Intercom is a software company that offers a wide range of customer support solutions. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, and thousands of businesses use its services.
However, Intercom is not the only solution in the market, especially if you’re looking for an all-in-one customer support solution that offers automation, integrations, and additional features like chatbots.
If you’re not interested in using Intercom or feel that it’s just not a requirement for your business yet, there are a host of other Intercom alternatives that offer similar functionality.
Some of the best help desk software now use a SaaS model, and primarily target small businesses and startups that want to prioritize and offer multiple channels of customer communication.
Whether you want to introduce a ticketing system for your support team to manage or wish to offer a self-service solution, here are some popular Intercom alternatives that will help you get the best out of your support agents.
What are the Best Intercom Alternative in 2023?
1. HubSpot
HubSpot has established itself as one of the top live chat tools, though it’s a lot more. It’s easily the best alternative for businesses looking to expand connectivity beyond conventional communication channels and for those who want to track customer interactions in greater detail.
HubSpot’s massive ecosystem means that it’s not just a CRM, but you can use it to create an entire knowledge base, and to enhance customer engagement and track performance in real-time.
HubSpot offers several “Hubs” that you can use as your company continues to expand. There are plenty of additional features apart from a conventional live chat software, such as building your own bots or setting up SMS help software.
You can even set up custom Slack support channels, or link it up with your mobile app, so all team members in support can access a shared inbox and answer queries.
Pricing
HubSpot’s pricing varies depending upon what features you choose. However, if you need a basic support system with simple email marketing features, segmentation features, and one that can help you track customer data for your ecommerce store, their free plan does the job well.
The starter package begins at $50/month, and as you continue to add more features, the price will obviously start to increase. In most cases, it can easily hit the $700-$800 mark if you need a full marketing automation solution.
Pros 👍
- All-in-one customer support solution that supports all aspects of the sales funnel, from onboarding to routing to conversions.
- Excellent messaging platform with tons of incremental features
- Supports thousands of integrations via Zapier
- Plenty of in-house add-ons available for integration with WordPress sites or for lead generation
- Easily beats Intercom’s pricing with its free offering
- Ideal for email automation, follow ups, or for improving customer satisfaction.
Cons 👎
- Pricing can easily balloon into the hundreds
- Not always the best choice for smaller businesses that simply want a basic support solution
- Might seem a bit daunting to beginners.
Who Is It Best For?
If you’re running a growing ecommerce business and need a customizable solution that best fits your needs, you can’t go wrong with HubSpot. You can select from different modules or “Hubs” as you see fit, making it an excellent choice for growing businesses.
Check out our HubSpot Marketing Hub review.
Check out our HubSpot CRM review.
2. LiveChat
LiveChat is an incredibly robust customer support software that includes an excellent chat widget, and is ideal for website visitors. It offers dedicated notifications and even integrates with third-party tools like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp through an API.
LiveChat divides its feature offering to help businesses in two ways: either by improving customer engagement or by improving chat functionality. For the latter, it offers dedicated notifications, chat tags, archives, inactivity messages, ratings, transfer, and more.
If you’re looking to improve customer experience and engagement, there are several options that you get with LiveChat. These include:
- Targeted messages
- Eye-catchers to improve website engagement
- Chat buttons
- Routing rules
- Chat history
- Chat transcripts and more.
There are even several templates for crafting rich messages that you can send your audience, and you can also get comprehensive reports and analytics to further improve your company’s overall CSAT.
Pricing
Like HubSpot, LiveChat also has a free trial option. However, while HubSpot has a free tier in general, LiveChat only offers a free trial that’s valid for 14 days, though it doesn’t require a credit card.
After that, you can choose from one of several paid plans. The Starter package costs $16/mo, though price increases to $33/mo for the Team account. Again, these are per agent, so if you have a larger team, it’s likely to cost you a pretty penny.
The most expensive out-of-the-box plan is Business, which costs $50/mo per agent. All of these prices are only valid if billed annually. For Enterprise solutions, you can also ask for a custom quote.
Pros 👍
- Extensive widget customization that’s ideal for improving conversational marketing
- Maximum data security thanks to encryption options
- Excellent ticketing system that’s on par with major providers like Salesforce, Zoho, and Crisp
- Easy to onboard new reps and quickly get them up to speed thanks with comprehensive knowledge base
- Flexible pricing makes it ideal for all kinds of businesses
Cons 👎
- There are cheaper alternatives available
- Not a full “suite” like HubSpot
- Chatbot costs significantly extra
Who Is It Best For?
If you want to streamline your app messaging and wish to improve support workflows, you can’t go wrong with LiveChat.
It offers a ton of different options, and makes things really easy for companies that are looking to set up a ticketing system to collate complaints from multiple sources, including social media.
Read our LiveChat review to find out more.
3. LiveAgent
LiveAgent has become an incredibly popular support tool for businesses that want to improve their customer messaging and offer better service. It’s got all the other features that you’d expect from popular tools like Help Scout, so it’s an ideal replacement.
Think of LiveAgent as a chat widget on steroids. It does a whole bunch of stuff, and offers integrations for virtually all popular platforms, including WordPress, Slack, PrestaShop, Magento, and other major ones.
If your support channels are currently spread out a bit and you’re looking to bring them all under one roof, through a centralized platform, LiveAgent is right up your alley. It’s got a built-in CRM, automatic message routing, and a bunch of other features, like message sneak peeks, and more.
More importantly, if your business offers phone support to customers, you’ll also benefit from LiveAgent. It offers unlimited call recordings, call transfers, and is an ideal choice for both inbound and outbound calling.
If customer satisfaction is a priority and you’re looking to improve your CSAT scores, integrating LiveAgent into your business is an excellent idea. LiveAgent has a host of excellent features, including audit logs, automatic ticket distribution, contact groups, hybrid ticket streams, and more.
Pricing
LiveAgent offers four different plans, the first two of which are available as a free trial. Their most basic plan starts from $15 per agent, per month. This gives you all the basic features that you need to set up a strong ticketing system.
However, if you need something more powerful, their next tier, which lets you offer ticketing support and a live chat tool, are a better choice. Pricing almost doubles for this package, rising to $29 per agent, per month.
The all inclusive package costs $49 per agent, per month, and gives you access to all the features that LiveAgent has to offer.
An interesting point to note here is that like HubSpot, LiveAgent also offers a free tier. This gives you access to one phone number, one chat button, one email address, and some other basic features.
This is ideal if you’re running a smaller ecommerce store and just need to offer basic support options to your users.
Read our LiveAgent review to find out more.
4. Freshdesk
The last Intercom alternative that we’re going to talk about is Freshdesk. Freshdesk is a relatively new entrant in the customer support space, but it offers an array of features that businesses of all sizes will greatly appreciate.
Like Zendesk and others, Freshdesk also introduces a live chat system, a ticketing system, SLA management, and a bunch of other features. Support agents can set parent tickets and create new child tickets, link them together, and do a lot more.
More importantly, Freshdesk helps you offer multiple support options to your customers and track tickets across different platforms. This includes:
- Live chat
- Social media
- Website
- Phone
Freshdesk does a great job of helping businesses manage their support teams, as it offers an extensive array of modular features. From event-triggered automation to custom help widgets, Freshdesk gives you an array of features that you can use to customize your support offerings.
Freshdesk primarily targets smaller organizations with its incredibly friendly and simplistic UI. It also supports a host of integrations as well, ranging from Slack, Google Workspaces, and many others. And, since it supports Zapier, you can easily connect to virtually any app you want.
Pricing
Like most other SaaS help desk platforms, Freshdesk offers several tiered plans that you can choose from based on your requirements. The free plan starts from £0 and offers support for up to 10 agents.
This includes basic ticketing over email or via social channels, and also lets you set up a knowledge base. The Growth package costs £12 per agent, per month, and offers additional features like collision detection, custom SSL, and more.
The Pro costs £35 per month per agent, and unlocks new features like extendable API limits, CSAT surveys and reports, and more. Their most expensive offering is the Enterprise, which costs £ per agent, per month.
Again, all of these prices are only valid if you bill annually; they increase slightly if you choose to pay on a monthly basis.
Pros 👍
- Has a free version that offers decent functionality
- Ideal for smaller organizations with its relatively low pricing
- Highly scalable pricing model that’s ideal for growing businesses
- Supports natural language processing to improve data discovery
- Excellent analytical features that can help businesses improve performance
Cons 👎
- Most extended features require you to upgrade your subscription.
- The dashboard may seem a bit confusing for those who are less tech-savvy
- Might seem a bit limited when compared with other options
Who Is It Best For?
Freshdesk primarily targets small businesses, so if you’re running a small ecommerce store and need to improve your support offering, you can’t go wrong with Freshdesk.
And, as your business grows, you can always switch to a more expensive tier that offers greater functionality and performance.
Selecting the Best Intercom Alternative
Intercom is the preferred choice for thousands of businesses, but it’s not the only player in town if you’re looking to add a help desk solution. These are several viable alternatives that you can consider, which can easily hold their own against Intercom.
Of course, depending on your needs and requirements, you have several custom solutions to choose from. It all depends on the quality of support you intend to offer and the volume of queries that you receive.
With a number of different options to consider, ranging from HubSpot to Freshdesk, you’d be spoilt for choice. If, for any reason, you’re planning to move from Intercom to another option, these are some of the best choices available.
Ideally, HubSpot is the best alternative to Intercom for several reasons. It offers better functionality and has one of the best CRM solutions in the market. And, to top things off, it also offers an array of modular solutions that you can use to further improve your company’s support system.
Before selecting any Intercom alternative, it’s generally a wise idea to run a trial first. Most of these offer free trials, so you’ll get a better idea about whether they’re worth the money or not.
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