Help Scout vs Mailchimp
Side-by-side plans, pricing, and feature gates for Help Scout and Mailchimp, verified . Help Scout is primarily help desk; Mailchimp is primarily email marketing.
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
Mailchimp
- Free
Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/month
Free - Essentials
Entry paid tier with A/B testing
$13/mo - Standard
Most popular paid tier
$20/mo - Premium
For high-volume senders and bigger teams
$350/mo
Limits at the entry paid tier
Compares Standard (Help Scout) against Essentials (Mailchimp). Both are the lowest-priced non-free, non-custom plan on each side.
| Limit | Help Scout | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts | · | 500 contacts (anchor; scales up) |
| Emails / month | · | 5,000 sends (10x contacts) |
| Team seats | 25 users (max) | 3 |
| Automations | · | 4 flow steps |
| Campaigns | · | 3 audiences |
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 Mailchimp wins
- Small businesses that want one tool with a real onboarding flow and a huge integration list
- Teams already living in Intuit (QuickBooks) products
- Operators who want a brand-name vendor for stakeholder approval
Where Mailchimp is the wrong fit
- Creators with growing newsletters; the per-contact tax compounds (Kit, beehiiv, or MailerLite tend to be cheaper at 10k+ subscribers)
- B2B sales teams; the CRM is light versus HubSpot or ActiveCampaign
- Teams needing predictive AI on a budget; you have to jump to the $350 Premium plan
Common questions
- Is Help Scout cheaper than Mailchimp?
- Both Help Scout and Mailchimp have free or custom entry pricing, so a direct entry-tier price comparison is not meaningful.
- Does Help Scout or Mailchimp have a free plan?
- Both have free plans. Help Scout: Up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site. Mailchimp: Up to 250 contacts, 500 sends/month.
- Are Help Scout and Mailchimp in the same category?
- No. Help Scout is primarily a help desk tool; Mailchimp is primarily a email marketing tool. They overlap on use case but sit in different primary categories, so the comparison is between adjacent tools rather than direct competitors.
- Which has more plans, Help Scout or Mailchimp?
- Both Help Scout and Mailchimp ship 4 plans. Tier counts match; the differentiation is in features and pricing structure rather than tier ladder depth.
- Where can I see alternatives to Help Scout or Mailchimp?
- Each tool has a dedicated alternatives page on TierGauge with ranked options and verified pricing: /alternatives/help-scout for Help Scout and /alternatives/mailchimp for Mailchimp. Alternatives are derived from each tool's editor-flagged competitors plus same-category tools we track.
Help Scout: https://www.helpscout.com/pricing/ · Mailchimp: https://mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing/
Last verified . Pricing changes between refreshes; confirm at the vendor before purchasing.