Intercom vs HubSpot for Customer Service: A Deep Dive

Today, customer service isn't only about answering questions, it's about connection. Two of the most trusted platforms in the customer service space are: Intercom & Hubspot, or more specifically: Hubspot service Hub.

While Intercom focuses on conversational, AI-powered customer support, Hubspot service Hub connects customer data across marketing, sales & service. Both tools help teams deliver great customer experiences, but in different ways.

And so it begs the question: How do I choose between Intercom and HubSpot Service Hub? Which platform is better suited for my business?

In this guide, we break down how each tool helps businesses serve different customer service needs & the different ways to use each tools in order to help you decide the best fit.

What are the differences between Intercom & HubSpot?

HubSpot Service Hub & Intercom both share the same goal: improve customer support, but the two platforms have different approaches. Here's a summary of the key elements:

To sum up, both platforms care about the customer experience, but from different angles. Intercom is built around conversational support, which means it prioritizes live chat features, automation & AI agents. However, HubSpot Service Hub is a CRM-based support tool. It prioritizes data centralization, managing pipelines & structured workflows.

With that in mind, let's break down how each tool powers customer service through:

1. Customer experience
2. AI & automation
3. Integrations
4. Reporting & analytics
5. Pricing

1.Customer experience

For customer communication, both Intercom and HubSpot offer omnichannel support through email, live chat widgets, social media platforms.

So is Intercom or HubSpot better for customer communication? It depends on what you prioritize for your customers.

Intercom brings together chat, email & social messages into one shared inbox so support teams can respond immediately and collaborate easier.

The Intercom Messenger and in-app chat tools make it easy for users to contact a business without leaving the product, while the Product Tours guide them proactively.

As for HubSpot, it focuses more on context than conversations. Its Service Hub connects customer service directly to Hubspot CRM. Teams have the entire customer lifecycle from marketing through sales and to support in one place.

The customer experience on HubSpot feels consistent and informed because the entire team has the same information. But it doesn’t feel as instant or fluid as on Intercom.

2.Automation & AI

Both Intercom and HubSpot have AI as a major component in their system.

Intercom’s Fin AI focuses on conversational intelligence which resolves customer questions immediately & escalates complex customer issues to human agents.

Here’s what sets Fin AI apart from other AI agents:

1. Handles complex customer inquiries, not just common questions
2. Works across all support channels from email to social
3. Works with any helpdesk, not just Intercom

HubSpot’s Breeze is an entire AI suite that assists agents by qualifying leads, answering common questions & solving support issues using CRM data.

Now, for automation, both platforms have ticketing systems & automated workflows.

Intercom has a zero code visual workflows builder that lets teams automate conversation routing, follow ups and proactive outreach in an easy and customizable way.

As for Intercom’s automated ticketing system, it’s built for team collaboration & allows automatic ticket creation, assigning of tickets, and status updates.

HubSpot also has an easy-to-use workflow builder. You can build workflows across your marketing, sales & support hubs. However, unlike Intercom, its ticketing system is built around the CRM, not customer conversations.

Each ticket connects to a contact record in the CRM & moves through structured pipelines where agents and managers can easily track progress.

Instead of being conversational and fast, the entire process is very data-driven & systematic, which often translates to ‘slow’.

3.Integrations

Both Intercom and HubSpot extend their capabilities through integrations.

Intercom's app store offers hundreds of apps as well as APIs for advanced customization. It also has native integrations, but they’re not that many and their capabilities are limited.

Another integration option it offers is through connector tools, like Octopods, which acts as a bridge between Intercom and different messaging apps, like WhatsApp, Facebook & Instagram. It helps agents manage customer conversations from any channel, all within Intercom.

On the other hand, HubSpot Service Hub’s main integration philosophy is to pull everything into the HubSpot ecosystem. The goal is to make HubSpot the team’s central platform where marketing, sales & support take place.

But Hubspot also supports external integrations. It has a marketplace with over 1,000 applications that you can connect to your service hub.

Similar to Intercom, Hubspot has native integrations and also supports tools like Octopods that can connect the platform to messaging apps and other tools.

You can even connect HubSpot to Intercom itself through a connector tool. That is if you want to combine Intercom’s conversational power with HubSpot’s CRM-based core. It’s a best of both worlds scenario.

4. Reporting & analytics

All the best customer service tools on the market have solid reporting and analytics to help managers track team performance. Intercom and HubSpot are no exception, although they differ a bit in perspective.

Intercom’s reporting system is AI-powered and consists of customizable and readymade reports that track both human and AI performance. Overall, reporting on Intercom focuses on real-time insights from customer conversations.

Meanwhile, HubSpot Service Hub has the Service Analytics feature, which provides readymade reports that measure team performance and customer satisfaction in real time. Similar to Intercom.

So, how does Intercom differ from HubSpot in reporting and analytics?

HubSpot has a custom report builder that you can use to analyze data related to marketing, sales & support. This gives you a holistic view of your team performance.

While it might be overwhelming or needless for some, it’s a great option for general managers who want to track more than just support agent performance.

5. Pricing

In terms of pricing, Intercom and HubSpot have different structures.

Intercom has 3 pricing plans plus a separate plan for Fin AI, while HubSpot Service Hub has two pricing plans for businesses & enterprises and three pricing plans for individuals and small teams.

As an overall comparison, Intercom grows with engagement needs. Its cost rises as your customer conversations, automation usage, and agent seats increase.

HubSpot, on the other hand, grows with organizational complexity. Its pricing expands as your company adopts more Hubs (Sales, Marketing, Service), adds more teams & needs deeper integrations or custom workflows.

Which is the best customer service platform for your business?

The answer depends on your business industry and needs. Both Intercom and HubSpot Service Hub are powerful, each in its own way.

If your support mainly depends on conversations with customers, Intercom might be the best choice for you. It excels in conversational power, and all of its features are designed for instant communication.

Meanwhile, if your support processes are structured around ticket pipelines & SLA tracking and not around quick chats with customers, you should go with HubSpot Service Hub.

Here’s an overview of some support scenarios and which platform is better for them:

HubSpot Service Hub & Intercom share the same goal

People often compare Intercom and HubSpot Service Hub because they both target similar audiences: businesses that want to improve customer communication and support.

But they’re built for different purposes:

• HubSpot is first and foremost a CRM, a place where all customer data lives. Its ticketing system is tightly connected to that data, so when a support issue comes up, teams can see the full customer history, company info, deals, and more in one place.
• Intercom, on the other hand, is mainly a messaging platform, a front line tool for chatting with customers in real time. It does have tickets, but they’re not tied to customer data like in HubSpot, because Intercom isn’t meant to be a CRM.

In a perfect scenario, teams would want to use Intercom for talking to customers and HubSpot for managing customer records and handling internal processes.

Until that perfect scenario exists, the best choice depends on your team’s priorities. Choose Intercom if your focus is on fast, conversational support. Choose HubSpot Service Hub if your priority is structured, data-driven service management.

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