Alex RaineyAlex is an experienced CTO and founder who largely focuses on all the technical areas of My AskAI, from AI Engineering, Technical Product Management and overall Platform Development.
Created time
Feb 21, 2024 11:27 AM
Author
Image
Publish date
Feb 5, 2024
Slug
best-intercom-alternatives
Featured
Featured
Type
Article
Ready to Publish
Ready to Publish
Intercom is an excellent customer support platform, but it’s not necessarily perfect for your business. Aside from its relatively pricey offers, it might also lack some features that other tools can provide. In this guide, we’ll show you the five best Intercom alternatives to try in 2024.
What is Intercom?
Intercom is a top customer service platform that helps businesses provide personalized support at scale. It offers a suite of features aimed at improving communication and customer satisfaction, including the following:
- AI-enhanced help desk, a chat-based interface for interacting with customers across multiple channels to address support tickets.
- AI chatbots that help deflect common questions and automatically resolve simple issues.
- In-context proactive support, which lets you provide prompts and pop-ups that teach customers about the features of your website.
Why Look for Intercom Alternatives?
Despite Intercom being a great platform, one of the main issues users complain about is that it’s pricey.
For instance, its Essential plan (marketed to individuals and startups) costs $39 per seat per month — each human agent needs one seat. Scaling that to a team of ten, that’s already $390 per month of Intercom’s lowest level of access. Larger businesses would incur higher costs than that.
While it’s not necessarily expensive, better options exist at the same (or even lower) price points.
Issues like unpredictable billing charges for the number of customers reached, faulty automation setups, integration problems, and other existing bugs also make for valid reasons to find alternatives to Intercom. It also has issues with providing adequate customer support…despite being a customer support platform itself.
Factors to Consider When Choosing an Alternative
There’s no one-size-fits-all platform for online businesses. While the decision is ultimately yours, here are some factors that you can use as a guide.
Clear pricing models
Intercom’s pricing structure can be complex, with tiers based on features, number of users, and support volume. Hidden costs and potential overages can quickly add up to your bill.
It’s best that you prioritize looking for transparent pricing models with clear tiers and no hidden fees. Consider per-user pricing, flat fees, or pay-as-you-go options based on your usage. Or, find an alternative that accommodates clear quotations and has a good customer support team.
Rich feature set
Intercom’s most recent unique selling proposition is its AI chatbot creation feature. So, make sure that your alternative supports the same feature at the very least. On top of that, try to find the following characteristics in your prospects:
- Multi-channel (better if omnichannel) support
- Knowledge base creation
- Wide support for integrations
- Robust reporting capabilities
Affordable scalability
Intercom actually scales well as your business grows, but higher tiers can become expensive as you add users and features. For your alternative, ensure that it can accommodate your current needs and future growth without significant price jumps or limitations.
Best Intercom Alternatives
So, what are the leading software services that play on par with Intercom? Let’s take a look at them below:
1. Zendesk
Zendesk is a customer support platform that truly focuses on ticketing and issue management, compared to Intercom’s proactive engagement aspect. This makes it suitable for businesses handling diverse and complex customer issues.
It’s a great choice if you need extensive integrations with other tools like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and Asana. Zendesk is also suitable for those with larger teams and might need to scale soon—at cost-effective points.
Features
- AI-enhanced omnichannel support
- Shared workspace and inbox for accessing support requests
- Help Center, a built-in self-service knowledge base for customers
- Reporting and analytics dashboard
Why Zendesk?
- The Help Center feature allows your customers to quickly find relevant help on their own, reducing the need for support tickets
- Excellent scalability will enable you to add and access more features while controlling your costs
- Automation and AI help avoid the need for live human support
2. Freshworks
Freshworks is primarily known for Freshdesk, its software product intended to provide customer support. However, it offers more than just a helpdesk with its Customer Service Suite—a combination of Freshdesk, Freshchat (its tool for creating AI-powered chatbots), and other features on the side.
Features
- Freddy AI, the artificial intelligence engine that offers
- Freddy Self Service, which helps your customers with automated responses to common inquiries
- Freddy Copilot, providing your agents with intelligent suggestions
- Freddy Insights, for processing your customer support data and building actionable insights
- The Freshcaller add-on, suitable for teams supporting live calls
- Basic features like a ticketing system, knowledge base, live chat, automation, and reporting capabilities
Why Freshworks?
- Freddy AI
- A unified platform that bundles a customer support helpdesk, CRM, IT service management, and marketing tools together
- Free plan available; has more flexible and favorable pricing tiers compared to its competitors
- User-friendly interface and intuitive functionalities, despite being a little hard to customize
3. HubSpot Service Hub®
HubSpot offers multiple software products intended for creating content, B2B commerce, marketing, and more. Its customer-service-focused software is called Service Hub®. It’s best suited for you if you’re already using other HubSpot tools, as it makes for easy integration.
Features
- Customer portals where your customers can submit their tickets
- Omnichannel support
- Shared inbox
- Service analytics and AI-powered insights from calls and conversations
Why HubSpot Service Hub®?
- Easy integration with other HubSpot tools since they’re under the same umbrella
- Robust automation for simplifying repetitive tasks and workflows
- Free plan available
- Excellent scalability and flexible pricing plans
4. Tidio
Tidio is a popular live chat software often presented as a more affordable and user-friendly alternative to Intercom. It’s a great option if you’re looking for a simple setup process and uncomplicated integration at reasonable price points.
Features
- Lyro AI, Tidio’s conversational AI, boasts a 70% resolution rate and multi-language (7 languages) support
- Chatbot creation, live chat, and helpdesk
- Analytics dashboard
- Multiple agent collaboration, which allows various team members to help each other on chats and assign conversations
Why Tidio?
- Affordability
- Tidio boasts a simple and intuitive interface, making it easier for teams to set up and manage than Intercom.
- Great customer support
- Lyro AI
5. HelpCrunch
HelpCrunch is perhaps the most popular alternative to Intercom, primarily due to its free migration offer. In particular, you can easily bring over your data from Intercom to HelpCrunch, making for an easy transition between platforms.
Features
- Basic features, including live chat, knowledge base, analytics, and reporting
- Helpdesk ticketing system
- Proactive chat invitations to provide help before customers ask for it
- Email marketing automation
- Multi-channel support, including Facebook Messenger chat integrations
Why HelpCrunch?
- HelpCrunch generally offers lower prices compared to Intercom, especially for smaller teams.
- Intuitive interface
- Free and easy migration from Intercom
Conclusion
Intercom is great, but it’s not the only option that can help you deliver good customer support. Among the tools we reviewed, we think that Zendesk, Freshworks, and HelpCrunch would be the best alternatives for you to try.
However, customer support is a vast space. If you’re looking for something specifically designed for customer support, finding a platform that allows you to create AI chatbots would be worth it—whether for deflecting common customer requests or augmenting your current Intercom tools.
And in this regard, My AskAI is one of the best. See what My AskAI has on the table for you today
.
Written by
Alex Rainey
Alex is an experienced CTO and founder who largely focuses on all the technical areas of My AskAI, from AI Engineering, Technical Product Management and overall Platform Development.
