Intercom is a fantastic support platform that helps thousands of online companies communicate with their customers.
Intercom is a fantastic support platform that helps thousands of online companies communicate with their customers. It provides excellent tools for customer support, lead generation, email automation, sales, and product marketing.
But there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to customer benefits programs. And Intercom is not an exception. Here are some issues you’ll find in every Intercom customer feedback on G2 and Capterra about:
🚫 Extremely high cost of the software.
🚫 Unpredictable billing based on the number of reached people.
🚫 Difficult navigation with icons instead of word titles.
🚫 Email campaigns automation bugs.
🚫 Long-to-fix bugs.
🚫 Inattentive and uncaring customer service.
Sounds familiar? Looking for more suitable and cheaper Intercom alternatives? You're in the right place. Discover the top 7 customer service tools to improve your customer relationships 👇
Drift
As well as Intercom, Drift focuses on marketing and sales. This customer conversations platform provides your managers with all the tools for effective customer engagement and communication, like chatbots, live chat, real-time reports, etc. It makes Drift an excellent solution for real-time visitor engagement and automating client interactions on different channels.
Among its clients there are businesses of all sizes, starting from startups and enterprises. They use the platform for lead generation, qualification, nurturing, and, sure thing, support.
Features
As an Intercom alternative, Drift provides a wide range of similar and unique features to make your customers happy. Among the key ones are:
- Real-time website chat.
- Canned responses.
- Custom and AI-powered chatbots.
- Knowledge base.
- Reporting and analytics with insights into team performance.
- Shared inbox.
- Website visitor behavior tracking.
Pricing
We can't say that customer satisfaction with Drift is a much cheaper alternative to Intercom. It offers rather expensive pricing plans starting from $2.500/mo (Premium Plan). Sure thing, there is a free trial where, for example, you can test some of the premium features of a chatbot. For those who want more, Drift offers a free model. It includes live chat for real-time communication, one chat agent seat, and calendar integration for booking meetings and demos.
Advanced and Enterprise plan price is available by request.
Pros and Cons
| Rich email and lead capture features for proactive visitor engagement. In-depth audience segmentation to convert target website visitors. Rich customization options. Opportunity to integrate Drift with Google Calendar and send personalized reminders. | There is no clear explanation of the Drift’s features. Expensive pricing. |
HelpCrunch
HelpCrunch is the best Intercom alternative. This customer service software is more affordable yet very similar to Intercom in terms of solutions it provides. The platform offers a nifty AI-powered shared inbox for managing customer support tickets from different channels: your website, socials, messengers, and email.
Another reason businesses switch to HelpCrunch is powerful personalization opportunities based on rich data on a user path, purchase history, and personal details.
Range of features
- Live Chat to talk to your customers in real-time.
- AI-driven shared inbox to unite all communication channels under one roof.
- Chatbot to qualify leads and deliver instant answers 24/7.
- Knowledge Base with AI editor for customer self-service.
- Email marketing automation.
- Popups to collect more leads.
- SDK to reply to users on the go.
Pricing
Start your HelpCrunch journey with a 14-day free trial. Opposite to Intercom, here you don't have to add a credit card. The paid experience starts with a Basic plan – $15/mo per seat and a Pro plan that will cost you $25/mo. If you want more, there's an unlimited subscription plan with no feature and team members limitation for $495/mo if billed annually.
Pros and Cons
| Opportunity to provide multichannel customer support. Detailed reports on team performance. AI automation of repetitive tasks. | The chatbot doesn’t have proactive functionality. |
Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is an all-in-one help desk solution to make your customers happier, customer support agents empowered, and businesses healthier. Companies of all sizes and types use Zoho Desk customer communication platform for seamless omnichannel support. Wanna improve agent productivity at scale? Zoho Desk capabilities cover all their needs: powerful artificial intelligence capabilities, task automation, performance insights, and integration with Google Analytics and every tool of your tech stack.
Zoho Desk features
As an Intercom alternative this software provides its user with the same level of functionality:
- held desk ticketing,
- telephony,
- email help desk,
- real-time chat,
- web forms,
- Zia AI assistant,
- social media integrations,
- knowledge base.
Pricing
The platform pricing is based on the number of agents and features. Start testing Zoho Desk with a 15-day free trial or forever free plan with basic features. But if your team is more than three agents, it is better to look at Standard or Suite Professional plans. Big companies choose Suite Enterprise plan starting at $50 per agent per month. Want to save costs? Consider annual billing.
Pros and Cons based on G2 and Capterra User Ratings
| Zoho Desk is a feature-rich solution that covers all customer support team needs. Affordable price. Chat ratings. Visual builder for email marketing campaigns. AI assistant saves response times by doing routine tasks like tagging or copywriting. | No email filtering. There is no predefined ticket feature. The interface could be easier to navigate. |
Olark
Olark's live chat is a superb alternative to Intercom. You can see Olark's chat widget on 40K company sites. eCommerce, SaaS, and education businesses of small and mid-sized choose these chat tools to improve customer communication and sales. In addition to real-time interactions, it provides ticketing and routing so each customer request finds the right agent.
Olark’s live chat features
Among the most powerful tools of this platform are:
- Chat transcript.
- Powerful chat widget customization.
- Proactive chat messages.
- Reports on visitor's behavior and team performance.
- Custom chatbox forms.
- Real-time reporting analytics.
Pricing
This customer service software provides only one Basic plan starting at $29 per user per month. For this price, you get reporting, integrations, and valuable insights to impress your customers and your boss. Test its features for free with a 14-day trial.
Pros and Cons
| Mobile app for agents. Affordable price. Seamless workflow with most popular CRMs. | No email marketing automation. No knowledge base. No ticketing system. |
Crisp
Crisp is one of the cheapest Intercom alternatives. This affordable customer service platform is used by 400K startups and SMBs for instant communication with their customers on different channels. As its user, you’ll have a list of tools to provide an outstanding customer experience, boost sales, and improve support.
Features
While switching to Crisp customer support software, you'll access the comprehensive suite of solutions:
- live chat software,
- chatbots,
- automated chat transfers to agents,
- knowledge base,
- CRM,
- ticketing system,
- shared inbox,
- live translate into customers language,
- Magic Reply AI assistant.
Pricing
There are two ways to test Crisp for free: a 14-day trial or a forever free Basic plan.
If you have more than two agents, it is better to choose a Pro plan. It offers unlimited chat conversations history, chat triggers, and messenger integrations. Big customer support teams prefer the Unlimited plan.
Pros and Cons
| Instant screen sharing with contacts and video chats. Minimal training and adoption time by our operators. Top-notch customer service. Interactive video game for visitors while they wait for a response. | SDK lacks some advanced features. The AI assistant is buggy sometimes. Team performance reports need more essential metrics. There is no team chat experience. |
LiveAgent
Another popular alternative to Intercom is a LiveAgent platform. It is an excellent solution for small support teams. You'll find here everything your customers need. 180+ features and 200+ integrations turn this help desk into a customer support superhero.
That is why companies like BMW, Yamaha, Huawei, and Oxford University use it to provide personalized customer experience.
Features
Here are key features of LiveAgent customer support platform that businesses use to improve user relationships:
- real-time live chat,
- knowledge base
- omnichannel inbox,
- call center,
- ticketing system,
- built-in CRM,
- analytics package.
Pricing
This customer support solution offers two different pricing systems: the first one is a small business service hub, and the second is for enterprises.
Thus, you can test the LiveAgent platform during a 7 or 30-day trial. Those who need more free days can switch to a forever free limited plan or one of four paid plans. Their features list and price depend on your team size: The Small one starts at $15, the Medium is about $35, the Large - $59, and Enterprize - $85 per user per month for big customer service department.
Pros and Cons
| Easy to use single dashboard. Automation of the service agents' tasks. Unlimited chat history. Mobile app messages about new requests for agents. | No chatbot. Poor customization. Translation features could be better. |
Help Scout
Help Scout customer service software is one of the best Intercom alternatives. Since 2011, customer support teams have enjoyed the variety of tools it provides for customer interactions. One of the most popular features of Help Scout is chat software, shared email inbox, and task automation that save support agents time. It provides +52% team productivity growth.
The best thing is that this customer service platform fits companies of all sizes and client bases.
Features
Among the primary tools customer support teams use are:
- live chat services,
- knowledge base,
- shared inbox,
- customer management section,
- robust reporting,
- AI summarize and content assistant.
Pricing
You can start answering customer queries with Help Scout for free with a 15-day trial. Then, the platform offers three paid plans: cheapest plan is Standart - $25 per user per month with limited features, Plus - $50 per user per month (if billed annually), and Pro with custom pricing for large teams.
Pros and Cons
| Easy-to-use interface. Workflow automations save agents time. Affordable pricing. Rich customization options of the live chat solution. | No email automation features. Sometimes, clients experience bugs with duplicated tickets. Compared to Intercom, this tool has fewer integrations. |
Which Intercom alternative will suit your company best?
Choosing an alternative to Intercom can pose challenges for businesses, such as finding a similar feature set, seamless migration, and budget concerns. It's essential to consider user-friendliness, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and excellent support.
So, where to start?
First, list your needs. Then, trial several platforms, compare pricing models, and read reviews from similar businesses. The ideal Intercom alternative should offer robust customer support advanced features, and provide value for money.
