Helplyvs.Front

The collaborative inbox that charges per seat vs. the B2B support platform that charges per ticket

Front began as a collaborative email inbox and soon expanded to live chat, SMS, voice, and social media. It charges $65/seat/month on its Professional plan, then layers on AI Copilot at $20/seat/month, AI Autopilot at $0.89 per resolution, and AI Answers at $0.70 per resolution, each priced separately on top of the seat stack.

Helply was built AI-first for B2B companies that sell software, so its AI runs on account context (CRM, billing, product usage) and works each ticket for the churn, upsell, and competitor signals a B2B thread carries, not just deflection. One price covers all of it: $1 per ticket, with unlimited seats and unlimited AI included.

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Helply vs. Front Comparison

Capability	HelplyBest fit	Front
Built for	B2B companies that sell software	Collaborative teams, horizontal (B2B and B2C)
Platform DNA	AI-native, account-based	Collaborative shared inbox, AI added on
Price	$1 per ticket, everything included	$19–$229/seat/mo (Starter to Premier)
Seat minimums	None, unlimited seats	Growth 2, Premier 50-seat minimum
AI resolutions	Included, unlimited	$0.89/resolution (Autopilot add-on)
AI assist / drafts	Included, unlimited	Copilot, paid add-on (not on lower tiers)
Pricing model	One per-ticket price	Per seat + AI add-ons + per-resolution
Email	Yes	Yes
Live chat / in-app chat	Yes	Yes
Slack Connect (customer channels)	Yes, first-class	Not a native customer channel
Microsoft Teams (customer channels)	Yes, first-class	Not a native customer channel
Discord	Yes, first-class	No
SMS and WhatsApp	Yes	Yes
Account context (CRM, Stripe, Gong)	Loaded by default	Via integrations
Churn Detection	Included	Not sold
Upsell Opportunities	Included	Not sold
Competitor Monitoring	Included	Not sold
Feature Flags	Included	Not sold
Auto Article Creation	Included	Not offered
Support Intelligence (natural-language queries)	Included	Smart CSAT/QA analytics (add-on)
ROI / Profit Center dashboard	Yes	Not offered
Contract	Annual, sized to ticket volume, no seat math	Annual for Scale and Premier

Where Helply and Front differ

The B2B channels Front doesn't cover

Front started as a collaborative email inbox and expanded to live chat, SMS, voice, and social media. That covers the basics. It does not natively support Slack Connect, Microsoft Teams, or Discord, the three channels where B2B software teams talk to their customers every day. WhatsApp is a paid add-on.

Helply ships Slack Connect, MS Teams, Discord, email, in-app chat, SMS, WhatsApp, a customer portal, and a public API as first-class channels, all feeding the same context layer and AI pipeline. No third-party middleware, no Zapier glue.

Inbox-first vs. AI-native

Front was designed around the shared inbox: a collaborative email experience with internal comments, assignments, and SLA tracking. AI was added on top, and the architecture shows. Copilot is a per-seat add-on on Starter and Professional plans. Autopilot is a separate per-resolution charge. Neither one reads your CRM, billing system, or product usage data by default unless you pay for Scale or higher.

Helply was designed around AI from day one. Every ticket flows through the same context layer (CRM, Stripe, Gong, Mixpanel, Linear) and the same AI pipeline, so the assistant that drafts replies for your agents, the autonomous resolver, and the revenue-intelligence engine all share the same understanding of the account. AI context is not gated behind a higher plan tier.

Deflection vs. revenue

Front's AI story ends at deflection: resolve the chat, close the conversation, reduce volume.

Helply's AI works each ticket for churn risk, upsell opportunities, competitor mentions, and feature requests, then routes those signals to the CSM, AE, or Product lead who owns the account. Support stops being a cost center and starts producing revenue data the board cares about.

Front does not offer revenue intelligence, product intelligence, support intelligence, or an ROI dashboard.

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Helply vs. Front pricing: per-seat plus AI add-ons versus one price per ticket

Scenario: a B2B company with 12 support agents, 25 people who need platform access, and 2,000 tickets/month, with AI resolving 40% (800 resolutions).

Line item	Front (Growth + Copilot + Autopilot)	Helply
Tickets (2,000/mo)	No per-ticket price; you pay per seat, per add-on, per resolution	2,000 × $1 = $2,000
Platform seats (25 people)	25 × $59/mo = $1,475	$0 (unlimited seats)
Copilot drafts (12 agents)	12 × $20/mo = $240	Included
AI resolutions (800/mo)	800 × $0.89 (Autopilot) = $712	Included
Churn & upsell signals, feature flags, auto articles	Not sold	Included
Monthly total	$2,427	$2,000
Annual total	$29,124	$24,000
Annual savings with Helply	—	$5,124

Three things drive Front's bill: a per-seat plan for everyone who needs access, a per-seat Copilot add-on for drafting, and the Autopilot AI agent billing $0.89 per resolution on top. Every new teammate and every good AI month raises the bill.

Helply is one line: $1 per ticket, seats free, AI unlimited. At this workload Front works out to roughly $1.21 per ticket; Helply is $1 all-in, and the price includes the revenue signals Front does not sell.

Estimate your cost on Helply's calculator →

Free seats, AI in the box, and signals Front doesn't sell

$0 seats vs. $19 to $229 per seat

Front is priced per seat, $19 on Starter up to $229 on Premier, the latter with a 50-seat minimum that floors the bill near $137,000 a year. Helply charges $0 per seat with unlimited seats, every channel, ticketing, macros, and reporting, all inside the $1 ticket price.

No AI add-on stack

Front's Autopilot resolves at $0.89 each, and only as an add-on you turn on separately; Copilot drafting is another add-on again. On Helply, autonomous resolution over chat and email, on account context, with every source cited, is included on every ticket. Nothing to license first.

Signals beyond deflection

Front routes and deflects. Helply's ticket price includes three categories Front does not sell: revenue intelligence (churn, upsell, competitor mentions), product intelligence (feature flags and KB gaps), and automatic knowledge-base article creation. So the ticket does more than close.

The AI work included in every ticket (and Front doesn't sell)

Ticket resolution

Resolutions & Drafts

Included

The AI resolves high-confidence tickets autonomously across any channel. For the rest, it drafts every reply with sources and account context, so your agents respond faster without losing their voice. For B2B, the draft is the workhorse: roughly 70% of AI usage is the assistant supercharging human agents, because B2B tickets are complex and the agent stays in the loop.

Front: splits this into two separately priced layers: AI Copilot at $20/seat/month for drafts, plus Autopilot at $0.89 per resolution and AI Answers at $0.70 per resolution for autonomous handling.

Revenue intelligence

Upsell, Churn, Competitor

Included

Every ticket is scanned for Upsell Opportunities (plan-limit mentions, team growth, feature interest routed to the AE), Churn Detection (risk language cross-referenced with renewal proximity, routed to the CSM), and Competitor Monitoring (competitor names flagged and the AE alerted the same day). A single caught churn typically pays for the year's contract.

Front: does not offer any revenue-intelligence capability.

Product intelligence

Feature Flags & KB gaps

Included

Feature Flags detect and structure feature requests, weighted by ARR, so Product sees the roadmap hiding in the inbox. KB gap detection identifies topics your knowledge base doesn't cover yet.

Front: does not flag feature requests automatically or detect knowledge-base gaps.

Knowledge base

Article Creation

Included

Helply drafts KB articles from recurring ticket patterns and generates them from the AI Recorder. The help center writes itself.

Front: knowledge base is manual: your team writes every article from scratch.

Built for B2B companies that sell software

Helply is purpose-built for technical B2B companies that sell software: B2B SaaS (horizontal and vertical), AI-native and AI-infrastructure platforms, dev tools and developer infrastructure, data platforms, API-first and embedded platforms, HR tech and workforce platforms, DevOps and security tooling.

The sweet spot is $1M to $50M ARR, up to 100 agents, up to 15,000 tickets per month. No services, agencies, or marketplaces.

Every default assumes you sell software to other businesses. Account context loads CRM data, Stripe billing, Gong call history, and product usage from the first word of every ticket. Revenue signals scan for churn risk cross-referenced with renewal dates. Feature requests are weighted by account ARR. The entire system thinks in accounts, not individual contacts.

Front serves a broader, more horizontal base: support, sales, operations, and success teams that want one collaborative inbox across B2B and B2C. It is not built around contract value, renewal dates, B2B shared channels, or the account-based selling motion a software company runs on.

B2B SaaS
AI-native platforms
Dev tools
Data platforms
API-first
HR tech
DevOps / security

Helply sweet spot

$1M–$50M

ARR

Up to 100

Agents

Up to 15K

Tickets/month

Accounts

Not contacts

What you get with Helply that Front charges extra for or doesn't sell

The full helpdesk, included.Unlimited seats, shared inbox, ticketing, email, live chat, knowledge base, macros, saved replies, reporting. All in the ticket price, with no per-seat plan and no seat minimum.
AI in the box, not as add-ons.Resolutions and drafts included on every ticket. No $0.89 Autopilot meter, no separate Copilot license.
Revenue signals beyond deflection.Churn Detection, Upsell Opportunities, Competitor Monitoring, all included on every ticket. Front routes and deflects; it does not surface these.
B2B account context by default.CRM, Stripe, Gong, and product usage loaded automatically on every ticket, not assembled through integrations.
Slack Connect, Microsoft Teams, and Discord as customer channels.First-class B2B support queues. Front's strength is the email-based collaborative inbox, not shared-channel customer support.
Self-improving knowledge base.Articles created automatically from ticket patterns and AI Recorder walkthroughs. Included.
Support Intelligence.Natural-language queries across tickets, CRM, billing, and product data. Included.
Profit Center ROI dashboard.Every outcome tied to a dollar amount. Support stops being a cost center.

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Front, per resolution

$0.89

Autopilot add-on, on top of $19–$229/seat plans. Copilot drafts separate.

Helply, per ticket

Seats free, AI unlimited, no add-on to license.

“If you’re running support on Zendesk, Intercom, or Front, and you’re a B2B company in the $1M to $50M ARR range, go run the ROI calculator. The math gets you to a decision in about four minutes.”

Jason Lemkin

Founder, SaaStr

Switching from Front to Helply

Live on Helply in under a week

Ticket history, contacts, tags, and your knowledge base import in a single pass. Custom fields and team assignments carry over. Most teams are live on Helply in under a week.

Helply bills per ticket, so the overlap costs only the tickets you route to it while you ramp. Keep Front running, point new conversations at Helply, and compare resolution quality and the real bills before you move the whole queue.

See the full migration playbook →

1
Import in one pass
Ticket history, contacts, tags, knowledge base, custom fields, team assignments.
2
Run both in parallel
Pay only for the tickets you route to Helply. Point new conversations at it as you ramp.
3
Move the queue once the numbers are clear
Real cost data from Helply, side by side with the Front bill.

Ready for AI in the box, not as an add-on?

Or try the numbers yourself on the cost calculator.

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FAQs

What is the real difference between Helply and Front?

Front is a collaborative shared inbox designed for human teams, with AI sold as add-ons. Helply is AI-native and built for B2B software, so the AI resolves on account context and works each ticket for revenue.

How much does Front's AI cost?

Front's Autopilot AI agent is $0.89 per resolution as a paid add-on, on top of $19 to $229 per-seat plans, and Copilot drafting is a separate add-on. On Helply, all of it is included in the $1 per-ticket price.

Is Helply cheaper than Front?

For most B2B setups, yes. At 2,000 tickets a month with 25 people on the platform, Helply is $2,000 with everything included, versus roughly $2,427 on Front Growth with Copilot and Autopilot, about $5,000 a year back.

Does Front support Slack Connect for B2B customer support?

Front is built around the email-based collaborative inbox. Helply treats Slack Connect, Microsoft Teams, and Discord as first-class B2B customer channels, with account context on every thread.

Does Front detect churn or upsell signals?

No. Front routes, collaborates, and deflects predictable requests. Helply scans every ticket for churn, upsell, and competitor signals and routes them to the CSM or AE, included in the ticket price.

Does Front have seat minimums?

Yes. Growth requires a 2-seat minimum and Premier a 50-seat minimum, which floors the top tier near $137,000 a year. Helply has no seat minimum and free seats.

What types of companies is Helply built for?

Technical B2B companies that sell software: B2B SaaS, AI-native platforms, dev tools, data platforms, API-first products, HR tech, and DevOps/security tooling. Sweet spot is $1M to $50M ARR.

Can I migrate off Front without downtime?

Yes. Import ticket history, contacts, and your knowledge base in one pass, run both in parallel while you compare, and cut over in under a week.