Helplyvs.Plain

Pay per ticket, not seats and credits

Plain charges per seat starting at $35/month, caps AI usage with a credit system, and gates key features like Microsoft Teams, SLAs, and the knowledge base behind its $299/month Horizon plan.

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. Plain Comparison

Capability	HelplyBest fit	Plain
Built for	B2B companies that sell software	B2B SaaS, developer-first
Platform DNA	AI-native, account-based	AI-native, API-first
Price	$1 per ticket, everything included	$35–$89/seat/mo (Foundation/Horizon)
AI agent pricing	Included, unlimited	Ari included in seat, capped by credit pool
Cost of adding an agent	$0	+$35–$89/mo per seat
Viewer / read-only seats	Free	Free, unlimited
Pricing model	One per-ticket price	Per seat, AI bundled
Email	Yes	Yes (up to 25 inboxes)
Live chat / in-app chat	Yes	Yes
Slack Connect (customer channels)	Yes, first-class	Yes, first-class
Microsoft Teams (customer channels)	Yes, first-class	Yes, first-class
Discord	Yes, first-class	Yes, first-class
Customer portal	Yes	Yes
Public API	Yes	Yes, GraphQL, no rate limits
Account context (CRM, Stripe, Gong)	Loaded by default	Via API and integrations
Churn Detection	Included	Not surfaced
Upsell Opportunities	Included	Not surfaced
Competitor Monitoring	Included	Not surfaced
Feature Flags	Included	Not surfaced
Auto Article Creation	Included	Not offered
Support Intelligence (natural-language queries)	Included	Not offered
ROI / Profit Center dashboard	Yes	Not offered
Contract	Annual, sized to ticket volume, no seat math	Per-seat plan

Same B2B channels, better economics underneath

The channels you both need

Helply and Plain both treat Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, email, and in-app chat as first-class support channels, because B2B support lives wherever customers already work. Helply adds WhatsApp and SMS on top, which Plain does not offer. Both platforms give every conversation the same routing, SLA tracking, and AI coverage regardless of channel.

The difference: Helply includes every channel, SLA, and the knowledge base in the one per-ticket price. Plain gates Microsoft Teams behind Horizon ($299/mo+), Discord behind Frontier (custom pricing), and locks the knowledge base and SLAs to paid tiers.

Account context that arrives before the agent does

Plain offers “Customer Cards” that pull real-time data from your systems via API.

Helply loads the full account picture by default: CRM data (Salesforce, HubSpot), billing (Stripe), product usage (Mixpanel), conversation history (Gong), and engineering tools (Linear). The AI uses all of it on every ticket, so the first draft already references the customer's ARR, renewal date, open invoices, and recent product activity.

The richer the context layer, the better the AI performs and the more revenue outcomes it surfaces. That context is what turns a support conversation into account intelligence.

Where Helply pulls ahead

Plain is an API-first support infrastructure platform. It gives technical teams composable building blocks and extensibility.

Helply gives you the same B2B channel coverage, then layers on what Plain does not sell: the revenue intelligence that turns support into a revenue engine.

Churn Detection, Upsell Opportunities, Competitor Monitoring, automated Article Creation, and a Support Intelligence layer that lets anyone on the team ask a question across every ticket, account, and data source.

Plain's reporting shows support performance. Helply's Profit Center dashboard ties every outcome to a dollar amount the board cares about.

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Helply vs. Plain pricing: per-seat with credit-capped AI versus one price per ticket

Scenario: a B2B company where 25 people respond to customers (support agents, engineers, CSMs, each needing a paid Plain seat), handling 1,800 tickets/month.

Line item	Plain (Horizon)	Helply
Tickets (1,800/mo)	No per-ticket price; you pay per responder seat	1,800 × $1 = $1,800
Responder seats (25 people)	25 × $89/mo = $2,225	$0 (unlimited seats)
AI resolutions and drafts	Included, but drawn from a capped credit pool	Included, unlimited
Churn & upsell signals, competitor mentions, feature flags	Not surfaced	Included
Auto articles	Not offered	Included
Monthly total	$2,225	$1,800
Annual total	$26,700	$21,600
Annual savings with Helply	—	$5,100

Plain charges for every person who replies, every month, so 25 responders cost $2,225 before a single ticket is touched, and the next hire adds another $89. The AI in that seat price draws from a monthly credit pool; when the credits run out, AI actions pause.

Helply is one line: $1 per ticket, seats free, AI unlimited. At this workload Plain works out to roughly $1.24 per ticket; Helply is $1 all-in, and the price includes the revenue signals Plain does not surface.

Estimate your cost on Helply's calculator →

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

Plain includes AI in every plan via a credit pool. The credits cover Ari (their AI agent), Sidekick (their AI assistant), and basic insights. When the credits run out, AI actions pause.

Helply includes every AI action in the $1 ticket price across four categories, with no credit pool to watch.

Ticket resolution

Resolutions & Drafts

Included

Helply's AI assistant drafts every reply with full account context and sources, making human agents dramatically faster on complex B2B threads. High-confidence tickets are resolved autonomously across any channel. For B2B teams, roughly 70% of AI usage is the assistant, not autonomous resolution, because the agent stays in the loop on technical, account-specific conversations.

Plain: Ari resolves and Sidekick assists, but both draw from the same capped credit pool.

Revenue intelligence

Upsell, Churn, Competitor

Included

Every ticket is scanned for churn risk, upsell intent, and competitor mentions. Signals route automatically: churn alerts to the CSM, upsell flags to the AE, competitor mentions flagged the day they happen. Feature requests are detected, structured, and weighted by ARR. One caught churn typically pays for the year's contract.

Plain: does not offer revenue intelligence.

Product intelligence

KB gaps

Included

Knowledge base gaps are identified automatically from ticket patterns.

Plain: links support threads to Linear or Jira issues manually, but does not auto-detect, structure, or ARR-weight feature requests.

Knowledge base

Article Creation

Included

Articles are drafted from recurring ticket patterns and from the AI Recorder. The help center writes itself over time.

Plain: offers a knowledge base on Horizon and above but does not auto-generate articles from ticket patterns.

Built for B2B companies that sell software

Helply is purpose-built for 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.

Plain serves the same world with a developer-first, API-first approach for teams that want to build their support stack themselves.

Helply gives you the same coverage for one price per ticket. The AI is the product, and the price includes the revenue signals a resolution-and-triage agent leaves on the table.

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 Plain doesn't price

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 that grows as you hire.
Unlimited AI, no credit pool.Resolutions, drafts, and every signal included on every ticket. No credits to run out mid-month, no seat fees ever.
Revenue signals beyond deflection.Churn Detection, Upsell Opportunities, Competitor Monitoring, all included on every ticket. Plain resolves; it does not surface these.
B2B account context by default.CRM, Stripe, Gong, and product usage loaded automatically on every ticket, not assembled through the API yourself.
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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Plain Horizon, per seat

$89/mo

AI bundled in a credit pool. Microsoft Teams, SLAs, and KB gated to this tier.

Helply, per seat

No seat fees, ever. One price per ticket covers everyone.

“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 Plain to Helply

Live on Helply in under a week

Ticket history, contacts, custom fields, and your knowledge base import in a single pass. Account-customer relationships and channel connections 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 Plain running, point new conversations at Helply, and compare resolution quality, the revenue signals each surfaces, and the real monthly bills before you move the whole queue.

See the full migration playbook →

1
Import in one pass
Ticket history, contacts, custom fields, knowledge base, channel connections.
2
Run both in parallel
Pay only for the tickets you route to Helply. Point new conversations at it as you ramp.
3
Compare the bill, then move the queue
Resolution quality, revenue signals surfaced, and real monthly cost side by side.

Ready to stop paying per seat?

Or try the numbers yourself on the cost calculator.

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FAQs

What is the real difference between Helply and Plain?

Both are AI-native B2B support platforms with the same channels. Plain charges per seat with AI drawn from a credit pool; Helply charges $1 per ticket with unlimited seats, unlimited AI, and the revenue signals Plain doesn't surface.

How much does Plain cost?

Plain is $35 per seat on Foundation and $89 per seat on Horizon, with the Ari AI agent included via a credit pool. Helply is $1 per ticket with a 250-ticket monthly minimum, and seats are free and unlimited.

Does Plain charge per resolution like some AI tools?

No. Plain includes its Ari agent in the seat, drawing on a monthly credit pool. Helply includes unlimited AI in the $1 per-ticket price and makes seats free, so cost tracks ticket volume instead of headcount.

Does Plain detect churn or upsell signals?

Plain's AI resolves and triages tickets, but it does not surface churn, upsell, or competitor signals. Helply routes each to the CSM or AE, included in the ticket price.

Do Helply and Plain support the same channels?

Yes. Both treat Slack Connect, Microsoft Teams, Discord, and email as first-class B2B channels. Helply adds revenue intelligence and free seats on top of that shared foundation.

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 Plain 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.