Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs Salesforce Sales Cloud comparison

Intercom and Salesforce are both solutions in the CRM category. Intercom is ranked #26 with an average rating of 9.5, while Salesforce is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.2. Intercom holds a 0.3% mindshare in CRM, compared to Salesforce’s 8.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Intercom users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

Intercom Customer Communica...

Read 2 Intercom Customer Communications Platform reviews

306 Views
187 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Read 117 Salesforce Sales Cloud reviews

5,106 Views
3,676 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Intercom Customer Communica...

Salesforce Sales Cloud

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

Salesforce Sales Cloud and Intercom Customer Communications Platform compete in the business communications and customer management category. Salesforce Sales Cloud has the upper hand in comprehensive CRM solutions and sales automation, while Intercom excels in customer interaction tools and messaging capabilities.

Features: Salesforce Sales Cloud offers customizable dashboards, detailed analytics, and scalable CRM solutions tailored for sales operations. Intercom provides real-time customer engagement, automated messaging, and chatbots for improved interactions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Salesforce Sales Cloud provides configurable deployment with extensive support resources but involves a learning curve. Intercom has a more straightforward setup with intuitive use, modern design, and strong support.

Pricing and ROI: Salesforce Sales Cloud involves higher setup costs due to its extensive features, suitable for large, sales-focused organizations seeking high ROI. Intercom's pricing is more accessible, appealing to businesses aiming to reduce time to value through effective customer communication.

To learn more, read our detailed Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs. Salesforce Sales Cloud Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs. Salesforce Sales Cloud

July 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Intercom Customer Communica...

Ranking in CRM

26th

Average Rating

9.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (9th), Social CRM (6th)

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Ranking in CRM

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

117

Ranking in other categories

Opportunity Management (1st), Sales Force Automation (2nd), Conversation Intelligence Software (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Intercom Customer Communications Platform is 0.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Sales Cloud is 8.1%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CRM

Featured Reviews

Kumar Abhishek Anand

Director at Revivo Technologies

Customer support has improved significantly with seamless chat integration for quick resolutions

The feature we appreciate most about the Intercom Customer Communications Platform is the messenger functionality. We are able to integrate it into our application and provide support to customers directly through our application. The messenger works efficiently, allowing users to have conversations without entering their details repeatedly. There is conversation history available for each customer interaction, and they can access the help section within the chat itself. The Finn AI agent handles conversations both in chat and WhatsApp, which is particularly beneficial. Regarding automation tools, we have enabled the AI agent to answer customer queries instantly, reducing the need for constant staff presence. The AI agent quickly responds to customers and summarizes their issues, informing us when it cannot resolve a problem independently.

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Kamal Deep

Founder and Salesforce Consultant at SaaSnic

Experience exceptional project enhancements and seamless automation integration

Salesforce Sales Cloud itself is a wonderful solution, and there are two different versions: Lightning and classic. The Lightning version is a new generation version compatible with any mobile device, whether it's a phone, iPad, or any size of screen. The reporting and analytics functionalities, especially with the Einstein feature, are wonderful because it allows for analysis of data regarding your opportunity pipeline, giving insight into how long it will take to close deals. This gives a great understanding of running different levels of campaigns and defining smart workflows, where if one task is done, the other task can automatically get created and assigned to different team members. This flexibility is a key benefit of Salesforce Sales Cloud. Lead management is a great feature in Salesforce Sales Cloud because if you go for enterprise and above licenses, you can define different record types. For example, if one company is into two different businesses such as real estate and car reselling, both being opposite, this can be defined in Salesforce Sales Cloud, allowing for different workflows, fields, and mechanisms that do not affect each other's operations. The predictive insight feature known as forecasting is a very old feature of Salesforce Sales Cloud, giving predictions based on your pipeline and previous opportunity closings. The new Einstein analytics feature is more advanced and is enabled with AI, providing better forecasting based on your current pipeline. Salesforce Sales Cloud is working smartly with AI to help close more deals based on opportunity stages, trends, and industries, advising on the steps to take next. Lead generation is the most important thing because every sale starts from the lead. At the lead level, different stages and resources can be defined. You can capture leads from various resources, with Salesforce Sales Cloud offering a web-to-lead feature and integrations with LinkedIn to fetch data. Once a lead is qualified and converted into opportunities, there are stages with percentages, and workflows can help in easily closing deals.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The live chat is pretty good because you can create a macro, which is a predefined input we can give customers."

"The feature we appreciate most about the Intercom Customer Communications Platform is the messenger functionality, allowing users to have conversations without entering their details repeatedly."

"Our use case within the organization covers the entire cycle from lead generation, demand planning, and opportunities to realization and closure. For our clients, Salesforce is used more to plot the cycle from products to cash and lead to revenue. They mostly build offers and pricing quotations in the Salesforce environment through their field marketing agents."

"The features of Sales Cloud most useful for testing and running email campaigns are highly valuable."

"Sales Cloud's reporting and analytics capabilities influenced our sales strategy quite a lot. We can build every report as a dashboard, and there are various sorts of things."

"This is a stable product."

"The performance is good, and it is easy to use."

"The most valuable features of Salesforce Sales Cloud are code hub management and sale opportunity management."

"There is a ton of information on the dashboard. Reports are also there for us. We can analyze information across the team and across a period, such as quarterly or annually."

"The most valuable features of Salesforce Sales Cloud are opportunity management and metric integration."

More Salesforce Sales Cloud pros

Cons

"Sometimes, the solution lags and takes time to update something."

"It would be beneficial if there was a way to train the AI to better understand customer language."

"Salesforce Sales Cloud overall is too complex. There is too much functionality, it's hard for the user, at the beginning. It takes a lot of time to update the information."

"My rating for Salesforce Sales Cloud is seven. There are modern AI products that are now in the market offering better capabilities."

"The areas revolving around archiving and backup in Salesforce Sales Cloud are not as advanced as some of the other solutions in the market."

"When integrating Salesforce Sales Cloud with other applications it can be difficult to maintain security."

"The user interface could be more intuitive. I had some challenges with how to convert from a lead to an opportunity."

"The built-in functionality is a little dated."

"I need to do a lot of customization to implement an ERP solution for an energy and utilities client versus a BFS client. Salesforce should look at the common customizations each client wants and see how much of that can be standardized into industry-specific specific solutions. That would speed up implementation, so we don't need to go through the same steps a hundred times. Salesforce could do it once and put it out for the rest of the clients to use it."

"I don't like the way parent-child relationships work in transactions between records in Salesforce Sales Cloud. NetSuite is a little bit more user-friendly in that sense. Salesforce Sales Cloud requires that you build everything from scratch. I don't like that. It leaves a lot of thinking and solutions to the consultants and the process is more prone to errors."

More Salesforce Sales Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"In terms of investment value and return of the investment, Salesforce right now is pretty good on the Western markets where the price of the employees is pretty high."

"We have a yearly license, and there are no hidden costs. Considering the Indian market, the pricing is reasonable. I don't consider it to be on the high side."

"The subscription is on a monthly basis."

"Price-wise, the product does not fall under the category of cheaply priced products."

"The price of the product is very high. I rate the product price a ten on a scale of one to ten, where one means low price, and ten means expensive."

"Implementation and add-ons may be additional costs."

"The price is fair."

"The tool's pricing is based on the number of users. It has a different pricing for 0-100 and another for 100-500 users."

More Salesforce Sales Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Intercom Customer Communications Platform?

The live chat is pretty good because you can create a macro, which is a predefined input we can give customers.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Intercom Customer Communications Platform?

For the Intercom Customer Communications Platform, we are updating our knowledge base to help the AI read more proactively. It would be beneficial if there was a way to train the AI to better under...

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What is your primary use case for Intercom Customer Communications Platform?

When asked about AI tools and AI coding tools, we were using ChatGPT until recently. We switched to GitHub Copilot, which we have integrated into our IDE for software development purposes. Regardin...

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What do you like most about Salesforce Sales Cloud?

The features of Sales Cloud most useful for testing and running email campaigns are highly valuable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Salesforce Sales Cloud?

With today's generative AI capabilities like ChatGPT ( /products/chatgpt-reviews ), it should be possible to directly communicate with the software rather than navigating through the entire system ...

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What is your primary use case for Salesforce Sales Cloud?

I generally use Salesforce Sales Cloud ( /products/salesforce-sales-cloud-reviews ) for our sales process, setting up the entire opportunity lifecycle from lead generation to contract closure. It h...

See all answers

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Compared 100% of the time

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Product Reports

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CRM Customer Engagement Centers

August 2025

Intercom Customer Communications Platform report

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Buyer's Guide

Salesforce Sales Cloud

July 2025

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Also Known As

Intercom

Sales Cloud, SFDC, Salesforce

Overview

Intercom Customer Communications Platform enhances interactions by offering robust tools designed to streamline customer engagement and support, effectively catering to modern business communication needs.

Providing a comprehensive approach to customer interaction, Intercom facilitates seamless conversation management through its adaptable suite of messaging, logistical, and analytical features. Frequently utilized for customer support and marketing, its flexibility and user-friendly design encourage efficient communication. While offering valuable insights through analytics, some users note areas for improvement in customizability and pricing models, pointing towards a potential enhancement in fine-tuning its cost-effectiveness and adaptability to diverse business strategies.

What are the standout features of Intercom?

Live Chat: Immediate customer support through real-time messaging.
Automated Bot: Streamlines inquiries by handling routine questions.
Integration Capabilities: Connects seamlessly with third-party tools.
Inbox Management: Organizes conversations for efficient response.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Faster resolutions lead to happier clients.
Improved Team Efficiency: Automation reduces manual workload.
Actionable Analytics: Data-driven insights optimize strategies.
Scalable Solutions: Adapts to growing business demands.

Industries such as e-commerce, SaaS, and tech-driven businesses often implement Intercom for its ability to provide personalized customer journeys. Its messaging platform excels in maintaining customer relationships and resolving issues quickly, which is crucial in these fast-paced sectors.

Intercom

Salesforce Sales Cloud is a comprehensive CRM platform designed for efficient lead management, sales forecasting, and customer engagement, offering extensive customization and cloud-based accessibility.

Aimed at enhancing business efficiency, Salesforce Sales Cloud supports core business processes like CRM, lead and opportunity management, sales forecasting, and customer engagement. Its robust integration capabilities allow seamless connectivity with ERP systems and various applications. The platform offers pipeline tracking, process automation, and advanced sales cycle management. Users appreciate its cloud-based accessibility, allowing teams to operate remotely and manage sales operations effectively. However, users highlight concerns about its complexity, cost, and the need for a more intuitive interface.

What features does Salesforce Sales Cloud offer?

Customization: Tailor the CRM to meet specific business requirements.
Robust Reporting: Comprehensive analytics and data insights.
Lead Management: Efficiently manage and convert leads.
API Integration: Seamless connectivity with multiple applications.
Cloud Accessibility: Work from anywhere with cloud-based access.

What benefits should be evaluated in Salesforce Sales Cloud reviews?

Enhanced Productivity: Streamline sales processes with automation.
Improved Collaboration: Facilitate team coordination and client engagement.
Accurate Forecasting: Make informed decisions with reliable sales forecasts.
Flexibility: Accommodate diverse industry needs with ease.
Legacy System Integration: Efficiently update and integrate with existing systems.

Salesforce Sales Cloud is widely implemented across industries such as finance, healthcare, and retail, supporting sales teams in tracking and managing sales operations. Its use extends to reporting, collaboration, and enhancing client interactions, allowing companies to tailor Salesforce to meet industry-specific requirements efficiently.

Salesforce

Sample Customers

Expensift, Moz, Invision, Salesforce, Droplr, Vend, BugHerd, Ghost, Put.io, Codeship

Coca-Cola Enterprises, Kuoni Global Travel Services, Financial Times, Just Eat, Jobsite, H.R. Owen, PlayerLayer, O2, DMGT, Philips, Xtreme.ie, Business Stream, Remote Asset Management, Dialogue Group

Buyer's Guide

Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs. Salesforce Sales Cloud

July 2025

Free Report: Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs. Salesforce Sales Cloud

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