Compare
An Intercom alternative that runs inside WordPress
Intercom is a hosted chat service. Sales Igniter Chat is a WordPress plugin: your team answers from wp-admin, the AI agent answers from your own pages, and every conversation stays in your own database.
Intercom facts from Intercom’s own pages ยท Sources
What Intercom does well
Intercom describes itself as "a complete system for human and AI customer service": the Intercom helpdesk with Fin AI Agent built in.
- Fin AI Agent is billed per outcome ($0.99), at most once per conversation, and nothing is charged when Fin can’t answer or the customer asks for a person.
- A full helpdesk on every plan: Messenger live chat, a shared inbox, ticketing, a help centre and reports.
- Fin also works on its own with other helpdesks, such as Salesforce, HubSpot or Freshdesk.
- A Shopify app shows each customer’s recent orders in the inbox and lets Fin answer order-status questions.
- Spending limits and alerts for Fin, and a 14-day free trial without a credit card.
Who it suits
Support teams of any size: Essential is "for individuals, startups, and small businesses", while Expert adds SSO, HIPAA support and SLAs for large teams.
Where Sales Igniter Chat is different: no per-seat fees
- Inside WordPress. A plugin, not a separate service: the inbox opens from wp-admin, and operators are WordPress users.
- Your own database. Conversations, people, email replies and the AI’s index are stored in your WordPress database.
- The AI answers from your own pages, docs and products, shows its sources, and quotes prices only from your store.
- Orders beside the chat. WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads purchases, licences and renewals, read live.
- Email follow-up. A reply the visitor missed goes out by email; their answer lands back in the same chat.
- No per-seat fees, and the AI is billed by your own provider at its token price.
Intercom and Sales Igniter Chat, side by side
| Feature | Intercom | Sales Igniter Chat |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | A hosted service. The Messenger is added to WordPress with their install guide | A WordPress plugin. The inbox is in wp-admin, in its own full-screen tab |
| Where conversations are stored | Intercom’s servers (Amazon Web Services) in the US; EU or Australian hosting for new workspaces on the Advanced and Expert plans, under contract | Your WordPress database (conversations, people, email replies and the AI’s index) |
| How the AI agent is billed | Fin AI Agent: $0.99 per outcome, at most once per conversation. An outcome is a resolution the customer confirms or doesn’t follow up on, or a completed Fin workflow | Your own AI key, at the provider’s token price, with a monthly budget. No per-chat fee from us |
| WooCommerce and EDD orders beside the chat | Shopify: recent orders in the inbox sidebar, and Fin can read order status. WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads aren’t listed on their pricing page | Yes: WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads orders, licences and subscriptions, read live |
| Live visitors on a map | Not listed on their pricing page | Yes, on a map shipped with the plugin (no map service; nothing leaves your site) |
| Email follow-up in the same conversation | Yes: a reply to a visitor who has left goes out by email, and their email reply continues the conversation. Support email is included on every plan | Yes: unread replies go out by email, and email replies come back into the same chat |
| Pricing per seat (operator) | Per seat: Essential $39 a seat a month billed monthly ($29 billed yearly), Advanced $99 ($85), Expert $139 ($132) | No per-seat fees: add every operator as a WordPress user |
What it costs each month
Licence plus AI, for one site. Sales Igniter Chat includes every operator; Intercom is priced here for one operator.
| AI chats a month | 500 | 2,000 | 10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales Igniter Chat, first year$99 licence ($8.25 a month) + AI on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash with your own key | $10.32 | $16.51 | $49.56 |
| Sales Igniter Chat, from the second year$59 a year ($4.92 a month) + the same AI | $6.98 | $13.18 | $46.23 |
| IntercomEssential, $39 a seat a month (billed monthly), plus Fin at $0.99 per outcome | $534Essential | $2,019Essential | $9,939Essential |
| You save with Sales Igniter ChatIntercom minus Sales Igniter Chat at the first-year price ($99); from the second year ($59) you save $3 a month more | $524a month$6,284 a year98% less | $2,002a month$24,030 a year99% less | $9,889a month$118,673 a year99% less |
Our figures: 3 AI replies per chat, about 3,450 tokens in and 285 out per reply (measured on our own site; a small sample), at DeepSeek V4.1 Flash’s list price of $0.30 per million tokens in and $1.20 out. Intercom: Essential billed monthly, one seat; each extra seat adds $39 a month (their pricing page is also testing a lower Essential price, $29 billed monthly or $19 yearly, with some visitors). Fin bills only the conversations it resolves (outcomes), at most once each; here every AI chat is counted as an outcome, so at a lower resolution rate their AI cost is lower. Change the numbers in the cost calculator.
Switching from Intercom
Most of it is settings in one place. Your earlier Intercom conversations stay in Intercom; new ones start in Sales Igniter Chat.
- 1
Install the plugin
Upload Sales Igniter Chat under Plugins, activate it, and enter your licence key. The chat bubble shows straight away.
- 2
Set up the widget
Your colours, greeting and reply time line under Widget, with a live preview. Set office hours and who answers first under Routing and hours.
- 3
Switch on the AI agent
Add your own AI key, choose what the AI may read (help docs, pages, products) and click Re-index now. Ask it questions with Try it first.
- 4
Connect email
Add a mailbox under Settings, Email, so replies a visitor missed go out by email and their answers come back into the chat.
- 5
Invite your team
Give everyone who answers chats the Chat operator role. Each one turns on notifications for their phone and browser.
- 6
Remove Intercom
Take Intercom’s chat code or plugin off your site, so visitors see one chat bubble.
Questions about Intercom alternatives
Can I import my Intercom conversations?
No. Sales Igniter Chat doesn’t list an importer for other chat services. Keep Intercom for your history, and new conversations start in Sales Igniter Chat.
Where are my conversations stored?
In your own WordPress database, in the plugin’s own tables. When the AI answers, the conversation goes to the AI provider you chose; by default only to hosts that keep no data, and with emails and phone numbers hidden.
Does it work without the AI agent?
Yes. Without an AI key, chats go to the people who are online, and to email when nobody is.
What does the AI cost?
You pay your AI provider directly, at their token price, with no per-chat fee from us. On our own site an AI chat has cost about $0.0019. A monthly budget (US$20 by default) stops AI answers when it’s reached.
How much is Sales Igniter Chat?
US$99 for one site for the first year, then US$59 a year; US$299 for 10 sites, then US$149 a year. Support and updates renew automatically each year and you can cancel at any time. Every operator is included: no per-seat fees. The AI is billed separately by your own AI provider.
Sources
Intercom facts come only from Intercom’s own pages, listed here; Sales Igniter Chat facts from its documentation. Prices are list prices in US$, billed monthly unless marked otherwise.
- Intercom pricing: plans, seats, Fin AI Agent and the pricing FAQ
- Fin AI Agent pricing
- Intercom Help: email notifications that continue a conversation
- Intercom Help: the Messenger on your website
- Intercom Help: regional data hosting
- Intercom Help: install Intercom on your WordPress site
- Intercom Help: the Shopify app
- Sales Igniter Chat: every feature and the docs
Try Sales Igniter Chat next to Intercom
Put the chat on your own WordPress site and see the inbox, the AI agent and the widget answer your visitors.
