Intercom vs Front

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Our analysts compared Intercom vs Front based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Help Desk Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Intercom is a conversational platform that personalizes messaging throughout the customer journey using customer, company and behavioral data. It offers chatbots, marketing campaigns, self-service functions, proactive tours and more. Collaborative inboxes, reporting and automated workflows help users interact with customers across all channels.

It integrates with out-of-the-box modules to automate actions and sync data and allows users to build their setups based on business needs. Businesses can see who uses their products and communicate with customers via targeted, behavior-driven emails and in-app messages.
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Front is a customer communication platform offering tailor-made services at scale. With the simplicity of the email inbox combined with the insights and automation of CRM, it helps agents work to provide world-class support and send professional replies faster. It allows users to keep conversations organized across channels while maintaining a personal touch, efficiency and quality.
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$39/Seat, Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
$19/User, Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
Small 
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Medium 
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Large 
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Small 
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Medium 
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Large 
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Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Customize Bots: Build code-free bots that automatically triage conversations, initiate contact using advanced targeting and engage high-intent leads. 
  • Reply Faster: Apply macros or pre-written responses to maintain a consistent support experience even when live agents are unavailable. Automate repetitive actions, like tagging, assigning and updating tickets, across multiple conversations at once. 
  • Market Effectively: Engage potential leads with personalized messages to support the sales process and improve branding in real time. 
  • Enhance Support: Use the Conversational Support Starter Kit to learn how to combine proactive self-serve, AI-powered and human support to resolve customer issues at scale. 
  • Integrate Easily: Connect with tools like Marketo, Shopify and Stripe to enhance data interoperability and automate workflows. 
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  • Clean Interface: Get everyone on board with a clean and intuitive functionality.  
  • Improve Team Efficiency: Create automatic workflows that work for the team, from assigned tasks to message escalation. 
  • Actionable Data: Get insights to improve performance, customer satisfaction and communication. 
  • Smarter Collaboration: Draft responses together with peers without losing time, duplicating tasks and missing context. 
  • Unmatched Service: Work together on messages, see which agent owns what and share context with real-time collaboration. Create custom workflows that automatically triage, route and escalate messages to please customers.  
  • Full Administration Control: Serve customers best by controlling permissions, access rights, provisioning and more. 
  • Improved Security: Take advantage of a platform built using industry-standard encryption. Ensure performance never slips and deliver unique enterprise identifiers with backups.  
  • Compliance: Protect data with SOC 2 and GDPR. Serve customers best by controlling permissions, access rights, provisioning and more.  
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  • Mobile Carousels: Manage communication with a customizable, code-free interface on a single or multiple screens. Request device permissions, add deep links, send dynamic carousel messages, open URLs, start conversations in the messenger and give users the option to chat with support. 
  • Team Messaging: Organize and respond to conversations on web, mobile and email and social channels from a central location. Create separate inboxes for support and sales, set permissions and use notes to collaborate on difficult questions.  
  • Product Tours: Create customizable interactive guides to orient new customers and explain products.  
  • Series Visual Campaign Builder: Use a drag-and-drop visual campaign builder to create behavior-based customer messaging campaigns. Send in-app and in-product messages and make feature announcements. Adjust paths for wait time, message type and unique tags. 
  • Conversational Support: Manage, route and prioritize conversations. Automate answers to common questions with the Resolution Bot. Customize user experience with intelligent chatbots based on customer behavior. 
  • Customer Data: Track unique business and customer data, like business type, location, pricing plan, product type and spend. Integrate data from a tech stack to personalize interactions and keep information up to date.
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  • Integration: Connect with over 100 different apps to manage projects and view all communication modules right in the inbox. 
  • Team Collaboration: Give team confidence and accountability without dropping the ball or missing messages. Keep everyone on the same page by giving agents a shared perspective on email for visibility. Route messages automatically to teammates, based on sender, keywords and time of day or month. 
  • Analytics: Get detailed insights into email activity, understand where workflows must improve and fuel positive changes. 
  • Customer Experience: Automate all the busy work to deliver quick and seamless customer responses. Route messages by creating if-then workflows to focus. Get insights into communication through email analytics, spot scope of improvements and share key results with clients. 
  • Universal Inbox: Keep messages in email, live chat and SMS text actionable and organized in one platform. Deliver messages correctly with assignments and workflow rules based on sender, keywords, time of day and more. 
  • Workflow Management: Track the volume for agents and customers, balance workload and understand performance to grow your business intelligently. Measure and achieve response time goals with automation, timing and other triggers. 
  • Remote Team Collaboration: Stay aligned, motivated and connected with built-in team accountability and collaboration features. Empower teams to work from anywhere and anytime and deliver consistent results. 
  • Multi-Channel Communication: Reduce browser tabs and manage multiple customer communication channels in a single platform. Connect SMS, email, live chat and Facebook to one collaborative hub.  
  • Email Management: Organize the inbox and make it actionable to avoid important messages slipping through the cracks. Know who’s working on what to cut down on the back and forth.  
  • Shared Inbox: Manage support, contact and info and collaborate on all customer communication channels to respond faster. Plug in group email accounts such as team into a shared inbox and offer a shared view of every email to the team. Allow agents to collaborate on email to move through the queue faster. 
  • Email Delegation: Choose a delegate from teammates and collaborate in real time. Comment internally on an email. Work together on email drafts before hitting send to get the right response every time.  
  • Help Desk: Assign a number to every customer message and manage support without the ticket numbers to offer a personal reply to every customer. 
  • CRM: Reference a shared view of client information easily from the inbox by bringing CRM into the help desk system. Set up automation that escalates, routes, and assigns work depending on customer data to help teams align and serve critical customers effectively.  
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Product Ranking

#6

among all
Help Desk Software

#44

among all
Help Desk Software

Find out who the leaders are

Analyst Rating Summary

83
75
58
87
76
50
100
67
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Dashboards and Reporting
Email Management
Integrations and Extensibility
Platform Capabilities
Email Management
Integrations and Extensibility
Team Collaboration
Agent Productivity

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Intercom
Front
+ Add Product + Add Product
Agent Productivity Call Center Management Dashboards And Reporting Email Management Live Chat Management Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Team Collaboration Ticket Management 58 76 100 98 81 80 85 80 70 87 50 67 95 81 50 66 88 79 0 25 50 75 100
50%
0%
50%
67%
17%
16%
50%
0%
50%
0%
0%
100%
100%
0%
0%
50%
0%
50%
100%
0%
0%
86%
0%
14%
73%
0%
27%
73%
0%
27%
80%
0%
20%
40%
0%
60%
83%
0%
17%
54%
0%
46%
50%
17%
33%
83%
0%
17%
71%
0%
29%
71%
12%
17%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

89%
0%
11%
79%
0%
21%
78%
0%
22%
78%
0%
22%

User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 3224 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 1252 reviews
89%
of users recommend this product

Intercom has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 89% when considering 3224 user reviews from 6 recognized software review sites.

92%
of users recommend this product

Front has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 92% when considering 1252 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

5.0 (19)
4.9 (11)
4.4 (1333)
4.6 (968)
4.52 (859)
n/a
4.5 (754)
4.5 (211)
4.4 (147)
n/a
4.2 (112)
4.5 (62)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Intercom and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Dashboards and Reporting.

Dashboards and Reporting Award

Front stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Usability: The platform is easy to use, straightforward and intuitive, according to 94% of users who commented on this aspect.
Customer Support: According to 74% of users who mentioned this, support reps are knowledgeable and helpful.
Training: Of the total users who commented on this feature, 90% liked the onboarding resources, training guides and simplicity of navigation.
Communication: 90% of users who commented on this appreciated being able to answer a high volume of questions, customize bots, automate responses and organize conversations.
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Intuitive Interface: Front's user-friendly interface makes it easy for teams to quickly get up to speed and collaborate effectively.
Shared Inbox: The shared inbox allows multiple team members to work together on customer emails, ensuring faster response times and better collaboration.
Automation: Front's automation features, such as auto-replies and canned responses, help streamline workflows and save time.
Integrations: Front integrates seamlessly with popular CRM and productivity tools, providing a centralized platform for customer communication.
Mobile Accessibility: The mobile app allows teams to stay connected and respond to customer inquiries from anywhere, at any time.
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Value for Money: The pricing is hard to understand and skews expensive, according to 100% of users who mentioned this.
Reporting: According to 67% of users who reviewed this feature, internal reports are limited and inaccurate.
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Clunky Interface: Front's user interface can be cumbersome to navigate, with users reporting difficulties finding specific features and settings.
Limited Customization: Front offers limited customization options, making it challenging for users to tailor the software to their specific needs.
Poor Ticket Management: Front's ticket management system lacks advanced features such as automated ticket routing and escalation, which can lead to inefficiencies in ticket handling.
Integration Issues: Front's integration with other business tools can be unreliable, resulting in data inconsistencies and workflow disruptions.
High Cost: Front's pricing structure is perceived as expensive compared to competing help desk software, especially for small businesses with limited budgets.
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Intercom offers a comprehensive platform to manage communications and increase engagement, via chatbots, product tours, email campaigns, automated answers and more. Based on user reviews, the product offers an intuitive interface, excellent customer support and useful onboarding resources. Users appreciated that they can customize automated tasks and in-app messages. Many reviewers also liked that they can assign conversations, use add-ons, send emails, send attachments and handle all customer outreach from a single platform. However, some users mentioned that the product is expensive and has limited reporting capabilities. All things considered, Intercom is a great solution for businesses in need of a complete communications platform.

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Front has received a multitude of positive reviews in the last year. Users commend its intuitive interface, robust feature set, and seamless integration with other applications. They also appreciate its ability to automate tasks, track customer interactions, and provide comprehensive reporting. In comparison to other help desk software, Front stands out for its collaborative capabilities, which allow multiple team members to work on the same ticket simultaneously. Additionally, Front's focus on customer experience is evident in its customizable workflows and personalized communication options. These strengths are important because they enhance productivity, improve customer satisfaction, and provide valuable insights for businesses. Front is most suited for businesses that prioritize customer service and seek a comprehensive help desk solution. Its collaborative features, robust functionality, and focus on customer experience make it an ideal choice for teams that need to manage a high volume of support requests efficiently and effectively. Whether you're a small business just starting out or a large enterprise with complex support needs, Front offers a scalable and customizable solution that can grow with your business.

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Screenshots

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