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ATON Desk vs Intercom
Two support tools, two ways of paying for AI.
We charge for seats and include a monthly allowance of AI conversations. Intercom charges for seats and then for each question its AI settles. Here are both sets of prices from their own page, what each tool does, and where Intercom is ahead of us.
Coming soon
You cannot buy it today
ATON Desk is not open to customers yet. It runs for Atheron's own support, on our own sites, which is how we find the rough edges before you do. The prices below are the prices it will be sold at, in Canadian dollars. Ask us to tell you when signup opens and we will, once.
Ask to be told when it opensWhat each one is
ATON Desk
ATON Desk is a Canadian live chat for websites where an AI agent answers first and a person takes over in one click, sold per seat in Canadian dollars.
Intercom
A large American customer messaging platform, sold per seat, whose AI agent Fin is charged for each question it settles.
Prices, as published
Our prices are the prices ATON Desk will be sold at, in Canadian dollars. Theirs are the figures their own pricing page printed on the day we read it, with the page linked so you can check today's.
ATON Desk, per seat a month
- Free$0
- Starter$19 annually, $25 monthly
- Team$45 annually, $55 monthly
- Business$75 annually, $89 monthly
- Enterprisefrom $115 annually
Intercom: Their plans
per seat a month, billed annually
- EssentialUS$29 ($41)
- AdvancedUS$85 ($121)
Their page says it includes 20 free Lite seats.
- ExpertUS$132 ($188)
Their page says it includes 50 free Lite seats.
Charged by use
- from US$0.99 ($1.41) per Fin outcome
- US$29 ($41) per agent a month for Copilot, billed annually
- US$99 ($141) a month for Proactive Support Plus, with 500 messages
Their page says a 14-day trial with no credit card, and a minimum of one full seat.
intercom.com/pricingUS dollars converted at 1.4246 USD/CAD, the Bank of Canada daily average for October 2, 2026. They bill in US dollars, so a Canadian card pays whatever the rate and the card's fee are on the day. Our conversion, not their price.
Feature by feature
A chat widget for your website
ATON Desk
Yes
Intercom
Yes
Prices published in Canadian dollars
ATON Desk
Yes
Canadian dollars only. Sales tax is added where it applies.
Intercom
No
Published in US dollars on the page we read.
A free plan, not a trial
ATON Desk
Coming soon
Priced at no charge for 2 seats, 1 website and 20 AI conversations a month, and not open yet. Signup opens after the waitlist.
Intercom
No
A 14-day trial, no card.
Priced per seat
ATON Desk
Yes
Per seat a month, annually or monthly.
Intercom
Yes
Per seat a month.
A monthly price printed beside the annual one
ATON Desk
Yes
Both periods on the pricing page.
Intercom
No
The page shows the annual rate. No monthly rate for Essential or Advanced.
AI answers inside the plan price
ATON Desk
Yes
20 to 1,500 AI conversations a month by plan, then packs or capped overage.
Intercom
Charged by use
Charged for each Fin outcome, from the figure below.
A monthly cap you set before overage is charged
ATON Desk
Yes
Overage is off until you turn it on, and never passes your cap.
Intercom
Not stated
The pages we read do not say.
A phone channel
ATON Desk
No
No phone channel, and no plan to add one this year. The website chat is the one channel at launch.
Intercom
Not stated
The pages we read do not say.
A marketplace of ready-made connectors
ATON Desk
No
An API and webhooks, with API Plus for higher limits. No marketplace.
Intercom
Not stated
The pages we read do not say.
Seats capped on the lower plans
ATON Desk
No
No seat cap on any plan. Enterprise has a 10-seat minimum.
Intercom
Not stated
The pages we read do not say.
Your data stored in Canada
ATON Desk
Priced as an add-on
An add-on, and in Enterprise. AI answers are written outside Canada, in the United States.
Intercom
Not stated
The pages we read do not say.
Channels today
What ATON Desk can actually answer on right now. The rest are built and switched off, and we would rather say so here than let you find out after you have paid.
- Website chatYes
- Text messages (SMS)Coming soon
- TelegramComing soon
- DiscordComing soon
- WhatsAppComing soon
- MessengerComing soon
- InstagramComing soon
What Intercom does better
- Fin, their AI agent, is sold on its own for teams that already run another help desk, with no seat cost and a minimum monthly commitment. We have nothing you can bolt onto a tool you already use.
- Their Advanced plan includes 20 free Lite seats and Expert includes 50, so colleagues who only need to read along cost nothing. Every seat in ATON Desk is a paid seat past the two free ones.
- They sell outbound messaging as Proactive Support Plus at a published price. ATON Desk answers people who start a conversation and does not send campaigns.
Who should pick which
Pick them if: Intercom
Pick Intercom if you want one platform for support and outbound messaging, you are happy to pay for each question the AI settles, and you want the AI to work on a help desk you already have.
Pick us if: ATON Desk
Pick ATON Desk if you want a bill in Canadian dollars, a known number of AI conversations each month rather than a charge per answer, and a cap you set before any overage is charged.
How we checked
- Every figure and every claim about another product comes from a page that company publishes, and each page is linked above.
- The date beside each price is the day we read their page. Prices change, and ours is not the copy to trust about theirs.
- Where their page does not say something, we say that their page does not say it. We do not fill the gap from a review site, and we do not guess a number.
- Their names are used to compare, nothing more. We are not affiliated with any of them, and their product names belong to them.
Be told when it opens
ATON Desk is not open to customers yet. Leave us a line and we will tell you when it is.