Intercom vs Chatbase vs Manychat

Written head to head: Manychat vs Chatbase, with when to choose each side.

Compared on	Intercom Free trial · from $19/seat/mo VisitRemove	Chatbase Free plan · from $32/mo VisitRemove	Manychat Free plan · from $14/mo VisitRemove
What it is	Customer service helpdesk with a built-in AI agent, Fin	Builds AI support agents trained on a company's own content	Automates social DMs and comment replies on Instagram, WhatsApp and more
Free plan	No	50 message credits/month, 1 AI agent, 1 member, limited model access, 1 MB training content; agents are deleted after 14 days of inactivity	25 Active Contacts per month, 1 user, up to 4 live automations, any 2 channels from Instagram, TikTok, Facebook Messenger and Telegram (no WhatsApp, SMS or email), Manychat branding; no credit card required
Cheapest paid plan	$19/seat/mo billed annually (Essential)Intercom pricing	$32/mo billed annually (Hobby)Chatbase pricing	$14/mo billed annually (Essential)Manychat pricing
What it covers	Fin AI Agent is charged separately at $0.99 per outcome; minimum of 1 full seat.	700 message credits/month, 1 AI agent, 2 members; yearly option shown as $384 billed annually.	250 Active Contacts a month included, then a fee per extra contact; $168 billed annually.
Free trial	14-day free trial, no credit card required; includes all features, Fin and add-ons	7-day trial of Hobby, Standard and Pro	14-day free trial of Essential or Pro (none on Business or Advanced); a saved card is required and the plan renews unless you cancel
Platforms	Web	Web, API	Web
Integrations (vendor's figure)	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated
Open source	No	No	No
Good for	Answering routine customer questions automatically before they reach support staff Running a shared support inbox and help centre for a small support team Adding an AI agent to an existing helpdesk such as Salesforce, HubSpot or Freshdesk	Creating a customer-facing AI agent for a website from existing help content Handling first-line customer questions on WhatsApp or Slack Giving a small team a support agent with usage capped by monthly credits	Replying automatically to Instagram comments and direct messages Collecting email addresses from social media followers Managing messages from several social channels in one inbox
Watch out for	No free plan; a 14-day free trial is offered Fin is billed per outcome on top of seat fees, and using Fin with another helpdesk carries a minimum monthly commitment (the page's example is 50 outcomes) Multiple team inboxes and workflow automation start on Advanced; SSO and HIPAA support need Expert	Free plan: 50 message credits a month, and agents are deleted after 14 days of inactivity Each plan includes one AI agent; extra agents cost $25 per agent per month Removing 'Powered By Chatbase' branding is a $99/month add-on	Free plan: 25 active contacts a month, 2 channels and up to 4 active automations, with Manychat branding Each plan includes a set number of active contacts; contacts above that cost $0.004 to $0.10 each, by plan WhatsApp, SMS and email start on Pro; unlimited channels start on Business
Made by	Fin (the company formerly named Intercom)	Chatbase Inc.	Manychat, Inc.

Entry prices are the cheapest paid plan, as each vendor publishes it; “What it covers” says what that price is per (a user, a channel, a brand, a number of contacts). The sources are listed on each tool's page.

Every tool in AI customer support tools is on its category page, with the written head-to-heads on Compare.