Zendesk
zendesk.com
The ticketing incumbent
from $19/moFree trial
Help Scout
Support that feels like ordinary email
Free trialCustomer SupportSince 2011
from $25/moVisit helpscout.com
What Help Scout is
Shared inbox with no ticket numbers exposed to customers, plus docs and in-app messaging. Long favoured by teams who want support to feel personal.
What Help Scout has cost
We have read this pricing page 15 times since Jan 2021, including archived copies of it. Each figure below was pulled from the page itself, not from a summary of it.
- $20†Jan 2021 · Standard · 1 reading · archived page
The entry plan changed name here, from Standard to Basic. That is a different plan, so the two prices are not a rise or a cut.
$10†Jul 2021 · Basic · 1 reading · archived pageThe entry plan changed name here, from Basic to Standard. That is a different plan, so the two prices are not a rise or a cut.
$20†Jan 2022 – Jul 2022 · Standard · 2 readings · archived page- $20/mo*Jan 2023 – Jul 2023 · Standard · 2 readings · archived page
- $25/moFeb 2024 – Jul 2024 · Standard · 2 readings · archived page
- $50†Jan 2025 – Jul 2025 · Standard · 2 readings · archived page
- $25†Jan 2026 – Sept 2026 · Standard · 5 readings · archived page
* That reading is the effective monthly cost when paying for a year up front, which is what the page published at the time.
† The page showed this figure beside a monthly/annual switch and did not say which one it belonged to, so we publish the number without claiming a billing period. Readings like this are shown but never compared, which is why they never produce a price change.
Gaps are ours, not the vendor's: where a capture was unreadable, or the price could not be tied to a plan at all, no reading was recorded rather than a guess. See every price change we can stand behind.
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Trial length and card requirement are set by the vendor.
Help Scout alternatives
Other tools in customer support that cover similar ground. Full comparison.
Where Help Scout sits on price
Entry prices across Customer Support, cheapest first.
- Gorgias$10
- Zendesk$19
- Intercom$19
- Freshdesk$19
- Chatwoot$19
- Tidio$24.17
- Help Scout$25
- Front$25
- Chattering$29
- Crisp$45
10 of these 10 prices were read from the vendor's own pricing page. The median is taken across the 9 verified prices in Customer Support.
Help Scout pricing questions
- How much does Help Scout cost?
- Help Scout starts at $25 a month on its Standard plan. That figure was read from helpscout.com's own pricing page on 21 September 2026.
- Does Help Scout have a free plan?
- No ongoing free plan. Help Scout offers a free trial, after which a paid plan is required.
- What is Help Scout used for?
- Shared inbox with no ticket numbers exposed to customers, plus docs and in-app messaging. Long favoured by teams who want support to feel personal. People mainly use it to manage support tickets, build a help centre, add live chat.
- What are the best alternatives to Help Scout?
- The closest alternatives in the same category are Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk, Front. Zendesk starts lower at $19 a month; Intercom starts lower at $19 a month; Freshdesk starts lower at $19 a month. Freshdesk publishes a free plan.