Help Desk Software · reliability comparison
Help Scout vs Intercom: which is more reliable? (2026)
Help Scout and Intercom are effectively tied on reliability (89.2 vs 87.9). Over the last 90 days Help Scout reported 6 incidents and Intercom reported 8, with effective uptime of 99.91% and 99.92% respectively. Intercom resolves incidents faster on average (1h).
Data updated Nov 2, 2026 · How we score
| Metric | Help Scout | Intercom |
|---|---|---|
| Reliability score | 89.2 | 87.9 |
| Rank (help desk platforms) | #7 | #8 |
| Uptime (90 days) | 99.91% | 99.92% |
| Incidents (90 days) | 6 | 8 |
| Partial / major outages | 0 | 3 |
| Avg time to resolve | 2h | 1h |
| Outages we detected | 0 | 0 |
| Transparency score | 100/100 | 100/100 |
Where Help Scout and Intercom differ
- Intercom reported 33% more incidents than Help Scout over the last 90 days (8 vs 6).
- Intercom had 3 partial or major outages, compared with 0 for Help Scout.
- Intercom fixes problems faster: 1h on average, against 2h for Help Scout (2.0× quicker).
- Help Scout's longest outage on record lasted 6h 44m (Jul 14, 2026); Intercom's lasted 3h 29m (Apr 14, 2026).
90-day uptime
Help Scout
Intercom
- No incidents
- Degraded
- Partial outage
- Major outage
- No data
Recent Help Scout incidents
- Degraded performanceSep 22, 2026 · resolved in 36m
Mailbox counts, folders, reports, search results
Affected: Mailbox counts, folders, reports, search results
- Degraded performanceAug 31, 2026 · resolved in 3h 57m
Affected: Mailbox counts, folders, reports, search results
- Degraded performanceAug 18, 2026 · resolved in 3h 12m
Affected: AI Drafts, AI Answers, AI Summarize, AI Assist
- Degraded performanceAug 14, 2026 · resolved in 1h 18m
Affected: Beacon
- Degraded performanceAug 13, 2026 · resolved in 1h 42m
Affected: Web App
- Degraded performanceAug 6, 2026 · resolved in 1h 13m
Affected: Mailbox counts, folders, reports, search results
Recent Intercom incidents
- Degraded performanceOct 30, 2026 · resolved in 24m
Affected: Fin AI Agent
- Degraded performanceOct 14, 2026 · resolved in 12m
Customer contact details showing up as "Redacted" in the Intercom Inbox
Affected: Inbox
- Degraded performanceSep 16, 2026 · resolved in 5h 27m
Issues with Fin for Salesforce
Affected: Other
- Degraded performanceSep 9, 2026 · resolved in 9m
Messenger Help Articles not displaying
Affected: Mobile Messenger, Web Messenger
- Degraded performanceSep 4, 2026 · resolved in 39m
Fin intermittent failures responding to first conversation messages
Affected: Fin AI Agent
- Major outageSep 3, 2026 · resolved in 12m
Fin failures in Australia region
Affected: Mobile Messenger, Knowledge Hub, Outbound, Other, Inbox, Tickets +10 more
Other help desk platforms to consider
- Hiver · #1 · 99.99% uptime
- HubSpot Service Hub · #2 · 100% uptime
- Kustomer · #3 · 99.99% uptime
- Tidio · #4 · 99.98% uptime