7 Best Intercom Alternatives & Competitors

Intercom is a customer communication platform that includes a live chat functionality, allowing businesses to engage with and support their customers in real-time.

But it has some drawbacks you must know about. First, setting up Intercom takes a lot of time — it’d be better if it were simpler.

Then, the platform’s UI needs improvement because having everything on one page makes it too cluttered which makes it harder for users to find what they need.

Another drawback is the significant price jumps when moving between plans. This prompts users to consider alternative live chat platforms with more budget-friendly pricing.

I’ll introduce you to 7 best Intercom alternatives that come with easier setup processes, improved user interfaces, and more budget-friendly pricing options

1. Freshdesk

Best for: Customer support teams and small businesses

Pricing: Free – $95/agent/mo

Freshdesk is a customer support and helpdesk software that enables businesses to simplify their customer service operations, manage tickets, and provide multi-channel support.

Features

• Web widget
• Team inbox
• Automated chatbots
• Proactive messaging
• Customizable widgets
• File attachments
• Bulk action
• Offline experience
• Task management
• Rules with user properties
• Live translate
• Canned responses
• Conversation history
• User & agent status
• Real-time conversation metrics
• Response speeds metrics
• Customer satisfaction ratings
• Team member performance
• Triggered contextual messages

Freshdesk vs. Intercom

Criteria	Freshdesk	Intercom
Best For	Customer support teams and small businesses	Sales, marketing, and support teams
Standout Feature	Internal task management	Centralized inbox for all conversations
Pricing	Free – $95/agent/mo	$39/user/mo – $139/user/mo

Conclusion

Freshdesk is great for customer success teams because it’s really easy to use. Plus, you can quickly create tickets from chats and use canned responses which saves you some time as you don’t need to type everything from scratch for customer inquiries.

Start 14-day free trial of Freshdesk today

Try Freshdesk for free

2. HubSpot Live Chat

Best for: sales, marketing, and customer support teams, and SMBs

Pricing: Free – $90/user/mo

HubSpot Live Chat is a real-time communication tool integrated into the HubSpot platform, allowing businesses to engage with website visitors and leads through instant messaging.

Features

• Conversation routing
• Targeted messaging
• Chat history logging
• File sharing
• Custom live chat widget
• Feedback surveys
• Visitor segmentation
• Post-chat feedback survey
• Live chat reporting
• Appointment scheduling

Hubspot Live Chat vs. Intercom

Criteria	HubSpot Live Chat	Intercom
Best For	Sales, marketing, and customer support teams, and SMBs	Sales, marketing, and support teams
Standout Feature	Custom live chat widget	Centralized inbox for all conversations
Pricing	Free – $90/user/mo	$39/user/mo – $139/user/mo

Conclusion

HubSpot’s chat widget works smoothly on desktop and mobile browsers. While it may not have as many features as some other Intercom alternatives, it’s a good choice for teams wanting a simple live chat tool.

Get HubSpot Live Chat for free

Try HubSpot Live Chat for free

3. HelpCrunch

Best for: customer support, lead generation, and sales teams

Pricing: €15/user/mo – €620/mo

HelpCrunch is a customer communication platform that offers live chat, email marketing automation, and a knowledge base for businesses.

Features

• Auto messages
• Omnichannel experience
• Self-service tools
• Private notes for team members
• Shared inbox
• Live chat transcripts
• Canned responses
• Live chat widget customization
• Targeted messages (aka in-app messages)
• Chat forms
• Online status indication
• Conversation rating
• Saved responses
• File sharing
• GDPR checkbox
• Assignment rules
• Live visitor profiles
• Customer satisfaction metrics

HelpCrunch vs. Intercom

Criteria	HelpCrunch	Intercom
Best For	Customer support, lead generation, and sales teams	Sales, marketing, and support teams
Standout Feature	Collaboration features	Centralized inbox for all conversations
Pricing	€15/user/mo – €620/mo	$39/user/mo – $139/user/mo

Conclusion

HelpCrunch is a great tool because it puts all your chats, emails, and social media messages in one place, making it easy to manage all your customer interactions.

It also gives you useful details, like a user’s time zone, country, and other important information for your business.

Start 14-day free trial of HelpCrunch today

Try HelpCrunch for free

4. Zendesk

Best for: eCommerce businesses, IT help desks, sales teams, and customer support teams.

Pricing: $25/user/mo – $149/user/mo

Zendesk is a customer service software platform that helps businesses manage and support customer interactions across various channels, including email, chat, and social media.

Features

• Chat automation
• AI responses
• Customer data platform
• Self-serve tools
• Sentiment identification
• Proactive messages
• Inactivity messages
• Intelligent routing
• Chat transfer between agents
• Inbox for all conversations across channels
• Operating hours settings
• Chat widget customization
• JavaScript API
• Visitor banning

Zendesk vs. Intercom

Criteria	Zendesk	Intercom
Best For	eCommerce businesses, IT help desks, sales teams, and customer support teams	Sales, marketing, and support teams
Standout Feature	Intelligent routing to the right agents	Centralized inbox for all conversations
Pricing	$25/user/mo – $149/user/mo	$39/user/mo – $139/user/mo

Conclusion

Zendesk allows customer support agents to help more customers and even manage multiple conversations at once.

What I really like about Zendesk is that it lets you create custom pre-chat forms, so agents can gather information and make the interaction more personal.

5. Drift

Best for: customer support, sales, and marketing teams

Pricing: Starts at $2,500/mo

Drift’s live chat is part of Drift’s customer messaging platform, which includes a chat widget that can be integrated into websites.

Features

• Saved replies
• Conversational ratings
• Internal notes
• Appointment scheduling
• Filter by account, geography & web page
• Lead routing
• Visitor intelligence
• Playbooks
• Automated availability
• Custom bots
• Automated workflows
• A/B testing
• Chat to call & chat to Zoom

Drift vs. Intercom

Criteria	Drift	Intercom
Best For	Customer support, sales, and marketing teams	Sales, marketing, and support teams
Standout Feature	Visitor intelligence	Centralized inbox for all conversations
Pricing	$25/user/mo – $149/user/mo	$39/user/mo – $139/user/mo

Conclusion

Teams use Drift Chat to talk with website visitors in real-time, answering questions and providing support instantly. Playbooks guide teams with pre-built messages for efficient customer interactions.

6. Front

Best for: small businesses, customer support, and customer success teams

Pricing: $29/mo – $79/mo

Front is a help desk platform, specifically for managing live chat interactions. It aggregates and directs customer conversations from different sources, enabling teams to deliver great customer service at scale.

Features

• Chat routing
• Live chat widget customization
• Team collaboration features
• Workflow automation
• Omnichannel inbox
• Knowledge base
• Customer satisfaction surveys
• Message transfer based on keywords & priority
• Workload balancing
• Self-serve tools
• File uploads
• Automatic inactivity detection

Front vs. Intercom

Criteria	Front	Intercom
Best For	Small businesses, customer support and customer success teams	Sales, marketing, and support teams
Standout Feature	Message transfer based on keywords & priority	Centralized inbox for all conversations
Pricing	$29/mo – $79/mo	$39/user/mo – $139/user/mo

Conclusion

You can set up the Front chat widget on your website, mobile app, or product. Customers can either talk directly with your team or find help on their own through your help center.

Another cool thing about Front is that you can customize assistance for each customer using Front’s easy chatbot flow builder.

7. LiveChat

Best for: eCommerce businesses and software/IT companies

Pricing: $20/user/mo – $59/user/mo

LiveChat is a customer service software that provides businesses with a platform for real-time communication with their website visitors.

It offers functionalities like live chat support, a ticketing system, and customer engagement tools.

Features

• Message sneak-peek
• Canned responses
• In-chat voice, video & screen-sharing
• Pre-chat & post-chat surveys
• Cards & carousels
• Agent rating
• Chat transfer
• Chat widget customization
• 200+ integrations
• Chat takeover
• Chat history & transcripts
• Private comments in a chat
• Widget look customization
• Internal notes
• Proactive chats
• Chat limit
• Reports & analytics

LiveChat vs. Intercom

Criteria	LiveChat	Intercom
Best For	eCommerce businesses and software/IT companies	Sales, marketing, and support teams
Standout Feature	In-chat voice, video & screen-sharing	Centralized inbox for all conversations
Pricing	$20/user/mo – $59/user/mo	$39/user/mo – $139/user/mo

Conclusion

Teams use LiveChat to quickly solve issues, use premade responses, and handle many similar tickets simultaneously. You can also organize tickets by adding tags and grouping them based on specific filters.

Start 14-day free trial of LiveChat today

Try LiveChat for free

Which Intercom alternative should I use?

If you’re looking for helpdesk software that offers features like proactive messaging, file attachments, and task management for teams to handle customer conversations, then try Freshdesk.

If you manage a customer support team with multiple agents and need a system that can smartly direct inquiries to the appropriate agents and identify customer sentiments, HubSpot Live Chat is a good choice for you.

A quick recap of Intercom alternatives:

1. Freshdesk
2. HubSpot Live Chat
3. HelpCrunch
4. Zendesk
5. Drift
6. Front
7. HelpCrunch
8. LiveChat