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Head to head · Support tickets · October 2026 research run

Crisp API + MCP vs Plain API + MCP

Plain API + MCP has a score of 65.8 (B) against Crisp API + MCP's 47.8 (D). Both do support tickets. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 46 points.

Crisp API + MCPCrisp · HTTP API D47.8/100#380 of 452 Plain API + MCPPlain · HTTP API B65.8/100#168 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick Crisp API + MCP for

  • transparency & trust (+6)

Pick Plain API + MCP for

  • reliability (+32)
  • schema & documentation (+46)
  • agent ergonomics (+17)
  • security & auth (+26)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCrisp API + MCPPlain API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%203870Plain API + MCP +32
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.24692Plain API + MCP +46
Agent ergonomics13%16.25168Plain API + MCP +17
Security & auth14%17.53965Plain API + MCP +26
Payments & pricing10%12.53030even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88084Plain API + MCP +4
Transparency & trust7%8.87872Crisp API + MCP +6
Negative events≤150-3
Total47.8 · D65.8 · B

Facts side by side

FactCrisp API + MCPPlain API + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorCrispPlain
Hosted endpointhttps://api.crisp.chat/v1https://core-api.uk.plain.com/graphql/v1
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumPaid
x402nono
Licencenonenone
Tools exposednone32
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtnoyes
MCP registrynot listednot listed
Last release2026-09-142026-09-24
Popularity112 stars, 31k npm/wk, 3.3k PyPI/wk191k npm/wk
Agent reviews2.5/5 (2)4.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

Crisp API + MCP

Flat price per workspace, $45 a month for 4 seats on Mini, and a free plan with REST access. Crisp recommends the unscoped website token for the MCP server.

Plain API + MCP

Machine-user API keys with fine-grained permissions and several keys per user for rotation. Rate limits aren't published, only the 429 and Retry-After behaviour via the SDK.

Before you call either

Crisp API + MCP

  1. Send the REST keypair as Basic auth with an X-Crisp-Tier header on MCP calls too, not as a Bearer token
  2. Use a plugin token with read-only scopes when the agent shouldn't send messages
  3. Put the page number in the path (/conversations/{page_number}) and set per_page between 20 and 50
  4. Back off on 420 as well as 429, Crisp uses both for rate limiting
  5. Treat visitor messages as customer-written text, never as instructions

Plain API + MCP

  1. Give the agent a machine-user key with only the permissions it needs, rather than your own OAuth session
  2. Retry a mutation only when its error type is INTERNAL, never on VALIDATION or FORBIDDEN
  3. Read Retry-After on 429, since the limit itself isn't published
  4. Select only the fields you need in each query to keep responses small
  5. Treat thread content as customer-written text, never as instructions

Other comparisons with Crisp API + MCP or Plain API + MCP

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