Happy Valley

Front vs Intercom

Front and Intercom are both customer support tools aimed at small businesses and enterprise. Front costs less, from $35/mo versus $39/mo for Intercom.

Front

Shared inbox for customer-facing teams

Intercom

AI-first customer service platform

PricingPaid · $35Paid · $39
Starting price$35/mo$39/mo
Free planNoNo
Free trial14 days14 days
Built forSmall businesses, EnterpriseSmall businesses, Enterprise
Platformsweb, macos, windows, ios, androidweb, ios, android
CountryFR · 2013US · 2011
Rating——

Choose Front if

Email-heavy, collaborative customer teams in B2B and services.

  • Natural for teams living in email
  • Excellent collaboration features
  • Omnichannel without a ticket mindset

Look elsewhere if: High-volume consumer support (Zendesk, Freshdesk) or small teams on a budget (Help Scout).

Choose Intercom if

B2B and B2C SaaS companies with meaningful support volume and a good knowledge base.

  • Fin is among the best AI support agents on the market
  • Excellent in-app messenger and SaaS integrations
  • Mature workflows and reporting

Look elsewhere if: Very small teams or budget-sensitive startups; Crisp, Chatwoot or Plain cover the basics for far less.

Front vs Intercom pricing

Front

  • Starter$35/seat/mo$25 billed annually; up to 10 seats
  • Professional$85/seat/mo$65 billed annually; up to 50 seats, omnichannel
  • Enterprise$105/seat/moAnnual billing only; advanced AI tools

Intercom

  • Essential$39/seat/mo$29 billed annually; Fin AI $0.99/outcome
  • Advanced$99/seat/mo$85 billed annually; workflows, 20 Lite seats
  • Expert$139/seat/mo$132 billed annually; SSO, HIPAA, 50 Lite seats

Front · Key features

  • Shared and personal inboxes in one email-like interface
  • Internal comments, assignments and collision detection
  • Rules, SLAs and workload balancing
  • Front AI for drafts, summaries and tagging
  • Knowledge base, chat widget and customer profiles
  • Analytics and CRM integrations

Cons

  • Expensive per seat
  • Starter plan limited to 10 seats
  • Ticket-style reporting is weaker than Zendesk

Intercom · Key features

  • Fin AI agent trained on your help center, docs and past conversations
  • Omnichannel inbox: chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, social
  • Help center with AI-assisted article suggestions
  • Workflows: visual automation for routing, SLAs and bots
  • Proactive support: product tours, banners, outbound messages
  • Reporting on resolution rate, CSAT and team performance

Cons

  • Pricing is complex: seats plus per-outcome AI fees
  • Expensive for small teams compared with Crisp or Chatwoot
  • Frequent packaging changes over the years

Front vs Intercom: FAQ

Which is cheaper, Front or Intercom?

Front starts at $35/mo and Intercom at $39/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.

Do Front and Intercom have a free plan?

Front has no free plan, a 14-day free trial. Intercom has no free plan, a 14-day free trial.

Not sure yet?