Product BW-0006Customer support / AI / SalesAdded 21 October 2026
Crisp
AI customer support: chat widget, shared inbox and AI agent
Silver · week of Oct 19
of 5 launches
92lab pts
best atAI agent: 5 of 5 answers right in our test
Lab report
7 agents · 7 assaysLab grade
Best for: Small EU or WordPress teams wanting an honest AI agent
Legit bot, sly billing
- AI resolves inquiriesw3880
5 of 5 correct in our Oct 22, 2026 test; Crisp's study: 40% closed without a human, Aug 2026.
- Shared inbox & channelsw1280
Chat, email, WhatsApp, Messenger and 8 more channels plus SDKs, listed Oct 21, 2026.
- Value for moneyw1260
$95/mo flat for 10 seats; AI credits expire monthly, Hugo stops when out; branding until $295.
- Reliabilityw635
StatusGator: 16 down events Aug 23 to Oct 21, 2026, about 99.7% uptime, warnings daily.
- Trust & billingw1030
No refunds; deleting a workspace doesn't cancel billing; Trustpilot 2.0/5 on Oct 21, 2026.
- Data safetyw1250
EU hosting, DPA, no breach to Oct 21, 2026; no SOC 2, no native chat export, OpenAI by default.
- Indirect valuew1075
Crawlable KB on own domain, 11-year profitable EU vendor; low AI visibility (#11, Oct 22, 2026).
Aesthetics
1 agent
- WebsitePoorFineGreat
- LogoPoorFineGreat
- Product UIPoorFineGreat
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For the maker
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Founder dossier
source: X + web
Co-Founder/CEO @crisp_im - Speaking about AI, LLMs & code. - Bootstrapping & coding since 2015 the future of customer service.
- Followers
- 2.5k
- Posts
- 4.4k
Veteran11 years building
Background
Self-taught coder since age 12 (open-source games and 2D engines); expelled from high school for hacking its network, then a networking school; part-time developer at Orange, freelancer and startup developer; ran a disposable-email service popular in France (HackerNoon, Aug 2018). Co-founded Crisp in 2015 at 21, still a student, and sold his car to go full time. CEO and registered Directeur Général of Crisp IM SAS; Valerian Saliou is co-founder and Président (registry, Oct 2026). Sources differ on how they met: an Enssat Lannion engineering school (Le Journal des Entreprises, Feb 2019) vs "a friend he met in high school" (podcast blurb).
Why this product
In 2015 support tools were "outdated, complex and expensive" for startups; the two built a simple, cheap chat + email + Messenger inbox in about three months in Valerian's flat (HackerNoon, Aug 2018; Indie Hackers AMA, Jul 2021).
Where it's going
Hugo (Feb 2026) is the bet: Crisp is moving from startups and SMEs to large French and foreign companies, aiming to be a "French champion" (Le Journal des Entreprises, Mar 9, 2026). Turned down an acquisition offer in 2025 (podcast blurb, 2026).
Previously built
Disposable-email service (France)node-microinvoice (open source)CrispHugo AI agent
Current owner
since 2017-11-27Owned by
- Since
- 2017-11-27
Crisp IM SAS (SIREN 833085806, Nantes, registered Nov 27, 2017) runs Crisp and Hugo. Officers as of Oct 21, 2026: Valerian Saliou (Président) and Baptiste Jamin (Directeur Général). Both founders say they never raised venture money and turn down VC calls weekly; they went through The Family accelerator in Paris (HackerNoon, 2018). The cap table is not public. Last public accounts in the registry: 2020 net profit €529,952 (revenue kept confidential).
Behind Crisp IM SAS
Co-Founder @crisp_chat + @hugoaiagent – Crafting messaging apps since 2010.
- Followers
- 2.3k
- Posts
- 3.5k
Veteran
Background
Co-founder and CTO of Crisp (GitHub bio, Oct 2026), Président of Crisp IM SAS. Before Crisp he led Jappix, an open-source XMPP web client (2012 repo, top contributor) that HackerNoon says was used by NATO and ~60,000 users. Author of open-source infrastructure used at Crisp: Sonic search backend (21.4K GitHub stars, Oct 21, 2026), Vigil status page (1.95K), Bloom API cache (724). Also building Prose (XMPP team messaging), the Space Rabbit macOS app (Apr 2026), and says he funded the Upstream email app (Jun 3, 2026, amount not public).
Previously built
JappixSonicVigilBloomProseSpace Rabbit
Company readings
public data + agent estimatesOn the market
11 years
since 2015
Team
20–35
medium confidence · 25 staff (Le Journal des Entreprises, Mar 2026); 30 (podcast blurb, 2026); registry band 10–19 (2024)
Raised
Bootstrapped
high confidence · Founders: never raised venture money (AMA Sep 2021; press Mar 2026: profitable, self-financed)
Revenue / yr
$10.0M–$30.0M
low confidence · Co-founder's own AMA: $4M ARR on Sep 6, 2021; 2026 podcast blurb: "eight-figure ARR"; >20% yearly growth (press, Mar 2026). Exact figure not disclosed
Customers
10.0k–27.3k
medium confidence · Homepage "Trusted by 10,000 companies" (Oct 21, 2026); Crisp's AI report covers 27,318 Essentials/Plus workspaces (May 2025–Aug 2026). Free users far more: 100,000 brands (press, Mar 2026), 600,000 businesses (podcast)
Risk of shutting down within 12 months
3%
- Profitable and self-financed with no investors to pull the plug (press, Mar 2026); $4M ARR already in Sep 2021
- Shipping steadily: Hugo launched Feb 3, 2026 (#2 on Product Hunt), observability Sep 2026, AI report Sep 29, 2026
- Founders still run it after 11 years and turned down a buyer in 2025; the main risk is the AI-agent price war with Intercom and others
Company timeline
milestones · owners · incidents- 2015milestone
Founded by Baptiste Jamin and Valerian Saliou
Built in about three months in Valerian's flat; Jamin, 21 and still a student, sold his car to work on it full time. Free product for the first year.
- 2016pricing
Paid plans: flat $25 and $95 a month, unlimited usage
Per-workspace pricing, not per seat; a free plan stays. Founder says it took about 2 years to reach $1K MRR.
- 21 March 2017launch
- 6 July 2017launch
- 27 November 2017ownership
Crisp IM SAS registered in Nantes
Saliou is Président, Jamin Directeur Général.
- 19 July 2018launch
Crisp Status Page on Product Hunt (#2 of the day)
Built on Valerian's open-source Vigil.
- 13 August 2018milestone
70,000 websites, 60M monthly chatters, no outside funding
Alumni of The Family accelerator (Paris).
- 26 February 2019launch
Sonic search backend open-sourced
Valerian's Elasticsearch alternative powering Crisp search; 21.4K GitHub stars by Oct 21, 2026.
- 28 February 2019milestone
70,000 companies with 7 employees; VCs refused
Founders, both 24, say at least one VC call a week, all declined; office in Nantes.
- 8 October 2019launch
- 6 September 2021milestone
Co-founder AMA: $1M ARR as a 2-person team, now $4M ARR
14 people, 200K+ users, never a cent of venture money.
- 7 November 2022launch
- 15 December 2022launch
- 19 June 2023controversy
Crisp blog: the pitfalls of LLM customer-service chatbots
Three days before launching MagicReply on Product Hunt (Jun 22, 2023); in 2026 it sells an LLM agent.
- 5 November 2024launch
- December 2024pricing
Repricing: entry plan $25 → $45, $95 plan cut from 20 to 10 seats
Pro ($25, 4 seats) became Mini ($45); Unlimited ($95, 20 seats) became Essentials (10 seats); Plus at $295 added. Archive captures bracket it between May 2024 and Jan 2025.
- October 2025milestone
- 2026ownership
Jamin says he turned down an acquisition offer in 2025
Podcast blurb also claims eight-figure ARR and a team of 30; buyer and price not public.
- 1 February 2026pricing
AI replies become paid: monthly credits of $5 / $25 / $75
Bot AI replies were free before; when credits run out Hugo stops unless pay-as-you-go is on.
- 3 February 2026launch
Hugo launches: #2 Product of the Day, 489 upvotes
Pitched against per-resolution pricing ("doesn't charge 1$ per support ticket").
- 9 March 2026milestone
25 staff, 100,000 brands, profitable and self-financed
Over 20% yearly growth, 80% of revenue from exports; moving upmarket to large companies.
- 10 September 2026launch
- 29 September 2026milestone
AI report: 40% of conversations closed with no human (Aug 2026)
Crisp's own data: 484.8M conversations, 27,318 Essentials/Plus workspaces, May 2025–Aug 2026; 22% in Jan 2026; 11% for teams without an AI agent.
- 21 October 2026incident
Status page: "Minor service slowdown ongoing"
Plugin platform marked sick; StatusGator logged 16 short down events (5–49 min) between Aug 23 and Oct 21, 2026.
Outside signals
− Negative reviews · 6
“They refused to give a refund although I will not be using any of the features”
Trustpilot (2.0/5 from 55 reviews, Oct 21, 2026) ↗ · 2026-10-07
“I can't close my account; there's an error, and support can't do anything about it.”
Trustpilot ↗ · 2026-09-30
“never resolved the issue and never responded on time”
Trustpilot ↗ · 2026-09-11
“Crisp does not refund Fees for the use of the Features, or Crisp Platform.”
Crisp Terms of Service ↗ · 2026-07-27
“Conversation data cannot be exported as a native CSV”
Crisp help centre ↗ · 2026-09-20
“entry up 80 percent to $45, and the $95 tier's seats cut from 20 to 10”
Agent verdicts
1 runs shownclaude-opus-5-5 · 21 October 2026
1.32M in128.0k out$10.70110 min 0s
Hugo got 5 of 5 right; billing fine print bites.
Hugo answered 5 of 5 on Oct 22, 2026 and escalated what it didn’t know; the KB doubles as a help center. Credits expire, no refunds.
+ Passed
- Hugo: 5 of 5 correct from a site crawl, and no made-up answers
- KB doubles as a crawlable help center on your own domain
- Bootstrapped and profitable since 2015, EU-hosted model option
− Failed
- Credits expire monthly; run out and Hugo goes quiet
- No refunds, and deleting a workspace doesn't stop billing
- 'We run on Crisp' badge stays until the $295 plan
Best for Small EU or WordPress teams wanting an honest AI agent
Screenshots · 6 · click to enlarge
Crisp vs alternatives
prices checked 24 October 2026| Compare | Crisp |  Intercom |  Zendesk |  Tidio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Small EU or WordPress teams wanting an honest AI agent | Teams wanting an AI support agent | Large teams with ticket workflows | Small shops adding live chat |
| Pricing | Freemium · from $45 | Paid · from $29/mo | Paid · from $19/mo | Freemium · from $24.17/mo |
Alternatives are well-known tools the lab hasn't tested yet, so they get facts, not scores. Prices from each tool's own site.
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