Help Scout vs Mailgun
Side-by-side plans, pricing, and feature gates for Help Scout and Mailgun, verified . Help Scout is primarily help desk; Mailgun is primarily transactional email.
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
Mailgun
- Free
Hobby tier capped at 100 emails per day
Free - Basic
Entry paid tier with 10,000 emails/month included
$15/mo - Foundation
50,000 emails/month with template builder and full inbound routing
$35/mo - Scale
100,000 emails/month with SAML SSO, dedicated IP, and live support
$90/mo - Enterprise
Custom contracting for high-volume senders
Custom
Limits at the entry paid tier
Compares Standard (Help Scout) against Basic (Mailgun). Both are the lowest-priced non-free, non-custom plan on each side.
| Limit | Help Scout | Mailgun |
|---|---|---|
| Emails / month | · | 10,000 |
| Team seats | 25 users (max) | · |
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 Mailgun wins
- Developers integrating receipts, notifications, and password-reset emails
- Teams already on a marketing ESP that need a separate transactional channel
- High-volume B2B applications with strict deliverability requirements
Where Mailgun is the wrong fit
- Marketing teams seeking campaign tooling (use Mailchimp or Kit)
- Creators sending newsletters (use Kit or beehiiv)
- Free-tier hobbyists with low total volume but spiky daily-cap-bumping use cases
Common questions
- Is Help Scout cheaper than Mailgun?
- Both Help Scout and Mailgun have free or custom entry pricing, so a direct entry-tier price comparison is not meaningful.
- Does Help Scout or Mailgun have a free plan?
- Both have free plans. Help Scout: Up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site. Mailgun: Hobby tier capped at 100 emails per day.
- Are Help Scout and Mailgun in the same category?
- No. Help Scout is primarily a help desk tool; Mailgun is primarily a transactional email 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 Mailgun?
- Mailgun ships 5 plans; Help Scout ships 4. Mailgun's longer ladder gives more granular upgrade steps, which can mean smoother price escalation as your team scales.
- Where can I see alternatives to Help Scout or Mailgun?
- Each tool has a dedicated alternatives page on TierGauge with ranked options and verified pricing: /alternatives/help-scout for Help Scout and /alternatives/mailgun for Mailgun. Alternatives are derived from each tool's editor-flagged competitors plus same-category tools we track.
Help Scout: https://www.helpscout.com/pricing/ · Mailgun: https://www.mailgun.com/pricing/
Last verified . Pricing changes between refreshes; confirm at the vendor before purchasing.