Customer.io vs. Fin by Intercom

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Customer.io
Score 9.4 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
Customer.io is a customer engagement platform that enables marketers to build sophisticated automated messaging campaigns. With access to real-time behavioral data, users can create personalized and relevant messages to engage and retain customers. This includes sending emails, push notifications, SMS, in-app messages, and more through a visual building experience. Built for scale, Customer.io boasts users among over 5,300 companies, sending over 17 billion messages per year.N/A
Fin by Intercom
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Fin is Intercom’s AI Agent for customer service, designed to deliver high-quality answers, even for complex queries. It works with any helpdesk, or it can be paired with Intercom’s next-generation Helpdesk to get the full Intercom Customer Service Suite.
$0.99
one-time fee per 1 resolution
Pricing
Customer.ioFin by Intercom
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Fin with your current helpdesk
$0.99
one-time fee per 1 resolution
Copilot add-on
$35
per month per user
The Early Stage program
$65
per month (6 support seats)
Proactive Support Plus add-on
$99
per month
Fin with Intercom’s Helpdesk
from $39 + $0.99 per Fin resolution
per month per seat
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Customer.ioFin by Intercom
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsEssentials: For startups and small teams engaging customers on their mobile and web apps. - Up to 5,000 profiles*, Send Emails, Push, In-App, and SMS, Visual Workflow Builder, Segmentation, Two Workspaces, Email Support, Customer Community Premium: For high-growth companies looking for greater control over their messaging outcomes. - Everything in Essentials, Custom Data + Message Volume, Premium Product Features, Additional Workspaces, 90-day Onboarding Program, Premium Email & Chat Support, Managed Deliverability, Dedicated IPs, Parcel Pro Licenses, HIPAA Compliance Enterprise: For at-scale companies looking to create world-class customer experiences. - Everything in Premium, Managed Infrastructure*, Customer Success Manager, Quarterly Success Reviews, Technical Account Manager*, Audit Logging & Data Governance*, Parcel Business Licenses, Migration Support*, *Available by consultation.Fin comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee. Here's how it works: Use Fin in at least 250 conversations within the first 90 days after trial. If you're not satisfied, you can request a refund of up to $1M. Refund requests must be submitted within 90 days of starting the subscription.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Customer.ioFin by Intercom
Considered Both Products
Customer.io
Chose Customer.io
Customer.io has in my opinion more robust features for comms campaigns vs some of the other tools available on the market that have other focuses primarily and then have CRM tacked on. We've also found Customer.io to be more easy to integrate with the tech stack of our business …
Chose Customer.io
Customer.io is much more comprehensive and powerful. It takes some getting used to but once you understand how it works, you have a ton of control when it comes to email marketing.
Chose Customer.io
I found Customer.io much easier to navigate than any of the other email platforms out there, and the pricing is MUCH better as well.
Chose Customer.io
Customer is much more flexible and enables a greater amount of personalization.
Chose Customer.io
Customer.io is one of the tools we use or suggest based on the situation. Customer.io is in a place between basic email marketing and marketing automation (in my opinion). And suits well with clients who wants to advance or start with marketing automation.

It's easy, the price …
Chose Customer.io
We used Autopilot in the past. It worked well but the integration wasn't very good, considering they only used cookies. We have a very complex system right now to be able to track every customer, and it was expensive but worth it. Autopilot worked very well when we were …
Chose Customer.io
I think Customer.io is a unique product. Most of the other email marketing products you'll find are more B2B focused and don't provide a good solution for high volume emails at a low price. If you're a B2C company, I can't think of any email product I'd rather use than …
Chose Customer.io
We do still use Hubspot, but their email automation is very native and fixed within Hubspot. We needed something that was going to collect our events and integrate 2-ways with Segment in order to effectively send the campaigns we desired. There are so many events in our app …
Chose Customer.io
Customer.io was really the first pure, full-featured drip email program on the market and as far as I know, it's still the simplest and best overall for that specific function. SendGrid has also added drip campaign features, but I would seriously evaluate Customer.io against …
Chose Customer.io
because the functonalities and how it is integrated with our Redshift database
Chose Customer.io
Customer.io had the best suite of features and - most importantly for us - was willing to sign a BAA with us so we could maintain HIPAA compliance. Mailchimp was fine but we felt Customer.io had a cleaner interface and was easier for general marketers who aren't dedicated email …
Fin by Intercom
Chose Fin by Intercom
We're using another AI agent too. Fin AI is a little behind, as it needs to start learning from either testing or real conversations, so it can better advise users with accurate information - whereas the other AI agent is learning very fast and needs little to no adjustment of …
Chose Fin by Intercom
I did not choose which platform our support teams used. But I did not like NetSuite because it sent out a lot of email updates and required the client to reply to the correct email in order to have everything tracked. ServiceNow was pretty similar. The reports in ServiceNow …
Chose Fin by Intercom
HubSpot CRM, HubSpot Marketing Hub and Zendesk Suite
Chose Fin by Intercom
I used Zendesk briefly but found it difficult to navigate — I often couldn’t tell what was going on or how to simply reply to a ticket. In contrast, Intercom is much more intuitive and user-friendly. Its clean interface and support for multiple communication formats like …
Chose Fin by Intercom
As explained previously, most of these platforms were focused on tickets, most reports only work with tickets, there is no way to postpone a service without turning it into a ticket, and since our response time target is a maximum of 2 minutes, these platforms were unable to …
Chose Fin by Intercom
Sprinklr Social, Zendesk Sunshine Conversations, Clarabridge (discontinued), Engagor (discontinued) and Qualtrics XM for Customer Frontlines
Chose Fin by Intercom
Honestly, we haven't really looked at this, but we do use it for another team because a third-party works with it.

Otherwise, I am extremely happy with Intercom and have not looked towards another software.
Chose Fin by Intercom
It was a long debate before we switched from Crisp to Intercom, but we never regretted that decision. Intercom looks and looks sleeker, works smoother, and has the knowledge base feature, which was our main need to switch. The transition took very little time, so no bumps on …
Chose Fin by Intercom
Way better than all of them - especially the workflow tool which I don't think Help Scout or Crisp even had. Really easy to manage capacity too through snoozing conversations and customers receiving emails after a response.

With HubSpot, there was no way for our users to return …
Chose Fin by Intercom
Dialpad Support, Talkdesk and SnapEngage
Chose Fin by Intercom
This is the first one we tried.
Chose Fin by Intercom
My main concern at the moment is how the integration looks to the users and Intercom just looks modern and up-to-date. HubSpot is missing this. In the background it always comes down to how you organize your team and processes.
Chose Fin by Intercom
Odoo was, in my opinion, terrible - a jack of all trades and master of none, which is why all teams in the business moved away to bespoke software. Freshdesk - an easier and more organisable way of creating and managing tickets. Although Intercom now has tickets, we're still …
Chose Fin by Intercom
At the moment, I only use Supademo to record screen tours. It is very intuitive, has a browser extension, and is perfect for recording the onboarding of new features.
Chose Fin by Intercom
Intercom as a tool is well suited to manage our key metrics with the help of its reports. We have evaluated a lot of tools but Intercom remains the best in terms of report. It helps us maintain OKR's for the support team and track whenever needed. FinAI also has the reporting …
Chose Fin by Intercom
Personally I have not used any other platforms like Intercom and do not wish to search as of right now.
Chose Fin by Intercom
The intercom is more intuitive and provides easier management and personalization of our conversations. It's been a while since I used Zendesk, so this might have changed, but Intercom provides a bigger catalog of functionality targeted to product marketing, such as emails, …
Chose Fin by Intercom
Noone has been able to standup to the level of service and product that Intercom gives us.
Chose Fin by Intercom
To compete with Salesforce, the main point is the pricing. Intercom has a very different budget when it comes to start ups and up and coming companies, which helps.
To compete with other platforms, Intercom has a more developed interface and a super completa arrange of tools, …
Chose Fin by Intercom
Several factors as pricing, customisation, ease of use, popularity, user-friendly and the continuous online support as well improvements helped us make this choice. Onboarding new colleagues to Intercom does not even take one day, it is so efficient and intuitive. If the …
Chose Fin by Intercom
Intercom is much more flexible and modern than Zendesk, UI is better. Zendesk is better at multiple brand experience and localisation.
Chose Fin by Intercom
All tools that we used in the past, have a lot of problems on the chat app, our the syncing data between integrations, Intercom has too, but is very less than others.
Chose Fin by Intercom
We used Aircall for many years and it was a great tool, however as we scaled down our phone support usage it became expensive and cumbersome. Intercom phones offered a cheaper solution that turned out to be more efficient for our team to use as well.
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Customer.ioFin by Intercom
Small Businesses
Simplify360
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Score 7.8 out of 10
LocaliQ
LocaliQ
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Dialpad Support
Dialpad Support
Score 9.0 out of 10
Piper the AI SDR by Qualified
Piper the AI SDR by Qualified
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Verint Community
Verint Community
Score 9.9 out of 10
Conversica
Conversica
Score 9.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
Customer.ioFin by Intercom
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.4
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
5.7
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.4
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
6.6
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Customer.ioFin by Intercom
Likelihood to Recommend
This tool is well-suited for companies looking to run email marketing campaigns or send out newsletters regularly to their users/customers. The workflow setup is especially useful for companies who want to send specific emails based on user behavior - i.e. they've not logged in recently, have bought a specific product, haven't opened any emails, etc. This could also be useful for freelancers like me since you can create different workspaces within Customer.io. I have configured it this way to handle email marketing for a few of my clients, and the software keeps everything organized and separate. This might not be the best tool for small businesses, considering the price. It may be better to start out with a cheaper email marketing tool, and then if/when necessary, scale-up with a tool like Customer.io.
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While Fin is an awesome investment, the setup and tuning of responses to meet brand alignment and delivery have taken some time. If you prioritize not just resolution rate and accuracy, but style and delivery, it's a bigger lift. However, for the vast majority of businesses, the step and its impact on resource management are a worthy investment.
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Pros
  • Ease of use, a good tool for non programmers, or not so tech savvy people.
  • Great support, willing to help a lot, by chat, calls, or screen sharing.
  • Fast updates, it's a newer tool, but they are coming with fixes and updates fast.
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  • Great UI - everyone has their own inbox but can still see all incoming messages.
  • Fin AI - we love the AI functionality, it saves tons of time of the team.
  • Automated emails - we configured Intercom in a way that it uses a lot of information we have about our users (e.g. their subscription, date of upgrade, etc.) so that we can use it to automate communication.
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Cons
  • I may be missing it in the UI, but a place to see the list of emails who qualify for a certain email.
  • One easy to view chart of all our automated/lifecycle emails to see what a given user would see over their customer journey. (This is really just a feature request/idea - the product itself is really awesome.)
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  • Some things are repetitive. Ex: If you provide guidance to ask a follow-up question, it'll ask that follow-up question each time.
  • It'd be cool to have a "vibe" check for auto-sorting. Ex: We have responses to our outreach feed into Intercom. It'd be cool to have a way to auto-sort based on if they ask a detailed question or just a plain "interested" response.
  • It'd be cool if Fin by Intercom flagged conversations, like it a customer seemed agitated, for the team to review.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
It's currently a perfect fit for our needs, and we are customer-focused and small. When we grow, we may need to re-evaluate, but our current team finds it easy. Reviewing conversations is simple and allows for great training. The canned replies make service fast and easy. Smart suggestions remove the need to re-write technical walkthroughs and explanations for our FAQ
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Usability
It is really difficult to leverage all the neat features without a developer. I actually think the base software could be really great for a small business if the price is right, but there are so many things you *can* do but have to know how to do them or have access to your website and the ability to code.
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It takes a bit of getting used to. It's easy to start off with simple pieces of answering queries, etc. The real part is when one tries to use workflows with triggers and automation. Then, it can be a whole different experience. I would love to see it being much simpler in terms of usability there.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
always there
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Performance
No answers on this topic
works perfect
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Support Rating
No answers on this topic
Intercom is the premier customer support/engagement model and it definitely has one of the top tier customer support teams as well. I don't think I have ever waited more than 5 minutes to get the information I need or get help with an issue. They are incredible and I aim to model our customer service department after them.
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Online Training
No answers on this topic
Easy to know the learning path
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
The implementation was surprisingly easy but we are having to adapt from our old process to work well with Intercom.
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Alternatives Considered
We used Autopilot in the past. It worked well but the integration wasn't very good, considering they only used cookies. We have a very complex system right now to be able to track every customer, and it was expensive but worth it. Autopilot worked very well when we were starting, but then it didn't track purchases, it wasn't easy to change a customer attribute, and so on (this was a few years ago, probably they have improved a lot). It was more visual and better to create huge workflows. . Mailchimp was the first program we used. It's very basic but good at what it does: sending a newsletter to your small database. It has integrated very well with other services and we haven't used in a lot of time, but certainly was grown a lot so it must be doing things fine. I also tried Active Campaign but it was almost the same as Autopilot.
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In my experience, what Intercom has done with Fin by Intercom is far more innovative and forward thinking than other tools I've used. It's intuitive, easy, and they are always releasing new things to make Fin by Intercom even more powerful.
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Return on Investment
  • Helped increase our new user engagement with our cloud-based software
  • Helped our sales team identify clients who had dropped off and stopped interacting with our software
  • Helped our sales and customer service team track which clients were completing their full registration process
  • Helped our marketing, sales, and customer service team identify key features and messaging with A/B testing for different campaigns
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  • I like how I don't feel like I need to constantly be monitoring support, especially on weekends
  • It's great that the user will get some response right away, I just need to hope that the response they do get is good enough if I'm awk
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ScreenShots

Customer.io Screenshots

Screenshot of data-driven or manual segments that can be created in the no-code builder for recipient lists, campaign triggers, filters, and conversion goals.Screenshot of the code editor for email, that helps navigate code and iterate.Screenshot of account performance, visible at a glance from the Dashboard view.Screenshot of drag and drop messages, time delays, and branches where desired, to build cross-channel campaigns.Screenshot of triggered campaigns based on forms submissions, customer attributes, customer actions, and dates.Screenshot of localization for global audiences. One message can be delivered in multiple languages.

Fin by Intercom Screenshots

Screenshot of Fin, delivering conversational support experience to customers.Screenshot of where to monitor, analyze, and optimize Fin by spotting trends, filling content gaps, and fixing quality issues topic by topic.Screenshot of where to customize Fin's tone of voice, teach it support knowledge and policies, and configure how it handles complex tasks in over 45 languages.Screenshot of where to test answers, review the sources and settings that shape them, and get tailored recommendations to optimize performance.Screenshot of Fin, as it appears across email and live chat to phone, SMS, and social. Fin can answer any question, across any channel, any time.