Help Scout vs Hunter
Side-by-side plans, pricing, and feature gates for Help Scout and Hunter, verified . Help Scout is primarily help desk; Hunter is primarily lead generation.
Plans side by side
Every published plan from each vendor, with the headline monthly anchor price. Some prices scale with subscriber count or seats; full detail lives on each tool's page.
Help Scout
- Free
Up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site
Free - Standard
Entry paid tier with live chat and AI Inbox assistant
$25/mo - Plus
Advanced workflows, unlimited AI Drafts, WhatsApp
$45/mo - Pro
Unlimited users, SSO/SAML, HIPAA, dedicated onboarding
$75/mo
Hunter
- Free
50 search credits per month for testing
Free - Starter
2,000 credits/mo, auto-verification, AI Writing Assistant
$34/mo - Growth
10,000 credits/mo, 10 email accounts, expanded AI
$104/mo - Scale
25,000 credits/mo, 20 email accounts, unlimited Signals
$209/mo - Enterprise
Custom credits and dedicated account manager
Custom
Limits at the entry paid tier
Compares Standard (Help Scout) against Starter (Hunter). Both are the lowest-priced non-free, non-custom plan on each side.
| Limit | Help Scout | Hunter |
|---|---|---|
| Team seats | 25 users (max) | Unlimited |
When Help Scout wins
- SaaS support teams of 5 to 50 with email and chat as the main channels
- Healthcare-adjacent companies that need HIPAA on the help desk
- Teams that prefer a calm conversational inbox over the ticket-grid model
Where Help Scout is the wrong fit
- Enterprises with thousands of agents (Zendesk or Freshdesk fit better)
- Companies whose primary support channel is voice (no built-in voice)
- Teams that need deeply customizable ticket fields beyond what Help Scout exposes
When Hunter wins
- Founders doing personalized B2B outreach to small lead lists
- Agencies running outreach campaigns for SMB clients
- Sales teams wanting an email-finder and verifier in a single tool
Where Hunter is the wrong fit
- Enterprise sales orgs that need ZoomInfo-grade data depth
- Teams that don't run cold outreach (use a CRM instead)
- Buyers who want unlimited credits at any price (use ZoomInfo or Apollo Unlimited)
Common questions
- Is Help Scout cheaper than Hunter?
- Both Help Scout and Hunter have free or custom entry pricing, so a direct entry-tier price comparison is not meaningful.
- Does Help Scout or Hunter have a free plan?
- Both have free plans. Help Scout: Up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site. Hunter: 50 search credits per month for testing.
Help Scout: https://www.helpscout.com/pricing/ · Hunter: https://hunter.io/pricing
Last verified . Pricing changes between refreshes; confirm at the vendor before purchasing.