Comparison

idea89 vs Clerk.io.

Clerk.io is a personalisation suite — onsite search, recommendation blocks, email, audiences, with a chatbot alongside. idea89 is the conversation itself. Both are strong on Magento, and they overlap less than the category names suggest.

Clerk.io figures on this page were taken from clerk.io/pricing and last checked in September 2026. Pricing changes; check their site before you decide. idea89 prices are in GBP and Clerk.io’s are as published, so the columns are not a like-for-like currency conversion.

Side by side

	idea89	Clerk.io
Pricing	£49 / £149 / £349 per month, flat	Quoted via a pricing calculator rather than fixed published tiers
AI pricing	Included in the plan	Part of the platform pricing
Volume included	1,000 / 10,000 / 50,000 conversations per month	Depends on the quote
Platforms	Magento 2 & Adobe Commerce, Magento 1 & OpenMage LTS, WooCommerce	Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Shopware and others
Primary surface	A conversation on your storefront	Search results, recommendation blocks, emails
Core products	Assistant: search, recommendations, order tracking, store locator	Search, Recommendations, Chat, Audience, Email
Replaces your site search	No — it runs alongside whatever you use	Yes — onsite search is a core product
Trial	Free trial, no card required	See their site for current terms

Where they actually differ

Blocks and results pages, versus a conversation

Clerk’s main surfaces are your search results and recommendation blocks: existing parts of your storefront, made smarter. idea89 adds a new surface, a conversation, for shoppers who would rather ask than browse.

They replace site search; we do not

Clerk’s onsite search is a core product and replaces what you have. idea89 runs its own retrieval inside the assistant and leaves your category and search pages alone, so it does not require changing your search stack.

Published pricing

idea89 publishes three tiers with prices. Clerk quotes through a calculator, so you cannot compare numbers without asking them. Neither approach is wrong, but it does mean this row cannot be filled in honestly from public information.

Email and audiences

Clerk covers email personalisation and audience segmentation. idea89 does not do email marketing at all. If that is part of what you are buying, they are not substitutes.

Which one fits

Choose Clerk.io if…

You want to upgrade onsite search and recommendation blocks, not add a chat surface.
You want email personalisation and audience segmentation in the same tool.
You are happy with quote-based pricing and a larger platform commitment.
Your conversion problem is on category and results pages rather than in questions.

Choose idea89 if…

You want shoppers to be able to ask, in their own words, and get a real answer.
You want published pricing you can compare without a sales call.
You want order tracking and a store locator in the same subscription.
You are on Magento 1 or OpenMage, which Clerk does not target.

Questions about idea89 and Clerk.io

Do idea89 and Clerk.io compete?

Partly. Both improve product discovery on Magento, but through different surfaces: Clerk through search results and recommendation blocks, idea89 through a conversation. Plenty of merchants could run both without redundancy.

Does idea89 replace my onsite search?

No. The assistant has its own retrieval for answering questions, but your category pages and search results keep using whatever powers them today. Nothing has to change to install it.

What does Clerk.io cost?

Clerk quotes through a pricing calculator rather than publishing fixed tiers, so we cannot state a number here honestly. As of September 2026 you need to request a quote from them. idea89's three tiers are published at £49, £149 and £349 per month.

How current are these figures?

Taken from Clerk.io's own site and checked in September 2026. Check clerk.io/pricing for a current quote.

Judge it on your own catalogue.

Run idea89 against your real products in about two minutes and see how it answers. No install, no code, no card.

Try it on your store Start free trial

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