Intercom vs Text by LiveChat
Pricing
Intercom: From $29/seat/mo (Essential)
Text by LiveChat: From $19/user/mo (billed annually)
Description
Intercom: Customer messaging platform with AI-powered inbox, help center, and the Fin AI Agent built in
Text by LiveChat: Dedicated live chat tool (formerly LiveChat) with a fast widget, 200+ integrations, and an AI Agent included
Pros
- All-in-one: live chat, help center, ticketing, and AI chatbot in a single tool
- Fin AI Agent handles routine questions from $0.99 per outcome, with no seats required
- Messenger widget is polished and customizable, looks professional on any site
- Chat widget loads fast and looks clean, one of the best-designed widgets on the market
- Works with 200+ eCommerce and CMS platforms, including Shopify and WordPress, plus WhatsApp and Messenger
- AI Agent included: Essential has 1 agent and 10 AI resolutions a month, Growth has 10 agents and 200
Cons
- Expensive for solo founders: $29/seat/mo is the floor, and add-ons push it higher fast
- Usage-based pricing for SMS, WhatsApp, and phone makes monthly bills unpredictable
- Overkill if you just need basic live chat: you are paying for features you will not use
- No free plan: Essential is $19/user/mo (annual) or $25/month-to-month
- Essential plan only keeps 60 days of chat history, then it is gone
- AI resolutions beyond the monthly allowance cost $49.50 per pack of 50
Details
Intercom is the 800-pound gorilla of customer messaging. It combines live chat, a shared inbox, ticketing, a help center, and an AI chatbot (Fin) into one platform. The Essential plan starts at $29 per seat per month, and the Advanced and Expert plans go to $85 and $132 per seat respectively. It is built for companies that want to handle support, onboarding, and product communication from a single dashboard. The company behind it renamed itself Fin, the name of its AI agent, and Salesforce completed its purchase of Fin on 10 September 2026. The help desk is still sold under the Intercom name.
For a solo founder, Intercom is a tough sell on price alone. The base plan is reasonable, but the moment you need proactive messages (Proactive Support Plus, $99/mo), Copilot for agents ($29 per agent per month billed annually, $35 monthly), or WhatsApp support (usage-based), costs stack up quickly. Startups can cut that through the Early Stage program, which offers up to 93% off and a year of Fin free, and every plan has a 14-day free trial. If you are doing enough volume that Fin at $0.99 per outcome saves you real time, Intercom pays for itself. If you are getting 5 support emails a day, Crisp or Chatwoot will do the job at a fraction of the cost.
Text by LiveChat is the current name of LiveChat, made by Text, Inc., the team behind LiveChat.com, HelpDesk.com and ChatBot.com. It is a focused live chat tool, not a full helpdesk: it puts a fast, good-looking chat widget on your site and lets you talk to visitors in real time. The Essential plan is $19 per user per month billed annually ($25 monthly), and the Growth plan is $79 per user per month billed annually ($99 monthly). Both have a 14-day free trial, and existing LiveChat customers keep their current plans.
The widget itself is genuinely one of the best: fast to load, easy to customize, and does not slow your site down. An AI Agent comes with every plan and answers customer questions when you are busy or offline, though Essential covers only 10 AI resolutions a month. The downside is cost: there is no free tier, Essential limits chat history to 60 days, and extra AI resolutions are sold in packs. For a solo founder who wants live chat specifically and can justify the spend, it is polished. If you need a free option, look at tawk.to or Tidio instead.
Verified
