Smith.ai vs. Intercom

Smith.ai combines our AI technology with live, North America-based agents to field all of your website chats, 24/7. We are a complete do-it-for-you solution — without you needing to hire additional support staff. With Intercom, you’re on the hook to do more work. You install their chatbot software, but when the chatbot needs human help, then your team must jump in and respond. It’s a software-only solution and doesn’t provide the comprehensive coverage that most businesses need. 

Both Smith.ai and Intercom Fin use large language models to ingest your website data and populate their chatbots. But Smith.ai recognizes that not every chat can be fully resolved by AI only. That’s why our unique solution comes staffed with bilingual, North America-based agents who can take over conversations when needed.

You can easily control and manage your monthly costs with Smith.ai, too. You pay per chat, which starts at $140/month for 20 chats. Our chat plans are offered month-to-month, so there’s no need to sign a long-term contract. Don’t expect many chats? We have an à la carte option — with no upfront cost — where you only pay $10/chat, as needed. Plus, on all of our plans, you only pay for relevant chats because we don’t bill for any spam, sales, or incomplete chats.

Pricing is a bit trickier with Intercom. You start with a $39/mo charge for each seat you need for your team to help manage the chats. Then, you pay $0.99 per resolution that the Fin AI chatbot completes. If you want text answering — which is included with Smith.ai — that’s also an additional upcharge with Intercom. Of course, don’t forget about the cost of your staff needing to manage the chats, too. It adds up quickly.

At Smith.ai, we make getting started a breeze. We offer a white-glove setup and our onboarding team is available to set up your no-code playbooks, add Q&A, design your widget’s branding, and customize instructions for our agents. We feature integrations with thousands of CRMs, calendar software, and marketing automation tools, including Zapier and Make. Access analytics directly in your client dashboard to monitor chat performance. Our chat solution is able to answer questions, screen leads, and book appointments directly on your calendar — all without your team having to lift a finger. With Intercom, you need to set up and install the software on your own, provide the staff to manage it, and they only offer a no-code builder on higher-tier plans. 

We even go one step further than chat. We built a comprehensive solution for businesses to get 360-degree coverage so they are always available to customers. You can add our Virtual Receptionists to any chat plan, starting at just $285/mo. Our receptionists — empowered by AI — handle every call quickly and efficiently. We can also act as an extension of your SDR team with our Outreach Campaigns. Starting at $600/mo, our agents make outbound calls on your behalf — along with sending follow-up texts and emails — to create new sales opportunities for your team. 

For live, North America-based agents, easy-to-understand pricing, 24/7 coverage, and a dedicated onboarding team, Smith.ai is the superior choice over Intercom.