Intercom vs Freshdesk Comparison 2024: Which Is Better?

Do you want to up your customer support and help desk game? Are you looking to provide your customers with the best experience? Then, you need to pick up one of the many great apps out there.

In this piece, we bring two big names head to head with our Intercom vs Freshdesk comparison. 

In the first place, we’ll talk about pricing, support options, and ease of use. Then, we will go over some specific features to give them the royal rumble treatment. Ding ding ding.

What is the difference between Intercom and Freshdesk?

The main difference between Freshdesk and Intercom is that Freshdesk is the customer support product from the parent brand, Freshworks. Intercom, on the other hand, has several modules, including help desk and AI chatbots. Both platforms have many overlapping features, but also a fair share of differences.

Your typical Intercom review often highlights some of the tools like the answer bots as reasons why Intercom is so effective at streamlining customer service. You regularly see mention of recent Intercom new features as well, like their business messenger tool.

If you check out a Freshdesk review, you will likely get a solid rundown of their main toolkit. This will include everything from email ticketing to omnichannel communication and customer segmentation.  

Intercom vs Freshdesk comparison chart

Take a quick gander at this table which summarizes our scoring system for these two systems.

Intercom vs Freshdesk pricing

Let us get started with the category of pricing plans for these two customer service and helpdesk software.

Intercom has three standard pricing plans. The Starter plan costs $74 per month, billed annually, and is good for two users. Then there are Pro and Premium plans, but you will have to calculate the exact price through their website. 

Intercom also has a bespoke Enterprise plan. There are also add-ons for extra fees.

Freshdesk has three basic pricing options as well. The Growth plan is $15, the Pro plan is $49, and the Enterprise plan is $79, all per agent per month billed annually. There are plenty of extra add-ons here as well.

Winner: Freshdesk

Freshdesk has a more affordable baseline plan, plus clear pricing data on the rest of their plans, making it the winner of this category.

Freshdesk vs Intercom free versions

Freshdesk offers a free version of its platform. This includes a basic ticketing system for email and social media, as well as extra tools like a knowledge base builder and standard analytics and reporting.

Intercom, sadly, does not have a free version of its software.

Winner: Freshdesk

This should be a no-brainer, as Freshdesk has a free plan while Intercom does not.

Customer support

Turning now to customer support. Intercom has email and chat support on all of their plans. It is not clear how quickly one gets a response after one contacts their support department.

Freshdesk has 24/7 email support on all of their plans, even the free one. There is 24/5 phone support on all paid plans, and 24/5 chat support beginning with the pro plan.

Winner: Freshdesk

Both platforms offer email support on all their plans, but from there, Freshdesk has more options.

Knowledgebase & learning

If you prefer seeking advice and help on your own, then Freshdesk has a nice knowledge base and community forum. These resources are quite well rated by many Freshdesk users.

Likewise, Intercom offers training webinars as part of their learning module. They also have a pretty robust community forum for their users to trade tips and advice.

Winner: Intercom

This was a close category, but ultimately, Intercom's self help services are a bit better than Freshdesk's.

Freshdesk vs Intercom features & functionality

Now we'll dig into the tools and features to see which one is better for each area:

Intercom or Freshdesk for ease of use

The key to using a software system as effectively as possible lies in its simplicity. Intercom is regarded as quite an easy toolkit that can still offer powerful help desk solutions. The learning curve is not too steep, and most features are intuitive.

Similarly, Freshdesk also emphasizes a very friendly UI and toolkit to help its users waste little time in getting set up with the software.

Winner: Tie

When you compare the similarities and differences regarding ease of use between these two support management systems, you have to call it a draw.

Ticketing and channels

With Intercom, you can run your ticketing system through many channels, like their own Intercom Messenger, direct messaging, and email, as well as through integrations with Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. There is also a Switch tool to deflect phone calls to Messenger. 

Freshdesk is built around email ticketing with automatic email notifications. You can export tickets, track ticket activity, and merge tickets into single issues. You can also set ticket status and ticket priority levels, among other features.

Winner: Intercom

While both have similar and different ticketing channel tools, Intercom edges past Freshdesk in this category for being slightly more versatile. 

Workflows and automation

The whole point of adding new tools to your stack is to employ technology to make work smoother and more efficient. This is where workflows and automation come into play.

Freshdesk has automations set up to run with ticket creation. These automatons can be either time-triggered or event-triggered. 

There is also a load-balance workflow that makes sure no rep is over- or under-worked, as well as skills-based routing ticket automations to send each issue to the best-suited agent.

Intercom employs its signature Fin AI Bot for speedier and more automated customer service needs. You can easily set up targeted bot rules for a conversation routing bot feature. More Intercom workflows take care of handing off conversations to members of your support team.

Winner: Freshdesk

Both of these software solutions offer great automation and workflow features. But since we must crown a winner, we'd say that Freshdesk tops Intercom when it comes to streamlining communication through automation.

Analytics and reporting

Taking advantage of all that support data can seriously improve your business processes with the right analytics and good reports.

Intercom does regular reporting on conversation volume, and you also get reporting drill-downs. All of this is neatly displayed on a Conversations dashboard. More advanced plans get you real-time reporting and more customization with your analytic metrics.

Freshdesk also has a nice default analytics dashboard on all their plans, showing you ticket volume trends. The paid plans have time sheet summaries, agent productivity reports, and customer satisfaction reports, to name just a few.

Winner: Freshdesk

The pure fact that Freshdesk has a default analytics dashboard, even with its free plan, makes it the winner in this area.

Mobile apps

There’s no reason to leave your customer support and help desk department at the office when there are fantastic mobile apps.

Freshdesk has mobile apps for iOS and Android. You can get push notifications never to miss an update or communication. You can use it to create and manage tickets, respond to customers, or use canned replies. 

Intercom also has a custom mobile app for its platform that has a nicely designed user interface. You can use it for real-time support on the go, letting you chat with customers and stay on top of ticket issues. 

What’s more, you can create custom carousels for your app for a more pleasing experience. It works on many systems like iOS, Android, React Native, and Cordova.

Winner: Intercom

Intercom’s mobile app is really one of the best parts of all of Intercom. It looks great and is easy to use for both the agent and customers. Freshdesk’s app is good too, just not as excellent.

Integrations

For this section, we will consider the range of integrations available for both apps.

Intercom has app integrations split into categories. Marketing integrations include tools like Mailchimp, Segment and Clearbit. Support integrations get you Instagram, Jira, WhatsApp, and Zendesk. 

Sales and CRM integrations are Salesforce, Hubspot, Aircall, and Google Calendar. These are just a few.

Freshdesk’s integrations are part of the Freshworks Marketplace. Some of the most popular integrations for Freshdesk include Microsoft Teams, Jira, Slack, Google Analytics, and Shopify. 

You can peruse the entire marketplace by category, ranging from CRM, marketing, e-commerce, and agent productivity tools.

Winner: Freshdesk 

You will find that the Freshworks App Marketplace is more robust and better organized than what you get with Intercom, but only by a little.

A note on Intercom Freshdesk integration

There are indeed one or more Freshdesk Intercom integrations. For example, Artis makes a free Intercom integration for Freshdesk, which lets you access Intercom customer data inside Freshdesk tickets.

Likewise, Effy makes a Freshdesk integration for Intercom, which is also free. This lets you do many things, like create Freshdesk tickets inside the Intercom platform.

Is Intercom better than Freshdesk? Our conclusion

And so, we come to the end of this article. As is obvious by now, Freshdesk edges past Intercom in many categories. With that being said, it is not too uncommon for some users to disagree with us and prefer Intercom. As they say, taste is a matter of taste. 

If this article has not helped you make a decision, then maybe you want to consider other names in the crowded category of the best helpdesk software out there. Maybe another help desk system is right for you. Who knows?

What we do know is that your customers deserve top-tier customer support no matter what platform you choose. But Freshdesk is a good choice, and so is Intercom.