The typical searcher runs support from a shared inbox on Help Scout and has hit a limit that is priced per seat: a plan tier that holds back workflows, SLAs or reporting history, a minimum user count on Pro, or AI answers billed per resolution. They move to cheaper or open-source help desks, to flat-rate workspaces, or to larger suites with phone and ticketing built in.
Sebastiaan SmitsFounderShort answer: The first three alternatives to Help Scout in our help desk ranking are Zammad, Crisp and Deskpro. Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. Choose Zammad if you want to self-host or need a vendor and data centre in Germany. All 11 alternatives below are ranked products from Best Help Desk Software in 2026, and each says where it differs from Help Scout.
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Help Scout's Standard plan ($25 per user per month on annual billing) includes 150 basic workflows and one basic SLA policy, while Plus ($45) adds advanced workflows and two SLA policies, and unlimited workflows and SLAs start on Pro ($75). Pre-built reports reach back 30 days on Free and two years on Standard. A team that wants routing rules and long reporting history pays for the next tier up.
SSO/SAML and HIPAA compliance sit on Pro, which is listed as unlimited users with a minimum of 10. Phone calls are available only through an integration on every plan, so a team that wants voice inside the help desk adds a second product and a second bill.
Standard includes 2 inboxes and 2 Docs sites; further inboxes cost $10 per month each and further Docs sites $20 on annual billing. The AI Answers chatbot is an add-on at $0.75 per resolution, with a monthly cap you can set, after a three-month free trial. The free plan stops at 5 users, 1 inbox and 100 contacts a month. None of this is hidden, but the bill grows in several places at once.
| Alternative | Headquarters | Free option | Pricing | Key difference | Switch if | Our rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zammad | Germany | Yes | Free self-hosted; managed cloud published per agent | Open source ticketing you can host yourself | you want to self-host or need a vendor and data centre in Germany | #1 |
| Crisp | France | Yes | Free plan for 2 seats; paid per workspace per month with seats included, published, low | Live chat first, with a help desk around it | a flat monthly workspace price suits you better than paying per user | #7 |
| Deskpro | United States | No free tier | Cloud per agent per month, published with agent minimums; on-premise quoted | Help desk available in the cloud or on your own servers | you need an on-premise option or multi-brand help centres | #8 |
| Freshdesk | United States | No free tier | Per agent per month, published; 14-day trial only | Most capability per euro of agent seat | you want a ticket-based help desk with SLA policies and roles | #5 |
| Front | United States | No free tier | Per seat per month, published, $25 to $105 billed annually; 14-day trial only | Shared inbox for teams that reply as people | your team works from a collaborative inbox and needs omnichannel routing and rules | #3 |
| Zoho Desk | India | Yes | Free plan for 3 users; paid per user per month, published | Low seat price for a full desk if you already run Zoho | you already use Zoho CRM or want telephony and community features in one tool | #11 |
| HubSpot Service Hub | United States | Yes | Free tier; paid per seat per month, published | Support attached to the CRM record | support should sit in the same database as your CRM | #13 |
| Zendesk | United States | No free tier | Per agent per month, published; 14-day trial only | The category default, priced like it | you have outgrown a shared inbox and need voice, routing and an admin layer | #9 |
| Intercom | United States | No free tier | Per seat per month, published; AI agent charged per outcome | Messenger-first support with AI resolution | most support starts in an in-app or on-site chat and you want an AI agent on top | #10 |
| Jira Service Management | United States | Yes | Free tier; paid per agent per month, published | IT service management wired to engineering | support is an internal IT or operations function and your teams already use Jira | #12 |
| Gorgias | United States | No free tier | Per month by ticket volume, published | Support desk that knows the order history | you run an online shop and want costs tied to ticket volume, not seats | #4 |
Germany · Free self-hosted; managed cloud published per agent
Open-source help desk (AGPL-3.0) that you can run yourself or rent hosted in German data centres, from EUR 7 per agent per month on annual billing for up to 5 agents. It has ticketing, SLAs and multi-channel intake, but a plainer shared-inbox feel than Help Scout, and live chat only from the Professional tier up.
Switch from Help Scout if you want to self-host or need a vendor and data centre in Germany.
France · Free plan for 2 seats; paid per workspace per month with seats included, published, low
Prices per workspace instead of per user. Free covers 2 agents and 100 customer profiles, Mini is $45 a month with 4 agents, Essentials $95 with 10 agents and Plus $295 with 20 or more. Chat and chatbot come first, and email-centred shared-inbox workflows are less the focus than at Help Scout.
Switch from Help Scout if a flat monthly workspace price suits you better than paying per user.
United States · Cloud per agent per month, published with agent minimums; on-premise quoted
Aimed at larger teams: Team is $39 per agent per month with a 5-agent minimum, Professional $59 with a minimum of 10 and Enterprise $99 with a minimum of 25. It can be run in the cloud or on-premise, which Help Scout does not offer. Entry is dearer per seat and the minimums rule out the smallest teams.
Switch from Help Scout if you need an on-premise option or multi-brand help centres.
United States · Per agent per month, published; 14-day trial only
Classic ticketing help desk at $19 (Growth), $55 (Pro) and $89 (Enterprise) per agent per month on annual billing, with a 14-day trial. Multiple SLA policies start on Pro. It is ticket-first where Help Scout is inbox-first, and its AI agent is sold in sessions on top.
Switch from Help Scout if you want a ticket-based help desk with SLA policies and roles.
United States · Per seat per month, published, $25 to $105 billed annually; 14-day trial only
Built around a shared inbox for email, SMS and chat, with Starter at $25 per seat per month (up to 10 seats), Professional $65 and Enterprise $105. It has a 14-day trial and no free plan. Closest to Help Scout in feel, but pricier at the top and its AI Autopilot is a paid add-on.
Switch from Help Scout if your team works from a collaborative inbox and needs omnichannel routing and rules.
India · Free plan for 3 users; paid per user per month, published
Four per-user tiers (Express, Standard, Professional, Enterprise) with a free trial, with phone integration from Professional and 50 light agents on Enterprise. Its AI agents work with your own OpenAI key or Zoho's model. It is broader and denser than Help Scout and fits best next to other Zoho applications.
Switch from Help Scout if you already use Zoho CRM or want telephony and community features in one tool.
United States · Free tier; paid per seat per month, published
Help desk, ticketing, knowledge base and customer portal on top of the HubSpot CRM, with free and paid plans. Support tickets share records with sales and marketing, which Help Scout does not offer. Costs follow the HubSpot tier structure, and the help desk is a module of a larger platform.
Switch from Help Scout if support should sit in the same database as your CRM.
United States · Per agent per month, published; 14-day trial only
The large ticketing suite: Support Team is EUR 19 per agent per month on annual billing, Suite Team EUR 55 and Suite Professional EUR 115, with telephony and omnichannel routing. It needs more set-up and administration than Help Scout, and the useful features sit on the Suite tiers.
Switch from Help Scout if you have outgrown a shared inbox and need voice, routing and an admin layer.
United States · Per seat per month, published; AI agent charged per outcome
Messenger-first platform: Essential $29, Advanced $85 and Expert $132 per seat per month, with its Fin AI agent charged from $0.99 per outcome. It is built for conversational support on a website or in an app, while Help Scout is built for email-style conversations. Cost grows with both seats and AI outcomes.
Switch from Help Scout if most support starts in an in-app or on-site chat and you want an AI agent on top.
United States · Free tier; paid per agent per month, published
Service-desk tool from Atlassian with a free plan for up to 3 agents and a Standard plan listed at $20 per agent per month. It suits IT and internal requests with portals, queues and incident handling. For customer email support it is heavier than Help Scout and tied to the Atlassian ecosystem.
Switch from Help Scout if support is an internal IT or operations function and your teams already use Jira.
Jira Service Management, #12 of 14 in our help desk ranking →
United States · Per month by ticket volume, published
Prices by ticket volume instead of by agent: helpdesk-only plans start at $10 a month for 50 tickets, $60 for 300 and $360 for 2,000 (monthly billing), with AI Agent as a separate charge. Built for online shops with store integrations. It has a narrower focus than Help Scout, and costs track order volume.
Switch from Help Scout if you run an online shop and want costs tied to ticket volume, not seats.
Help Scout remains the right choice for a small or mid-sized team whose support is mostly email and chat and who value a simple shared inbox that customers experience as a personal conversation. The free plan covers 5 users, prices on every paid tier are published, knowledge bases and a Beacon widget come with the product, and you can cap AI spending. If you do not need advanced SLAs, phone inside the tool, or on-premise hosting, a heavier ticketing suite adds complexity without adding value.
Conversations, customers and Docs articles are the content to carry over, and each target tool imports them differently. Workflows, saved replies and tags are configuration and are usually rebuilt by hand, so list them before cancelling. Check how the new tool treats a conversation thread, because ticket-based tools split email threads differently from Help Scout's inbox.
Help Scout Docs sites are public pages that search engines index and customers have bookmarked. If you leave, decide whether the help centre moves with you or stays live, and plan redirects before the switch so that article links in old emails keep working.
Help Scout counts users, light users, inboxes and contacts per month. Other vendors count agents, seats, workspaces or tickets. Redo the cost comparison with the new vendor's unit, including any minimum seats and add-on AI charges, before you commit.
Zammad is open source and free to self-host, and Crisp has a free plan for 2 agents and 100 customer profiles. Jira Service Management is free for up to 3 agents.
Help Scout's own free plan covers 5 users, 1 inbox and 100 contacts a month, so compare your actual numbers against each limit.
Crisp prices per workspace, with 2 agents on Free, 4 on Mini at $45, 10 on Essentials at $95 and 20 or more on Plus at $295 a month.
Gorgias prices by ticket volume instead of by agent. Both fit teams that find per-seat pricing awkward as headcount changes.
Zammad is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and can run on your own servers, with paid support packages starting at EUR 2,999 a year. Deskpro offers a Private (on-premise) option next to its cloud version. Help Scout is offered as a hosted service on its pricing page.
Front is the closest in feel, with a collaborative inbox for email, SMS and chat, starting at $25 per seat per month for up to 10 seats. Freshdesk and Zendesk are ticket-first, so email threads become tickets with fields and queues.
Usually yes. Help Scout charges $0.75 per AI Answers resolution, Intercom's Fin starts at $0.99 per outcome, Front's Autopilot from $0.05 per conversation, and Zammad charges EUR 0.03 per AI call.
Set a spending cap where one is offered and estimate with your real monthly volume.
For a team of a few agents with mostly email, often yes.
Zendesk adds telephony, omnichannel routing and an admin layer, but the strongest features are on the Suite tiers at EUR 55 and EUR 115 per agent per month. It makes sense when you need voice or advanced routing.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Writes, edits and checks every page on this site.
Written, edited and fact-checked by Sebastiaan Smits. Last reviewed 9 October 2026. How we review.
