SaaStr AI 2026 recap
Helplyvs.Fin

B2B account intelligence, not B2C conversation deflection

Fin was built inside Intercom's Messenger-first platform, charges $0.99 per resolution on top of $29 to $139 per seat per month, and focuses on deflecting conversation volume.

Helply was built AI-first for B2B companies that sell software, so its AI runs on account context (CRM, billing, product usage) and works each ticket for the churn, upsell, and competitor signals a B2B thread carries, not just deflection. One price covers all of it: $1 per ticket, with unlimited seats and unlimited AI included.

Helply vs. Fin at a glance

CapabilityHelplyBest fitFin (Intercom)
Built forB2B companies that sell softwareHigh-volume consumer and PLG self-serve
Platform DNAAI-native, account-basedMessenger-first, contact-level
Price$1 per ticket, everything includedIntercom seats required, $39–$139/seat/mo
AI resolutionsIncluded, unlimited$0.99/resolution
Monthly minimum250 tickets50 resolutions/mo, plus seat fees
Metered AI spendNone. AI usage is unlimited.Uncapped, no volume discounts
DraftsIncluded, unlimitedBundled into Copilot / seat
Pricing modelOne per-ticket pricePer seat + $0.99/resolution
EmailYesYes
Live chat / in-app chatYesYes
Slack Connect (customer channels)Yes, first-classNo native customer channel
Microsoft Teams (customer channels)Yes, first-classNo native customer channel
DiscordYes, first-classNo
SMS and WhatsAppYesYes (usage-based add-on)
Account context (CRM, Stripe, Gong)Loaded by defaultVia apps and integrations
Churn DetectionIncludedNot sold
Upsell OpportunitiesIncludedNot sold
Competitor MonitoringIncludedNot sold
Feature FlagsIncludedNot sold
Auto Article CreationIncludedNot sold (manual)
Support Intelligence (natural-language queries)IncludedNot available
ROI / Profit Center dashboardYesNot available
ContractAnnual, sized to ticket volume, no seat mathAnnual for best seat pricing

Where Helply and Fin differ

Intercom was built for product‑led, consumer‑facing businesses. Messenger, product tours, onboarding bots: the DNA is high‑volume, low‑context conversations. Fin inherits that shape. It resolves conversations quickly, but a conversation is not the same thing as an account.

01

The same channels, loaded with account context

Helply ships Slack Connect, Microsoft Teams, Discord, email, in-app chat, SMS, WhatsApp, a customer portal, and a public API as first-class channels. Every message lands in the same inbox, and every message is enriched with the account's full history: ARR, renewal date, product usage, CRM data, Stripe billing, Gong calls.

Fin handles many of the same channels, but the context layer underneath is conversation-scoped, not account-scoped.

02

AI that supercharges agents, not just deflects tickets

For B2B, the most valuable AI capability is the assistant that makes human agents dramatically faster: drafting every reply with sources and full account context, surfacing the right answer before the agent types a word. Roughly 70% of Helply's AI usage is this assistant, not autonomous resolution.

Fin leads with autonomous deflection, a metric that matters when your volume is high and your stakes per ticket are low.

B2B tickets are complex, technical, and tied to revenue. So with Helply, the agent stays in the loop, and the AI makes them more effective.

03

Revenue outcomes Fin does not sell

Beyond resolution and drafts, Helply scans every ticket for churn risk, upsell intent, competitor mentions, and feature requests, then routes each signal to the person who owns the account. CSMs get churn alerts, AEs get upsell flags the day they happen, Product gets structured feature requests weighted by ARR.

Fin resolves the ticket and moves on. The revenue data sitting inside that ticket goes nowhere.

Helply vs. Fin pricing: per-resolution on top of seats versus one price per ticket

Scenario: a B2B company with 10 support agents, 20 people who need platform access, and 2,000 conversations/month, with Fin resolving 45% (900 resolutions).

Line itemFin (Intercom)Helply
Conversations (2,000/mo)No per-ticket price; you pay per seat and per resolution2,000 × $1 = $2,000
Platform seats (20 people)20 × $85/mo (Advanced, billed annually) = $1,700$0 (unlimited seats)
AI resolutions (900/mo)900 × $0.99 = $891Included
AI draftsBundled into seat / CopilotIncluded
Churn, upsell & competitor signals, feature flags, auto articlesNot soldIncluded
Monthly total$2,591$2,000
Annual total$31,092$24,000
Annual savings with Helply$7,092

Two things drive Fin's bill: a per-seat Intercom plan for everyone who needs access, and $0.99 for every resolution on top, with a 50-resolution monthly minimum and no cap. The better the AI performs, the more you pay.

Helply is one line: $1 per ticket, seats free, AI unlimited. At this workload Intercom plus Fin works out to roughly $1.30 per conversation; Helply is $1 all-in, and the price includes the churn, upsell, and competitor signals Fin does not sell.

One price per ticket, and no seat underneath

$1.30 vs. $1.00

At 2,000 conversations a month, Intercom Advanced plus Fin costs roughly $2,591: $1,700 in seat fees for 20 people plus $891 in resolution charges. That is about $1.30 per conversation. Helply is $1 per ticket, flat, with every seat and every AI capability included.

Seats you still pay vs. seats that are free

Fin runs on Intercom, so you carry a per-seat plan, $39 to $139 per person per month, in addition to per-resolution charges. Helply charges $0 per seat with unlimited seats, every channel, macros, saved replies, ticketing, and reporting. Add the twenty-first person and the bill stays put.

A meter that spikes vs. a bill you can forecast

Fin bills $0.99 for every resolution with a 50-resolution monthly minimum and no cap, so the better the AI performs, the higher the bill climbs. Helply is $1 per ticket whether the AI resolves it, drafts it, or escalates it, with a 250-ticket monthly minimum. The bill tracks a volume you already forecast.

The AI work included in every ticket (and Fin doesn't sell)

Every Helply ticket includes AI work across four categories. Fin sells the first one, priced per resolution, and stops there.

Ticket resolution

Resolutions & Drafts

Included

Resolutions: the AI closes the ticket autonomously when confidence is high. Drafts: the AI writes a reply with sources and account context for human review. KB gaps: the AI flags when a ticket reveals missing documentation.

Fin: $0.99 per resolution with a mandatory 50-resolution monthly minimum, on top of seat fees. On Helply, resolutions are in the ticket price.
Revenue intelligence

Upsell, Churn, Competitor

Included

Upsell Opportunities: plan-limit mentions, feature requests, and team-growth signals routed to the AE. Churn Detection: risk language cross-referenced with renewal proximity, routed to the CSM. Competitor Monitoring: competitor names detected in tickets, AE alerted the same day.

Fin: does not surface any of these signals. A single caught churn typically pays for the year’s contract.
Product intelligence

Feature Flags & KB gaps

Included

Feature Flags: feature requests detected, structured, and weighted by ARR, sent to Product.

Fin: has no equivalent.
Knowledge base

Article Creation

Included

Article Creation: the AI drafts a KB article from recurring ticket patterns. Article from AI recorder: a new article generated from recorded walkthroughs.

Fin: relies on Intercom’s manual article editor.

Built for B2B companies that sell software

Helply is purpose-built for technical B2B companies that sell software: B2B SaaS (horizontal and vertical), AI-native and AI-infrastructure platforms, dev tools and developer infrastructure, data platforms, API-first and embedded platforms, HR tech and workforce platforms, DevOps and security tooling. The sweet spot is $1M to $50M ARR, up to 100 agents, up to 15,000 tickets per month. No services, agencies, or marketplaces.

Every default assumes you sell software to other businesses. Account context loads CRM data, Stripe billing, Gong call history, and product usage from the first word of every ticket. Revenue signals scan for churn risk cross-referenced with renewal dates. Feature requests are weighted by account ARR. The entire system thinks in accounts, not individual contacts.

Intercom was built for the opposite shape of business: high-volume consumer and product-led self-serve, where the unit is a single contact in a chat widget and deflection is the goal. Fin is excellent at that. It is not built around contract value, renewal dates, or the account-based selling motion a B2B software company runs on.

  • B2B SaaS
  • AI-native platforms
  • Dev tools
  • Data platforms
  • API-first
  • HR tech
  • DevOps / security
Helply sweet spot
$1M–$50M
ARR
Up to 100
Agents
Up to 15K
Tickets/month
Accounts
Not contacts

What you get with Helply that Fin and Intercom don't sell

  • The full helpdesk, included.Unlimited seats, shared inbox, ticketing, email, live chat, knowledge base, macros, saved replies, reporting. All in the ticket price, with no Intercom seat plan underneath.
  • Unlimited resolutions, no meter.Fin charges $0.99 for every resolution, so a good AI month spikes the bill. On Helply, resolutions and drafts are included in the $1 ticket price.
  • Revenue signals beyond deflection.Churn Detection, Upsell Opportunities, Competitor Monitoring, all included on every ticket. Fin's job ends at deflection.
  • B2B account context by default.CRM, Stripe, Gong, and product usage loaded automatically on every ticket, not assembled from a contact record and apps.
  • Slack Connect, Microsoft Teams, and Discord as customer channels.First-class B2B support queues, not a website Messenger. Account context loads on every shared-channel thread.
  • Self-improving knowledge base.Articles created automatically from ticket patterns and AI Recorder walkthroughs. Included.
  • Support Intelligence.Natural-language queries across tickets, CRM, billing, and product data. Included.
  • Profit Center ROI dashboard.Every outcome tied to a dollar amount. Support stops being a cost center.
Fin, per resolution
$0.99
Plus $39–$139 per Intercom seat, 50-resolution minimum, no spending cap.
Helply, per ticket
$1
Seats free, AI unlimited, revenue signals included.
Helply versus Fin cost
“If you’re running support on Zendesk, Intercom, or Front, and you’re a B2B company in the $1M to $50M ARR range, go run the ROI calculator. The math gets you to a decision in about four minutes.”
J
Jason Lemkin
Founder, SaaStr
Switching from Intercom to Helply

Live on Helply in under a week

Ticket history, contacts, tags, and help center articles import in a single pass. Account relationships, custom fields, and agent assignments carry over. Most teams are live on Helply in under a week.

Helply bills per ticket, so the overlap costs only the tickets you route to it while you ramp. Run Fin and Helply in parallel, compare resolution quality and the real bills, and move the queue over once the numbers are in front of you.

  1. 1
    Import in one pass
    Ticket history, contacts, tags, help center, custom fields, agent assignments.
  2. 2
    Run Fin and Helply in parallel
    Pay only for tickets routed to Helply. Compare resolution quality and the real bills.
  3. 3
    Move the queue once the numbers are clear
    Real cost data from Helply, side by side with the Intercom + Fin bill.

Ready for an AI agent built for B2B?

Or try the numbers yourself on the cost calculator.

FAQs

What is the real difference between Helply and Fin?

Fin is an AI deflection agent on Intercom's B2C-shaped, Messenger-first platform. Helply is built for B2B accounts, so it works each ticket for revenue signals, not just deflection, for one flat price per ticket.

How much does Fin cost per resolution?

Fin is $0.99 per resolution, with a 50-resolution monthly minimum, no volume discounts, and no spending cap. On Helply, unlimited resolutions are included in the $1 per-ticket price.

Do I still pay for Intercom seats if I use Fin?

Yes. Fin runs on an Intercom plan at $39 to $139 per seat per month, billed on top of per-resolution charges. Helply has no seat fees at all.

How much does a B2B team pay on Helply vs. Fin?

At 2,000 conversations a month, $2,000 on Helply with everything included, versus roughly $2,591 on Intercom Advanced plus Fin for 20 seats. That is about $7,000 a year back, plus the revenue signals Fin does not sell.

Does Helply support Slack Connect for B2B customer support?

Yes, Slack Connect shared channels are a first-class ticket queue, alongside Microsoft Teams, Discord, email, live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, and a customer portal. Intercom is Messenger-centric.

Does Fin detect churn or upsell signals?

No. Fin resolves and deflects conversations. Helply scans every ticket for churn, upsell, and competitor signals and routes them to the CSM or AE, included in the ticket price.

Is Helply's AI as good as Fin at resolving tickets?

Helply resolves autonomously over chat and email with every source cited, and it runs on account context Fin lacks, so it performs on complex B2B tickets. Resolutions are included in the ticket price.

What types of companies is Helply built for?

Technical B2B companies that sell software: B2B SaaS, AI-native platforms, dev tools, data platforms, API-first products, HR tech, and DevOps/security tooling. Sweet spot is $1M to $50M ARR.

Can I migrate off Intercom without downtime?

Yes. Import ticket history, contacts, and articles in one pass, run both in parallel while you compare, and cut over in under a week.