Intercom is one of the best live messaging platforms on the internet right now. It not only allows you to chat with your customers in real-time but also provides you marketing tools to help track user interaction and close a purchase. However, many entrepreneurs are scouting for alternatives to Intercom.io due to its expensive price tag, which is defined on the basis of total user conversations. If you are one of them, we have jotted down the top 15 Intercom alternatives which you can use to communicate and engage with your customers seamlessly.
Before getting started with the roundup, let’s figure out some of the viable reasons why it’s worth exploring the noted Intercom substitutes! Whether you are hunting for a free variant or wish to significantly cut down the monthly price, they can fit into your needs.
Without undermining a great suite of the essential tools and the integration with a wide range of apps/services, I would like to point out some of the areas where it still lacks precision or simply doesn’t live up to the expectation.
- Tawk.to
- Crisp.chat
- Freshchat
- Zoho Desk
- HelpCrunch
- Live Chat
- Mailjet
- LiveAgent
- UseResponse
- ZenDesk Chat
- SendinBlue
- Drift
- Olark
- User.com
- Skype Web Control
- Frequently Asked Questions
1. Tawk.to
Our first recommendation is a completely free live messaging platform, for those who’ve been looking for the cheapest Intercom alternative. Tawk.to allows you to embed a chat widget on your website or app but lacks the sleek UI and marketing automation tools that may help you drive sales.
Pros:
Cons:
Platforms: Web, Android, and iOS
Though Intercom may have ignited the flame for instant customer satisfaction, it is Crisp that’s building the features that further enhance the support experience. The company’s LiveChat platform is a simple and intuitive alternative to Intercom with features such as rich media (audio/video messages, link snippets, GIFs, and file attachments) messaging, chat handover to social platforms, and even an in-chat game.
Cons:
- A touch expensive
Platforms: Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Slack Plugin
The latest addition to CRM service provider FreshWorks’ arsenal, Freshchat, now plans to take on Intercom with its proactive messaging and sales platform. They are offering a minimalist and clean experience with unlimited contacts, ten agents, 30-day chat history, and other basic functionality for free.
You can then access user properties, analyze the data, and launch in-app or email campaigns to score more on the customer satisfaction meter. The back-end UI of the service has also been designed quite intricately. Not only that, you can also integrate popular messaging services like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and more to directly reach your customer.
- Email campaign management could be better
Platforms: Web, iOS, and Android
Zoho Desk has always been a noted rival of Intercom. So, there is no question of missing out on this one. What makes it a worthy alternative is a wide range of tools that enable you to offer timely help to your customers.
The inclusion of all the essential tools like email, phone, live chat, and social media offers you the flexibility to communicate quickly with the right medium. Thus, you can carry out several essential tasks right from one spot.
Platforms: Web
Visit: Website (Free Tier, Paid Plans start at $18/agent/month)
To compete against an established giant, even HelpCrunch has adopted the oh-so-common omni-channel, unlimited contacts, and chats functionality for a fixed price tag. It is offering a sleek, fast, and interactive chat widget UI similar to Intercom.
It offers customers 14-day trials (without credit card details) to try out the whole experience before asking to pay $12/agent per month for the live chat feature and $25/agent per month to also include email automation in the mix.
Platforms: Web
6. Live Chat
Though not available for free, Live Chat (previously known as chat.io) is a smarter and cheaper alternative for Intercom users. It does include most of the features already available within Intercom but then tops it with message sneak peeks, agent ratings, chat routing, and integrations for the chat widget.
- Provides APIs to allow developers to tinker and build features
- Message sneak peeks
- Agent ratings
- Chat routing, and integrations for the chat widget
Platforms: Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android
If you are looking for a lightweight and faster alternative to Intercom, give a chance to Mailjet. Though it doesn’t have the high-end tools that Intercom.io offers, it’s way more customizable and provides a fully personalized experience.
- Intuitive interface
- Offers more customization
- Monitor your results
- Efficient contact management
- Zapier integration
If you have been searching for a feature-intensive CRM service, then you should stop what you’re doing and pay heed right away. LiveAgent not only offers you live chat functionality but also includes ticket management, social messages, and customer care support (phone calling functionality) all in one integrated platform. You may need to add a required account or phone number to activate some of these functionalities.
- Doesn’t offer a freemium model
Platforms: Web, iOS, and Android
With most technology giant’s trying to flood their messaging services with AI-enabled bots, UserResponse gives you the chance to use them as a customer interaction platform. It does not want to limit the visitors at embeddable chat widgets but is also providing them with an option to easily communicate using popular messaging platforms like Viber, Facebook Messenger, Skype, and more.
In addition to live chats, users of UseResponse can also opt-in to choose from a collection of three additional modules namely Feedback, Help Desk, and Knowledge Base. The subscription plans for each module are the same and you’ll be given a 14-day free trial period, post which each module will cost $49/ 2 support agents/month.
Cons:
10. ZenDesk Chat
Adding to their existing and trusted CRM platform, Zendesk has also stepped foot into the crowded live messaging widget ecosystem with Zendesk Chat. While this may have become repetitive but this platform also includes common features like pre-chat forms, visitor lists, offline lead generation forms, and chat badges to improve the visibility of your widget.
Everything considered; Zendesk is a great free and cheap Intercom alternative in the market right now.
11. SendinBlue
SendinBlue is another highly-rated Intercom alternative in the market. The software puts your entire suite of digital marketing tools in one place so that you can take prompt actions without needing to take roundabout ways.
If you wish to put more emphasis on CRM and transactional emails, SendinBlue is a better alternative to Intercom.
12. Drift
One look at Drift’s chat widget or the backend and you’re reminded of Intercom’s UI itself. The resemblance in aesthetics and functionality is uncanny and it also transcends to the responsive UI and intuitiveness of the chat widget. This live chat platform is the closest alternative to Intercom but not the cheapest of the lot here.
- The AI virtual assistant
- Ability to personalize messages for visitors
- One agent to reach only 100 active contacts
- Email fallback
- Slack integration
Much like Intercom, Olark is a live messaging platform that lays focus on the functionality, as well as aesthetics, of the embeddable chat widget. It lays great emphasis on real-time reporting for chat volumes, automated replies, searchable transcripts, and integration of some of the most common tools like Google Analytics, Salesforce, and Mailchimp among others to the platform.
Olark’s chat widget customization can easily be done according to the needs of a brand. It provides you with options to choose the background type (light or dark), chat widget position/shape, and the corner type to match your brand. It also includes an option to localize the chatbox for the language of your region.
Visit: Website (14-day Free Trial, Paid Plans start at $17/agent per month)
If a more simplified experience is what you are after, User.com (aka user engage) is the one I would recommend you try out. The software is pretty easy to set up and offers a range of customizations. So, irrespective of where your priority lies, you can fine-tune each aspect to get your work done with the needed proficiency.
When it comes to campaign creation, User.com looks more proficient than Intercom. Depending on your goal, you can create a variety of campaigns using built-in tools for effective communication.
Platforms: Web
15. Skype Web Control
As the name suggests, Skype Web Control allows you to integrate a Skype chat widget on your platform to enable free visitor interaction. Navigate to this link to customize your Skype chat widget and copy the 2-line code to get started. Yes, it is as simple as it sounds.
- Lacks high-end tools
What are some good Intercom alternatives?
Tawk.to, Crisp.chat, and Freshchat are some of the pretty good Intercom alternatives which you can try.
If you are looking for a tool that can let you amp your communication with customers with features like message sneak peeks and chat routing, then Live Chat is the way to go. However, if you want to put more emphasis on CRM, ZenDesk is the better bet.
Intercom’s paid plan starts from $39/month. The top-tier variant is available for a whopping $999/month.
Is Freshchat free?
Yes. Freshchat offers a generous free tier.
Though both Intercom and User Engage are better, the latter has an edge over the former when it comes to offering simplified experience and campaign creation.
If you ask most entrepreneurs, there is no doubt their first recommendation for a live chat messenger will always be Intercom. It is because the platform enables you to handle lead-generation, sales prospects, and email automation from a single dashboard. The platform has amassed 100,000 monthly active users and 17,000+ paying customers, thanks to this powerful feature set.
