IntercomThe only helpdesk designed for the AI Agent era
vs
KayakoAI help desk and customer support platform
Comparison · Help Desk · weekly run Nov 3
Intercom vs Kayako
Which one do AI engines recommend, and how do they differ on price, fit and features?
The short answer
Intercom is the stronger AI pick in Help Desk: it has a visibility score of 29.3 versus 0 for Kayako.
Choose Intercom if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (29.3 vs 0)
- You need ISO 27001 or ISO 42001 or ISO 27701 or AIUC-1 or CCPA coverage
- You prefer a larger, established vendor (1,001–5,000 employees)
- Per seat pricing suits your budget better than usage-based
Choose Kayako if…
- You want a lower entry price ($1 vs $29)
- Usage-based pricing suits your budget better than per seat
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 3
| Metric | Intercom | Kayako |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 29.3% | 0% |
| Change vs last week | up+1.3% | no change0% |
| Rank in Help Desk | #5 | #37 |
| Share of voice | 7.2% | 0% |
| Mentions this run | 38 | 0 |
| Positive in AI answers | 41% | — |
The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days
Intercom +1.3000000000000007pp · Kayako 0pp over 1 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Intercom leads on 3 of 3 engines
ChatGPT
AI Mode
Perplexity
IntercomKayako
Head to head in AI answers
0 engine answers name both brands
0Intercom ranked higher
0Kayako ranked higher
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | Intercom | Kayako |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per seat | Usage-based |
| Entry price | $29 per seat / mo | $1 / mo |
| Free plan | No · 14-day trial | No |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), with US, EU and AU data hosting | Cloud |
| Integrations | 450+ | — |
| Compliance | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 42001, ISO 27701, AIUC-1, GDPR, CCPA | SOC 2 Type II, GDPR |
| Support | — | Help center, White-glove onboarding, Dedicated success manager |
| Founded | 2011 | 2001 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, United States | Austin, Texas, United States |
| Employees | 1,001–5,000 | 51–200 |
| Funding | Debt financing · $242M raised | Acquisition by ESW Capital |
| Best for | Support teams from startups to large enterprises that want AI-first customer service with human agents and an AI agent in one system | Support teams that want AI ticket automation deployed for them, either on a new help desk or on top of their existing one |
Plans side by side
Intercom
Essential$29seat/mo
Advanced$85seat/mo
Expert$132seat/mo
Fin AI Agent (with existing helpdesk)$0.99Fin outcome
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
Intercom
- AI-first customer support with the Fin AI agent
- Strong for in-app messaging and product-led SaaS
- Unified conversation history for smooth handoffs to humans
- Lower per-seat cost when billed annually
- Praised as the best overall chat and AI experience
- Per-seat and usage-based AI charges can add up in cost
Kayako
Profile in progress.
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 98.8%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “Intercom vs Kayako”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/intercom-vs-kayako, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.