Intercom Fin Alternatives for a Small Ecommerce Store: 10 AI Agents and What They Cost

Intercom Fin alternatives are worth a look when you run a small online store and the per-outcome bill grows faster than your orders. Start with what you need the AI to do, and what you're happy to pay for it.

What Fin Costs a Small Store in 2026#

Fin is Intercom's AI agent, now sold on its own as Fin from fin.ai. If you keep your current helpdesk, it's $0.99 per outcome with a minimum of 50 outcomes a month. If you take Intercom's helpdesk as well, it's from $0.99 per outcome plus $19 per helpdesk seat a month (as of October 2026).

In fairness to Fin, the same page lists a 14-day free trial with no credit card, "No setup, integration, or platform fees", and "Unlimited teammates" with no extra seat cost.

The costs that grow are the ones tied to volume: every outcome past the minimum, and any Intercom add-ons you pick up along the way. Our Intercom pricing guide has worked totals and the add-on prices.

Check what counts as an outcome, because that's the unit on your bill. Going by Intercom's own definition, a resolution counts after Fin's last answer if the customer says it helped or leaves without asking for more. A Procedure that ends in a hand-off you set up counts too. A customer asking for a person, a Procedure that fails or a reply to a greeting doesn't.

What 500 AI Conversations a Month Cost on Each#

Hay.chat counts a resolution when the AI resolved the conversation by following your rules, and any action it sent for your approval counts as one, whatever you decide.

The AI line is only part of the bill, so we also worked out what AI costs against the helpdesk for a few typical stores.

Tidio Lyro#

Lyro is Tidio's AI agent. Tidio sells it as a stand-alone product, billed apart from the Tidio plan your team uses for live chat. The free plan gives you 50 Lyro conversations once. They don't renew. More on how it works in Hay.chat vs Tidio Lyro.

• Who it suits: chat-first shops with modest AI volume that want a cheap way in.
• Price (October 2026): Starter is $24.17 a month for 100 conversations. Lyro starts at $32.50 a month billed yearly for 50 Lyro conversations, and 500 cost $350 on monthly billing. Our Tidio pricing guide has every pack.
• Drawback: two meters. Lyro can be bought on its own, but if your team outgrows the free human chats, the chat plan is billed apart and you're watching two allowances.

Crisp#

Crisp prices per workspace, not per seat, which is unusual in this list. Each paid plan comes with some AI credits, and the pricing page turns them into a rough count of automated conversations. We set it against Hay.chat in Hay.chat vs Crisp.

• Who it suits: small teams who want chat, a shared inbox and some AI on one predictable bill.
• Price (October 2026): Mini $45, Essentials $95 and Plus $295 a month per workspace, with $5, $25 and $75 of AI credits included. Crisp puts Essentials at around 450 automated conversations. Extra agents are $10 a month, and VAT isn't included.
• Drawback: the page doesn't say what extra AI credits cost once the included ones run out.

Gorgias AI Agent#

Gorgias is a Shopify-first helpdesk, and its AI Agent comes on every plan. You pay for each automated interaction past the plan's allowance, and each one also counts as a helpdesk ticket. The side-by-side is in Hay.chat vs Gorgias.

• Who it suits: Shopify stores that want the helpdesk and the AI from one vendor.
• Price (October 2026): Basic with the AI Agent is $90 a month on monthly billing, with 300 tickets and 30 automated interactions. Past that, the plan cards say $1.50 per interaction, and the FAQ says $1.00 on monthly plans or $0.90 on annual. Our Gorgias pricing guide does the sum both ways.
• Drawback: two meters on one bill. Every AI interaction is also a ticket, so a busy AI month eats into your ticket allowance as well.

Help Scout AI Answers#

Help Scout is an email-first helpdesk, and AI Answers is its pay-per-resolution AI, charged monthly on top of your seats.

• Who it suits: small teams already on Help Scout, or ones who want a clean email desk with AI added.
• Price (October 2026): Standard $25, Plus $45 and Pro $75 per user a month. AI Answers is $0.75 per resolution.
• Drawback: seats still apply on top of the per-resolution charge, so the bill grows with your team and your volume.

Zendesk AI Agents#

Zendesk includes AI agents on every plan, with a small allowance of automated resolutions per agent each month. If the helpdesk is what you want to leave, our free Zendesk alternatives post checks every free plan, and the AI side is in Hay.chat vs Zendesk AI.

• Who it suits: teams already on Zendesk who want the AI from the same vendor.
• Price (October 2026): Suite Team is $55 per agent a month billed annually, with 5 automated resolutions per agent included (10 on Suite Professional). Past that, each one costs $1.50 committed or $2.00 pay-as-you-go. Copilot is $50 per agent a month (annual), on Professional and up.
• Drawback: seats plus a per-resolution charge, and that charge grows in your busiest months.

eesel AI#

eesel AI sits on top of the helpdesk you already have. Its pricing page names Zendesk and Freshdesk among its integrations, and it bills in credits.

• Who it suits: stores keeping Zendesk or Freshdesk that want to add AI without moving desk.
• Price (October 2026): Teammate starts at $299 a month for 500 credits. A ticket or chat is 1 credit, however long, and extra credits are $0.80 each. There's a free tier of 100 credits to try it.
• Drawback: $299 is the entry point, so it's a step up for a very small store.

Hay.chat#

This one's ours, so take it with a pinch of salt. Hay.chat is an AI agent that answers customers from your own documents, follows plain-language playbooks, takes actions in your store and hands the conversation to a person when it should. On Shopify it looks up orders, refunds, cancels, changes the shipping address before dispatch, and handles returns, exchanges and item swaps. WooCommerce gets order and tracking lookups, cancelling before shipping, refunds, address updates and capped coupons, through its own API. Refunds and coupons wait for your approval by default.

• Who it suits: Shopify and WooCommerce stores where most tickets are order questions, refunds and address changes. It works alongside Zendesk, calls Zendesk tools and runs as the AI inside Chatwoot inboxes, so you can keep the desk you have.
• Price (October 2026): Solo is €50 a month with 500 resolutions included, then €0.25 each. Starter is €135 with 2,000. No per-seat fee, and a 30-day free trial from sign-up with no card. Details on the pricing page.
• Drawback: it isn't a helpdesk, so there's no ticket queue like Intercom's for the work your team does itself. It connects one Shopify store per workspace, and it has no SOC 2 or other certification.

On Shopify, refunds and cancellations wait for your approval by default too. The side-by-side is in Hay.chat vs Fin.

For a hand with it, the Founder Sprint takes 10 stores on any Hay.chat plan, for 90 days at 50% off. Each week the founders help you set up the agent, review your documentation and playbooks top to bottom, and improve what it does. You can be live in a day when your docs and integrations are ready.

Book a Founder Sprint

Or start on your own: 30 days free, no card.

Chatwoot Captain#

Captain is Chatwoot's own AI, on its paid cloud plans. It runs on credits, and each plan includes a monthly allowance. Hay.chat can also run as the AI inside a Chatwoot inbox, which we cover in Hay.chat vs Chatwoot.

• Who it suits: teams already on Chatwoot Cloud who want the AI from the same vendor.
• Price (October 2026): Startups $19, Business $39 and Enterprise $99 per agent a month, with 300, 500 and 800 Captain credits a month. Extra credits are $20 per 1,000.
• Drawback: credits are spent per AI task, so the monthly cost is hard to predict from your ticket count.

HubSpot Customer Agent#

HubSpot's Customer Agent runs on HubSpot Credits inside Service Hub. It makes most sense when your customer records already live in HubSpot. We compared the two in Hay.chat vs HubSpot Breeze.

• Who it suits: teams already running sales or marketing in HubSpot.
• Price (October 2026): HubSpot Credits are $0.010 each, and Professional includes 3,000 a month. With at least one Service Professional or Enterprise seat, you can use Customer Agent free for 14 days. Professional is from $90 a seat a month on an annual commitment, plus a required one-off $1,500 onboarding fee.
• Drawback: you need the HubSpot seat and the onboarding before you get the agent, so the starting cost is high for a small store.

Voiceflow#

Voiceflow is a platform for building your own AI agent rather than a ready-made one. Businesses don't get public prices: the page asks you to book a demo or request pricing. Agencies get a free trial with no card, and billing is usage-based. The comparison is in Hay.chat vs Voiceflow.

• Who it suits: teams with a developer or an agency who want to design the agent themselves.
• Price (October 2026): not listed for businesses. You request pricing from Voiceflow.
• Drawback: someone has to build the agent and keep it running. That time is part of the cost.

When Fin Is Still the Right Call#

Plenty of stores should stay on Fin. It works with the helpdesk you already have (fin.ai names Salesforce, HubSpot, Freshworks, Dixa, Front, Zoho, Sprinklr, Gorgias and Intercom), charges no setup or platform fees and gives you a 14-day trial. If most of your tickets need understanding rather than an action in your store, or you're already on Intercom, the per-outcome bill may well be worth paying. Before you move, I'd sample a week of tickets and count how many needed someone to change, refund or cancel an order.

How to Choose a Fin Alternative for Your Store#

• If you're chat-first and run under 100 AI chats a month, look at Tidio Lyro or Crisp.
• If you're on Shopify and want a helpdesk too, look at Gorgias.
• If you're keeping Zendesk, look at Fin, eesel AI or Hay.chat.
• If most of your tickets are refunds and order changes, look at Hay.chat.
• If you have a developer and want to build your own agent, look at Voiceflow.

Try Hay.chat on Your Own Tickets#

The quickest way to judge any of these is to run your own tickets through one. In Hay.chat's Founder Sprint, the founders set it up with you, review your documentation and playbooks, and help you improve it every week for 90 days, at 50% off. Refunds, cancellations and discounts wait for your approval by default while you watch what it does.

Book a Founder Sprint

Or start on your own: 30 days free, no card.

Sources#

All vendor pages checked 27 October 2026, except Gorgias (29 October) and Tidio (3 November), whose figures come from our pricing guides.

• Fin: pricing and Fin AI Agent outcomes
• Tidio: pricing
• Crisp: pricing
• Gorgias: pricing
• Help Scout: pricing
• Zendesk: pricing
• eesel AI: pricing
• Chatwoot: pricing
• HubSpot: Service Hub pricing
• Voiceflow: pricing