Free
$0
/month
- + Up to 5 users
- + 1 shared inbox
- + 100 contacts/month
- + Basic reporting (30-day history)
Help Scout
Customer support platform designed for growing businesses with shared inbox, knowledge base, live chat, and personalized customer experiences.
customer-support
Our Score
4.6
Starting at $25 /month
Free Plan Available
Try Help Scout Free →
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4.6
Excellent ChoiceHelp Scout Score
Ease of Use
4.7
Features
4.5
Value
4.7
Support
4.3
Based on our editorial review across usability, features, value, support, and integrations.
Best For
Growing businesses (10-50 employees) prioritizing customer relationshipsTeams transitioning from shared email inbox to proper helpdeskCompanies wanting personalized support without enterprise complexity
Best For
Growing businesses (10-50 employees) prioritizing customer relationships
Free Trial
Yes
Standout Feature
Shared inbox for team collaboration on customer emails
Track Record
Since 2011
What Problem It Solves
Help Scout solves the challenge of providing personalized, human customer support as your business grows beyond a simple shared email inbox. Many helpdesk tools treat customers as ticket numbers and force robotic, corporate interactions. Help Scout hides ticket numbers, shows conversations in a natural email format, and provides context about customer history so agents can have genuine, helpful conversations. For growing businesses, it strikes the balance between the simplicity of email and the organization of a proper helpdesk, without the complexity and coldness of enterprise platforms like Zendesk.
Key Features
- Shared inbox for team collaboration on customer emails
- Knowledge base (Docs) with search and AI-suggested articles
- Live chat widget (Beacon) with proactive messaging
- Collision detection to prevent duplicate responses
- Customer profiles with conversation history
- Workflows and automation for routing and responses
- Reporting and analytics on team performance
Pros
- + Clean, intuitive interface that feels like email (low learning curve)
- + Focus on personalized support (no ticket numbers shown to customers)
- + Excellent knowledge base features with beautiful design
- + Strong customer experience focus throughout the platform
- + Transparent pricing with no hidden fees
Cons
- - Limited multi-channel support compared to Zendesk (primarily email-focused)
- - Fewer advanced automation features than competitors
- - No free plan (only 15-day trial)
- - Live chat (Beacon) requires higher-tier plan
Pricing
Standard
$25
/month
- + Up to 25 users
- + 2 shared inboxes
- + Unlimited contacts
- + API access & 100+ integrations
Plus
$45
/month
- + Up to 50 users
- + 5 shared inboxes
- + Advanced workflows
- + Salesforce, Jira, HubSpot integrations
Pro
$75
/month
- + Unlimited users (min. 10)
- + 10 shared inboxes
- + SSO & SAML support
- + Unlimited workflows
Starting at $25 /month
Free Plan Available
Try Help Scout Free →
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Our Verdict
Help Scout — Highly Recommended
Help Scout is the helpdesk for teams that believe customer support should feel human, not robotic. After using it alongside Zendesk and Freshdesk, Help Scout's approach is refreshingly different—customers never see ticket numbers, conversations look like natural emails, and the entire interface is designed to facilitate genuine, helpful interactions rather than process tickets through a system. The shared inbox is beautifully executed. Collision detection prevents two agents from responding simultaneously, internal notes keep team communication in context, and saved replies speed up common responses without feeling canned. The knowledge base (Docs) is one of the best in the category—it is easy to create, beautifully designed, and includes smart article suggestions in the Beacon widget. Speaking of Beacon, the live chat and help widget is elegant: it combines live chat, article search, and contact forms in one embeddable widget that feels helpful rather than intrusive. Where Help Scout makes trade-offs is in breadth of features. Compared to Zendesk, it lacks deep multi-channel support (no native social media or SMS handling), has fewer automation options, and does not offer the extensive customization that enterprise teams demand. The reporting is adequate but not as granular as Freshdesk or Zendesk. The lack of a free plan (starting at $20/agent/month for Standard) means small teams pay from day one. At $40/agent/month for the Plus plan (needed for Beacon live chat and custom fields), costs are reasonable for the quality of experience provided, and the investment pays off through better customer satisfaction and team efficiency. We recommend Help Scout for growing businesses of 5-50 support agents that prioritize customer experience and want their support tool to reflect their values. If your brand identity emphasizes personal, human service, Help Scout embodies that philosophy better than any competitor. For teams where customer experience and personalized interactions are top priorities, Help Scout is the best tool in its class.
Related Tools
Is Help Scout good for small businesses?
Yes, Help Scout is excellent for small businesses with 10-50 employees that have outgrown shared email inboxes but do not need enterprise-level complexity. The Standard plan at $20/agent/month is affordable and includes a shared inbox with collision detection, a knowledge base (Docs) for customer self-service, customer profiles with full conversation history, automated workflows, and over 50 integrations with popular business tools. The interface is intuitive enough that teams can start using it immediately without extensive training or dedicated setup time. Help Scout's focus on making customer interactions feel personal and human — rather than reducing them to ticket numbers — makes it particularly well-suited for businesses where customer relationships are central to their brand identity and growth strategy.
Does Help Scout offer a free plan?
Help Scout does not offer a permanent free plan, but you can start with a 15-day free trial with no credit card required, giving you full access to the shared inbox, knowledge base, and Beacon widget to evaluate the platform thoroughly. Paid plans start at $20/agent/month for the Standard plan, which includes 2 mailboxes, 1 Docs knowledge base site, customer profiles, and basic automation workflows. The Plus plan at $40/agent/month adds Beacon live chat, custom fields, and advanced integrations. For teams that value customer experience and personalized support, Help Scout's pricing delivers strong value for the quality of the platform.
What is the starting price of Help Scout?
Help Scout offers three plans designed for growing support teams. The Standard plan starts at $20/agent/month (billed annually) and includes 2 shared mailboxes, 1 Docs knowledge base site, customer profiles with conversation history, automated workflows, and over 50 integrations. The Plus plan at $40/agent/month adds Beacon live chat widget, custom fields, advanced permissions, Salesforce and HubSpot integrations, and up to 5 mailboxes. The Pro plan at $65/agent/month is designed for larger teams and includes 25 mailboxes, enterprise security, HIPAA compliance, and dedicated onboarding. All prices are per agent, billed annually, with monthly billing available at higher rates.
Starting at $25 /month
Free Plan Available
Try Help Scout Free →
Affiliate link
Try Help Scout Free →
Affiliate link