Best Intercom Alternatives 2024 (Top 10 Similar Competitors)

If you are in the market for a help desk and ticketing system to boost your customer service department’s abilities, you may have heard of Intercom. But what about Intercom competitors?

In this article, we will look into the top ten best Intercom alternatives. There will be Intercom replacements that are similar to Intercom, some that are cheaper, and we’ll even point out Intercom substitutes with free plans. 

If you’re ready, so are we - let’s get into Intercom’s main competition.

Top 10 Intercom competitors with similar products

Here are the apps like Intercom that we think are the best Intercom alternatives. Although they are all fairly similar, some Intercom competitors will be better suited to your circumstances than others, so read more about the Intercom competition below.

As you might already know, Intercom is a leading help desk ticketing system, although, as our list below will demonstrate, it is far from the only one. After you take a glance at this table, we will explore a little further some of the main features of our Intercom replacements.

Here’s our full list of the best Intercom alternatives 2022:

Now that you’ve had a quick foretaste of our best Intercom alternatives, you are ready for the true substance of this comparison piece.

For those of you who are not yet too familiar with what’s being said in a typical Intercom review, why not take a moment to read all about it? 

Here are ten good alternatives to Intercom:
 

1. Zendesk (Best Intercom alternative overall)

Zendesk started out as a customer support platform that has since expanded to include modules for sales with Zendesk Sell, and CRM with Zendesk Sunshine. As for a support solution, it is the best alternative to Intercom overall, and to learn more, see this in-depth review in our Zendesk vs Intercom comparison piece.

Zendesk Service is best for:

• Small teams

• Startups

• Small business

• Large business

• Intercom alternative

Features

There are several features that make Zendesk better than Intercom. First, this software gives you your own email system with unlimited email addresses. You can also do social media messaging via Facebook and Twitter or a website widget.

Workflows help share tickets between different Zendesk support reps, and there are other basic automations for things like managing SLAs.

As for telephony, you get voice mail, embedded voice, caller ID, call routing, call recording, and call monitoring, among other features. 

You can take advantage of chatbots only through 3rd parties using Zendesk Sunshine. Also, an integrated knowledgebase builder is a sweet part of their self-service options.

Finally, Zendesk has some nice native integrations with apps like Shopify, Slack, and Mailchimp, to name a few.

Pricing

• Support Team is $19 per user per month billed annually 

• Support Professional is $49 per user per month billed annually 

• Support Enterprise is $99 per user per month billed annually 

• Suite Team is $49 per user per month billed annually 

• Suite Growth $79 per user per month billed annually 

• Suite Professional $99 per user per month billed annually 

Zendesk Review 

Visit Zendesk
 

2. HubSpot (Best free Intercom alternative)

HubSpot started out as an inbound marketing tool and today has grown to offer packages for many areas of business SaaS, including customer service. There are always free HubSpot plans, making this one of the best free Intercom alternatives. 

HubSpot is best for:

• Individuals

• Small teams

• Startups

• Small business

• Free customer support

Features

When combined with other marketing automation HubSpot tools, you can really up your customer engagement with HubSpot’s email marketing functionality and other features.

You get email templates, email tracking with notifications, and a shared inbox.

As a help desk software, HubSpot offers a ticketing system with ticket pipeline management, real-time tracking, and reporting.

For more customer communication options, you can get basic live chat software, along with canned snippets which serve some chatbot features.

HubSpot lets you set up a multi-language knowledgebase to let users seek their own solutions and free up time for support agents.   

Overall, HubSpot Service Hub is ideal for individuals needing to provide customer service for e-commerce operations with superb customer experiences. 

Pricing

• HubSpot has a free plan for Service Hub

• Starter is $45 for two users per month billed annually, $23 per additional user 

• Professional is $450 for five users per month billed annually, $90 per additional user 

Hubspot CRM Review

Visit Hubspot

3. Drift (Most similar to Intercom)

Drift prides itself on being a customer satisfaction machine that leverages conversational marketing and conversational customer service. Its focus on personalization makes it very similar to Intercom. This tool believes in putting the customers’ needs first, and you can learn more about their approach in Drift’s Conversational Marketing Blueprint book.

Drift is best for:

• Startups 

• SMBs

• Large business

• Enterprise

Features

Drift has a great live chat tool as this is the core of their system. Tickets can be created out of live chats in real time. Other chat features include a custom chatbot builder. 

There is a nifty AI bot deflection tool, making it a better experience for service agents to quickly navigate their own knowledge bases for accurate solutions.

Reps can set estimated wait times inside the chat widget window for easy tracking, and there is also a response timer to show how long it's been since the last message.

You can also use Drift’s conversational sales module for things like lead generation and pipeline management, which should always work in tandem with what’s going on in the support department, by sharing things like customer data and chat transcripts.

Finally, there is a real-time dashboard with the latest analytics on the success rates of your messaging and other customer interactions.

Pricing

• Premium plans start at $2,500 per month billed annually

• For advanced plans or enterprise pricing, contact Drift

Drift Review 

Visit Drift

4. Freshdesk (Cheaper alternative to Intercom software if you’re on a budget)

Brought to you by Freshworks, here is Freshdesk, a cheap Intercom alternative great for those who are on a budget. There is also a free plan like HubSpot, but when it comes to a comparison closer to Intercom’s pricing, Freshdesk’s paid plans make it a good substitute.

Freshdesk is best for:

• Solo entrepreneurs

• Teams on a budget

• Startups

• SMEs

Features

You get email ticketing tools and email notification automations built in, along with multiple shared email inboxes. 

Additional ticketing features let you merge tickets, export tickets, and set ticket priority and status, as well as monitor all ticketing activity.

Freshdesk is also good for social media customer support, letting you do customer messaging with Twitter, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp Business.

If you want solid analytics and reporting, Freshdesk has a nice default dashboard with customizable metrics and visuals. It is also easy to automate the creation of reports and share them.

Pricing

• Freshdesk has a free plan

• Growth plan is $15 per user per month billed annually 

• Pro plan is $49 per user per month billed annually 

• Enterprise plan is $79 per user per month billed annually 

Visit Freshdesk
 

5. HelpCrunch (Good Intercom substitute for chatbots)

HelpCrunch is a customer communication platform, like many other names on this list. You can do customer support, sales, and marketing with HelpCrunch.

HelpCrunch is best for:

• Startups 

• SMEs

• Large companies

• Chatbots

• Email marketing

Features

HelpCrunch does chatbots and chat widgets really well, and for this reason, it is a good substitute for Intercom if you need a support tool with bots.

The chatbot builder is a simple drag-and-drop interface that anyone can learn to use in minutes.

Website visitors will be pleased if you use HelpCrunch’s general widget functionality for designing beautiful-looking widgets with customer support team member profiles.

HelpCrunch has nice mobile apps for iOS and Android, and these mobile apps are also very comparable to Intercom’s. 

There is also a decent integration library for HelpCrunch, including Slack, WordPress, and Facebook Messenger connections. You can also use it with Zapier for more integrations like Salesforce. 

Pricing

• Basic plan is $12 per user per month billed annually 

• Grow plan is $20 per user per month billed annually 

• Unlimited plan is $495 for unlimited users per month billed annually 

Visit HelpCrunch
 

6. Olark (Top Intercom competitor for live chat)

Whether you are a sales rep or a customer support rep, if having the best live chat software is an important aspect of your service, then Olark is a top competitor for Intercom.

Olark is best for:

• Small business

• Medium-sized business

• Growing business

• Live chat support

Features

Olark’s live chat module gets you a great widget, some custom pre-chat web forms, automated triggered messages, and even offline messaging. Aside from live chat features, Olark also has a chatbot tool, and advanced chat analytics. 

You can use Olark’s live chat for customer support rep training purposes too. Olark lets you create chat transcripts and archives or integrate your chat data to other 3rd party apps. There is also unlimited chat history.

You can also use Olark as a customer service team member management system, with in-app messaging agent performance reports and CSAT surveys.

Pricing

• Olark costs $29 per user per month no matter how large the plan

• There are discounts for annular subscriptions

Visit Olark
 

7. LiveAgent (Great Intercom replacement for ease of use)

LiveAgent has not yet taken the plunge to offer basic marketing and sales tools, as this platform is still strictly for the customer service use case. As for simplicity and user-friendliness, LiveAgent is a top replacement for Intercom.

LiveAgent is best for:

• Startups 

• Small business

• Large business

• Ticketing system

• Help desk

Features

As a user-friendly help desk system, LiveAgent provides omnichannel customer support. Including email, SMS, phone, social media, web forms, and chat.

There is a ticketing system that requires little onboarding because it is so easy. It gets you a universal inbox, automated ticket creation and tracking, internal tickets with in-app messaging, and more.

LiveAgent also covers your bases with other customer service software solution features like live chat canned responses, knowledgebase, and customer satisfaction tools.

Pricing

• There is a LiveAgent free version

• Ticket is $15 per user per month 

• Ticket+Chat is $29 per user per month billed annually 

• All Inclusive is 49 per user per month 

Visit LiveAgent 
 

8. Zoho Desk (Top alternative to Intercom if you want self-service)

Zoho Desk is the customer support section of the Zoho family of business SaaS. If you want an Intercom alternative that is great for self service, then Zoho Desk is a fine choice.

Zoho Desk is best for:

• Individuals

• Small teams

• Startups

• SMBs

• Self-service

Features

Here are some of the many great self-service features from Zoho Desk. There is an ASAP add-on that embeds customer self-service onto your website or onto your mobile app.

You can easily create a knowledge base with Zoho Desk, as well as set up a community forum for users to exchange tips and solutions with one another.

The help center can also be multi-branded, meaning each of your major customers can get their own personalized self-service customer experience.

Zoho Desk also has Zia, the AI tool which can help by being a knowledge base bot, using automation for ticket tagging, performing sentiment analysis, and serving as a reply assistant to service reps.

Finally, there are many solid agent productivity features with Zoho Desk, like a ticketing efficiency guide and CRM functionality.

Pricing

• Standard is $14 per user per month billed annually 

• Professional is $23 per user per month billed annually 

• Enterprise is $40 per user per month billed annually 

Zoho Desk Review 

Visit Zoho
 

9. Crisp (Good customer engagement alternative to Intercom)

Crisp.chat is a solid alternative to Intercom if you value customer engagement. It strives to add a human touch to all support interactions.

Crisp is best for:

• Startups 

• SMBs

• Large business

• Personalized support

Features

By fusing support, sales, and marketing, Crisp.chat manages to tap the best abilities of human employees and merge them with digital tools and automation for superior service.

There is a shared support inbox for email, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DM, WhatsApp, and even phone calls.

You can combine customer data from Crisp’s CRM module with customer support for faster response times and resolutions.

Another great way to use Crisp is to run email marketing campaigns or use its other marketing automation features as a way to keep your regular customers up to date with your latest products or services.

Good chatbot features and live chat tools are included with Crisp, as well as a decent knowledge base with strong search capabilities.

Pricing

• Crisp.chat offers a free plan

• Pro plan is $300 per year

• Unlimited plan is $1,140 per year

Crisp.chat Review 

Visit CrisCutp.chat
 

10. Help Scout (Great alternative to Intercom is you need shared inbox)

Help Scout is an all-in-one customer service software solution, with help desk tools, a ticketing system and most of all, it’s a great shared inbox alternative to Intercom.

Help Scout is best for:

• Startups 

• SMEs

• Shared inbox

• Help desk system

Features

Beginning with Help Scout's shared inbox module, it offers tools for customer support as well as billing issues and other information-seeking queries. Basic automation and workflows can eliminate time wasted on repetitive tasks with Help Scout.

There are team email addresses, group inboxes, private internal notes and messaging, historical customer data, and shared inbox analytics. In addition, team members get a variety of internal communication and team collaboration tools like collision detection.

Also, there is a feature called Beacon which helps suggest relevant content to share with customers. It is also there for customers to use to get access to their past customer service experiences.

Finally, Help Scout has integrations with Salesforce, Slack, Shopify, and WordPress, among others. It also has mobile apps for iOS and Android devices.

Pricing

• Standard plan is $20 per user per month billed annually 

• Plus plan is $40 per user per month billed annually 

• Pro plan is $65 per user per month billed annually 

Visit Help Scout

Which of the alternatives to Intercom is a good choice for you?

This is the end, my friend, of our Intercom alternative article. As many of you might have wagered, Zendesk Service reigns supreme here, though we must caution against sounding absolutist. Truth is, every single one of our Intercom substitutes come with a set of admirable features. 

All in all, the best choice for you will depend on your business needs and budget. If you need a shared inbox, Help Scout is an excellent choice. For personalized customer support, Crisp is a great alternative to Intercom. Zoho Desk is also a solid option if you need features like AI and automation capabilities or integration with Salesforce and Slack. Ultimately, you should compare the features and pricing of each service to determine which one is best for your business.

In the end, the specific business needs of any organization should dictate which ticketing system, help desk platform, or customer support software solution will be the perfect fit for your business.