The Intercom alternative for teams that live in Slack
Skip the per-seat pricing and the separate dashboard. Ruby Relay relays your website's live chat straight into Slack, where your team already works.
Intercom is a powerful platform, but for a small team it can be overkill: another inbox to staff, per-seat costs that climb every time someone joins, and features you may never touch. Ruby Relay does one thing well. It pipes website chat into Slack so you answer customers from the tool you already have open, for a flat monthly price.
| Ruby Relay | Intercom | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you reply | In Slack, your existing channel | A separate Intercom dashboard |
| Pricing model | Flat monthly, from $19 | Per-seat plus usage, climbs fast |
| Team seats | Unlimited on every plan | Paid per seat |
| Setup | One script tag, 3-click Slack connect | Heavier install and onboarding |
| Best for | Small teams that live in Slack | Large support orgs needing CRM, ticketing, AI |
When Intercom is the right call
We are not going to pretend Ruby Relay replaces everything Intercom does. If you need a full CRM, a ticketing system, help-desk automation, and AI agents, Intercom is the heavier, pricier tool built for exactly that, and it is good at it.
But if what you actually want is website live chat answered in Slack, without per-seat math or a new dashboard to babysit, that is the whole job Ruby Relay is built for. See the flat pricing, read how Slack live chat works, or see all our comparisons.
Try the simpler alternative
Set up live chat in Slack in about five minutes. No per-seat fees.
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