Table of Contents
- Key takeaways: HubSpot vs Intercom vs Drift
- How HubSpot, Intercom and Drift rank in 2026
- HubSpot vs Intercom vs Drift: side-by-side comparison
- Is Drift still available in 2026?
- Who owns Intercom now, and did Salesforce buy Drift?
- HubSpot vs Intercom: which AI chatbot is better?
- HubSpot vs Intercom pricing: what does each cost?
- HubSpot Service Hub pricing
- Intercom (Fin) pricing
- Drift pricing
- What does it cost for a 5-seat team with 2,000 conversations a month?
- HubSpot vs Intercom vs Drift for B2B sales and lead routing
- What G2 reviewers say about HubSpot, Intercom and Drift
- Pros and cons of HubSpot, Intercom and Drift
- HubSpot
- Intercom (Fin)
- Drift
- The stack: which tool does which job
- How to choose between HubSpot, Intercom and Drift
- Use-case cheat sheet
- FAQ
- Basics
- Comparisons
- Pricing
- Ownership and migration
- Sources
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Jun 30, 2026 08:32 AM
Between HubSpot, Intercom and Drift in 2026, Intercom (now called Fin) is the best pick for AI customer service, HubSpot is the best pick for B2B lead capture on a CRM, and Drift should not be bought because Clari + Salesloft is sunsetting it.
TL;DR
- Intercom (Fin) ranks first for AI customer service. Fin costs $0.99 per outcome, and helpdesk seats start at $29 per seat per month on annual billing.
- HubSpot ranks first for B2B lead capture and routing. Chat, bots and tickets write to the same CRM record that sales already uses.
- Drift ranks last for every use. Clari + Salesloft announced its gradual sunset in March 2026 and refers Drift customers to 1mind.
- For 5 seats and 1,000 AI-resolved conversations a month, HubSpot Professional costs $920 and Fin on the Essential plan costs $1,135, both on annual billing.
- Salesforce now owns Fin. The acquisition closed on September 10, 2026, and list prices have not changed.
Key takeaways: HubSpot vs Intercom vs Drift
Tool | Best for | Key strength | Entry price (annual billing) |
AI customer service inside a product or helpdesk | Fin AI agent, in-app Messenger | $29 per seat per month plus $0.99 per Fin outcome | |
HubSpot | B2B lead capture and routing on a CRM | One contact record across chat, marketing, sales and service | Free tools, then $7 per seat per month (Starter) |
Drift | Existing customers planning a move | Legacy meeting booking and account routing | Not sold to new buyers |
SiteGPT (stack layer) | Answers trained on your own content | 12+ content sources with automatic refresh | $39 per month (Starter, billed yearly) |
Transparency note: SiteGPT publishes this comparison and sells an AI chatbot. SiteGPT is not ranked against the three tools here, because it does not replace a CRM or a helpdesk. It appears once, in the stack section, in the role it actually fills.
How HubSpot, Intercom and Drift rank in 2026
HubSpot, Intercom and Drift rank differently depending on the job, so the ranking below is split by use case. No tool is best overall. Each ranking uses four criteria: whether the product is still being developed, the quality of the AI agent, the fit with the team's system of record, and the cost for a five-seat team.
Use case | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
AI customer service agent | Intercom (Fin) | HubSpot | Drift |
B2B lead capture and sales routing | HubSpot | Intercom (Fin) | Drift |
Live chat for a small team on a budget | HubSpot | Intercom (Fin) | Drift |
In-app messaging for a SaaS product | Intercom (Fin) | HubSpot | Drift |
Chatbot building without code | HubSpot | Intercom (Fin) | Drift |
Drift ranks third in every row for one reason. A product in a gradual sunset gets no new investment, so any setup work on it is thrown away at migration.
HubSpot vs Intercom vs Drift: side-by-side comparison
HubSpot, Intercom and Drift compare as follows on status, price, AI and ratings. Every figure was checked on the vendor or review page on October 3, 2026.
Dimension | HubSpot | Intercom (Fin) | Drift |
Status | Active | Active, owned by Salesforce since September 10, 2026 | Gradual sunset announced March 2026 |
Built around | CRM contact record | Messenger and helpdesk inbox | Sales chat and meeting booking |
AI agent | Customer Agent (Breeze) | Fin | No further development |
AI pricing | 50 HubSpot Credits per resolved conversation, $0.50 at list | $0.99 per outcome | Not applicable |
Seat pricing, annual billing | Starter $7, Professional $90, Enterprise $150 per seat per month | Essential $29, Advanced $85, Expert $132 per seat per month | No public pricing |
Required onboarding fee | $1,500 (Professional), $3,500 (Enterprise), one time | None listed | Not applicable |
Free tier or trial | Free tools for up to 2 users | 14-day trial, no credit card | None |
G2 rating | |||
Best for | Teams already on HubSpot CRM | Teams that want the strongest AI agent | Nobody new |
Two naming changes explain most of the confusion in this comparison. Intercom renamed itself Fin in 2026, and G2 now lists the product as Fin. HubSpot's AI agent is sold as Customer Agent under the Breeze brand.
Is Drift still available in 2026?
Drift is still running for existing customers in 2026, but it is no longer sold as a going concern. Clari + Salesloft announced "the gradual sunset of its Drift conversational marketing solution" in its 1mind partnership release in March 2026. Under an exclusive agreement, Clari + Salesloft refers existing Drift clients to 1mind as the successor.
The practical state of Drift today:
- The Drift website redirects to a Salesloft page that reads "We've transitioned from Drift to 1mind".
- No end date is published. The release calls the sunset gradual and gives no shutdown date, so contract renewal is the real deadline for each customer.
- Login still works for current customers through the Salesloft Drift page.
- No public pricing exists for new buyers.
Salesloft bought Drift in February 2024. Eighteen months later, attackers stole OAuth tokens from Drift's Salesforce integration between August 8 and August 18, 2025, according to BleepingComputer. Salesloft revoked every active Drift token and customers had to re-authenticate.
If you are on Drift now, the seven replacement options are compared in Drift alternatives. This page covers the two suites most Drift customers shortlist first.
Who owns Intercom now, and did Salesforce buy Drift?
Salesforce owns Intercom, which now trades as Fin. Salesforce does not own Drift. The two facts are often mixed up because Salesforce appears in both stories.
Product | Owner | What happened | Date |
Fin (formerly Intercom) | Salesforce | September 10, 2026 | |
Drift | Clari + Salesloft | Gradual sunset announced, customers referred to 1mind | March 2026 |
HubSpot | HubSpot (independent, public) | No ownership change | Not applicable |
Salesforce says Fin joins its AI Labs group and keeps serving its 30,000 customers. The Intercom and Fin pricing pages still show the same plans and the same $0.99 outcome price after the close. Fin also still sells standalone on other helpdesks, including HubSpot and Salesforce.
For a HubSpot shop, this matters in one way. Fin is now a Salesforce product that plugs into a HubSpot helpdesk. Long-term roadmap priority for that pairing is a fair question to put to the sales team.
HubSpot vs Intercom: which AI chatbot is better?
Intercom's Fin is the better AI chatbot for customer service, and HubSpot's Customer Agent is the better choice when the answer needs CRM context. Drift's AI is out of the running because development has stopped.
Criterion | HubSpot Customer Agent | Intercom Fin | Verdict |
Resolution track record | Newer, improving | 76% average resolution rate, per Fin | Fin |
Data the agent can use | CRM contacts, deals, tickets, knowledge base | Help center, content, connected data sources | HubSpot for CRM context |
Channels | Chat, email, forms, calling (beta) | Chat, email, messaging channels | Tie |
Works on another helpdesk | No, HubSpot only | Yes, with a 50-outcome monthly minimum | Fin |
Billing unit | 50 credits per resolved conversation ($0.50) | $0.99 per outcome | HubSpot on unit price |
Guarantee | None published | $1M program for teams above 250,000 monthly conversations | Fin, for very large teams |
Fin's Million Dollar Guarantee has narrow terms. The $1M payout applies to customers above 250,000 conversations a month that miss a 65% resolution rate. New customers of any size get a separate 90-day satisfaction guarantee.
HubSpot's agent has a real quality gap to close. A HubSpot consultancy that surveyed users in April 2026 reported complaints about outputs "feeling generic or inaccurate". That feedback covers Breeze AI broadly, not Customer Agent alone.
Both agents answer mainly from a help center and the records inside their own platform. A team whose knowledge sits in PDFs, a docs site, YouTube videos or cloud drives has a different problem, covered in the stack section below.
HubSpot vs Intercom pricing: what does each cost?
HubSpot costs less than Intercom per AI resolution, and Intercom costs less per seat at the entry tier. Both stack a seat fee and a usage fee, so the total depends on seats and on how many conversations the AI resolves.
HubSpot Service Hub pricing
Plan | Annual billing | Monthly billing | Included credits | Notes |
Free tools | $0 | $0 | None listed | Up to 2 users, live chat with HubSpot branding |
Starter | $7 per seat per month | $20 per seat per month | 500 per month | Lowest paid tier |
Professional | $90 per seat per month | $100 per seat per month | 3,000 per month | $1,500 one-time onboarding fee, required |
Enterprise | $150 per seat per month | Talk to sales | 5,000 per month | $3,500 one-time onboarding fee, required |
Extra HubSpot Credits cost $0.010 each. HubSpot's product catalog charges 50 credits to resolve one conversation on text channels, which is $0.50. The pricing page ties the Customer Agent trial to a Professional or Enterprise seat. Unused credits do not roll over.
Intercom (Fin) pricing
Plan | Annual billing | Fin AI agent | Notes |
Essential | $29 per seat per month | $0.99 per outcome | Messenger, shared inbox, ticketing |
Advanced | $85 per seat per month | $0.99 per outcome | Workflows, multiple team inboxes, 20 free Lite seats |
Expert | $132 per seat per month | $0.99 per outcome | SSO, HIPAA support, multibrand, 50 free Lite seats |
Fin on another helpdesk | No seats required | $0.99 per outcome | Minimum monthly commitment, for example 50 outcomes |
Monthly billing costs more per seat than the annual rates above. The Copilot add-on is $29 per agent per month on annual billing, per the Intercom pricing page. Fin's pricing page lists a 14-day trial with unlimited outcomes.
Drift pricing
Drift has no public pricing in 2026. New contracts are not the product's direction, and existing terms depend on each customer's renewal date.
What does it cost for a 5-seat team with 2,000 conversations a month?
For a 5-seat team that handles 2,000 conversations a month and lets AI resolve half of them, HubSpot Professional costs $920 a month and Fin costs $1,135 to $1,415 a month. All figures use annual billing and list prices.
Line item | HubSpot Professional | Fin Essential | Fin Advanced |
5 seats | $450 | $145 | $425 |
1,000 AI resolutions | $470 (50,000 credits, 3,000 included) | $990 | $990 |
Monthly total | $920 | $1,135 | $1,415 |
One-time onboarding | $1,500 | $0 | $0 |
First-year total | $12,540 | $13,620 | $16,980 |
The pre-calculated differences:
- HubSpot Professional vs Fin Essential: $215 a month cheaper (19%). First-year saving is $1,080 (8%) after the onboarding fee.
- HubSpot Professional vs Fin Advanced: $495 a month cheaper (35%). First-year saving is $4,440 (26%). Advanced is the closer match on workflow automation.
- Seats only, no AI: Fin Essential is $145 a month against $450 for HubSpot Professional. Fin is 68% cheaper before usage.
The AI line moves with the resolution rate, and it moves faster on Fin.
AI resolution rate | Resolved conversations | HubSpot Professional | Fin Essential |
30% | 600 | $720 | $739 |
50% | 1,000 | $920 | $1,135 |
70% | 1,400 | $1,120 | $1,531 |
A team that only needs live chat and no AI agent pays far less on either tool. Five HubSpot Starter seats cost $35 a month on annual billing. A deeper cost comparison of Fin against a second helpdesk is in Zendesk vs Intercom. Teams weighing per-outcome billing against flat plans at 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 conversations a month can use the AI chatbot pricing comparison.
HubSpot vs Intercom vs Drift for B2B sales and lead routing
HubSpot is the strongest of the three for B2B sales chat, because a qualified lead lands in the CRM that sales already works in. Intercom is second, and Drift's playbook now lives on in other tools. If the shortlist is wider than these three suites, the enterprise AI chatbots for customer support and lead generation ranking scores six tools on lead capture and service together.
Capability | HubSpot | Intercom (Fin) | Drift |
CRM | Native, own CRM | Connects to third-party CRMs | Salesforce-oriented integration |
Lead routing | Based on CRM properties and owner | Inbox assignment rules, round robin on Advanced | Account-based routing, legacy |
Meeting booking | Native scheduler | Supported | Original strength, legacy |
Marketing automation | Full suite in the same platform | Proactive messages, tours and series as a $99 per month add-on | None going forward |
Proactive in-app messaging | Basic | Strong | Legacy |
Drift invented the "chat to book a meeting" motion. The motion still works. The method behind it, and how to run it with an AI chatbot, is laid out in the chatbot for sales and marketing playbook.
A team choosing between HubSpot and lighter live chat tools has a separate decision. That one is covered in Crisp vs HubSpot vs Freshchat.
What G2 reviewers say about HubSpot, Intercom and Drift
G2 reviewers rate Intercom (Fin) 4.5 out of 5 and rate HubSpot Service Hub and Drift 4.4 out of 5. The scores were read on G2 on October 3, 2026.
Tool | G2 rating | Reviews | G2 category |
Intercom (listed as Fin) | 4.5/5 | 3,918 | AI customer service agents |
HubSpot Service Hub | 4.4/5 | 3,017 | Help Desk |
Drift | 4.4/5 | 1,255 | Conversational Marketing |
Drift's score describes the product before the sunset. Treat it as history. The 0.1 gap between Fin and HubSpot is too small to decide a purchase on its own.
Pros and cons of HubSpot, Intercom and Drift
HubSpot
Pros:
- One contact record across chat, marketing, sales and service
- Free tools for 2 users and a $7 Starter seat on annual billing
- AI resolution costs $0.50, about half of Fin's $0.99
- Native meeting scheduler and CRM-based routing
Cons:
- Professional and Enterprise carry required onboarding fees of $1,500 and $3,500
- Customer Agent only works inside HubSpot
- Users report generic AI output in early feedback
- Full value depends on running the rest of the business on HubSpot
Intercom (Fin)
Pros:
- Fin reports a 76% average resolution rate
- Lowest seat price of the two active tools at $29 on annual billing
- Fin runs on other helpdesks with no seats
- Strong in-app Messenger and proactive messaging
Cons:
- $0.99 per outcome is the highest AI unit price here
- Cost rises with every point of resolution rate
- HIPAA support sits on the Expert plan at $132 per seat
- New ownership under Salesforce leaves roadmap questions open
Drift
Pros:
- Proven meeting booking and account routing for current users
- Still accessible while contracts run
Cons:
- Gradual sunset announced, with no published end date
- No new investment and no public pricing
- OAuth token theft in August 2025 forced re-authentication for all integrations
The stack: which tool does which job
HubSpot and Intercom each cover the system of record and the inbox. Neither is built to ingest a company's full content library. A stack splits the work so each tool does one job.
Layer | Job | Tool |
System of record | Contacts, deals, tickets | HubSpot CRM or Salesforce |
Human inbox | Agents reply, assign and close | HubSpot Service Hub or Intercom |
In-platform AI agent | Resolves account questions using CRM or helpdesk data | HubSpot Customer Agent or Fin |
Knowledge-trained answer layer | Answers from your website, docs, files and videos | |
Sales conversation | Qualifies and books meetings | HubSpot chatflows, or 1mind for Drift customers |
SiteGPT fills the answer layer. It trains on 12+ content sources, including websites, sitemaps, PDFs, YouTube, GitHub, Google Drive, Notion and help centers such as Intercom and Zendesk. Content refreshes monthly on Growth and weekly with a daily scan on Scale. The chatbot answers in 95+ languages and escalates to a person when the visitor asks.
The cost is a flat plan. Growth is $79 per month billed yearly, or $129 billed monthly. Growth covers 10,000 messages a month on GPT-4.1-mini, or 1,000 on GPT-4.1. A message counts both the question and the reply.
For the five-seat team above, 1,000 content questions at about six messages each is 6,000 messages. That fits Growth on GPT-4.1-mini at $79 a month. The same 1,000 conversations cost $990 as Fin outcomes or $470 in HubSpot Credits.
The limits are real:
- No live HubSpot or Intercom integration. SiteGPT lists both as coming soon. Handoff today runs through email notifications, Slack, or the SiteGPT dashboard.
- Not a CRM, a helpdesk or an in-app messenger. HubSpot and Intercom keep those jobs.
- Two tools to run. A team that wants one vendor should stay with Customer Agent or Fin.
- A HIPAA BAA is Enterprise-only. Starter, Growth and Scale do not include one.
- The 7-day trial requires a credit card.
How SiteGPT and Fin differ head to head is covered in SiteGPT vs Intercom.
How to choose between HubSpot, Intercom and Drift
Choose between HubSpot, Intercom and Drift by starting with the job the chat widget does, then the system your customer data lives in.
If you need... | Pick... | Why |
The strongest AI agent for customer service | Intercom (Fin) | 76% average resolution rate and a mature Messenger |
Chat leads that land in your CRM | HubSpot | Chat, bots and deals share one contact record |
The lowest cost per AI resolution | HubSpot | $0.50 against $0.99 |
The lowest seat cost with no AI | HubSpot Starter | $7 per seat per month on annual billing |
An AI agent on Salesforce or another helpdesk | Fin, standalone | No seats required, 50-outcome minimum |
HIPAA support in the helpdesk | Intercom Expert | Listed on the Expert plan |
A replacement for Drift meeting booking | HubSpot, or 1mind | Native scheduler, or the successor Salesloft refers to |
Answers from docs, PDFs and videos | SiteGPT as a stack layer | 12+ content sources with automatic refresh |
A new Drift contract | None | Drift is in a gradual sunset |
Use-case cheat sheet
Scenario | Best pick | Why |
B2B SaaS, 10 agents, in-app onboarding questions | Intercom (Fin) | Messenger and Fin sit inside the product |
Agency already running HubSpot Marketing Hub | HubSpot | No sync between chat and CRM |
Two-person startup that needs free live chat | HubSpot free tools | Free for up to 2 users |
Salesforce Service Cloud team that wants an AI agent | Fin, standalone | Same owner as the helpdesk since September 2026 |
Drift customer with a renewal in 90 days | HubSpot or 1mind | Decide before the renewal, since no end date is published |
Healthcare team that needs HIPAA support | Intercom Expert | HIPAA support is listed on Expert only |
Docs-heavy product with a large PDF library | SiteGPT plus the existing helpdesk | Trains on files and docs directly |
Team with 70% of chats resolved by AI | HubSpot Professional | $1,120 against $1,531 a month at 5 seats |
Team that wants seats only and no AI | Fin Essential | $145 against $450 a month at 5 seats |
FAQ
Basics
What is the difference between HubSpot, Intercom and Drift?
HubSpot is a CRM with chat and a helpdesk built in. Intercom, now called Fin, is a helpdesk and Messenger built around an AI agent. Drift is a sales chat tool that its owner is sunsetting.
Is Intercom now called Fin?
Yes. The company renamed itself Fin in 2026, and Salesforce's press release describes it as "Fin (formerly Intercom)". The Intercom website and the Intercom helpdesk name are still in use.
Is Drift shutting down?
Drift is in a gradual sunset. Clari + Salesloft announced it in March 2026 and refers existing customers to 1mind. No final shutdown date has been published.
Comparisons
Is HubSpot or Intercom better for chatbots?
Intercom is better for AI customer service, because Fin has the longer resolution track record. HubSpot is better for lead capture and for teams that already use its CRM.
Which is better for B2B sales, HubSpot, Intercom or Drift?
HubSpot is the best of the three for B2B sales. Leads from chat go straight into the CRM with routing by owner and a native meeting scheduler. Intercom is second. Drift is no longer a safe choice.
Does Fin work with HubSpot?
Yes. Fin sells standalone on other helpdesks, including HubSpot and Salesforce, at $0.99 per outcome with a minimum monthly commitment such as 50 outcomes.
Pricing
How much does Intercom cost in 2026?
Intercom seats cost $29 (Essential), $85 (Advanced) and $132 (Expert) per seat per month on annual billing. Fin adds $0.99 per outcome on every plan.
How much does HubSpot's AI chatbot cost?
HubSpot's Customer Agent uses 50 HubSpot Credits per resolved conversation. Credits cost $0.010 each, so a resolution is $0.50. Professional includes 3,000 credits a month and Enterprise includes 5,000.
Which is cheaper, HubSpot or Intercom?
For 5 seats and 1,000 AI resolutions a month, HubSpot Professional is $920 and Fin Essential is $1,135. With no AI usage, Fin Essential is cheaper at $145 against $450.
Ownership and migration
Did Salesforce buy Drift?
No. Salesloft bought Drift in February 2024. Salesforce bought Fin, formerly Intercom, and closed that deal on September 10, 2026.
What should Drift customers switch to?
Drift customers who need CRM-native chat and meeting booking should look at HubSpot. Those who want an AI service agent should look at Fin. Salesloft itself refers Drift customers to 1mind.
Can a team keep HubSpot or Intercom and add a separate AI chatbot?
Yes. A knowledge-trained chatbot such as SiteGPT can answer content questions on the website while the CRM and helpdesk stay in place. SiteGPT's HubSpot and Intercom integrations are listed as coming soon, so handoff runs through email or Slack today.
Sources
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