If you’re on the hunt for tools to level up your company’s customer service, your timing is good. Customer expectations are higher than ever — and if you can meet them, you’re likely to net repeat sales from as many as 88 percent of your current customers.
The need to excel in this area is clear, but which customer service tool to invest in may be less obvious, especially since there are numerous products available. In this article, we’re going to look at two popular options: HubSpot and Intercom.
While these tools have many overlapping features, each has its strengths and weaknesses as well as its own areas of focus. In this article, you’ll get the details about HubSpot vs Intercom so you can make the best decision for your business.
Introduction to HubSpot
HubSpot was founded in 2006. It’s a leader in the customer relationship management (CRM) space. Today, it’s designed to be a single, central platform for comprehensive customer management. HubSpot offers a variety of products geared toward nurturing customers and growing your business.
One of these products is Service Hub, customer service software that helps organizations deepen their customer relationships and provide better customer experiences with personalized support, a multichannel help desk, AI-driven self-service options, support team management, and more.
HubSpot can help organizations gather data on customer behaviors and preferences, track customer service trends and solutions, and offer 24/7 support.
Introduction to Intercom
Intercom began in 2011 with a vision for making online customer relationships more personal. Today, it’s an AI-driven customer service platform that offers AI support agents, multichannel customer support, a support inbox, automated workflows, and more.
Intercom allows organizations to optimize their customer service resources with AI-powered customer service bots capable of both carrying out common customer interactions on their own and assisting human agents in handling complex issues effectively.
It also has an AI-backed analytics element that provides customer insights you can use to continuously improve your level of service.
HubSpot vs Intercom: Features
HubSpot’s customer service software has a wealth of features, including
- Intelligent help desk and ticketing for proper routing and faster replies
- Omnichannel messaging that allows you to resolve issues in customer-preferred channels, including email, chat, Messenger, and more
- AI-powered chat for 24/7 support
- Conversation intelligence that helps identify customer trends and analyze support team performance
- Customer feedback surveys
- A fully integrated smart CRM to share valuable contextual data with sales and marketing teams
- Automated customer service to relieve your agents of some manual processes
- Comprehensive reporting and analysis
Intercom’s AI-driven platform also offers a multitude of features for enhancing customer support:
- Fin AI bot that can resolve customer issues and work as a “copilot” for your agents to help them resolve issues more quickly
- AI-enhanced inbox that summarizes conversations and combines communication channels
- Phone calls, video calls, and screen sharing for fast, personalized support
- AI-based reporting on team performance, customer feedback, and more
- Streamlined ticketing system to promote collaboration
- Custom help centers to house all your help content
HubSpot vs Intercom: Other important considerations
There are a few other important aspects of these platforms you should consider.
- Security is a central concern in today’s hyper-online world, where potential vulnerabilities abound.
- New tools can be confusing to use, so you want to make sure these platforms offer robust support options.
- Most businesses today rely on multiple software tools and products, so their ability to integrate with each other is essential for maintaining uncomplicated and simple workflows.
Security
HubSpot has privacy and security standards in place to ensure your data is safe. It offers standard SSL on all HubSpot-hosted content, single sign-on, two-factor authentication, password-protected pages, and access restrictions. It also offers features that can support regulatory compliance.
Intercom has similar privacy and security features. Data both at rest and in transit is encrypted. It offers single sign-on, two-factor authentication, and permissions and access controls. It also offers features that can support regulatory compliance.
Customer support
HubSpot Professional and Enterprise plan holders have access to chat, email, and phone support. Starter plan users have chat and email support only. HubSpot also has a community forum, a knowledge base with guides and articles, and video trainings.
Intercom users can access support through chat and email. There’s also a community forum, a help center with guides and articles, and free how-to courses.
Integrations
HubSpot offers over 1,000 integrations on its App Marketplace, including connections with tools like Outlook, Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack, Mailchimp, and more.
Intercom integrates with more than 450 apps, including Jira, Salesforce, Google Analytics, Instagram, and more.
HubSpot and Intercom pricing and plans
HubSpot pricing
HubSpot offers a variety of products with different pricing options. There’s also a free version that lets you use limited versions of all of its products. Here’s an overview of the Service Hub product’s pricing.
| Free plan | Service Hub Starter | Starter Customer Platform | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan | $15 per user, per month when billed annually | $15 per user, per month when billed annually | |
| Features | Up to five users Free tool offerings | – Free tools with increased limits – Live chat – Route conversations – Payment support – Automated simple tickets | – Service Hub Starter – Sales Hub Starter – Marketing Hub Starter – Content Hub Starter – Operations Hub Starter |
| Service Hub Professional | Service Hub Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | $90 per user, per month when billed annually and one-time $1,500 onboarding fee | $150 per user, per month when billed annually and one-time $3,500 onboarding fee |
| Features | – Starter features – Service analytics – Customer portal – Feedback surveys – Customer service resource library – Up to 300 workflows | – Professional features – Custom data records – Single sign-on support – Manage notifications – AI-powered conversation insights – Permissions management – Up to 1,000 workflows |
Intercom pricing
Intercom has three pricing tiers, with the final price you pay depending on the number of users.
| Essential | Advanced | Expert | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan | $29 per user, per month when billed annually | $85 per user, per month when billed annually | $132 per user, per month when billed annually |
| Features | – Shared inbox – Fin AI Agent and Copilot – Ticketing system – Basic automations | – Team inboxes – Public and private help centers – AI summaries – Advanced automations | – Single sign-on – Workload management – Multibrand messenger – Dashboard |
There’s something else to consider: In addition to these package prices, Intercom tacks on additional charges depending on your usage. For example, you’ll pay $0.99 for every query Fin AI resolves. This pricing tactic might make your monthly bill somewhat unpredictable.
HubSpot and Intercom pros and cons
HubSpot pros
- It’s easy to set up and use.
- It’s an all-in-one platform that helps to integrate your sales, marketing, and customer service functions.
- Its automated ticketing functionality is helpful and improves efficiency.
- It has a comprehensive set of features for improving customer service.
- It integrates with a wide variety of other business tools.
HubSpot cons
- It’s fairly expensive compared to other solutions.
- It has limited customization options.
- The range of features can be overwhelming.
Intercom pros
- AI tools are included throughout its feature offerings.
- The macros, notes, and other features make agents’ work easier.
- The Inbox distinguishes between “conversations” for simple resolutions and “tickets” for more complex issues.
- Intercom supports up to 45 languages.
Intercom cons
- Intercom is primarily focused on customer service, so it has fewer feature offerings than HubSpot for sales and other functions.
- AI resolutions cost extra.
- Users have noted that it can be quite expensive.
HubSpot vs Intercom: A side-by-side comparison
| HubSpot | Intercom | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free plan Service Hub Starter $15 per user, per month when billed annually Starter Customer Platform $15 per user, per month when billed annually Service Hub Professional $90 per user, per month when billed annually and one-time $1,500 onboarding fee Service Hub Enterprise $150 per user, per month when billed annually and one-time $3,500 onboarding fee | Essential $29 per user, per month when billed annually Advanced $85 per user, per month when billed annually Expert $132 per user, per month when billed annually Additional charges depending on usage (for example, AI agent resolutions) |
| Features | Intelligent help desk routing, omnichannel messaging, AI-powered chat, conversation intelligence, customer feedback surveys, smart CRM, automated customer service, comprehensive reporting and analysis | Fin AI bot; AI-enhanced inbox; support for phone calls, video calls, and screen-sharing; AI-based reporting and analytics; streamlined ticketing system; knowledge hub |
| Customer support | Access to chat, email, and phone support for Professional and Enterprise plan holders; chat and email support only for Starter plan users; community forum; video trainings | Chat and email support, community forum, online courses |
| Integrations | Over 1,000 integrations | Over 450 integrations |
| Security | Standard SSL, single sign-on, two-factor authentication, custom domain security settings, encryption, password-protected pages | Single sign-on, two-factor authentication, encryption, permissions and access controls |
| Pros and cons | Pros: Easy to use, all-in-one platform; comprehensive feature set; lots of integrations Cons: Fairly expensive, limited customization options, overwhelming range of features | Pros: Self-service support, many features that automate tasks and make agents’ work easier, focus on elevating customer service Cons: pricing that can make costs add up quickly, more focused tool than HubSpot means lack of features for sales and other functions |
| User ratings | 4.4/5.0 on G2 for Service Hub product 4.4/5.0 on Capterra for Service Hub product | 4.5/5.0 on Capterra 4.5/5.0 on G2 |
Jotform: A powerful alternative
There’s another tool you might want to consider as an alternative to HubSpot and Intercom: Jotform can also help you meet your customer support needs.
Jotform offers a variety of tools businesses of all sizes can use to improve customer service and engage directly with customers and prospects.
Here are just a handful of the things you can do with Jotform:
- Create engaging conversational forms. Quickly and easily create conversational forms and embed them on your website to capture incoming leads and gather prospect data. Use conditional logic to personalize forms and surveys.
- Create customizable mobile apps. Jotform Apps is an easy-to-use, no-code app builder. Use it to build an app that streamlines customer care, for instance, or increases engagement via conversational forms. Host multiple conversational forms and customer support documents in a central location.
- Answer customer questions in real time with WhatsApp and Messenger. Add WhatsApp and Messenger buttons to your forms to let customers start real-time chats with a human agent on these platforms.
- Personalize your customer communications. Jotform offers an email logic feature that allows you to automatically send personalized emails to customers based on their form responses. So if someone purchases an item and you have additional products related to it, for example, you could set up an automated email response directing the buyer’s attention to them.
- Manage customer queries more effectively. Jotform also has tools you can use to help your support team collect, track, and manage incoming customer questions to resolve them faster. Manage customer data in an automatically populated database with Jotform Tables, and generate automated visual reports with Jotform Report Builder. Set up automated workflows to resolve customer support issues.
- Access a library of 10,000-plus form templates (including hundreds of customer service form templates) and 700-plus app templates for a quick start on your form and app creation needs.
Jotform is free to use and also offers multiple plans that can meet different business needs and sizes.
Tips for choosing the right tool to engage your customers
Today’s customers expect to have real-time interactions with businesses and receive personalized messages. Software can help you accomplish this while managing your team’s workload and time effectively.
But every business has unique needs and considerations, which means the same software product isn’t right for everyone. Consider the overall value of each tool, its focus, and its ability to help you achieve your goals.
Take advantage of free trials and plans whenever they’re available so you can better understand how a tool will mesh with your daily workflow. And read up on user reviews, too, to learn more about others’ experiences.
The right tool will not only create a more effective and productive support team, but happier customers as well.
Photo by Khwanchai Phanthong
Send Comment: