Drift
Conversational marketing + sales chat — chatbots, live chat, account-based marketing.
Intercom
In-app messaging plus chatbot plus helpdesk. Premium pricing common in venture-funded SaaS.
Drift vs Intercom
A side-by-side breakdown of Drift and Intercom — pricing in INR and USD, regional coverage, who each is best for, and the honest call on which to pick.
Side-by-side
| Dimension | Drift | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Category | crm | crm |
| Entry pricing (USD) | $2500/mo | $39/mo |
| Entry pricing (INR) | — | — |
| Regions covered | US · GLOBAL | US · GLOBAL |
Which one should you pick?
Pick Drift if…
- Your customer base is concentrated in US / GLOBAL.
- Conversational marketing + sales chat — chatbots, live chat, account-based marketing.
Pick Intercom if…
- Your customer base is concentrated in US / GLOBAL.
- In-app messaging plus chatbot plus helpdesk. Premium pricing common in venture-funded SaaS.
- Entry pricing matters and you don't need a feature Drift bundles at its tier.
FAQ
›Is Drift or Intercom cheaper?
Intercom starts at $39/mo, Drift starts at $2500/mo — Intercom wins on entry pricing. But entry pricing is rarely your real cost; check our pricing-curve modelling on each tool's review page for ARR projections.
›When should I pick Drift over Intercom?
Both compete in the same crm space. Pick Drift if your stack is closer to its native integrations, your team already uses sister products from the same vendor, or its regional coverage matches your customer base. Pick Intercom for the inverse.
›Can I migrate from Drift to Intercom later?
Most modern SaaS supports CSV/JSON export for the core data model. The migration cost is integration work — every Zapier workflow, every webhook URL, every API token has to be re-wired. Budget 2-4 weeks of engineering time for a non-trivial production migration.
›Are there alternatives to both Drift and Intercom?
Yes — browse the full crm category at /tools/category/crm for every tool we cover.