CompareHelply vs. Help Scout

Helply vs. Help Scout: Keep support simple, give it an AI team

Helply is an AI-native customer support platform. As a Help Scout alternative, it pairs a shared inbox and help center with three AI agents that investigate, resolve, and act. Helply charges nothing per user, and you can start on its smallest block: 500 AI credits for $49 a month ($42 billed yearly).

Help Scout charges $30 to $90 per user a month ($25 to $75 billed yearly). Its free plan covers up to 5 users. Help Scout sells its AI agent, Scout, as AI Answers at $0.75 per resolution.

Help Scout bills per user and per AI resolution. Helply includes unlimited users and charges only for AI work, and its agents can take on a growing queue without new hires.

Unlimited users
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VS_HELP_SCOUT.EXE

Five people, 1,000 conversations a month, AI resolving half, yearly list prices: Helply vs. Help Scout Plus

● Helply: $339 for B2B, or $212 for B2C
● Help Scout: $600 after the three free months: $225 for users plus $375 for Scout

Trusted by 1,400+ companies globally

Helply vs. Help Scout: the quick verdict

Help Scout fits growing teams that start free, add paid users as they hire, and pay for Scout per resolution. Helply fits support teams in B2B software, B2C, ecommerce, and marketplaces whose queues grow faster than their headcount. Both put an AI agent that resolves customer questions beside a shared inbox and help center.

Help Scout Plus: $54 per user a month ($45 billed yearly), with AI Drafts and 5 light users. Pro needs at least 10 users.
Scout (AI Answers): $0.75 per resolution on paid plans; a new account's resolutions are free for three months.
Helply: no per-user fee on any plan; the smallest AI credit block is 500 credits, priced $49 a month ($42 billed yearly).
All three Helply agents come with every plan: Support investigates and can resolve, Assist drafts, and Background Agents watch for churn risk.
At 1,000 monthly conversations with AI resolving half, five Help Scout Plus users and Scout cost $600 a month after the free months. Helply runs the same queue for $339 (B2B) or $212 (B2C) a month. All figures are yearly list prices.

Helply vs. Help Scout at a glance

Helply and Help Scout differ on which teammates are paid users, what the AI can reach, and how each bills AI work.

Capability	Helply	Help Scout
Built around	One help desk with three AI agents inside it; your team can step into any conversation	An AI support suite of Inbox, Envoy, and Signal, with Copilot coming soon; Help Scout charges per user and per Scout resolution
Pricing	Unlimited users; you size a credit block to your volume, from $49 a month ($42 billed yearly)	$30 to $90 per user a month ($25 to $75 billed yearly), plus $0.75 per resolution for Scout (AI Answers). Pro has a 10-user minimum
Free plan and trial	14 days to try it, with 1,000 credits and no card	Free plan for up to 5 users; 15-day trial of Standard or Plus, no card; Pro trials through sales
AI agents	Three agents on every plan: Support can resolve or escalate with its findings, Assist drafts, and Background Agents watch for signals	Scout (AI Answers) resolves Beacon chat and email conversations from your Docs, websites, and files. It hands complex or sensitive ones to your team
AI that takes action	Support Agent can check billing and account data in connected tools, then take action	Help Scout lists Scout's payment and CRM connections as coming soon; its API supports custom workflows that take action
Agent assist	Assist Agent writes reply drafts on every plan and can run supported actions at your team's direction	AI Drafts and AI Summarize on Plus and Pro
Customer context	Customer details and conversation history, beside CRM, billing (Stripe or Chargebee), and product data from your tools	Customer profiles and history on every plan; Stripe and Shopify sidebar apps for refunds and cancellations; Salesforce and HubSpot on Plus and Pro
Knowledge base	A help center where Helply finds missing and outdated answers and drafts fixes for your team to approve	Docs sites (1 to 5 by plan), AI that polishes and translates article text, and a Docs report of failed searches
Routing and SLAs	Smart assignment and routing, with SLA targets and priorities	Rule-based workflows, round-robin routing on Plus and Pro, and SLA policies from 1 on Standard to unlimited on Pro
Channels	Email, chat, WhatsApp, SMS, Discord, Telegram, Microsoft Teams, and Slack with Slack Connect	Email on every plan; Beacon chat, SMS, and WhatsApp on paid plans; Instagram and Messenger as native channels
Phone and voice	Ties supported call information, transcripts, and follow-up to the caller's support history	Calls through integrations such as Aircall, logged in Help Scout
Slack	Customer conversations in Slack Connect channels, managed in Helply	Slack app for notifications only; Slack isn't a Help Scout support channel
Background work	Background Agents watch for churn risk, upgrade intent, product feedback, and gaps in your docs	SLA, Happiness, and other pre-built reports, plus custom reports from Standard; Signal's AI Topics beta (Plus and Pro) sorts conversations by topic
Team access	Unlimited users on every plan	On paid plans, every replying teammate is a paid user: up to 25 on Standard, 50 on Plus, unlimited on Pro (10 minimum). Light users can view and collaborate but can't reply: 5 on Plus, 15 on Pro
Security	SOC 2 Type II and GDPR; AI providers never train on your customer data	SOC 2 Type II, with HIPAA support on Pro; Help Scout never trains AI with your data
Best for	Growing B2B or B2C queues where engineers and success managers work in the inbox without a per-user bill	Small teams that fit the free plan, teams that need HIPAA support on Pro, and buyers who want AI billed per resolution

Seat tax

What Help Scout seats cost you every year

PEOPLE WHO NEED ACCESS: 10

HELP SCOUT · PER SEAT$75 × 10 seats × 12 months$9,000per year in seat fees, before AIBilled yearly

HELPLY · UNLIMITED USERS$0 × 10 seats$0in seat fees. Plans from $49 a month.AI work billed in credits, on every plan

SEAT TAX AVOIDED: $9,000/yrFull calculator

Help Scout Pro at $75 per seat, billed yearly.

What Helply adds as a Help Scout alternative

An AI agent that can check the account before it answers

Helply's Support Agent looks into billing, account, and product data in your connected tools and can act on what it finds. It can pull a B2B account's CRM record or a subscriber's Stripe payments, then resolve the ticket or escalate with its findings. Scout resolves conversations from your Docs, websites, files, and text, while its payment and CRM connections sit on Help Scout's coming-soon list.

If Support Agent escalates, your team gets the context and the work already done.

Add your whole team to the inbox, and the bill stays the same

On paid Help Scout plans, each teammate who replies counts as a paid user. Light users on Plus and Pro can view and collaborate, but they can't reply to customers. With unlimited users on every Helply plan, adding engineers, success managers, or ops staff to the inbox costs nothing extra.

A sixth Help Scout Plus user adds $54 a month ($45 billed yearly).

Catch churn risk and upgrade intent without a prompt

Helply's Background Agents start when the right signals appear and can alert teammates, create work, or trigger a workflow. The Churn Agent reads conversations for frustration and shifts in sentiment, and the Revenue Agent flags upgrade intent and buying signals. Help Scout's Signal groups conversations into AI topics (beta, Plus and Pro); Help Scout lists sentiment and alerts as coming soon.

Background Agents can alert a teammate once churn risk or upgrade intent appears.

Help Scout pricing vs. Helply pricing

Help Scout's paid plans run $30 to $90 per user a month ($25 to $75 billed yearly), plus $0.75 per AI Answers resolution. Helply has no per-user price, and every plan includes all three AI agents. You pick a credit block, starting at $49 a month ($42 billed yearly), and add as many users as you like.

Help Scout plans and add-ons, October 2026:

Plan	Price	What it includes
Free	$0 for up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site, and 100 contacts a month
Standard	$30 a month per user ($25 billed yearly)	up to 25 users
Plus	$54 a month per user ($45 billed yearly), up to 50 users	adds AI Drafts, AI Summarize, and 5 light users
Pro	$90 a month per user ($75 billed yearly)	with a 10-user minimum, 15 light users, and HIPAA support

Free trial: 15 days on Standard or Plus, no credit card; Pro trials go through sales
Scout (AI Answers): $0.75 per resolution on Standard, Plus, and Pro, monthly or yearly; Help Scout charges once per chat session
Scout resolutions are free and unlimited for a new account's first three months
You can set a monthly cap on resolutions; at the cap, Scout turns off until the next cycle unless you raise it
Discounts: lower rates for prepaid Scout resolutions, and 10% off for nonprofits on top of the yearly discount
Extra light users and extra inboxes: $12 a month each ($10 billed yearly); extra Docs sites: $24 a month ($20 billed yearly)
Phone: through integrations, with Aircall as an add-on on Standard and Plus

Five people, 1,000 conversations a month, AI resolving half, yearly list prices: Helply vs. Help Scout Plus

Cost line	Helply	Help Scout
Plan compared	B2B queue: 7,000 credits; B2C queue: 4,000 credits	Plus, the entry plan for AI Drafts
Price per user a month	Nothing: every plan has unlimited users	$45 billed yearly
Five users	Included	$225 a month
Drafting help	Assist Agent on every plan	AI Drafts and AI Summarize on Plus
AI agent billing	A draft or summary uses 1 credit, a lookup in one or two systems 4, a full investigation 12	$0.75 per Scout resolution, billed after each month ends
Not charged	Spam, no-touch tickets, retries, failed actions, rejected drafts, and knowledge base indexing	Chats where Scout only greets or asks a follow-up, and chats where the customer asks for more help
Spend control	A monthly ceiling that defaults to your block price, plus team or mailbox allowances; with top-up off, the AI pauses at the ceiling	An optional monthly cap on resolutions; Scout turns off at the cap until the next cycle or until you raise it
Teammates beyond the five	Unlimited, at no extra cost	$45 each billed yearly; Plus includes 5 light users, who can view and collaborate but can't reply
Monthly total at list price, AI resolving 500 conversations	$339 for B2B, or $212 for B2C	$600 after the three free months: $225 for users plus $375 for Scout
If the five use Standard instead	Same block: $339 for B2B, or $212 for B2C	$500 after the free months: $125 for users plus $375 for Scout; AI Drafts start on Plus

Example

At 1,000 B2B conversations a month, expect about 7,000 Helply credits, the block that costs $399 a month ($339 billed yearly). A B2C team at that volume uses about 4,000 credits, which run $249 a month ($212 billed yearly). At list price after the free months, five Help Scout Plus users and 500 Scout resolutions cost $645 a month ($600 billed yearly).

Users: Unlimited; Included in every credit block
Entry block: $49 a month; $42 a month billed yearly, for 500 credits
Trial: 14 days; 1,000 credits, no card

Help Scout charges for each new teammate who replies on a paid plan, plus $0.75 per Scout resolution. On Helply, new teammates add nothing to the bill, and you set the monthly ceiling on AI credits.

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Teams that switched

“Helply was simple to set up and it's become a phenomenal tool. It took everything we'd learned over the years and turned it into support that runs itself, takes action, and warns us early. Our authors move faster and my team isn't buried.”

Rob Price, CEO & Founder · Gatekeeper Press

Results

Manual, human-only support replaced with one complete platform
92% resolution across 1,500+ monthly conversations; only ~120 escalations
Years of communications converted into shared company memory

Read the Gatekeeper Press story

Switching from Help Scout

Start with one mailbox, such as billing@, while support@ and the rest stay on Help Scout. Move them across once you've reviewed billing@ in Helply. Enterprise plans include dedicated migration.

Step 01
Connect your Help Scout workspace during a 14-day free trial; you don't need a card.
Step 02
Choose the supported mailboxes, customers, conversations, and Docs content to migrate.
Step 03
Add your support addresses to Helply, swap Beacon for Helply's chat widget, then review your workspace and complete the cutover.

What comes with you:

Conversation history from your mailboxes
Customer records
Docs knowledge base content

See what migrates from Help Scout

Helply or Help Scout: which should you choose?

Choose Help Scout if:

Your team has five people or fewer and fits the free plan's 1 inbox and 100 contacts a month.
You need HIPAA support, which Help Scout includes on its Pro plan.
You want to pay for AI only when it resolves a chat; new accounts get three months of free resolutions.
You're an incorporated tech startup new to Help Scout, under two years old and under $1M ARR. You can apply for 6 months of Plus and AI Answers free through Help Scout's startup program.
Your customers message you on Instagram or Messenger, which Help Scout runs as native channels.

Choose Helply if:

Your B2B or B2C team will pass 50 users, where Help Scout requires Pro at $90 per user a month ($75 billed yearly).
Your engineers and ops staff reply to customers about bugs and refunds, and Help Scout would bill each as a paid user.
You want an AI agent that can check billing and account data in your connected tools before it answers.
Your customers write in through Slack Connect, Microsoft Teams, Discord, or Telegram.

Frequently asked questions

How is Helply different from Help Scout?

Helply has unlimited users and AI agents that can check account data and take action. Help Scout charges per user and bills Scout per resolution.

Can Helply replace Help Scout?

Yes. Helply includes a shared inbox, a help center, live chat, routing, SLAs, and analytics, plus Support, Assist, and Background Agents.

How much does Help Scout cost?

Help Scout's paid plans cost $30 to $90 per user a month ($25 to $75 billed yearly). Scout (AI Answers) adds $0.75 per resolution.

How much does Helpscout cost per user?

Help Scout Standard is $30 per user a month ($25 billed yearly), and Plus is $54 ($45). Pro is $90 ($75), with a 10-user minimum.

Is Help Scout free?

Yes, for up to 5 users and 100 contacts a month in 1 inbox. Standard runs $30 per user a month ($25 billed yearly).

How does Help Scout charge for AI Answers?

Help Scout charges $0.75 on paid plans for each chat Scout resolves without human help. Resolutions are free for a new account's first three months.

Is Help Scout a ticketing system?

Yes. Help Scout's shared Inbox works as a ticketing system, with assignment, tags, workflows, and SLA policies.

How does Helply's pricing work?

Helply includes unlimited users and sells AI work in credit blocks from $49 a month. Retries, failed actions, and rejected drafts cost no credits.

Is there a Help Scout alternative without per-user pricing?

Yes, Helply has no per-user fees on any plan. You buy AI credits in monthly blocks; the smallest costs $49 ($42 billed yearly).

Is Helply cheaper than Help Scout for a five-person team?

Yes, after Scout's free months, at yearly list prices for 1,000 conversations, half AI-resolved. Monthly cost: Helply $339 (B2B) or $212 (B2C); Help Scout $600.

Can I move from Help Scout to Helply?

Yes. Connect Help Scout during the 14-day trial and choose the supported mailboxes, customers, conversations, and Docs content; move one mailbox first.

Does Help Scout work with Slack?

Yes, for notifications only: Help Scout's Slack app can't create or manage conversations. Your team can manage Slack Connect customer conversations in Helply.

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The only $0/seat AI-native helpdesk.

Start with one Help Scout mailbox and move the rest after you review it.

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