Intercom
Intercom is a help desk with an AI agent built in: a Messenger for your website or app, a shared inbox with ticketing for your team, a help center, and Fin, the agent that answers customers first and hands the rest to a person.
It suits founders with a SaaS or app who want most questions answered from their docs before anyone on the team has to reply.
There is no free plan; after a 14-day trial, Essential is $39 a seat a month billed monthly, plus $0.99 for each outcome Fin delivers, as checked on 30 October 2026.
Reviewed by the IndieHacked team
- What it does
- A help desk with an AI agent built in: Fin answers customers in a Messenger on your site or app, by email and more, and hands the rest to your team's shared inbox.
- Our take
- Founders with a SaaS or app who want an AI agent answering first. Fin works from your help content and past conversations, bills per outcome rather than per message, and hands what it cannot finish to your shared inbox with the history attached.
- Pricing
- Free trialMid priceNo free plan: a 14-day trial with no card, then one full seat at least. Essential is $39 a seat a month billed monthly, or $29 billed yearly; on 30 October 2026 new self-serve customers saw $29 and $19 for a discount period set at checkout, after which the list price applies. Advanced is $99 a seat a month, or $85 billed yearly, with 20 free Lite seats for teammates who only collaborate; Expert is $139, or $132, as checked on 30 October 2026. Fin costs $0.99 per outcome on each plan, charged at most once per conversation, refunded if the conversation reopens, and nothing when the customer asks for a person; spending limits and alerts cap it. Copilot for your team is $35 a teammate a month after 10 free conversations each, Proactive Support Plus for product tours and surveys is $99 a month, and phone, SMS, WhatsApp and email campaigns are billed by use. Startups with under $10M raised and fewer than 15 employees can apply for 93% off the first year.
The IndieHacked breakdown
What it does
Intercom puts a Messenger on your website or in your app and brings chat, email, phone, WhatsApp and social messages into one shared inbox with ticketing, a help center and reports. Fin, its AI agent, answers first from your help content, past conversations and the data you connect, and hands a conversation to your team with its history when it cannot finish. The company itself is now called Fin: intercom.com covers the help desk, fin.ai the agent.
Copilot drafts replies and finds answers for your team inside the inbox. Banners, tooltips and in-app messages reach users before they write in, and the Proactive Support Plus add-on brings product tours, checklists and surveys. Intercom's MCP server lets Claude and other MCP tools search conversations and contacts and create or update help center articles, for workspaces hosted in the US or EU.
Who it suits
Founders with a SaaS or app who expect most questions to be answerable from their docs. Fin is on each plan at $0.99 per outcome, charged at most once per conversation and refunded if the conversation reopens, so a quiet month costs little in AI and spending limits cap a busy one.
It also fits a startup that qualifies for Early Stage: under $10M raised, fewer than 15 employees and new to Intercom. The first year is 93% off, from $65 a month for 6 Advanced seats with 300 Fin outcomes a month, then 50% off in year two and 25% in year three.
Not the right fit for
Founders who want a free plan or a flat monthly bill. Intercom starts at $39 a seat a month after the trial, with Fin's outcomes on top; Help Scout, reviewed here, is free for up to 5 users and charges $0.75 per AI resolution.
Teams already settled on another help desk who only want the AI agent. Fin also runs on Zendesk, reviewed here, and on Salesforce, HubSpot and others with no seats, at $0.99 per outcome with a 50-outcome monthly minimum, sold through Intercom's sales team.
Also on the shortlist
- ZendeskSupportTickets first, from $25 an agent a month for email, growing into phone, skills-based routing and community forums.14-day free trial, then from $25 an agent a month, as checked on 30 October 2026
- Help ScoutSupportA free plan for up to 5 users, live chat from $30 a user a month, and AI resolutions at $0.75 each.Free for up to 5 users, paid plans from $30 a user a month, as checked on 30 October 2026
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