15 Best Intercom Alternatives in 2024

Are you looking for solid Intercom alternatives but not sure which one to pick?

If so, you’re in the right place, as this article discusses 15 tools that are excellent alternatives to Intercom and will help you optimize customer service processes and deliver outstanding self-service support.

Let’s get right into them, one by one!

What is Intercom

Intercom is a customer service platform. It offers customizable live chat widgets, omnichannel support capabilities, and integrations with over 300 apps. While Intercom is primarily a support solution, it does have add-ons that offer other functionalities such as product tours.

The Product Tours add-on contains features that aid onboarding, adoption, and feature discovery. Intercom’s product tours can include UI patterns like modals and tooltips as well as other media formats such as microvideos.

Overall, Intercom aims to increase customer satisfaction, strengthen customer relationships, and improve customer experience through personalized support.

Intercom features

Intercom offers a range of features aimed at facilitating customer support agents’ work. Some key features include:

• Live Chat Software: Real-time messaging allows businesses to engage with website visitors or app users instantly, answering questions, providing support, and guiding them through the sales process.
• Targeted Messages: Businesses can send personalized messages based on user behavior, such as onboarding messages for new sign-ups or targeted promotions for specific segments of users.
• Email Campaigns: Intercom enables businesses to create and send targeted email campaigns to engage with customers outside of the app or website.
• User Segmentation: Users can be segmented based on various criteria such as behavior, demographics, or location, allowing for more personalized and targeted messaging.
• Automation: Intercom offers automation tools to streamline customer communication, such as automated messages to common queries or triggered messages based on user actions.
• In-App Messaging: Businesses can communicate with users directly within their app, providing announcements, updates, or support without users having to leave the app.
• Knowledge Base: Intercom allows businesses to create and manage a knowledge base or help center, providing a self-service portal for customers.
• Customer Data Platform (CDP): Intercom integrates with other systems and collects customer data from various touchpoints, providing businesses with insights to better understand and engage with their customers.
• Team Collaboration: Intercom provides tools for team collaboration, allowing multiple team members to manage and respond to customer messages efficiently, increasing customer service performance.
• Analytics: Businesses can track key metrics such as message engagement, user activity, and conversion rates to measure the effectiveness of their communication efforts and make data-driven decisions in order to provide excellent customer service.

These features collectively help businesses build stronger relationships with their customers, provide quality customer service, and drive growth by increasing customer engagement and satisfaction.

Why you might need an Intercom alternative?

While Intercom is a flexible and popular solution when it comes to customer service, there are certain use cases where it will likely fall short compared to other options.

If you’re in any of these scenarios, you should look for an alternative platform for your needs:

• Onboarding and Adoption: If onboarding new users and driving product adoption are your primary use cases then Intercom may not be the best choice. Its Product Tours add-on is quite limited compared to dedicated adoption platforms (and costs almost as much).
• Budget Constraints: Early-stage SaaS companies with a limited budget should be wary of Intercom’s pricing model. Its entry-level plan starts at an affordable $74/month but getting the Product Tours add-on and extra team seats could lead to your subscription cost skyrocketing.
• Mobile Apps: While Intercom’s core features like the live chat messenger work on mobile apps, its product tours add-on is only compatible with desktop platforms.

Other than those limitations, some customers were upset by the lack of transparent billing, inadequate support experience, constant upsells, and restrictive feature limitations:

“Purposely opaque and dishonest billing systems.

Incompetent staff.

Once you have it installed they exploit you for CONSTANT fee hikes.

Constant pitches to upgrade plans and required extra fees.

Unnecessary limitations on features”

15 Best Intercom Alternatives in 2024

Below you’ll find the best Intercom alternatives for different use cases. Each comes with an overview of its features plus pricing.

1. Userpilot: Best for in-app engagement and support

Userpilot is a comprehensive product growth platform so its onboarding, adoption, and analytics capabilities far exceed that of Intercom’s Product Tours add-on:

Here’s an overview of Userpilot’s in-app support capabilities:

• Resource center: Userpilot in-app resource centers let you add flows, checklists, external links, tutorial videos, external knowledge bases, and chatbots. You’ll also be able to view resource center analytics so you can check its performance.
• Native tooltips: In-app support must be proactive — which is why you should insert tooltips that guide users before they even think to open the resource center. Userpilot lets you add native tooltips that appear whenever users hover over an element or click on the info badge.

• Contextual flows: Userpilot’s trigger settings let you create contextual flows that automatically appear when a user reaches a certain page or performs a specific action. This can be used to offer in-app guidance and support whenever users try out a feature for the first time.
• Intercom integration: While Intercom is famous for its live chat embeds, you can do more than that by integrating it with Userpilot. You’ll see which events a user has done within Userpilot and whether or not they’ve completed onboarding to personalize support accordingly.

Userpilot pricing

Userpilot’s transparent pricing ranges from $249/month on the entry-level end to an Enterprise tier for larger companies.

Furthermore, Userpilot’s entry-level plan includes access to all UI patterns and should include everything that most mid-market SaaS businesses need to get started.

Userpilot has three paid plans to choose from:

• Starter: The entry-level Starter plan starts at $249/month and includes features like segmentation, product analytics, reporting, user engagement, NPS feedback, and customization.
• Growth: The Growth plan starts at $749/month and includes features like resource centers, advanced event-based triggers, unlimited feature tagging, AI-powered content localization, EU hosting options, and a dedicated customer success manager.
• Enterprise: The Enterprise plan uses custom pricing and includes all the features from Starter + Growth plus custom roles/permissions, access to premium integrations, priority support, custom contract, SLA, SAML SSO, activity logs, security audit, and compliance (SOC 2/GDPR).

2. Pendo: Best for providing proactive customer support on mobile apps

Pendo is another product adoption platform in our roundup. Just like Userpilot, it offers you tools for onboarding, in-app communication, and customer support. You can also use it for employee onboarding and it works on mobile apps as well as web ones.

Pendo features include:

• In-app guides – lightboxes, banners, tooltips, and walkthroughs for messaging and onboarding
• Guide templates
• Resource Center
• Localization
• Advanced analytics and reporting functionality
• Survey tools, including a dedicated NPS dashboard

Pendo pricing

Pricing for paid Pendo plans is only provided on a quote basis and there are no listed price ranges on the solution’s website. That said, certain reviews have stated that prices start at upwards of $20,000 per year for a single product and more than twice that for higher plans.

Pendo has two paid plans and one free version that is limited to 500 MAUs which makes it accessible to startups but difficult to scale in the long run.

Here are the differences between each Pendo plan:

• Pendo Free: The free version of Pendo can accommodate 500 MAUs and has features like native analytics dashboards, feature tagging, event tracking, segmentation, NPS surveys (with Pendo branding), analytics reports, and in-app guides.
• Growth: Pendo’s Growth plan is designed to be used for a single web or mobile app but can accommodate a custom number of MAUs. It includes features like native analytics dashboards, in-app guides, NPS surveys and response tracking, and customer support.
• Portfolio: Pendo’s Portfolio plan is targeted towards customers who want to use the tool for multiple web and/or mobile apps. Features include guide experiment capabilities, cross-app executive dashboards, cross-app journey reporting, and access to product engagement scores.

3. Help Scout: Best customer service software

Help Scout is a customer support helpdesk platform designed to manage and streamline customer communication and interactions. It is used by businesses to simplify their email support and provide automated customer service.

Main Help Scout features include:

• Shared inboxes for dealing with customer emails as a team.
• Live chat.
• Beacon help widget for in-app support.
• In-app messaging.
• Analytics and reporting features.
• Workflow automation.
• Help center for self-serve support.

Intercom alternatives: Help Scout.

Help Scout pricing

Help Scout offers three different pricing plans, with the total cost based on the number of users.

The plans include:

• Standard: It starts at $20 per user per month (billed annually) or $25 per user per month (billed monthly). It includes 2 shared inboxes and 1 Doc knowledge base. Also, you’ll have to pay extra for in-app messaging if the total number of viewers exceeds 2000.
• Plus: It starts at $40 per user per month (billed annually) or $50 per user per month (billed monthly). It includes everything in the Standard plan, along with advanced analytics, custom reporting, AI features, and integration with popular apps like Salesforce and HubSpot.
• Pro: It starts at $65 per user per month and only offers an annual subscription. It includes everything in the Plus plan, along with concierge onboarding services, a dedicated account manager, and enterprise-level security and compliance.

While the Standard plan is suitable for small teams with limited budgets, the Pro plan is a good fit for large businesses. However, keep in mind that pricing is based on the number of users, and the costs can quickly escalate as your team grows.

Help Scout offers a 15-day free trial that allows you to test various features and tools and determine whether it’s the right fit for your needs.

4. Zendesk: Best customer service platform for enterprise companies

Zendesk is a well-known customer service platform for large companies. It enables teams to streamline their interactions with customers and provide high-quality timely support.

What customer service tools does Zendesk offer? They include:

• Omni channel communication – email, chat, voice, and social messaging.
• Help Center.
• Bots, pre-defined responses, and customized business rules to automate support.
• A marketplace with 1,000+ integrations to expand functionality and improve data flow.
• Analytics dashboards.

Intercom alternatives: Zendesk.

Zendesk pricing

Zendesk’s premium functionality commands premium pricing. The 4 paid plans are:

• Team – $55/agent/month
• Growth – $89/agent/month
• Professional – $115/agent/month
• Enterprise – custom pricing

5. Freshdesk: Free Intercom alternative for live chat support

Freshdesk is a customer support and help desk software that enables businesses to manage customer inquiries and tickets and provide in-app support.

It offers a variety of features to enhance business productivity and customer satisfaction:

• Multichannel support – email, phone, chat, social media, etc.
• Integrated ticketing system across all channels.
• Ticket dispatch customization to assign tickets to the right team automatically.
• Knowledge base.
• Collision detection to avoid duplicating work.
• Help desk and ticket reporting to stay on top of the demand.

Intercom alternatives: Freshdesk.

Freshdesk pricing

Freshdesk offers a very generous Free plan for up to 10 agents. To support more agents or use more advanced features, you need one of the 3 paid plans:

• Growth – from $15/agent/month
• Pro – from $49/agent/month
• Enterprise – from $79/agent/month

6. HubSpot Service Hub: Best Intercom alternative for growing businesses

HubSpot is a well-established brand in the SaaS space. Apart from its CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions, it also offers bespoke tools for automating and streamlining customer service and support operations.

Its key features include:

• Multichannel support – email, live chat, Facebook Messenger, etc.
• Shared inboxes.
• Ticket pipeline automation.
• Conversational bots.
• Reporting dashboards.
• Email and meeting scheduling.

Intercom alternatives: HubSpot.

You can also integrate HubSpot and Userpilot for omnichannel customer engagement and support.

 

HubSpot Service Hub pricing

Hubspot Service Hub comes with 4 pricing plans:

• Free
• Starter – from $18/month (2 users + $9 for every new user).
• Professional – from $450/month (5 users + $90 for every new user).
• Enterprise – from $1,200/month (10 users + $120 for every new user).

7. Tidio: Best for customer communication via chat widget functionality

Tidio is a customer support application that enables teams to support customers after hours in multiple languages across different sites and via multiple channels, including the chat widget.

Tidio’s main features include:

• AI-powered conversations and replies.
• Email, live chat, and social media support.
• Instagram and Messenger integration.
• Ticketing system.
• Satisfaction surveys.

Intercom alternatives: Tidio.

Tidio pricing

Tidio has 5 pricing plans:

• Free
• Starter – from $29/seat/month.
• Communicator – from $25/seat/month.
• Chatbots – from $29/seat/month.
• Tidio+ – from $394/seat/month.

8. HappyFox: Best help desk software alternative

HappyFox is a cloud-based customer support software that offers helpdesk and ticket support solutions to businesses of all sizes.

Some of its many features include:

• Multichannel support – including email, social media, phone, and live chat.
• Ticketing system.
• Automation and canned actions to speed up responses and routine activities.
• Knowledge base/help center.
• Satisfaction surveys.

Intercom alternatives: HappyFox.

HappyFox pricing

HappyFox is available through one of its 4 plans:

• Mighty – $26/agent/month.
• Fantastic – $39/agent/month.
• Enterprise – $52/agent/month.
• Enterprise Plus – $64/agent/month.

9. LiveAgent: Best Intercom competitor for live chat automation

LiveAgent is another help desk software solution for customer support teams. It’s best known for its excellent live chat automation features.

What features does LiveAgent offer?

• Highly customizable live chat feature for support in multiple languages.
• Call center features like an automatic callback or call recordings.
• Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Viber integrations.
• Ticketing system.
• Knowledge base.
• Customizable reports to evaluate process and agent performance.
• Workflow automation with event rules.

Intercom alternatives: LiveAgent.

LiveAgent pricing

There are 4 LiveAgent plans:

• Small – from $9/agent/month.
• Medium – from $29/agent/month.
• Large – from $49/agent/month.
• Enterprise – from $69/agent/month.

10. Crisp: Best alternative for managing customer support tickets

Crisp is a customer messaging platform that enables businesses to communicate with their customers through various channels, including live chat, email, text messages, and social media.

It provides tools that facilitate real-time interactions and support, allowing businesses to manage support tickets effectively.

What features does Crisp offer?

• Website chat widget with chatbots.
• Shared inboxes.
• Event-based chat triggering.
• Email, Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Twitter integrations – to name a few.
• Live translation for localized support.
• Knowledge base.

Intercom alternatives: Crisp.

Crisp pricing

Crisp offers 3 pricing plans:

• Free
• Pro – from $25/workspace/month.
• Unlimited – from $95/workspace/month.

11. Front: Best email marketing automation substitute

Front is a customer communication platform that allows non-support teams to manage customers’ emails effectively. It can be used effectively to automate your email marketing campaigns.

Main Front features include:

• Intuitive UI inspired by Gmail design.
• Collaborative inboxes.
• Omnichannel communication – email, WhatsApp, SMS, 3rd party instant messages, website forms, voice.
• Live chat widget and chatbots.
• Knowledge base (coming soon).
• CRM features for customer management.

Intercom alternatives: Front.

Front pricing

Depending on your needs, you can choose one of 3 Front’s plans:

• Starter – from $19/seat/month
• Growth – from $59/seat/month
• Scale – from $99/seat/month
• Premier – from $229/seat/month

12. Zoho Desk: Best for tracking different customer interactions and requests

Zoho Desk is a customer support software that provides many features to streamline ticket management, enhance agent productivity, and improve customer communication. Its analytics features make it an excellent choice for tracking customer interactions and requests.

Zoho Desk offers several advanced features for customer support and communication:

• Support through multiple channels – email, live chat, instant messaging, social media, telephone, etc.
• Ticket management features.
• AI-powered automation and process management tools.
• Help center.
• High levels of help desk customization.
• Pre-defined and custom reports and dashboards.

Intercom alternatives: Zoho Desk.

Zoho Desk pricing

Zoho Desk offers 3 pricing plans:

• Standard – from $14/user/month.
• Professional – from $23/user/month.
• Enterprise – from $40/user/month.

13. LiveChat: Best for qualifying website visitors into leads

LiveChat is a powerful customer messaging platform that excels at engaging website visitors in real-time through live chat, making it an ideal tool for converting website visitors into potential leads?

What features does it offer?

• Multiple channels – website, apps, live chat, messenger, Apple Messages for Business, SMS.
• Canned responses for increasing team velocity and automating routine interactions.
• Message monitoring features.
• Analytics and reporting for evaluation of the team and agent performance.
• In-app communication for better engagement (automated greetings, announcements, eye-catcher).

Intercom alternatives: LiveChat.

LiveChat pricing

LiveChat provides 4 pricing plans for different teams:

• Starter – for small offices – from $20/agent/month.
• Team – for dedicated support teams – from $41/agent/month.
• Business – for customer service departments – from $59/agent/month.
• Enterprise – for large global businesses – custom pricing.

14. HelpCrunch: Best messaging platform for different communication channels

HelpCrunch is a messaging platform that stands out for its ability to handle communication across various channels, including live chat, email, and social media.

It enables businesses to engage with customers seamlessly, making it the ideal choice for managing diverse communication channels effectively.

HelpCrunch features include:

• Multichannel messaging – email, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, live chat.
• Shared inboxes.
• Live chat widget and chatbots.
• Multilanguage knowledge base.
• Advanced customization and automation features.
• Email marketing campaigns.
• Popups for in-app messaging and announcements.

Intercom alternatives: HelpCrunch.

HelpCrunch pricing

HelpCrunch has a very simple pricing structure built around 3 plans:

• Basic – from $12/month.
• Pro – from $20/month.
• Unlimited – from $396/month.

15. Twilio: Best for managing customer data

Twilio offers several solutions for managing different aspects of customer support and communication. It stands out for its customer data management tools that allow businesses to leverage customer information to build stronger relationships.

Twilio’s features include:

• Segment – for managing customer information.
• Engage – for delivering personalized customer experiences across different channels.
• Flex – a contact center with intelligent conversation routing.
• SMS and WhatsApp integration.
• Multichannel conversations – SMS, WhatsApp, Chat, SMS, MMS.

Intercom alternatives: Twilio.

Twilio pricing

The company offers a flexible pricing structure that allows you to mix and match the services you use and pay for them based on your needs.

Twilio Segment has 3 pricing plans:

• Free
• Team – from $120/month.
• Business – custom pricing.

Conclusion

There are some excellent Intercom alternatives that are cheaper, easier to implement and use, and more reliable.

When choosing a solution to replace Intercom, make sure it offers the features you need and is priced to meet your budget.

If you want to see how you can deploy Userpilot for in-app communication and guidance, book the demo!