Alternatives · Intercom
Intercom alternatives
Intercom is a help desk for support teams, with an AI agent called Fin built in. Some businesses looking for an alternative do not need a help desk at all: they need a chatbot on their website that answers common questions and collects leads. This page compares the two, using Intercom's own pages for every statement about Intercom.
Intercom calls its product "a fully-featured, AI-powered helpdesk with Fin natively integrated". A help desk is software where a support team reads and answers customer messages from one shared inbox. Intercom's help desk page says email, live chat, phone, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook messages all arrive in the same inbox, and that when Fin hands a conversation to a teammate, "the whole history goes with it".
The company behind it has a new name. On May 12, 2026, its announcement said it was "changing the name of our company to Fin", and that the name Intercom would live on as the name of its customer service software platform. On September 10, 2026, a post on Fin's blog reported that Salesforce had completed its acquisition of "Fin, formerly Intercom". If it is the AI agent you are replacing, see our page on Fin alternatives.
For a business with a support team answering a steady flow of questions on several channels, that is what a help desk is for.
A help desk assumes that someone works the inbox. Many small businesses have no support team, and the owner answers questions between other work. In that case the useful tool is one that holds the conversation on its own and sends you only what needs you. That is likely to be the case if:
Start the 14-day trial, choose a template for your industry, and try the conversation on your own website. Plans start at $29 a month after the trial.
Alma is a chatbot for your website that runs without anyone watching it. It asks the questions you set and answers the ones you have written answers for, so a visitor who needs a person can leave an email address or phone number, and the lead reaches you with the details already collected.
You start from one of 145 templates in 15 categories, edit the conversation in a drag-and-drop flow builder, and paste one embed code on your site (see the install guides). The chatbot asks questions with buttons and typed answers and tags each lead by what they said. When a visitor gives an email address or phone number, Alma saves the lead and emails it to the address you set for notifications. On the Growth plan ($79 a month) and up, Zapier can pass leads to other apps, and the Agency plan ($199 a month) adds webhooks and an API. Alma also has its own booking calendar, with a booking page you can link to from the chat or from your website.
AI answering is an optional add-on for $25 a month, with up to 500 AI answers a month. It replies to typed questions your flows do not cover, using text you provide, up to 50,000 characters (about 8,000 words). The Alma team sets it up and loads your text into the bot.
Alma leaves out most of what a help desk does. In particular:
| Topic | Intercom | Alma |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A help desk with an AI agent built in | A chatbot builder for your website, with optional AI answers |
| Who answers | Fin, with teammates in the same inbox | No live chat. When a visitor gives an email address or phone number, Alma saves the lead and emails it to the address you set for notifications |
| Where it answers | Email, live chat, phone, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook | The chat window on your website |
Every statement about Intercom on this page comes from the pages below, which we read on October 17, 2026. Products change, so check them for the current version before you decide.
Intercom and Alma
The company is. On May 12, 2026, it announced that it was changing its company name to Fin, and that Intercom would remain the name of its customer service software platform. The AI agent built into that platform is also called Fin.
No. Alma has no shared inbox, tickets or live chat. It is a chatbot that holds the conversation on your website. When a visitor gives an email address or phone number, Alma saves the lead and emails it to the address you set for notifications.
Alma's AI answering is an optional $25 a month add-on with up to 500 AI answers a month. It answers typed questions from text you provide, up to 50,000 characters, and it does not take actions in other software.
Not in the chat. Alma has no live chat or takeover. A flow can ask for the visitor's name and an email address or phone number. When that answer is saved to a variable named email or phone, Alma saves the lead and emails it to the address you set in Settings, Integrations, so someone can follow up.
A lead is saved when a visitor gives an email address or phone number. Every plan can email it to the address you set in Settings, Integrations. The Growth plan adds Zapier, a Leads page that lists every lead and, once your account is linked, CoreCNX, the CNX Suite's CRM. The Agency plan adds webhooks and an API.
Start the trial
The trial lasts 14 days on the Starter plan's limits. Pick a template, change the questions to fit your business, paste the embed code, and read the first conversations before you choose a plan.