Intercomtawk.toIntercom vs tawk.to

Intercom vs tawk.to: customer messaging or free live chat

A customer messaging platform against a free live chat: tawk.to is $367 a month cheaper for five people. Where Intercom and tawk.to 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 tawk.to if budget is zero and you can live with the tawk.to branding or pay $29 to remove it. For five people, tawk.to is $367 a month cheaper than Intercom ($425 a month on Intercom against $58 or more on tawk.to), before AI. Sellio Mini, at $45, comes in $13 below tawk.to. Intercom and tawk.to both include website chat in the price; only Intercom has email. Neither Intercom nor tawk.to includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. For a team of two to ten weighing Intercom against tawk.to, the third option below puts chat and tickets at one workspace price.

At a glanceIntercomIntercomtawk.totawk.to
Built aroundThe Messenger · tickets came laterFree chat for unlimited agents · paid add-ons per feature
Entry plan$29/seat/mo · Essential: inbox and Messenger$0 · unlimited agents
Chat in the price$29/seat/mo · Essential, with tickets$0 · $29/mo to remove branding
AI agentFrom $0.99 per outcome · Fin, printed on the pricing pageAI Assist from $29/mo · small free tier
Copilot for agents$29/agent/moIn AI Assist
Free planNone · 14-day trialYes · the core product is free

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. tawk.to has no ticket queue behind its conversations.

    tawk.totawk.to

    As a chat in the free dashboard; tickets are emails converted into a simple queue. Intercom raises a ticket where tawk.to 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 $58 on tawk.to.

    tawk.totawk.to

    Seats are free and unlimited. The money goes on add-ons: branding removal, AI Assist, video, hired agents. $58 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. tawk.to meters AI (AI Assist from $29/mo) above the seats as well.

    tawk.totawk.to

    AI Assist from $29 a month with a small free tier; it drafts and answers from your knowledge base. 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 tawk.to.

    tawk.totawk.to

    Website chat and email tickets; no native WhatsApp, Instagram or Telegram. Intercom adds email, which tawk.to lacks.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    IntercomIntercom

    Product tours, banners, surveys and outbound campaigns; Proactive Support Plus is $99 a month. tawk.to is a free live chat instead.

    tawk.totawk.to

    A knowledge base, a CRM, and human agents for hire at $1 an hour. 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. tawk.to is minutes.

    tawk.totawk.to

    Minutes: paste the widget and start chatting. Intercom is an afternoon for a website-first team.

Sources: Intercom pricing · tawk.to 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 tawk.to dashboard: the visitor list, the chat and the ticket queue
tawk.totawk.to. The tawk.to dashboard: the visitor list, the chat and the ticket queue

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

Intercom, tawk.to 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.

FeatureIntercomIntercomtawk.totawk.toSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Per seat; Fin per outcome; channels metered
Free chat; add-ons per feature.
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
None; 14-day trial
Unlimited agents.
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
The Messenger, all plans
The product.
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
All plans
Ticketing by email on the free plan.
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
Pay-as-you-go
Messaging channels in beta.
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Via integration
Messaging channels in beta.
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Not native
Beta.
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Slack notifications
Not offered.
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 Assist from $29/mo, trained on the knowledge base.
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
From $0.99 per outcome, on top of seats
Add-on subscription.
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Fin hands to a teammate
Hands to agents.
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

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

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Browser and mobile only
Desktop apps.
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 tawk.to does not include outright.
  • You need a ticket queue, which tawk.to does not have.

Pick tawk.to if

  • Budget is zero and you can live with the tawk.to branding or pay $29 to remove it.
  • You want to hire human chat agents by the hour.
  • Five people cost $367 a month less than on Intercom ($58 against $425), before AI.
  • You want a free plan to start on; Intercom offers a 14-day trial, no card.

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 against $58 or more on tawk.to 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, tawk.to meters AI (AI Assist from $29/mo) above the seats, and Sellio stops at the cap you set.
  • You need Telegram and WhatsApp in the base price, which neither Intercom nor tawk.to 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. tawk.to: $58+ a month for five ($0 for chat, $29 to remove branding, $29+ for AI Assist); 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 $13 less than tawk.to 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; tawk.to is a free live chat built around free chat for unlimited agents. Only tawk.to has a free plan (the core product is free); Intercom offers a 14-day trial, no card. Intercom and tawk.to both include website chat in the price; only Intercom has email. Neither Intercom nor tawk.to includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. Intercom (from $0.99 per outcome) and tawk.to (AI Assist from $29/mo) both meter AI above the seats. Intercom has tickets and tawk.to does not, and only tawk.to ships desktop apps. Intercom is an afternoon for a website-first team; tawk.to is minutes.

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. tawk.to: AI Assist from $29 a month, with a small free tier. Beside Intercom's from $0.99 per outcome and tawk.to's AI Assist from $29/mo, 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 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
    tawk.totawk.toSee 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
    tawk.totawk.to · Not applicable; the core is free
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

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

Continue your research

FAQ

Intercom vs tawk.to: the questions people ask

Intercom is a customer messaging platform built around the Messenger; tawk.to is a free live chat built around free chat for unlimited agents. Intercom has tickets and tawk.to does not, and only tawk.to ships desktop apps.

  • Entry plan: Intercom $29/seat/mo (Essential: inbox and Messenger); tawk.to $0 (unlimited agents).
  • Chat in the price: Intercom $29/seat/mo (Essential, with tickets); tawk.to $0 ($29/mo to remove branding).
  • Sellio: WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, which neither Intercom nor tawk.to has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the Intercom and tawk.to 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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