Drift vs HubSpot vs Intercom: What are the differences?

# Key Differences Between Drift, HubSpot, and Intercom 

Drift, HubSpot, and Intercom are popular customer communication platforms that offer different features for businesses. Below are the key differences between these three platforms:

1. **Target Customer Segment**:
   Drift primarily targets B2B companies, focusing on real-time conversations with website visitors and lead generation. HubSpot caters to both B2B and B2C businesses, offering a wide range of marketing, sales, and customer service tools. Intercom is known for its focus on customer communication for SaaS companies, providing chat, email, and product tours.

2. **Automation and Integration**:
   Drift offers automation tools mainly for conversational marketing, while HubSpot provides a robust automation platform for marketing, sales, and service processes. Intercom stands out with its deep integrations with popular CRM systems and tools, allowing seamless data flow between platforms.

3. **Messaging Capabilities**:
   Drift emphasizes conversational marketing through live chat, chatbots, and personalized messages, aiming to engage website visitors in real time. HubSpot offers messaging capabilities but also focuses on email marketing, social media management, and content creation. Intercom is renowned for its advanced messaging features like in-app messaging, targeted emails, and chatbots for customer support.

4. **Pricing Structure**:
   Drift offers tiered pricing plans based on the number of contacts and features required, suitable for companies of any size. HubSpot provides a free CRM with paid marketing, sales, and service hubs, catering to businesses with diverse needs. Intercom's pricing is based on the number of active users, with additional costs for advanced features like bots and integrations.

5. **Customer Support and Training**:
   Drift focuses on self-service resources and a community forum for support, offering limited phone and email assistance. HubSpot invests significantly in customer support with a comprehensive knowledge base, live chat, and phone support for all users. Intercom provides personalized onboarding and training sessions for new customers, along with ongoing support through various channels.

6. **Reporting and Analytics**:
   Drift offers basic reporting on chat performance and lead attribution, suitable for monitoring conversational marketing efforts. HubSpot provides detailed analytics on marketing, sales, and service activities, enabling businesses to track ROI and performance across multiple channels. Intercom offers in-depth analytics on customer engagement, retention, and satisfaction, helping businesses make data-driven decisions to improve communication strategies.

In Summary, Drift, HubSpot, and Intercom vary in their target customer segment, automation capabilities, messaging features, pricing structure, customer support, and reporting tools, catering to diverse business needs in the customer communication space.