Intercom vs Freshdesk vs Tidio

Compared on	Intercom Free trial · from $19/seat/mo VisitRemove	Freshdesk Free trial · from $19/agent/mo VisitRemove	Tidio Free plan · from $24.17/mo VisitRemove
What it is	Customer service helpdesk with a built-in AI agent, Fin	Freshworks help desk with ticketing, a knowledge base and Freddy AI	Live chat, ticketing and an AI agent (Lyro) for customer service
Free plan	No	No	50 billable conversations a month, 10 seats, live chat and ticketing, 50 Lyro AI Agent conversations (one-off, lifetime), 100 visitors reached by Flows a month
Cheapest paid plan	$19/seat/mo billed annually (Essential)Intercom pricing	$19/agent/mo billed annually (Growth)Freshdesk pricing	$24.17/mo billed annually (Starter)Tidio pricing
What it covers	Fin AI Agent is charged separately at $0.99 per outcome; minimum of 1 full seat.	Cheapest plan; includes the Freddy AI Agent with 500 free sessions once per account.	100 billable conversations/month; annual billing is advertised as 2 months free.
Free trial	14-day free trial, no credit card required; includes all features, Fin and add-ons	14-day free trial with access to the Enterprise plan, no credit card required	7-day free trial of all features and plans, no credit card needed; the account moves to the Free plan at the end unless you upgrade
Platforms	Web	Web	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	Managing customer emails as tickets in a shared inbox Publishing a self-service knowledge base and customer portal Trying an AI agent on common questions using the included sessions	Adding live chat and an AI agent to a small online shop's website Answering repetitive customer questions automatically Collecting leads or quote requests with automated chat flows
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	No free plan on the pricing page; after the 14-day trial you buy a plan or, on Freshdesk only, move to a 6-month Free Program for up to two agents Freddy AI Copilot is not offered on Growth and costs $29 per agent a month billed annually ($35 monthly) The 500 free AI Agent sessions come once per account; more cost $49 per 100	Free plan is limited to 50 billable conversations a month and 100 Flows visitors Lyro's free allowance is a one-off 50 conversations; more needs a paid Lyro quota (from $39 a month, or $32.50 billed annually, for 50 conversations) Starter includes 100 billable conversations a month; Growth starts at 250
Made by	Fin (the company formerly named Intercom)	Freshworks Inc.	Tidio

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.