Intercom alternatives
The best Intercom alternatives for a small business (2026)
The best Intercom alternatives are Zendesk for every channel including phone, Help Scout for email-first support, Tidio for website chat with a free plan, Front for teams that work from shared email, Gorgias for online stores, Re:amaze for a flat price, and Mojobase if support is one of several jobs your team does.
Updated . Prices and features checked on each company's own site
Why do people look for alternatives to Intercom?
- Fin is billed per outcome on top of seats, at $0.99 each, so the bill rises with every busy month.
- Essential's $19 a seat billed yearly is a new-customer price against a $29 list price, and Advanced jumps to $85 a seat.
- Copilot, the AI that drafts replies for your own team, is a separate add-on at $29 an agent a month billed yearly.
- WhatsApp, SMS and email campaigns are charged per message on top of the plan.
What are the best Intercom alternatives?
| Tool | Best for |
|---|---|
| Zendesk | Every channel in one help desk, phone included |
| Help Scout | Email-first support that feels like a shared inbox |
| Tidio | Website chat with an AI agent and a free plan |
| Front | Teams that run support from shared email |
| Mojobase | Small teams where support is one job among several |
| Gorgias | Shopify stores that want AI to handle order questions |
| Re:amaze | A flat monthly price for the whole team |
1. Zendesk: best for every channel in one help desk, phone included
Zendesk's Suite Team covers email, messaging, live chat and telephony with AI agents and a knowledge base, so it's the closest match to Intercom with phone support added. Automated resolutions beyond the included few are billed one by one, like Fin's outcomes.
- Suite Team: $55 per agent per month, billed annually; $69 billed monthly1
- Suite Team includes: Support Team features, plus AI Agents, Knowledge Base, Action Builder; Omnichannel routing; Messaging and live chat; Telephony; 5 automated AI-agent resolutions per agent per month included2
- Extra AI-agent automated resolutions: $1.50 each if committed in advance, $2.00 each pay-as-you-go3
2. Help Scout: best for email-first support that feels like a shared inbox
Help Scout suits teams whose customers mostly write emails rather than chat. AI Drafts writes replies from past conversations and help content, unlimited on Plus, and its Envoy chatbot charges only when it resolves a question, at a lower rate per resolution than Fin.
- Plus: $45 per user per month, billed annually (page default toggle 'Annual', 16% off vs monthly); $54 billed monthly4
- AI: AI Drafts: drafts replies from past conversations and help content; unlimited on Plus and Pro5
- AI: Envoy chatbot answers customers from your knowledge base content and custom sources; $0.75 per resolution; Help Scout states a 73% average resolution rate6
3. Tidio: best for website chat with an AI agent and a free plan
Tidio is built for live chat on a website or online store, priced by conversations rather than agents, with ten seats on its lower plans. Its Lyro AI agent answers from your FAQ and hands off to a person. The free plan is enough to try both.
- Free plan: Yes: Free plan, $0/month: 50 billable conversations, 10 seats, 50 Lyro AI conversations (one-off, lifetime) and 100 Flows visitors reached.7
- Starter: $24.17 per month, flat (priced by billable conversations, not per agent), billed annually ('Annually (2 months free)' toggle); $29 billed monthly8
- AI: Lyro AI Agent: answers from a knowledge base or FAQ, hands off to humans; first 50 conversations free (lifetime); paid quota 50 to 1,000 conversations a month; Tidio states customers average a 75% resolution rate9
4. Front: best for teams that run support from shared email
Front puts shared inboxes, ticketing and a knowledge base on top of the Gmail or Office 365 accounts you have, with SMS, WhatsApp and social from Professional. Its Autopilot AI agent is priced per conversation, and Copilot is a per-seat add-on below Enterprise.
- Starter: $25 per seat per month, up to 10 seats, billed annually (page shows 'Billed Annually, Save 24%'); $35 billed monthly10
- Autopilot (AI agent): starting at $0.39 per conversation, talk to sales11
- Copilot: $20 per seat per month as an add-on for Starter and Professional; included in Enterprise12
5. Mojobase: best for small teams where support is one job among several
Mojobase puts the support inbox and a website Messenger in Customers, next to email, invoices, orders and the CRM. The AI drafts every answer from your published Handbook and the customer's history, and answers alone only on topics you set to Auto. It has no phone, SMS, WhatsApp or social channels.
- Price: $39 a month for the first person and $25 for each after; the first 10 companies pay $29 and $19, for life
- AI: included, with your choice of model, or bring your own
6. Gorgias: best for shopify stores that want AI to handle order questions
Gorgias prices by tickets a month, never per agent, and its AI Agent is trained for ecommerce: it answers shoppers, tracks orders and handles returns. For a store, it does more than Intercom out of the box; for anything else it's the wrong fit.
- Feature: Pricing is by tickets per month, never per agent; helpdesk scales from 50 to 5,000 tickets a month13
- Basic (helpdesk only) includes: 300 tickets per month included, then $0.40 per extra ticket; 500 user seats; Helpdesk + AI Agent bundle: $77/mo billed annually ($924 a year) or $90/mo monthly; 30 automated interactions included14
- AI: AI Agent pre-trained on 18+ verticals, answers support questions, converts shoppers with personalized chat and automates actions like returns and order tracking15
7. Re:amaze: best for a flat monthly price for the whole team
Re:amaze's Starter plan charges one flat price for unlimited team members, up to 500 responded conversations a month, with live chat, chatbots, a FAQ and unlimited email inboxes. Its AI agent includes a few resolutions per user each month and bills the rest.
- Starter: $59 flat per month, unlimited team members, monthly only; annual subscriptions are unavailable for volume-based plans, per billing help16
- Basic: $26.1 per team member per month, billed annually (Save 10%); $29 billed monthly17
- AI: Re:amaze AI Agent resolves customer questions; included resolutions per user per month: 5 (Basic), 10 (Pro), 20 (Plus); $0.85 per additional resolution18
How should a small team choose an Intercom alternative?
Start with how your customers reach you. If most write emails, an email-first tool such as Help Scout or Front will feel lighter than a chat platform. If most start a chat on your website, look at Tidio, Zendesk or Mojobase's Messenger. If they phone or text, you need Zendesk, Gorgias or Re:amaze, because several of the others don't do voice.
Then decide how you want to pay for AI. Intercom charges for each AI outcome, and most tools here now bill AI answers in a similar way, at different rates and with different allowances. Per-outcome pricing is fair for a quiet inbox and expensive for a busy one, so estimate your monthly volume before comparing.
How do Intercom alternatives charge for AI answers?
Each price is from the company's own pricing page.
| Tool | AI that answers customers | How it's billed |
|---|---|---|
| Intercom | Fin AI Agent | $0.99 per outcome, on top of seats |
| Zendesk | AI agents for messaging, email and voice | 5 automated resolutions per agent a month on Suite Team, then $1.50 committed or $2.00 pay as you go |
| Help Scout | Envoy (AI Answers) | $0.75 per resolution, with a 3-month free trial |
| Tidio | Lyro AI Agent | First 50 conversations free, then from $32.50 a month for 50 conversations |
| Front | Autopilot | From $0.39 per conversation, through sales |
| Gorgias | AI Agent | 30 automated interactions a month on Basic, then $1.50 each |
| Re:amaze | Re:amaze AI Agent | 5 to 20 resolutions per user a month by plan, then $0.85 each |
| Mojobase | The support AI, from your published Handbook | Part of the company's monthly AI allowance, or your own API key |
What does Mojobase do differently from Intercom?
Intercom is a support platform; Mojobase is the whole office, with support inside it. Your support address is a mailbox connected in Email and switched to Support, so its mail moves into Customers' Inbox, replies go out from support@ and stay in the same thread. Each conversation is open, waiting or closed, with one assignee and an AI draft.
The support AI follows stricter rules than the rest of Mojobase, because a reply to a customer can't be undone. It answers only from the Handbook pages you've published, which double as your public help center. It hands the conversation to a person when it isn't sure. It answers on its own only for the topics a person has set to Auto, and every reply is recorded in Activity.
Because support sits beside email, Numbers and the CRM, a draft can mention the customer's last order, their unpaid invoice or the call you had on Tuesday. What Mojobase doesn't have: phone, SMS, WhatsApp or social channels, product tours, in-app surveys or outbound campaigns. It's built for 1 to 25 people, and it works well for teams up to 100.
What do you lose by leaving Intercom?
You lose the most mature AI agent in support and the platform built around it: Fin's procedures, its voice add-on at $1.99 per voice outcome, Copilot in the inbox, and reports such as CX Score and Topics Explorer. You also lose proactive messaging, such as posts, checklists, product tours and surveys, which software companies use to onboard users, and more than 450 integrations.
If those are why you chose Intercom, look at Zendesk, or keep Fin on top of another help desk. If you mainly used the Messenger and the inbox, a smaller tool covers it for less.
How do you switch from Intercom without losing customers?
Keep your support address and your website. Connect the support mailbox to the new tool, replace the Intercom Messenger snippet on your site with the new widget, and publish your help articles in the new help center before you switch, so nothing points to a dead page.
Run both for a week: new conversations go to the new tool, while your team closes the open ones in Intercom. In Mojobase, past email with each customer is read from the mailbox itself, so that history is there from day one.
Questions people ask
What is the cheapest Intercom alternative?
Tidio has a free plan with 50 conversations a month and ten seats, and Help Scout's free plan covers five users. For a whole team at a flat price, Re:amaze Starter is $59 a month for unlimited team members, up to 500 responded conversations.
Which Intercom alternative has the best AI agent?
Intercom's Fin remains the most developed of the group. Zendesk's AI agents are closest, across messaging, email and voice. Help Scout's Envoy and Tidio's Lyro answer from your help content at lower prices, and Mojobase drafts from the whole business: the customer's email, orders, invoices and your Handbook.
Can I keep Fin and switch help desks?
Yes. Intercom sells Fin on top of Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot and Freshdesk at $0.99 per outcome with no seat cost, though a minimum monthly commitment applies. That suits a team that likes Fin but wants a different inbox.
Does Mojobase have phone or SMS support?
No. Mojobase handles support by email and through a chat Messenger on your website. If customers call or text you, Zendesk, Gorgias, Re:amaze from Pro, or Front through Twilio or Dialpad cover those channels.
Is Mojobase's support AI allowed to reply on its own?
Only where you allow it. A person sets each topic to Auto or leaves it as a draft for someone to send. The AI answers only from published Handbook pages, hands the conversation to a person when it isn't sure, and every reply is in Activity.
Sources
- Zendesk: Suite Team. zendesk.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Zendesk: Suite Team includes. zendesk.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Zendesk: Extra AI-agent automated resolutions. zendesk.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Help Scout: Plus. helpscout.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Help Scout: AI. helpscout.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Help Scout: AI. helpscout.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Tidio: Free plan. tidio.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Tidio: Starter. tidio.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Tidio: AI. tidio.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Front: Starter. front.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Front: Autopilot (AI agent). front.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Front: Copilot. front.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Gorgias: Feature. gorgias.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Gorgias: Basic (helpdesk only) includes. gorgias.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Gorgias: AI. gorgias.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Re:amaze: Starter. reamaze.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Re:amaze: Basic. reamaze.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Re:amaze: AI. reamaze.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Intercom: Advanced. intercom.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Intercom: Fin AI Agent. intercom.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Intercom: Fin Voice (AI phone support). intercom.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Tidio: Lyro AI Agent add-on. tidio.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.