Helplyvs.Front

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

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. The helpdesk itself is free with unlimited seats, and you pay only when the AI delivers an outcome.

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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
Helpdesk base price	$0/mo, unlimited seats	$19–$229/seat/mo (Starter to Premier)
Seat minimums	None	Growth 2, Premier 50-seat minimum
AI resolution price	$0.50/resolution	$0.89/resolution (Autopilot add-on)
AI assist / drafts	$0.25/draft	Copilot, paid add-on (not on lower tiers)
Pricing model	Free helpdesk + pay per outcome	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	$2.99/signal	Not sold
Upsell Opportunities	$2.99/signal	Not sold
Competitor Monitoring	$2.99/mention	Not sold
Feature Flags	$2.99/flag	Not sold
Auto Article Creation	$2.99/article	Not offered
Support Intelligence (natural-language queries)	Included with AI-First Support	Smart CSAT/QA analytics (add-on)
ROI / Profit Center dashboard	Yes	Not offered
Contract	Month-to-month, cancel anytime	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 an AI add-on versus paying for outcomes

Scenario: a 12-person B2B support team handling 3,000 tickets/month, with AI resolving 40% (1,200 resolutions).

Line item	Front (Growth + Autopilot)	Helply
Helpdesk seats	12 × $59/mo = $708	$0 (unlimited seats, free forever)
AI resolutions (1,200/mo)	1,200 × $0.89 (Autopilot) = $1,068	1,200 × $0.50 = $600
AI drafts (550/mo)	Copilot add-on	550 × $0.25 = $137.50
Churn Detection (28 signals)	Not sold	28 × $2.99 = $83.72
Upsell Opportunities (18 signals)	Not sold	18 × $2.99 = $53.82
Feature Flags (45 flags)	Not sold	45 × $2.99 = $134.55
Auto articles (4/mo)	Not offered	4 × $2.99 = $11.96
Monthly total	$1,776	$1,021.55
Annual total	$21,312	$12,258.60
Annual savings with Helply	—	$9,053.40

Two things drive Front's bill: a per-seat plan you pay before a single ticket, and the Autopilot AI agent, an add-on that bills $0.89 per resolution on top. Copilot drafting is a separate add-on again.

Helply has no seat fee, resolves at a lower price, and prices the rest of the ticket as discrete outcomes only when they fire. The Autopilot resolutions alone cost Front nearly twice what the same resolutions cost on Helply.

Estimate your cost on Helply's calculator →

Free seats, a lower per-resolution price, and outcomes 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's helpdesk is $0 with unlimited seats, every channel, ticketing, macros, and reporting.

$0.50 vs. $0.89 per AI resolution

Front's Autopilot resolves at $0.89 each, and only as an add-on you turn on separately. Helply resolves at $0.50, over chat and email, on account context, with every source cited. Same outcome, lower price, and no add-on to license first.

Outcomes beyond deflection

Front routes and deflects. Helply prices resolution as an outcome and prices three categories Front does not sell: revenue intelligence (churn, upsell, competitor at $2.99 each), product intelligence (feature flags and KB gaps at $0.50 each), and knowledge base (article creation at $2.99 each). So the ticket does more than close.

The AI outcomes Helply surfaces (and Front doesn't sell)

Ticket resolution

Resolutions & Drafts

$0.50 / $0.25

The AI resolves high-confidence tickets autonomously across any channel at $0.50 each. For the rest, it drafts every reply with sources and account context at $0.25 per draft, 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

$2.99 each

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 pays for hundreds of $2.99 signals.

Front: does not offer any revenue-intelligence capability.

Product intelligence

Feature Flags & KB gaps

$2.99 each

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

$2.99/article

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

Free helpdesk, forever.Unlimited seats, shared inbox, ticketing, email, live chat, knowledge base, macros, saved replies, reporting. $0 per month, with no per-seat plan and no seat minimum.
AI in the box, at a lower price.$0.50 per resolution versus Front's $0.89 Autopilot add-on, plus $0.25 drafts, with no separate Copilot license and spending caps included.
Revenue signals beyond deflection.Churn Detection, Upsell Opportunities, Competitor Monitoring: $2.99 each, only when a signal fires. 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. $2.99 per article, only when one is created.
Support Intelligence.Natural-language queries across tickets, CRM, billing, and product data. Included with AI-First Support.
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 resolution

$0.50

Helpdesk free, unlimited seats, 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's helpdesk is free, so there is no platform cost overlap while you ramp. Keep Front running, point new conversations at Helply, and compare resolution quality and the real per-resolution bill 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
No platform overlap cost. Point new conversations at Helply 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. Helply resolves at $0.50 with free seats.

Is Helply cheaper than Front?

Yes in most cases. A 12-agent team runs about $906 a month on Helply versus roughly $1,776 on Front Growth plus Autopilot, around $10,000 a year, with no seat fees.

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 at $2.99 per signal.

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.