Looking for a AI-first chatbot/live chat tool for early-stage SaaS

UPDATE and useful summary of research in case anyone is going through the same process:

Evaluated: Intercom/Fin, Crisp, Tidio/Lyro, Chatbase, Zowie, Sierra, Enreach.
The short version of why each fell out:

Crisp is free but rules-based — you have to build and maintain logic trees manually. Not AI.
Tidio's Lyro AI is a separate add-on, opaque pricing, 50 conversations lifetime on the free tier then it stops.
Chatbase Hobby is $32/month but $199/month to remove their branding. Hard pass.
Intercom/Fin is best-in-class AI but $0.99/resolution with a 50-resolution monthly minimum — and they just got acquired by Salesforce, so pricing risk ahead.
Sierra and Zowie are enterprise-only. Wrong tier entirely.

Result: Chatwoot self-hosted. Community Edition is free but no AI. Premium Support is $19/month self-hosted with Captain AI included and custom branding. Critically — it supports bring your own API key, so you plug in your Anthropic key and pay tokens directly. Server costs ~€5-10/month.
All in: ~$26-34/month, AI-first, your branding, no per-resolution fees, email and chat in one place.
For email (onboarding, lifecycle, newsletter): Loops, free to 1,000 contacts.

Hope it helps

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UPDATE and useful summary of research in case anyone is going through the same process:

Evaluated: Intercom/Fin, Crisp, Tidio/Lyro, Chatbase, Zowie, Sierra, Enreach.
The short version of why each fell out:
- Crisp is free but rules-based — you have to build and maintain logic trees manually. Not AI.
- Tidio's Lyro AI is a separate add-on, opaque pricing, 50 conversations lifetime on the free tier then it stops.
- Chatbase Hobby is $32/month but $199/month to remove their branding. Hard pass.
  Intercom/Fin is best-in-class AI but $0.99/resolution with a 50-resolution monthly minimum — and they just got acquired by Salesforce, so pricing risk ahead.
- Sierra and Zowie are enterprise-only. Wrong tier entirely.
Result: Chatwoot self-hosted. Community Edition is free but no AI. Premium Support is $19/month self-hosted with Captain AI included and custom branding. Critically — it supports bring your own API key, so you plug in your Anthropic key and pay tokens directly. Server costs ~€5-10/month.
All in: ~$26-34/month, AI-first, your branding, no per-resolution fees, email and chat in one place.
For email (onboarding, lifecycle, newsletter): Loops, free to 1,000 contacts.

Hope it helps
jitain

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3 months ago
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