What ChatterMate does for a Shopify store
Install the app from the Shopify App Store, pick the AI agent that answers your store, and see every chat in the inbox. Plans bought through the app are billed by Shopify.
The agent asks for the email used at checkout and shows only orders placed with that exact email. With an order number it shows that one order. Without one it lists the customer's recent orders, up to 10. A wrong email and a missing order get the same reply, so nobody can use the chat to learn whether an address shops with you.
For each order it shows payment and fulfilment status, and the carrier, tracking number and tracking link for every shipment. It searches your catalogue and recommends products, with carousels in the website widget. It never changes, refunds or cancels an order, and there is no add-to-cart or checkout in the chat. It works with Shopify only, not WooCommerce.
Has order 2318 shipped yet?
I can check. What email did you use at checkout?
mara@example.com
Thanks, Mara. Order 2318 is paid and went out in two parcels. Here are both tracking links.
Can you change the address on the second one?
I can't change orders. Our team can, so reply here and they'll pick it up from the inbox.
Side by side
| ChatterMate | Tidio | |
|---|---|---|
| Source code | Open core, Apache-2.0 | Closed |
| Hosting | Our cloud or your servers | Tidio's cloud |
| Plans | Free, then $4.99, $9.99 or $24.99 a month | Free, then $24.17, from $49.17, and Plus from $300 plus usage |
| What is counted | AI replies only. Your team's replies never count | Conversations with a human reply on the base plan, and Lyro conversations on a separate add-on |
| AI agent | Included in every plan | Lyro add-on, from $32.50 a month for 50 conversations |
| Shopify orders | Looks up status and tracking after an email check. Never changes orders | Your agents can cancel, refund and change addresses from the dashboard. Shopify actions from Growth |
| Store flows | No cart, discount or checkout flows | Templates to recover carts, offer discounts and set free-shipping thresholds |
| Product recommendations | Search and carousels in the website widget | With a paid Lyro quota |
| Channels | 9, including Telegram, LINE, Slack and SMS | Chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger |
| Your own AI key | Yes, on paid plans and self-hosted | Not stated on its site |
| Security certification | None yet | SOC 2 examination completed |
| Customer base | Growing, 161 GitHub stars | 300,000+ businesses, by its own count |
Tidio details come from its pricing and Shopify pages on 8 November 2026, and the SOC 2 and customer count on 7 November 2026. Check them before you decide.
What Tidio does for a store that ChatterMate doesn't
If cart recovery and discount flows earn you money today, Tidio is the stronger store tool, and we would rather you hear that here.
Tidio's Shopify page says your agents can cancel orders, offer refunds and change shipping addresses from the support dashboard. ChatterMate only looks orders up, so your team does those in Shopify.
Agents can see what a customer has in their cart while they chat. ChatterMate has no view of carts.
Templates to recover carts, offer discounts and set free-shipping thresholds, and Lyro can send discount codes. ChatterMate has none of these.
Tidio Flows are no-code automations, free for 100 unique visitors a month and sold on their own from $24.17. ChatterMate's workflows run in the website widget and aren't triggered by store events.
Tidio offers one on Premium. ChatterMate has no mobile SDK.
Tidio has completed a SOC 2 examination. ChatterMate has no certification yet.
One limit to plan around
An agent with handover turned on doesn't load the Shopify tools, so one agent can't both look up orders and hand a chat to a person. Choose per agent. An order agent answers tracking and product questions while your team watches the inbox and takes over any chat that needs an edit or a refund. A handover agent passes chats to a group but can't look orders up. Most stores start with the order agent, because order status is the question they get most.
What the AI costs at 1,000 store chats a month
Say 1,000 customers a month chat with your store. The AI replies in every chat, four times on average, and 300 of the chats also need a person.
| Tidio | ChatterMate cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | Growth, from $49.17. Billable conversations from 250, up to 2,000 | Pro, $24.99, with the team included |
| What is counted | 300 conversations with a human reply on the base plan, and 1,000 Lyro conversations on the add-on | 4,000 AI replies. Your team's replies don't count |
| AI price | Lyro tiers go up to 1,000 a month. The page shows only the starting price, $32.50 for 50, so get the 1,000 price from its calculator | Inside Pro's 7,500 replies |
| Monthly total | $49.17 plus the Lyro quote | $24.99 |
| Your own model key | Not stated | Any paid plan, unmetered, plus your provider's bill |
By Tidio's definitions, a chat that Lyro starts and a person finishes counts on both meters: once as a Lyro conversation and once as a billable conversation. Lyro counts a conversation once however many replies it sends, while ChatterMate counts every AI reply, so very long chats favour Lyro's unit. Tidio Premium also offers pay-per-resolution billing with a guaranteed 50% Lyro resolution rate.
Beyond the store
The same agent answers on your website, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram, LINE, Slack, email and SMS, from Growth. Carousels stay in the website widget.
From Growth, escalated chats can become tickets with SLA targets and email updates, and your help articles can live on your own domain.
Self-host the Apache-2.0 edition with no plan limits, or keep our cloud and plug in your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini key.
Moving from Tidio
- Step 1Install the Shopify appAdd ChatterMate from the Shopify App Store and choose which AI agent answers your store.
- Step 2Bring Lyro's knowledgeAdd your store pages and help pages as a crawl or sitemap, plus PDFs such as your size guide and returns policy. There is no automatic re-crawl, so add pages again after big changes.
- Step 3Rebuild the flows you needPre-chat questions and fixed paths become website workflows. Cart and discount flows have no equivalent, so decide whether you can do without them.
- Step 4Decide orders or handoverSet each agent up for order lookups or for handover, not both. Create a group and office hours for the handover agent.
- Step 5Remove the Tidio widgetUninstall the Tidio app or remove its script, so customers don't see two chat buttons.
- Step 6Move the other channelsOn Growth, disconnect WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger from Tidio and connect them here. Past conversations stay in Tidio.
Choose ChatterMate or Tidio
Tidio alternative questions
Is Tidio open source?
No, as far as its site shows. It is a hosted service. ChatterMate's core is Apache-2.0 on GitHub.
Which is better for Shopify?
Tidio has more store flows: cart recovery, discounts, and order edits from the dashboard. ChatterMate tracks orders with an email check, recommends products, answers on nine channels and is open source.
Can ChatterMate cancel or refund an order?
No. It looks orders up and never changes, refunds or cancels them. Your team does that in Shopify, and can take over the chat from the inbox.
Can it recover abandoned carts?
No. There are no cart, discount or checkout flows, and no add-to-cart in the chat.
Does it work with WooCommerce?
Not for orders and products. You can still add the chat to a WordPress site with our WordPress plugin and answer from your pages.
Do conversations my team answers count?
On ChatterMate, no. Only AI replies count. On Tidio, the base plan counts conversations that include a reply from your team, and Lyro conversations are counted separately.