Intercom vs Zendesk vs Tidio

Written head to head: Intercom vs Zendesk, with when to choose each side.

Compared on	Intercom Free trial · from $19/seat/mo VisitRemove	Zendesk 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	Customer service software with ticketing, messaging, voice and AI agents	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 (Support Team)Zendesk 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 self-serve plan; email-based support. AI agent usage is billed per automated resolution.	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 of Suite Professional (Copilot included in the trial)	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	1,800+ apps, partners, and integrations	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	Handling customer emails as tracked tickets in a small support team Combining chat, messaging and phone support in one queue Resolving common questions with an AI agent that is billed only for requests it resolves without a human	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; the 14-day trial runs on Suite Professional Support Team is email-focused; messaging, live chat and telephony need a Suite plan Copilot costs extra ($50/agent/month paid yearly) except on Suite Enterprise + Copilot	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)	Zendesk	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.