Enchant vs Intercom
Enchant and Intercom are very similar at a high level and both have their own strengths. The real difference in the products are based on the focus of the two companies.
Enchant originally started with a email help desk solution. Once battled tested, Enchant expanded to add knowledge bases, live chat and satisfaction ratings.
Intercom started on the other end of the spectrum. Their primary offering revolved around live chat and messaging, but they have since added knowledge bases and email management.
These days both Enchant and Intercom cover a lot of the same functionality.
All other we’ve tried are adding features that don’t make any sense and sometimes partition off the features they’ve added into different products that you, all of a sudden, need to pay extra for. Enchant hasn’t done that. KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid - it’s a good moniker, and Enchant seems to follow that one.
Enchant and Intercom are very similar
First, Let’s step back a bit and understand how the products are similar.
| Feature | Enchant | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Shared Inboxes | ||
| Live Chat | ||
| Knowledge Base Websites | ||
| Social Media | ||
| Text Messaging (SMS, WhatsApp) | ||
| FAQ Widgets | ||
| Customer Satisfaction Ratings (CSAT) | ||
| Analysis and Reporting | ||
| Collaboration Tools | ||
| Automation Tools | ||
| Email Routing | ||
| Multi Language Support | ||
| Multi Brand Support | ||
| Third Party Integrations | ||
| Custom Integrations | ||
| Developer API |
Intercom is way more expensive
Enchant charges per seat, meaning you are billed for the number of people that need to log in and communicate with your customers.
Intercom charges per seat and per person reached, meaning you’re billed for both the number of people that need to login and also the number of people reached. Some features are also paid addons.
Enchant has one plan ($15 / user / month) with everything included. Intercom has a number of plans based on the feature set you require.
I would like to have provided clear examples of pricing difference, but it’s not possible anymore. Intercom used to provide public pricing. It was expensive and very hard to get a real understanding of what it will cost you. Today, there’s no public pricing listed on their website anymore. Instead, they just describe that pricing is both per seat and per person reached… and you’ll need to get in touch with someone more more details.
Let’s just say that if you’re on a budget, Intercom will feel expensive and Enchant wont.
Other ways Enchant and Intercom are different
Focus on Help Desk vs Chat
Enchant started as an email help desk solution. Today the help desk solution is fully featured and battled tested. We’ve since added knowledge bases (internal and public; on a dedicated website or inside a widget), live chat and customer satisfaction ratings.
Intercom’s primary focus has always been their live chat solution. It supports a lot of advanced functionality and is completely customizable. However, their help desk solution is built to support the live chat offering and some may find it to not be as robust as Enchant.
Realtime Messaging vs Live Chat
There’s a huge difference between how Enchant and Intercom handle chat.
With Enchant, there’s a traditional chat model. The website visitor starts a chat, which causes Enchant to ring members of your team and find an agent that’s avaialble to chat. Then that agent has a live chat with the website visitor. When the chat ends, a transcript is both archived in Enchant and emailed to the customer. If nobody on your team is available to chat, the visitor will be presented a contact form so they can send an email to your team. This approach sets clear expectations for the website visitor - either you’re available for chat or you’re not.
With Intercom, there’s a much different chat model. There’s no start or end of a chat. A visitor on the websites sends a message and it shows up inside Intercom as a message without any ringing… the website visitor is given an indication of when you are expected to respond (a few minutes, a few hours, a few days, etc), but there’s ringing or active attempt to get you to respond quickly. While Intercom can faciliate a live chat, it’s really designed around a more relaxed form of messaging through the platform.
Some companies find Intercom’s model of not-really-live-chat widget confuses their customers. This is especially the case for ecommerce businesses or others where the customer is not on their website every day.
Enchant’s email integration is invisible to your customers
With Enchant, the emails you send will look like normal emails.
No ugly ticket numbers.
No “reply above this line”.
No strange from address.
No login links.
Just a plain email.
We believe your customers shouldn’t be dragged into the world of a help desk solution. They just want help, they don’t care about the software you use.
Intercom pricing is complicated
With Intercom, pricing is complicated. Certain features are paid addons, certain features are in a different plan level. The prices aren’t even publicly listed. It’s hard to figure out what your monthly bill actually will be. Not a good place to be if you’re on a budget.
Enchant has one price plan. It includes everything. No contracts. No paywalls preventing you from using certain features. No surprises.
Simple pricing w/ just the right features.
Enchant provides exceptional service
We’ve taken great pride in providing exceptional service for almost a decade now. Our agents go above and beyond in helping our customers get the most out of Enchant. Each customer request is answered by qualified and knowledgeable agents to ensure that every customer receives high quality service.
When to use Enchant?
Enchant is a powerful alternative to Intercom. By focussing on the needs of small and medium businesses, we’ve built a solution that’s easy to understand, easy to use & easy to setup. Enchant provides a fast and smooth experience for your team and is completely invisible to your customers.
Enchant is a full featured solution that covers shared inboxes, live chat and knowledge bases. It easily scales to handle teams from 1 to 300 people spread across multiple brands, languages and departments.
If you are an ecommerce business, Enchant is likely going to be a better fit for your company.
When to use Intercom?
If you’re a SaaS business, Intercom’s chat messenger may be a good fit inside your application. It’s relaxed messaging model makes a lot of sense when the customer is logging into your product often.
Some teams still prefer to use Intercom for it’s messenger alongside a robust help desk solution like Enchant.
Migrating in from Intercom? We can import your data
If you’re considering migrating to Enchant from Intercom, we can import your data for you. This service is fully managed by us and at no cost to you. Contact us for details.