Decagon Alternatives: 6 Options Compared by Price and Fit (2026)

Decagon doesn't publish pricing, and that single fact is why most people land on this page. Not because Decagon is bad. Third-party estimates converge on a platform fee near $50,000 a year plus per-conversation charges, with full enterprise contracts reportedly ranging from roughly $95,000 to over $590,000 depending on volume and integration complexity. That's a real, deliberate cost structure for a real kind of buyer: large enterprises with dedicated implementation resources and high-volume, often regulated support operations.

If that's not your company, the alternatives below are organized by what actually differs: how each one bills you, how fast you can be live, and who it's realistically built for. Nobody on this list, including Sentrup, is a universal answer. The honest version of this page tells you which one to skip, not just which ones to consider.

For a broader category overview, check out our guide on the Top 5 AI Customer Service Software Platforms Compared.

---

How to Read AI Agent Pricing Before You Compare Anyone

Every vendor below defines its billable event differently, and that difference moves your actual bill more than the headline number does:

• Per-Conversation Billing: You pay whether or not the AI resolves anything.
• Per-Resolution Billing: An escalation to a human doesn't cost you the usage fee. However, "resolution" itself gets defined differently by each vendor—some count a customer who leaves without asking a follow-up question, while others require an explicit customer confirmation.
• Resolution Quality & Verification: Understanding how models retrieve knowledge via Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and how vendors handle preventing AI hallucinations is critical to auditing true resolution metrics.

Before comparing rate cards, ask each vendor how they define the event you're being billed for, and whether you can audit that count independently.

---

The 6 Major Decagon Alternatives

1. Sierra

• Pricing Model: Outcome-based, opaque, custom enterprise pricing.
• Cost Structure: Sierra publishes no pricing at all. Third-party estimates place per-resolution charges around $1 to $2.50, with setup fees of $50,000 to $200,000 and year-one totals commonly landing between $200,000 and $350,000 (sometimes higher for multi-channel enterprise rollouts).
• Best For: Large consumer brands with standardized, high-volume case types and dedicated enterprise budgets.
• When to Skip: If you want transparent pricing before committing to sales calls and custom professional services.

2. Intercom Fin

• Pricing Model: Published, transparent outcome pricing.
• Cost Structure: Fin charges $0.99 per resolution with no platform fee, on top of Intercom's seat pricing ($29 to $139 per agent per month depending on plan).
• Key Context: Intercom rebranded its parent entity to Fin in 2026, and Salesforce agreed to acquire it that same year, meaning ownership and product roadmaps are mid-transition. Fin's resolution rate is independently reported around 71–76%.
• Best For: Teams that want transparent, auditable per-outcome pricing and are willing to either run Intercom as their core helpdesk or bolt Fin onto Zendesk or Salesforce.

3. Ada

• Pricing Model: Per-conversation, sales-led enterprise billing.
• Cost Structure: Ada does not publish public pricing; procurement data (Vendr) puts the median annual contract around $70,000, with enterprise deployments reaching $300,000 or more.
• Important Detail: Because Ada bills per conversation rather than per resolution, you pay for interactions the AI fails to resolve, which can compound costs if deflection rates fluctuate.
• Best For: High-volume, predictable deflection use cases where ticket topics are standardized and consistent.

4. Lorikeet

• Pricing Model: Published per-resolution rate cards.
• Cost Structure: Reported rates run roughly $0.80 to $0.95 for chat, email, or SMS resolutions, and $1.20 to $1.50 for voice, with escalations not billed.
• Best For: Regulated and complex industries (fintech, healthcare, insurance) requiring nuanced judgment and multi-system coordination rather than simple FAQ deflection.

5. Enterprise Contact Center Suites (Cresta, Cognigy, Kore.ai)

• Pricing Model: Custom enterprise licenses, low-to-mid six figures.
• Cost Structure: Deployments typically range from $100,000 to $500,000+ annually with extensive professional services and custom SIP/telephony integration.
• Best For: Large, voice-heavy contact centers that need structured workflow builders, real-time agent assist, and complex telephony infrastructure.

6. Sentrup

• Pricing Model: Fully transparent, published self-serve tiers.
• Cost Structure:
  • Free: $0/mo (100 web conversations)
  • Starter: $29/mo (500 web conversations)
  • Growth: $99/mo (3,000 web conversations)
  • Business: $249/mo (10,000 web conversations, team inbox, CRM sync)
  • Enterprise: Custom volume & dedicated infrastructure
  • Add-ons: Web conversation overage at $5 per 500 conversations; voice AI at $0.20 per minute.
• How It Works: Unlike conversational bots that guess answers, Sentrup's Verified Action Engine executes defined backend actions (booking appointments, tracking/canceling orders, updating CRM records) and verifies the API response before closing the loop. If an edge case arises, the conversation routes to human support with full context.
• Best For: Clinics booking appointments, SMBs, e-commerce support teams, and agencies managing multiple client accounts from a single unified workspace.

👉 Explore full tier details on the Sentrup Pricing Page.

---

Where Decagon Still Wins

Decagon's Agent Operating Procedures let a non-technical support manager write a workflow in natural language and have the AI interpret and follow it—a genuinely different mechanic from a rigid rules-based flow.

For a large enterprise with dedicated staff to tune and monitor AI behavior, alongside enterprise compliance requirements (SOC 2 Type II, custom data residency, immutable audit trails), Decagon's model is purpose-built for the job. The six-week white-glove deployment and enterprise price tag reflect that depth. If your organization matches that profile, enterprise options like Decagon are worth prioritizing.

---

Comparison Summary: Decagon vs Alternatives

| Platform | Pricing Model | Reported Entry Cost | Setup Time | Built For | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Decagon | Custom, platform fee + per-conversation | ~$50K/yr base, $95K–$590K+ contracts | ~6 weeks (dedicated deployment) | Large, regulated enterprise | | Sierra | Custom, per-resolution | ~$200K–$350K+ Year 1 | Months (professional services) | High-volume consumer brands | | Intercom Fin | Published, $0.99/resolution + seats | Seats from $29/agent/mo, no platform fee | Days | Teams running Intercom or Zendesk/Salesforce | | Ada | Custom, per-conversation | ~$70K median contract (Vendr) | Weeks (sales-led) | Standardized high-volume deflection | | Lorikeet | Published, per-resolution | $0.80–$1.50 / resolution, no platform fee | Weeks | Regulated, complex case workflows | | Sentrup | Published tiers ($0 to $249/mo) | Free to $249/mo; custom Enterprise | Self-serve (Minutes) | Clinics, SMB/e-commerce, agencies |

---

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a genuinely affordable Decagon alternative, or are they all enterprise-priced?

Not all alternatives are six-figure tools. While Sierra, Ada, Cresta, Cognigy, and Kore.ai target enterprise buyers with mid-to-high five-figure floors, platforms like Sentrup, Intercom Fin, and Lorikeet offer transparent, entry-level pricing without requiring long-term enterprise commitments.

What is the real difference between per-conversation and per-resolution pricing?

• Per-conversation pricing bills for every chat or ticket the AI touches, regardless of whether the customer received a helpful answer or escalated to a human.
• Per-resolution pricing bills only when the AI successfully resolves the issue. Make sure to ask vendors how they define "resolution" (e.g. timeout vs explicit user confirmation).

Which of these tools can take real backend actions, not just answer questions?

Decagon, Sentrup, and Lorikeet are built around verified actions (triggering refunds, booking calendar slots, modifying CRM contacts) rather than solely generating natural language answers. Ada and Fin focus heavily on conversational Q&A, with deeper action execution dependent on custom webhook configurations.

Is Sentrup a realistic alternative for enterprise-scale operations?

Sentrup offers custom Enterprise tiers with dedicated concurrency and SLA guarantees. However, Sentrup's core strength is self-serve simplicity and instant deployment for SMBs, e-commerce brands, healthcare clinics, and agencies. Large enterprises requiring months of custom onboarding, on-premise deployments, or custom LLM fine-tuning may prefer dedicated enterprise vendors like Decagon or Sierra.

---

Pricing figures for Decagon, Sierra, Ada, Lorikeet, and Intercom Fin are third-party estimates and published vendor rates as reported by independent industry sources (Fin AI, Lorikeet, CloudTalk, Featurebase, Quiq, Coworker AI) as of late 2026. Review current vendor documentation directly for real-time quotes.