Zendesk vs Help Scout
These sit at opposite ends of the category. Zendesk turns every message into a ticket with a status, backed by mature reporting, omnichannel coverage and the biggest app market, billed per agent. Help Scout is a shared inbox that sends replies looking like plain email, billed per user with a free plan for five users, and suits small teams whose support is personal.
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Choose Zendesk ifyou run a sizeable support organisation that has to report on response times, connect to many other systems and recruit agents who already know the tool.
Choose Help Scout ifyou are a small team answering mostly by email, want customers to get a reply instead of a case ID, and have no telephone queue or strict SLA to meet.
Zendesk and Help Scout side by side
| Zendesk | Help Scout | |
|---|---|---|
| Our help desk rank | #9 of 14 | #2 of 14 |
| Established in | United States | United States |
| Pricing | Per agent per month, published; 14-day trial only | Free plan for up to 5 users; paid per user per month, published |
| Free tier | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Self-hostable | — | — |
| Built for | A support organisation that values the ecosystem and hiring pool | A small team doing high-touch email support |
| Not for | A five-person team on a budget | A contact centre built around phone queues |
Both are reviewed in full in our help desk ranking: Zendesk and Help Scout.
Where they differ
Zendesk 1 · Help Scout 1 · open 2- 01
What the customer receives
Help Scout deliberately hides the machinery, so a customer gets something that looks like an email from a person, with no ticket number. Zendesk belongs to the group of desks where everything is a ticket with a status and an SLA. For a business where support is part of the brand, the Help Scout reply is the more fitting one.
Edge: Help Scout
- 02
Agents versus contacts as the billing unit
Zendesk charges per agent per month, at one of the highest seat prices in this category, with per-channel add-ons on top. Help Scout publishes a price per user per month, from 25 dollars, with a free plan for five users. On seat price alone Help Scout is the cheaper of the two, before Zendesk's channel add-ons widen the gap.
Depends on the buyer
- 03
Room to grow the team
Help Scout is not built for telephone queues, complex SLAs or agent pools in the dozens. Zendesk is the opposite case: reporting mature enough to manage an operation on, omnichannel coverage and a large pool of agents who have used it before. Once a team passes the size where everyone knows every customer, Zendesk is the one that holds.
Edge: Zendesk
- 04
Simplicity against extensibility
A shared inbox, saved replies and a simple knowledge base cover most of what a small team needs in Help Scout, with little to configure. Zendesk can connect to almost anything through its app market, but simple requirements often need an app too. Which is better depends on whether the team wants fewer decisions or more options.
Depends on the buyer
When neither fits
Neither suits an online shop whose agents need the order history beside each message and want to issue refunds without leaving the desk. Gorgias is built around ecommerce data and Shopify, and eDesk covers sellers on Amazon, eBay and their own shop.
Zendesk or Help Scout: questions
3 answersWhat is the main difference between Zendesk and Help Scout?
Zendesk is a ticketing system and Help Scout is a shared inbox. Zendesk gives each message a status and reports on it, which suits teams that must prove response times.
Help Scout keeps the exchange looking like email, which suits teams that want customers to feel they are writing to a person.
Is Help Scout cheaper than Zendesk?
Both bill per person, so in most cases Help Scout. Zendesk is among the highest per-seat costs in the category, with per-channel add-ons.
Help Scout lists paid plans from 25 dollars per user and a free plan for five users. Price both for your busiest month.
Can Help Scout replace Zendesk for a large support team?
Probably not comfortably. Help Scout is described as limited for large agent pools and not built for telephone queues or complex SLAs, and a contact centre with strict SLAs is the buyer it fits least.
Those are the conditions Zendesk's reporting and omnichannel coverage were made for.