ActiveCampaign vs. Intercom

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCampaign
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
ActiveCampaign helps small teams power big businesses with a platform for intelligent marketing automation. It provides email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM tools that help businesses to create incredible customer experiences.
$15
per month
Intercom
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Intercom is an AI-first customer service platform that enhances the customer experience and improves operational efficiency, built on a single AI system with three major components: AI Agent, AI Copilot and AI Analyst (coming soon) to deliver customer service.
$39
per month per seat
Pricing
ActiveCampaignIntercom
Editions & Modules
Starter
$15
per month
Plus
$49
per month
Pro
$79
per month
Enterprise
$145
per month
Essential
$39
per month per seat
Advanced
$99
per month per seat
Expert
$139
per month per seat
The Early Stage program
From $65 for 5 support seats
per month
Proactive Support Plus add-on
from $99
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCampaignIntercom
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsNo matter what plan you choose, our services are designed to help you get the most out of your investment — so you can focus on running your business. ActiveCampaign services included in all plan tiers: ActiveTraining Community access Contact migration Customer enablement workshops Video tutorials Chat and ticket support Knowledge base & help guidesAI customer service features included in every plan. Intercom integrates Help desk, AI Chat bot, and Proactive support.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ActiveCampaignIntercom
Considered Both Products
ActiveCampaign
Chose ActiveCampaign
Infusionsoft was terrible for us, but other than Infusionsoft every other CRM product I've used seemed better (from a sales perspective) than AC. HubSpot I think is the nice middle between user-friendly and simple for a company of our size. Again, if you are smaller than we are …
Intercom
Chose Intercom
Intercom is very intuitive for our team of support.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
ActiveCampaignIntercom
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.7
670 Ratings
12% above category average
Intercom
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor8.8587 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content8.5524 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.2475 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages7.5341 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing9.7384 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization8.8531 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting7.4636 Ratings00 Ratings
List management9.8655 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences9.9577 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.6
528 Ratings
10% above category average
Intercom
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation9.7495 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading8.9361 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management8.8403 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks8.3357 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead segmentation and distribution7.44 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.7
376 Ratings
24% above category average
Intercom
-
Ratings
Calendaring9.8297 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing9.7286 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.8
288 Ratings
15% above category average
Intercom
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns8.8255 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration8.8251 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.2
633 Ratings
9% above category average
Intercom
-
Ratings
Dashboards7.9603 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports8.0590 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports8.7380 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.5
496 Ratings
22% above category average
Intercom
-
Ratings
API9.8394 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals9.8269 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability9.3423 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.893 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.961 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM9.957 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations7.825 Ratings00 Ratings
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
Intercom
8.2
122 Ratings
5% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.4112 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings8.471 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings7.874 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.581 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings8.3114 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings7.8120 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
Intercom
7.2
125 Ratings
5% below category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings7.3124 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings7.1105 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
Intercom
8.1
122 Ratings
8% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings8.697 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings7.738 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings7.075 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings8.8116 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.388 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ActiveCampaignIntercom
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.8 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ActiveCampaignIntercom
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(682 ratings)
9.0
(272 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.6
(25 ratings)
8.9
(19 ratings)
Usability
7.5
(43 ratings)
8.8
(180 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(5 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Performance
7.2
(5 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
1.3
(41 ratings)
6.8
(10 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(1 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.7
(14 ratings)
7.5
(5 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
1.1
(5 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.3
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCampaignIntercom
Likelihood to Recommend
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is brilliant for small businesses wanting a secure, reliable and user friendly email capture software that filters users emails into the appropriate category/tags and have endless options when it comes to having different lead magnets and ways users may sign up. It's been super handy for my small business to send regular emails and be able to analyse the success rates and open rates of emails and the ability to resend them with a different subject line. It's made email marketing really easy peasy.
Read full review
Intercom
Intercom is particularly helpful when talking to your customer base. Their automation help you start conversations and their inbox lets you keep the conversation going. We build out a new flow every Black Friday and save new FAQ macros to help with the influx of chats. We schedule popups to show up showing we're here to answer questions based on different times of day. Onboarding is particularly handy with Intercom. You can build out a tour that walks your users through different features on the site and it's easy to send that out to your clients right through the chat.
Read full review
Pros
ActiveCampaign
  • The graphic design is very good, especially fonts, colours and templates
  • Flexibility of design and functionality
  • Takes a little while to learn it, but generally user-friendly
  • Looks very professional but doesn't cost much to get started
  • There are masses of integrations for ActiveCampaign, and the ones I tried all worked well and didn't take long to figure out.
Read full review
Intercom
  • Intercom's ability to centralize customer communication is a game-changer.
  • Intercom's automation features have saved us time and streamlined workflows.
  • Help desk for users.
  • Intercom seamlessly integrates with a variety of other tools and platforms, enhancing its functionality and making it a central part of our tech stack.
Read full review
Cons
ActiveCampaign
  • The email designing part could be easier to use. There are certain simple shortcuts that don't work, for example, adding links is more complicated than it should be, moving blocks around is hard, etc.
  • There's no good way to filter by 'active' and 'inactive' subscribers when editing en-mass.
  • I'd like more reporting data on one page.
Read full review
Intercom
  • Pricing - it is not a cheap product and more features could be included in lower tier packages
  • Customer segmentation is not as simple as I would like it to be
  • For being a help desk / customer support company, they are not the fastest at responding to any questions we might have
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
ActiveCampaign
I am committed at the moment. Rebuilding the automations I have would be a huge time drain. Plus the cost of learning a new system and the risk to deliverability of porting a 6,000 person list to a new platform. Also, AC offers everything I need ast a reasonable (but a little high) price. So, why not a 10? Because, early 2023, AC dropped a massive 2x price hike on long-term customers. They knew few would shift, so this feels like a cynical cash grab and left a bad taste, If they do something like this again, this camel will have a broken back.
Read full review
Intercom
We have been and will be continuing our journey with Intercom and nothing too concerning has happened that I have experienced or heard of that has us on the edge yet. If it ever happens it will be something along the lines of "Outgrowing" the use of need of the platform.
Read full review
Usability
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign has been the easiest marketing automation software we have ever used. They provide tips throughout the entire process of anything you are building. Their support team through LIVE CHAT has been extremely fast and helpful. The monthly meetings provided with the enablement team has helped us through several large and urgent needs.
Read full review
Intercom
Everything is very straightforward and easy to see, explore, and use. Intercom provides walkthroughs and helps guides in case something is not apparent to the user and has their agents available to help. I always feel confident when exploring new features or making changes that I can have it accomplished due to the service they provide.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
ActiveCampaign
I haven't experienced application errors or unplanned outages at all. Active Campaign is ultra reliable and I would not be using them if that were the case. Also, the helpful emails they send are welcomed and informative, and present very practical tips and guidance for using the platform. They're always demonstrating new features and I'm thankful for that.
Read full review
Intercom
always there
Read full review
Performance
ActiveCampaign
Oh my gosh, Active Campaign's performance gets an A+++ in my book. The pages load quickly and so do the reports. I haven't noticed any slowdowns when it's integrating with other programs and it performs excellently on all levels.
Read full review
Intercom
works perfect
Read full review
Support Rating
ActiveCampaign
This might be the best part. The chat support lady offered to make a video to help me solve my problem. I worked in customer service for years and I've never done that, lol. So, if they're offering things like that, I can only imagine that they'd be able to handle most any issue you throw at them.
Read full review
Intercom
Intercom is the premier customer support/engagement model and it definitely has one of the top tier customer support teams as well. I don't think I have ever waited more than 5 minutes to get the information I need or get help with an issue. They are incredible and I aim to model our customer service department after them.
Read full review
Online Training
ActiveCampaign
No answers on this topic
Intercom
Easy to know the learning path
Read full review
Implementation Rating
ActiveCampaign
Very satisfied with our implementation in our professional medical practice, allowing us to be on top of client service, and not miss out on crucial information and insights. Marketing is often neglected in professional practices and ActiveCampaign solved this problem with aplomb.
Read full review
Intercom
The implementation was surprisingly easy but we are having to adapt from our old process to work well with Intercom.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
ActiveCampaign
I moved to ActiveCampaign from Mailchimp. Admittedly, I was using the free version of Mailchimp, but I had numerous episodes of subscriber data NOT being added to Mailchimp, despite using API to integrate with my mailing list. Obviously, I couldn't pay for clicks and not capture subscriber data, so I had to find something else. ActiveCampaign has been 100% reliable in testing.
Read full review
Intercom
I didn't make the call. It was my manager or leadership who decided that, so this one does not apply to me, unfortunately. However, as I've mentioned, it should've been for ease of use and efficiency. The exact reasons are not disclosed to me. Great job Intercom you're doing it great
Read full review
Scalability
ActiveCampaign
My web designer told me about Active Campaign and although I don't recall which platform I had before, I LOVE Active Campaign and its user friendliness. The transition was seamless and I've never had a problem with functionality or server failure.
Active Campaign provides so many features, and makes it easy for non-techies to maneuver around the site with ease. They capture information and put it in an easy-to-read format.
At this point, I don't think I'd ever use any other platform!
Read full review
Intercom
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
ActiveCampaign
  • I haven't monetized my list yet so no clear ROI but great from a list-building perspective
  • The software is not cheap so at times I feel like I may not be getting the most out of the product because I'm not using all of the features
Read full review
Intercom
  • I like how easy it is to spot the user data needed to assist our members.
  • Love how easy it is to link articles on the chat that will help both us and the customers.
  • I like that the sales force or the tickets is already connected on the chat
Read full review
ScreenShots

ActiveCampaign Screenshots

Screenshot of tagging, that when combined with conditional content helps to put the right message in front of each customer.Screenshot of marketing automationScreenshot of audience segmentation based on engagement, purchase activity, lead score, or any other dimensionScreenshot of live chat, site messaging, email, and a unified inbox that can be used to build relationships with customers.Screenshot of the CRM, which helps sales reps to get more done in less time

Intercom Screenshots

Screenshot of AI Agent - The agent resolves 50% of support volume.Screenshot of AI Copilot - A personal AI assistant for every support agent.Screenshot of Omnichannel inbox - AI-enhanced to increase productivity.Screenshot of Tickets - Intercom tickets are designed for collaboration so complex issues are resolved faster.Screenshot of Help Center -  The help center powers AI and self-serve support.Screenshot of Workflows - Automations are built using the Intercom no code visual builder.