Intercom is cheaper once an AI agent does real work: seats start at $29 a month billed yearly (some visitors still see $19), and its Fin AI Agent costs $0.99 per resolved conversation. Zendesk charges $55 per agent for its first plan with chat and $1.50–$2.00 per AI resolution after a small monthly allowance, but it puts email, chat, social messaging and phone in one plan and adds SLAs on a cheaper tier ($115 against $132). Choose Intercom for chat-first support led by AI; choose Zendesk for high-volume, multi-channel ticketing. Intercom's company is now called Fin and has been owned by Salesforce since September 2026. For a small team that wants AI chat and a CRM rather than a full help desk, CRMsoftware.pro starts at $19 a month for 8 users.
We checked every price on the Intercom and Zendesk pricing pages on October 8, 2026. Prices are in US dollars per seat (agent) per month, billed yearly unless we say otherwise, before tax. CRMsoftware.pro is our own product; we mention it only in the alternatives section. No made-up scores or tests.
Intercom vs Zendesk at a glance
| Feature | Intercom | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan with live chat | Essential, $29 ($39 monthly); some visitors see $19 ($29) | Suite Team, $55 ($69 monthly) |
| Email-only plan | None: every plan includes the Messenger live chat | Support Team, $19 ($25 monthly) |
| How the AI agent is billed | Fin: $0.99 per outcome (a resolved conversation) | $1.50 per automated resolution committed, $2.00 pay-as-you-go |
| AI included in the seat price | None: you pay from the first outcome | 5 resolutions per agent a month (10 on Suite Professional) |
| AI copilot for agents | Copilot $29 per teammate | Copilot $50 per agent |
| SLAs | Expert, $132 | Suite Professional, $115 |
| Phone, SMS and WhatsApp | Billed by usage on top of seats | Social messaging included from Suite Team; phone numbers, call minutes and SMS are add-ons |
| Free plan | No; 14-day trial without a card, 93% off for early-stage startups | No; 14-day trial |
| Best for | Chat-first teams that want the AI to answer most questions | Larger teams running tickets across many channels |
Intercom is now Fin, and Salesforce owns it
On May 12, 2026, Intercom renamed the company Fin, after its AI agent. The help desk keeps the Intercom name. On June 15, 2026, Salesforce agreed to buy Fin for about $3.6 billion, and it completed the purchase on September 10, 2026. Fin now sits in Salesforce's AI Labs and keeps serving its customers.
Nothing has changed in how you buy it yet: Intercom helpdesk seats plus Fin at $0.99 per outcome, and Salesforce has not announced price changes. If you are about to sign a multi-year contract, ask for price protection in writing.
Pricing: which one is cheaper?
| Intercom plan | Price per seat (yearly / monthly) | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | $29 / $39 (or $19 / $29) | Messenger live chat, shared inbox and ticketing, pre-built reports, public help center, basic automation |
| Advanced | $85 / $99 | Workflow automation builder, multiple team inboxes, round-robin assignment, private and multilingual help center, 20 free Lite seats |
| Expert | $132 / $139 | SSO and identity management, HIPAA support, SLAs, multibrand Messenger and help center, 50 free Lite seats |
Fin AI Agent costs $0.99 per outcome on every plan. Add-ons: Copilot $29 per teammate a month, Proactive Support Plus (product tours, checklists, surveys and outbound campaigns) from $99 per workspace, and Pro (AI analytics and quality tools) from $100 per workspace. Lite seats are free seats with limited access for colleagues who collaborate inside the inbox but do not message customers.
Intercom is showing two prices for Essential. In 4 of 5 page loads from the US on October 8, Essential cost $29 per seat billed yearly and $39 monthly. In the other load, and in a browser outside the US, it was $19 and $29. Advanced and Expert were the same in every load. That is why some guides, Google's AI Overview and Zendesk's own comparison page quote $29 billed yearly. Check the price in your own quote.
| Zendesk plan | Price per agent (yearly / monthly) | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Support Team | $19 / $25 | Email ticketing, routing, prebuilt analytics, macros, automations; no live chat |
| Suite Team | $55 / $69 | AI agents, knowledge base, Action Builder, omnichannel routing, messaging and live chat, social messaging, telephony |
| Suite Professional | $115 / $149 | SLAs, skills-based routing, up to 5 help centers, up to 100 light agents, Admin Copilot, App Builder, IVR phone tree |
| Suite Enterprise + Copilot | Contact sales | Intelligent triage, Auto Assist, generative AI for voice, approval workflows, sandbox, custom agent roles, Copilot included |
Like for like, Intercom is cheaper at the entry level: $29 (or $19) against $55 for the first plan with live chat. For SLAs, Zendesk is cheaper: $115 on Suite Professional against $132 on Intercom Expert. Zendesk also sells an email-only plan at $19; Intercom has no plan without chat.
AI agents: how each one bills you
Both vendors charge only when the AI solves the problem. The difference is the unit price and the free allowance.
- Intercom charges $0.99 per Fin outcome. You pay when Fin resolves the conversation or completes an action. You pay nothing if Fin cannot answer, fails, or the customer asks for a human. Each conversation is charged once at most, and the charge is refunded if the conversation is reopened. You can set spending limits, and there is a 90-day money-back guarantee. Fin Voice costs $1.99 per voice outcome. No outcomes are included in the seat price.
- Zendesk charges per automated resolution. A resolution counts when the AI agent solves the request without a hand-off to a human. Support Team and Suite Team include 5 resolutions per agent a month, Suite Professional 10 (up to 10,000 a year). After that, resolutions cost $1.50 each if you commit to a volume, or $2.00 pay-as-you-go.
Zendesk's AI is cheaper only while you stay close to the free allowance: up to about 10–15 AI resolutions per agent a month on Suite Team, or 20–30 on Suite Professional. Above that, Fin costs less, and the gap grows with every resolution.
Both vendors publish big resolution rates: Intercom says Fin resolves 76% of conversations on average; Zendesk says its AI agents resolve up to 80%. These are the vendors' own figures. Your rate depends on how complete your help content is.
For human agents, both sell an AI copilot that drafts replies and summarizes conversations: Intercom Copilot at $29 per teammate a month (10 conversations per agent a month are free), and Zendesk Copilot at $50 per agent a month billed yearly.
What 5 agents really pay
One realistic month for a growing support team: 5 agents, 1,000 chat conversations that the AI answers first, about 500 of them resolved by the AI. Billed yearly, list prices, before tax and channel usage.
| Plan | How the bill adds up | Monthly total |
|---|---|---|
| Intercom Essential | 5 × $29 = $145 (or 5 × $19 = $95) + 500 outcomes × $0.99 = $495 | $590–$640 |
| Intercom Advanced | 5 × $85 = $425 + $495 | $920 |
| Zendesk Suite Team | 5 × $55 = $275 + 475 resolutions beyond the 25 included × $1.50–$2.00 = $712.50–$950 | $987.50–$1,225 |
| Intercom Expert | 5 × $132 = $660 + $495 | $1,155 |
| Zendesk Suite Professional | 5 × $115 = $575 + 450 resolutions beyond the 50 included × $1.50–$2.00 = $675–$900 | $1,250–$1,475 |
With a busy AI agent, Intercom costs less at every comparable tier, mostly because Fin is $0.99 a resolution against Zendesk's $1.50–$2.00. Without an AI agent, the bill is seats only: $145 (or $95) on Intercom Essential against $275 on Zendesk Suite Team, and $660 on Intercom Expert against $575 on Zendesk Suite Professional. A copilot for all 5 agents adds $145 on Intercom and $250 on Zendesk. Phone minutes, SMS and WhatsApp on Intercom come on top. Your numbers will differ, so try our free AI chatbot pricing calculator, and the live chat staffing calculator to see how many agents your volume needs.
Features: where each one is stronger
- Tickets and workflows. Zendesk is built around tickets: triggers, SLAs, skills-based routing, light agents and several help centers on Suite Professional. Intercom's inbox is built around conversations, with tickets and a workflow builder on Advanced.
- Channels. Zendesk includes social and business messaging from Suite Team and has telephony built in, with phone numbers and call minutes as add-ons. Intercom covers chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, social and phone, but bills WhatsApp per conversation, SMS per message and phone by usage.
- Proactive messages. Intercom is stronger here: in-app messages, product tours, checklists and surveys come with Proactive Support Plus (from $99 per workspace). That is why SaaS teams often pick it.
- Help center. Both include one. Intercom's is public on Essential and multilingual from Advanced; Zendesk gives 1 help center on Suite Team and up to 5 on Suite Professional.
- Ecosystem. Zendesk has the larger app marketplace and sells quality assurance and workforce management add-ons for big teams. Intercom's App Store is smaller.
- Fin on another help desk. Fin AI Agent also works on top of Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot and Freshdesk without Intercom seats, at $0.99 per outcome. So you can keep Zendesk and still use Fin.
Which should you choose?
| If you… | Choose |
|---|---|
| want the lowest seat price with live chat | Intercom Essential |
| expect the AI to resolve a large share of chats | Intercom (Fin at $0.99 per outcome) |
| answer mostly by email and want the cheapest seat | Zendesk Support Team |
| need email, chat, social and phone in one plan | Zendesk Suite |
| need SLAs at the lowest price | Zendesk Suite Professional |
| want in-app messages and product tours | Intercom with Proactive Support Plus |
| like Zendesk but want Fin's AI agent | Zendesk with Fin AI Agent on top |
| are a small sales and support team that wants AI chat and a CRM, not a full help desk | CRMsoftware.pro |
Cheaper alternatives to Intercom and Zendesk
Both are full help desks priced per seat. If you do not need ticketing, SLAs and phone, these cost less. Prices checked October 6–8, 2026; see our Intercom alternatives and Zendesk alternatives guides for full reviews, and Zendesk vs Freshdesk for the other big help desk match-up.
| Tool | Price | AI billing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| CRMsoftware.pro | Free for 3 users; Launch $19/mo for 8 users; Growth $49 for 20 | AI messages included (1,000 a month on Launch, 3,000 on Growth) | AI chat, a team inbox and a CRM for small teams |
| Freshdesk Omni | $29 per agent (Growth) | $0.49 per AI session; 500 sessions once for new customers | Email and chat tickets at a lower seat price |
| Help Scout | Free for 5 users; Standard $25 per user | AI Answers $0.75 per resolution | Email-first teams that want a calm inbox |
| Crisp | Free for 2 seats; Mini $45, Essentials $95 per workspace | Prepaid credits, about $0.05–$0.10 per AI conversation | A flat price per workspace |
| Chatwoot | Free to self-host; cloud from $19 per agent | Captain credits included; $20 per 1,000 extra | Open source and data control |
CRMsoftware.pro is our product. It is not a ticketing help desk: it is an AI agent that answers on your website, WhatsApp, Telegram, email and Slack, hands chats to your team, and turns every conversation into a contact and a deal in a CRM pipeline. Plans are priced per team with AI messages included, so 5 people on Growth pay $49 a month in total. For a head-to-head with Intercom, see CRMsoftware.pro vs Intercom. Hand-offs work best with clear rules; our human handover playbook has the ones we use.
Connect your website and see how many chats the AI answers on its own. Start free, no card needed, or see pricing.
FAQ
Is Intercom better than Zendesk?
For chat-first support led by an AI agent, yes: Intercom's seats with live chat are cheaper and Fin costs $0.99 per resolution against Zendesk's $1.50–$2.00. For large teams that handle email, chat, social and phone as tickets, with SLAs and routing rules, Zendesk is the stronger and often cheaper choice.
Which is cheaper, Intercom or Zendesk?
It depends on the tier. With live chat, Intercom Essential is $29 per seat a month billed yearly ($19 for some visitors) against $55 on Zendesk Suite Team. With SLAs, Zendesk Suite Professional is $115 against $132 on Intercom Expert. Once an AI agent resolves hundreds of chats a month, Intercom is cheaper on every tier.
How much does Intercom Fin cost?
$0.99 per outcome, on every Intercom plan and on other help desks. An outcome is a conversation Fin resolves or an action it completes. You pay nothing when Fin cannot answer or the customer asks for a human, and at most once per conversation. Fin Voice is $1.99 per voice outcome.
How much does Zendesk AI cost?
Each plan includes some automated resolutions: 5 per agent a month on Support Team and Suite Team, 10 on Suite Professional. Extra resolutions cost $1.50 each with a commitment or $2.00 pay-as-you-go. Copilot for agents is $50 per agent a month billed yearly.
Is Intercom now called Fin? Did Salesforce buy it?
The company renamed itself Fin on May 12, 2026; the help desk is still called Intercom. Salesforce agreed on June 15, 2026 to buy Fin for about $3.6 billion and completed the purchase on September 10, 2026. The Intercom help desk is still sold with the same plans.
Can I use Intercom's Fin with Zendesk?
Yes. Fin AI Agent works on top of Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot and Freshdesk without Intercom seats. You pay $0.99 per outcome and keep your existing help desk for your agents.
Does Intercom or Zendesk have a free plan?
Neither has a free plan. Intercom offers a 14-day trial without a card and 93% off for startups that raised under $10 million and have 15 employees or fewer. Zendesk offers a 14-day trial of Suite Professional.
Which is better for a small business?
Intercom Essential is usually the better fit for a small team that mainly chats with customers, because seats are cheaper and the AI is pay-per-result. If you mostly answer email, Zendesk Support Team at $19 is cheaper. If you want AI chat and a CRM for the whole team at one price, CRMsoftware.pro starts at $19 a month for 8 users.
Sources
- Pricing pages checked Oct 8, 2026: Intercom (5 page loads from the US and 1 from Europe; two versions of the Essential price) and Zendesk (including the plan comparison table).
- Company news: Today Intercom becomes Fin (May 12, 2026) and Salesforce signs definitive agreement to acquire Fin (June 15, 2026) and Salesforce completes acquisition of Fin (September 10, 2026).
- Vendor comparison pages checked Oct 8, 2026: Intercom vs Zendesk (Intercom) and Zendesk vs Intercom (Zendesk).
- Alternatives' pricing pages checked Oct 6–8, 2026: Freshdesk Omni, Help Scout, Crisp, Chatwoot, CRMsoftware.pro.
AI chat and a CRM for one team price
AI answers on your website and messengers, a team inbox and a CRM pipeline, with AI messages included. Free for 3 users; Launch is $19/month billed yearly for 8 users, Growth $49 for 20.
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