Key takeaways
- The core difference: Help Scout is an email-first shared inbox with live chat and an AI add-on; Intercom is a chat-first platform with a shared inbox, tickets and an AI agent billed per outcome.
- Choose Help Scout if your support runs on email, you want the lowest per-user price ($25 against $29), and you want SLAs and round robin routing at $45 instead of $85 to $132.
- Choose Intercom if your customers mostly write in chat, you want free, unlimited live chat on every plan, or you want proactive messages and an AI agent that can also run on another helpdesk.
- AI costs differ per unit: Help Scout’s AI Answers is $0.75 per resolution and Intercom’s Fin is $0.99 per outcome, and each vendor defines its unit differently.
- Consider a third option if you run a small online store and want chat, email tickets and an AI agent priced by conversations rather than seats: see Tidio.
Help Scout is a shared inbox that grew chat and AI around email. Intercom is a chat-first messenger that grew a helpdesk and an AI agent around it. The prices show it: Help Scout charges $25 per user and $0.75 per AI resolution, while Intercom charges $29 per seat and $0.99 per outcome, and puts free live chat on every plan. Whichever order you search in, helpscout vs intercom or intercom vs help scout, the answer depends on where your customers write to you. We compared both on price, inbox, chat, AI and scale, using each vendor’s public pricing page and its G2 reviews, checked in October 2026. Near the end, Tidio gets a short section as a third option for small online stores. It isn’t built for large agent teams.
Help Scout vs. Intercom at a glance
| Help Scout | Intercom | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Help Scout | Fin (formerly Intercom), owned by Salesforce |
| Best for | Email-first teams that want a simple, human inbox | Chat-led teams that want an AI agent and proactive messages |
| Entry price per seat | $25 annual, $30 monthly (Standard) | $29 annual, $39 monthly (Essential) |
| Free plan | Yes: 5 users, 1 Inbox, 100 contacts a month | None; 14-day trial, no card |
| Live chat | On Standard, through the Beacon widget | Free and unlimited on every plan |
| SLAs | One basic policy on Standard; two advanced on Plus | Expert plan, $132 annual |
| AI agent billing | $0.75 per AI Answers resolution | $0.99 per Fin outcome |
| Phone | Through an integration | Pay-as-you-go |
| G2 rating | 4.4/5[1] | 4.5/5[2] |
How we compared them
In October 2026 we went through both pricing pages and plan grids in dollars, and lined plans up by what they include, not by what they’re called. We haven’t trialed either product for this page. It rests on public documentation and G2 reviews, and where we couldn’t find something, the text says so. Every price carries its billing basis. Enterprise terms are quoted by sales, and we don’t guess at those. Each round below compares the two products only. Tidio is left out until its own section.
Intercom is now Fin, part of Salesforce
Intercom has renamed itself Fin, and Salesforce announced on September 10, 2026 that it had completed its acquisition of the company. Salesforce said Fin will continue to serve its customers and build its AI agent. The product you buy hasn’t changed on paper: the pricing page still sells Essential, Advanced and Expert plans under the Intercom name, and G2 lists the product as Fin. This article says Intercom throughout because that’s what the plans are still called and what most buyers still search for.
What it means for your contract is a question for the sales team, not a fact we can state. If you’re buying now, price the plans as listed and recheck the page on the day you sign.
Help Scout vs Intercom pricing
Both bill per person, and the gap opens at the second plan. Here are the self-serve plans side by side:
| Plan | Annual | Monthly | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Help Scout Free | $0 | $0 | 5 users, 1 Inbox, 1 Docs site, 100 contacts a month |
| Help Scout Standard | $25 | $30 | Live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, multiple Inboxes, basic workflows, one basic SLA policy |
| Help Scout Plus | $45 | $54 | Advanced workflows, two advanced SLA policies, round robin routing, customer portal, Salesforce, Jira and HubSpot |
| Help Scout Pro | $75 | $90 | Unlimited workflows and SLAs, SSO and SAML, HIPAA compliance, up to 50 light users |
| Intercom Essential | $29 | $39 | Messenger, shared inbox and ticketing, pre-built reports, public help center |
| Intercom Advanced | $85 | $99 | Multiple team inboxes, workflows builder, round robin, private and multilingual help center, 20 free Lite seats |
| Intercom Expert | $132 | $139 | SSO, HIPAA support, SLAs, multibrand Messenger and help center, 50 free Lite seats |
Intercom’s $29 plan has free, unlimited live chat and a shared inbox. Help Scout’s $25 plan has live chat and several social channels too, and costs $4 less per person. The bigger difference is higher up: routing and SLAs. Here is what that means for a team (annual billing, per month, seats only):
| What you need | 5 seats: Help Scout | 5 seats: Intercom | 20 seats: Help Scout | 20 seats: Intercom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inbox, chat and tickets | $125 | $145 | $500 | $580 |
| Advanced workflows and round robin | $225 | $425 | $900 | $1,700 |
| SLA policies | $225 | $660 | $900 | $2,640 |
Intercom’s Lite seats are free on Advanced and Expert, which helps when many teammates only read and comment on conversations. Help Scout’s Pro plan lists up to 50 light users for the same purpose. And on both products the seat price is only part of the bill: AI usage comes on top (see the AI section below).
Winner: Help Scout, because every plan costs less per person and routing and SLAs arrive one or two tiers lower. Intercom’s $29 start is close at the bottom, so the gap is small for a team that only needs chat and an inbox.
Help Scout has the edge in the inbox and ease of use
Both tools give you a shared inbox with assignments, notes and saved replies, plus a knowledge base. Help Scout’s is built to feel like email, with the ticket structure kept out of the customer’s way. Intercom’s is a conversation inbox that also handles tickets.
Help Scout includes more than one Inbox from Standard (two, with extra Inboxes at $10 a month on annual billing), so separate addresses or brands don’t need a higher plan. On Intercom, multiple team inboxes start on Advanced at $85. Saved replies are unlimited on every paid Help Scout plan.
G2 reviewers back this up. On the same G2 side-by-side page, Help Scout scores 9.2 for ease of use against 8.9 for Fin, and 9.2 against 8.4 for ease of setup.[3] In G2’s help desk feature grid, Help Scout is also ahead on ticket creation (9.2 against 8.6), ticket response (9.2 against 8.8) and email to case (9.2 against 8.8), while Intercom leads on its customer database (8.6 against 8.3) and attachments (8.8 against 8.6).[3]
Winner: Help Scout, because the inbox is simpler to set up and rated higher for email work. Intercom’s is the more capable all-in-one once chat becomes the main channel.
Intercom is stronger in live chat
Intercom’s live chat is free and unlimited on every plan, with support email, in-app chats, banners and tooltips. The Messenger is part of the $29 Essential plan, and chat and email conversations land in one inbox. Email campaigns, SMS, WhatsApp and phone are pay-as-you-go on top.
Help Scout’s live chat comes through the Beacon widget and is part of Standard. Standard also adds SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, and phone works through an integration. The design differs in a way that matters. Help Scout’s own migration guide says a customer can start a Beacon chat only when someone is available, and otherwise is asked to send an email. The same guide says Intercom lets customers start a conversation whether or not anyone is online.
The G2 feature grid shows the gap: live chat support scores 9.4 for Intercom against 7.8 for Help Scout. Social media integration is 8.3 against 7.7, and voice is 7.6 against 7.0.[3]
Winner: Intercom for live chat, because it’s included on every plan and customers can write at any hour. Help Scout covers chat, WhatsApp and Instagram on one plan for less, if email is still your main channel.
AI agents: Help Scout costs less per resolution and Intercom covers more ground
Both vendors bill their AI agent on results, but they count them differently.
Intercom charges $0.99 per Fin outcome. An outcome counts when a customer confirms the issue is resolved, when they don’t ask for more help after Fin responds, or when Fin completes a workflow, handoffs included. You pay once per conversation, and nothing if Fin can’t answer or the customer asks for a human. Copilot, the assistant for agents, is $29 per agent a month on annual billing ($35 monthly), with 10 free Copilot conversations per agent each month.
Help Scout charges $0.75 per AI Answers resolution. A resolution doesn’t count if the customer escalates or needs more help, and you pay once per conversation. You can set a monthly cap, and every new account gets a 3-month free trial of AI Answers. AI Answers answers from your knowledge base and other sources you connect, and it works in Beacon chat. On Plus and Pro, AI Drafts writes replies for agents, and AI Summarize condenses long threads.
Say a five-person team’s AI agent handles 500 conversations a month, and every one of them counts. That is the most each meter can charge. Intercom costs 500 × $0.99, or $495 a month. Help Scout costs 500 × $0.75, or $375, before the 3-month trial. Add seats for the cheapest plan with chat on each side and the monthly total is $640 on Intercom (5 × $29 plus $495) and $500 on Help Scout (5 × $25 plus $375).
The units aren’t identical. Intercom lists “takes action on external systems” among Fin’s features, and Fin also works on top of another helpdesk (Salesforce, HubSpot or Freshdesk, for example) at $0.99 per outcome with no seat costs, though a minimum monthly commitment applies (the pricing page gives 50 outcomes as an example). Help Scout’s AI Answers is described as answering from your content. G2 reviewers rate Fin higher for AI text generation (8.3 against 6.3), but only 9 reviewers rated Help Scout, so treat that as a hint, not a verdict.[3] Help Scout’s pricing calculator uses an average resolution rate of 73%, which is the vendor’s own figure.
Winner: it depends on the job. Help Scout is cheaper per resolution and caps spend. Intercom reaches further, with workflows, actions and a version that runs on another helpdesk, at a higher unit price.
Help Scout puts SLAs and routing one tier lower
Standard includes basic workflows and one basic SLA policy. Plus, at $45, adds advanced workflows, two advanced SLA policies and round robin routing. Pro adds unlimited workflows and SLAs and multiple routing types.
Intercom’s Essential plan includes basic automation. The workflows builder, multiple team inboxes and round robin assignment start on Advanced ($85), and SLAs start on Expert ($132). G2 scores workflow at 8.7 for Intercom and 8.6 for Help Scout, and reporting is tied at 8.1, so quality is close even though the price isn’t.[3]
Winner: Help Scout, because comparable routing and SLA features cost $45 per user instead of $85 to $132. Intercom’s builder is the better fit if workflows span chat, in-app messages and AI.
Intercom goes further on scale and proactive messaging
Intercom is the broader platform. Its Proactive Support Plus add-on, from $99 a month, adds posts, checklists, product tours, surveys and a series campaign builder, which suits product-led companies that guide users in the app. Pro, from $100 a month, adds advanced AI features and an operations agent. We found no product tours or in-app campaign tools on Help Scout’s pricing page.
Help Scout grows by plan and user cap: Standard allows up to 25 users, Plus up to 50 and Pro unlimited with a 10-user minimum. It connects to more than 100 apps, and Plus adds Salesforce, Jira and HubSpot. For compliance, Help Scout puts HIPAA on Pro at $75, while Intercom puts it on Expert at $132. On G2, third-party integrations score 8.7 for Intercom against 8.5 for Help Scout.[3]
Winner: Intercom for proactive messaging and the wider platform. Help Scout is cheaper for HIPAA and a better fit for teams that will never need in-app campaigns.
What reviewers say
On G2, Intercom (listed as Fin) scores 4.5/5 and Help Scout 4.4/5.[2][1] The ratings are close. The sub-scores on G2’s side-by-side page tell the story:[3]
| G2 score (out of 10) | Help Scout | Intercom (Fin) |
|---|---|---|
| Meets requirements | 8.7 | 8.7 |
| Ease of use | 9.2 | 8.9 |
| Ease of setup | 9.2 | 8.4 |
| Ease of admin | 9.1 | 8.6 |
| Quality of support | 9.0 | 8.6 |
| Product direction (% positive) | 8.1 | 8.8 |
On the same page, G2 reviewers put time to implement at about 1 month for both, and return on investment at 9 months for Help Scout and 11 for Intercom. The most common drawbacks reviewers mention differ: missing features and AI limitations for Intercom, lack of features and limited features for Help Scout.
Winner: Help Scout on ease, setup and support scores, and Intercom on product direction.
Moving from Help Scout to Intercom, or back
If you’re switching, the work is mostly mapping, not exporting. Help Scout publishes a guide for moving from Intercom to Help Scout and a separate guide for importing emails and tickets. For the other direction we found a community thread and third-party migration tools but no official import page, so ask Intercom’s sales team what they support before you commit.
Plan for differences in how the tools behave. Help Scout’s guide says Intercom treats every in-app conversation the same, whether or not anyone is available, while Beacon chats only start when someone is available. Going from Intercom to Help Scout, snoozed status isn’t imported, Help Scout adds a Pending status, and tags apply to conversations rather than to people and messages.
A safe order is to export contacts and saved replies, list every automation, run both tools side by side for a week, and move the email address or domain last.
Tidio: a third option for small teams
Tidio isn’t part of the rounds above. It starts from chat and an AI agent, with a shared inbox and email tickets alongside, and it’s priced by conversations rather than seats. It suits small and mid-sized teams, online stores especially: on Shopify, agents see the customer’s cart and order history next to the chat. Lyro, the AI agent, answers chats on its own and can resolve up to 75% of support requests.
| Tidio | Help Scout | Intercom | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Small e-commerce and SMB teams | Email-first teams | Chat-led teams |
| Pricing model | Plan price by billable conversations, up to 10 seats | Per user, plus per AI resolution | Per seat, plus per AI outcome |
| Entry plan | Free (50 billable conversations); Starter $24.17 annual, $29 monthly | Free for 5 users; Standard $25 annual, $30 monthly | $29 annual, $39 monthly |
| Live chat | Included | On Standard, through Beacon | Included on every plan |
| AI agent | Lyro, from $32.50 annual ($39 monthly) for 50 Lyro conversations | AI Answers, $0.75 per resolution | Fin, $0.99 per outcome |
| Large agent teams | Up to 10 seats on self-serve plans; custom on Plus and Premium | Up to 25 users on Standard, 50 on Plus, unlimited on Pro | Per-seat plans, Lite seats on Advanced and Expert |
| G2 rating | 4.6/5[4] | 4.4/5[1] | 4.5/5[2] |
Tidio is the weakest of the three for large agent teams: self-serve plans stop at 10 seats, and a big desk should look at Help Scout or Intercom. It’s also not an email-first inbox in the way Help Scout is. For the product-level view, see Tidio vs Help Scout and Tidio vs Intercom.
Try Tidio free
Which should you choose?
Start from the problem you need solved:
- Your customers mostly write by email. Choose Help Scout, and start on Standard.
- Your customers mostly write in chat, at any hour. Choose Intercom, and start on Essential.
- You need SLAs and round robin on a small budget. Choose Help Scout Plus, at $45 against $85 to $132 for Intercom.
- You guide users inside your product with tours and surveys. Choose Intercom and price the Proactive Support Plus add-on.
- You want the lowest AI price per resolution and a spending cap. Choose Help Scout.
- You already run another helpdesk and want to try an AI agent on top. Add Fin at $0.99 per outcome, with no seat costs.
- You need HIPAA on a lower price. Look at Help Scout Pro, at $75 per user with a 10-user minimum.
- You sell online and would rather pay per conversation than per seat. Look at Tidio.
Bottom line
Help Scout wins on seat price, the inbox, SLAs per dollar and ease of setup. Intercom wins on live chat and proactive messaging, and its AI agent can run on another helpdesk. For email-first teams of a handful of agents, Help Scout is the cheaper and simpler start; for chat-led teams that want an AI agent in front of every conversation, Intercom’s higher price buys more. Shops with a small team that prefer paying per conversation can also look at Tidio.
See how Tidio compares
Related guides
- Help Scout alternatives
- Help Scout review
- Intercom alternatives
- Intercom review
- Help Scout vs Zendesk
- Zendesk vs Intercom
- Intercom vs Freshdesk
Frequently asked questions
Yes, at every comparable tier. Help Scout Standard is $25 per user against $29 for Intercom Essential on annual billing. Routing and SLAs show the larger gap: Help Scout Plus is $45, while Intercom Advanced is $85 and Expert is $132 (October 2026).
Help Scout suits small teams that live in email: a lower price, a free plan for 5 users and quicker setup in G2 reviews. Intercom suits small teams that live in chat, with free live chat on every plan and an AI agent from $0.99 per outcome.
Help Scout is an email-first shared inbox with live chat, a knowledge base and an AI add-on, priced per user. Intercom is a chat-first platform with a shared inbox, tickets and the Fin AI agent, priced per seat plus usage. Both include a help center.
Yes. Live chat is part of the Standard plan at $25 per user a month on annual billing, through its Beacon widget. A customer can start a chat only when someone on your team is available, and otherwise is asked to send an email. Intercom includes free, unlimited live chat on every plan.
Help Scout’s AI Answers costs $0.75 per resolution, with a monthly cap and a 3-month free trial. Intercom’s Fin costs $0.99 per outcome and can also run on top of another helpdesk. Each vendor defines its unit differently, so count your own conversations.
Yes. The company renamed itself Fin, and Salesforce completed the acquisition on September 10, 2026. The pricing page still sells Essential, Advanced and Expert plans under the Intercom name, and G2 lists the product as Fin.
You can, but plan it. Help Scout documents moving from Intercom to Help Scout and importing emails and tickets. For the reverse we found no official import page, only a community thread and third-party tools, so ask Intercom what it supports first.
Help Scout does: the Free plan covers 5 users, 1 Inbox and 100 contacts a month. Intercom’s pricing page lists none, only a 14-day trial with no card, and up to 93% off for eligible startups (October 2026).
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