IntercomAcquireIntercom vs Acquire

Intercom vs Acquire: customer messaging or customer engagement

A customer messaging platform against a customer engagement platform: one prints a price and one quotes. Where Intercom and Acquire split, and a third option for small teams.

By Khalid Nouri, founder of SellioPricing check dates are listed with each vendor below

Try the third optionSellio pricing

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The short answer

Pick Intercom if your support lives in the website messenger and in-app, and you want product tours and outbound messages in the same tool. Pick Acquire if you need cobrowsing and video calls in the same tool as chat. For five people it is $425 a month on Intercom, and a quote on Acquire, before AI; Sellio Mini is $45 for the workspace. Intercom and Acquire both include website chat in the price; only Intercom has email. Neither Intercom nor Acquire includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. For a team of two to ten weighing Intercom against Acquire, the third option below puts chat and tickets at one workspace price.

At a glanceIntercomIntercomAcquireAcquire
Built aroundThe Messenger · tickets came laterChat, cobrowse and video · priced by quote
Entry plan$29/seat/mo · Essential: inbox and MessengerQuote · no printed prices
Chat in the price$29/seat/mo · Essential, with ticketsQuote · Self Service tier
AI agentFrom $0.99 per outcome · Fin, printed on the pricing pageComing soon · bots listed, not priced
Copilot for agents$29/agent/moNone printed
Free planNone · 14-day trialNone · trial on request

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    IntercomIntercom

    As a message in the Messenger, with ticketing available from Essential. Acquire has no ticket queue behind its conversations.

    AcquireAcquire

    As a chat that can turn into a cobrowse or a video call with the same agent. Intercom raises a ticket where Acquire keeps a conversation.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    IntercomIntercom

    $29 buys the inbox, Messenger and ticketing. Advanced at $85 adds workflows and round-robin routing. $425 for five people; Acquire prints no figure to set beside it.

    AcquireAcquire

    No seat price is printed; the Self Service and Integrated tiers are quoted after a demo. No figure for five people here; Intercom prints $425.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    IntercomIntercom

    Fin is $0.99 or more per outcome on every plan, printed on the pricing page, on top of seats. Acquire has no AI to bill (coming soon) instead.

    AcquireAcquire

    Bots are listed as coming soon with no price; today the product is human agents with cobrowsing. Intercom meters AI (from $0.99 per outcome) above the seats instead.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    IntercomIntercom

    Messenger and email on every plan; WhatsApp, SMS and phone are pay-as-you-go lines. email is here and not on Acquire.

    AcquireAcquire

    Website chat, SMS, email and voice or video on the Integrated tier; no WhatsApp, Instagram or Telegram. Intercom adds email, which Acquire lacks.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    IntercomIntercom

    Product tours, banners, surveys and outbound campaigns; Proactive Support Plus is $99 a month. Acquire is a customer engagement platform instead.

    AcquireAcquire

    Cobrowsing, screen sharing and video for guided support; workflows, SLAs and queues. Intercom is a customer messaging platform instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    IntercomIntercom

    An afternoon for a website-first team: install the Messenger, invite the team, answer. Acquire is a sales cycle.

    AcquireAcquire

    A sales cycle: a demo, a quote, then onboarding by their services team. Intercom is an afternoon for a website-first team.

Sources: Intercom pricing · Acquire pricing. Each vendor’s own comparison of the other is linked so you can weigh both sides against ours.

What each one looks like

A look at the agent workspace. Interfaces can vary by plan and product version.

The Intercom Inbox: a conversation list with the Messenger thread and the customer profile
IntercomIntercom. The Intercom Inbox: a conversation list with the Messenger thread and the customer profile
The Acquire agent view: a chat with the cobrowse and video controls beside it
AcquireAcquire. The Acquire agent view: a chat with the cobrowse and video controls beside it

Pricing references: Intercom pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06); Acquire pricing page (recorded 2026-09-13; needs verification). Prices change; confirm current terms with each vendor.

Intercom, Acquire and Sellio, side by side

Fifteen things a support team checks. A dash means the product does part of it or charges extra for it.

FeatureIntercomIntercomAcquireAcquireSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Per seat; Fin per outcome; channels metered
Quote after a demo
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
None; 14-day trial
None; trial on request
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
The Messenger, all plans
With cobrowse and video
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
All plans
Integrated tier
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
Pay-as-you-go
SMS only
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Via integration
Not offered
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Not native
Not offered
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Slack notifications
Notifications only
From Mini: two-way threads; a reply there reaches the customer

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
Fin, trained on your help center
Bots listed as coming soon
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
From $0.99 per outcome, on top of seats
Not priced
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Fin hands to a teammate
No AI to hand off from
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

Tickets
Included from Essential
Cases, not a ticket queue
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Visual builder, Advanced and up
Workflows and queues
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Reports; custom on higher plans
Reporting
From Essentials: response times, resolution, CSAT; topics and email reports on Plus

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Browser and mobile only
Browser only
Native Windows and macOS apps

Which one, for whom

Pick Intercom if

  • Your support lives in the website messenger and in-app, and you want product tours and outbound messages in the same tool.
  • Fin's AI quality matters more to you than its per-outcome price.
  • You need email in the price, which Acquire does not include outright.
  • You need a ticket queue, which Acquire does not have.

Pick Acquire if

  • You need cobrowsing and video calls in the same tool as chat.
  • You are buying for a regulated or high-touch team and want a services-led rollout.
  • Time to the first reply is a sales cycle here and an afternoon for a website-first team on Intercom.
  • Its pricing model suits you better than Intercom's: no prices printed; three tiers quoted after a demo.

The third option: Sellio

  • Your team is two to ten people on chat, messaging and email. Weigh workspace pricing against $425 a month on Intercom, and a quote on Acquire for five people; the billing units and included features differ.
  • You want a ceiling on AI spend: Intercom meters AI (from $0.99 per outcome) above the seats, Acquire has no AI to bill (coming soon), and Sellio stops at the cap you set.
  • You need Telegram and native Windows and macOS apps, which neither Intercom nor Acquire includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

Intercom on Advanced: $170, $425 and $850 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. Acquire quotes per team, so two, five and ten people are three conversations with sales. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $380 less than Intercom and against a quote on Acquire for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $755 under Intercom.

Where the two agree, and where they split

Intercom is a customer messaging platform built around the Messenger; Acquire is a customer engagement platform built around chat, cobrowse and video. Neither has a free plan: Intercom offers a 14-day trial, no card, Acquire a free trial. Intercom and Acquire both include website chat in the price; only Intercom has email. Neither Intercom nor Acquire includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. Intercom meters AI (from $0.99 per outcome) above the seats; Acquire has no AI to bill (coming soon). Intercom has tickets and Acquire does not, and neither Intercom nor Acquire ships a desktop app. Intercom is an afternoon for a website-first team; Acquire is a sales cycle.

What each price leaves out

Intercom: Fin AI agent from $0.99 per outcome on every plan; Copilot $29 per agent per month yearly ($35 monthly). WhatsApp, SMS and phone are pay-as-you-go. Acquire: Bots are listed as coming soon; no AI price is printed. Beside Intercom's from $0.99 per outcome and Acquire's coming soon, Sellio includes an AI credit with each paid plan. Usage consumes that credit; additional credits cost extra, and you can set a spending cap.

How these figures were read

Acquire does not print the figures above in a form a fetch can read (No prices printed; three tiers quoted after a demo.), so they are marked unverified here beside Intercom's, and Acquire's pricing page should be checked before you decide.

How to decide in an afternoon

  1. Step 1

    Count agents and channels

    Anyone who replies is a seat. List the channels customers actually use.

    5 people reply5 seats
    Website chat61%
    WhatsApp27%
    Email12%
  2. Step 2

    Price the AI you would use

    Estimate monthly conversations the AI could close, then apply each vendor's per-resolution or per-session rate.

    1,200 conversations × 40% AI closes480
    IntercomIntercom$0.99$475
    AcquireAcquireSee vendorNot quoted
    Sellio$0.05$19

    Illustrative AI-only estimate; vendor units differ. Pack billing is rounded up. Sellio assumes Mini’s $5 credit and $0.05 per conversation.

  3. Step 3

    Trial the shortlist

    Check each vendor’s trial, free plan or demo terms. Where access is available, test one real channel before committing.

    IntercomIntercom · 14-day trial, no card
    AcquireAcquire · Free trial on request
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

    Confirm trial access and limits, then evaluate one real channel on each.

Continue your research

FAQ

Intercom vs Acquire: the questions people ask

Intercom is a customer messaging platform built around the Messenger; Acquire is a customer engagement platform built around chat, cobrowse and video. Intercom has tickets and Acquire does not, and neither Intercom nor Acquire ships a desktop app.

  • Entry plan: Intercom $29/seat/mo (Essential: inbox and Messenger); Acquire Quote (no printed prices).
  • Chat in the price: Intercom $29/seat/mo (Essential, with tickets); Acquire Quote (Self Service tier).
  • Sellio's inbox: WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, which neither Intercom nor Acquire has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

The shared inbox page puts Sellio beside Intercom and Acquire on the same rows.

Still have a question? Contact us or browse the docs.

Or the third option: one price, every channel.

Sellio puts website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and email in one inbox with tickets and an AI agent, for $45 to $295 a month per workspace.

Get startedRead the docs

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