LiveAgent vs Crisp (2026)

TL;DR

• Pick LiveAgent if you want a full help desk with ticketing, live chat, and a built-in call center under per-agent pricing, and phone support matters to you.
• Pick Crisp if you're a startup or small team that wants omnichannel chat and a shared inbox at flat, per-workspace pricing that doesn't grow with headcount.

Pricing

The pricing models are fundamentally different, which often decides the call. LiveAgent is per agent, from $15/agent/mo billed annually, with a 30-day free trial and no credit card required; it's month-to-month with no long-term contract. Crisp uses flat per-workspace pricing — a free plan for two seats, then paid from $45/workspace/mo — so cost stays predictable as you add agents. For a small team that's growing, Crisp's flat model can be far cheaper; for a team that wants to pay only for the agents it has and values phone support, LiveAgent's per-seat pricing buys more channels.

Call center vs messaging-first

LiveAgent's standout is its built-in call center — native phone support alongside ticketing and chat, no third-party telephony bolt-on. If voice is part of your support mix, that's a major differentiator. Crisp has no call center; it's messaging-first, pulling website chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and SMS into one shared inbox. Crisp also bundles a lightweight CRM (contact history and segmentation) that LiveAgent doesn't emphasize. So the split is roughly: LiveAgent for voice-inclusive support, Crisp for chat-and-messaging-led support.

Channels and add-ons

Both are omnichannel, but the packaging differs. LiveAgent covers email, chat, phone, and social including WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, and Viber — though some social channels like WhatsApp and Instagram come as paid add-ons rather than included. Crisp includes its channel set in the workspace price, and its free plan (two seats, core chat) is a genuine starting point. With Crisp, co-browsing and advanced automation are gated to higher tiers; with LiveAgent, advanced features concentrate in higher-tier plans too.

AI and automation

Both ship AI. LiveAgent offers automated chatbots and AI response suggestions to cut agent workload. Crisp provides AI agents and chatbot automation plus a knowledge base on paid plans to deflect common requests. Neither is positioned as a deep AI-resolution engine the way some rivals are, but both cover the practical automations a small team needs.

Who should pick what

• Teams that need phone support → LiveAgent. The built-in call center is the deciding feature.
• Teams wanting pay-per-seat flexibility → LiveAgent. No contract, scale seats up or down.
• Startups and small teams watching cost as they grow → Crisp. Flat workspace pricing.
• Messaging-led e-commerce or SaaS support → Crisp. WhatsApp/Instagram/chat in one inbox plus a light CRM.

Bottom line

If phone support is on your roadmap, LiveAgent is the clearer choice — few tools at this price include a real call center, and its 30-day trial makes it easy to test. If you're a small, chat-first team that wants omnichannel messaging without per-seat costs ballooning, Crisp's flat workspace pricing and useful free plan are hard to beat. Decide on two axes: do you need voice, and does per-agent or per-workspace pricing fit your trajectory.