Zono vs Crisp

The Crisp alternative with a knowledge base on the free plan.

Start free with email and live chat in one inbox, a branded help portal and knowledge base, and customers verified on first contact. No credit card. When your team grows, Premium brings every seat, every channel and the AI agent.

Start free See what's free

No credit card. Email, live chat, portal and knowledge base included.

Crisp facts checked 3 October 2026 from its public pages. Sources at the bottom.

What you get free

A real helpdesk. Free.

Free plan, not a trial. Everything a small team needs to answer customers well.

Zono Free

  • Email and live chat in one inbox
  • A help portal or help center on your own domain, with automatic SSL
  • A knowledge base
  • One brand kit for your portal, chat widget and customer emails
  • One extra language for your portal, widget and emails, with your own translations
  • Sign customers in with your own app
  • Customers verified on first contact: Envato, Shopify, WordPress, Gumroad, LemonSqueezy or your own license server
  • Limited AI credits each month
  • A small team with unlimited tickets
  • No credit card

Crisp

2 seats and 100 customer profiles; no knowledge base and no AI credits.

Side by side

Zono and Crisp, line by line

Free plan

Zono:Free plan, not a trial: a small team with unlimited tickets, email and live chat, a branded portal and knowledge base, customer verification and free AI credits every month. No credit card

Crisp:2 seats and 100 customer profiles; no knowledge base and no AI credits

Knowledge base and languages

Zono:Knowledge base on every plan. Portal, chat widget and customer emails in your customers' language, with your own translations: one extra language on Free, no limit on Premium. Right-to-left languages supported

Crisp:Help center from Essentials, in multiple languages

AI agent and controls

Zono:An AI agent on Premium, grounded in your knowledge base, saved replies and resolved tickets. Confidence threshold, escalation keywords, a live activity feed and a stop button; it acts on its own only once you switch it on. Cap it with a monthly budget or bring your own OpenAI or Anthropic key

Crisp:AI credits from Essentials that expire monthly; when they run out, AI stops unless you turn on pay-as-you-go

Customer sign-in

Zono:Free: sign customers in with your own app, with one identity secret for chat and portal and portal single sign-on. Premium: "Continue with" Okta, Auth0, Microsoft Entra ID, Keycloak or any OpenID Connect provider

Crisp:User verification for chat visitors' emails, from Mini

MCP server

Zono:Premium: 14 tools for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or VS Code, with OAuth sign-in or API tokens

Crisp:Yes, with REST API keys

Remove the vendor branding

Zono:Premium removes the "Powered by Zono" badge

Crisp:Plus plan, not during trials

Marketplace customer verification

Zono:Envato, Shopify, WordPress, Gumroad, LemonSqueezy or your own license server, verified on first contact on every plan

Crisp:Not part of Crisp's published plans

Switching from Crisp

  • Start on the free plan. No credit card needed.
  • Run Zono alongside Crisp on email and live chat until you are sure.
  • Import customers and knowledge base articles from CSV.
  • There is no automatic ticket importer. If you want help moving over from Crisp, we help by hand.
  • Upgrade to Premium when your team grows.
  • Want a hand moving over? Email [email protected].
When your team grows

If you grow into Premium

Free covers a small team. Premium brings the whole team, every channel and the AI agent, at one flat price for the whole team. List prices in USD.

How you pay

Zono:Free to start. Premium is one flat price for the whole team: $49 a month or $490 a year, unlimited seats

Crisp:Per workspace: Mini $45 (4 seats), Essentials $95 (10 seats), Plus $295 (20 seats) a month; extra seats $10 each

AI included

Zono:Free includes limited AI credits each month and Premium includes 10× more, shared by the AI agent and copilot. At the limit AI stops and conversations go to your team, with no overage charges

Crisp:Essentials: $25 of AI credits a month (Crisp estimates about 450 conversations); credits expire monthly, pay-as-you-go above that if you enable it

Zono Premium against Crisp Essentials, the cheapest Crisp plan with a knowledge base and AI.

TeamZonoCrisp
3 agents$49$95You save $552 a year
5 agents$49$95You save $552 a year
10 agents$49$95You save $552 a year

Crisp Essentials includes 10 seats, then $10 a seat. Crisp does not publish an annual price. AI is priced separately on both sides, see above. Zono Premium is $49 a month, or $490 a year (shown per month on annual billing). Zono Premium includes 10× more AI credits than Free.

FAQ

Zono or Crisp?

Sources

Crisp facts come from its public pages, checked 3 October 2026. Prices and plans change; if something here is out of date, tell us at [email protected] and we'll fix it.

Every channel. One inbox.

Answer your next customer free.
Upgrade when you grow.

Start free Compare other helpdesks

No credit card. Email, live chat, portal and knowledge base included.