Intercom is one of the better-known subscription tools in its space — and at $29/seat/mo (Essential, annual; $39 monthly) + Fin AI usage, one of the recurring line items people most often look to replace. If you're searching for a Intercom alternative you pay for once and own forever, Chatlet is the OneTimeSuite answer: $49, one time.
Why people go looking for an alternative
Intercom runs $29/seat/mo (Essential, annual; $39 monthly) + Fin AI usage, and like most SaaS the bill never stops — cancel and you typically lose access to your own history. That's roughly $1,044 over three years. Chatlet flips that model: Self-hosted live chat — real-time widget, agent dashboard, canned replies, offline messages.
What Chatlet covers
- One-line embed — A single script tag. Shadow-DOM widget (~9 KB of dependency-free JS), so your site's CSS can't break it.
- Real-time over WebSockets — Automatic reconnect, an outgoing message queue, and a transparent HTTP-polling fallback when corporate firewalls block WS.
- Agent dashboard — Live-updating inbox with open/closed states and unread badges, typing indicators both ways, sound + browser notifications.
- Visitor context sidebar — Current page, referrer, browser and full past-conversation history beside every chat.
- Canned responses — Type /shortcut in the composer to fire saved replies instantly — full CRUD in the dashboard.
The honest trade-off
Intercom will keep shipping features, integrations and managed infrastructure that a pay-once tool won't chase — if that ecosystem is genuinely load-bearing for your workflow, staying is a fair call. For the core job, the math favors owning the tool: $49 once against $29/seat/mo (Essential, annual; $39 monthly) + Fin AI usage forever. Chatlet pays for itself in under 3 weeks vs Crisp's team plan — then live chat is free for as long as you run a website.
Also worth reading
Chatlet's main head-to-head is with Crisp — see the detailed comparison or the product page for the full feature list, FAQ and demo video.
Try Chatlet — $49, once
Self-hosted live chat — real-time widget, agent dashboard, canned replies, offline messages.