Heyy vs Intercom: Which One Should You Choose?
Quick answer
Intercom is the safer, more capable choice for most teams today: native Shopify and CRM integrations, native phone support, and a large independently-verifiable track record that Heyy simply doesn't have yet. Heyy is worth serious consideration if WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger carry most of your support volume and you want a genuinely more deliberate permission model for what an AI agent can read or write in a customer record — its attribute-permission system (Read, Share, Update, with Update requiring Read first) is a more careful design than anything documented in Intercom's own docs. Most teams evaluating both will land on Intercom by default, because a proven vendor with native integrations beats a newer, more tightly-scoped one when the stakes involve live CRM writes. Heyy is the pick specifically for early adopters who value that permission control enough to accept the integration gaps and build their own Shopify/CRM connections by hand.
- Heyy now publishes real dollar pricing ($49/$149/$499/month) for the first time, closing the gap that used to make this comparison impossible — but scored against our full 25-criteria rubric, Intercom still leads on almost every individual criterion, backed by a much larger independent review base.
- Heyy is built around an 'AI Employee' model — one agent configured with identity, knowledge, permissioned CRM read/write access, and explicit exit-point logic, deployed across WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Live Chat, and SMS from one workspace.
- Intercom centers on the Fin AI agent layered over a mature shared inbox, help center, and ticketing system, with native Phone support and integrations (Shopify, CRM sync) that Heyy either lacks natively or requires you to build yourself via a Custom API action.
- On price: Heyy's $49/month Hobby plan covers 1 user and 1 AI Employee outright; Intercom's $29/seat/mo Essential tier is cheaper per seat but doesn't include Fin's $0.99-per-resolution AI fee, and both platforms add usage-based charges on top of the sticker price.
- Heyy's standout feature — the attribute-permission model (Read, Share, Update, with Update requiring Read first) — is a more deliberate CRM-write safeguard than anything documented in Intercom's own docs, but it doesn't close the integration-depth gap: Heyy scores 1/5 on both native Shopify and native CRM sync since both require a hand-built API action, versus Intercom's 5/5 on each.
- If you need phone support, native ecommerce/CRM integrations, or a vendor with a large, independently-verifiable track record, Intercom is the lower-risk pick today. If you want granular control over what an AI agent can read/write in your CRM and you're comfortable being an early adopter, Heyy is worth a Playground test now that its pricing is public.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Heyy | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $49/month (1 user, 1 AI Employee) | $29/seat/mo + $0.99/resolution |
| AI availability | One AI Employee configured with identity, knowledge, and permissioned CRM access, included from the base plan | Fin AI agent, the more mature and widely deployed of the two |
| AI resolution accuracy | No independent data exists yet — too new to verify any resolution claim | Vendor claims 70-76%; independently corroborated better than most competitors, though still not verified at that rate |
| Number of native channels | WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Live Chat, and SMS from one workspace | Same core channels plus native Phone/voice, which Heyy doesn't offer |
| AI-to-human handoff | Explicit, deliberately documented exit-point logic — a more granular design than most competitors publish | Mature and well-reviewed, slightly less explicit about exit conditions than Heyy's documentation |
| Shopify integration | No native connector — requires building a Custom API action yourself | Native integration that Intercom built itself, works out of the box |
| CRM integrations | No native connector — requires building a Custom API action yourself | Native Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive sync built directly into the platform |
| API/webhook extensibility | Documented Custom API action framework, functional but requires real engineering effort to wire up | Extensive API, webhooks, and a large app marketplace, minimal engineering lift |
| Pricing model transparency | Published tiered pricing, but credit usage and WhatsApp messaging costs aren't fully priced out upfront | Published pricing, but per-seat-plus-per-resolution stacking takes real work to model out |
| Independent review volume | One hands-on third-party review; no meaningful independent track record yet | Large, established, independently verifiable review base |
Our verdict
The pricing wall that used to make this an unfair comparison is gone: Heyy now lists $49/month for Hobby, $149 for Pro, and $499 for Ultra on heyy.io/pricing, independently corroborated by a Chatimize review — so you can finally weigh it against Intercom's $29/seat instead of just taking a design pitch on faith. What that transparency reveals, though, is that Heyy is still behind on breadth: scored against the same 25 criteria we use across this whole site, Intercom leads on native channel count, AI-to-human handoff polish, and — most strikingly — both Shopify and CRM integration, where Heyy scores a 1/5 on each because there's no native connector, just a documented pattern for wiring up your own Custom API action. That's not necessarily a dealbreaker; the attribute-permission system (Read, Share, Update, with Update requiring Read first) is a more deliberate design for avoiding bad CRM writes than anything documented in Intercom's own docs, and the explicit warning against crawling live store data for prices is the kind of specific guidance you only write after you've watched it go wrong for a real customer. But Intercom has a large, established review base behind its numbers and Heyy still has none — just one hands-on third-party review — and no amount of thoughtful product design substitutes for that track record yet. If you need a proven vendor today, especially one with native ecommerce and CRM integrations, Intercom is the lower-risk pick and it isn't close. If you're an early-adopter type who wants tighter control over what an AI agent can touch in your CRM and you're now willing to weigh a real, published price against that risk, Heyy is worth thirty minutes in the Playground — just budget for the credits and WhatsApp messaging Heyy bills separately on top of the sticker price.