15 Best Intercom Alternatives for SaaS Companies (2023)

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!

TL;DR

• Teams may look for Intercom alternatives because of its steep learning curve, counterintuitive and cluttered UI, low speed, limited customization, and high costs.
• Userpilot is an excellent onboarding tool that enables effective in-app communication and on-demand user support.
• Pendo offers in-app messaging and onboarding features for mobile apps.
• Help Scout is a customer service software offering shared inboxes, live chat, and in-app messaging.
• Zendesk stands out as a top customer service platform for enterprise companies, providing omnichannel communication and customizable automation features.
• Freshdesk is one of the free Intercom alternatives focusing on in-app support, with features like multichannel support, a ticketing system, and collision detection.
• HubSpot Service Hub is an ideal Intercom alternative for growing businesses, offering features like multichannel support, shared inboxes, and conversational bots.
• Tidio shines as the best option for customer communication through AI-powered chat widgets long after your agents have gone home.
• HappyFox serves as the best alternative to traditional help desk software, offering features like multichannel support, a ticketing system, and a knowledge base.
• LiveAgent excels as an Intercom competitor for live chat automation, offering customizable live chat and call center features.
• Crisp is a standout choice for managing customer support tickets, featuring a website chat widget and live translation.
• Front is a strong contender as an email marketing automation substitute, providing collaborative inboxes and multichannel communication.
• Zoho Desk proves to be the best option for tracking different customer interactions and requests, featuring multichannel support and AI-powered automation.
• LiveChat excels at qualifying website visitors into leads, offering multiple channels and canned responses.
• HelpCrunch is a versatile messaging platform for different communication channels, offering multichannel messaging and advanced customization.
• Twilio is the go-to solution for managing customer data, with Twilio Segment and Engage for personalized experiences.
• To see how Userpilot could replace Intercom, book the demo!

Why is an Intercom alternative needed?

Intercom is a messaging platform and onboarding tool that enables SaaS businesses to communicate with their customers in an efficient way.

Despite its strengths, like the ability to automate personalized messages across different channels for multiple user segments or the analytics and reporting features, it has its drawbacks.

These include:

• Steep learning curve – Intercom isn’t a simple solution to implement or use, which may put off non-tech teams.
• Counterintuitive and cluttered UI – it’s easy to take the wrong action like sending a blanket email to all your users.
• Speed – messages take time to load and send.
• Limited customization.
• High cost – Intercome charges per team member seats and the number of customers you reach, which builds up quickly.

15 best alternatives to Intercom in 2023

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 user onboarding, customer engagement, and in-app support

Userpilot is a product adoption platform that enables teams to design personalized onboarding experiences and provide on-demand support in-app.

Its main features include:

• Highly customizable UI patterns for in-app messaging (tooltips, modals, slideouts, banners, driven actions, and hotspots)

• Interactive walkthroughs and checklists for customer onboarding

• Resource center for on-demand support

• In-app surveys with multiple templates for collecting customer feedback
• AI-powered writing assistant to improve the quality of the microcopy
• Analytics features to track product performance and engagement with in-app experiences
• Content localization
• Integrations with analytics, feedback, and CRM tools

Userpilot pricing

Userpilot has 3 pricing plans:

• Starter – from $249/month
• Growth – custom pricing
• Enterprise – custom pricing.

Before you commit to any of them, you can book a live demo and try it out for free for 14 days.

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

Despite the free plan, Pendo is not cheap. Overall, it offers 4 pricing plans:

• Free – up to 500 Monthly Active Users (MAUs)
• Starter – from $7,000/year for up to 2,000 MAUs and $35,000/year for 10,000 MAUs
• Growth – custom pricing
• Portfolio – custom pricing

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

Help Scout pricing

Help Scout provides 3 pricing plans:

• Standard – from $20/user/month
• Plus – from $40/user/month
• Pro – from $65/user/month

On top of that, you may also need to pay extra for in-app messages if you exceed 2,000 unique viewers per month.

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

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

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 pipelines automation
• Conversational bots
• Reporting dashboards
• Email and meeting scheduling

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

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

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

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

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

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 a multitude of 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 a number of 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

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)

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

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 a number of 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

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

How to choose the best Intercom alternative for your SaaS product?

When choosing an Intercom alternative, there are two main factors to consider: functionality and pricing structure.

Start by listing your use cases and look for tools that enable you to achieve your goals. For example, if you’re looking for a tool for in-app guidance and support, Userpilot and Pendo could be two possible options.

If you’re an existing Intercom user, consider the switching costs. How expensive it is to migrate the data into the new solution?

When comparing prices, look at the details of the pricing plans. Pay particular attention to the usage limits. If you’re a large company, you may be interested in the unlimited chat history which is unlikely to be available in any of the free and lowest pricing plans.

Before you make the final decision, it’s worth booking a demo or taking advantage of the free trial whenever available. It will help you verify if the product really meets your needs and see how its UI works for you and your team.

Conclusion

There are a number of 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!