COMPARISON

Drift vs Intercom: RevOps Comparison 2026

Drift was the category creator for "conversational marketing" -- the idea that chatbots on your website should route buyers to pipeline, not just answer support tickets. Intercom started in product messaging and expanded into a platform that handles sales, support, and engagement across the full customer lifecycle. Then Salesloft acquired Drift in 2024, and Clari subsequently acquired Salesloft. The result: Drift's roadmap is now tied to a revenue intelligence platform, and its standalone identity is uncertain. Meanwhile, Intercom has invested consistently in AI-first messaging with Fin (their AI agent) handling up to 50% of support volume. For RevOps, this is a choice between a pipeline-generation tool with acquisition risk and a multi-department platform with consistent product investment.

Quick Verdict: Drift is still the better tool for B2B pipeline generation when your primary goal is converting website visitors into qualified meetings through ABM playbooks, real-time routing, and conversational landing pages. The chatbot-to-meeting flow is purpose-built and nothing else does it as well. Intercom is the better tool when you need one messaging platform across sales, support, and product with AI handling tier-1 support at scale. If Drift's post-acquisition roadmap concerns you (and it should), Intercom or Qualified ($3,500+/mo) are the most credible alternatives for pipeline-focused chat.

Quick Comparison

Drift vs Intercom at a Glance

Factor	Drift	Intercom
Pricing	$2,500+/mo (pipeline-focused plans) Expensive for chat	From $39/seat/mo (Essential) to $139/seat/mo (Expert) More accessible
Focus	B2B pipeline generation: website chat to booked meeting Purpose-built	Multi-department messaging: sales, support, product, engagement
ABM Routing	IP-based account identification, target account playbooks, VIP routing Best in class	Basic routing by page, segment, or behavior
Chatbot Quality	Conversational playbooks with branching logic, qualification questions Sales-optimized	Fin AI Agent: resolves 50%+ of support queries autonomously Best AI agent
Support Features	Not the focus. Basic chat, no ticketing Pipeline only	Full help desk: ticketing, inbox, knowledge base, macros Complete solution
Post-Sale Engagement	Minimal. Not designed for customer success or onboarding	Product tours, onboarding flows, in-app messaging, surveys Full lifecycle
Product Tours	Not available	Native product tours and tooltips for user onboarding Included
Acquisition Status	Acquired by Salesloft (2024), then Clari acquired Salesloft Roadmap uncertainty	Independent, well-funded, consistent product investment Stable

Feature Breakdown

Detailed Feature Comparison

Feature	Drift	Intercom
Website Chat-to-Meeting	Purpose-built: qualify via chatbot, route to rep, book meeting in one flow Core competency	Available but not the primary use case; more support-oriented chat
ABM Playbooks	Target account identification via IP/6sense/Demandbase, custom playbooks per account tier Unique	Segment-based targeting without native ABM account identification
AI Chatbot	Conversational AI trained on your playbooks for qualification	Fin AI Agent: trained on your help center, resolves complex queries autonomously More advanced AI
Multi-Channel	Website chat and email primarily	Chat, email, SMS, WhatsApp, social, in-app Broadest reach
Integrations	Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, 6sense, Demandbase, Outreach	Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Stripe, Shopify, 300+ via API
Revenue Attribution	Pipeline and revenue attribution for conversations Built for pipeline reporting	Conversation analytics but not pipeline-attribution focused

Decision Framework

When to Use Which

Choose Drift When

Your primary goal is converting anonymous website traffic into qualified pipeline through real-time chat, and you measure success in meetings booked and pipeline generated
ABM is central to your go-to-market and you need chat playbooks that fire differently for target accounts vs unknown visitors, with routing to named account owners
Speed-to-engagement matters and you want website visitors chatting with a rep or booking a meeting in under 60 seconds instead of filling out a form and waiting
Your sales team wants conversational landing pages that replace static forms with interactive chat experiences that qualify and route simultaneously
You are willing to accept post-acquisition roadmap risk in exchange for the best pipeline-focused chat tool on the market today

Choose Intercom When

You need one messaging platform across sales, support, and product instead of buying separate tools for each department and integrating them together
AI-powered support resolution is a priority and Fin AI Agent handling 50%+ of tier-1 queries would meaningfully reduce your support costs and response times
Post-sale engagement matters: product tours, onboarding flows, in-app messages, and NPS surveys for customer success alongside pre-sale chat
Budget is a factor and $39-139/seat/mo is more palatable than $2,500+/mo for a platform that only handles pre-sale pipeline chat
Platform stability matters and you want a vendor with consistent product investment, not one navigating post-acquisition integration with a revenue intelligence company

When to Consider Both or Neither

Running Drift for pipeline generation and Intercom for customer support is a legitimate pattern but expensive. You are paying $2,500+/mo for Drift plus $39-139/seat/mo for Intercom. If budget allows and each tool stays in its lane, it works. If Drift's roadmap concerns you, Qualified ($3,500+/mo) is the Salesforce-native alternative for pipeline chat. For teams that want one platform but with stronger sales chat than Intercom offers natively, HubSpot's chatbot with Operations Hub routing is the pragmatic middle ground at lower cost.

RevOps Perspective

What This Means for Your Stack

RevOps-Specific Considerations

Drift's acquisition chain is the elephant in the room. Salesloft acquired Drift in February 2024. Then Clari acquired Salesloft. Drift is now a feature inside a feature inside a revenue intelligence platform. History says acquired products get 12-18 months of "business as usual" messaging before integration pressure reduces standalone investment. If you buy Drift today, pressure-test the 3-year roadmap. Ask for written commitments on feature development and API stability.
Pipeline attribution is where Drift earns its cost for RevOps. Drift tracks which conversations generated pipeline and closed revenue. If a $2,500/mo Drift investment generates $50K+/mo in attributable pipeline, the ROI is obvious. But you need clean attribution methodology. Most orgs overcount chat-influenced pipeline because they attribute deals to Drift when chat was one of many touches. Agree on attribution rules before you calculate ROI.
Intercom's Fin AI Agent changes the support economics. At $0.99/resolution, Fin handling 50% of support volume at 10,000 conversations/month saves roughly $25K/month versus human agents at $5/conversation. For RevOps teams responsible for customer retention metrics, reducing support response time from hours to seconds directly impacts NRR. This is not a sales tool, but it is a revenue tool.
Chat routing complexity determines which tool fits. If your routing logic is "if target account, route to account owner; if enterprise, route to enterprise SDR; else round-robin" -- Drift handles that with playbooks. If your routing logic is "route to support for product questions, sales for pricing, success for existing customers, and use AI for everything else" -- Intercom handles that with its inbox and assignment rules. Match the tool to the routing complexity.

Summary

Winner by Use Case

Use Case	Winner	Why
B2B pipeline generation	Drift	Purpose-built chat-to-meeting flow with ABM playbooks and pipeline attribution
Multi-department messaging	Intercom	One platform for sales, support, and product messaging
Support + sales on one tool	Intercom	Full help desk plus sales chat versus Drift pipeline-only
ABM routing and target accounts	Drift	IP-based identification and account-tier playbooks
Budget under $1,000/mo	Intercom	Drift starts at $2,500+/mo; Intercom Essential at $39/seat/mo

The RevOps Report's Bottom Line

Drift and Intercom are only competitors if you squint. Drift is a pipeline generation tool that uses chat as the mechanism. Intercom is a messaging platform that spans the entire customer lifecycle. If your RevOps team measures chat success in meetings booked and pipeline generated, Drift is still the best tool for that specific job. If your organization needs chat across sales, support, and product without buying three tools, Intercom is the platform play. The real question for Drift buyers in 2026 is not "does Drift work?" -- it does, and well. It is "will Drift still exist as a standalone product in 2028?" That is a question only Clari can answer, and they are not answering it clearly.