Flat seat-based pricing. No per-resolution fees, no branding paywalls, no enterprise-only features. Start free forever, add seats when you grow.
The pricing story stays simple: start free, choose managed AI or your own key, then add human teammates only when the support queue needs them.
Free
One site, 500 AI messages per month. Full feature set - the only difference is the "Powered by Dchat" link.
Dchat-managed AI
Dchat manages the AI key. Fastest path from signup to live support. final AI cost depends on usage.
Customer-managed AI
Bring your own OpenAI key. Pay the provider directly. Same platform, cleaner governance story.
Human seat
Add teammates who take over when AI hits its limit. Same inbox, full transcript, no repeat-yourself.
Official vendor pricing reviewed on May 8, 2026. This is the useful part of the comparison: how each product charges, not just the lowest number on the page.
Dchat stays seat based. Managed AI is $29 per AI seat, customer-managed AI is $15 per AI seat, and human seats are $15. No per-resolution fee layer on top.
Intercom's cost shape is seat plus AI usage. That is fine when resolution pricing maps cleanly to value, but it is less predictable than Dchat's flat seat story.
Freshchat starts lower on seat price for broader service coverage, but Freddy AI becomes usage priced after the first 500 sessions trial allocation, at $49 per 100 sessions.
Crisp is priced as a workspace product rather than a pure AI seat product. The public packaging emphasizes bundled inbox, channel, and AI capability rather than a simple per-seat AI story.
Tidio separates platform pricing from Lyro AI conversation quotas. The entry point is accessible, but AI economics still stay tied to monthly conversation buckets and action limits.
Gorgias prices by billable tickets rather than seats. That can be attractive for large teams, but the cost model tracks conversation volume instead of operator count.
Official references reviewed: Intercom pricing, Freshchat pricing, Crisp pricing, Tidio pricing, and Gorgias pricing pages. Vendor packaging changes often.
Most competitors charge in one of four ways: by seat, by ticket, by AI outcome, or by AI conversation/session pack. The shape matters as much as the entry point.
Seats are easy to forecast. If you bring your own key, the AI provider bill stays separate and visible.
Intercom, Freshchat, Tidio, and others often combine plan pricing with AI usage pricing. That is where many teams lose predictability.
Workspace products, ecommerce help desks, and CRM-led suites can start lower, but they may solve a broader or different problem than website-first AI support.
Price alone is not the point. Dchat is strongest when the buyer wants website-first AI support, a clear human fallback, and more control over how AI is bought and deployed.
Choose Dchat when the core job is answering and handing off support conversations on your own site without paying suite overhead for channels you do not need yet.
If the requirement today is email, voice, social, WhatsApp, and workforce tooling in one package, the larger suites may justify their more layered pricing.
Dchat is easier to defend when procurement cares about AI key ownership, clear cost shape, and a self-hosted path through Zchat.
The plan price is honest only if the product scope is honest too. Dchat's current plans buy a focused website-support product plus the first action layer, not a finished omnichannel suite.
A lower entry number does not remove the bigger buying question: do you need a website-first support product or a broader omnichannel suite right now?
When the main job is website chat, AI answers, and human takeover without adding a second pricing layer for every resolved conversation.
When the requirement already includes email, social, voice, workforce tooling, or a much deeper integration estate from day one.
If AI usage pricing, ticket pricing, and seat pricing are all stacked together, budget predictability can disappear long before support quality improves.
Every plan - including the free one - ships the full Dchat feature set. Seats and AI volume are the only things that scale with price.
No credit card. No sales call. The free tier is the same platform the paid tiers get - just with a "Powered by Dchat" footer and a 500 msg/month AI cap.