Crisp vs Intercom

by Gralio Feb 03, 2025

Crisp and Intercom are both customer support platforms, but they cater to different needs. Crisp is a good choice for budget-conscious businesses prioritizing core customer support features and ease of use. Intercom is better suited for businesses that need advanced AI capabilities and comprehensive analytics, and are willing to pay a premium for them.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 3769 reviews and 60 websites, saving 21 hours, 26 minutes of reading.

Crisp

Website LinkedIn Twitter

Intercom

Website LinkedIn Twitter

About

Crisp is an all-in-one customer support platform designed for small to medium-sized businesses. It allows you to manage all your customer interactions, including live chat, email, and social media messages, from one central inbox. Crisp also offers tools like a knowledge base, chatbot builder, and CRM to help you automate tasks and improve customer satisfaction. It stands out with features like live website visitor typing previews and co-browsing. Crisp is designed to streamline your customer interactions and improve efficiency.

Intercom is a customer service platform designed to improve customer experience and streamline support operations. It utilizes AI in three key ways: an AI chatbot for instant responses, an AI assistant for agents to quickly find information, and AI-powered analytics for support leaders. This approach aims to provide faster resolutions, increase agent efficiency, and offer data-driven insights for optimizing the customer service process. Intercom is suitable for businesses of all sizes seeking to enhance their customer support through automation and AI.

Summary

Main difference

Crisp offers a more affordable and transparent pricing structure, especially beneficial for smaller businesses. Intercom, while more expensive, provides advanced AI-powered features like Fin, an AI chatbot and agent assistant, which can significantly enhance customer support efficiency and provide data-driven insights.

Relative strengths of Crisp (compared to Intercom)

More affordable pricing, especially for smaller teams and startups.
Strong live chat features, including live typing previews and co-browsing.
Simple and easy-to-use interface.

Relative weaknesses of Crisp (compared to Intercom)

Limited AI capabilities compared to Intercom's Fin AI bot.
Less robust analytics and reporting features.
Fewer integrations compared to Intercom.

Who is using Crisp and Intercom?

No data

Olesia Krilyshyn

Sales Acceleration Specialist at Reply.io

Adam Robinson

CEO @ Retention.com & RB2B

Who should use Crisp VS. Intercom

Crisp is a cost-effective, all-in-one customer support platform praised for its ease of use and helpful chat assistants. It streamlines communication with a shared inbox for email, live chat, and social media. However, some users have reported email deliverability issues and bugs with certain features. Perfect for startups and SMBs seeking an affordable and user-friendly solution.

Intercom is a customer service platform leveraging AI for chatbots, agent assistance, and analytics. This empowers businesses to resolve issues faster and improve agent efficiency. Users praise Intercom's user-friendly interface and helpful AI agent, Fin, while some note the high cost of add-on features and occasional search inaccuracies.

Best for startups and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Ideal for e-commerce, retail, software, and marketing companies.

Best for small to enterprise-level businesses seeking enhanced customer support through AI.
Ideal for software, IT, telecommunications, and other industries focusing on customer experience.

Crisp and Intercom features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

Shared inbox

Supported

Crisp offers a shared inbox supporting multiple channels like email and chat in one place.

Supported

Intercom offers a shared inbox designed for team collaboration and efficient conversation management.
AI agent for customer service

Partially supported

Crisp uses AI to personalize interactions and provide insights, but adapting to brand voice or taking actions is not mentioned.

Supported

Intercom's Fin 2 AI bot satisfies all the requirements.
Web experience testing

Not supported

Crisp does not support web experience testing.

Not supported

Intercom does not support web experience testing for conversion.
Internal chat

Not supported

Crisp does not support internal chat for users to chat with each other within the software.

Not supported

Intercom does not support internal chat for general user-to-user communication within the software.
Multi-channel integration

Supported

Crisp supports multi-channel integration, allowing businesses to integrate with communication channels like email, social media, and more.

Supported

Intercom supports multi-channel integration, allowing businesses to integrate with communication channels like email, social media, and other messaging services.
Live chat

Supported

Crisp supports the ability for users to chat with website visitors in real time.

Supported

Intercom supports live chat, enabling users to chat with website visitors in real time.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

+0.78

Strongly positive sentiment

-0.66

Rather negative sentiment
Customer Service

+0.73

Strongly positive sentiment

+0.67

Rather positive sentiment
Ease of Use

+0.85

Strongly positive sentiment

+0.91

Strongly positive sentiment
Reliability and Performance

+0.53

Rather positive sentiment

+0.34

Rather positive sentiment
Ease of Implementation

+0.67

Rather positive sentiment

+0.51

Rather positive sentiment
Scalability

No data

+0.52

Rather positive sentiment

Crisp and Intercom Pricing

Crisp offers a 14-day free trial for all plans. They provide a flat pricing model per workspace, not per agent. Discounts are available for multiple workspaces, nonprofits, and students. Annual payment is available upon request.

Plans

User sentiment

Strongly positive

+0.78

See full Pricing page

Intercom offers a tiered pricing model based on the features included in each plan. Each plan requires a certain number of seats be purchased to access the platform. In addition to the base plan, there are extra usage charges for services like Fin AI Agent, WhatsApp, SMS, Email Campaigns, and Proactive Support Plus.

Plans

User sentiment

Rather negative

-0.66

See full Pricing page

Crisp and Intercom review insights

3756 reviews analysed from and

Users love

Excellent and responsive customer support
Cost-effective
Easy to use and intuitive UI/UX
Helpful chat assistants

FIN AI agent is very helpful
User-friendly interface and easy to navigate
Seamless integrations with other systems
Robust self-service features like the Help Center

Users dislike

Email deliverability issues with Outlook users in particular
The Ticket Center plugin is very expensive
The "Magic Browse" feature is buggy
Android app has some bugs

Email threading with Fin is messy
Search functionality can be inaccurate
High pricing tiers for add-on features like Proactive Support
The mobile app has limited functionality

Crisp and Intercom Ratings

G2

4.6/5

(145)
Capterra

4.5/5

(108)
TrustPilot

3.0/5

(13)

Company health

Employee growth

No data

No change in the last year

Web traffic

No data

Financing

No data

How do Crisp's co-browsing features compare to Intercom's agent assist capabilities?

Crisp offers co-browsing, allowing agents to see and interact with the customer's browser in real-time, which facilitates troubleshooting and guidance. Intercom's agent assist capabilities focus on AI-powered tools like Fin, which helps agents find information quickly and automate responses, but it does not offer co-browsing functionality. Therefore, Crisp provides a more direct, visual collaboration tool for customer support, while Intercom emphasizes AI assistance and automation.

Which product best integrates AI for automating repetitive support tasks?

Intercom better integrates AI for automating repetitive support tasks. Its AI chatbot, Fin, provides instant responses to common queries, while the AI assistant helps agents quickly locate information. Crisp offers chatbot functionality and some automation, but Intercom's deeper AI integration focuses specifically on streamlining and automating support processes through AI.

What are the advantages of Crisp?

Crisp offers a lower price point, especially beneficial for small to medium-sized businesses. It also provides a flat pricing model per workspace, rather than per agent, making it potentially more cost-effective as teams scale. Crisp stands out with unique features like live website visitor typing previews and co-browsing, enhancing the customer interaction experience. Finally, user reviews highlight Crisp's excellent customer support, ease of use, and helpful chat assistants.

What are the disadvantages of Crisp?

Crisp has some reported issues with email deliverability, especially with Outlook users. The "Magic Browse" feature has been reported as buggy, and there are some known bugs with the Android app. While generally considered cost-effective, the Ticket Center plugin is reportedly quite expensive.

Is Crisp cheaper than Intercom?

Crisp's pricing starts at free and goes up to $295 per month/workspace for the Plus plan, with custom pricing for Enterprise. Intercom's pricing starts at $74/month ($348/year paid annually) for the Essential Plan and goes up to $242/month ($1,584/year paid annually) for the Expert Plan. Therefore, Crisp can be cheaper than Intercom, especially for smaller businesses or those using the free plan, but Intercom's starting paid tier is cheaper if paid annually. However, direct comparison is difficult as Crisp prices per workspace and Intercom per a certain required number of seats. Additionally, Intercom has usage-based pricing for add-on features which could increase the overall cost.

Alternatives to Crisp and Intercom

Zowie

Zowie is an AI-powered customer service platform designed for e-commerce businesses. It uses chatbots and automation to handle a large volume of customer inquiries, aiming to resolve over 70% of issues automatically. Zowie integrates with various platforms, operates in multiple languages, and provides data-driven insights to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction. It focuses on automating tasks like answering questions, managing returns, and offering personalized support, aiming to free up human agents for more complex issues.

Re:amaze

Re:amaze is a customer service software that combines live chat, email, social media, and messaging into one platform. It helps businesses manage customer support across different channels, automate tasks like sending messages, and track customer interactions. Features include a knowledge base, customer satisfaction surveys, and integrations with popular business apps. Re:amaze is suitable for businesses of all sizes looking to streamline their customer service and improve efficiency.

Chameleon

Chameleon is a platform designed to help your users get the most out of your software. With Chameleon, you can build interactive guides, in-app messages, and surveys that are tailored to each user's needs. This helps users learn your software faster and reduces the need for support. Chameleon integrates seamlessly with your existing tools and is used by leading companies to improve user satisfaction and drive growth.

Freshservice

Freshservice is a cloud-based IT management software designed for mid-sized to large businesses. It offers a range of tools to streamline IT services, such as help desk ticketing, asset management, incident and problem tracking, and knowledge management. Freshservice aims to simplify IT operations and improve efficiency through automation and AI-powered insights. It boasts a user-friendly interface, making it easy for teams to adopt and use.

Rezo.ai

Rezo.ai is a cloud-based software that automates customer service using AI. It offers conversational AI chatbots, automated workflows, and real-time performance analysis. Rezo.ai focuses on improving customer experience and streamlining operations for businesses of all sizes across various industries. Its AI-powered features aim to understand and respond to customer queries, freeing up human agents for more complex issues.

Pylon

Pylon is a customer support platform designed for growing B2B companies. It allows you to manage customer interactions from various channels like Slack, Microsoft Teams, email, and in-app chat, all within a single platform. Pylon offers tools for tracking customer issues, automating workflows, analyzing support data, and collaborating with your team. It also provides features like a knowledge base, customer portal, and integrations with popular business tools. Pylon aims to help businesses streamline their customer support operations and improve efficiency.

Page co-authored by

Michal Kaczor

CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

Tymon Terlikiewicz

CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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