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Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs Zoho CRM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

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
20th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (8th), Social CRM (6th)
Zoho CRM
Ranking in CRM
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
Opportunity Management (3rd), Sales Force Automation (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Intercom Customer Communications Platform is 0.8%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoho CRM is 1.5%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Zoho CRM1.5%
Intercom Customer Communications Platform0.8%
Other97.7%
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Kumar Abhishek Anand - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
NaveenKumar S - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at Maximus
Zoho CRM improves lead conversion with AI assistance but could have better technical support
Zoho Zia has helped our lead conversion process by serving as a private AI of Zoho CRM that assists in boosting lead conversation by analyzing customer data, predicting outcomes, and automating workflow follow-ups. Regarding how Zia helps with lead conversion, there's lead scoring and conversion predictions, sentiment analysis, and workflow suggestions. For lead scoring, Zia analyzes past lead conversation patterns and assigns scores to new leads, and high score leads get prioritized for faster follow-up. In terms of conversation predictions, Zia predicts the probability of lead conversion based on demographics and engagements, helping the sales team focus on the most promising leads. Another point is sentiment analysis, where Zia scans customer emails, chats, and notes to detect tones such as positive, negative, or neutral, guiding us on how to approach the leads better. For workflow suggestions, it recommends automated workflows such as sending emails and assigning tasks to agents, improving our engagements. Additionally, the conversational AI feature through Zia chatbot can interact with leads via website chat or capture details and push them into Zoho CRM automatically. The analytics and reporting features in Zoho CRM helped me understand sales patterns and customer behavior through standard reports that include pre-built reports for leads, deals, sales activities, and campaigns. We can customize reports as well, creating reports based on any module fields, and we can integrate with Zoho Analytics for direct capture of reports from our modules. We can merge leads reports to contact reports using SQL, allowing for effective sales funnel tracking to identify drop-offs and optimize conversation strategies. Auto-generated reports are also available for daily scheduling, ensuring that admin receives daily basis reports through automation. With advanced BI features such as drag-and-drop dashboards and predictive analysis using pivot tables, we can create insightful dashboards while pulling CRM and external data from sources such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads for unified analytics. The automation capabilities in Zoho CRM have helped streamline our organization's sales and marketing tasks by handling repetitive tasks such as sending follow-up emails, assigning leads, and updating fields. For example, if a lead score is greater than 80, it automatically assigns that record to the senior sales representative. There are also blueprint options to define the step-by-step sales process, ensuring every sales representative follows the same process. Automation includes assignment rules, lead scoring, priority load options, sales signals, macros, and territory management, which automatically routes leads based on geography, revenue, and industries. Additionally, deal stage automations trigger actions when a deal moves stages, such as sending a contract when it moves to negotiation. For marketing, there are tools for email campaign automation, behavior-based triggers, campaign to lead sync, and social media automations. The overall benefits I have seen from using Zoho CRM include centralized customer data, where all customer interactions are visible in one place, providing a 360-degree view. Improved lead conversations through AI-powered scoring and automation helps us focus on the right leads, with end-to-end sales automation managing tasks from lead capture to deal closure, thereby saving time on repetitive tasks. This leads to better marketing ROI, as we can track campaigns, ad spend, and lead sources, connecting marketing efforts to revenue. Enhanced collaboration through shared notes, tasks, and role-based access enables teamwork within our internal users and sales teams, contributing to customer satisfaction. Moreover, Zoho CRM is scalable and customizable, adapting to startups, SMBs, and enterprises with its flexible modules and fields. Lastly, it is cost-efficient compared to Salesforce and HubSpot while including a wide range of features.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"The live chat is pretty good because you can create a macro, which is a predefined input we can give customers."
"With Zendesk, we have much more signals that we could use to understand better our client patterns."
"We use the solution for different projects. We use it to patch lead details from clients' sources."
"Zoho CRM handles the entire customer relationship management, from lead generation to workflows, reports, and lead qualification."
"It has helped to manage, move forward, and also customize my processes. It has helped me with my sales pipeline, sales process, and performance."
"The login and logout times of each employee of our company are recorded by Zoho CRM for productivity calculations"
"I like that it is easy to get data in and out of it. We can export and import CSV files. I also like that the database is hierarchical, which allows me to be able to look at a parent and multiple children."
"The solution is always stable."
"Customer tracking, order management, sales tracking and PO tracking provide efficiency."
"I am impressed with the product's information on customers."
 

Cons

"It would be beneficial if there was a way to train the AI to better understand customer language."
"Sometimes, the solution lags and takes time to update something."
"The problem with Intercom Customer Communications Platform was a little bit of the implementation. It was complicated to use to actually get the automations and everything."
"The solution can improve by having a policy that allows us to integrate with the cloud."
"There was a challenge while deploying Zoho when we brought an API code. Because integrations "aren't perfect" for every organization."
"The chatbot feature is not very intelligent and lacks AI capabilities."
"It is hard to modify information around a customer. You need to pay for the features and the tool needs to improve it."
"The main improvement needed for Zoho CRM is introducing SQL code for reports, similar to what's in Zoho Analytics."
"Certain functions have occasional performance issues."
"The process of creating reports is not very user-friendly - it takes time, and it's confusing."
"One area of Zoho CRM that could be improved would be email support. The email support is really slow, but the in-app support is superb."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"We pay for an annual license to use this solution."
"Zoho CRM is available at a fairly average price"
"It is around $1000 a month."
"I rate the product a four out of ten. The cost for Zoho CRM is not fixed; different editions are available, and the features depend on the edition chosen. Some capabilities, such as integrating with workflows, might incur additional costs, but these are well-documented and not hidden."
"The solution is cost-effective."
"Professional plans cost $35 per user in the USA and EUR 35 in Europe."
"The tool started out quite cheap. It's had some changes with small and medium business subscriptions, but it's still worth the price. I'd say it's priced a bit below the medium range."
"We consider it a good value and found it to be cost-effective."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
14%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Intercom Customer Communications Platform?
We did not explore them. The problem with Intercom Customer Communications Platform was a little bit of the implementation. It was complicated to use to actually get the automations and everything....
What is your primary use case for Intercom Customer Communications Platform?
Intercom Customer Communications Platform is for monitoring and visualizing data. Basically, it is used to know exactly what is happening. We monitor the software via logs, and whatever errors appe...
What advice do you have for others considering Intercom Customer Communications Platform?
Since I was not part of the pricing discussion, I am not completely sure about the conditions that we had at the moment, so I could not tell you exactly. My overall review rating for Intercom Custo...
What do you like most about Zoho CRM?
Zoho CRM integrates easily with customer service workflows.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zoho CRM?
Zoho CRM and all of Zoho's software are quite affordable because they are specifically designed for small and medium businesses.
What needs improvement with Zoho CRM?
The main improvement needed for Zoho CRM is introducing SQL code for reports, similar to what's in Zoho Analytics. Zoho CRM's support can improve significantly, although it's designed to require mi...
 

Also Known As

Intercom
No data available
 

Overview

 

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Find out what your peers are saying about Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs. Zoho CRM and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.