Intercom vs HubSpot Service Hub
Intercom and HubSpot Service Hub side by side: what each one is, what it costs to start, and whether you can try it free. Everything below comes from the vendors' own sites and other public sources, not from hands-on testing.
At a glance
| Intercom | HubSpot Service Hub | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Customer Support & Chatbots | Customer Support & Chatbots |
| Starting price | $29/mo (checked October 2026) | Free; paid plans from $7/mo |
| Free tier | Not listed | Yes |
| Profile | Read profile | Read profile |
Prices are in US dollars unless shown otherwise. Confirm the current price on the vendor's site before you buy.
Key differences
HubSpot Service Hub lists a free tier and Intercom does not.
HubSpot Service Hub has the lower starting price ($7/mo against $29/mo for Intercom). The cheapest plan rarely has the same limits or features, so compare plans before choosing on price.
Both are in our Customer Support & Chatbots category.
About each tool
Intercom
Customer service platform with a shared inbox and help center, plus Fin, an AI agent for chat and email billed per outcome. Per-seat plans; 14-day free trial.
Strengths
- 14-day free trial with no credit card required
- Live chat, support email and in-app chats are listed as free and unlimited on all plans
- Fin can be used on an existing helpdesk, with no seat costs and no platform or setup fees
- No minimum seat count, and annual billing is available on all plans
- A monthly outcome limit can be set to cap Fin spending
Limitations
- Pricing is per seat; Essential has no Lite seats, and the workflow builder and round-robin assignment start at Advanced
- Intercom's own pages disagree on some figures, including Expert monthly billing and add-on prices
HubSpot Service Hub
Customer service software on the HubSpot CRM with help desk and an AI Customer Agent (Professional and up). Paid plans start at $7 a seat a month; billing basis unconfirmed.
Strengths
- HubSpot lists a Free tier for up to 2 users with no credit card required, including live chat, email and reporting with 10 dashboards.
- HubSpot lists Professional features such as one knowledge base with up to 2,000 articles, 50 help desk spaces, 500 macros and up to 1,000 WhatsApp messages a month.
- HubSpot lists Enterprise limits of 100 help desk spaces, 1,500 macros, up to 100 knowledge bases with up to 10,000 articles, and 12,000 calling minutes a month.
- HubSpot's Customer Agent page lists channels of email, chat, forms, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and inbound voice, and says it can be trained on knowledge bases, websites, CRM data, past conversations and PDFs.
- HubSpot says third-party AI providers are contractually barred from training their models on your data, and the Customer Agent page references SOC 2 Type 2 audits.
- HubSpot lists a 14-day Customer Agent trial with no limit on messages or features when you buy at least one Service Professional or Enterprise seat.
Limitations
- The Customer Agent is not included in Starter or Free. HubSpot's Customer Agent page lists $0.50 per resolution for messaging and $0.50 per minute for voice, drawn from HubSpot Credits.
- Credits cost $0.010 each, reset monthly and do not roll over. Included credits are 500 (Starter), 3,000 (Professional) and 5,000 (Enterprise); if credits run out, the Customer Agent stops taking new conversations unless you buy more or turn on pay-as-you-go.
- The pricing page shows two prices for Starter and Professional but does not say which belongs to which billing option, and HubSpot's credits help page does not state credits per resolution (it points to a rate sheet), so the per-resolution credit count is not confirmed on that page.
