Intercom alternatives: 5 options, their seat prices and how AI is billed

Intercom alternatives: the short list

Five Intercom alternatives either include AI in the plan or price seats lower: LiveChat, Zendesk, Help Scout, LiveAgent and HubSpot. As read on 7 October 2026, Intercom bills Fin, its AI Agent, at $0.99 per outcome on top of seats, billed once per conversation. LiveChat Growth is $79 per user a month billed annually or $99 billed monthly, with 200 AI resolutions a month included.

Those are Text plans: LiveChat's pricing page says new trials now start on Text plans, "the next product from the team behind LiveChat".

What Intercom charges: seats plus Fin

Intercom Advanced is $85 per seat a month billed annually or $99 billed monthly, and Expert is $132 or $139. Intercom's Essential seat price is on Intercom's page, because Intercom is testing that price. Essential covers Messenger live chat, a shared inbox with ticketing and basic automation; workflow automation, multiple team inboxes and round robin assignment start at Advanced.

Intercom requires at least 1 full seat, and Advanced adds 20 free Lite seats, which have limited access for internal collaboration.

AI inside the plan: LiveChat and Zendesk

LiveChat Growth matches Intercom Advanced at $99 per user a month billed monthly; billed annually it is $79 against $85. Growth also puts chat routing rules and working hours in the plan. For a smaller team, LiveChat Essential is $19 per user a month billed annually or $25 billed monthly, with 1 AI Agent and 10 resolutions a month.

An AI resolution is one conversation in which LiveChat's AI Agent directly solves at least one customer question. Growth includes 200 a month and extra packs of 50 cost $49.50.

LiveChat's pages disagree on whether a pack is added automatically. The allowance does not grow with seats: ten Growth users at $790 a month billed annually still get 200 a month. Zendesk Suite Team includes 5 automated resolutions per agent a month instead; Zendesk alternatives prices Zendesk's own plans against six others.

Lower seat prices: LiveAgent, HubSpot and Help Scout

LiveAgent Small is $15 per agent a month billed annually or $19 billed monthly, with AI Agents listed in the plan but no AI price stated. HubSpot lists Service Hub Starter at $20 per seat a month, and Breeze Assistant is listed from its Free plan. Help Scout Standard is $25 per user a month billed annually or $30 billed monthly; its AI Answers add-on costs $0.75 per resolution.

Trials compared, and who should pick which

LiveChat can be tried for 14 days with no card, the same length as Intercom's own trial. Intercom's also needs no card and includes Fin. Zendesk's 14 days open on Suite Professional, Help Scout gives 15 days with no card, LiveAgent 30 days with no card, and HubSpot 14 days on paid editions. LiveChat vs Intercom compares the two directly.

Pick LiveAgent or HubSpot for a lower price per seat than Advanced, and Help Scout to pay for AI only per answer used. Pick LiveChat Growth when 200 included resolutions a month matter more than seat price. Best AI live chat software for customer service sorts the AI side by job.