European Alternatives to Intercom: GDPR-Compliant Customer Messaging

Intercom has become the default customer messaging platform for SaaS companies worldwide. Its combination of live chat, chatbots, product tours, and help desk functionality makes it a powerful all-in-one tool. But Intercom is a US company, and every customer conversation you have flows through infrastructure subject to American surveillance laws.

For European businesses, this creates a real compliance problem. Intercom processes sensitive customer data—names, email addresses, browsing behavior, support tickets, purchase history—all governed by the CLOUD Act and FISA 702. Even if Intercom stores data on EU servers, US authorities can compel access without your knowledge or consent.

The good news: European alternatives now offer the same integrated messaging experience—live chat widgets, AI chatbots, shared inboxes, and automation—while keeping your customer data under European legal jurisdiction. Here are the best options.

Top European Alternatives to Intercom

These platforms deliver modern customer messaging with genuine GDPR compliance. All are headquartered and operated within Europe, making them immune to US extraterritorial data demands.

Crisp

Unify customer support with a shared inbox, AI agents, and a knowledge base. This French platform helps you manage all channels while ensuring GDPR compliance.

Crisp is the closest European equivalent to Intercom's all-in-one approach. Built and hosted in France, Crisp combines a shared inbox, live chat, AI-powered chatbots, a knowledge base, and a CRM into a single platform. Like Intercom, Crisp lets you engage customers proactively with targeted messages and track their journey across your product. The key difference: your data stays under French and EU law, with no exposure to the CLOUD Act. Crisp's pricing is also significantly more straightforward than Intercom's notoriously complex per-seat model.

Customerly

Handle up to 70% of support tickets automatically with an AI assistant. Includes live chat, help desk, and email campaigns. Based in Ireland, EU-only data storage.

Customerly offers an Intercom-style experience built entirely within the EU. Based in Ireland with EU-only data storage, Customerly provides live chat, an AI assistant that can resolve up to 70% of support tickets automatically, help desk workflows, and email marketing campaigns. If you use Intercom primarily for its combination of support automation and customer engagement, Customerly is a strong match. The AI assistant handles common questions while routing complex issues to your team—all without your data leaving European jurisdiction.

Giosg

Use AI agents, live chat, and interactive forms to automate customer support, capture more qualified leads, and increase sales conversions on your website.

Giosg takes a sales-focused approach to customer messaging, much like Intercom's growth-oriented features. This Finnish platform uses AI agents, live chat, and interactive forms to automate support, capture qualified leads, and increase conversions. Where Intercom excels at product-led growth messaging, Giosg focuses on turning website visitors into customers through intelligent, targeted conversations. All data processing happens under Finnish and EU data protection law.

Smartsupp

Add live chat, chatbots, and an AI shopping assistant to your site. Answer questions, recommend products, and capture leads 24/7 to increase online sales.

Smartsupp combines live chat with an AI shopping assistant that's particularly effective for e-commerce. Based in the Czech Republic, it helps online stores answer product questions, recommend items, and capture leads around the clock. If you're using Intercom to power customer conversations on a webshop, Smartsupp offers a more focused and cost-effective alternative with full GDPR compliance. Its chatbots can be configured without technical knowledge, making it accessible for smaller teams.

Tiledesk

Create AI chatbots and automate workflows with a no-code, open-source platform. Connect knowledge bases and deploy on-premise for full GDPR compliance.

Tiledesk is the open-source answer to Intercom. Built in Italy, this platform lets you create AI chatbots and automate customer support workflows with a no-code builder. The open-source model means you can self-host Tiledesk on your own infrastructure for complete data sovereignty—something Intercom will never offer. Connect your knowledge base, deploy across multiple channels, and maintain full control over your customer data. For organisations that need maximum flexibility and transparency, Tiledesk is the clear choice.

Trengo

Bring WhatsApp, email, social media, and calls into a single inbox. Use AI and automation to answer common questions and manage customer conversations efficiently.

Trengo provides a unified inbox that brings WhatsApp, email, social media, live chat, and phone calls into a single dashboard. Based in the Netherlands, it's ideal for teams that use Intercom to manage conversations across multiple channels. Trengo's AI and automation features handle common questions automatically, while its GDPR-compliant infrastructure ensures every customer interaction stays under Dutch and EU jurisdiction. If your Intercom usage is heavily focused on omnichannel messaging, Trengo is the European alternative to consider.

Why Intercom Creates Compliance Risk

Intercom processes enormous volumes of sensitive customer data. Understanding the legal exposure helps explain why switching matters.

The Data Intercom Collects

Intercom's power comes from its deep integration with your product and customer data. A typical Intercom installation tracks:

Customer identity and contact details
Browsing behavior and page views within your product
Custom attributes and user segments
Full conversation history across all channels
File attachments shared in support conversations

All of this data is accessible to a US company under American law.

CLOUD Act Exposure

The CLOUD Act requires US companies to provide stored data to law enforcement upon request, regardless of where that data is physically located. Intercom's "EU data hosting" option doesn't change the legal reality: Intercom Inc. is a San Francisco company subject to US jurisdiction.

This means US authorities can access your European customers' support conversations, personal details, and behavioral data without any notification to you or your customers.

Pricing Complexity vs. Transparency

Beyond compliance, Intercom's pricing model has become a pain point for many businesses. Per-seat charges, add-on fees for AI features, and resolution-based billing make costs unpredictable. Most European alternatives offer simpler, more transparent pricing—often at a significantly lower cost for small and mid-sized teams.

Feature Comparison: Intercom vs European Alternatives

Live Chat and Messaging

Intercom: Polished chat widget with proactive messaging, product tours, and banners. Deep customisation options.

European Alternatives: Crisp and Customerly offer comparable chat widgets with proactive messaging. Giosg specialises in sales-focused chat interactions. All support real-time messaging with modern, customisable interfaces.

AI and Automation

Intercom: Fin AI agent for automated resolution, custom bots, workflow automation. AI features are a paid add-on.

European Alternatives: Customerly's AI handles up to 70% of tickets. Tiledesk offers no-code AI chatbot building. Crisp includes AI-powered responses in its core platform. Giosg uses AI agents for lead qualification and sales automation.

Help Desk and Ticketing

Intercom: Integrated ticketing system with assignment, SLAs, and reporting.

European Alternatives: Crisp and Customerly include full help desk functionality. For organisations needing enterprise-grade ticketing, European alternatives to Zendesk offer dedicated help desk platforms with deeper ticketing capabilities.

Omnichannel Support

Intercom: Email, chat, social media, WhatsApp, and SMS in one inbox.

European Alternatives: Trengo excels here with native support for WhatsApp, social media, voice, and email. Crisp also provides strong multi-channel coverage. Both consolidate conversations into a single European-hosted inbox.

Knowledge Base

Intercom: Built-in help center with article management and search.

European Alternatives: Crisp includes a knowledge base that integrates with its AI assistant. Tiledesk allows connecting external knowledge bases to power its chatbot responses.

Migration Considerations

Moving from Intercom requires planning, but the process is well-understood.

Data Export

Intercom provides data export capabilities for conversations, contacts, and articles. Plan your export strategy before cancelling:

Export customer contact data and conversation history
Download help center articles for migration
Document your automation workflows for recreation

Recreating Automations

Intercom's workflows and bots will need to be rebuilt. Most European alternatives offer visual workflow builders that simplify this process. Start with your highest-volume automations first—these deliver the most immediate value.

Team Transition

The biggest challenge is usually team adoption. Run both platforms in parallel briefly, let your team get comfortable with the new interface, and provide clear guidance on the new workflows.

The Broader Compliance Picture

Customer messaging is just one touchpoint. If you're evaluating Intercom alternatives, consider your entire customer support stack:

Help desk: European alternatives to Zendesk for enterprise-grade ticketing and support
Sales chat: European alternatives to Drift for conversational marketing and sales
Team communication: European alternatives to Slack for internal messaging
Video meetings: European alternatives to Zoom for customer calls

True data sovereignty requires European tools across your entire customer communication infrastructure.

Making the Switch

Intercom built its reputation by unifying customer messaging into one platform. European alternatives have caught up on functionality while offering something Intercom cannot: genuine immunity from US surveillance laws.

The question is straightforward. Can your business justify routing all customer interactions—support conversations, sales chats, user behavior data—through a US company when European alternatives exist that match Intercom's capabilities?

For European businesses handling customer data, the compliance risk of Intercom is real and growing. The alternatives listed here prove you don't have to sacrifice functionality to gain data sovereignty.

Browse our complete directory of European live chat software to find the right customer messaging platform for your organisation.

European Alternatives to Intercom: GDPR-Compliant Customer Messaging

Replace Intercom with European customer messaging platforms that combine live chat, chatbots, and help desk features while keeping your data under EU jurisdiction.

Written by Kevin Christensen

Top European Alternatives to Intercom

Crisp

Customerly

Giosg

Smartsupp

Tiledesk

Trengo

Why Intercom Creates Compliance Risk

The Data Intercom Collects

CLOUD Act Exposure

Pricing Complexity vs. Transparency

Feature Comparison: Intercom vs European Alternatives

Live Chat and Messaging

AI and Automation

Help Desk and Ticketing

Omnichannel Support

Knowledge Base

Migration Considerations

Data Export

Recreating Automations

Team Transition

The Broader Compliance Picture

Making the Switch

Crisp

Customerly

Giosg

Smartsupp

Tiledesk

Trengo