Intercom lists Essential at $29 per seat per month, Advanced at $85 and Expert at $132. Its Fin AI Agent bills $0.99 per resolved outcome on every plan, verified October 2026. Teams look for an Intercom alternative for three reasons. The seat price plus the per-outcome AI line. A chat-first design when their customers write email. More product than they use.
Cheaper per seat with a help desk: Help Scout, Freshdesk, Crisp, Tidio or Helply. Customers who write email and WhatsApp: Front for routing across departments, or Sektra for client teams that need a record of what was promised. Already on HubSpot CRM: Service Hub. More structure, with voice: Zendesk.
What Intercom costs in October 2026
Intercom's three plans are Essential at $29 per seat per month, Advanced at $85 with 20 free lite seats, and Expert at $132 with 50 lite seats and SLAs. Fin AI Agent costs $0.99 per outcome, charged once per conversation when the customer confirms resolution, stops asking, or Fin completes a workflow. Copilot for agents is $29 per seat on annual billing. There is a 14-day trial and no free plan.
We build Sektra, so read our entry with that in mind. Each alternative below was checked on the vendor's own pricing page in October 2026. Prices are per seat per month on annual billing where shown, as ranges.
Intercom alternatives compared
| Tool | Reason to switch | List price | AI billing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intercom | Baseline | $29 to $132 per seat | Fin $0.99 per outcome; Copilot $29 per seat | Chat-first support at volume |
| Help Scout | Price | Free plan, then $25 to $75 per user | AI Answers $0.75 per resolution | Email support with a knowledge base |
| Freshdesk | Price | $19 to $89 per agent | 500 sessions, then $49 per 100 | Ticketing with SLAs |
| Crisp | Price | Free, then $45 to $295 per workspace | AI credits included by tier | Chat and email on one workspace price |
| Tidio | Price | Free, then from about $24 a month | Lyro from $32.50 a month | Website chat for a small store |
| Helply | Price | Credits from $49 a month, no per-user fee | Credits per AI action | An AI agent without seat fees |
| Front | Email-first | $25 to $105 per seat | Copilot $20 per seat; Autopilot from $0.05 | Several departments routing email |
| Sektra | Email and WhatsApp | See pricing | Every AI feature in the plan | Client teams that need a record of promises |
| HubSpot Service Hub | Complexity | Free, then $10 to $150 per seat | Customer Agent on Professional | Teams already on HubSpot CRM |
| Zendesk | More structure | $19 to $115 per agent | Resolutions $2.00 each; Copilot $50 | Support operations with voice |
What is the best Intercom alternative?
It depends on which of the three reasons sent you looking. The nine tools below are grouped that way, each with the facts, pros and cons, and who it fits.
If the seat price plus Fin's per-outcome fee is the problem
1. Help Scout: email support with a knowledge base
Help Scout is a help desk with a shared inbox, live chat, SMS and a Docs knowledge base. The Free plan covers 5 users, 1 inbox and 100 contacts a month. Standard is $25 per user per month, Plus $45, Pro $75 with a 10-user minimum. Verified October 2026.
AI Answers resolves conversations alone at $0.75 per resolution with a spending cap; AI Assist, Drafts and Summarize are unlimited on paid plans. It is built around tickets that close, with no record of what a named account was promised.
- Pros: a free plan; email-first with live chat; AI per resolution below Fin's rate.
- Cons: 100 contacts a month on Free; a 10-user minimum on Pro; a ticket model.
Fits a support team that wants email first and a knowledge base. Help Scout vs Intercom compares them tier by tier.
2. Freshdesk: ticketing with SLAs from $19 per agent
Freshdesk lists Growth at $19 per agent per month on annual billing with ticketing, a knowledge base and reporting. Pro is $55 with SLA policies and intelligent routing. Enterprise is $89 with skill-based routing and audit logs. Verified October 2026.
Each account gets 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions once, then $49 per 100. Freddy AI Copilot is a $29 per agent add-on on Pro and Enterprise. No free plan is listed. The ticket is the record; nothing tracks open commitments per client.
- Pros: $19 entry price; SLAs and routing from $55; a 14-day Enterprise trial.
- Cons: no free plan; Copilot extra; AI sessions metered after 500.
Fits a support team that wants tickets and SLAs on a lower per-agent price.
3. Crisp: chat and email on one workspace price
Crisp prices per workspace with seats included. Free has 2 seats and the chat widget with a shared inbox. Mini is $45 a month with 4 seats and $5 of AI credits. Essentials is $95 with 10 seats, $25 of credits and the omnichannel inbox for WhatsApp Business, Instagram and SMS. Plus is $295 with 20 or more seats. Verified October 2026.
Extra agents are $10 a month and no annual prices are listed. The workspace price suits a small team; the inbox is conversation by conversation, with no view of who owes the next reply.
- Pros: a free plan; seats included in the workspace price; WhatsApp from Essentials.
- Cons: AI credits capped by tier; the shared email inbox starts at Mini; chat-first design.
Fits a small team that wants chat and email for one monthly price.
4. Tidio: website chat with a free plan
Tidio's Free plan covers 10 seats and 50 billable conversations a month, with live chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger integrations on every plan. Starter is about $24 a month, Growth from about $49, Plus from $300 plus usage. Lyro, the AI agent, starts at $32.50 a month for 50 conversations. Verified October 2026.
Conversation caps, 100 on Starter, define the plan. It is built for website chat on a store; there is no per-client memory and no response-time reporting per account.
- Pros: a free plan with 10 seats; messaging channels on every plan; a 7-day trial.
- Cons: billed by conversation volume; Lyro priced separately; chat-first.
Fits a small store that answers website chat and wants an AI agent on a budget.
5. Helply: an AI agent without seat fees
Helply, the successor to Groove, is an AI-agent platform with a help desk included. Pricing is by credits with no per-user fee: $49 a month buys 500 credits, blocks scale to 32,000, and annual billing takes 15 percent off. Channels include email, chat widget, WhatsApp, Slack, Teams and phone. Verified October 2026.
AI actions cost 1, 4 or 12 credits by complexity, with overage up to a cap you set. Like Fin, the agent is built to deflect repeat questions; it keeps no record of what your team committed to.
- Pros: unlimited users; a 14-day trial with 1,000 credits; WhatsApp and chat alongside email.
- Cons: a credit block to watch; an agent-first model.
Fits a support team that wants Fin's job done without seat fees. Sektra vs Groove keeps the comparison under the old name.
If your customers write email and WhatsApp, not chat
6. Front: a shared inbox routing email across departments
Front is a separate app that routes email, chat, SMS and social accounts with rules, macros and SLA policies. Starter is $25 per seat per month, capped at 10 seats and one channel type; Professional is $65; Enterprise $105. A native WhatsApp channel is a Professional add-on. Verified October 2026.
Copilot is a $20 per seat add-on below Enterprise and Autopilot starts at $0.05 per conversation. Front organizes today's mail across teams; it keeps no record of what a client was promised in March.
- Pros: email-first with routing for several teams; WhatsApp available.
- Cons: routing from $65; AI and WhatsApp are add-ons; a new app for everyone.
Fits an operations team routing email across departments. Front vs Intercom covers the two directly.
7. Sektra: for client teams whose customers write email and WhatsApp
Sektra is a separate workspace that syncs two-way with Gmail, Outlook (including Microsoft 365 shared mailboxes), IMAP mailboxes and WhatsApp Business. Mail stays where it is. Gmail and Outlook connect through Google or Microsoft sign-in, an IMAP mailbox with its password stored encrypted, and WhatsApp through the provider. One client record covers email and WhatsApp together.
The shared inbox basics are there: assignment, mentions, internal notes, and collision detection shown as "A teammate is typing a reply". Triage orders threads by what it costs to ignore them. Analytics report response times as percentiles per client.
The memory layer is a record per client of what each side promised, with the dates, and the questions still open. A watch with a day count you set tells you the day a client goes quiet, and the morning digest lists who owes you a reply. The assistant answers questions about a client with links to the threads, drafts replies, sets reminders and creates watches. Every AI feature is in the plan price.
- Pros: a person on every reply with the client's history beside it; email and WhatsApp in one record; AI in the plan with no per-outcome line.
- Cons: no phone channel, no SMS, and the CRM integrations show the record beside the thread rather than syncing every field back.
Fits customer success, account management and agency teams whose customers are named accounts. See Sektra vs Intercom, customer success teams, the product page and pricing. Every workspace starts with 7 days of Pro and no card.
If Intercom has become more product than you use
8. HubSpot Service Hub: a help desk inside the CRM you already have
Service Hub has a free tier with ticketing and team email. Starter starts at $10 per seat per month, Professional at $100 per seat and Enterprise at $150, with the Customer Agent that resolves email and chat on Professional. Verified October 2026.
The case for it is one record with sales and marketing already in HubSpot. The jump from Starter to Professional is $90 a seat, and the ticket model closes each request.
- Pros: a free tier; one CRM record across teams; Customer Agent on Professional.
- Cons: Professional at $100 per seat; AI on the higher tier; built around tickets.
Fits a team already running sales on HubSpot that wants support in the same place.
9. Zendesk: more structure, with voice
Zendesk lists Support Team at $19 per agent per month on annual billing for email ticketing. Suite Team is $55 with web form, social, WhatsApp with extra fees, live chat, voice and a help center. Suite Professional is $115 with skills-based routing and IVR. Verified October 2026.
AI resolutions cost $2.00 each pay-as-you-go, and Copilot is $50 per agent from Professional. It is the other direction from simpler: more channels, more routing, more to configure, and still a ticket per conversation.
- Pros: voice, routing and governance; a 14-day Professional trial.
- Cons: the Suite from $55; AI resolutions at $2.00; Copilot at $50 per agent.
Fits a support operation that needs phone and enterprise controls. Zendesk alternatives runs the other way.
Which Intercom alternative should you pick?
- Support team, email first, wants a knowledge base: Help Scout, or Freshdesk for SLAs at $19 per agent.
- Small team or store that wants chat with a free plan: Crisp or Tidio.
- Wants an AI agent answering first without seat fees: Helply.
- Several departments routing email: Front.
- Named clients who write email and WhatsApp and expect you to remember: Sektra.
- Already on HubSpot: Service Hub. Needs voice and governance: Zendesk.
Is the reason you are leaving that an AI agent should not answer your largest account? AI deflection vs relationship memory is the longer argument. Whatever you choose, connect it to the same mailboxes and run both for two weeks before moving the team.
