Intercom alternative
Looking for an Intercom alternative?
Intercom renamed itself Fin in May 2026 and agreed to be acquired by Salesforce a month later. Its AI agent bills $0.99 per "outcome" on top of $29 to $132 per seat per month. For a small team that is the wrong shape of bill. SupportLime charges one flat price for AI replies, nothing per seat, nothing per resolution.
SupportLime vs Intercom, side by side
| SupportLime | Intercom | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Flat monthly: Free, $29, $79, $199 | Essential $29/seat, Advanced $85/seat, Expert $132/seat per month (annual rates) |
| What you pay for | AI replies only (1 reply = 1 reply) | Fin AI agent $0.99 per outcome, 50-outcome monthly minimum when used standalone |
| Teammates | Unlimited teammates on every paid plan | Per seat, every teammate costs |
| Remove branding | No branding on paid plans, no extra fee | n/a |
| When you hit the limit | Assistant pauses, inbox keeps working | Billed per outcome, including "assumed" resolutions when a visitor goes quiet |
| Setup | One script tag, 5-minute setup | Workflows, seat admin, onboarding |
| Human inbox and tickets | Inbox, takeover, tickets included | Yes, per seat |
Intercom figures from its public pricing page and reviews, checked October 2026. Tell us if something changed: hello@supportlime.com.
Why people leave Intercom
“tickets that take a human 1 min to respond to now cost you $0.99 ($60+/hour)”
Hacker News, June 2026“we would be forcibly migrated to seat-based pricing… paying 3 to 4 times our current expenditure”
Hacker News, May 2025“Doesn't that incentivize them to increase the amount of "successful customer session"”
Hacker News, May 2026
Who should stay on Intercom
Intercom is a full customer-communication suite built for funded startups and enterprises: product tours, email campaigns, phone, and a large app marketplace. If you need all of that, it is a fine product. If you need a chat widget that answers from your docs, hands off to you and logs tickets, you are paying for a lot you will not use.
What you get with SupportLime
Answers from your own content
Website, docs, pasted text, Q&A. Sources shown under every answer; the assistant says when it does not know.
Human inbox and takeover
Jump into any conversation; the assistant steps aside. Visitors who left get your reply by email.
Tickets
Unanswered questions become tickets with status, priority, assignee and notes.
One meter, flat price
AI replies only. Unlimited teammates, no branding fee, never goes dark at the limit.
Frequently asked questions
- Does SupportLime charge per resolution like Fin?
- No. We meter AI replies at a flat monthly allowance (1,500 on Starter, 6,000 on Growth, 20,000 on Scale). A reply the visitor does not read costs the same as one that solves the problem, and human replies are never metered.
- Can I migrate my help centre content from Intercom?
- Yes. Point SupportLime at your public help centre URL and it crawls it. You can also paste articles as text or Q&A pairs, or upload files.
- How many teammates can use the inbox?
- As many as you like on any paid plan. Seats are never charged for.
- What about Fin's accuracy?
- Both products answer from your own content. SupportLime shows the source page under every answer and says so when it does not know, instead of guessing, so you can judge accuracy for yourself in the test chat before going live.
- Is there a free plan?
- Yes. Free covers one website and 100 AI replies a month with the inbox and tickets included. Intercom offers a 14-day trial only.
Other comparisons
Switch from Intercom in an afternoon
Crawl your site, paste one script tag, keep your old tool running until you are happy.