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.

How does it work?

Crisp offers a free Staging environment for any workspace subscribed to a paid Crisp Essentials or Plus plan.

This allows you to test and integrate all Crisp features in a dedicated development/staging mode (for instance: Crisp Chatbox JS SDK, Crisp Automated Campaigns, etc.), without "polluting" your primary production website Crisp team.

How do I create a sandbox mode workspace?

The sandbox mode has to be manually validated by our team. You will need to contact our chat support so that we can enable it for you.

Before you contact our support:

• Create a second website, subscribed to Crisp Free plan
• Name it similarly to your main Essentials/Plus workspace, with a Staging or Sandbox suffix, e.g. "CookieFactory Staging"

While contacting our support:

• Provide your workspace name;
• Provide your workspace 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);
• Inform 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:

1. Your primary (production) Crisp website has an active Crisp Essentials subscription;
2. 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:

1. A sticky banner reminds you that the website is running in sandbox mode (this cannot be closed or hidden);
2. 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);
3. 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: 15/01/2026