# Vatio vs Tidio

Tidio and Vatio both put an AI agent in front of your customers, but they start from different places. Tidio is a customer service platform: you set up its Lyro AI agent, its Flows and its help desk in Tidio's panel, and it connects to stores such as Shopify and WooCommerce. Vatio starts from the app you're building with a coding agent: your coding agent writes the agent into your app's project, with tools that call your app's own API for the signed-in user, and Vatio runs it inside your app. If you run a store or a support team and want a no-code platform with email, Messenger and a help desk in one place, Tidio is the closer fit. If you're building an app and want its agent to know your users and act through your API, Vatio is.

## What Tidio is

Tidio describes itself as AI customer service software, built mainly for ecommerce, especially Shopify stores, and also used by SaaS, services, education and finance businesses. Its main parts:

- **Lyro, the AI agent.** It answers from sources you give it: your website, help center pages, FAQs, Q&As you type in, CSV and PDF files, and Zendesk articles. Tidio says Lyro only answers from the sources you approve. Lyro Guidance sets its tone, style and escalation rules.
- **Smart Actions and MCP connectors.** Smart Actions are workflows, built in a no-code visual builder, that call your systems through their APIs: check an order, change a shipping address, start a return, book a meeting. Since September 2026, Lyro can also connect to an MCP server, and you choose which of its tools Lyro may use.
- **Flows.** A drag-and-drop editor for rule-based automations: a trigger, then what to do. Its templates cover cart recovery, lead capture, cross-selling and FAQs.
- **Help Desk.** One inbox for live chat, email, support forms, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp, with tickets, macros and AI reply suggestions for your team.
- **Handoff.** When Lyro can't answer, or a customer asks for a person, the conversation goes to your team; if nobody is online, Lyro creates a ticket. Rules can send chosen topics, keywords or VIP customers to a person.
- **Testing and analytics.** A built-in testing environment before launch, and analytics with resolution rate, satisfaction and knowledge gaps after it.

For developers, Tidio has an OpenAPI for contacts, conversations, tickets and Lyro's data sources, webhooks, and a JavaScript SDK for its chat widget. Lyro can also run inside help desks such as Zendesk, Intercom and Salesforce.

## What Vatio is

Vatio is an agent for the app you're building, with a coding agent or an app builder. It has two steps. The fastest, from any chat: add the remote MCP server `https://vatio.ai/mcp` as a connector in Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, sign in with a Vatio account and ask for the agent; it is created in a preview to try, and nothing reaches your users until you publish ([Vatio in Claude and ChatGPT](https://vatio.ai/docs/mcp)). To build the agent into the app's code: in the project run `npx @vatio-ai/skills`, then `/vatio-init`, and `/vatio-improve` daily. Your coding agent reads the app, asks what the code doesn't answer and writes the agent into your project: instructions in `vatio.yml`, tools that call your API, and knowledge entries, which you can review like the rest of your code.

Your team follows the conversations in the inbox and takes one over by replying. When a reply is wrong, someone reports it and writes what should have happened, and that note becomes a test. `/vatio-improve` fixes the cause in your project, Vatio replays the reported cases against a preview, and you approve each publish.

## The main differences

| | Tidio | Vatio |
|---|---|---|
| Who sets it up | You or your team, in Tidio's panel and its no-code builders | Your coding agent, in your app's project; you review the files |
| Where the setup lives | In Tidio | In your repository: `vatio.yml`, tools and knowledge |
| Knowledge | Your website, help center, FAQs and files | Markdown entries; Vatio doesn't read websites |
| Your data | Smart Actions, MCP connectors, store integrations | Tools, each one request to your app's API, with the signed-in user's verified token |
| Channels | Live chat, email, forms, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp | Your app first (widget, iOS, Android); WhatsApp and Instagram |
| After launch | Testing environment and analytics | Reported replies become tests; you approve each publish |

## When Tidio is the better choice

- **You run an online store and aren't building an app.** Tidio's integrations give Lyro order status, tracking and product data from Shopify and WooCommerce, and Flows can recover carts. Vatio has no store integration: its tools call an API you own. And Vatio is for people building an app with a coding agent, not for a business that only needs a chatbot.
- **You want marketing and sales flows.** Proactive messages on cart activity or exit intent, lead capture and cross-selling are what Flows are for. Vatio has no visual flow editor or campaign dashboard.
- **You want a full help desk.** If your team answers email, support forms and Messenger along with chat, Tidio puts them in one inbox with tickets and macros. Vatio's channels are your app's chat, WhatsApp and Instagram.
- **Your support team configures the agent without a coding agent.** In Tidio, whoever runs support changes Lyro, Guidance and Flows in the panel. In Vatio, your team reports wrong replies in the inbox; the fix, whether in the instructions (including what the business does), the knowledge or the tools, is made through your coding agent and tested before publishing.
- **You already work in Zendesk, Intercom or Salesforce** and want an AI agent there rather than a new inbox.

## When Vatio fits better

- **You're building the app** with Claude Code, Cursor or Codex, whether it already has users or is still in progress. Your coding agent has the API, the sign-in and the docs in front of it, so it builds the agent from them, and the result lives in your repository next to the code it calls.
- **The agent acts for the signed-in user.** Your backend signs a short-lived token with the key from `vatio auth --new-key`, and your coding agent can add that to your backend. A private tool forwards the token to your API as `Bearer $auth.token`, it can't take a user id as a parameter, and your API reads the user from the verified token. See [Private tools](https://vatio.ai/docs/authentication/tools).
- **The data is sensitive.** For the API Call node in its Flows, Tidio's developer docs advise returning only non-sensitive data, or asking for identifiers nobody can guess, because a visitor could type an order number that isn't theirs. With a private tool, your API looks the order up among the signed-in user's own, so someone else's number finds nothing.
- **The agent belongs inside your app.** The web widget, the browser SDK and the iOS, Android and Flutter SDKs put it in your product, signed in as the user your app already knows.
- **You want to fix mistakes with evidence.** A reported reply is a test from then on. Publishing refuses a version that fails a case live gets right, unless you override it with `--force`, and a rollback brings back the previous live version. See [Improve](https://vatio.ai/docs/improve).

## Moving from Tidio to Vatio

You don't import the Tidio account. Your coding agent builds the agent from your app and carries over what you already wrote for Lyro.

1. **Open your app's project** in Claude Code, Cursor or Codex. If you built the app in Lovable or Bolt, connect it to GitHub and open it there first.
2. **Install the skills and start.** Run `npx @vatio-ai/skills` in the project, then `/vatio-init` in Claude Code (or, from a chat, connect the Vatio MCP server `https://vatio.ai/mcp` and ask for the agent), and say what Lyro does today:

   ```text
   /vatio-init a support agent to replace our Tidio chat: answer from our help center, check order status for signed-in users, hand refunds to a person
   ```

   The first time it pushes the agent, your browser opens to sign in with email, Google or GitHub; signing in creates your account.
3. **Bring Lyro's knowledge.** Give your coding agent the help center pages, FAQs and Q&As Lyro answered from; Tidio's OpenAPI can list Lyro's data sources. It writes them as Markdown entries, one topic per entry ([Knowledge](https://vatio.ai/docs/knowledge)).
4. **Turn Guidance into instructions.** Lyro's tone and rules become the agent's personality and instructions in `vatio.yml`, and the topics you send to a person go in the `when_to_use` of a tool that alerts your team. That tool calls your backend with a link to the conversation, your backend tells whoever should pick it up, and whoever replies in the inbox takes it over ([Handoff](https://vatio.ai/docs/handoff)).
5. **Turn each Smart Action into a tool.** A Vatio tool is one HTTP request to your API. An action that chains several steps becomes one endpoint in your backend that does the whole job. Tools that read or change a user's own data are marked `access: private`. An order-status action, as your coding agent might write it in `tools/order_status.yml`:

   ```yaml
   description: Status and tracking of one of the signed-in user's orders.
   when_to_use: The user asks where an order of theirs is.
   parameters:
     type: object
     properties:
       order_number: { type: string }
     required: [order_number]
   access: private
   request:
     method: GET
     base_url: "$env.SHOP_API"
     path: /me/orders/$params.order_number
     headers:
       Authorization: "Bearer $auth.token"
   respond:
     data:
       order: "$.order"
   ```

   There is no customer id in it: your endpoint finds the order among those of the user the token names. Your API's address is a secret your coding agent stores in Vatio, not in the repository.
6. **Try the preview.** The inbox's **Try the agent** web chat chats as a visitor who isn't signed in. To try what a signed-in user can do, ask your coding agent to put preview's widget in a development build of your app, and sign in as a test user.
7. **Swap the widget and publish.** Replace Tidio's chat script with Vatio's widget. Its publishable key lists the origins it works from: `vatio keys create publishable --origin https://your-app.com`, or **Settings → API keys** in the inbox. When the preview answers the way you want, approve publication.
8. **Add WhatsApp and Instagram if your users write there.** On any plan ([Pricing](https://vatio.ai/pricing)), the same agent answers on your own number and account, connected from the **WhatsApp** and **Instagram** pages in the inbox.

From then on, your team reports wrong replies in the inbox, and you run `/vatio-improve` once a day: your coding agent fixes the cause, Vatio replays every reported case against preview, and you approve the update.

## Sources

Checked on 14 October 2026. Features and plans change: check Tidio's own documentation, listed below, for what it offers today.

- Tidio home page: https://www.tidio.com/
- Official information about Tidio for AI assistants: https://www.tidio.com/llm-info/
- Lyro AI Agent: https://www.tidio.com/ai-agent/
- Lyro Smart Actions: https://www.tidio.com/ai-agent/lyro-actions/
- Lyro MCP connectors announcement: https://updates.tidio.com/en/lyro-ai-introducing-mcp-connectors
- Flows: https://www.tidio.com/flows/
- Tidio API documentation index: https://developers.tidio.com/llms.txt
- Widget visitor identification: https://developers.tidio.com/docs/widget-visitor-identification
- API Call node security: https://developers.tidio.com/docs/api-call-node-security

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the difference between Vatio and Tidio?

Tidio is a customer service platform: you set up its Lyro AI agent, its Flows and its help desk in Tidio's panel, with store integrations such as Shopify and WooCommerce and one inbox for live chat, email, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. Vatio is for an app you're building with a coding agent: your coding agent writes the agent into your app's project, with tools that call your app's API for the signed-in user, and Vatio runs it in your app and on WhatsApp and Instagram.

### Is Tidio or Vatio better for an online store?

For a Shopify or WooCommerce store that wants order status, product recommendations and cart recovery without writing code, Tidio is built for that. Vatio has no store integration of its own: its tools call an API you own. It fits when you are building the app yourself with a coding agent such as Claude Code, Cursor or Codex.

### Does Vatio have a visual flow builder like Tidio Flows?

No. A Vatio agent is written as instructions, tools and knowledge in your app's project, by your coding agent, and you review those files like the rest of your code. Vatio has no visual flow editor or campaign dashboard; your backend can send WhatsApp messages to one person at a time through Vatio's Messages API.

### Can I bring my Lyro knowledge to Vatio?

Yes, as knowledge entries. Vatio doesn't read websites, so your coding agent turns the help center pages, FAQs and Q&As Lyro answered from into Markdown entries, one topic per entry. Once the agent is live, your team edits entries in the Vatio inbox, and every edit is kept as a version.

### Can a Vatio agent act on a signed-in user's account?

Yes, through private tools. A short-lived token your backend signs tells Vatio who they are. Vatio verifies it and forwards it to your API on every private tool call. A private tool cannot take a user id as a parameter, so your API reads the user from the token and nobody can ask the agent for someone else's data.

## Related guides

- [Vatio vs Manychat](https://vatio.ai/docs/guides/vatio-vs-manychat): Chat marketing on Instagram and other apps, or an agent for your app's signed-in users, and how to move.
- [Support for signed-in users](https://vatio.ai/docs/guides/ai-agent-for-customer-support): Answer from your docs, check the user's own account, troubleshoot and open a ticket with what was tried.
- [Knowledge](https://vatio.ai/docs/knowledge): What the agent answers from: Markdown entries, versioned and published with the agent.
- [Tools](https://vatio.ai/docs/tools): Give the agent your API as tools.