Help Scout vs Intercom
A side-by-side comparison of Help Scout and Intercom on what each one charges, what it meters, and which plan every capability actually sits on.
The short answer
16 of the 46 capabilities tracked on both differ, mostly in AI resolution and Enterprise. Help Scout starts at Free, then $25/seat/mo, Intercom at $29/seat/mo.
| Measure | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | Free, then $25/seat/mo | $29/seat/mo |
| Charged per | Each agent seat | Each agent seat |
| AI billed at | $0.75 per AI resolution | $0.99 per AI resolution |
| Included, where the other says no | 0 capabilities | 6 capabilities |
Capability by capability
16 of the 46 capabilities tracked on both products differ.
Channels
| Capability | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| IncludedAll plans, including Free | IncludedAll plans | |
| Live chat | IncludedStandard and above. Not on Free. | IncludedAll plans |
| In-app messenger | Not published | IncludedAll plans |
| Voice | Paid add-onAircall add-on on Standard and Plus; preferred Aircall pricing on Pro. Help Scout publishes no price for it. | IncludedAll plans, pay-as-you-go |
| SMS | IncludedStandard and above, listed alongside live chat. | IncludedAll plans, pay-as-you-go |
| IncludedStandard and above. | IncludedAll plans, pay-as-you-go | |
| Instagram / Facebook | IncludedStandard and above. Instagram and Messenger. | Not published |
| Community forum | Not published | NoNo community product. Nothing in the plan comparison offers forums, member profiles or moderation, so a team that wants customers answering each other buys that elsewhere. |
Ticketing
| Capability | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Shared inbox | IncludedAll plans. Free 1 Inbox; Standard 2, Plus 5, Pro 10 included, extras at $10/mo annual. | IncludedAll plans. Multiple team inboxes arrive at Advanced, so the entry plan is a single shared inbox. |
| Ticket queues | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. | IncludedAll plans carry the ticketing system. The customer-facing tickets portal is Advanced and above. |
| SLA policies | IncludedOne basic SLA on Standard, two advanced on Plus, unlimited on Pro. None on Free. | IncludedExpert |
| Business hours | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. | IncludedExpert only, as team office hours, alongside team reply time settings. Neither is available on Essential or Advanced. |
| Macros / saved replies | IncludedSaved replies on all plans. Free caps at 10, paid plans unlimited. | Not published |
| Side conversations | NoNot on any plan. The matrix has no row for a conversation held beside the customer thread. | Not published |
| Custom fields | IncludedPlus and Pro. | Not published |
| Custom objects | NoNot on any plan. Custom fields cap at 10 a conversation and customer properties at 50, which are fields rather than objects. | Not published |
| Ticket forms | IncludedEvery plan including Free. | Not published |
Routing & automation
| Capability | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Skills-based routing | NoNot on any plan. Routing is round robin on Plus $45 and load balanced on Pro $75, neither of which reads a skill. | Not publishedNot published. Round-robin assignment and workload management are named; routing on agent skill is not. |
| Round-robin assignment | IncludedPlus and Pro. | IncludedAdvanced |
| Load balancing | IncludedPro only, listed as multiple routing types. | IncludedExpert only, as workload management. Advanced gets round-robin assignment but not capacity-aware distribution. |
| Triggers | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. | IncludedSimple automations are on every plan; the Workflows automation builder starts at Advanced. |
| Workflow builder | Included150 basic workflows on Standard, 500 advanced on Plus, unlimited on Pro. None on Free. | IncludedAdvanced |
| Escalation rules | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. | IncludedAll plans, and they carry billing consequences that are published: an escalation triggered by workspace-level guidance or escalation rules is not charged as an outcome, while a handoff written into a Procedure is. |
AI resolution
| Capability | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous resolution agent | Paid add-onAI Answers add-on at $0.75 a resolution, on Standard $25 and above. Three months free from signup and a monthly spend cap that switches it off rather than overrunning. | IncludedAll plans, metered |
| Resolution over knowledge base | Paid add-onAI Answers add-on at $0.75 a resolution, on Standard $25 and above. Three months free from signup and a monthly spend cap that switches it off rather than overrunning. | IncludedAll plans. Fin answers from the help centre and the Procedures a team writes, and the vendor is explicit about the boundary: "Fin trains only on your knowledge and Procedures, never on data you haven't approved". |
| Action-taking (API calls) | NoNot on any plan. AI Answers is described as answering, never as doing. | IncludedAll plans, through Procedures, which Fin executes and which can end in a configured handoff to a workflow, a team or a teammate. A successful Procedure handoff is itself a billable outcome at $0.99. |
| Handoff to human | Paid add-onAI Answers add-on at $0.75 a resolution, on Standard $25 and above. Three months free from signup and a monthly spend cap that switches it off rather than overrunning. | IncludedAll plans |
| Guardrails & citations | Not publishedThe pricing page describes the sources AI Answers reads and not whether a reply cites them. | IncludedAll plans. Fin can be tested before it reaches anyone: "Before Fin ever talks to a real customer, run realistic Simulations against edge cases, including vulnerable-customer and compliance scenarios." Fine-tuning is opt-out, with data deleted within 30 days. |
| Multilingual AI | Not publishedAI Assist translates agent text; the page does not say whether AI Answers replies in the customer's language. | IncludedAll plans |
AI assist
| Capability | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Reply drafting | IncludedPlus $45 a user and above. | Paid add-onCopilot, sold per seat on any plan at $29 per agent per month billed annually or $35 billed monthly. Every full seat gets 10 conversations a month included; unlimited use is the paid add-on. |
| Tone rewrite | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. | Not published |
| Summarization | IncludedPlus $45 a user and above. | Not publishedNot published. Copilot is described as an assistant for agent efficiency without an itemised feature list, so which of drafting, summarising and rewriting it covers cannot be read off a published page. |
| Translation | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. | IncludedAll plans, metered: 10 AI auto-translation conversations per agent per month are included free, matching the 10 free Copilot conversations. |
| Next-best-action | NoNot on any plan. The four AI rows are Assist, Drafts, Summarize and Answers. | Not published |
| Auto-tagging | NoNot on any plan. Tags are unlimited on paid tiers and applied by hand or by a workflow. | Not published |
| Sentiment analysis | NoNot on any plan. Not among the four AI rows. | Not publishedNot published as a product feature. The Pro add-on analyses conversations for quality; sentiment is not named as an output. |
AI voice
| Capability | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Voice agent | NoNot on any plan. The matrix lists phone and voice as "via integration" on every tier, which is Aircall billed separately, so there is no voice layer to put AI on. | IncludedFin Voice exists and is the one part of Fin with no published price: "To use Fin Voice and for pricing details, please contact Sales." Outcome pricing at $0.99 is stated to cover chat and email only. |
| IVR replacement | NoNot on any plan. The matrix lists phone and voice as "via integration" on every tier, which is Aircall billed separately, so there is no voice layer to put AI on. | Not publishedNot published. Fin Voice is sales-gated and no IVR or phone-tree capability is described on any reachable page. |
| Real-time transcription | NoNot on any plan. The matrix lists phone and voice as "via integration" on every tier, which is Aircall billed separately, so there is no voice layer to put AI on. | Not published |
| Call summarization | NoNot on any plan. The matrix lists phone and voice as "via integration" on every tier, which is Aircall billed separately, so there is no voice layer to put AI on. | Not published |
Knowledge base
| Capability | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Public help center | IncludedAll plans. Free 1 Docs site; Standard 2, Plus 3, Pro 5 included, extras at $20/mo annual. | IncludedAll plans |
| Multi-brand | IncludedDocs sites by tier: 1 on Free, 2 on Standard $25, 3 on Plus $45, 5 on Pro $75, and $20 a month for each one beyond that. | IncludedExpert |
| Versioning | NoNot on any plan. The Docs rows cover sites, branding, articles, contact forms and access control. | Not published |
| Localization | NoNot on any plan. AI Assist translates agent text, not articles. | IncludedAdvanced |
| In-product widget | IncludedThe embeddable support hub: 1 on Free, 5 on Standard $25, unlimited on Plus $45 and Pro $75. | IncludedAll plans. The Messenger is included everywhere, and the pricing page bundles "free, unlimited live chat, support email, in-app chats, banners, and tooltips" into every tier. |
| AI answers over KB | IncludedAll paid plans, metered at $0.75 per resolution with no included allowance. Delivered through Help Scout's own Beacon widget over Docs content; there is no bring-your-own-helpdesk version. | IncludedAll plans. Fin is included on every tier and answers from help centre content; only the outcomes it produces are charged. |
Self-service
| Capability | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Chatbot flows | NoNot on any plan. AI Answers is a retrieval agent, not a flow anyone builds. | IncludedAdvanced and above, as the Workflows automation builder. Essential is limited to simple automations, so scripted multi-step flows are the main reason to leave the entry plan. |
| Order lookup | NoNot on any plan. AI Answers replies from content; the matrix describes no transactional actions. | Not published |
| Returns / RMA | NoNot on any plan. AI Answers replies from content; the matrix describes no transactional actions. | Not published |
| Account actions | NoNot on any plan. AI Answers replies from content; the matrix describes no transactional actions. | Not published |
QA & workforce
| Capability | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Conversation QA scoring | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix runs to roughly sixty rows across ten sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. | Paid add-onThe Pro add-on, from $99 a month, covering analysis of 1,000 conversations a month plus 2,000 credits, with extra credits at $0.01. Sold on any plan. |
| Automated QA coverage | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix runs to roughly sixty rows across ten sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. | Paid add-onSame Pro add-on, pitched at full coverage rather than sampling: "see and continuously improve 100% of your customer conversations" and "check if quality meets your standards". |
| Calibration | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix runs to roughly sixty rows across ten sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. | Not published |
| Agent scorecards | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix runs to roughly sixty rows across ten sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. | Not published |
| Forecasting | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix runs to roughly sixty rows across ten sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. | NoNo workforce management product. Workload management at Expert distributes conversations against capacity; it does not forecast contact volume or build a staffing plan. |
| Scheduling | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix runs to roughly sixty rows across ten sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. | NoNo shift scheduling. Team office hours at Expert set when a team is open, which is not the same as rostering people against a forecast. |
| Adherence tracking | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix runs to roughly sixty rows across ten sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. | NoNo adherence tracking. Nothing in the plan comparison measures agents against a schedule, because there is no schedule to measure against. |
Reporting
| Capability | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Prebuilt dashboards | IncludedEvery plan, but the history is the gate: 30 days on Free, two years on Standard $25, all-time on Plus $45 and Pro $75. | IncludedAll plans, as pre-built reports. |
| Custom reports | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. | IncludedAdvanced and above. Essential is limited to the pre-built set. |
| Raw data export | IncludedPaid plans. Reporting data only, delivered to CSV or Excel "with the exception of conversation thread contents". | IncludedAll plans, and self-serve, but split by object: contacts export to CSV from the UI, while conversations are reachable only through the API or the S3 export. |
| Data warehouse sync | NoNot on any plan. The export row goes to CSV or Excel and no further. | IncludedBulk conversation export to Amazon S3 as JSON is documented with no plan condition, which is a stronger position than the UI export it sits beside. |
| CSAT / NPS | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. | Not publishedNot published in the plan comparison. Conversation ratings are widely used in the product but appear on no reachable pricing or plan page, so the tier gate cannot be established. |
| Real-time reporting | NoNot on any plan. Reporting is described by history window, not as a live dashboard. | IncludedExpert only. The real-time dashboard sits with SSO, HIPAA and SLAs behind the top tier. |
Collaboration
| Capability | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment | IncludedEvery plan including Free. | IncludedAll plans have assignment; the automation around it is gated. Round-robin arrives at Advanced with multiple team inboxes, and capacity-aware workload management at Expert. |
| Approvals | NoNot on any plan. Nothing in the matrix reviews a reply or an article before it goes out. | Not published |
Enterprise
| Capability | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| SAML SSO | Paid add-onAdd-on on Plus and Pro, at a price Help Scout does not publish. Unavailable on Free and Standard. | IncludedExpert |
| SCIM provisioning | Not publishedNot listed in the published plan matrix or the security page. | IncludedExpert in effect |
| Role-based access control | Not published | IncludedTeammate roles exist and can be mapped from identity provider groups, which ties the useful version of this to SCIM and therefore to Expert. |
| Custom roles | Not publishedAdvanced permissions and Teams appear as rows in the plan matrix, but the matrix is icon-only and Help Scout publishes no text describing which plans carry them. | IncludedTeammate roles, mappable from identity-provider groups. The plan gate is not published. |
| Audit logs | Not publishedNot listed in the published plan matrix or the security page. | IncludedTeammate Activity Logs exist as a feature. Intercom does not publish which plan they require, and they have no documented export path. |
| IP allowlist | Paid add-onAdd-on on Plus and Pro, at a price Help Scout does not publish. | IncludedIP restrictions are listed on the security page alongside SSO, 2FA and SCIM. No plan gate is published. |
| Multi-brand | Not published | IncludedExpert |
| HIPAA / BAA | Paid add-onPro only, and an add-on even there. Requires a signed BAA. Price not published. | IncludedExpert |
| SOC 2 | IncludedNot plan-gated. SOC 2 Type 2 for Security and Availability, report on request. | IncludedNot plan-gated |
| ISO 27001 | Not publishedNot claimed anywhere on the security page, which names only SOC 2 Type 2 and penetration testing. | IncludedNot plan-gated |
| GDPR | IncludedNot plan-gated. A DPA is published, though the security page says only that Help Scout adheres to relevant privacy regulations without naming GDPR. | IncludedNot plan-gated |
| Data residency | Not publishedThe security page says only that Help Scout is hosted in AWS. No region choice is offered on the pricing page or the security page, and no data-residency product is published. | IncludedNot published |
| Data retention policy | Not published | IncludedPublished for AI data specifically rather than as a general policy: fine-tuning is opt-out "with data deleted within 30 days", and third-party model providers are "contractually barred from training on your data, with zero retention once a response is generated". |
| Right-to-erasure tooling | Not published | IncludedDocumented as a GDPR workflow, covering both export and deletion of a contact's data on request. |
Developer
| Capability | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | IncludedAll paid plans. Inbox API for customers, users and conversations; Docs API for articles. | IncludedAll plans |
| GraphQL API | NoNot on any plan. The matrix lists API access with per-tier rate limits and nothing else. | Not published |
| SDKs | Not published | IncludedAll plans. The Messenger ships as a web and in-app component, and "in-app chats" are bundled free into every tier alongside banners and tooltips. |
| App framework | IncludedEvery plan including Free. | IncludedAn app store exists and apps can be built against it. Intercom does not publish an app count on any page that renders, so the size of the ecosystem is unverified. |
| Published rate limits | IncludedPublished per plan in the pricing matrix: Standard 200 calls/min, Plus 400, Pro 800. | IncludedAll plans |
Both entries last checked Sep 9, 2026.
What Help Scout costs
$25/seat/month
4 published plans, billed annually- Billing unit
Per user per month - Free tier
Yes - AI pricing
$0.75 per AI resolution - Vendor calls it
AI Answers resolution - Human handoff
Not billed - Reopened chat
Not published - AI billing window
Not published - Data export
None published - Automation export
Not offered
2 of 9 not published by Help Scout, checked
What Intercom costs
$29/seat/month
4 published plans, billed annually- Billing unit
Seat + usage hybrid - Free tier
No, 14-day trial - AI pricing
$0.99 per AI resolution - Vendor calls it
Outcome - Human handoff
Still billed - Reopened chat
Refunded - AI billing window
1d of inactivity - Data export
Self-serve - Automation export
Not offered