Kayako Review: Features, Pricing, Pros & Cons 2025

Kayako is a customer service platform that combines a shared inbox, live chat, and a self-service knowledge base. It’s designed to give agents a full picture of the customer journey through its signature SingleView timeline.

The platform appeals to small and mid-sized businesses that need centralized support without a steep learning curve. It’s safe to say that it focuses on personalized communication and lightweight automation. 

Kayako also leans into AI to cut repetitive workload. In fact, the company claims teams can automate up to 60% of support tickets with its AI-first approach. 

But while the tool’s strength lies in simplicity and transparency, it may feel limited for teams that expect deep AI automation or a wide set of integrations.

In this review, we’ll explore Kayako’s features, pros and cons, pricing, and how it compares with alternatives like Tidio.

Kayako pros and cons

Kayako’s strongest points revolve around context and simplicity. Users like the clean workflows and the way the SingleView feature pulls everything into one place. On the other side, recent feedback points to a few product rough spots that are useful to know early. 

Let’s take a closer look at Kayako’s key strengths and drawbacks:

Pros

• SingleView timeline: agents can track past tickets, site visits, and knowledge base activity in one continuous view.
• Unified inbox centralizes channels: messages from different channels all arrive in a single queue.
• Collaboration built in: internal notes and shared visibility of tickets.
• Rules keep things moving: rules and SLAs handle routine steps.

Cons

• Mobile experience needs polish: reviewers mention friction when using the app on the go, which can slow down quick checks.
• Real-time refresh is a common ask: the lack of native auto-refresh for new tickets leads to workarounds.

Kayako pricing and value for money

When it comes to pricing, Kayako keeps things simple with a single plan. Kayako One costs $79 per month and includes shared inbox, ticketing, reporting, help center, multi-brand Messenger, and multilingual chat support. AI resolutions are available as an add-on at $1 per ticket successfully resolved by Kayako’s AI.

So, Kayako’s pricing is predictable at the subscription level, but can rise with heavy AI usage. This structure makes it best suited for teams that want a blend of human and AI customer service, but need to track AI-driven resolutions carefully.

Read more: Here’s all you need to know about AI customer service agents.

How Kayako supports contextual, human-centered service

Kayako is built around conversations that carry context. The timeline shows what the customer did and when they did it, while its inbox brings channels together so agents are not bouncing between apps. There’s also a help center that fills in the gaps and powers deflection.

Let’s look at each one of these features in more detail.

Shared inbox and collaboration

Using this feature, agents can prioritize requests and comment privately without exposing internal notes to customers. The organization timeline also gives a higher-level view of all interactions linked to a company, which is especially helpful for B2B teams managing multiple contacts from the same organization.

Tidio tip: Tidio provides a multichannel single inbox, letting teams manage live chat, email, and conversations from Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp in one place. Ad Hoc Atelier, an Italian fashion ecommerce brand, boosted conversions from 0.35% to 0.9% after adopting Tidio’s shared inbox and live chat.

Thanks to Tidio we’re really fast at replying to the customers at any hour. This is very helpful because I think the success of customer service depends a lot on how fast you are at replying to the consumer. Lorenzo Colucci, Co-founder and CMO of Ad Hoc Atelier

Lorenzo Colucci

Co-founder and CMO of Ad Hoc Atelier

Help center and self-service

The help center is searchable and easy to embed in conversations. Customers can find answers on their own, while agents drop articles into chats when users need more context. On top of that, the setup supports multilingual content, so you can localize help where it matters. 

Tidio tip: Lyro responds in multiple languages and quotes from your knowledge base. You can paste articles in, upload docs, or point Lyro at URLs, which keeps answers aligned with the content you already maintain. A good example is GameBoost, a global gaming marketplace, which returned to Tidio after struggling with costly AI tools. By training Lyro on their resources, they achieved an 86% AI resolution rate, cutting repetitive queries while saving significantly on per-resolution costs.

Read more: Explore customer self-service examples, top software, and best practices. Also, be sure to explore Lyro’s knowledge base.

Messenger (live chat)

Messenger is Kayako’s live chat feature that sits on your help center, website, or app. When agents are online, customers can start a real-time conversation. Once they are offline, Messenger captures the message and opens a ticket. The switch from chat to ticket is automatic, which keeps the thread intact. 

Tidio tip: Tidio Live Chat adds automated greetings and real-time routing so visitors meet available agents quickly. It pairs naturally with Lyro, which can take the first turn on repetitive questions, then hand off to a person when needed.

Automations and workflows

Rules feature helps with assignment, tagging, SLAs, and notifications. You can also surface external events on timelines using webhooks or Zapier, which rounds out context when your stack includes other apps. This gives agents a fuller picture of a customer’s journey while staying within the help desk. 

With these tools, teams can set up reminders and context-rich updates that reduce repetitive tasks and make it easier to maintain consistent service levels during busy periods.

Tidio tip: Lyro handles common back-and-forth requests and resolves simpler issues before an agent steps in. Teams can also design proactive flows, like greeting visitors based on behavior or offering help before a cart is abandoned. In fact, Shockbyte used flows this way to cut waiting times by 26% and increase customer satisfaction by 16% in just a few months. 

Our customer satisfaction saw a healthy 16% increase – this is despite us having some of our busiest months this year.

Mitch Smith

Founder of Shockbyte

Reporting and analytics

Kayako includes pre-built reports and exports, plus an Insights dashboard that tracks volume, performance, and satisfaction. It covers the basics teams need to review queues and spot trends.

If you need more specific data, Kayako supports custom reports. You can define your own criteria (like time since ticket creation, status, SLA breaches, etc.), save reports for reuse, and export them as CSV files.

Tidio tip: Reporting covers agent performance, resolution, and answer rates, and CSAT scores. This makes it easier to see how automation changes workload and quality over time.

Kayako platform experience and technical performance

Kayako aims for a straightforward UI with enough depth to support daily operations. The experience is organized around timelines and queues rather than a heavy configuration layer. Recent Kayako reviews on G2 reflect that balance, as many teams appreciate the simplicity and speed.

User experience and interface

Users describe the interface as lightweight and easy to navigate for ticket work. Also, Kyako’s timeline view helps agents avoid context hunting. A recurring note from G2^[1] is that native auto-refresh is missing, which introduces friction in busy queues. 

Setup and customization

Teams can brand the help center, configure Messenger, and organize departments as well as views. Also, guides in the support site walk through setup for channels and branding, which helps smaller teams get moving quickly. 

Integrations

Kayako includes several pre-built connectors with tools like Slack, Teams, WhatsApp, Shopify, Stripe, Chargebee, and Salesforce. For broader needs, Kayako connects to hundreds of additional apps through Zapier^[1], letting teams automate workflows without code. On top of that, developers can use webhooks, Endpoints, and the REST API to bring external events into timelines or push Kayako data into other systems.

Performance and reliability

Kayako’s Messenger automatically creates a new conversation (ticket) when customers write in while agents are offline, so no messages are lost. At the same time, the unified inbox handles email, chat, and social media, reducing the need to switch tools during the day.

Customer support and documentation

The help center is active and includes release notes, channel setup, and how-to content. This library shortens the learning curve and gives admins a place to sanity-check configuration. 

Kayako alternatives and competitors

If Kayako feels close but not quite right for your needs, here are some options that often appear in the same evaluation set:

Tidio

Tidio focuses on fast setup and cost-predictable AI. Its conversational AI, Lyro, answers customer inquiries from your knowledge base in multiple languages, which prevents misinformation. Teams often pair live chat with conversation starters and automated greetings to warm up visitors before they ask for help.

Zendesk

Zendesk serves complex teams that need mature ticketing and deep analytics. It excels in regulated and high-volume environments where permissions, roles, and data requirements are strict. Also, the integration ecosystem is broad, which helps centralize operations as companies scale.

Freshdesk

Freshdesk offers balanced help desk capabilities that are approachable for growing teams. Ticketing, chat, and automations are easy to adopt without a long setup, and the feature set expands as needs become more advanced. This tool is a common pick for companies that want to scale at a steady pace.

All in all, if you need a shared inbox and a solid help center with light automation, Kayako keeps things simple. If proactive engagement and AI matter more, Tidio may be a more predictable option over time.

Final verdict and recommendation

Kayako is a solid choice for teams that want a unified inbox and a branded knowledge base. Its strengths lie in simplicity and collaborative features. However, its limited ecosystem and reliance on $1-per-ticket AI resolutions may not suit companies handling very high volumes.

For small to mid-sized teams, especially those focused on providing personalized support, Kayako delivers a reliable, easy-to-use solution. That said, businesses looking for scalable automation and stronger AI capabilities may find Tidio a better long-term fit. 

Lyro, Tidio’s AI Agent, can resolve a large share of repetitive questions in multiple languages, while the shared inbox brings together live chat, email, and social messaging in one view. Teams can also use and design proactive flows that engage visitors before they leave a cart or help guide them through complex buying decisions. 

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