Digital Customer Service

March 22, 2023

Alina Günder

Alternative to Intercom: How Userlike Compares in 2023

Intercom is American support software for customer messaging. We compare Intercom's price-performance ratio to the leading German alternative, Userlike.

My first impression of Intercom: a modern and versatile chat tool. Intercom provides a central inbox that receives messages from Instagram, WhatsApp and more. The software also has a modern website chat that can share FAQs and current news.

So why an Intercom alternative?

What sounds practical at first is often complex in practice, which customers are not used to with chat tools.

While Intercom offers many useful features, basic tools such as chat polls are only available as an add-on (i.e., for an additional fee). They have plenty of offerings, but the individual features sometimes lack options. For example, practical sales tools like voice messaging and screen sharing are not part of the website chat.

Over the last 2-3 years, the software has grown and changed in ways that have not always been positive. Their customer service is much slower and less attentive than it used to be. With the addition of new features and capabilities, they also raised their fees and now you have to pay for every little thing individually. (...) Last, and probably most important, features often don't work as advertised or as you would expect.

Helen, customer success manager in software, France (Intercom user for more than 2 years, original review on Capterra from February 2023)

Last but not least, Intercom is an American provider, which can be a disadvantage regarding GDPR and support services. That's why many European companies are looking to local solutions, like Userlike.

With over ten years of experience in customer messaging, the Cologne-based software has established itself as an industry leader in Germany. Userlike offers advanced website chat, AI-based chatbots, and numerous messenger integrations. Let's take a detailed look at the pros and cons of Intercom and Userlike.

1. Table: Intercom and Userlike in comparison
2. Advantages and disadvantages of both live chat providers
3. What customers say about Userlike
4. Conclusion: Is Userlike a good alternative to Intercom?

Website chat

✔ Intercom's website chat can be customized with various button elements (news/FAQ), but offers only basic features such as chat templates and media sharing in conversations.

Intercom's website widget on Sendcloud's website.

✔ Userlike's website chat offers Intercom's basic functions but with additional important tools for sales and customer service. For example, the option to send your customers voice messages in addition to messages to make contact more personal. Or being able to switch from chat to a video call to show products or share your screen.

Alternate gives its customers direct access to important pages thanks to quick links. Source: Alternate

The website messenger can be extended with buttons to link your WhatsApp channel, email address or FAQ page, for example.

Our tip: Use a quick link to make it simple for your website visitors to rate your company on a platform like Trustpilot. This is what technology store Alternate did in the example above.

Service automation with chatbots and a FAQ

✔ Like Userlike, Intercom offers a rule-based chatbot that follows a predefined decision tree and an AI chatbot that understands context and user intent. Intercom also supports integrating a simple Q&A list into the website messenger.

✔ Userlike lets you automate your support even further. With the AI Automation Hub, in addition to chatbots, you also create AI-based FAQ pages and contact forms that respond to user input in real time to make accurate suggestions. All three automation modules are connected to a central knowledge base. It continuously improves as it learns from each customer interaction.

Integrate the Smart FAQ into your website chat with a quick link, as mentioned above, so that customers can resolve their inquiry quickly and independently without contacting your service team.

Source: OMR Reviews

WhatsApp newsletter

X Intercom does not have a WhatsApp newsletter feature.

✔ With Userlike, you can not only offer professional customer service via WhatsApp, but also create and send campaigns or newsletters. Our WhatsApp Campaigns feature is the ideal way to stay in long-term conversations with customers, send catalogs and share industry news.

Price-performance ratio

It is not easy to compare Intercom's and Userlikes' prices, since Intercom only publicly communicates the price for its cheapest plan. However, in multiple Capterra reviews from Intercom users, users share that the prices are high compared to other chat providers.

You have to pay extra fees for many features, and unlimited contacts are not included in the plan. This means if you are contacted by more customers than stated in your plan, this will result in additional fees. With Userlike, unlimited conversations and contacts are included in all plans.

In terms of performance, Userlike is the leader. The website chat offers many core features that assist your visitors’ buyer journey (see above: website chat). The central message center supports WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, but also Telegram and Threema - so you don't exclude customers who use Meta alternatives.

Userlike is also the clear winner when it comes to support automation. The AI Automation Hub doesn’t just provide a chatbot, but also a FAQ page and contact form suggestions connected to a self-learning knowledge base, automating large parts of your customer service.

Intercom stands out from the competition thanks to two features in particular: The paid add-on product tours for customer onboarding and a ticket system for Pro plan users. So it depends on your needs whether these features justify Intercom's significantly higher price and outweigh missing out on automation and service features in return.

While Userlike does not have a native ticketing system, you can seamlessly integrate it with your existing system. Then you can collect messaging, email and phone tickets in one place. As a ticket system alternative, you can also create Slack, Trello, or email tickets, or tag unresolved chat requests with a note and the status "waiting.”

Create a ticket for your system with one click.

If you compare the price to performance ratio, Userlike is the better alternative to Intercom’s high priced, limited software.

The software rating platform OMR Reviews named Userlike the winner in the "Live Chat Software" category. Userlike users are particularly impressed by our functionality, user-friendliness and reliable support.

Userlike is rated highly across popular software review platforms.

Tooltester compared 12 popular live chat providers and also ranked Userlike in first place. 10,000 customers already trust Userlike, including brands like Toyota, Nivea and Lindt.

Finding a suitable provider was easy. Userlike makes it possible to create an account on the website and immediately start a free test phase. In the end, this short-term and successful test in combination with a very good price-performance ratio was the reason why Userlike was my first choice. The convincing overall plan made the decision for Userlike an easy one.

Roland Blask, customer experience specialist at Toyota

Here are some examples of how companies from different industries successfully use Userlike.

• Case study with Titus
• Case study with LVM
• Case study with Hermes
• Case study with Toyota
• Case study with Villeroy and Boch
• Case study with Volksbank Lahr
• Case study with Statista

Userlike is a good Intercom alternative if...

• You’re looking for a unified messaging software with sophisticated sales and service features and high security standards.
• You want to generate more leads with a powerful website chat.
• You want to save money by using service automation, such as AI chatbots, a smart FAQ or dynamic contact forms.
• You want to seamlessly connect your customer messaging tool to your enterprise software, such as Lime, Zendesk, Slack, Helpscout and Shopify.
• You want personalized and reliable customer service. Whether it's a Free plan or Flex version, Userlike can help you via live chat, email and phone.

Would you like to compare more chat software providers to Userlike? You can find a comparison table in the article, “Live chat software: 5 reliable providers compared.”

If you want to take a closer look at our software, test Userlike risk-free. Once your 14-day test trial in our team plan ends, your account will automatically switch to a free plan. That way you can test Userlike for an unlimited period of time until you’ve made a decision. If you have any questions, our service team is happy to help you via website chat or your preferred messaging app.