IntercomDriftIntercom vs Drift

Intercom vs Drift: $425 or $2,500 for five people

A customer messaging platform against a conversational marketing platform: Intercom is $2,075 a month cheaper for five people. What decides between Intercom and Drift, 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 Drift if you want a sales chatbot that qualifies visitors and books meetings, not a support inbox. For five people, Intercom is $2,075 a month cheaper than Drift ($425 a month on Intercom against $2,500 on Drift), before AI. Sellio Mini is $45, $380 under Intercom. Intercom and Drift both include website chat in the price; only Intercom has email. Neither Intercom nor Drift includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. A team of two to ten choosing between Intercom and Drift for chat and tickets at one price has a third option below.

At a glanceIntercomIntercomDriftDrift
Built aroundThe Messenger · tickets came laterSales conversations · a marketing tool, not a help desk
Entry plan$29/seat/mo · Essential: inbox and MessengerFrom $2,500/mo · Premium, yearly contract
Chat in the price$29/seat/mo · Essential, with ticketsFrom $2,500/mo · one contract for the whole team
AI agentFrom $0.99 per outcome · Fin, printed on the pricing pageBy contract · part of the Salesloft platform
Copilot for agents$29/agent/moBy contract
Free planNone · 14-day trialNone · sales-led, no trial

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. Drift has no ticket queue behind its conversations.

    DriftDrift

    As a chat with a website visitor that Drift tries to qualify and route to a sales rep or a meeting. Intercom raises a ticket where Drift 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, against $2,500 on Drift.

    DriftDrift

    There are no support seats: one annual contract from $2,500 a month covers the revenue team. $2,500 for five people, against $425 on Intercom.

  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. Drift meters AI (by contract) above the seats as well.

    DriftDrift

    AI chat and qualification are part of the Salesloft platform and priced in the contract. Intercom meters AI (from $0.99 per outcome) above the seats as well.

  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 Drift.

    DriftDrift

    Website chat, email sequences and meeting booking; no WhatsApp, Instagram or ticket queue. Intercom adds email, which Drift lacks.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    IntercomIntercom

    Product tours, banners, surveys and outbound campaigns; Proactive Support Plus is $99 a month. Drift is a conversational marketing platform instead.

    DriftDrift

    Account-based marketing, playbooks, meeting booking and Salesloft's sales engagement suite. 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. Drift is weeks.

    DriftDrift

    Weeks: a sales-led onboarding with playbooks and routing, and Salesloft has said the product is winding down. Intercom is an afternoon for a website-first team.

Sources: Intercom pricing · Drift 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 Drift conversation view: a visitor chat with routing to a rep and a meeting booker
DriftDrift. The Drift conversation view: a visitor chat with routing to a rep and a meeting booker

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

Intercom, Drift 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.

FeatureIntercomIntercomDriftDriftSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Per seat; Fin per outcome; channels metered
Annual platform contract from $2,500/mo.
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
None; 14-day trial
Sales-led only.
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
The Messenger, all plans
The core of the product, aimed at lead capture.
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
All plans
Sales email sequences; not a support inbox.
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
Pay-as-you-go
Not a channel.
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Via integration
Not a channel.
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Not native
Not a channel.
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Slack notifications
Slack notifications for sales alerts.
From Mini: two-way threads; a reply there reaches the customer

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
Fin, trained on your help center
AI for qualification and booking rather than support answers.
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
From $0.99 per outcome, on top of seats
By contract.
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Fin hands to a teammate
Routes to reps.
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

Tickets
Included from Essential
No ticketing.
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Visual builder, Advanced and up
Playbooks for lead routing.
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Reports; custom on higher plans
Pipeline and conversion reporting; no CSAT.
From Essentials: response times, resolution, CSAT; topics and email reports on Plus

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Browser and mobile only
Browser and mobile.
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.
  • Five people cost $2,075 a month less than on Drift ($425 against $2,500), before AI.
  • You need email in the price, which Drift does not include outright.

Pick Drift if

  • You want a sales chatbot that qualifies visitors and books meetings, not a support inbox.
  • You already run Salesloft and want chat inside the same platform.
  • Time to the first reply is weeks here and an afternoon for a website-first team on Intercom.
  • Its pricing model suits you better than Intercom's: drift's pricing page redirects to Salesloft. Published figures come from third-party summaries and Salesloft's own materials; Salesloft has announced the product is being wound down.

The third option: Sellio

  • Two to ten of you answer chat, messaging and email. Compare Sellio's workspace plans with $425 a month on Intercom against $2,500 on Drift for five people, including each product's limits.
  • The AI invoice should be known in advance: Intercom meters AI (from $0.99 per outcome) above the seats and Drift meters AI (by contract) above the seats, where Sellio's credit is included and capped by you.
  • You need Telegram and native Windows and macOS apps, which neither Intercom nor Drift 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. Drift: $2,500 a month for five (one annual contract, from $2,500 a month); it does not print a per-seat rate to extend to two or ten. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $380 less than Intercom and $2,455 less than Drift 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; Drift is a conversational marketing platform built around sales conversations. Neither has a free plan: Intercom offers a 14-day trial, no card, Drift no trial. Intercom and Drift both include website chat in the price; only Intercom has email. Neither Intercom nor Drift includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. Intercom (from $0.99 per outcome) and Drift (by contract) both meter AI above the seats. Intercom has tickets and Drift does not, and neither Intercom nor Drift ships a desktop app. Intercom is an afternoon for a website-first team; Drift is weeks.

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. Drift: AI features are part of the Salesloft platform and priced by contract. Beside Intercom's from $0.99 per outcome and Drift's by contract, 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

Drift does not print the figures above in a form a fetch can read (Drift's pricing page redirects to Salesloft. Published figures come from third-party summaries and Salesloft's own materials; Salesloft has announced the product is being wound down.), so they are marked unverified here beside Intercom's, and Drift'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
    DriftDriftSee 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
    DriftDrift · None; sales-led contracts
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

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

Continue your research

FAQ

Intercom vs Drift: the questions people ask

Intercom is a customer messaging platform built around the Messenger; Drift is a conversational marketing platform built around sales conversations. Intercom has tickets and Drift does not, and neither Intercom nor Drift ships a desktop app.

  • Entry plan: Intercom $29/seat/mo (Essential: inbox and Messenger); Drift From $2,500/mo (Premium, yearly contract).
  • Chat in the price: Intercom $29/seat/mo (Essential, with tickets); Drift From $2,500/mo (one contract for the whole team).
  • Sellio puts every channel in one inbox: WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, which neither Intercom nor Drift has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the Intercom and Drift rows is on the shared inbox page.

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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