Intercom: Best Alternatives & Options
As you’ve probably known, many Intercom users recently received messages regarding pricing increases and changes to their monthly plans. As a result, a lot of current Intercom users started to look for an Intercom alternative that can support all the features, including live chat, help desk, knowledge base, automated messages, and others.
Here is the message Intercom sent to everyone:
Last year we changed our pricing model to one that’s simpler and better aligned with the value customers get from Intercom. At that time, we decided to leave some customers like yourself on legacy pricing as a courtesy to ease the transition to the new pricing. As we move into 2020, it’s important for our business to ensure that Intercom pricing is in line with the value customers get from our products and is uniform across our customers. We’re reaching out because you’re still on legacy Intercom pricing, and you’ll have two important changes to your Intercom pricing and support soon.
1. You will be moved to Intercom’s latest pricing in 60 days. Based on your product mix and usage, your new Intercom cost will change from [amount] to [amount].
Why is this happening? Based on feedback from Intercom customers, we made the decision to move to a simpler pricing model that’s better aligned with the value our customers get from Intercom. New pricing takes into account “Active People” rather than “Total People Records”, which formed the basis for legacy pricing. This helps ensure that you pay to message the customers that are most valuable for your business.
2. We’ve made the business decision to ask customers who have a dedicated Relationship Manager to commit to Intercom for a minimum of 12 months. This allows our Relationship Managers to more effectively partner with key customers, such as yourselves. An important call-out: as of January 15, 2020, Intercom will no longer offer dedicated support to month-to-month customers. This means you’ll still have access to our industry-leading chat support without an annual contract, but not to our Relationship Management and Customer Success teams.
We understand this is a meaningful change, and we want to make the transition as smooth as possible for you and your team. Want to talk to someone about the upcoming changes or annual contracts? Contact your Relationship Manager, [name] at [email] who can help.
We can’t say thank you enough for your business.
We hope to continue growing with Albacross in 2020 and beyond.
All the best,
Jeff
What does the Intercom pricing change mean to me?
Higher fees
If you are currently an Intercom customer, very likely you have been temporarily grandfathered and now you are in the transition period to higher fees that will go live starting from January.
The reported 2x fees increase is still based on Intercom’s product mix and usage.
Relationship Manager on yearly plans only
Starting with the new pricing, Intercom won’t offer you their Relationship Manager if you are on a monthly subscription. In order to have a Relationship Manager assigned, you need to commit to the yearly plan.
Intercom Alternatives
If you are thinking about switching, we have prepared a list of best Intercom alternatives along with pros & cons to give you a better idea of what might fit your needs.
Here are some best Intercom alternatives:
LiveAgent
Pros:
- bill for users
- unlimited history and contacts
Intercom Alternatives: Conclusion
Intercom is indeed one of the most popular. However, as the company changes, it seems to shift its focus from smaller businesses, towards enterprise users. This creates an amazing opportunity for new Intercom-like apps to enter the market and become a great Intercom alternative.
Karen is a senior technical writer and copywriter at Hypegrowth. Her area of expertize are social media apps and new media.