# Crisp API + MCP vs FreeScout (slim)

> Crisp scores 46.3 (D) to FreeScout's 27.9 (F) for support tickets. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crisp-vs-freescout.md (~4,200 tokens) · this version ~2,030 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crisp-vs-freescout.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crisp-vs-freescout
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Crisp API + MCP scores 46.3 (D) on agent readiness against FreeScout's 27.9 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. FreeScout leads on reliability. Both do support tickets.

- Crisp API + MCP: D 46.3, rank #1175 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crisp.min.md
- FreeScout: F 27.9, rank #1431 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/freescout.min.md
- Crisp API + MCP, good for Small teams that want a cheap shared inbox and live chat with an MCP server that can act. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 46 against 35; Payments & pricing, 30 against 0; Maintenance & community, 80 against 70; Transparency & trust, 77 against 36. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; No incidents deducted, where FreeScout loses 15 points for them.
- FreeScout, good for Small teams that want a free, self-hosted Help Scout alternative and can run PHP. Ahead on Reliability, 73 against 38. Also Open source.

| Category | Crisp API + MCP | FreeScout |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 38 | 73 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 46 | 35 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 51 | 50 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 31 | 30 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 0 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 80 | 70 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 77 | 36 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Crisp API + MCP | FreeScout |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Crisp | FreeScout |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.crisp.chat/v1` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Licence | none | AGPL-3.0 |
| Tools exposed | 41 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-14 | 2026-10-31 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-27 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-07-15 | no date given |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 112 stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- Transparency & trust, Crisp API + MCP +41: Crisp API + MCP 77 (Closed service with published terms, last updated 27 July 2026 (15). Privacy policy updated 15 July 2026 gives retention periods (inactive accounts kept at most 12 months, logs kept at most a year), puts the DPA in the terms and says customer data doesn't train Crisp's models, which the terms repeat (26). The Node SDK changelog marks breaking changes and removed methods (v12.0.0 on 16 October removed methods for user-tier routes no longer in the public reference), but there's no dated deprecation policy (10). Sub-processor list published and core infrastructure in Amsterdam (18).); FreeScout 36 (AGPL-3.0 core, and the module page says the module is AGPL-3.0 too (30). The software keeps data on the operator's server; the site's privacy policy was not read and no data-handling statement for the API was found (10 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices (0). No telemetry statement or opt-out found (5 of 20, since self-hosted data stays with the operator). 30 + 10 + 0 + 5 = 45.)
- Reliability, FreeScout +35: Crisp API + MCP 38 (status.crisp.chat runs Vigil and on 5 November 2026 shows live state for the API service, the MCP service, hooks and the realtime sockets, but no incident history. We gave 10 of 20 for a component page without history, a partial kept under the in-between rule. No readable history (5). The rate-limit page (updated 21 September 2021) names four limiters (load balancer, global, per route, plugin quota) without numbers, and the authentication page (updated 1 April 2026) gives daily quotas of 10,000 requests for website tokens and 5,000 for plugin tokens, so the per-route limits still carry no numbers and the partial 8 of 15 is kept. 429 and 420 are documented and GET routes are cached with a Bloom-Status header, but there's no Retry-After or backoff guidance, a partial 5 kept. No SLA found (0). REST API v1 is GA (10).); FreeScout 73 (Read with the local-software lines, because FreeScout runs only on the operator's server; there is no first-party hosted service. Installs from official releases with a web installer and updater, with PHP and MySQL or PostgreSQL requirements stated (20). Public CI in test.yml, test-pgsql.yml and phpcs.yml with feature tests; pass status not read (18 of 25). Open crash and regression issues were not read because the GitHub API refused us for its rate limit (10 of 25, unchecked). Patch releases v1.8.238 to v1.8.249 with notes on GitHub, and module versions tied to a required core version (10 of 15). Past 1.0 (15). 20 + 18 + 10 + 10 + 15 = 73.)
- Payments & pricing, Crisp API + MCP +30: Crisp API + MCP 30 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices public per workspace, $0, $45, $95 and $295 a month, nothing per call (10). Free plan with 2 seats and Developer APIs, and a 14-day trial of any plan (20). A person signs up in a browser and makes the token (0). The pricing table on 5 November 2026 puts the MCP server on Essentials and Plus only.); FreeScout 0 (Self-hosted rule, with pricing scored on the paid module the API needs. No x402, MPP or L402 (0). The module's price is drawn by the store's script and could not be read, so it scores as not found (0). The core is free, but no free route to the API exists (0). A person buys the module in a browser and installs it (0). 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 0.)
- Schema & documentation, Crisp API + MCP +11: Crisp API + MCP 46 (No OpenAPI file. The REST reference (updated 25 October 2026) links a Postman collection as a visible download, which we counted as half a contract (10). docs.crisp.chat/llms.txt returns 404 on 5 November 2026 (0). Each route has a description and lists the token tier and scope it needs (12). URI parameters and bodies carry types and required flags, and `per_page` is bounded 20 to 50 (11). Response schemas are shown, error codes and reasons per route aren't (6). The platform changelog's newest entry is still August 2025, while the SDK changelogs record API changes up to October 2026 (7).); FreeScout 35 (No OpenAPI, Postman collection or other machine-readable contract found (0). No llms.txt (404) or Markdown docs (0). Each endpoint has a short description and parameter notes such as what `imported` and `embed` do (10 of 20). Parameters are marked required or optional with types, and few enums (8 of 15). curl, JavaScript and PHP examples for each endpoint, and a status-code table with an `errorCode` and `errors` body (12 of 15). Module versions and core releases are tagged, with no dated API changelog (5 of 15). 0 + 0 + 10 + 8 + 12 + 5 = 35.)
- Maintenance & community, Crisp API + MCP +10: Crisp API + MCP 80 (No dated API release notes since 2025, so we used the official SDKs. crisp-api for Node v12.0.2 on 26 October 2026, 10 days before this check, adding attachments on text and note messages (30). Node v10.11.0 (20 August), v11.0.0 to v11.3.0 (9 to 14 September), v11.4.0 and v11.4.1 (5 and 9 October) and v12.0.0 to v12.0.2 (16 to 26 October), and Go v3.75.0, v4.0.0 and v5.0.0 (20 August, 9 September, 16 October), all since 7 August (20). Platform changelog stale since August 2025, with live chat support in the product (7). Current official SDKs in Node, Python (v1.1.23, 2 July), Go and PHP (1.8.2, 2 July) (15). Build and test workflows on the Node SDK, testing Node 20 to 26 (8).); FreeScout 70 (Core v1.8.249 tagged on 31 October 2026 (30). Twelve tags from 30 August to 31 October (20). Issue responsiveness was not read because the GitHub API refused us for its rate limit (10 of 25, unchecked). No official SDK, and no MCP server from the project (0). CI with tests on MySQL and PostgreSQL, and a Laravel dependency advisory taken on 31 October (10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 70.)