Intercom alternatives for small SaaS teams: six tools priced for three seats
By The Relay team · Published · 7 min read
The short answer
For a small SaaS team the closest Intercom alternatives are Crisp (flat, $45 a month for 4 seats), Chatwoot (free to self-host, $19 per agent on Cloud), Help Scout ($25 per user, free for up to 5), Tidio (by conversations), Featurebase ($29 per seat, with a feedback board) and Relay ($19 a month for 3 seats, AI included). Pick by what you can't give up: channels, self-hosting, email, a free plan or a flat price. Intercom is still the right choice if you need workflows, multilingual support, SSO or SLAs.
Quick picks
| If you need… | Look at |
|---|---|
| Flat pricing and many channels (WhatsApp, social, phone) | Crisp |
| A free plan, or to self-host | Chatwoot |
| An email-first inbox and a free plan for up to 5 users | Help Scout |
| Low volume, a free tier and visual chatbot flows | Tidio |
| Support and a public feedback board, per seat | Featurebase |
| Flat pricing, a help center, AI answers with citations and a feedback board, on website chat and email | Relay |
Why people leave Intercom
Mostly price structure. Intercom charges $29 per seat per month on its entry plan and bills its Fin AI agent from $0.99 per outcome, so the bill grows with the team and with the volume of AI-handled conversations. We work through the numbers in Is Intercom too expensive for a small SaaS team?. Intercom's higher plans add workflows, round-robin assignment, multilingual support, SSO and SLAs; if you need those, staying may be right.
Crisp: flat pricing across many channels
Crisp is a multichannel messaging platform that puts website chat, email and social and messaging apps in one inbox. It charges per workspace instead of per seat, with AI credits included in paid plans.
- Three people: $45 a month (Mini plan, per workspace (4 seats included)).
- Free plan: Yes: 2 seats, no AI.
- AI pricing: AI credits included in paid plans.
- Best for: Teams that want flat pricing and to reach customers on WhatsApp, social or phone.
Choose Crisp if:
- You need WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, SMS or phone support.
- You want a free plan, or a free trial of the paid ones.
- You want one inbox that merges every channel.
Chatwoot: open source, hosted or self-hosted
Chatwoot is an open-source customer support platform with a shared inbox, live chat and many channels. You can run it yourself, or pay for Chatwoot Cloud, which charges per agent.
- Three people: $57 a month (3 × $19 Startups agents).
- Free plan: Yes: Hacker plan, and free self-hosting.
- AI pricing: Captain AI credits included; $20 per 1,000 extra.
- Best for: Teams that want to self-host, or want a free starter plan.
Choose Chatwoot if:
- You want to self-host for control over your data or cost.
- You need many channels such as social, SMS or voice.
- You want open-source code you can read and change.
- You need teams and automation rules.
Help Scout: email-first, with a free plan
Help Scout is an email-first shared inbox with a Docs knowledge base, a Beacon widget for chat and help search, and an AI Answers add-on. It charges per user.
- Three people: $75 a month (3 × $25 Standard users).
- Free plan: Yes: up to 5 users, no AI.
- AI pricing: $0.75 per AI resolution.
- Best for: Teams whose support is mostly email.
Choose Help Scout if:
- Email is your main support channel and you want an email-first workflow.
- You want a free plan for up to 5 users.
- You need multiple inboxes, workflows or a customer portal.
Tidio: priced by conversations, with visual chatbot flows
Tidio is a live chat and chatbot suite with a visual flow builder and an AI agent called Lyro. Its plans are limited by billable conversations rather than by seats.
- Three people: $24.17 a month (Starter plan (not per seat; 100 billable conversations a month)).
- Free plan: Yes: 50 conversations a month.
- AI pricing: Lyro conversations by plan; custom beyond.
- Best for: Teams that want a free tier and chatbot flows, with low volume.
Choose Tidio if:
- You want a free plan to start on.
- You want to build chatbot and marketing flows visually.
- You need auto-assignment and macros for a growing team.
Featurebase: support plus a feedback board, per seat
Featurebase started as a public feedback board and now also sells live chat, a shared inbox, an AI agent called Fibi, and a roadmap and changelog. It charges per seat, with AI resolutions billed on top.
- Three people: $87 a month (3 × $29 Growth seats, billed yearly).
- Free plan: Yes: 1 seat, no AI agent.
- AI pricing: $0.49 per AI resolution.
- Best for: Teams that want a feedback board and a changelog alongside support, and are fine with per-seat pricing.
Choose Featurebase if:
- You want a free plan to start on.
- You want a public changelog as well as a roadmap.
- You need an API, webhooks, Slack or CRM integrations.
- You need assignment rules, workflows, SLAs or multilingual support.
Relay vs Featurebase, in full.
Relay: flat pricing, with a help center, AI answers and a feedback board
Relay is hosted customer support for SaaS teams: a chat widget, a shared inbox, a public help center, AI answers drawn from that help center with citations, an email channel and a public feedback board. Pro is $19 a month for 3 seats and Team is $49 a month for unlimited seats, with AI answers included in both.
- Three people: $19 a month.
- Free plan: none, and no trial. You can try the live demo without signing up.
- AI pricing: included in the plan.
- Not the best fit if: you need workflows, round-robin assignment, multilingual support, SSO or SLAs, channels beyond website chat and email, a free plan or to self-host.
Not covered here
Zendesk and Freshdesk are common Intercom alternatives that aren't in this guide because we haven't verified their prices against their own pages. We'd rather leave them out than quote figures we haven't checked.
How to choose
- Write down who needs a seat. Per-seat tools get expensive past two or three people; flat tools don't.
- List the channels you must support. If WhatsApp, social or phone are on it, the field narrows quickly.
- Decide how much AI you want and how it should be billed. Per-resolution fees are easy to start and hard to forecast.
- Check the features you can't live without on the plan that has them, not just the entry plan.
- Try two of them with real questions from your last month of support before you pay for either.
Questions
Common questions
- What is the best Intercom alternative for a small team?
- It depends on what you need to keep. For flat pricing and many channels, look at Crisp. For a free plan or self-hosting, Chatwoot. For email-first support, Help Scout. For support plus a feedback board at a flat price on website chat and email, Relay.
- What is the cheapest Intercom alternative?
- For three people on a paid plan at list price, Relay Pro is $19 a month and Tidio Starter is $24.17, followed by Crisp Mini at $45. Free plans from Help Scout, Chatwoot, Featurebase, Crisp and Tidio can be cheaper still for one or two people. Prices checked 2026-10-02.
- Is there a free Intercom alternative?
- Yes. Chatwoot has a free Hacker plan (2 agents, live chat only) and can be self-hosted for free. Help Scout, Featurebase, Crisp and Tidio also have free plans with limits. Intercom itself offers a 14-day trial and no free plan.
- Does Relay replace Intercom?
- For a small team that needs chat, a shared inbox, a help center, AI answers and a feedback board, it can. It does not have Intercom's workflows, round-robin assignment, multilingual support, SSO or SLAs, and its channels are website chat and email only.
Sources and how we wrote this
Relay is made by the team that wrote this post. Figures for other tools come from their own public pages, listed under Sources, and are list prices in US dollars that can change. If something here is out of date, tell us on the feedback board and we'll correct it.