Fin by Intercom vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Fin by Intercom
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Fin is Intercom’s AI Agent for customer service, designed to deliver high-quality answers, even for complex queries. It works with any helpdesk, or it can be paired with Intercom’s next-generation Helpdesk to get the full Intercom Customer Service Suite.
$0.99
one-time fee per 1 resolution
Zendesk Suite
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Zendesk is a customer support solution with built-in ticketing, conversational messaging, and live chat, designed to help businesses of all sizes and industries deliver personalized service at scale. Zendesk's AI agents are trained in CX to help Service teams resolve customer issues faster and more accurately while still providing a human-centered experience. Zendesk ultimately aims to help businesses improve time to value, reduce effort per ticket, and keep costs low.
$69
per month per agent
Pricing
Fin by IntercomZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
Fin with your current helpdesk
$0.99
one-time fee per 1 resolution
Copilot add-on
$35
per month per user
The Early Stage program
$65
per month (6 support seats)
Proactive Support Plus add-on
$99
per month
Fin with Intercom’s Helpdesk
from $39 + $0.99 per Fin resolution
per month per seat
Suite Team
$69
per month per agent
Suite Growth
$115
per month per agent
Suite Professional
$149
per month per agent
Suite Enterprise
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Fin by IntercomZendesk Suite
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsFin comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee. Here's how it works: Use Fin in at least 250 conversations within the first 90 days after trial. If you're not satisfied, you can request a refund of up to $1M. Refund requests must be submitted within 90 days of starting the subscription.20% discount available with annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Fin by IntercomZendesk Suite
Considered Both Products
Fin by Intercom
Chose Fin by Intercom
Fin by Intercom outperforms Zendesk in almost all metrics as a user-friendly, experienced-focused platform. Zendesk's chat functionality is more limited than Intercom's and the AI agent is not as helpful.

Our primary business partner uses Zendesk, and this is what we use to …
Chose Fin by Intercom
We have previously used Crisp chat, while the software is good, Fin really drives us towards using Intercom.
Chose Fin by Intercom
Fin feels lighter and more intuitive than Zendesk which often needs heavy setup before you get value. Fin is quicker to adjust, easier for our team to manage and delivers better automated answers. We chose Fin because it fits our fast moving way of working and improves at a …
Chose Fin by Intercom
FIN/Intercom has a much better UI and feels more integrated than Zendesk. The reporting is also much more straight forward - using something like Zendesk Explore is painful and feels like I'm using something 10 old. FIN also integrates better with other products, and we've …
Chose Fin by Intercom
In my experience, what Intercom has done with Fin by Intercom is far more innovative and forward thinking than other tools I've used. It's intuitive, easy, and they are always releasing new things to make Fin by Intercom even more powerful.
Chose Fin by Intercom
At my previous company we used Zendesk for help articles. I prefer y'all's UI/UX over Zendesk though.
Chose Fin by Intercom
As explained previously, most of these platforms were focused on tickets, most reports only work with tickets, there is no way to postpone a service without turning it into a ticket, and since our response time target is a maximum of 2 minutes, these platforms were unable to …
Chose Fin by Intercom
Intercom missing the merging option, it's way easier but the merging is very important. However, Zendesk is little bit old fashion and not modern like Intercom
Chose Fin by Intercom
The intercom is more intuitive and provides easier management and personalization of our conversations. It's been a while since I used Zendesk, so this might have changed, but Intercom provides a bigger catalog of functionality targeted to product marketing, such as emails, …
Chose Fin by Intercom
Intercom is much more flexible and modern than Zendesk, UI is better. Zendesk is better at multiple brand experience and localisation.
Chose Fin by Intercom
Unlike Zendesk, Intercom has done it right, and continues to do so. Don't underestimate how important this is, we are many out in the market that feels this way
Chose Fin by Intercom
It came down to price, features, and usability. Interocm has always been very friendly to start-ups.
Chose Fin by Intercom
Intercom is easier for inbound + outbound comms and has more tooling overall
Chose Fin by Intercom
Intercom is a lot smoother and has more integration ability. It's macro features are a lot easier to navigate and control as well. The help center is also a huge bonus and the way it integrates into the chat is a lot less stressful to put together and utilize. Intercom makes …
Chose Fin by Intercom
I implemented Zendesk at a previous organization where we actually moved away from Intercom. I greatly preferred Intercom for functionality, ease of use, and even reliability for our websites and in-platform live chat widget. We moved to ZenDesk to have a streamlined …
Chose Fin by Intercom
Intercom is the preferred choice. I used to use Zendesk previously.
Chose Fin by Intercom
Intercom's live chat allowed us to exceed the work we were doing in Zendesk
Chose Fin by Intercom
The big hitter is Zendesk, but Intercom excels in places that Zendesk falls down (especially bots and AI).
Chose Fin by Intercom
Intercom sweeps the floor with Drift. Drift feel poorly made, less polished, and barely focused on customer support. Intercom is the exact opposite of this.

Freshdesk & Zendesk both offered a better experience for tickets in my opinion. Tickets on Intercom being mixed in with …
Chose Fin by Intercom
I have also utilized Zendesk and YouTrack for ticketing. Intercom was chosen because of price and ease of use. Additionally, if you are integrating chat into your application, it is easier to plug in than Zendesk.

I think that Intercom's ease of use and cost will likely …
Chose Fin by Intercom
Intercom is more convenient for the online help articles we can publish.
Zendesk Suite
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk has much more functionality on the canned responses so the team saves time in selecting the repeated small issues and reduces the chance of error, or the team member frankly getting bored.
Secondary the tickets system is far superior to Intercom especially how it keeps …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk is the best choice for us as a moderate-sized, growing company. Zendesk allows us to track our call volume and easily categorize our data.
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk is more established than these two companies and provides a more robust solution for multi-channel support. Intercom is better suited for chat support and Freshdesk doesn't offer as many features and Zendesk does.
Features
Fin by IntercomZendesk Suite
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Fin by Intercom
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.8
172 Ratings
7% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings9.3171 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings8.2118 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings8.7119 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.2122 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.4172 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings9.3171 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Fin by Intercom
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.4
156 Ratings
5% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings8.3150 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.5143 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Fin by Intercom
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.8
168 Ratings
10% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings9.1138 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings8.570 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings8.4112 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings9.3165 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings9.0128 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Fin by IntercomZendesk Suite
Small Businesses
LocaliQ
LocaliQ
Score 8.8 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Piper the AI SDR by Qualified
Piper the AI SDR by Qualified
Score 9.2 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Conversica
Conversica
Score 4.1 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Fin by IntercomZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(385 ratings)
9.0
(209 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(21 ratings)
10.0
(43 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(294 ratings)
8.8
(82 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.1
(14 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.1
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
5.8
(10 ratings)
5.6
(31 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
7.4
(2 ratings)
6.4
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.6
(5 ratings)
9.1
(19 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Fin by IntercomZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Intercom
I think Fin by Intercom AI is amazing at answering the simple queries for customers. If you have the content to support the answers, you could reliably allow it to cover those topics with almost no errors. This is great for giving more time to teammates, and allowing 24/7 support. I also this Fin by Intercom AI isn't too bad (but need improvements) on allowing/linking to teammate support together with AI support. We have some issues, but overall, Fin by Intercom does actively allow offers and routing to humans, rather than a rigid AI/bot only experience. That said, especially if you have a complicated product or service, I wouldn't recommend Fin by Intercom AI to be the only support option. Its not quite there that I'd want it to let loose without a person standing by. Also, I'd say, its a product that needs at least one person learning/optimising it. Fin by Intercom needs maintaining, so it can't just be left to its on devices as of yet.
Read full review
Zendesk
Being a customer support agent, I found it very good when it comes to send an email or call or chat- with the user. I can do all that from the one single platform which is so easy and time saving for you. It does not take much time to use this, We can chat- with the user and at the same time we can send an email to them as well.
Read full review
Pros
Intercom
  • Ability identify the issue from limited information shared by the customer
  • Clearly communicate the resolution leveraging the knowledgebase input
  • The resolution by Fin is very detailed and calls out all the possible solutions to the problem helping the customer identify the right fix
  • Fin is constantly learning from the past instances and leveraging into present and future issue resolution and thereby able to provide a good customer experience
Read full review
Zendesk
  • UI/UX; mature macros and automations, slick and well thought out UI.
  • Reporting, reporting, reporting. With user, org, and ticket level tags, we can track every aspect of our ticket flow.
  • Extensibility; the app marketplace is a great resource for expanding functionality from the baseline offering.
Read full review
Cons
Intercom
  • If I can see that our Fin involvement/resolution rate has increased in one week, it would be great to see the theme of conversations it's resolving, rather than having to dig around to see why there was an increase.
  • Sometimes the hand-over functionality doesn't work as well as it could, and often Fin errs on the side of resolving the conversation (which I understand because we're charged per resolution), but this can be frustrating to have to sift through and dig these customers back out.
Read full review
Zendesk
  • Is there a way for AEs and CSMs to be informed in a weekly summary of all their accounts and any tickets? Example: Disney submitted a ticket on XYZ. Google has an urgent issue on X still unresolved.
  • Is there a way for CSMs or AEs to have a Dashboard that's specific to their accounts instead of seeing all the tickets in the queue that are not relevant to them?
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
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
Zendesk
Zendesk is an amazing tool for communicating with your customers easily. The communication tickets from sellers to us or from us to sellers are stored, and there are statuses used to make communication easy. We have internal conversations between departments, linked with useful software such as Zingtree, Talkdesk, and Webs.
Read full review
Usability
Intercom
The usability of Fin by Intercom is intuitive and easy to use. When I used it for the first time, it didn’t take me long to understand how the platform works and how to set things up. It also provided helpful guidance, and there is a Fin bot that you can use to learn more about the platform and ask questions.
Read full review
Zendesk
Pros: The agent interface is sleek, contemporary, and relatively easy to learn compared to many other enterprise tools. For common tasks, admins are given point-and-click options- adding fields, modifying workflows, constructing macros. The knowledge base (Guide) editor is easy to use for non-developers. Drawbacks: Once you move past the initial things - complex automations, reporting/analytics in Explore, and/or customizations integrating the API, it requires much more advanced training to use successfully. Navigating between the different modules (Support, Explore, Chat, Guide) can feel very disconnected; often you are reminded that it really is a "suite" of products brought together -not really one unified platform. If you're using multiple brands managing simultaneous support tickets, or heavily customizing workflows to meet your brand, you may run into a bit of struggle with usability. So: it's a lot more user friendly than the palaces (Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceNow), but is not used as quickly or with as much streamlined flow as a product made for a small shop. So if you are looking for a great balance, this is a good option if you are a net new organization or an organization on their way to scaling from 15 - 50 employee. Expect some elbow grease from the admin team once learning, adapting, and working efficiently once you move past the basics with your support tickets and initial customizations.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Intercom
always there
Read full review
Zendesk
In the past year, I'd say I have only noticed maybe two hours total of downtime in my own usage. Very minimal.
Read full review
Performance
Intercom
works perfect
Read full review
Zendesk
There has been minor performance degradation on a very few days out of the two years I have been using the product.
Read full review
Support Rating
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
Zendesk
We rarely need to contact their support team, but when we do they are responsive. However there have been notable times when communication between myself and the support rep was challenging despite me providing clear explanation of the issue, screenshots, and a thorough explanation of the goal we hope to achieve. It took several back and forth attempt, on a few occasions, to get resolution on an otherwise simple request
Read full review
Online Training
Intercom
Easy to know the learning path
Read full review
Zendesk
Zendesk has tons of available material for training - videos, webinars, articles, etc. The only reason this is not a 10 is because it can be hard to figure out how to navigate to these things and find what you are looking for.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Intercom
The implementation was surprisingly easy but we are having to adapt from our old process to work well with Intercom.
Read full review
Zendesk
I was very satisfied. They have a free trial for 30 days and I recommend you do that and use it. It is very easy to get started with the basics and the build on over time.

The only thing technically complex was single sign-on and integration to Salesforce.com required some tweaks – otherwise setting up system was very easy
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Intercom
FIN/Intercom has a much better UI and feels more integrated than Zendesk. The reporting is also much more straight forward - using something like Zendesk Explore is painful and feels like I'm using something 10 old. FIN also integrates better with other products, and we've been able to create custom apps/widgets using the Intercom Canvas app far quicker than we could with Zendesk.
Read full review
Zendesk
The customisable reporting every time. Our leadership reply on me to run my team and want to know what customers are telling us so they can elevate our products. We have extensive custom reports that tie up all aspects of our product and customer journeys. I've not found another product that allows me as much freedom as Zendesk Suite explore does, so far.
Read full review
Scalability
Intercom
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
WHY we will use Zendesk in HR and PD internally
Read full review
Return on Investment
Intercom
  • We've achieved around a 50% resolution rate (and growing) with Fin by Intercom
  • Our customers have a near instant response time when chatting with Fin by Intercom
  • We've been able to use Fin by Intercom for a 100% AI driven approach for a subset of our users
Read full review
Zendesk
  • Integrating other AI solutions for an organization with high volumes can cost about USD5000 monthly. With Zendesk AI and by building onto the same with AI powered apps built for Zendesk Suite we save a projected USD4000 monthly.
  • Robust Zendesk APIs have enabled us to integrate our internal system with a customized app saving us hundreds of hours every quarter spent loading customer profiles that are not loaded instantly from the app.
  • Plug and play apps like Round robin save us weeks of sprint delay timelines as they do not require additional coding or developer support to install and start using.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Fin by Intercom Screenshots

Screenshot of Fin, delivering conversational support experience to customers.Screenshot of where to monitor, analyze, and optimize Fin by spotting trends, filling content gaps, and fixing quality issues topic by topic.Screenshot of where to customize Fin's tone of voice, teach it support knowledge and policies, and configure how it handles complex tasks in over 45 languages.Screenshot of where to test answers, review the sources and settings that shape them, and get tailored recommendations to optimize performance.Screenshot of Fin, as it appears across email and live chat to phone, SMS, and social. Fin can answer any question, across any channel, any time.

Zendesk Suite Screenshots

Screenshot of the Zendesk Agent WorkspaceScreenshot of Omnichannel MessagingScreenshot of Zendesk TicketingScreenshot of Bots powered by Zendesk AIScreenshot of Tone shift with Zendesk AIScreenshot of Zendesk ticketing side conversations