Helply vs Chatbase vs Intercom Fin (2026)
Guzli wrote this. Desk research from public pages opened 19 September 2026 — not a lab, not a win-rate study.
The title is three products. Treat them as three jobs:
- Helply: an AI-native helpdesk. $0 seats. You pay for finished AI work.
- Chatbase: a no-code agent builder. You pay in message credits.
- Intercom Fin: an outcome-priced agent. $0.99 per Fin outcome. Sit it on Intercom, or on a helpdesk you already have.
Salesforce completed its acquisition of Fin (formerly Intercom) on 10 September 2026. That is ownership news. It does not change the public meters below, and it does not make Fin Voice generally available — Intercom still sends Voice pricing to Sales.
If you also need a fourth, published-plan storefront agent (Guzli), use the sibling: Helply vs Intercom Fin vs Chatbase vs Guzli. This URL stays on the three.
Helply publishes its own bake-off: Chatbase vs Intercom Fin vs Helply. Read it as vendor copy. We opened the same primary pricing pages they cite.
Decision map
| Job | Pick | Do not pick if |
|---|---|---|
| Replace Zendesk/Intercom with an AI-native desk | Helply | You will not migrate mailboxes and history, or you sell a business-to-consumer storefront that Helply’s own comparison says is outside its ideal customer profile |
| Keep the current desk; add an outcome agent | Fin on that desk, or Helply’s Zendesk Tickets docs | You only want a website FAQ widget |
| Fast website agent, credit bill | Chatbase | You need a ten-seat inbox from the same vendor |
| Full Intercom inbox + Fin | Intercom Essential/Advanced/Expert + Fin | You refuse seat fees |
Helply
Opened helply.com and helply.com/pricing.
Helply’s homepage calls it “the complete AI-native support platform,” not a chatbot. Shared inbox, ticketing, live chat, help centers, automations, integrations. AI agents investigate, draft, resolve, and run background jobs (churn, knowledge gaps, expansion). Channels named there include email, live chat, Slack, Microsoft Teams, SMS, WhatsApp, and others.
Live pricing page (19 Sep 2026):
- Seats: $0, no cap.
- AI: from $0.50 per outcome (resolve or assist examples on that page).
- Charged at most once per type of AI work per conversation.
- Not billed if the agent cannot help, fails an action, or the customer asks for a human.
- Monthly spending limit; agents pause at the ceiling; the helpdesk keeps working.
- After a 14-day trial: $0.50 per outcome with a $99 monthly minimum, or a quoted rate locked for twelve months.
Two other Helply URLs disagree on the older meter. help.helply.com/doc/849 still says Helply “charges $0.75 per successful AI resolution.” That FAQ also states a $49 monthly minimum. That page also says Helply “works with your existing help desk.” help.helply.com/doc/817 still walks a Zendesk Tickets layer. Use helply.com/pricing as the current commercial page; confirm the contract.
Helply’s comparison post says it is built for business-to-business software, not business-to-consumer or ecommerce. Take that as their stated ideal customer profile, not a lab result.
Chatbase
Opened chatbase.co/pricing and the message-credit FAQ.
Chatbase is an agent trained on sites, files, text, and Q&A. It embeds on the website and lists Slack, WhatsApp, Messenger, Stripe, Zapier/Make, and a REST API in that FAQ.
Credits we could read on the live pricing page: Free 50/month; Hobby 700; Standard 4,000; Pro 15,000. Dollar cards on that page were client-rendered in our fetch — do not treat a third-party “$32 / $120 / $400” table as verified. Open current Chatbase plans.
Each agent response burns 1–6 credits by model (FAQ: most models 1; several frontier models 2–6). Credits renew on the 1st of the month and do not roll over. When they run out, the agent shows it is unavailable unless you add credits. Free agents can be deleted after 14 days of inactivity.
Chatbase is the builder. It is not Helply’s desk and not Intercom’s suite.
Intercom Fin
Opened intercom.com/pricing and Fin AI Agent outcomes.
Two commercial shapes:
- Fin + Intercom (annual seats on the pricing page): Essential $29, Advanced $85, Expert $132, each plus $0.99 per Fin outcome.
- Fin on your current helpdesk (Salesforce and others): $0.99 per outcome, no seats, “minimum monthly commitment applies (e.g. 50 outcomes).”
Outcome types on the help article (chat/email with Intercom): resolution $0.99, procedure handoff $0.99, disqualification $0.99, qualification $9.99, self-serve qualification $0.99. One charge per conversation. Asking for a human, or a failed Procedure, is not billed. An assumed resolution (customer leaves after an answer) is billed. Fin Voice, high-volume, and specialized needs: contact Sales.
Fin can answer and run Procedures, including ecommerce catalog suggestions. That is not the same as Guzli’s named Shopify/Stripe/Calendly actions on a published chat plan.
How to choose without a demo theater
- Write the job in one sentence: replace the desk, keep the desk, or ship a website agent.
- Price one month at your volume on the vendor’s live page — not on this article.
- Run twenty historical tickets (or twenty live chats) and score: resolved, assisted, escalated, invented.
- Read the outcome definition. Fin’s assumed resolution and Helply’s “finished work” are not the same unit as a Chatbase credit.
Cost framing: AI chatbot ROI guide. Criteria: buyer’s guide.
One-week pilot
Pick one mailbox or one URL. Do not replatform the company.
- Helply: one category on Helply’s desk, or the Zendesk Tickets test path if you are staying on Zendesk.
- Chatbase: one agent, one model, watch credit burn on real threads.
- Fin: one channel, hard usage limit on, review which conversations billed as outcomes.
FAQ
Which of the three should I pick? Write the job first. Helply is the AI-native desk you migrate into. Fin is the $0.99 outcome agent on Intercom or on a desk you already run. Chatbase is the credit-metered website builder. A storefront published-plan agent is the four-way sibling, not this URL.
Why do two Helply pages disagree on price? helply.com/pricing (opened 19 September 2026) is $0 seats, AI from $0.50, and a $99 monthly minimum after a 14-day trial. Help FAQ 849 still says $0.75 per successful AI resolution and a $49 minimum, and still says Helply works with your existing help desk. Use the live commercial page; confirm the contract.
Why are Chatbase dollar prices missing? The live pricing page showed credit counts (Free 50, Hobby 700, Standard 4,000, Pro 15,000). The dollar cards were client-rendered in our fetch. Third-party “$32 / $120 / $400” tables are not treated as verified here. Open Chatbase pricing on the day you buy.
Does asking for a human bill a Fin outcome? No, on the Fin outcomes article we opened: a customer who asks for a person, or a failed Procedure, is not billed. An assumed resolution — the customer leaves after an answer — is billed. That unit is not a Chatbase credit and not Helply’s “finished work.”