Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Appcues
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
Appcues is online software for creating in-product experiences such as user onboarding, feature announcements, etc. without writing any code. (The vendor believes it's the non-technical people who oftentimes have the best information about a software user's needs and desires.) The goal of using Appcues is to improve product engagement within the user's own customer base.
$299
per month/billed monthly
Intercom
Score 8.4 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
AppcuesIntercom
Editions & Modules
Essentials
$299
per month/billed monthly
Growth
$879
per month/billed annually
Enterprise
Contact sales team
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
AppcuesIntercom
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAI customer service features included in every plan. Intercom integrates Help desk, AI Chat bot, and Proactive support.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AppcuesIntercom
Considered Both Products
Appcues
Chose Appcues
Appcues is much more affordable than WalkMe and Pendo from our research. We were previously using Intercom, however Intercom was designed more for purely in-app messaging rather than actually providing flows and cues guiding users throughout an app. We also received lots of …
Intercom
Chose Intercom
Intercom is right in the middle of HubSpot and Drift. It would work well for a business just starting out, but you'd want something a little more robust later down the line.

If you want an all-inclusive marketing automation tool and have the budget, HubSpot is still my favourite …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
AppcuesIntercom
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Appcues
-
Ratings
Intercom
8.0
164 Ratings
0% below category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.0151 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings7.897 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings7.2102 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings7.8111 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings8.5154 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings8.4161 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Appcues
-
Ratings
Intercom
7.8
166 Ratings
1% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings7.9164 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings7.7139 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Appcues
-
Ratings
Intercom
8.1
161 Ratings
5% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings8.9129 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings7.554 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings6.795 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings9.0153 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.5119 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AppcuesIntercom
Small Businesses
ChurnZero
ChurnZero
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
ChurnZero
ChurnZero
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Whatfix
Whatfix
Score 8.8 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AppcuesIntercom
Likelihood to Recommend
7.7
(7 ratings)
8.7
(316 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.8
(21 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(224 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
6.2
(10 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.6
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.1
(5 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
AppcuesIntercom
Likelihood to Recommend
Appcues
It is well suited for SaaS products or services that have a highly complex user interface. Through Appcues, you can ensure that people discover all the existing and new features and make them understand the value of your product as soon as possible to address the evergreen issue of churn. But if your user interface is really messed up, you should change the product itself instead of using a tool like Appcues to explain everything on the screen.
Read full review
Intercom
Intercom is well suited for connecting internal personnel with external individuals and those externals to specific individuals or teams within the organization. Intercom also does a good job at allowing multiple resources to direct communication in the right direction, whether that be a transfer internally or directing initial communication requests to the appropriate resources. Intercom is not always the best-suited platform for reaching out to external individuals because of the inability to know the availability of who you are trying to reach.
Read full review
Pros
Appcues
  • As a whole, Appcues is very easy to use.
  • You can build templates to easily style future modal windows and tooltips.
  • They have great customer service! Any time I've had a question our support rep always gets back to me with solutions.
Read full review
Intercom
  • In-app communication: I can deploy tours, banners, checklists, tooltips, posts, and surveys in a matter of minutes.
  • Knowledge Hub: I can write and publish a help article that can then be used to train the Fin AI agent to deliver accurate answers to our customers.
  • Communicating in context with service/sales agents and customers: the Help Desk makes it simple for sales and service agents to pull me into a conversation with a customer to resolve product-related issues.
Read full review
Cons
Appcues
  • We were extremely surprised that there are not any Appcues used in Appcues. The app is pretty easy to use, once you figure out how to use it. There were not any type of tutorials when we logged in that quickly walked through how to setup a flow.
  • Appcues has lots of support articles, however they are almost so numerous that it was hard to find simple onboarding documentation that we found useful.
  • The different tooltips and product actions are great, but being able to customize the different cues a little bit more by changing sizes and aspect ratios could be an improvement.
Read full review
Intercom
  • It would be nice if we could upload a sound effect that we would like to use.
  • Having a like to the ticket given by the expert for easier access.
  • Being able to change font style. It is said that Comic Sans helps people enjoy reading.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Appcues
No answers on this topic
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
Appcues
No answers on this topic
Intercom
Intercom is one of the most user friendly tools I've used. Its vast array of features can make it a bit complex to use, or keep up with, at times. However, the customer support team is brilliant and always answers my queries fast and with easy-to-follow instructions.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Appcues
No answers on this topic
Intercom
always there
Read full review
Performance
Appcues
No answers on this topic
Intercom
works perfect
Read full review
Support Rating
Appcues
No answers on this topic
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.
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Online Training
Appcues
No answers on this topic
Intercom
Easy to know the learning path
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Appcues
No answers on this topic
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
Appcues
It has a much, much better user interface, better customer care, and of course better pricing. This along with the fact that they were very accommodating for our use case ensured we went ahead with Appcues.
Read full review
Intercom
The product was too focused on "tickets," and we wanted to focus more on "conversations." Intercom shows that thinking across the whole app was a no-brainer for us. Zendesk's pricing is a bit higher for what they deliver, but the ease of integration with our platforms was key, too.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Appcues
  • Appcues has allowed us to quickly deploy user help features that target specific users, audiences, even customers with very little effort.
  • Appcues has helped gain user traction by providing helpful tooltips, tours, and other rich content, reducing the first-time user learning curve.
Read full review
Intercom
  • Faster customer onboarding: When we identified our biggest conversion factors, we were able to set up an onboarding sequence that helped people get started and converted faster.
  • Adoption: It's much easier to showcase a new software feature. We build out a post and a tour for any new software features and prompt it to show up the first time they log in, all through Intercom.
  • Money: It's saved us money in the long run considering how many softwares we would have needed to use in order to get the same features offered in Intercom.
Read full review
ScreenShots

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.