Crisp
Customer support: website chat and shared inbox for a small team, with knowledge base and campaigns.
A chat widget and a shared inbox for two or three people is a few days, and Chatwoot is an excellent free base. Crisp, a French vendor, offers a generous free plan and paid plans from €45/month: the savings calculation is therefore tight. What you lose by switching: the multichannel inbox (social networks, messaging apps), the knowledge base, campaigns and the reliability of a hosted service. Replaceable if you want to keep your data at home.
What you lose
- The multichannel inbox: email, chat, social networks, messaging apps.
- The knowledge base and campaigns.
- Reliable chat delivery, with no server to monitor.
- The AI resolution assistants.
- The vendor's support and compliance.
Existing alternatives to Crisp
- ChatwootOpen source
Support inbox with chat, email and help centre, to host with Docker Compose.
- HubSpot Free CRMFree
Shared inbox and live chat for two users, built into a CRM.
- Live Helper ChatOpen source
Proven live chat tool with routing, transcripts and canned replies; the interface is old.
The prompt to build it yourself
Build me a chat and shared inbox tool for a small support team, to replace Crisp. Stack: Next.js, TypeScript, PostgreSQL with Drizzle, WebSockets, Docker Compose. To do: - A chat widget for websites: reconnection, unread counter, file limits, availability status. - A shared inbox that also receives emails: filters, collision alert, internal notes, canned replies, searchable history. - Agents, contacts, tags, assignment, immutable log of assignments and statuses. - Email and in-browser notifications. - Anti-spam, configurable retention period, export and deletion of a contact (GDPR). - Docker Compose, backups, health checks, migrations, administrator recovery procedure. - Secrets in .env, no telemetry, tests, README. Out of scope: multiple social channels, AI agents trained on support data, agent scheduling, SSO and enterprise compliance.
Frequently asked questions
- Can Crisp be replaced by a custom-built tool?
- casevibecode verdict: Partly replaceable. A chat widget and a shared inbox for two or three people is a few days, and Chatwoot is an excellent free base. Crisp, a French vendor, offers a generous free plan and paid plans from €45/month: the savings calculation is therefore tight. What you lose by switching: the multichannel inbox (social networks, messaging apps), the knowledge base, campaigns and the reliability of a hosted service. Replaceable if you want to keep your data at home.
- What is Crisp used for?
- Customer support: website chat and shared inbox for a small team, with knowledge base and campaigns.
- What alternatives to Crisp already exist?
- Chatwoot (open source), HubSpot Free CRM (free), Live Helper Chat (open source). Options to compare before committing to a custom build.
Community feedback
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