How can I get Crisp Essentials for my development or staging website? (sandbox mode)
A lot of complex websites run over multiple environments (production, staging, development). While it is okay to run the same Crisp website on all your environments, some may prefer to have a separate "sandbox" Crisp website for their development and staging environments.
Crisp offers a free Crisp Essentials subscription for any website subscribed to a paid Crisp Essentials plan, so that this website can get a dedicated Crisp website for their development or staging environment. This allows you to test and integrate all Crisp features to your website in development or staging mode (for instance: Crisp Chatbox JS SDK, Crisp Automated Campaigns, etc.), without "polluting" your primary production website Crisp team.
We call this the sandbox mode. It offers all features of your main Crisp Essentials plans in a second Crisp website, for free; as long as you're subscribed to Crisp Essentials on the primary website.
The sandbox mode is applied manually for your secondary website. You should contact our chat support so that we can apply it to your account.
Before you contact our support:
Create a second website, subscribed to Crisp Free
While contacting our support:
Provide your website name;
Provide your website domain;
Submit the value of your CRISP_WEBSITE_ID (it can be found in your chatbox code)
Upon the support accepting your request to create a sandbox website:
Upgrade the second website to Crisp Essentials (you will not be charged immediately);
Tell the support the second website has been upgraded;
Wait for the support to apply the sandbox mode to this website (you will not pay anything);
Logout and login to your Crisp app, and enjoy sandbox mode on your development or staging website
In order to get your development or staging Crisp website subscribed to a sandbox subscription, please check that the following requirements are met:
Your primary (production) Crisp website has an active Crisp Essentials subscription;
Your secondary (staging or development) Crisp website has the name of your primary website, ending with "dev" or "staging"
There's not much difference between a full subscription, and a free sandbox subscription, other than the free sandbox subscription should only be used for development purposes on your local development website, or your staging website.
Some limitations are applied in the way Crisp can be used in the sandbox environment:
A sticky banner reminds you that the website is running in sandbox mode (this cannot be closed or hidden);
Each message can only be sent after a few second through the inbox (a modal will open, prompting you to confirm that you want to send the message);
The number of recipients you can send a campaign to is limited, well under normal limits (read our article about campaign recipient limits )
How does it work?
Crisp offers a free Crisp Essentials subscription for any website subscribed to a paid Crisp Essentials plan, so that this website can get a dedicated Crisp website for their development or staging environment. This allows you to test and integrate all Crisp features to your website in development or staging mode (for instance: Crisp Chatbox JS SDK, Crisp Automated Campaigns, etc.), without "polluting" your primary production website Crisp team.
We call this the sandbox mode. It offers all features of your main Crisp Essentials plans in a second Crisp website, for free; as long as you're subscribed to Crisp Essentials on the primary website.
How do I create a sandbox mode website?
The sandbox mode is applied manually for your secondary website. You should contact our chat support so that we can apply it to your account.
Before you contact our support:
Create a second website, subscribed to Crisp Free
While contacting our support:
Provide your website name;
Provide your website domain;
Submit the value of your CRISP_WEBSITE_ID (it can be found in your chatbox code)
Upon the support accepting your request to create a sandbox website:
Upgrade the second website to Crisp Essentials (you will not be charged immediately);
Tell the support the second website has been upgraded;
Wait for the support to apply the sandbox mode to this website (you will not pay anything);
Logout and login to your Crisp app, and enjoy sandbox mode on your development or staging website
What are the requirements to get a sandbox subscription?
In order to get your development or staging Crisp website subscribed to a sandbox subscription, please check that the following requirements are met:
Your primary (production) Crisp website has an active Crisp Essentials subscription;
Your secondary (staging or development) Crisp website has the name of your primary website, ending with "dev" or "staging"
What's the difference of a sandbox versus a normal plan subscription?
There's not much difference between a full subscription, and a free sandbox subscription, other than the free sandbox subscription should only be used for development purposes on your local development website, or your staging website.
Some limitations are applied in the way Crisp can be used in the sandbox environment:
A sticky banner reminds you that the website is running in sandbox mode (this cannot be closed or hidden);
Each message can only be sent after a few second through the inbox (a modal will open, prompting you to confirm that you want to send the message);
The number of recipients you can send a campaign to is limited, well under normal limits (read our article about campaign recipient limits )
Updated on: 04/11/2024
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