8 minute read

Intercom vs. Kayako: A Customer Support Tool Showdown

November 30, 2023

Comparison, CRM, Customer Support, integrations

Intercom and Kayako are two of the top customer support solutions on the market, but which one is right for you? We’ll compare their features and pricing to help you decide.

If your company is looking for customer support software, you have likely heard of Intercom and Kayako.

As two of the most popular and effective customer support solutions on the market, Intercom and Kayako often compete head-to-head to win the business of companies like yours.

While both tools offer top-of-field feature sets that can simplify your customer support processes dramatically, identifying which is right for you can take time and effort.

We are here to help.

In this article, we will examine Intercom and Kayako, compare their features and pricing, and detail the other considerations that can help you make the right choice for your business.

What is Intercom?

Intercom is a fully-featured customer support platform that provides powerful automation and AI tools to enable more efficient and effective customer engagement.

Founded in 2011, Intercom has quickly become one of the most versatile and comprehensive customer support tools on the market and they are showing no signs of slowing down.

What is Kayako?

Kayako is a comprehensive customer support software platform designed to help businesses build strong, lasting customer relationships.

Established in 2001, Kayako has been at the forefront of customer support for over 20 years. In that time, Kayako has evolved to offer a wide range of features aimed at improving communication, collaboration, and problem-solving in customer support operations.

Intercom vs. Kayako: Feature Comparison

Intercom and Kayako both offer comprehensive customer support solutions. Where they differ is focus and scope.

Intercom’s core focus is on customer engagement and real-time communication. It excels at live chat, in-app messaging, and email communications.

Kayako on the other hand takes a more holistic approach by providing businesses with all the tools they need to create an exceptional customer service ecosystem.

Let’s take a look at their key features and see how they stack up in a head-to-head comparison.

Ease-of-use

With any software tool, ease-of-use will be a big differentiator. For an area of focus as critical as customer support, it can mean the difference between a satisfied customer and a lost account.

Intercom- Intercom is known for its user-friendly interface and quick and easy setup, making it a great choice for teams with varying levels of technical expertise.

Intercom is also easy to learn and its guided onboarding and training resources are especially helpful to new users.

Kayako- Kayako’s complexity will vary depending on the specific features and customizations your business requires. More advanced configurations may require additional time and effort to implement, learn, and navigate

Winner — Intercom wins this round. Intercom’s focus on live-chat support keeps things simple, especially when people are learning the software. Its user-interface is also sleek and modern, making navigation simple and intuitive.

Ticketing

A lot can be gleaned from a customer support tool’s ticketing features. These features help support reps manage and organize support requests and ongoing communications so they are vital tools that will be used every day.

Intercom- Intercom’s ticketing system is built around conversational engagement and collaboration.

Support requests are managed as ongoing conversations rather than tickets which are shared via a unified inbox allowing multiple team members to share knowledge and solutions.

Kayako- Kayako’s ticketing system follows the industry standard of managing support requests as individual tickets.

Where Kayako differs from other customer support platforms is its strong emphasis on email-based support. Kayako provides all the tools needed to manage customer inquiries effectively through email.

Winner — This one is a draw. Intercom is a better choice for companies who address customer issues via live chat tools while Kayako is better suited to support processes that favor email communication.

Chat tools

Chat tools are the foundation of customer support software in 2023 and can serve as a key differentiator when choosing the right vendor.

Intercom- Intercom is well-known for its real-time, live chat functionality, which allows businesses to engage with customers directly.

What really sets them apart is the quality of their custom workflow builder that enables support leaders to create rules that route chats to the right agents based on criteria they set such as user behavior or topic.

Kayako- Kayako’s live chat support features allow businesses to engage with customers through chat windows on their websites.

They also provide automation features and chatbot capabilities that enable support teams to automate responses to common questions and guide users through predefined workflows.

Winner — Intercom wins this round. It is hard for any customer support platform to compete with Intercom’s live-chat functionality.

Reporting

Reporting tools are essential to helping support leaders analyze and improve their customer support operations.

Intercom- Intercom’s reporting tools focus mainly on providing detailed insights into chat and messaging interactions.

Support leaders can track metrics such as FRT (first response time), conversation volume, and CSAT (customer satisfaction score).

This approach aligns well with Intercom’s emphasis on direct customer communication.

Kayako- Kayako offers comprehensive reporting functionality allowing support leaders to track ticket performance across multiple channels, support agent performance, and support resource performance (knowledge base, support articles).

Winner — Kayako takes this round. While Intercom is great for tracking user-centric metrics, Kayako can provide a complete picture of customer support performance.

Pricing

When evaluating the cost of any software tool, you have to look beyond the price tag. ROI comes down to getting the most out of the features available, so payment structures that are scaleable and flexible are a must.

Intercom- Intercom’s pricing plans start at $74/month, but the offering is limited to two users and has strict volume limits.

For $395/month the Pro tier allows up to 5 users and eliminates the volume restriction. This tier provides everything a small or medium-sized business will need, including better ticket management and advanced workflow automation tools.

Kayako- Kayako’s pricing model is user-based/feature-based, which means you pay a rate for each user determined by the tier of features you purchase.

This makes determining the cost of Kayako tricky, though for most use-cases Kayako’s pricing is very competitive.

Winner — Intercom wins the pricing comparison on the back of transparency. While Intercom in not the cheapest customer support platform out there, it is competitive and the fact that the cost is easy to calculate is a big plus.

Intercom vs. Kayako: Which is right for your business?

The fact of the matter is you can’t go wrong with either of these customer support toolsets. Both offer top-of-field features at a competitive price. So how do you decide which is right for you?

Intercom is right for...

For businesses that want to focus on simple and effective customer engagement, Intercom is an easy choice. It excels in real-time customer communication and helps support teams create personalized customer experiences.

Ease-of-use- Intercom’s focus on customer communication makes it an easier tool to learn and implement than some of the other offerings in the field.

It doesn’t require a team of administrators to manage and its toolset is robust without being complex.

Chat features- Intercom’s strength is its chat features. The ability to create custom workflows and rules for ticket routing helps support teams operate more efficiently and makes training and onboarding new support reps easier.

Kayako is right for...

For businesses looking for a multi-channel customer service and support tool with a focus on email, Kayako is top of the food chain.

Integrated, multi-channel approach- Kayako combines all your customer support communication channels (chat, email) under a single umbrella so you can deliver a simpler, more consistent and personalized customer experience.
Collaboration- Kayako provides features such as ticket locking that ensure better collaboration between support agents.

Whether it’s Intercom or Kayako, FreeAgent has you covered

FreeAgent CRM integrates with the industry’s top tools to offer a complete work management solution for your business. That means whichever customer support software solution is right for you, FreeAgent has you covered. Plus, FreeAgent is:

Easy to use- FreeAgent’s modern user interface is quick to learn and easy to use, encouraging teams to work within the platform, driving up adoption and aligning your work processes.

User-configurable- With FreeAgent, the power is in your hands. You can customize and personalize FreeAgent to fit the specific needs of your business and teams without external support.

Flexible and adaptable- FreeAgent’s robust toolset and extensive integration library supports teams and businesses of all types and structures. Whatever challenge you face, FreeAgent can help.

To see FreeAgent in action, get a demo, and discover for yourself how we are leading the way to a better workday.