Switching from Intercom to DeskLeap: The Complete Migration Guide

On June 15, 2026, Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire Fin (formerly Intercom) for approximately $3.6 billion. Salesforce completed the acquisition on September 10, 2026, so Intercom is a Salesforce-owned product today.

If you're one of Intercom's 30,000+ customers who chose the platform specifically to avoid enterprise complexity, this guide is for you. Here's exactly how to migrate from Intercom to DeskLeap — step by step, with no data left behind.

Why Migrate Now?

You don't have to panic. The deal hasn't closed yet. But history tells us what happens after Salesforce acquisitions:

• Slack: Acquired for $27.7B in 2021. Prices increased 30-50% within two years. Free tier gutted. Features folded into Salesforce bundles.
• Tableau: Acquired for $15.7B in 2019. Absorbed into Salesforce's data cloud. Independent roadmap disappeared.
• MuleSoft: Acquired for $6.5B in 2018. Now a Salesforce integration product, not a standalone platform.

The pattern: acquire, integrate, raise prices, bundle. Neither the June announcement nor the completion release says anything about what happens to existing plans, seats or pricing.

Migrating now — while Intercom's export tools still work as documented — is significantly easier than migrating after Salesforce restructures the product.

What You're Moving

A typical Intercom workspace contains five categories of data:

1. Contacts — users, leads, and companies with custom attributes
2. Conversations — chat history, email threads, ticket transcripts
3. Knowledge Base — help center articles and collections
4. Automations — workflows, triggers, custom bots
5. Fin AI configuration — trained responses, custom actions, handoff rules

DeskLeap can replace all five. Here's how to export each one and set it up.

Step 1: Export Your Contacts

Intercom stores contacts as "Users," "Leads," and "Companies." Export each separately:

1. Go to Contacts → All Users
2. Click More → Export
3. Confirm the export — Intercom will email you a CSV file
4. Repeat for All Leads and Companies → All

What you get: CSV files with names, emails, phone numbers, custom attributes, tags, and company associations.

Importing to DeskLeap: Go to Dashboard → Contacts → Import. Upload the CSV. DeskLeap auto-maps standard fields (name, email, phone, company) and lets you map custom attributes to custom fields.

Watch out for:

• Intercom's "User ID" field maps to DeskLeap's external ID — keep this for cross-referencing
• Custom attributes with complex data types (arrays, objects) export as JSON strings — you may need to flatten these
• Company associations import separately — import companies first, then users

Step 2: Export Your Conversations

This is the trickiest part. Intercom's conversation export has notable limitations:

Option A: CSV Export (Metadata Only)

1. Go to Reports → Dataset Export
2. Select your conversation dataset and time range (up to 2 years)
3. Download the CSV

Limitation: The CSV includes metadata (timestamps, assignees, tags, ratings) but not the actual message content.

Option B: Bulk PDF/Text Export (Full Content)

1. Go to your Inbox
2. Use conversation filters to target the conversations you need
3. Use bulk selection to select conversations
4. Export as PDF or text files

Best for: Archiving conversation history for compliance or reference.

Option C: REST API Export (Recommended for Full Migration)

For a complete migration with full transcripts, use Intercom's Conversations API:

GET https://api.intercom.io/conversations
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN
Accept: application/json

This returns full conversation objects including all message parts, admin replies, notes, and attachments. Paginate through results to export everything.

Importing to DeskLeap: DeskLeap's API accepts ticket creation with full conversation history. Map Intercom conversations to DeskLeap tickets, preserving timestamps, assignees, and customer context.

Step 3: Export Your Tickets

If you use Intercom's ticketing (separate from conversations):

1. Go to Reports → Dataset Export
2. Select the tickets dataset
3. Define your time range and export

For individual tickets with full details, use the Inbox: open the ticket, click the 3 dots menu → Export ticket. Include attributes and internal notes.

Importing to DeskLeap: Map Intercom ticket states to DeskLeap statuses (New, Open, Pending, Resolved, Closed). Custom ticket attributes map to DeskLeap's metadata fields.

Step 4: Migrate Your Knowledge Base

Intercom's Help Center articles need manual or API-based export:

1. Use the Articles API to pull all articles with their HTML content
2. Note the collection structure (Intercom uses collections → sections → articles)
3. Export article metadata: title, body HTML, status, author, created/updated dates

Importing to DeskLeap: DeskLeap's knowledge base uses a similar hierarchy (collections → articles). Create your collections first, then import articles via the DeskLeap API or manually through the dashboard. HTML content transfers directly — formatting, images, and embedded media are preserved.

Tips:

• Download all images from Intercom's CDN before migration — URLs will eventually break post-acquisition
• Update internal links between articles to point to DeskLeap URLs
• Review AI-generated articles for accuracy — if Fin created any auto-articles, verify them

Step 5: Rebuild Your Automations

Intercom's workflows don't export directly. You'll need to recreate them in DeskLeap, but most translate cleanly:

Intercom Feature	DeskLeap Equivalent
Workflows (if/then triggers)	Automation Rules
Custom Bots	AI Chatbot (built-in)
Fin AI Agent	DeskLeap AI (included)
Assignment Rules	Auto-assignment + Round Robin
SLA Rules	SLA Policies
Tags & Segments	Tags & Views
Macros / Saved Replies	Canned Responses

Document your current Intercom workflows before you start. Screenshot each workflow, note the triggers, conditions, and actions. Then rebuild them in DeskLeap's automation builder — the concepts are the same, even if the UI differs.

Step 6: Set Up Your DeskLeap AI

If you're using Fin AI Agent, DeskLeap's built-in AI replaces it without per-resolution charges:

Fin AI (Intercom)	DeskLeap AI
$0.99 per resolution	Included — 500 replies/agent/month
$9.99 per lead qualification	Included — 500 replies/agent/month
50 resolution minimum ($49.50/month floor)	No minimums
Proprietary Apex model	OpenAI-powered (configurable)
Custom Actions (API calls)	AI auto-replies + suggested articles

To set up DeskLeap's AI:

1. Go to Settings → AI Configuration
2. Add your knowledge base articles — the AI learns from them automatically
3. Enable AI Chatbot for your widget
4. Enable AI Auto-Reply for email tickets

No per-resolution fees. No session packs. No minimum charges.

Step 7: Install the Chat Widget

Replace Intercom's Messenger with DeskLeap's chat widget:

1. Remove the Intercom JavaScript snippet from your site
2. Add DeskLeap's widget code (one line of JavaScript)
3. Configure your widget's appearance, welcome message, and business hours
4. DeskLeap's widget supports multiple languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Arabic) out of the box

The switch takes minutes, not days.

The Pricing Comparison That Matters

Here's what a 10-agent team actually pays:

	Intercom (Today)	DeskLeap
Base seats (10 agents)	$290/month ($29/seat Essential)	$0 — the platform is free
AI Agent (2,000 resolutions)	$1,980/month	$290/month if you add the AI Agent for all 10 agents — not metered by resolution
AI Copilot	Included in plans	Included with the AI Agent
Total	$2,270/month	$0, or $290 with the AI Agent on every agent
Annual	$27,240	$0, or $3,480 with the AI Agent on every agent

That's a $23,760/year difference — and Intercom's pricing will only go up under Salesforce. Slack's prices increased 30-50% within two years of acquisition. There's no reason to expect Intercom will be different.

Migration Timeline

A realistic migration timeline for a 10-agent team:

• Day 1: Create DeskLeap account, invite team members
• Day 1-2: Export contacts and import to DeskLeap
• Day 2-3: Export and migrate knowledge base articles
• Day 3-4: Rebuild automations and SLA policies
• Day 4-5: Configure AI settings, test chatbot
• Day 5: Swap chat widget, go live
• Day 5-7: Archive historical conversations from Intercom

Most teams are fully operational on DeskLeap within a week.

What Salesforce Has Actually Said

Salesforce completed its acquisition of Fin, formerly Intercom, on September 10, 2026. It is worth being precise about what the announcements do and do not commit to, because the gap is where most speculation lives.

What they say: Fin “broadens” Salesforce's customer service AI portfolio and sits “alongside” Agentforce, and that Fin “will continue to serve its customers” as part of Salesforce AI Labs.

What they do not say: anything at all about existing plans, seats, or pricing. Neither the June announcement nor the completion release mentions them. We are not going to tell you what that means, because nobody outside Salesforce knows yet — but if you are choosing a support tool this quarter, an unanswered pricing question is part of what you are choosing.

Start your free DeskLeap trial — migrate at your own pace, with support from our team if you need it.

Already using Intercom and considering the switch? Contact our migration support team for personalized assistance with your data transfer.

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