Intercom has become a game-changer in customer support, offering personalized engagement through live chat, email management, and chatbots. Widely adopted by businesses, it has reshaped the industry.
However, users face challenges. To name a few, costs and complexity of the interface.
In this blog post, we explore Intercom alternative platforms. We’ll review key features, pricing, and user experiences to help you find the perfect fit. Whether you need cost-effective solutions or advanced features, this guide will assist in elevating your customer support.
Finding the perfect customer service software is challenging, and Intercom is no exception as it may not suit every type of business.
Ultimately, the decision boils down to whether Intercom justifies its cost, as there are cheaper intercom alternatives that offer similar or better value for money.
We did a deep dive into what users have been saying about Intercom, here is what we have found:
“Their pricing, sales and support is built up to scam you. They lock you in with 12 month contracts, not possible to cancel. Then we didn’t need the plan we had and we just wanted to downgrade to the basic starter plan that they promote on their website, but Intercom sales told us that to downgrade to Starter, they would delete our account and all data and we need to create a new account.”
“They replace the ‘campaigns’ feature with the hideous ‘series’, which is buggy, has bad UI, is not responsive, and leads to severe mistakes. eg you cannot save the series, having a block unlinked to a rule.”
“Expected better level of support from a company that builds customer support products. The support team is unknowledgeable and will always blame you first before looking into a case. They ignore questions that fall outside of their scripts and are not incentivized to help.”
As you can see, users have their fair share of problems with Intercom. So, that calls for the need to look at Intercom alternatives. After all, knowing what is available in the market is always better.
Let’s explore Intercom alternatives.
Helpwise, the top Intercom alternative, offers a comprehensive suite of omnichannel capabilities and more. With its shared inbox capabilities, teams can collaborate seamlessly, assigning, tracking, and avoiding duplicate responses.
Benefit from a powerful set of features, including
Helpwise expands beyond email support, allowing assignments of WhatsApp, live chat, and social media conversations to appropriate team members.
The platform also includes a native cloud phone system and the ability to build help centers, supported by AI-powered features for quick resolutions like query prioritization and summarization.
Embracing SMBs, Helpwise offers flexible pricing plans without compromising essential functionalities. Workflow integration is a breeze, seamlessly connecting with popular third-party applications like Slack and CRM tools.
For just $15 per user per month, Helpwise presents a budget-friendly, all-encompassing customer support solution.
Freshdesk is an excellent choice for a customer service platform that can scale alongside your business. With its knowledge bases, email management, chat, and social media monitoring tools, it offers a comprehensive solution.
While Intercom cater more to larger companies, Freshdesk is a strong contender for live chat messaging, particularly tailored for small businesses. Notably, it is more budget-friendly than Intercom while still providing a comparable range of features.
However, it’s worth noting that some of the automation features, like Freddy AI, are available only in the more expensive pricing plans, and creating custom chatbot flows may be challenging.
Freshdesk has a free plan for upto 10 users. The other plans are $18 per user per month and go till $95 per user per month.
Zendesk takes pride in its highly efficient ticketing system, enabling organization, status setting, and ticket transfers to minimize customer wait time effectively.
Designed primarily for larger businesses, Zendesk’s help desk software offers cross-channel support through a centralized CRM, contributing to increased ROI by enhancing employee satisfaction and reducing the cost of acquiring licenses required to provide support through each channel.
Key features include:
If you’re seeking more budget-friendly Intercom alternatives, exploring other options is advisable, as Zendesk’s pricing starts at $49 per agent per month for all users and can go up to $199 per agent per month for larger enterprises.
HubSpot, a prominent name in the sales and marketing industry, has expanded its services to include a customer service hub, making it a practical Intercom alternative, especially for existing HubSpot users. Familiarity with their desk software simplifies the adoption of the live chat, omnichannel messaging platform, and inbound calling features.
Key features include:
The well-established CRM used in the service hub has a proven track record of effectiveness in marketing and sales.
However, there are some drawbacks, such as:
This Intercom alternative comes with a free basic CRM plan. Apart from this, the pricing starts at $45 per month and goes till $1200 per month for up to 10 users.
ClickDesk stands as an excellent Intercom alternative. Click Desk has a help desk software but separate capabilities for voice and video support as well. And that’s not it, ClickDesk also offers other features such as social media integration and mobile app for online support.
The video chat feature along with the help desk empowers support agents to assist customers with intricate challenges that may not be effectively conveyed through standard live chat.
Moreover, it introduces an additional avenue for customers to connect with your company, aligning with their preferred mode of support. Notably, ClickDesk offers a cost-free plan alongside premium options starting at $12.99 per month per agent.
HappyFox presents itself as a distinctive Intercom alternative, offering a range of features that focus on providing unique and specialized customer interactions. HappyFox comes with a powerful ticketing system, canned responses, automation, knowledge base builder, and help desk reports.
This customer service software lets you classify your inbound tickets into predefined categories like products, sales, and support.
You can also create private notes to enable better collaboration. The other features you get with HappyFox are:
In terms of pricing, HappyFox plans start at $26 per agent per month.
Kustomer is a robust customer service software platform that presents itself as a compelling Intercom alternative. Just like Intercom, Kustomer is designed to help businesses effectively manage their customer interactions and support operations.
Kustomer lets you provide individualized and context-rich experiences across all stages of the customer journey. You can engage in conversations through email, chat, social media, SMS, and voice, all managed within a unified interface. Other features include:
In terms of pricing, Kustomer has two pricing plans. The enterprise plan starts at $89 and the ultimate plan is $139.
Established in 2011, Help Scout is a well-established Intercom alternative with a strong focus on customer service rather than sales and marketing. Initially centered around email support, the platform emphasizes efficient email management with features like email forwarding from their inbox dashboard.
Help Scout’s shared inbox, known as Mailbox, excels in handling emails and chats. However, integrating social media and messenger platforms requires Zapier, which might not offer seamless performance. A notable difference is Help Scout’s lack of chatbot functionality, which could be a critical factor for businesses seeking automation for repetitive tasks.
Despite not encompassing all of Intercom’s features, Help Scout is a robust and comprehensive tool, particularly tailored to specific customer service tasks. It creates a customer-centric atmosphere and provides top-notch assistance.
You have three pricing options to choose from: Standard at $20 per month, Plus at $40 per month, and Pro at $65 per month.
Zoho Desk emerges as a dedicated support solution within the comprehensive Zoho suite. With Zoho CRM already established as a favored sales tool, the help desk software seamlessly complements sales-centric teams, providing access to a suite of synergistic resources.
Zoho’s support plan encompasses an array of advanced features, including
This empowers businesses to effortlessly centralize customer interactions from various touchpoints, streamlining responses.
While Zoho Desk offers an introductory free plan, its true potential shines for larger enterprises with more substantial resources. The suite not only caters to support needs but also serves as a hub for integrated solutions across the organization.
Zoho Desk offers a free tier while its paid plans initiate from $14 per agent per month, presenting a flexible range to suit different business scales and requirements.
LiveAgent is a highly popular Intercom alternative, especially suitable for smaller support teams. Similar to Intercom, LiveAgent provides essential features like a ticketing system, chat engine, and customer profiles. It seamlessly integrates with various external applications, including Zendesk and Salesforce.
For businesses seeking a robust support platform to deliver top-notch customer service, LiveAgent proves to be an excellent choice. With an impressive array of over 190 integrations and 175 features, this all-in-one help desk solution empowers businesses to offer personalized support to their customers.
Pricing plans start from $9 per agent per month to $69 per agent per month.
| Platforms | Key Features | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Helpwise | Shared platform inbox, AI-driven email templates, WhatsApp integration, Collaboration with internal notes and team chat. | Starting at just $15 per user per month |
| Freshdesk | Team Inbox, Auto-assignment of tickets, SLA management, AI-powered Chatbot, ‘Thank You Detector’, Modern and intuitive design. | $18 per user per month to $95 per user per month. |
| Zendesk | Consolidation of support channels, Extensive integration options, Robust IT ticket management, Integrated help center and community forum. | $49 per user per month to $199 per user per month. |
| Hubspot Service Hub | VoIP calling, customer portal, inbound calling, omnichannel messaging | $45 per month for up to 2 users to $1200 per month for up to 10 users |
| ClickDesk | Voice and video support, social media integration and mobile app for support. | $12.99 per agent per month |
| HappyFox | Powerful ticketing system, canned responses, automation, knowledge base builder, and help desk reports | Starts at $26 per agent per month |
| Kustomer | Ticket management, customer history information, AI workflow automation. | Starts at $89 per agent per month |
| HelpScout | Shared inbox, knowledge base and live chat, reports and workflow automation | $20 per user per month to $65 per user per month |
| Olark | Live chat, chatbot | $29 per month |
| LiveAgent | Live chat, ticketing system, customer satisfaction surveys, voice support | $9 per agent per month to $69 per agent per month |
In conclusion, Helpwise emerges as the top Intercom alternative, offering a comprehensive omnichannel suite and seamless team collaboration. With efficient email organization, saved replies, and internal team chat, Helpwise streamlines customer interactions.
When you switch to Helpwise, you can:
Its flexible pricing plans cater to budget-conscious businesses while maintaining essential functionalities. With its all-encompassing and cost-effective approach, Helpwise is the recommended choice for SMBs seeking to elevate their customer service. Try out for free today.
Some alternative apps to Intercom for communication purposes include Helpwise, Freshchat, and Zendesk.
Some of the popular free Intercom alternatives are Freshdesk and Hubspot Service Hub.
Zendesk offers the most features similar to Intercom. It is similarly designed and has almost all features that Intercom does. However, Zendesk is more expensive than Intercom. Since Zendesk is more expensive, Helpwise is the best alternative app. It offers similar features but at a lesser cost.
Freshdesk is a user-friendly alternative app that is easy to set up. An even better app is Helpwise, setting up Helpwise is a breeze and customer support is also available for further assistance.
Helpwise and HelpCrunch are alternative apps to Intercom that integrate well with other platforms or software.
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