Cove vs Crisp: one desk for chat, help, and workflows

If you already know Crisp, you already know the map: a widget on the site, a shared inbox, help content, a CRM-ish contact, and a flat price per workspace. Cove is aimed at that map — then adds messenger control, a portal, SLA clocks, and campaigns at Broadcasts. One desk for chat, help, and team workflows. Switch the chatbox.

Pricing, checked on both public pages

Crisp’s pricing page on 29 Aug 2026: Free $0 (2 seats, no AI credits), Mini $45 per workspace per month (4 seats, $5 AI credits, about 90 automated conversations), Essentials $95 (10 seats, $25 credits, about 450), Plus $295 (20+ seats, $75 credits, about 1350). More than 20 agents is listed as an opt-in add-on without a printed dollar amount on that page. Conversations are unlimited. Yearly is toggled in-app after you subscribe. Fourteen-day trial.

Cove, same date, from our pricing: Free $0, Mini $39, Essentials $89, Plus $219, per workspace per month. Yearly is two months free (Mini $396, Essentials $888, Plus $2196 billed once). Extra seats $6 per month on Mini and up. Unlimited conversations. Fourteen-day trial.

The ladder looks related on purpose. Mini / Essentials / Plus, seats included. The difference is the meter: Crisp prints Hugo credits. Cove prints a workspace sticker. Switch if you want the messenger and inbox without a credit pack.

Why switch the chatbox to Cove

• No Hugo credit pack. Plus drafts from published articles. A person still sends. Live workflows greet.
• WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS, email, Slack, Telegram, Messenger, and phone callbacks land in the same inbox when you finish Connect — not a Crisp-complete channel suite. X, Viber, and Line are coming soon.
• Live workflows persist — new conversation, visitor reply, hours, channel, keyword, resolve/reopen, or unassigned. Widget studio fires URL-contains + delay teasers.
• One help site per workspace on {slug}.coveinbox.co, plus one verified custom host, and the same pages in the messenger.
• Visitor map from recent country. Highlight on page from the inbox. Inbox as a PWA.
• Campaigns at Broadcasts — email a segment or tag. Public replies can email via Resend.
• Tickets and a customer portal with a magic link.
• HubSpot, Shopify, and signed webhooks. Hide the Cove mark on the widget.

What both actually share

A script on the website. A shared inbox with assignment, internal notes, and saved replies. A contact beside the thread. Resolve. A CSAT hook after the chat ends. Help content the visitor can open without leaving the widget. Flat workspace pricing instead of Intercom’s seat-plus-outcome model.

That overlap is why “Crisp alternative” is a fair search. Switch the chatbox and the queue to Cove. Connect WhatsApp and the rest of the channels in Settings. Extra tools can sit beside Cove if you still need them.

When Cove is the better buy

If your Crisp bill is Mini or Essentials and you use the widget plus the inbox, Cove Mini at $39 or Essentials at $89 is the comparison that matters. If you are on Crisp Plus for Hugo, white-label, and ticketing, switch the messenger and the portal to Cove — one desk for chat, help, and team workflows, without a credit pack.

How the loop works in Cove, without a feature list: How to run Cove. Three-way table: Cove vs Intercom vs Crisp.