Drift retires on January 31, 2027
Salesloft is retiring Drift. If you are comparing Drift and Intercom today, you are most likely choosing a replacement for Drift — not a long-term Drift contract.
Drift vs Intercom at a glance
Drift is a B2B conversational-marketing platform built to engage website visitors, qualify leads, and book meetings for sales teams. It is engineered for pipeline generation, not for resolving customer-support tickets at scale. Salesloft retires Drift on January 31, 2027, so current customers need a replacement. Intercom is an AI-first customer-service platform combining a helpdesk with the Fin AI agent. Powerful and broad, but premium-priced and complex for teams that simply want a chatbot on their site.
| Dimension | Drift | Intercom | BubblaV |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Conversational marketing & revenue platform (part of Salesloft) — being retired on January 31, 2027. | AI-first customer-service platform (Fin AI agent). | AI support chatbot + live chat inbox that trains on your website. |
| Best for | Mid-market to enterprise B2B (500–5,000+ employees), especially Salesforce-heavy orgs with dedicated SDR/ABM teams. | SMB through enterprise; skews mid-market/enterprise. Software, retail/e-commerce, financial services. | Small & mid-sized businesses that want a chatbot deployed in minutes. |
| Starting price | ~$2,500/mo (~$30K/yr) | $29/seat/mo | Free to start; $49/mo (Pro) — flat pricing, no per-resolution fees. |
| Pricing model | Annual contract + per-seat (~$80/seat/mo). Contact sales only — no public pricing. | Per seat/month (billed annually) + $0.99 per Fin AI resolution, plus à la carte add-ons. | Flat pricing — Free and $49/mo Pro (Custom enterprise available). No usage metering. |
| AI capabilities | AI "Chat Agents" for engagement, playbook-based custom bots, real-time intent scoring, and AI-to-human handoff. Marketing-oriented; does not prominently market RAG / knowledge-base grounding. | Fin AI agent with RAG knowledge training, multi-step "Procedures", and AI-to-human handoff across many helpdesks. Vendor-claims ~76% average resolution rate (not independently verified). | Crawls your website + docs (RAG) and answers from your own content, 24/7. |
| Mobile apps | iOS and Android apps (Drift Chat & Video) for managing visitor conversations, saved replies, and video messaging on the go. | iOS and Android apps (Intercom Conversations) for the inbox on the go — assign conversations, reply with macros, and get push notifications. | Free Android app on Google Play — full inbox, live replies, Copilot drafts, translation, and push notifications, on every plan (iOS coming soon). Details: https://bubblav.com/mobile-apps |
Drift does not publish pricing. Figures below are estimates aggregated from G2 and third-party analyses — treat as "reportedly". Retirement date per the Salesloft "Drift Sunset FAQ" (help.salesloft.com). Last verified 2026-10-09. Pricing and features change — confirm current details on Drift's site. BubblaV is independent and not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Drift; all product names and marks belong to their respective owners. Pricing per intercom.com/pricing (mid-2026). Fin AI is billed at $0.99/resolution on every plan. Last verified 2026-06-22. Pricing and features change — confirm current details on Intercom's site. BubblaV is independent and not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Intercom; all product names and marks belong to their respective owners.
Drift pricing
Live chat, scheduling, custom chatbots, 12/5 support.
Audiences, A/B testing, advanced routing, dedicated CSM.
AI chatbots, Flex Routing, custom RBAC.
Intercom pricing
Fin Customer Agent, shared inbox + ticketing, help center.
Multiple inboxes, workflows, round-robin, multilingual help center.
SSO, HIPAA, SLAs, multibrand Messenger/Help Center.
Drift: strengths and trade-offs
- Deep Salesloft + CRM integration — chat signals feed sales-engagement workflows.
- Strong account-based features (Fastlane, intent scoring, targeted chat).
- Mature, category-defining platform (G2 ~4.5/5).
- Being retired — Salesloft retires Drift on January 31, 2027, so every Drift deployment needs a migration plan.
- Opaque, expensive pricing — entry reportedly ~$30K/yr, far above SMB budgets.
- Long, complex implementation (typically 4–8+ weeks; needs RevOps/admin time).
- Requires dedicated staffing to cover the queue — ROI hard to justify for lean/SMB teams.
Intercom: strengths and trade-offs
- Category-leading AI agent (Fin) with outcome-based (per-resolution) pricing.
- Mature training, testing, and observability stack.
- Helpdesk-agnostic — Fin works with Salesforce, HubSpot, Freshdesk, and others.
- Expensive at scale — $0.99/resolution stacks on top of $85–$132/seat pricing.
- Pricing complexity (seat tier + resolutions + add-ons); budgeting needs the in-app calculator.
- Setup/configuration effort for advanced features; overkill if you only want a chatbot.
Which should you choose?
- Replacing Drift for sales chat: Drift will not be available after January 31, 2027. Plan the move now, and test any replacement on your real traffic before the cut-off.
- Intercom fits teams that want a full helpdesk with an AI agent and can budget for per-seat plans plus $0.99 per AI resolution.
- BubblaV fits small and mid-sized teams that want an AI chatbot trained on their website, live in 5 minutes, at a flat $49/mo with no per-resolution fees.
Drift vs Intercom FAQ
Common questions when choosing between Drift and Intercom.
What is the main difference between Drift and Intercom?
What is the main difference between Drift and Intercom?
Focus. Drift is a B2B conversational-marketing tool for qualifying leads and booking sales meetings. Intercom is an AI-first customer-service platform: a helpdesk plus the Fin AI agent. Pick Drift-style tools for pipeline generation and Intercom-style tools for resolving support questions.
Is Drift being discontinued?
Is Drift being discontinued?
Yes. Salesloft retires Drift on January 31, 2027 (Salesloft "Drift Sunset FAQ"). Teams on Drift must move their website chat to another tool before that date.
Is Intercom cheaper than Drift?
Is Intercom cheaper than Drift?
Usually, at small scale. Intercom lists Essential $29/seat/mo, Advanced $85/seat/mo, Expert $132/seat/mo plus $0.99 per Fin AI resolution. Drift does not publish pricing; its entry tier is reportedly ~$2,500/mo (~$30K/yr). Intercom costs grow with seats and with every AI resolution.
What is a cheaper alternative to Drift and Intercom?
What is a cheaper alternative to Drift and Intercom?
BubblaV is Free to start and $49/mo flat on Pro, with no per-seat or per-resolution fees. It trains on your website, answers visitors 24/7, and hands off to your team in a shared inbox. Full plan details: Pricing page (https://bubblav.com/pricing)