The short version
Tidio is a live chat and helpdesk tool for small businesses. Lyro is its AI. Tidio bills per billable conversation, defined as a conversation containing a message from a human agent, and Lyro is billed separately per conversation, not per resolution.
Aiders is a Shopify email agent, priced per store. It can finish the conversation, because it can act on the order rather than describe it.
How each one charges
| Tidio | Aiders | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Per billable conversation, meaning one with a human agent message | Per store, per month |
| AI charge | Lyro billed per conversation, separately | Included in the plan |
| Charged when the AI fails | Yes, the Lyro conversation still counts | Not applicable, price is fixed |
| Charged when the AI succeeds | Yes, the Lyro conversation is charged. A billable conversation is only added once a person sends a message | Same as any month |
| Published tiers | See their pricing page, plans by conversation volume | From EUR 49 per store, 250 emails included |
| Built for | Small business chat, any industry | Shopify post-purchase email |
Prices move. Check the Tidio pricing page and ours before you decide.
What that means when the volume comes
Look closely at that third row, because it is the one that decides this. Lyro is metered per conversation, not per resolution. You are billed for the attempt. A conversation where Lyro understood nothing and the customer left angrier costs the same as one it handled perfectly. Gorgias charges its AI per resolved interaction and Intercom charges per Fin resolution. Those two at least tie the money to a result.
Now put that in December. Two weeks after Black Friday your inbox is where is my order, over and over, and it is where is my order because parcels are genuinely late. Answering it needs the live order and the current carrier status. Where a tool cannot reach the order and the carrier, the conversation is still spent, and a colleague still answers it afterwards.
Aiders is priced per store, per month. Late parcels do not change the bill, and the ones the agent can answer, it answers by pulling the live order and the carrier status.
What Aiders does here
- Issues partial and full refunds itself through Shopify, into the original payment method, no human involved.
- Holds a return refund until the carrier confirms the parcel arrived, then refunds and emails.
- Cancels, or converts a cancellation into a return on arrival when the parcel already shipped, because it will not pay a customer to keep something they have not received.
- Swaps a variant by editing the real Shopify order, checked against live stock, with a payment link when the new item costs more.
- Issues store credit into the Shopify store credit account, or a real gift card.
- Replies in the language the customer wrote in, detected per email, or pinned to one language if you prefer.
- Runs around the clock, so an email that lands at 2am is answered at 2am.
- Reads a chargeback threat in the email and raises it before the bank is called.
That last one has real money attached. An inquiry is not yet a chargeback and no money moves during one. If it is not resolved it escalates, and only then do the funds and the fee leave. In the United States, Shopify takes a $15 chargeback fee out of your payout immediately, before anyone judges the case, and returns it only if you win. You then get somewhere between 7 and 21 days to respond. Answering the email first is the cheapest step in that whole sequence.
What Tidio is good at
Tidio is the fastest way to get a decent chat widget onto a small store. There is no implementation project, no onboarding call, no rollout plan. You install it in an afternoon and it looks good on the storefront. Lyro handles FAQ-shaped questions well when the answer is already written down somewhere, and the price of entry is low enough that trying it costs you almost nothing. For a small catalogue with simple questions, that is a fair deal.
Who should pick which
Pick Tidio if you want on-site chat, your questions are mostly pre-purchase and FAQ-shaped, and you are happy to open Shopify yourself for refunds and order changes.
Pick Aiders if the questions are about specific orders, and you would rather not be the one issuing a refund at 11 at night.
If what you need is a chat bubble for visitors who have not bought yet, buy Tidio. We answer email, after the order.
Start free
Install Aiders on Shopify. The first 100 emails are free, once, not per month. Only emails that get a reply count.