Crisp API + MCP vs Zoho Desk

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.

Zoho Desk

Public OpenAPI 3.1 files cover 911 operations, OAuth scopes separate read, create, update and delete per module, and replies can be saved as drafts or sent for review before a customer sees them. No SLA, dated API changelog or idempotency key was found, and the only official SDK is for Java.

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

Zoho Desk

1. Use the api_domain returned with the token. Each data centre has its own host, such as desk.zoho.com, desk.zoho.eu and desk.zoho.in
2. Send Authorization: Zoho-oauthtoken <token> and refresh hourly. Put refresh parameters in the POST body, not the URL
3. Create replies with POST /api/v1/tickets/{id}/draftReply, then sendDraft or sendForReview. sendReply emails the customer
4. Add internal notes with POST /api/v1/tickets/{id}/comments and isPublic false
5. Page with from and limit (50 at most). Deep offsets cost more credits, from 3 a call under 2,000 records to 100 above 100,000