Crisp alternative: Asktopus vs Crisp and its Hugo AI agent compared

Crisp is a customer support platform from France. It combines a shared inbox with live chat, many messaging channels, a CRM and Hugo, its AI agent, and Crisp says 10,000 companies use it.^{1, 9} People usually look for a Crisp alternative for one of three reasons. Hugo runs on monthly AI credits, so the number of AI answers you get depends on tokens. Removing the "We run on Crisp" branding needs the top plan. Or they only need the AI part, not a helpdesk.

This is a comparison between Crisp and Asktopus, the AI chatbot we build. They're different kinds of tools, and we'll be clear about where Crisp is the better choice.

What Crisp does well

• A free shared inbox with live chat. The free plan includes the website chat widget, a shared inbox, iOS and Android apps, and unlimited conversations for up to two seats.³
• A flat price for your team. Paid plans cost the same however many conversations your team handles, with 4, 10 or 20+ seats included.²
• Many channels in one inbox. You get email, Messenger, Telegram and X from Mini, and WhatsApp Business, Instagram, SMS, Viber, Line and phone from Essentials.² Hugo can answer on the chat widget, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and email.¹
• An AI agent that works alongside your team. Hugo passes conversations to your agents in the same inbox when a person is needed, and steps aside as soon as one of your agents replies.⁷ Through integrations, it can also check account details, track orders or issue refunds.⁷
• Model choice. You can let Crisp pick the model, or choose one from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral or Crisp's own hosting, with EU processing where the model offers it.⁶
• A 14-day trial of every feature, with no card required.¹

If your team wants to talk to customers in real time, or you want chat, email and social messages in one inbox, Crisp is built for that and Asktopus isn't.

Where Asktopus is different

The AI is included, not paid for in credits

Crisp's plans cost €45 (Mini), €95 (Essentials) and €295 (Plus) a month per workspace, excl. VAT. Its pricing page shows the same numbers in dollars outside Europe.² Hugo is included from Mini, but it runs on monthly credits worth $5, $25 and $75, which Crisp estimates at around 90, 450 and 1,350 automated conversations.^{2, 4} The free plan has no AI credits.³

The credits are token-based. What a conversation costs depends on message length, how much knowledge Hugo reads, the model and the number of replies, and Crisp puts the average at $0.05 to $0.10.⁴ Unused credits are lost at the next monthly renewal.¹²

Asktopus is only the AI part, and the plan price covers it: 300 conversations a month on Starter (€39), 1,500 on Pro (€99) and 5,000 on Business (€249), and 30 a month on the free plan. A conversation is one visitor's chat. It's counted at the first answer and again every 25 answers, so the price doesn't depend on how long the messages are or which model answers.

When the AI allowance runs out

When Hugo's credits are used up, it stops answering. New conversations go to your team until the credits reset, unless you turn on pay-as-you-go with a spending limit.⁴ That works if someone is there to answer.

Asktopus never upgrades you or charges extra on its own. We email you at 80% and 100% of your monthly conversations. At the limit, you can buy 500 extra conversations for €39, which are used after the month's included ones and never expire. Or you can upgrade, and either takes effect straight away. If you do neither, visitors already chatting can finish, and new visitors see a short message asking them to contact you.

Your own branding from €99

Crisp shows "We run on Crisp" in the chat widget and in emails. Removing it requires a paid Plus plan (€295), and it isn't removed during a trial.^{2, 8} On Asktopus, branding removal is included on Pro (€99) and Business. On our free and Starter plans, the widget shows our name.

Knowledge that keeps itself up to date

Crisp doesn't refresh Hugo's web pages when your website changes. You start a refresh by hand.⁵

Asktopus updates each site's knowledge automatically every week on Pro and every 3 days on Business, and the old content keeps answering until the new version is ready. On any plan, you can also update right away with one click.

Room for more of your content

Hugo can learn from:

• 1 website domain and 1 file on Mini
• 3 domains and 5 files on Essentials
• 10 domains and 100 files on Plus

On top of that come Q&A snippets and, from Essentials, articles in a Crisp knowledge base.^{2, 5} It doesn't take Word files.⁵

Asktopus reads your sitemap, groups your pages by URL pattern and learns from the sections you tick. That's up to 500 pages per site on Starter, 5,000 on Pro and 25,000 on Business. You can upload PDF and Word documents up to 50 MB each, and CSV files of questions and answers. You can also write knowledge articles in the dashboard, with version history. Documents and published articles count as knowledge sources: 100 per site on Starter, 500 on Pro and 2,000 on Business. If you run a webshop, it also syncs your products from Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento and most other shop systems, or from a product feed, and each product counts as one page.

A "Questions to answer" list shows what visitors asked in the last 30 days that the assistant found nothing on. Each question has a button to write the article that answers it.

Handoff: Crisp does more here

Crisp's Hugo hands conversations to your agents inside the same inbox, and they carry on the chat live.⁷

Asktopus has no live chat. Visitors click "Talk to a person" in the chat, or ask for a person, and leave a message with their email or phone number. It goes to your team by email, Slack or webhook, and you reply outside the widget. If you want to take over chats in real time, Crisp is the better tool.

Data protection

Both companies are in the EU and act as your data processor.¹¹ Crisp IM SAS is based in Nantes, France, and keeps its data on EU servers, with messaging data in the Netherlands and plugin data in Germany. Its relay servers in the US, UK and Singapore keep connection logs only.⁹ Crisp keeps the full conversation history on paid plans.²

On AI, Crisp's own pages disagree. Its sub-processor list says its AI features run on Crisp's own infrastructure in the EU, and that outside AI providers are off by default.¹⁰ Its help centre says the model chosen automatically is OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Luna.⁶ If this matters to you, ask Crisp which applies to your workspace.

Asktopus is made by Uneven Bits ApS in Copenhagen. Our servers and database are in the EU, and a data processing agreement based on the Danish Data Protection Agency's standard clauses is available. The language models come from US providers (OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI) under the EU's standard contractual clauses. Chat content is deleted automatically after 90 days. Our GDPR guide covers what to check with any vendor.

What the same traffic costs

Say the AI handles 400 conversations a month on your website.

• Asktopus Pro: €99, with the branding removed and weekly updates. Or keep the branding and pay €78: Starter (€39) plus a pack of 500 extra conversations (€39). The 400 you don't use that month never expire.
• Crisp Essentials: €95 includes around 450 Hugo conversations by Crisp's estimate, along with 10 seats, the shared inbox and more channels. "We run on Crisp" stays.^{2, 4}
• Crisp Mini: €45 includes around 90. The other 310 or so go through pay-as-you-go, roughly $16 to $31 at Crisp's average estimate. Hugo can learn from one domain and one file.^{2, 4, 5}
• Crisp without the branding: Plus, €295.^{2, 8}

Crisp's conversation numbers are estimates. The real number depends on your setup and the model.⁴

If your team will use the inbox and live chat, Crisp Essentials costs about the same as Asktopus Pro and comes with a whole helpdesk. That's a fair reason to choose it. If you only want AI answers under your own brand, Asktopus Pro costs €196 a month less than Crisp Plus. Our AI chatbot pricing guide compares more vendors and pricing models.

Asktopus vs Crisp: comparison table

Who should choose which

Crisp is the better fit if you:

• want your team to chat with customers live, on the web and in mobile apps
• want email, WhatsApp, Instagram and other channels in one inbox
• want the AI to act in your other systems, such as tracking orders
• want to choose the AI model and processing region yourself
• need free live chat for a team of two

Asktopus is the better fit if you:

• want AI answers from your website, documents and product catalogue, without running a live chat team
• want the AI included in the monthly price, not in credits that depend on tokens and models
• have a large site or many documents
• want your knowledge updated every week and your own branding, both from the €99 plan

How to switch from Crisp to Asktopus

1. Start a trial. It runs for 14 days, and you don't need a credit card.
2. Add your site. Asktopus scans your sitemap and groups pages by URL pattern. Tick the sections you want the assistant to learn from.
3. Move your knowledge. Upload the PDF files you trained Hugo on. Put your Q&A snippets in a CSV file with the question in the first column and the answer in the second, and upload it. Paste the knowledge base articles you rely on into knowledge articles.
4. Set up handoff. Choose where visitor messages go: email, Slack or a webhook.
5. Test on the "Try it" page with the questions your visitors actually ask. Your Crisp conversations are a good source.
6. Swap the widget. Remove the Crisp chatbox script and paste the Asktopus script tag. It works on WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow and custom sites (on Shopify, use the Asktopus app instead), and the installation guide shows where it goes.

If Asktopus sounds like the better fit, see the plans and prices or try it free for 14 days on your own site.