The short answer
- For 5 agents on Intercom Advanced, Chatwoot's cloud plan covers email, live chat, assignment, macros and a help center, and is modeled to save $3,060 in year one. the math
- For 1 person answering support email, an agent skill that drafts replies did the job in our test: 12 of 12 test tickets passed a strict grader after 5 rounds (Stackcut's own test, not a customer). our test
- Help Scout's free plan (5 users, 1 inbox, 100 contacts a month) may already cover a tiny team. the math
- Stay on a help desk if you need SLAs, assignment, reporting or a shared team inbox, or if replies must go out without a person checking them. our test
Four ways to stop paying for Zendesk and Intercom
A cheaper vendor
Switch vendor Chatwoot cloud: saves $3,060 in year one (+4 more below)
Open source
Chatwoot community: saves $2,300 in year one (+1 more below)
An agent skill
Customer Support plugin (Anthropic knowledge-work-plugins): saves $478 in year one (+1 more below)
Replace with AI
Small-team support inbox: not priced yet
The best option of each kind, modeled, not measured: each figure links its math. Keeping Zendesk and Intercom is a valid answer too.
Who should switch, and who shouldn't
Switch if
- You handle under about 20 tickets a day and 1 or 2 people answer email. our test
- You use email, chat, assignment, macros and a help center, not Fin, voice or complex routing. recipe
- Your renewal is coming up. Zendesk needs 30 days' notice before the term ends, or it auto-renews. support.zendesk.com
Stay if
- You rely on SLA policies and timers, CSAT surveys, assignment rules or support reporting. support.zendesk.com
- An AI agent answers tickets for you: none of these paths matches Intercom's Fin, which is billed at $0.99 per outcome on top of seats. intercom.com
- Tickets carry regulated data such as health or payments. our test
What Zendesk and Intercom cost today
List prices from each vendor's pricing page, as stored in the Stackcut catalog. Each price links its source.
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly (per month) | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zendesk Support Team | $25/agent/mo | $19/agent/mo | Email and ticketing, ticket routing, pre-written responses (macros), automations and triggers, prebuilt dashboards; no messaging/live chat or help center (Suite only). $25/agent billed monthly (the page's Monthly toggle), $19/agent/month paid yearly. |
| Zendesk Suite Team | $69/agent/mo | $55/agent/mo | Adds messaging and live chat, 1 help center (knowledge base), AI agents (billed per automated resolution), omnichannel routing and telephony; file storage 10 GB + 2 GB per agent. $69/agent billed monthly, $55/agent/month paid yearly. |
| Zendesk Suite Professional | $149/agent/mo | $115/agent/mo | Adds skills-based routing, SLAs, CSAT surveys, side conversations, up to 5 help centers, up to 100 light agents and an IVR phone tree. Copilot add-on $50/agent/month paid yearly. |
| Intercom Essential | $39/agent/mo | $29/agent/mo | Messenger live chat, shared inbox and ticketing, pre-built reports, public help center, basic automation; no Workflows builder, round-robin assignment or multiple team inboxes (Advanced). Fin AI Agent extra at $0.99 per outcome. 1 full seat minimum. |
| Intercom Advanced | $99/agent/mo | $85/agent/mo | Adds the Workflows automation builder, multiple team inboxes, round-robin assignment, a private and multilingual help center; includes 20 free Lite seats. Fin extra. |
| Intercom Expert | $139/agent/mo | $132/agent/mo | Adds SSO and identity management, HIPAA support, SLAs, multibrand Messenger and help center; includes 50 free Lite seats. Fin extra. |
- Intercom's Fin AI agent is billed on top at $0.99 per outcome. intercom.com
The alternatives, ranked
10 ways out, ranked by modeled saving in the first year after setup and upkeep (9 priced). Modeled, not measured: each figure links the math on the recipe page.
- Chatwoot paths are modeled for 5 agents against Intercom Advanced at $85/agent/mo billed yearly; the agent skill for 1 person against Zendesk Suite Team. recipe
- Tested by Stackcut: 12 of 12 test tickets passed a strict independent grader after 5 rounds. our test
- No new subscription if you already pay for an agent that runs skills: a skill is a folder of files the agent loads. agentskills.io
- Drafts only: nothing is sent, deleted or changed without a person. our test
- No ticket queue, assignment, SLAs, reporting, live chat or help center. our test
- Fixing one rule can break another reply; re-run the whole ticket set after every change. our test
- Help Scout's free plan (5 users, 1 inbox, 100 contacts a month) may already cover a tiny team. helpscout.com
Compare a specific alternative
Considering a specific destination? Read its checked comparison before deciding what to move.
- Intercom vs Chatwoot Checked migration details, public switching accounts.
- Zendesk vs Chatwoot Checked migration details, public switching accounts.
What support costs at 1, 5 and 20 agents
Per-agent list prices, billed yearly where the vendor offers it. Free plans stop at a set number of agents.
| Option | List price | 1 agent | 5 agents | 20 agents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zendesk Support Team today | $19/agent/mobilled yearly | $19 | $95 | $380 |
| Zendesk Suite Team today | $55/agent/mobilled yearly | $55 | $275 | $1,100 |
| Intercom Essential today | $29/agent/mobilled yearly | $29 | $145 | $580 |
| Intercom Advanced today | $85/agent/mobilled yearly | $85 | $425 | $1,700 |
| Help Scout Standard | $25/agent/mobilled yearly | $25 | $125 | $500 |
| Front Starter | $25/agent/mobilled yearly | $25 | $125 | up to 10 users |
| Chatwoot Startups (cloud) | $19/agent/mobilled monthly | $19 | $95 | $380 |
| Chatwoot Hacker (free cloud) | $0/agent/mofree, 500 conversations a month | $0 | up to 2 users | up to 2 users |
| Help Scout Free | $0/agent/mo1 inbox, 100 contacts a month | $0 | $0 | up to 5 users |
| Agent skill that drafts repliesdrafts only; a person sends | $0/moruns in the agent you already pay for | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Chatwoot community (self-hosted) | $0 licensecommunity and paid editions differ | $0+ your server | $0+ your server | $0+ your server |
How people actually left Zendesk and Intercom
6 public accounts of leaving Zendesk and Intercom: 3 switched, 1 switching, 1 evaluated, 1 went back. Summaries are ours; each links the original, and each was checked against its page before it appeared here.
A team mid-migration from Zendesk to self-hosted Chatwoot filed a bug in week one: agent emails thread into conversations attributed to the customer, and there is no reliable reply-by-email path, a workflow they relied on in Zendesk. GitHub
An engineer who implemented self-hosted Chatwoot for a growing support team benchmarks it against Zendesk: fine so far, but they worry search performance on PostgreSQL will make Chatwoot feel sluggish versus Zendesk once archives and agent counts grow. GitHub
The automation studio explains why it moved its own support stack to Chatwoot after weighing it against Intercom, citing per-seat costs, WhatsApp pricing, data control and n8n integration; it concedes Fin's AI lead and self-host upkeep. Affiliate links disclosed. Achiya Automation
A developer wrote and published a Python script to move his organization's Intercom conversations and contacts into a self-hosted Chatwoot inbox, then closed the Intercom account. The README doubles as a field report on the API pitfalls (rate limits, Fin messages, SMTP notifications). GitHub
Hands-on-style evaluation concluding that self-hosted Chatwoot covers the core support-desk job for 2-10 agent teams with a technical person, at a fraction of Intercom's cost, while conceding real gaps in outbound engagement, reporting and mobile. ProvenLabs
Author of a vendor blog (Supp sells an AI classification layer) reports watching four teams leave Intercom/Zendesk-style cloud tools for self-hosted Chatwoot in the past year; two reverted to cloud within six months. Supp
How to leave Zendesk and Intercom
Export first, then cancel. Every step links the vendor's own help page, checked on the date shown.
- Keep answering from your current tool while the new one runs for a week, then re-point your support address and chat widget, then cancel. recipe
How to leave Zendesk
Export first
- Tickets, users, organizations: Admin Center → Account → Tools → Reports (after Support enables it) (JSON, CSV (no comments), XML (≤500 MB)). Suite Growth+/Support Professional+; Team plans must use the REST API. Can take a day; links last ≥3 days. support.zendesk.com
What you lose
- SLA policies and timers
- CSAT surveys
- Assignment, collision detection, reporting
Cancel
- Export tickets as JSON (CSV leaves out comments). The account owner must first ask Zendesk Support to enable exports.
- Admin Center → Account → Billing → Subscription → Manage → Remove products or cancel account (account owner only; sales-assisted accounts must contact Sales).
- Takes effect
- End of the billing cycle.
- Refunds
- Fees are non-cancelable and non-refundable.
- Notice
- 30 days before the term ends, or the term auto-renews (revops@zendesk.com).
- After you cancel
- Data deletion starts 90 days after cancellation; tickets are then removed within 40 days, irreversibly.
How to leave Intercom
Export first
- Conversation data: Reports → Dataset export (CSV, JSON to Amazon S3). The CSV holds IDs, timestamps, attributes and metrics, not message text; exporting a single conversation from the inbox gives the full transcript. Data goes back up to 2 years. intercom.com
Cancel
- Export conversation data first (see export).
- Settings → Subscription → Billing → Payment details → Cancel subscription.
- On a contract, talk to your account manager instead of cancelling in the app.
- Takes effect
- You keep access until the end of the current billing period, then lose it.
- Refunds
- Annual subscriptions are paid upfront and aren't refunded pro rata if you cancel early.
- Notice
- Contract customers must give written notice at least 30 days before the renewal date, or the contract renews for another 12 months.
- After you cancel
- Cancelling doesn't delete your data, but you lose access to it once the subscription ends unless you restart a plan.
How to leave Help Scout
Export first
- Conversations, customers, users: Inbox API (rate limit by plan: 200/400/800 per minute) (JSON). docs.helpscout.com
- Knowledge base articles: Docs API (JSON). docs.helpscout.com
- Reports: Reports → Export (CSV, XLSX). docs.helpscout.com
What you lose
- SLA policies
- Satisfaction surveys
- Workflow auto-assignment
- Report history
Cancel
- Export conversations (Inbox API) and Docs articles (Docs API) first.
- Avatar → Your Plan (→ Manage your plan) → Delete Account (account owner only).
- Takes effect
- Immediately: access ends when you delete, so export first.
- Refunds
- 30-day money-back guarantee on your first payment; otherwise no refunds for partial or annual periods.
- Notice
- None.
- After you cancel
- Terms allow restoring data on written request within 14 days (the cancel doc says 60): plan around 14.
Not covered by the paths above, per the recipe: Fin parity, Voice, Complex routing, Enterprise SLAs, SSO and audit parity in free editions. If you rely on one of these, keep the incumbent or check the path closely.
Moving your data, destination by destination
What each destination's importer carries over, what it leaves behind, and any help it offers switchers.
To Chatwoot
Official guide chatwoot.com · Tools: Chatwoot built-in Intercom importer, Intercom private app + Access Token
Moves: contacts (full); conversations including message history (full); source timestamps and source details (partial). chatwoot.com
Doesn't move: file attachments; live channels (website widget, Messenger, other Intercom channels); File attachments; Intercom teammates, teams, assignments, routing rules, automations, apps and Messenger settings; Continuous sync - the import is a one-time migration. chatwoot.com
Watch out for:
- The import is one-time; new changes in Intercom are not continuously synced chatwoot.com
- Imported conversations are resolved and live in source-specific import inboxes, not in your live channels chatwoot.com
- Attachments are skipped, with only a count note added to the message chatwoot.com
Community guide github.com · Tools: intercom_to_chatwoot (Python script)
Moves: conversations and all messages/replies (full); contacts (full). github.com
Doesn't move: Empty messages (including some Fin bot messages) are skipped; Anything outside the conversation ID range given on the command line. github.com
Watch out for:
- The import sends initial email notifications to users and the assigned agent; the author strongly recommends disabling SMTP first github.com
- The code was largely AI-generated and worked around API limits, so review before running github.com
- Predates Chatwoot's built-in Intercom importer and remains useful for self-hosted or custom imports github.com
Switching help: On its Intercom comparison page, Chatwoot offers migration help for switchers: 'Our team can help you migrate your data and get set up.' Its FAQ says the team can help Enterprise customers with the transition, alongside REST-API and community-script paths. chatwoot.com
Switching help: 15-day free trial of the full Chatwoot product with no credit card. Beyond the trial, the Hacker cloud plan is $0 for up to 2 agents (500 conversations/month) and the self-hosted Community Edition is free forever with unlimited agents. chatwoot.com
Switching help: Chatwoot offers the Startups cloud plan free of charge to open-source projects and nonprofits, granted on request by email. chatwoot.com
From each destination's own migration docs and switching pages, plus community write-ups where no official guide exists, each checked against its page. Confirm terms on the linked page before you rely on an offer.
Open-source and forkable options
- Chatwoot community: 5 agents; email and basic website support License: Community and paid editions differ. Self-hosted pricing: https://www.chatwoot.com/pricing/self-hosted-plans
- FreeScout: FreeScout is a free self-hosted shared mailbox with notes, assignment and collision detection; templates, knowledge base, chat and workflows are paid one-time modules. License: open_source
Open source means no license fee, not free to run: the server, backups and upgrades are yours. Read the license before you fork or resell; several of these are open-core or source-available.
Replace with AI, or hand it to an agent skill
Agent skill Customer Support plugin (Anthropic knowledge-work-plugins): Help desk triage, response drafting, escalation packages and KB-article drafts for a small team (README: /triage, /draft-response, /escalate, /kb-article). First year: saves $478 (modeled, not measured).
Agent skill Agent skill: draft support repliesTested by Stackcut · Works, with caveats: 1 person answering support email from their normal inbox. The skill drafts replies from your help docs and suggests tags; a person checks and sends every reply. First year: saves $160 (modeled, not measured).
Replace with AI Replace with AI: small-team support inbox: Configure a maintained inbox and migrate supported history; optionally add a supervised draft assistant. Not priced in the catalog yet.
Tested by Stackcut
Stackcut's own test, not a customer: we ran the path end to end on one of our own products.
Help desk seat → an agent skill that drafts support replies
Question. Can a skill folder (SKILL.md plus reference files) draft support replies good enough to send after a quick human check, without a help desk subscription?
Numbers
- 12 test tickets, strict independent grader
- Pass rate by round: 9, 9, 11, 11, 12 of 12
- Longest passing draft: 136 words
- About 6.5 minutes of agent time per test round
Verdict
Good replacement for a low-volume help desk if a person reviews every draft before sending. Budget a few hours to write the reference files and a test set, and re-test after every change.
Good fit when
- Under ~20 tickets a day
- Your answers live in a few pages of facts and policies
- One or two people answer email
Not a fit when
- You need SLAs, ticket assignment, reporting or a shared inbox for a team
- Replies must go out without a person checking them
- You handle regulated data (health, payments) in tickets
FAQ
Can I leave Zendesk mid-contract?
You can cancel, but Zendesk fees are non-cancelable and non-refundable, cancelling takes effect at the end of the billing cycle, and you need 30 days' notice before the term ends or it auto-renews. support.zendesk.com
How do I get my tickets out of Zendesk?
Export them as JSON, since CSV leaves out comments. The account owner must first ask Zendesk Support to enable exports, and Team plans have to use the REST API. support.zendesk.com
How do I cancel Intercom?
Settings → Subscription → Billing → Payment details → Cancel subscription. On a contract, give written notice at least 30 days before renewal through your account manager. intercom.com
Can an agent skill replace a help desk?
For 1 or 2 people answering email, it can, as long as a person checks and sends every draft. It has no ticket queue, assignment, SLAs, reporting, live chat or help center. Stackcut's own test, not a customer. our test
Keep reading
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Connect the Stackcut MCP server (https://stackcut.io/mcp, no API key) and ask: “We're 3 people on Zendesk Suite Team and answer about 10 support emails a day. What should we do?”
find_alternatives({"vendor": "Zendesk", "seats": 3,
"features_used": ["Email support", "Macros", "Public help content"]})