7 Intercom Alternatives Worth Testing in 2026 (Honest Comparison)

Intercom is one of the strongest AI-first helpdesks out there, but it charges roughly $0.99 per AI resolution on top of per-seat fees, and the whole platform is built around human support teams. That combo can get expensive and feel over-engineered if you're a lean store that just wants predictable, automated support. Here are seven alternatives compared on what they cost, who they fit, and what they actually do, plus an honest note on where Hubi belongs and where it does not.

Key Takeaways

• Intercom now prices its plans per seat ($29, $85, or $132 per seat/mo) plus $0.99 per Fin AI outcome, which gets expensive fast at high resolution volume.
• If you want a cheaper helpdesk with a similar feel, look at Tidio, Crisp, Help Scout, or Freshdesk depending on team size.
• If you need an AI agent that resolves tickets on your existing helpdesk, the closest comparisons are Lyro AI, Fin standalone, Zendesk AI, and Gorgias.
• Pick the tool that fixes your real bottleneck, whether that's cost per resolution, the channels you need to cover, ecommerce depth, or how fast it sets up. Don't pick on feature count alone.
• Honest fit note: Hubi is not a ticketing helpdesk and does not replace Intercom's inbox. Hubi is an AI agent that does real work across your store: auditing product pages, running campaigns, recovering abandoned carts, watching competitors, capturing leads. It can also integrate with Intercom rather than replace it. Hubi belongs on this list if you want to keep your helpdesk for support and hand the execution work to an agent that acts instead of just advising.

Why people look for an Intercom alternative

Intercom is good software. People rarely leave Intercom because the product is weak. They leave because it's the wrong fit for their team, or because it costs more than they want to pay.

The most common triggers: the per-outcome bill climbs as your support volume grows, the platform carries more features than a small team needs, or you want something that installs in an afternoon rather than a quarter. Some teams also want a tool built specifically for ecommerce support rather than a general B2B SaaS helpdesk.

This guide compares seven options on price, best-fit team, and what each one is actually built to do. No tool wins every category, so the goal is to match the tool to your bottleneck.

How Intercom is priced in 2026

Intercom moved to an AI-first model. Every plan now bundles the Fin AI Agent, and you pay two ways: per seat and per AI outcome.

• Essential: $29 per seat/mo, includes Fin
• Advanced: $85 per seat/mo, includes Fin and the workflow automation builder
• Expert: $132 per seat/mo, includes SSO, SLAs, and multibrand support
• Fin AI Agent (on your existing helpdesk): $0.99 per outcome, no seats, 50-outcome monthly minimum

An "outcome" is charged when a customer confirms resolution, stops asking for help after Fin replies, or Fin completes a workflow. You are billed once per conversation. There is a 14-day free trial with no card required.

The math matters: at 2,000 resolved AI conversations a month, the Fin usage alone is roughly $1,980 on top of seats. That is fair if those resolutions replace headcount, and painful if your margins are thin. Pricing checked against Intercom's pricing page on June 14, 2026.

The 7 best Intercom alternatives

Prices are entry points and move often. Always confirm on each vendor's pricing page before you commit, and watch usage-based add-ons (AI, messaging, channels) that change the real total.

Tidio: the all-in-one for smaller ecommerce teams

Tidio bundles live chat, chatbot flows, a shared inbox, and the Lyro AI agent. It is aimed squarely at small and mid-sized stores, with a free tier and paid plans from $24.17/mo billed annually. Lyro is priced by AI conversation rather than per seat, which can be easier to forecast than Intercom's per-outcome model at moderate volume. Choose Tidio if you want one tool for chat plus light helpdesk and you are running on Shopify or a similar platform.

Crisp: predictable flat pricing

Crisp keeps things simple with a shared inbox, chat, and an AI add-on, on flat monthly tiers rather than per-seat math. That predictability appeals to startups who hate variable bills. It is lighter on deep reporting and enterprise controls, so it fits smaller teams best.

Help Scout: calm, email-first support

Help Scout is built around email and a tidy shared inbox, with AI features for drafting and summarizing replies. If most of your support is email and you want software that feels human rather than a ticket factory, it is a strong pick. It is less focused on live website chat than Intercom or Tidio.

Freshdesk: a full helpdesk that scales

Freshdesk gives you ticketing, automations, reporting, and the Freddy AI assistant, with a free tier and affordable paid plans. It scales from a small team to a large one without the Intercom price jump. The trade-off is a busier interface and setup that takes longer than a lightweight chat tool.

Zendesk: the enterprise standard

Zendesk is deep, configurable, and built for larger support organizations, with its own AI agents. If you need granular routing, heavy integrations, and enterprise governance, it competes directly with Intercom Expert. It is overkill, and over-budget, for a five-person store.

Gorgias: Shopify-native support

Gorgias is built for ecommerce, with tight Shopify integration so agents see orders, refunds, and customer history inside each ticket. Its AI Agent handles common ecommerce questions. If your support is mostly "where is my order" and "can I return this," Gorgias fits the workflow better than a general helpdesk.

Fin standalone: Intercom's AI without Intercom

If you like Fin but not Intercom's seats, you can run Fin on your existing helpdesk (including Salesforce and others) for $0.99 per outcome with no seat fees and a 50-outcome monthly minimum. This is the move if your current helpdesk is fine and you only want to add strong AI resolution.

How Hubi fits (and where it does not)

Here is the honest part. Hubi is not a ticketing helpdesk. It does not run a support inbox, route tickets, or replace Intercom's core job. If your problem is "customers message us and we need to answer and track those conversations," pick one of the seven tools above.

Where Hubi fits is different: it is an AI agent that does real work across your store, living inside Slack. You ask it for something and it executes: research, content drafts, competitor monitoring, scheduled reports. It does not hand you another dashboard to manage. It can also integrate with Intercom, so the helpdesk keeps doing support while Hubi handles the execution work alongside it.

You: @Hubi draft a win-back email for customers who haven't ordered in 90 days
Hubi: Done. Drafted a 3-email win-back sequence with subject lines and a 10% offer.
Want me to schedule it or hand it to your ESP?

So treat Hubi as complementary, not a swap. Keep your helpdesk for support, and use Hubi for the growth and execution work that usually piles up because no one has time. If you came here purely to replace Intercom's support inbox, Hubi is the wrong tool and we would rather tell you that than waste your trial.

When not to switch from Intercom

Sometimes staying put is the right call. Do not switch if:

• Fin is already resolving a large share of tickets and the cost maps cleanly to saved headcount.
• Your team depends on Intercom-specific workflows, integrations, or reporting that would be costly to rebuild.
• You are mid-contract and the migration effort outweighs the savings this year.

Switching tools has a real cost in time and disruption. Move when the savings or fit gains clearly beat that cost, not because a competitor's homepage looks shinier.

FAQ

What is the cheapest Intercom alternative?

For a genuinely free start, Tidio and Freshdesk both offer free tiers, and Crisp has a free plan for very small teams. The cheapest paid entry points are usually Freshdesk and Gorgias, but watch usage-based AI and messaging add-ons, which change the real monthly total.

Which Intercom alternative is best for Shopify stores?

Gorgias is built for Shopify and shows order data inside tickets, while Tidio is a strong all-in-one for smaller Shopify stores that want chat plus light helpdesk. Both integrate more tightly with ecommerce workflows than a general B2B helpdesk.

Can I keep my helpdesk and just add AI like Fin?

Yes. Fin runs standalone on your existing helpdesk for $0.99 per outcome with no seat fees and a 50-outcome monthly minimum. Zendesk and Freshdesk also offer their own AI agents inside their platforms if you prefer staying in one ecosystem.

How does Intercom's per-outcome pricing compare to per-seat tools?

Per-outcome pricing scales with how much your AI resolves, so it rewards low volume and punishes high volume. Per-seat tools like Help Scout or Zendesk are predictable but cost the same whether your AI resolves 10 tickets or 10,000. Model your real volume before choosing.

Is Hubi an Intercom alternative?

Not directly. Hubi is an AI agent that does real work across your store, not a support helpdesk, so it does not replace Intercom's inbox. It fits alongside your helpdesk if your real need is executing store work rather than answering support tickets.

How long does it take to migrate off Intercom?

A lightweight chat tool like Tidio or Crisp can be live in a day. A full helpdesk migration with history, macros, and integrations (to Zendesk or Freshdesk) usually takes one to several weeks depending on data volume and how many workflows you rebuild.

The takeaway

Intercom is excellent software with a pricing model that rewards some teams and strains others. Match the alternative to your real bottleneck: Tidio or Crisp for affordable all-in-one chat, Help Scout for email-first calm, Freshdesk or Zendesk for full helpdesk scale, Gorgias for Shopify depth, and Fin standalone if you only want the AI on a helpdesk you already like.

And if your "Intercom problem" is actually a store-execution problem, that is where Hubi earns its place, not in your support inbox.

Hubi is an AI agent that lives in Slack and does the work for your store. Start free, no card required. gethubi.ai

Sources

• Intercom pricing page, intercom.com/pricing, accessed June 14, 2026
• Fin AI Agent pricing and outcome definition, intercom.com/pricing and fin.ai, accessed June 14, 2026
• Vendor pricing pages for Tidio, Crisp, Help Scout, Freshdesk, Zendesk, and Gorgias, accessed June 2026