by Intercom, Inc.Help desk and customer support
A help desk with its AI agent, Fin, built in: live chat, ticketing, email and a help center on every plan from $29 per seat billed annually.
A help desk and an AI agent in one workspace: Fin answers first, your team takes over in the same inbox, and Fin is billed per outcome.
Fin and the human team share one inbox, customer record and knowledge base, so a team does not connect a separate AI tool to its help desk. Every plan includes the Messenger for live chat, a shared inbox with ticketing, inbound email, a public Help Center and conversation ratings, with phone, SMS and WhatsApp billed as used. Seats start at $29 per agent a month on annual terms, and Fin costs $0.99 per outcome, with no charge when the customer asks for a person. Advanced adds workflows and routing; Expert adds SSO, SLAs, multibrand and the HIPAA BAA.
Against 3 other products we reviewed in Help desk and customer support: what you pay for with each, the five access facts, the plan limits we recorded and each review's bottom line. The note under the table says how each one was checked.
| Metric | Intercom | Freshdesk | Front | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Saves engineering timeA help desk and an AI agent in one workspace: Fin answers first, your team takes over in the same inbox, and Fin is billed per outcome. | Worth the priceEmail, live chat, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram in one inbox, with a knowledge base and SAML SSO, from $29 per agent on annual terms. | Easy to adoptOne shared inbox where the whole team works email, chat, SMS and social messages together, with tickets, SLAs and CSAT on top. | Worth the priceEmail, live chat, social messaging and a Docs knowledge base on one $25 seat, with SLA policies and CSAT surveys already included. |
| Overall score | 6.6 | 6.7Best | 6.3 | 6.2 |
| Free option | 14-day free trial | 14-day free trial | 14-day free trial | Free plan |
| Card to start | No card needed | No card needed | No card needed | No card needed |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $29/seat/mo | $19/agent/mo | $25/seat/mo | $25/user/mo |
| Pricing model | Seat + usage | Per seat | Per seat | Per seat |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Per seat per month; Fin outcomes, phone, SMS and bulk messages billed by usage | Per agent per month; AI agent sessions, WhatsApp messages and phone billed separately | Per seat per month; Autopilot AI agent billed per conversation | Per user per month; AI Answers and Messages above 2,000 viewers billed by usage |
| Free option | No free plan; 14-day trial, no card | No free plan on the pricing page; 14-day trial, no card; 6-month Free Program for 2 agents in the help center | No free plan; 14-day trial of Professional, no card | Free plan for 5 users (1 Inbox, 1 Docs site, 100 contacts/mo, no live chat); 15-day trial, no card |
| Reference scenario (5 agents, annual) | $145/mo on Essential ($29 × 5), computed | $145/mo on Freshdesk Omni Growth ($29 × 5), computed | $325/mo on Professional ($65 × 5), computed; Starter allows one channel type | $125/mo on Standard ($25 × 5), computed |
| Month-to-month price | $39 per seat on Essential ($39 / $99 / $139 for the three plans) | $35 per agent on Omni Growth ($35 / $95 / $143 Omni; $23 / $66 / $107 Freshdesk) | $85 per seat on Professional ($35 on Starter; Enterprise is annual only) | $30 per user on Standard ($30 / $54 / $90 for the three paid plans) |
| AI agent pricing | Fin $0.99 per outcome on every plan; qualifications $9.99 | First 500 sessions included once per account; then $49 per 100 sessions | Autopilot per conversation: Triage $0.05, Handoff $0.39, Resolution $0.89 | $0.75 per resolution (AI Answers) with a monthly spending limit; 3-month free trial for new accounts |
| Phone | Built in on every plan; numbers and minutes billed by usage | Through Freshcaller, a separately billed Freshworks product; own carrier on Omni Pro and up | Through partner integrations such as Aircall and Dialpad, Professional and up | Through integrations only, such as Aircall (add-on, price not listed) |
| SLA policies and CSAT | Conversation ratings on every plan; SLAs on Expert ($132) | Default SLA policies on Growth; multiple SLAs and CSAT surveys from Pro ($79 Omni) | Professional ($65), the scenario plan | Standard: one basic SLA policy and CSAT surveys; conditional SLAs from Plus |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 (Trust Center, on request) | SOC 2 Type 2 (report on request); ISO/IEC 27001:2022 | SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 (report and certificate on request) | SOC 2 Type II (report by email request); ISO 27001 not stated |
| HIPAA BAA | Expert plan only, requested through support | Mutually executed with Freshworks; the HIPAA guide lists Freshdesk Enterprise ($89), not the current Omni plans | When the annual contract price meets a threshold Front does not state | Pro only per the help article (demo, 10-user minimum); plan table shows an unpriced Plus add-on |
| EU data hosting | New workspaces on a contract (Advanced or Expert), through sales | EEA data center chosen at sign-up, every plan | US or EEA, chosen by contacting support; no plan limit stated | No EU option described; hosted on AWS servers in the United States |
| SSO | SAML on Expert only | SAML on every plan of both editions | SAML SSO and SCIM from Professional; Google and Office 365 sign-in on every plan | SAML on Pro per the help article; plan table shows an unpriced add-on on Standard and Plus |
| Data export | All conversations to Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage; REST API | Whole-account export (XML in the app, JSON through the API) | Full export by request to Front Support; Core API on every plan | Inbox API only; report CSV/XLSX exports leave out conversation threads |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Intercom is a full help desk with an AI agent built in, priced per seat plus $0.99 per Fin outcome. SSO, SLAs and the HIPAA BAA need Expert, and a few prices differ between its pages. | From its public pages, Freshdesk Omni offers chat, social messaging, a knowledge base, SAML SSO and EU hosting from $29 per agent, with every plan priced in public. CSAT, multiple SLAs and custom roles start on Pro, and a few pages disagree on payment and plan details. | From its public pages, Front is a team shared inbox with ticketing, SLAs, CSAT and SAML SSO on Professional and an audit log on every plan. Email plus chat starts at $65 per seat, phone runs through partners, and the HIPAA BAA depends on contract size. | From its public pages, Help Scout is the lowest-priced of these five for email, chat, social messaging and a knowledge base for 5 agents, with SLAs, CSAT and a free plan. Phone, EU hosting and a file export of conversations are outside it, and SSO and HIPAA sit on Pro. |
Evidence: Intercom: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Freshdesk: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Front: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Help Scout: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Review from public pages
Written from Intercom's public pages (pricing, security or privacy, and docs) as read on Oct 15, 2026. We did not sign up, and no hands-on run is published yet.
We read Intercom's pricing page and pricing calculator, the Fin pricing page, Intercom's pricing guide, help center articles on plans, seats, billing, the trial, Fin outcomes, usage-based channels, tax, SSO, permissions, activity logs, data export, regional hosting and HIPAA, the security page, the terms of service, the support policy and the API rate-limit docs on Oct 15, 2026; we did not sign up, start a trial or call the API for this review. The pricing FAQ says Intercom bills in US dollars only.
The plans article lays out the ladder: Essential, Advanced and Expert at $29, $85 and $132 per seat a month on annual terms, or $39, $99 and $139 month to month, with a feature table per plan. Live chat, ticketing, inbound email and the public Help Center are on Essential. The Fin outcomes article lists what is billed at $0.99 (a resolution, including one assumed when the customer leaves without asking for more help, or a Procedure handoff) and what is not (an escalation, a request for a person, a failed Procedure).
Some points need a question. The pricing page ran a price test while we read it: across six loads, Essential showed $19 in some versions and $29 in others, while the help center and FAQ say $29. The help center lists a $139 monthly price for Expert, but the pricing FAQs offer monthly billing only on Essential and Advanced. The Pro add-on is $100 a month on the pricing page and $99 in the pricing guide, and the Early Stage startup offer is $65 a month with 6 seats in one place and $33 with 2 seats in another. Phone per-minute rates appear only inside the calculator.
Essential ($29 per seat, annual) includes live chat, ticketing, inbound email, a public Help Center, conversation ratings, and native phone, SMS and WhatsApp billed as used.
vs Help Scout: Help Scout and Front handle phone only through integrations; Freshdesk connects Freshcaller, a separately billed Freshworks product.
Fin is $0.99 per outcome, at most one per conversation, with no charge for escalations or requests for a person, and with monthly outcome limits and alerts.
Teammate activity logs are on all plans and kept for one year, with CSV download, an API and webhooks.
vs Help Scout: Zendesk and Freshdesk keep the audit log on their Enterprise plans, and Help Scout lists none.
An admin can export all conversations as JSON to Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage, with attachments and the last two years of history, then hourly or daily.
vs Help Scout: Help Scout exports conversations only through its API; Front’s full export is requested from Support.
The help center’s compliance article lists Intercom’s SOC 2 Type II report, ISO 27001 and ISO 27018 certificates and a HIPAA attestation report in the Trust Center, available after a request for access.
vs Help Scout: Help Scout states SOC 2 Type II but does not state ISO 27001.
SAML SSO, custom roles, SLAs, multibrand Messenger and Help Center, and the HIPAA BAA are on Expert ($132 per seat on annual terms), and all seats in a workspace must be on the same plan.
Workaround: The 14-day trial can be started on Expert, which is bought online on annual terms.
Fin outcomes ($0.99, qualifications $9.99), phone numbers and minutes, SMS, bulk email and bulk WhatsApp are billed on top of seats. A resolution also counts when the customer leaves after Fin’s answer without asking for more help.
Workaround: The pricing FAQs describe a monthly outcome limit and the Fin outcomes article usage reminders and hard limits; SMS has a default cap of 10,000 segments a month.
EU hosting (Dublin) is for new workspaces on Advanced or Expert under a contract, set up by sales. Conversations in an existing workspace cannot be moved, only exported.
Workaround: Settle the data region with sales before building the workspace.
The pricing page shows Essential at $19 or $29 depending on the version served, and the Pro add-on and the Early Stage offer are priced differently on two Intercom pages.
Workaround: The help center plans article lists $29 for Essential; check the price shown at checkout.
Intercom bills each full seat per month, with all seats on one plan, plus usage. For our scenario, 5 agents on Essential cost 5 × $29 = $145 a month on annual terms ($1,740 a year), or 5 × $39 = $195 month to month (computed), before tax. That covers live chat, ticketing, inbound email, the Help Center and phone software. Fin is billed on top at $0.99 per outcome: Intercom’s own guide shows 3 Essential seats ($87) plus 500 outcomes ($495) at $582 a month. Expert, needed for SSO, SLAs and the HIPAA BAA, is $660 a month for 5 seats on annual terms (computed). Unlimited Copilot is $29 per agent a month yearly or $35 monthly. On annual terms, seats and add-ons cannot be reduced until renewal, and seats added beyond the annual commitment are billed monthly as overages at the standard seat price.
An admin can export all conversations as JSON to Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage (the last two years, then hourly or daily), and the Conversations API exports up to 90 days per request; Views and contacts export as CSV. Cancelling deletes no data, but the terms say there is no access to customer data 30 days after termination and that Intercom is not an archiving service. Yearly plans renew unless you give written notice at least 30 days before the term ends.
From its public pages, Intercom is a full help desk with an AI agent built in, priced per seat plus $0.99 per Fin outcome. SSO, SLAs and the HIPAA BAA need Expert, and a few prices differ between its pages.
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Billing unit | Per seat per month; Fin outcomes, phone, SMS and bulk messages billed by usage |
| Free option | No free plan; 14-day trial, no card |
| Reference scenario (5 agents, annual) | $145/mo on Essential ($29 × 5), computed |
| Month-to-month price | $39 per seat on Essential ($39 / $99 / $139 for the three plans) |
| AI agent pricing | Fin $0.99 per outcome on every plan; qualifications $9.99 |
| Phone | Built in on every plan; numbers and minutes billed by usage |
| SLA policies and CSAT | Conversation ratings on every plan; SLAs on Expert ($132) |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 (Trust Center, on request) |
| HIPAA BAA | Expert plan only, requested through support |
| EU data hosting | New workspaces on a contract (Advanced or Expert), through sales |
| SSO | SAML on Expert only |
| Data export | All conversations to Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage; REST API |
Read from the vendor's public pages on Oct 15, 2026. No hands-on run is published yet. How we check
We have not published a sign-up run for Intercom yet. The access facts above were read from its sign-up and pricing pages on Oct 15, 2026.
We have not published API calls for Intercom yet.
Intercom lists 4 plans. The cheapest paid plan, Essential, costs $29/seat/mo.
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-15.
Source: intercom.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.
We read the pricing, trust, legal, help center and developer pages of three help desks on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. What 5 agents with email, chat and a knowledge base cost, where SLAs, SSO and HIPAA sit, and who should pick which.
