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Based on weighted criteria below
Low Pricing icon

Low Pricing (weighted 11%)

Intercom

With Intercom, pricing is based on the total number of people you track and communicate with, not the number of agent seats your support team has. Be careful, pricing will automatically adjust as your business grows and you track more people.

There are two base plans for the customer support plan called Resolve:

Lite:

Pricing ranging from:

$49/mo for 250 people
to
$503/mo for 50.000 people

Main features include:

Multiple channels
Shared team inbox
Live profiles
Mobile apps

Standard:

Pricing ranging from:

$79/mo for 250 people
to
$810/mo for 50.000 people

Main features include:

Assign messages using rules
Integrations
Team member permissions
Unbranded Intercom Messenger and emails

There's a 14-day free trial that starts directly with the plan and number of people that you need. A credit card is required to start your trial. You will have a chance to confirm your subscription before starting. After your free trial ends, Intercom's products start at $49/mo, but if you cancel in the first 14 days you won't be charged.

The Intercom Platform shows you who your customers are and what they do in your web or mobile app, for free.

There are two more products besides Intercom Resolve: Acquire (Intercom product for Live Chat) and Engage (Intercom product for marketing Automation). You can get the complete set starting from $61/mo.

LiveAgent

LiveAgent offers 3 pricing plans:

Ticket

$9 per agent/mo

Main features include:

Custom domain parking
E-mail support - Ticketing
Contact forms
Forum & Knowledge base
iPhone/Android app

Ticket + Chat

$29 per agent/mo

Main features include:

All Ticket features
Live Chat
Real-time visitors monitoring
Chat invitations
Feedback management

All-inclusive

$39 per agent/mo

Main features include:

All Ticket + Chat features
Facebook & Twitter
Call center support
Video call
Time tracking
Gamification

Features like Live Chat, Real-time visitors monitoring, Chat invitations or Feedback management are only available starting with the Ticket+Chat. And Facebook & Twitter, Call center support, Video call, Time tracking, Gamification are only available for the All-inclusive plan.

The 14-day free trial starts with the All-inclusive plan, and there's no credit card required during your trial period.

Design icon

Design (weighted 11%)

Intercom

The design of the interface is fresh and clean and the user dashboard offers a lot of information. Once you login you'll notice that the interface is pretty intuitive and easy to use.

The communication features are also really good. One of the weakest points of Intercom is that the design is not responsive therefore accessing the service from mobile devices could be improved.

Overall Intercom looks a lot better than LiveAgent but customization is not possible.

LiveAgent

LiveAgent's design is not as up to date, the dashboard is a bit cluttered but intuitive. You may customize it up to one point by adding custom branding.

The interface seems to be geared towards users that have some experience with this kind of software so if you're just starting out you might need to go through some video tutorials first.

Features icon

Features (weighted 11%)

Intercom

Some of the key features include: Intercom Messenger, that will allow customers to contact you inside your web or mobile app; Customer profiles allows you save customer location, activity, and more, all in real-time; Assignment Rules is a great feature that allows you to create rules to automatically assign conversations to the right team or teammate; with Saved replies you'll be able to respond to  questions with canned, yet personalized replies; tagging allows you to group related people or conversations with tags—search for them later; Typing indicators, read receipts, stickers and emojis make conversations simple and engaging.

 

LiveAgent

LiveAgent has more than 170 support features and some of the most important include: Automation, SLA, Ticketing, POP3 accounts, Email piping, Departments, Priorities, Statuses, Tags, Rules, Ticket Routing, Canned/Predefined messages, Macros, Email templates, Performance Reports, Voice integration and call recording.

Most important, LiveAgent also has an integrated live chat feature which is included in your monthly fee starting with the Ticket + Chat plan.

Backend Features icon

Backend Features (weighted 11%)

Intercom

All you conversations and team members can be accessed from the top left of the screen.

You can access your Support Insights by selecting the Support icon from the left-hand navigation bar and clicking ‘Insights.’

Your account settings can be accessed from the top right of you screen.

LiveAgent

The Dashboard gives you overall information about what's happening into your account.

In the Chat section you can see your online visitors running in pending chats.

Next is the Tickets section. Here you can view all the communication between you and your customers.

The Reports tab gives you insights on overall performance, agent performance, department or channel reports.

Customer portal allows you to create, manage and customize your online knowledge base.

Team size icon

Team size (weighted 11%)

Intercom

Intercom is packed with features but still has a clean and easy to use interface. Small business could definitely , The only thing making it less suitable for small teams is the high starting price which tends to scale if the volume of emails starts to grow.

LiveAgent

LiveAgent is the most affordable help desk software we have reviewed. The $12/agent fee makes LiveAgent great for small businesses and independent freelancers. The interface is simple and intuitive, making it an application that is easy to learn, use, and implement when you’re just starting out.

Reports icon

Reports (weighted 11%)

Intercom

Your support insights will show you data about your signed up users and visitors to your site.

You can see exactly if your support volume is increasing, if your team is responding fast enough to your users and leads, and who on your team is the busiest.

All your Support Insights get updated only once a day (midnight for your timezone).

LiveAgent

LiveAgent has a strong reporting section. Even if you're running a a one-man business or a medium size organization, every report tool is available, from department reports, usage statistics, performance reports, agent rankings, customer satisfaction ratings and detailed insights of every communication channel: Email, Live Chat, Call Center, Contact Forms or Social Media messages.

Flexibility icon

Flexibility (weighted 11%)

Intercom

iOS and Android apps will help you view, manage, and respond to customer conversations from your mobile device.

Building your own knowledge base is not supported at the moment. This is a bit of a letdown as you'll have to use third-party apps to create a self help section.

Live chat is available as a separate product, making LiveAgent more affordable in case you need this feature.

Having an knowledge base can dramatically lift your site's customer experience so if you're planning on building one go with LiveAgent.

LiveAgent

LiveAgent has a great set of features making it one of the most competitive help desk software out there, therefore a native iOS and Android app is available, so you can provide customer service while on the go. The app will allow you to transfer and respond to tickets, chat with your customers  or get push notifications of new tickets or chats.

LiveAgent has an integrated live chat feature that is included starting with the Ticket + Chat plan. If you're looking for a live chat option too, then LiveAgent will be a more affordable option.

LiveAgent lets you add knowledge base articles, forums or feedback boards.

A big plus for LiveAgent are the 39 translations available, so your agents can use LiveAgent in the language they prefer.

Extensibility icon

Extensibility (weighted 11%)

Intercom

Intercom integrates with almost 60 popular third party apps and services to help you have more targeted interactions with your customers.

An API is available for the tech savvy to build their own apps and integrations for Intercom.

LiveAgent

There are only 41 integrations at the moment but most of the popular online services are available: MailChimp, AWeber, Braintree, Shopify, Facebook, or Twitter.

If you're code savvy and you're really tied to a particular web service, there is an API available for creating integrations.

Support icon

Support (weighted 11%)

Intercom

Their support section is based on the Docs forum, where you can ask questions or read about related topics. The Intercom team will usually answer to all questions on this forum.

Once you login into your account, a live chat popup is available if you have questions that need quick answers.

They will also offer support by email, but no telephone numbers are listed for reaching out to the team.

LiveAgent

The support section is not as friendly and well organized as you would expect. There are 25 video tutorials available, a getting started section, a technical section (including FAQs) and a support forum.

If you need some fast answers, a live chat option is available on the homepage or you may reach their support by email, phone and social media.