Intercom vs Live Helper Chat

Intercom is a customer messaging and support platform for businesses serving people through a website, app, or product. It combines a website chatbot and live-agent chat with a shared inbox, ticketing, a help center, and omnichannel conversations. Teams can use its visual flow builder and AI bot generation, track visitors, and connect 450 listed integrations. Fin answers free-form questions from approved knowledge and cites sources. When a conversation needs an agent, it passes along the conversation and customer history. Teams can customize Messenger’s tone, style, and design, and Fin can work with existing helpdesks including Salesforce, HubSpot, and Freshdesk. The platform and Messenger support web, iOS, and Android. Essential is $19 a month per seat when billed annually; Advanced is $85 a month per seat and includes 20 free Lite seats; Expert is $132 a month per seat and includes 50 free Lite seats. Fin AI Agent is billed from $0.99 per outcome. A 14-day trial is listed; payment begins only after choosing a plan and adding payment details. Intercom was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in San Francisco.

Live Helper Chat is open-source support chat for websites, combining bots, live agents, messaging channels, voice and video calls, screen sharing, AI integrations, and a REST API. Listed chat tools include unlimited operators and simultaneous chats, visitor tracking, file uploads, screenshots, and proactive invitations. Voice, video, and screen sharing use the new widget; the old widget does not support them. Integrations include Telegram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Twilio, Mattermost, n8n, Jitsi, Agora, and third-party REST APIs. AI connections include ChatGPT, Rasa, DeepPavlov, Ollama, and Gemini. It can be self-hosted, and hosted and downloadable versions are described as having the same features. Installation requires PHP 8.2 or newer, MySQL 5.7 or MariaDB 10.2.3 or newer, and Apache or Nginx. Windows and macOS clients, a Chrome extension, and Android and iOS app folders are listed. Hosted plans start with a 14-day free evaluation; paid plans begin at €6 a month.