A detailed comparison of Help Scout and Intercom to help you choose the right tool for your needs.
Customer messaging platform for sales, marketing, and support.
| Plan | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | ✓ Up to 50 contacts/mo | ✗ No |
| Lowest Paid | $25/user/mo | $39/user/mo |
| Enterprise | $50/user/mo | Custom pricing |
| Feature | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Inbox | ✓ | — |
| Knowledge Base | ✓ | — |
| Live Chat (Beacon) | ✓ | — |
| Customer Profiles | ✓ | — |
| Saved Replies | ✓ | — |
| Workflows | ✓ | — |
| Live chat | — | ✓ |
| AI chatbot | — | ✓ |
| Help center | — | ✓ |
| Product tours | — | ✓ |
| Outbound messaging | — | ✓ |
| Inbox | — | ✓ |
| Tickets | — | ✓ |
| Reports | — | ✓ |
| Custom bots | — | ✓ |
| Integrations | — | ✓ |
| Open Source | ✗ | ✗ |
| Rating | ⭐ 4.4 | ⭐ 4.2 |
Choose Help Scout if: You need small businesses wanting personal, human customer support. Help Scout excels with its feels like email not tickets and simple and clean.
Choose Intercom if: You need saas companies wanting full customer messaging. Intercom stands out with its powerful platform and ai features.
Best free option: Help Scout offers a free tier (Up to 50 contacts/mo).
It depends on your needs. Help Scout is better for small businesses wanting personal, human customer support, while Intercom is better for saas companies wanting full customer messaging. Both are excellent tools rated 4.4 and 4.2 respectively.
Help Scout starts at $25/user/mo while Intercom starts at $39/user/mo. Help Scout also has a free tier.
Most tools offer import/export features to help you migrate. We recommend trying Intercom's trial before fully committing to a switch.
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