Help Scout
Conversation-centric help desk and shared inbox for support teams.
Help Scout is a help-desk and shared-inbox platform built around a conversational UI rather than the ticket-grid model used by Zendesk or Freshdesk. The product bundles email-based shared inboxes, live chat, a knowledge base (Docs), basic SLA policies, workflows, and an AI Inbox assistant. Pricing is per-user, with a genuinely usable Free plan for teams up to 5, a Standard tier at $25/user, a Plus tier at $45/user with advanced workflows and unlimited AI Drafts, and a Pro tier at $75/user that adds HIPAA, SSO/SAML, and a dedicated onboarding specialist. AI Answers is sold separately at $0.75 per resolution.
- Category
- Help desk
- Free plan
- Yes
- Plans
- 4
- Verified
Plans & pricing
Headline prices for each Help Scout tier, captured from https://www.helpscout.com/pricing/ on .
Free
Up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site
- Team seats
- 5
Included
- 1 shared inbox
- 1 Docs (knowledge base) site
- 10 saved replies
- 10 tags
- Email support
Not on this plan
- Live chat
- Multiple inboxes
- Workflows
- SLA policies
- AI Inbox assistant
- AI Drafts
Standard
Entry paid tier with live chat and AI Inbox assistant
- Team seats
- 25 users (max)
Included
- 2 inboxes included
- Live chat
- Instagram and Messenger channels
- Multiple knowledge bases
- One basic SLA policy
- Basic workflows
- Unlimited tags and saved replies
- AI Inbox assistant
Not on this plan
- WhatsApp channel
- Advanced workflows
- Advanced SLA policies
- Unlimited AI Drafts
- Round robin routing
- Salesforce, Jira, HubSpot integrations
- SSO/SAML
- HIPAA compliance
16% off with annual billing. 2 inboxes included; additional inboxes $10/mo each.
Plus
Advanced workflows, unlimited AI Drafts, WhatsApp
- Team seats
- 50 users (max)
Included
- 5 inboxes included
- WhatsApp channel
- Advanced workflows
- Two advanced SLA policies
- Unlimited AI Drafts
- Round robin routing
- Salesforce, Jira, HubSpot integrations
- Internal teams
- Group conversations by company
Not on this plan
- Unlimited workflows and SLA policies
- SSO/SAML
- HIPAA compliance
- Light users
- Dedicated onboarding specialist
- Strategic account manager
16% off with annual billing. 5 inboxes included.
Pro
Unlimited users, SSO/SAML, HIPAA, dedicated onboarding
- Team seats
- Unlimited
Included
- 10 inboxes included
- Unlimited workflows
- Unlimited SLA policies
- Multiple routing types
- SSO/SAML
- HIPAA compliance
- Up to 50 light users
- Dedicated onboarding specialist
- Strategic account manager
- Preferred Aircall pricing
16% off with annual billing. Minimum 10 users. 10 inboxes included; up to 50 free 'light users' available.
Where Help Scout earns its price
- Clean conversation-centric UI compared with ticket-form-heavy competitors like Zendesk
- Genuinely useful Free plan with 5 users and 1 inbox, not a token tier
- HIPAA compliance available on Pro for healthcare buyers
- AI Drafts unlocked on the Plus tier rather than gated to the top plan
- 16% annual discount applied across every paid tier
Where it falls short
- Per-user pricing scales fast for high-headcount support orgs (10 users on Pro is $750/month)
- Advanced SLA policies are gated to Plus and above, which is $45 per seat
- Fewer enterprise governance controls than Zendesk or Freshdesk
- AI Answers is a separate per-resolution add-on at $0.75, stacking on top of the seat price
Best for
- 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
Not for
- 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
Alternatives to Help Scout
Tools we cover in the same space.
Common questions
- Does Help Scout have a free plan?
- Yes. Help Scout offers a free tier. Up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site
- How much does Help Scout cost?
- Help Scout starts at Free. Plan prices captured April 30, 2026.
Source: https://www.helpscout.com/pricing/ · last verified · capture method: manual
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