Freshdesk vs Intercom: Most Detailed Analysis of 2023

When you go out looking for customer service software, a few names will surely pop up. Two of them are Freshdesk and Intercom. 

You’ll see plenty of features when you go to their respective websites. Both of them seem to be the perfect software for you.

And then comes the confusion. The confusion about which software is the best for you. While both software may have their respective places in the industry, they also serve different kinds of businesses.

We are finding out today whether Freshdesk or Intercom is for you or none of them. Keep reading our detailed comparison guide of Freshdesk vs Intercom to determine which suits you.

What is Freshdesk?

In 2010, Girish Mathrubutham founded Freshworks, the parent company of Freshdesk, in India. Over the years, Freshworks has experienced rapid growth and expansion, securing significant funding. This leading software company has developed various customer service tools to support its success.

Freshdesk, one of their offerings, is a help desk platform that consolidates customer interactions from multiple channels like email, chat, phone, social media, and more. It enables businesses to address client requests and issues efficiently. The platform offers self-service options for customers, automates repetitive tasks, and fosters team collaboration.

With its user-friendly interface and robust features, Freshdesk is a powerful tool suitable for businesses of different sizes, delivering a seamless support experience.

What is Intercom?

To assist organizations in improving customer connections through individualized, messenger-based experiences, Intercom, a SaaS firm, was established in 2011. The organization provides services to businesses worldwide with offices in San Francisco, Dublin, Sydney, and other cities. 

Intercom is a conversational platform that customizes messaging across the customer journey using customer, business, and behavioral data. It provides proactive tours to get started with the platform, self-service features, marketing campaigns, chatbots, and more. Users can communicate with consumers across all channels using collaborative inboxes, reporting, and automated workflows.

Features: Freshdesk vs Intercom

The features you get with each customer support software are the first consideration. And, of course, the most important one as well. Here are how Freshdesk and Intercom compare based on various features.

01. Ticket Management

Freshdesk 

• It comes with a team inbox where your customer support team can track and manage support tickets from multiple channels in one place

• Agent collision detection to ensure that only one agent is working on a ticket at a time

• Set deadlines for your agents for ticket response and resolution

• Ticket categorization, prioritization, and routing suggestions

• Create custom statuses that suit your workflow to identify what stage a ticket is in

• Assign tickets to agents based on their current workload and skill or use the round-robin method

Intercom

• It comes with a single shared inbox in the basic plan; multiple shared inboxes are available in the Pro and Premium plans only

• Assign tickets to suitable agents manually or by creating an automatic workflow. Round-robin assignments are also available with Premium and Pro plans.

• Team macros can be applied to tickets with a single click to perform a predefined set of actions

• Create your own assignment rules, priority rules, and ticket chat rules

• Other features like saved replies, conversation-tagged rules, conversation ratings, office hours, and customer inbox views are available

02. Self-Service

Freshdesk 

• Create your knowledge base and update articles based on user preferences

• Monitor article metrics like the number of views, likes, and dislikes. Reset metrics when the article is revamped.

• Let agents convert their ticket replies into knowledge-based articles as they reply

• Helpful solutions can be shown based on your customers’ location — on your website, mobile app, or even chat!

Intercom

• Ability to create and publish insightfularticles about common topics using Intercom’s help center

• Wherever needed, you may easily add photos, videos , and call-to-action buttons using its editor

• You get to modify your material for various audiences, including website visitors and customers.

• Readers can easily connect with an agent if they require more assistance thanks to the Intercom Messenger widget on every article

• Intercom also lets you create community forums for users to interact with each other and get help

• Additionally, users can make resource requests via live chat or a chatbot

03. Automation

Freshdesk 

• Ticket dispatch, a system that automatically assigns tickets to agents or groups based on keywords, requesters, or properties, streamlining the ticket management process.

• Event-triggered automation that lets you implement one or more actions on specific tickets as soon as an event happens

• Intelligent ticket distribution that uses the round-robin system or assigns tickets to agents based on their workload, skill level, or both

Intercom

• Fin–their own AI bot that resolves 50% of queries by looking at articles, guides, and instructions provided

• Send targeted and personalized messages to customers based on specific triggers or actions

• Set up rules and workflows to automatically assign conversations to specific team members or teams based on criteria such as message content, user attributes, or conversation status

04. Reporting

Freshdesk 

• You may design or customize your reports with Freshdesk Analytics with little to no coding

• Customizable team dashboards that display the metrics you wish to see

• Built-in reports about response times, customer satisfaction, and agent performance

• GoodData integration that lets you build reports from scratch, alert administrators anytime there is a spike or drop in numbers

Intercom

• Curated reports on performance metrics, conversation volume and trends, and team and agent performance

• A dedicated reporting dashboard is available, but real-time data costs more

• Provides customizable reporting features, allowing businesses to create tailored reports and dashboards 

Customer Support: Freshdesk vs Intercom

While you’re providing customer support to your customers, you may require some customer support assistance yourself. Here is how Freshdesk and Intercom compare in terms of customer support.

Freshdesk

Freshdesk provides excellent customer support with a range of accessible channels on its website, such as email, live chat, and contact numbers. They also prioritize interactive support methods, offering a vast video library containing relevant content. 

Users can access interactive videos covering diverse topics, including creating a multilingual knowledge base, utilizing canned responses, and creating knowledge base articles. 

Freshdesk further supports users in enhancing their skills and obtaining training through the Freshworks Academy. Additionally, users can engage in discussions and seek assistance from others on the Freshworks community forum.

Intercom

Intercom has a wide set of customer support options for its customers. First, they have a help center where information about installing and using Intercom is available. Intercom also has its community forum where you can meet other users and get help from their experience.

Intercom also offers live chat and email support. 

Apart from this, you also have a resource library where you can see the latest trends, product announcements, and best practices. Intercom holds and stores multiple webinars as well. Lastly, Intercom has an academy where you can take short courses and get the best out of Intercom.

Pricing: Freshdesk vs Intercom

Freshdesk 

Comes with a 21-day free trial and a forever free plan for up to 10 agents with basic features. Other pricing plans are:

Growth: $15/user/month. Provides fundamental features, including time monitoring, collision detection, help desk reporting, and more. 

Pro: $48/user/month. Comes with a few additional features like customizable CSAT surveys, custom objects, advanced filtering, etc.

Enterprise: $79/user/month. All Growth and Pro features, skill-based routing, email bots, article suggestions, social signals, and more are available. 

Intercom

Unlike Freshdesk, Intercom does not have a forever-free plan. They do offer a 14-day free trial with two seats. Other pricing plans are:

Starter: $74/month. It comes with Fin AI, workflow basics, Intercom messenger, chat and email, office hours, saved replies, and many more.

Pro and Premium: Prices for these plans are custom-made for each customer based on fin usage resolutions, unique people reached, and the number of seats required. You get all advanced and basic features with these plans.

Freshdesk vs Intercom: Which one is the best for you?

Now let’s give you a verdict on which one is the best for you. Freshdesk or Intercom? Let’s find out!

Freshdesk is for you if….

Freshdesk is for you if you want an affordable option that offers just the right features for a small business. 

Freshdesk is ideally suited for businesses prioritizing efficient customer support and streamlined ticket management. Companies that experience high customer inquiries and require multi-channel support will love Freshdesk. 

It seamlessly integrates with various communication channels like email, live chat, phone calls, and social media platforms, ensuring that customer queries are efficiently handled and responded to in a timely manner.

Intercom is for you if….

After looking at all the features of Intercom, we have concluded that Intercom is the perfect solution for you if you are a midsize or an enterprise business. 

Intercom is not for small businesses that are just getting started. This is because Intercom is expensive and has many complexities regarding pricing and usage. 

While Freshdesk is more angled towards managing standalone customer support, Intercom focuses on managing customer relationships and customer support. If your long-term goal is direct customer relationship building—Intercom is definitely for you. 

Intercom excels at enabling targeted messaging and personalized interactions with customers. Intercom’s integration with popular CRM and marketing automation platforms further enhances its suitability for bigger businesses.

Why is Helpwise a better alternative?

What if there was a customer support software that is cheaper than Freshdesk and Intercom? Such a platform exists, and it is nothing but Helpwise!

Being a cheaper alternative is not just our only USP. There’s more: 

• Helpwise is much simpler and easy to set up and use when compared to Freshdesk and Intercom
• Helpwise does not have any hidden costs in the name of add-ons. You pay one fixed amount, and you’re all set to deliver excellent customer support
• By paying less, you are getting more features when compared to Freshdesk and Intercom
• Helpwise is easy to scale, making it the perfect software for growing businesses. While scalability is not the best suit for Freshdesk or Intercom

Still not convinced? Don’t just rely on our words. Here is what our users have said:

“Excellent Intercom alternative at a fraction of the price”

A comprehensive support solution includes shared inboxes for email, SMS, website chat, WhatsApp, and many other channels, along with a help desk and knowledge base.

“Great product with amazing support”

The customer support team is super helpful and caring. They are great listeners. You share feedback, and they take quick action on it. I have never experienced such excellent customer support for any product.

Try Helpwise for free and know for yourself how we stack up against Freshdesk and Intercom.

FAQs

Q. What are the key differences between Freshdesk and Intercom?

Freshdesk focuses on ticket-based support and comprehensive inquiry management. At the same time, Intercom specializes in real-time messaging, personalized customer interactions, and proactive communication.

Q. Which platform is more suitable for small businesses: Freshdesk or Intercom?

Freshdesk is a more suitable platform for small businesses. This is because Freshdesk is easy to use and has all the features a small business would need. Intercom is quite complex for a small business. Freshdesk also has a forever free plan that Intercom does not.

Q. What are the pricing plans for Freshdesk and Intercom, and how do they compare?

Pricing is complex for Intercom. Freshdesk has a much simpler pricing plan. With Freshdesk, you get a free plan for up to 10 agents. The paid plans range from $15/user/month to $79/user/month. Intercom’s pricing starts at $74/month.

Q. How do Freshdesk and Intercom integrate with other software and tools?

Both Freshdesk and Intercom can be integrated with multiple CRM and productivity tools. While Intercoms makes you pay extra for many integrations, most are free with Freshdesk. Intercom does have more integration capabilities than Intercom.

Q. Which one is better for customer support: Intercom or Freshdesk?

Both platforms stand their ground when it comes to customer support. Understanding your needs and deciding which platform fits the bill for you is essential. 

Q. Can Intercom be used for internal communication in a company?

Yes, Intercom can be used for internal communication within a company, enabling teams to collaborate, exchange messages, and share information efficiently in real time. Its messaging capabilities and team features facilitate streamlined internal communication and collaboration.