 90 automated conversations included and scaling up with paid credit packs.

Strengths

Flat pricing per workspace tier, not per agent seat, which is friendly to growing teams
All channels — chat, email, social — unified in one inbox
Knowledge base and lightweight CRM included rather than sold as separate add-ons

Weaknesses

AI chatbot capabilities are less mature than dedicated leaders like Intercom's Fin
The interface can feel cluttered once a team turns on most of the available modules
AI automation runs on a separate credit system, so heavy chatbot use adds cost beyond the base plan

Getting started

Sign up for the free plan directly at crisp.chat to connect a website widget and try the shared inbox and chatbot with a small team. Upgrading to a paid plan unlocks higher agent and customer-profile limits, plus more AI credits for the Hugo chatbot.

Verdict

Crisp is a solid, budget-conscious pick for small teams that need chat, email, a knowledge base, and basic AI automation in one place without per-seat pricing creeping up as they hire. It's not the deepest AI support platform on the market, but it covers the essentials well. See more options in AI Customer Support & Sales, including Zendesk for larger support operations.