Intercom alternatives
At 1 agent, Intercom costs $29 a month. 2 help desks cost less, from $23 (Freshdesk). The closest match, HubSpot, covers 99% of what Intercom does. Each one shows how much of it it covers, capability by capability, next to the price.
What Intercom does
Core: AI answers for customers, Website chat widget, Human handoff & escalation, AI copilot for support agents, Email ticketing & shared inbox, In-app announcements, Behavioral targeting.
Important: Grounded answers & guardrails, Runs in your help desk (partly), Email ticket automation, WhatsApp & social messaging, Actions & customer data, Visual flow builder, Conversation analytics, Testing & answer correction, Multilingual answers, In-app support SDK, Security & compliance, Public help center & docs, Workflows & routing, SLAs, reporting & CSAT (partly), Customer profiles & context, Integrations & API, Security & compliance (partly), Live in-app tours (partly), Lead capture and CRM sync (partly), In-app NPS & microsurveys (partly), Resource center and changelog (partly), Multi-language content (partly), Data integrations and API (partly), Security and compliance.
Also has: AI phone agent, Lead capture & qualification, API & webhooks, Built-in business calling (partly), Agent mobile apps, E-commerce order actions (partly), Slack & Teams customer channels (partly), Multiple brands & stores (partly), Onboarding checklists (partly), Personalized branching demos (partly), Tour and demo analytics (partly), Product analytics (partly), A/B testing of flows (partly), Native mobile app guides (partly).
Alternatives to Intercom at 1 agent, best match first
- Zendesk: $25/mo Per agent; AI usage and add-ons excluded (Support Team plan, 1 agent, monthly billing). It covers 96% of Intercom; missing or partial: In-app announcements (partly), Lead capture & qualification (partly), API & webhooks (partly). Free plan: none.
- Freshdesk: $23/mo Growth plan; AI sessions and add-ons extra (Growth plan, 1 agent, billed monthly). It covers 94% of Intercom; missing or partial: In-app announcements (partly), AI phone agent (partly), Lead capture & qualification (partly), API & webhooks (partly), Agent mobile apps (partly). Free plan: none. Last price hike: Jul 2026.
Other kinds of products that cover part of Intercom
- HubSpot (CRM): covers 99% of Intercom; missing or partial: Agent mobile apps (partly)
- Salesforce (CRM): covers 99% of Intercom; missing or partial: Agent mobile apps (partly)
- Chatbase (AI support agents): covers 64% of Intercom; missing or partial: AI copilot for support agents, Email ticketing & shared inbox (partly), In-app announcements (partly), In-app support SDK (partly), Public help center & docs (partly)
- Fin (Intercom) (AI support agents): covers 64% of Intercom; missing or partial: Email ticketing & shared inbox, In-app announcements, Public help center & docs (partly), Workflows & routing (partly), Customer profiles & context
- Aircall (Business phone): covers 47% of Intercom; missing or partial: Website chat widget, AI copilot for support agents (partly), Email ticketing & shared inbox, In-app announcements, WhatsApp & social messaging (partly)
- Sprout Social (Social media tools): covers 33% of Intercom; missing or partial: AI answers for customers, Website chat widget, AI copilot for support agents (partly), Email ticketing & shared inbox, In-app announcements
Prices at every size
- Intercom: 1 agent $29/mo, a 3-agent team $87/mo, a 10-agent team $290/mo (Annual billing: $19/seat/mo)
- Zendesk: 1 agent $25/mo, a 3-agent team $75/mo, a 10-agent team $250/mo (Per agent; AI usage and add-ons excluded)
- Freshdesk: 1 agent $23/mo, a 3-agent team $69/mo, a 10-agent team $230/mo (Growth plan; AI sessions and add-ons extra)
Cheapest paid hosted plan, billed monthly, that gives every agent a full seat and covers the month's conversations (1 agent / 100, 3 agents / 600, 10 agents / 2,000), plus overage when that is cheaper. Free plans, AI-agent usage fees, phone minutes and messaging carrier fees are not counted.
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Everything about Intercom's own prices and price hikes: Intercom.