NewSlack, WhatsApp and email channels
Compare

Threadbox vs Tidio Lyro

Tidio is a live chat and marketing suite with an AI assistant called Lyro bolted on. It is popular with small Shopify stores for its pop-ups, visitor tracking and simple chat widget.

Threadbox is AI-first: the agent resolves conversations across web, Slack, WhatsApp and email, calls your systems, and hands off to a shared inbox. This page compares the two for teams whose main problem is support volume rather than marketing pop-ups.

  • UK/EU hosted
  • UK GDPR ready
  • Encrypted at rest and in transit
  • Companies House 00838986

Last updated

Verdict

TL;DR

Tidio bundles live chat, pop-ups and email marketing with an AI assistant for small stores. Threadbox fits better when the agent must call your APIs and hand off to a full support desk.

Which should you choose?

Choose Threadbox if…

  • Your agent needs to call your own APIs, for example for order lookups
  • You want AI conversations included in the plan rather than priced separately
  • You want UK/EU hosting and GBP invoices

Choose Tidio if…

  • You want live chat, pop-ups and email marketing in one tool
  • A basic AI assistant covers your volume
  • Marketing features matter more to you than support workflows

At a glance

Feature comparison between Threadbox and Tidio
CapabilityThreadboxTidio
Agent
Train on website, files and Q&A
Choice of OpenAI, Anthropic and Google modelsTidio-managed
Custom actions that call your APIsLimited
Deterministic regex webhooks (no LLM in the loop)Not advertised
Guardrails: blocked topics, injection and leak checksBasic
Playground with compare mode and saved scenariosNot advertised
Channels & widgets
Website widget with streaming replies
Slack, WhatsApp and emailEmail from Starter, WhatsApp from Growth, Slack on BusinessPlan-dependent
Rich widgets: cards, buttons, forms, status cardsBasic
Lead capture with triggers and CSV export
Team
Shared inbox with human takeover
Escalation rules: sentiment, keywords, fallbacksBasic
Roles: owner, admin, agent, viewerPartial
Ask-your-data assistant (Backstage)Not advertised
Support desk
Threads with references, custom fields and statusesNot advertised
Response targets with business hoursNot advertised
Rules and skills-based routingNot advertised
Customer portal with guides and communityNot advertised
Phone, SMS and social channelsNot advertised
Business
UK/EU hosting by defaultEU
Pricing in GBP with VAT invoicesNot advertised
Per-resolution feesNonePer Lyro conversation
Free seats for viewers and contributorsNot advertised
Human support from the team who built itChat

Tidio is a trademark of its respective owner. Comparison based on public documentation as of 19 October 2026. “Not advertised” means we could not find it in Tidio’s public material. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.

Pricing in GBP

Threadbox

GBP, excluding VAT, billed monthly

  • Free50 conversations a month£0/month
  • Starter500 conversations a month£29/month
  • Growth2,000 conversations a month£99/month
  • Business10,000 conversations a month£349/month

No per-resolution fees. Extra conversations in blocks of 100, up to a spend cap you set. Full pricing

Tidio

Published in EUR, with an approximate GBP conversion

  • Free50 billable conversations; 50 Lyro conversations one-off≈ £0/month€0/month
  • Starter€24.17/month billed yearly; 100 billable conversations≈ £24/month€29/month
  • GrowthFrom; €49.17/month billed yearly; from 250 billable conversations≈ £50/month€59/month
  • PlusFrom, plus monthly usage≈ £253/month€300/month
  • Lyro AI AgentFrom; add-on for 50 Lyro AI conversations≈ £33/month€39/month

Source: Tidio pricing page, checked on . GBP converted at the 16 October 2026 rate.

How to switch

  1. 1Crawl your store and help pages
  2. 2Upload delivery, returns and sizing policies
  3. 3Add an order-lookup action against your commerce API
  4. 4Swap the Tidio widget script for Threadbox
  5. 5Connect WhatsApp and email forwarding

Read the full Tidio alternative guide or browse all alternatives.

Philosophy: suite versus agent

Tidio starts from live chat and adds AI. Lyro answers from your FAQ and help content within a conversation cap, then hands to a human in the Tidio inbox.

Threadbox starts from the AI agent. Knowledge from any source, actions against your APIs, deterministic webhooks and rule-based escalation are the core, and the inbox exists to catch what the agent cannot handle.

Live data and integrations

Lyro can answer product questions but has limited ability to fetch live order status from your own systems. Threadbox actions and regex webhooks call any API, so 'where is order 48213' returns the real carrier status as a card, not a policy paragraph.

Try it on your own website

Paste your URL. We crawl it and hand you a working agent in minutes. Free plan, no card.

Channels and pricing

Tidio prices Lyro conversations separately from its chat and email plans, and WhatsApp availability depends on plan. Threadbox includes WhatsApp from the Growth plan, with one GBP fee covering the agent and the inbox.

Hosting and compliance

Threadbox is UK/EU hosted with a DPA on request and GBP VAT invoices. Tidio is EU-based but bills in USD/EUR and does not offer UK-specific residency.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

No. Threadbox focuses on support and lead capture. Many teams pair it with a dedicated marketing tool.

Keep exploring

Support that resolves, not just chats

Try Threadbox on your store and see live order answers in the widget.

Build my agent free Book a demo
  • UK/EU hosted
  • UK GDPR ready
  • Encrypted at rest and in transit
  • Companies House 00838986