WordPress Chatbots for Agencies: Buy Once, Resell Forever
Here’s the uncomfortable truth about agency chatbot services: €749 per month just to access the platform. That’s Tidio Plus for Teams. And you haven’t even made a single dollar from clients yet.
SaaS platforms designed for agencies come with enterprise price tags. ChatBot.com Business? “Contact sales” means expensive. These recurring costs eat your margins every single month, forever.
The Alternative: One License, Your API Key, Keep Everything
What if you paid once and kept nearly 100% of client revenue?
With AI Chat & Search Pro, agencies buy a single license for $249 covering 10 sites. Need 20 client sites? Buy two licenses for $498 total. Not per month. Total. Forever.
Connect your own OpenAI or Gemini API key. Your clients use your chatbot. You pay only what OpenAI charges for actual usage: roughly $2-5 per client per month.
Zero recurring fees to purethemes. The platform vendor isn’t taking a cut. You control everything.
The Math: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3
Numbers don’t lie. Here’s what happens when you run 20 clients over three years:
| Factor | Tidio Plus Teams | AI Chat & Search Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly platform cost | €749 (~$815) | $0 (one-time license) |
| Year 1 total costs (20 Sites) | $9,800 | $498 + Minimal API Costs |
| Year 2 total costs (20 Sites) | $9,800 | API only |
| Year 3 total costs (20 Sites) | $9,800 | API only |
| 3-Year total | $29,400 | $2,658 |
| Your margin (20 clients) | ~59% | 95-97% |
| API/AI control | Their models, their limits | Your API key, your choice |
| White-label | Extra cost | Included |
| Data ownership | Their servers | Client’s WordPress |
Year 1 profit with Tidio: $13,960 (59% margin). Year 1 profit with one-time licensing: $22,542 (95% margin).
By Year 3? You’ve saved $26,742. That’s the difference between hiring an extra team member or not.
The Real Problem: Team Plans Drain Your Profits
Agencies don’t buy per-site SaaS. You buy team plans. And team plans are brutal.
Tidio Plus costs €749/month, roughly $815. That’s $9,780 per year before you earn anything. ChatBot.com’s Business tier? Unlimited chatbots, but you’ll pay enterprise pricing that makes Tidio look cheap.
Now do the math. You have 20 clients paying $99/month for your AI chatbot service. That’s $23,760/year in revenue. Sounds great until Tidio takes their $9,800 cut.
Your profit: $13,960. A 59% margin. Almost half your revenue goes to the platform vendor.
How It Works for Agencies
Setting this up takes less than an afternoon:
- Buy the license: $249 covers 10 client sites. Scale with additional licenses as needed.
- Get your OpenAI API key: Sign up at platform.openai.com. $5 of credit gets you started.
- Install on client sites: Standard WordPress plugin installation. Takes 5 minutes per site.
- Train on their content: The plugin auto-indexes pages. Clients get AI that actually knows their business.
- Charge clients monthly: $99-199/month for “AI Chatbot Service” is typical agency pricing.
- Keep 95%+ of revenue: Your only ongoing cost is API usage, not platform fees.
Compare this to the Tidio approach where you’re locked into €749/month forever.
Beyond Margins: What Else You Get
Cost savings are the headline. But one-time licensing changes more than your P&L.
Full white-label capability. No “Powered by Tidio” badges. Present the chatbot as your own service. Your branding, your client relationship.
No vendor lock-in. SaaS platforms hold your data hostage. Switch providers and you start from zero. With WordPress-native plugins, everything lives on your client’s server. Export and migrate anytime.
AI model flexibility. Want GPT-5 for premium clients and Gemini Flash for budget-conscious ones? Your call. No vendor markup, no conversation caps, no artificial limits. Learn more about choosing AI providers.
Semantic search included. Most SaaS chatbots use keyword matching. AI Chat & Search Pro uses RAG with vector embeddings for genuinely intelligent responses.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is managing API keys complicated for agencies?
Not at all. You create one OpenAI account, generate one API key, and use it across all client installations. OpenAI’s dashboard shows usage per project. Most agencies spend 10 minutes setting this up once.
What happens if a client needs support?
You handle first-line support as the service provider. For technical issues, purethemes offers direct support for license holders. Most problems are solved through the plugin’s documentation.
How do I scale beyond 20 clients?
Buy additional licenses. Each $249 license covers 10 sites. For 50 clients, you’d spend $1,245 one-time. Tidio would cost you $49,000 over the same period.
What if OpenAI raises their prices?
You control the AI provider. Switch to Gemini, Mistral, or any supported model. SaaS platforms don’t give you this flexibility. You’re stuck paying whatever they charge.
The Bottom Line
SaaS team plans make sense for the platform vendors. They collect €749 every month while you do the work of finding clients and delivering service.
One-time licensing flips that equation. Pay once to purethemes, connect your own API, and keep 95%+ of every dollar your clients pay you. Forever.
For agencies exploring chatbots without monthly fees, the math is clear. Stop subsidizing SaaS platforms. Build a chatbot service with margins that actually make sense.
Ready to keep your revenue? Check AI Chat & Search Pro bulk pricing and see what 95% margins look like.
