Intercom vs Crisp

Intercom is the premium AI-first support platform; Crisp is the budget-friendly challenger. Intercom seats run about $29-$132 per seat per month (annual) plus $0.99 per Fin AI outcome, and its pitch is autonomous resolution at volume (October 2026 readings). Crisp charges per workspace instead of per seat: Free ($0, 2 seats), Mini ($45/month, 4 seats), Essentials ($95/month, 10 seats) and Plus ($295/month, 20+ seats), each with a small monthly AI credit allowance and its Hugo AI agent billed per conversation (vendor pricing, October 2026). A five-agent team pays a single Crisp workspace fee versus five Intercom seats. Choose Crisp for predictable chat costs on a small team; choose Intercom when you need deeper automation, reporting and an AI agent that resolves at real volume. We did not hands-on test either product, so no quality winner is declared.

Decision point	Intercom	Crisp
Best suited to	Support teams that want an AI-first helpdesk: Fin resolves routine questions autonomously while agents handle the rest in a modern omnichannel inbox. Good for SaaS and ecommerce companies where chat i	Small and mid-sized teams that want live chat, a shared omnichannel inbox, and AI support agents at a flat per-workspace price.
Plans and cost	Essential $29/seat/mo annual ($39 monthly); Advanced $85/$99; Expert $132/$139; Fin AI $0.99 per resolved outcome (50/mo minimum standalone). Verified Oct 2026.	The Free plan is free forever with 2 seats included and no AI credits. Mini is $45 per month, per workspace (4 seats), Essentials is $95 per month, per workspace (10 seats), and Plus is $295 per month, per workspace (20+ seats); every plan can be tried free for 14 days, and Enterprise is custom-priced.
Limitations	Per-seat pricing adds up fast as your team grows — model total cost at your headcount, not the headline seat price. Fin's per-resolution billing needs volume monitoring to avoid surprises. Corporate n	The free plan includes 2 seats and no AI credits, and AI usage on paid plans is capped by included credits ($5 on Mini, $25 on Essentials, $75 on Plus). Higher tiers are needed for the ticketing system, white labelling, and the full AI-first support suite.

Decision point

Intercom

Crisp

Best suited to

Support teams that want an AI-first helpdesk: Fin resolves routine questions autonomously while agents handle the rest in a modern omnichannel inbox. Good for SaaS and ecommerce companies where chat i

Small and mid-sized teams that want live chat, a shared omnichannel inbox, and AI support agents at a flat per-workspace price.

Plans and cost

Essential $29/seat/mo annual ($39 monthly); Advanced $85/$99; Expert $132/$139; Fin AI $0.99 per resolved outcome (50/mo minimum standalone). Verified Oct 2026.

The Free plan is free forever with 2 seats included and no AI credits. Mini is $45 per month, per workspace (4 seats), Essentials is $95 per month, per workspace (10 seats), and Plus is $295 per month, per workspace (20+ seats); every plan can be tried free for 14 days, and Enterprise is custom-priced.

Limitations

Per-seat pricing adds up fast as your team grows — model total cost at your headcount, not the headline seat price. Fin's per-resolution billing needs volume monitoring to avoid surprises. Corporate n

The free plan includes 2 seats and no AI credits, and AI usage on paid plans is capped by included credits ($5 on Mini, $25 on Essentials, $75 on Plus). Higher tiers are needed for the ticketing system, white labelling, and the full AI-first support suite.

Use the same input

A startup with four support agents needs live chat and a knowledge base without per-seat pricing that explodes as they hire.

What a successful result must preserve

The tool must cover chat plus basic automation at a cost that stays flat as the team grows from 4 to 10 agents.

Evidence and test status

Specification comparison based on the two vendors' published pricing and feature pages plus independent pricing trackers, checked October 2026. We did not run a hands-on test on either tool; no quality winner is declared.

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