Help Scout is a generalist helpdesk that serves education, healthcare, ecommerce, real estate, and a dozen other verticals, charging $25–$75 per seat per month plus $0.75 for every AI resolution.
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.
| Capability | HelplyBest fit | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Helpdesk base price | $0/forever, unlimited seats | $25–$75/user/mo (annual); Free plan capped at 5 users and 100 contacts/mo |
| Seat caps | None. Unlimited. | Standard: 25 users. Plus: 50 users. Pro: min 10, unlimited. |
| Pricing model | Per outcome. Pay only when AI delivers. | Per seat + $0.75/AI resolution + add-on fees for inboxes, Docs sites, SSO |
| AI resolution price | $0.50/resolution | $0.75/resolution (50% more expensive) |
| AI drafts | $0.25/draft, all plans | Plus ($45/user/mo) and above only |
| Slack Connect | Yes, first-class, all plans | Not available as a support channel |
| Microsoft Teams | Yes, first-class, all plans | Not available as a support channel |
| Discord | Yes, first-class, all plans | Not available as a support channel |
| Yes, all plans | Plus ($45/user/mo) and above only | |
| SMS | Yes, first-class | Via third-party integration only |
| Account context (CRM, Stripe, Gong) | Loaded by default into every ticket | Sidebar integrations on Plus+; not fed into AI |
| AI training sources | Tickets, KB, CRM, billing, product usage, Gong | Knowledge base and external URLs only (not past tickets) |
| Churn Detection | $2.99/signal | Not available |
| Upsell Opportunities | $2.99/signal | Not available |
| Competitor Monitoring | $2.99/mention | Not available |
| Feature Flags | $2.99/flag | Not available |
| Article Creation | $2.99/article | Not available |
| Support Intelligence (ask anything) | Included with AI-First Support | Not available |
| ROI / Profit Center dashboard | Yes | Not available |
| B2B channels (Slack, Teams, Discord) | All included free | None available |
| SLAs | All plans | 1 basic policy (Standard); 2 advanced (Plus); unlimited (Pro) |
| Knowledge base | Included, all plans | Limited sites per tier; additional sites $20/mo each |
| SSO/SAML | Enterprise tier | Add-on (Plus); included (Pro) |
| Contract | Month-to-month, no minimum | Annual billing for discount; upgrade forced at seat thresholds |
Help Scout serves education, healthcare, ecommerce, real estate, property management, logistics, manufacturing, financial services, and professional services. That breadth means every default is a compromise: the AI trains on knowledge base articles and external URLs, not on the ticket history, CRM data, or billing context that B2B teams need. There is no account command center, no native Stripe or Gong enrichment, and no revenue intelligence layer.
Helply starts from a different premise: B2B support is a different problem. Lower volume, higher stakes, known accounts. Every ticket is a window into the health of a paying customer. The AI trains on your tickets, your knowledge base, your CRM, your billing data, and your product usage signals. The first draft of every reply already knows the customer's ARR, renewal date, open invoices, and recent product activity.
Help Scout supports email, live chat, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp (Plus tier and above). It does not offer Slack Connect, Microsoft Teams, or Discord as support channels. The Slack integration is limited to one-way notifications.
Helply ships every channel a B2B team needs: Slack Connect, Microsoft Teams, Discord, email, live chat, in-app chat, WhatsApp, SMS, a customer portal, and API/webhooks. Every channel feeds the same context layer and gets the same AI coverage. All of them are included on every plan, including the free tier.
Help Scout shows customer profiles and conversation history in a sidebar. On Plus and above, you can pull Salesforce or HubSpot data into that sidebar via integrations. But that context lives in the sidebar, not in the AI. Help Scout's AI Answers trains only on Docs sites and external URLs.
Helply loads the full account picture into every AI action by default: CRM data (Salesforce, HubSpot), billing (Stripe), product usage (Mixpanel), conversation history (Gong), and engineering tools (Linear). The AI uses all of it when drafting replies, flagging risk, and surfacing signals. Context is what makes the AI performant, and it is what turns a support conversation into account intelligence.
Help Scout's AI reads your knowledge base. That works when every conversation is the same shape. For B2B, where a $40K renewal sits next to a password reset, the AI needs to see plan, ARR, and renewal date before it routes the ticket.
Helply's AI runs on account context loaded by default (CRM, Stripe, Gong, product usage), so it actually performs on hard B2B threads.
Scenario: 12-agent B2B SaaS team, 1,500 tickets/month.
| Line item | Help Scout (Plus) | Helply |
|---|---|---|
| Platform / seats | 12 users × $45/mo = $540/mo | $0 (free helpdesk, unlimited seats) |
| AI resolutions (~500/mo) | 500 × $0.75 = $375/mo | 500 × $0.50 = $250 |
| AI drafts (~700/mo) | Included on Plus | 700 × $0.25 = $175 |
| Additional inbox (1 extra) | $10/mo | $0 (included) |
| Revenue intelligence (~15 signals) | Not available | 15 × $2.99 = $44.85 |
| Feature flags + KB gaps (~8/mo) | Not available | 5 × $2.99 + 3 × $0.50 = $16.45 |
| Articles (~3/mo) | Not available | 3 × $2.99 = $8.97 |
| Monthly total | $925 | ~$495 |
| Annual total | $11,100 | ~$5,940 |
| Annual savings | — | ~$5,160 back to the business |
The math gets worse for Help Scout as you scale. When your 26th agent joins, Help Scout forces an upgrade from Standard ($25/user) to Plus ($45/user), an 80% per-seat increase overnight. On Helply, agent 26 costs the same as agent 1: $0.
Help Scout also charges $0.75 per AI resolution, 50% more than Helply's $0.50. At 500 resolutions a month, that gap alone is $125/month ($1,500/year) in savings, before accounting for the seats you no longer pay for.
And the Helply bill includes capabilities Help Scout does not sell at any price: churn detection, upsell signals, competitor monitoring, automated article creation, and a Support Intelligence layer that lets anyone query across every ticket, account, and data source.
Help Scout Plus costs a 12-person team roughly $996 per month in seat fees alone. Helply's helpdesk is $0 per month with unlimited seats, every channel, macros, saved replies, ticketing, and standard reporting. That's $11,952 per year back to the business before AI outcomes are even counted.
Help Scout's pricing is friendlier than Zendesk's, but it still scales with headcount. Standard is $50/agent/mo, Plus is $83/agent/mo, Pro is $113/agent/mo. The friendliest inbox in software still bills you for every engineer, product manager, and CSM you give access to. Helply gives unlimited seats to the whole company at $0.
AI Answers is a clean KB summariser priced at $0.25 per answer. Helply resolves at $0.50 with full account context (ARR, plan, renewal, billing, product usage, Gong calls), and prices four revenue and product outcomes Help Scout doesn't offer at all. The $0.25 vs $0.50 gap closes fast once you compare what an “answer” actually does.
Help Scout offers AI Answers from your knowledge base. Helply offers full end-to-end resolution with action against billing, CRM, and product systems, plus four outcome categories Help Scout doesn't ship at all.
Every ticket the AI closes (with action against Stripe, plan, KB) or drafts a reply for.
Every ticket scanned for buying signals, churn-risk language, and competitor mentions. Signals route automatically to CSM and AE the same day.
Feature requests detected, structured, and weighted by ARR ($2.99/flag). Knowledge base gaps identified automatically ($0.50/gap).
Articles drafted from recurring ticket patterns and from the AI Recorder ($2.99 each). The help center writes itself over time.
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.
Help Scout is built for SMB, e-commerce, and lifestyle businesses where conversations are customer-to-individual and roughly equal in value. The inbox treats every email the same. For B2B, where a $40K renewal sits next to a password reset, you need a system that knows the difference.
“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.”
Migration from Help Scout is straightforward. Helply has a dedicated Help Scout importer that brings in your ticket history, customer records, knowledge base articles, and saved replies in a single pass. Account relationships and conversation threads carry over intact.
Most teams are live on Helply in under a week. Run Help Scout in parallel through the end of your current billing period: Helply's helpdesk is free, so there is no double-billing on the Helply side. Your team keeps working while data syncs, and you cut over when ready.
Or try the numbers yourself on the cost calculator.
Is Helply really free to use as a helpdesk?
Yes. $0/forever with unlimited seats, all channels, and a full knowledge base.
How does Helply's AI resolution pricing compare to Help Scout's?
Helply charges $0.50/resolution. Help Scout charges $0.75, which is 50% more per resolution.
Does Helply support Slack Connect, Microsoft Teams, and Discord?
Yes, all three ship first-class on every plan, including the free tier, while Help Scout offers none of these.
What does a 12-agent team pay on Helply vs. Help Scout?
Help Scout Plus with AI Answers: roughly $925/month. Helply: ~$495/month for the same workload plus revenue intelligence.
Does Helply offer churn detection and upsell signals?
Yes. Churn Detection, Upsell Opportunities, and Competitor Monitoring cost $2.99 each, billed only when a signal fires.
Does Helply's AI learn from past tickets?
Yes, Helply trains on tickets, KB, CRM, billing, and product data, while Help Scout's AI trains only on Docs sites and external URLs.
Can I migrate my Help Scout data to Helply?
Yes. A dedicated importer brings tickets, contacts, articles, and saved replies over in one pass.
Does Helply charge extra for additional inboxes or knowledge base sites?
No, inboxes and the knowledge base are included on every plan, while Help Scout charges $10/mo per extra inbox and $20/mo per extra Docs site.
Does Helply offer SLAs on the free plan?
Yes, SLAs, business hours, and reporting are all included free, while Help Scout limits SLAs by tier and plan.
