Helplyvs.Plain

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

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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
Helpdesk base price	$0/mo, unlimited seats	$35–$89/seat/mo (Foundation/Horizon)
AI agent pricing	$0.50/resolution (pay per outcome)	Ari included in seat (no per-resolution fee)
Cost of adding an agent	$0	+$35–$89/mo per seat
Viewer / read-only seats	Free	Free, unlimited
Pricing model	Free helpdesk + pay per outcome	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	$2.99/signal	Not surfaced as an outcome
Upsell Opportunities	$2.99/signal	Not surfaced as an outcome
Competitor Monitoring	$2.99/mention	Not surfaced as an outcome
Feature Flags	$2.99/flag	Not surfaced as an outcome
Auto Article Creation	$2.99/article	Not offered
Support Intelligence (natural-language queries)	Included with AI-First Support	Not offered
ROI / Profit Center dashboard	Yes	Not offered
Contract	Month-to-month, cancel anytime	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 on every plan, including the free one. 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: discrete, priced AI outcomes that turn 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 AI included versus free seats and pay-per-outcome

Scenario: a 20-person B2B support team handling 4,500 tickets/month, with AI resolving 40% (1,800 resolutions).

Line item	Plain (Horizon)	Helply
Helpdesk seats	20 × $89/mo = $1,780	$0 (unlimited seats, free forever)
AI resolutions (1,800/mo)	Included in seat	1,800 × $0.50 = $900
AI drafts (800/mo)	Included	800 × $0.25 = $200
Churn Detection (40 signals)	Not surfaced	40 × $2.99 = $119.60
Upsell Opportunities (25 signals)	Not surfaced	25 × $2.99 = $74.75
Feature Flags (70 flags)	Not surfaced	70 × $2.99 = $209.30
Auto articles (6/mo)	Not offered	6 × $2.99 = $17.94
Monthly total	$1,780	$1,521.59
Annual total	$21,360	$18,259.08
Annual savings with Helply	—	$3,100.92

Plain charges for every seat, every month, so 20 agents cost $1,780 before a single ticket is touched, and the next hire adds another $89.

Helply charges for outcomes, so seats are free and the bill tracks what the AI actually delivers. Past a handful of agents, free seats win, and the gap widens with every person you add.

Estimate your cost on Helply's calculator →

The AI outcomes Helply surfaces (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. There are no discrete, priced outcomes beyond that pool.

Helply prices every AI action individually across four categories, so you see exactly what each one costs and what it delivered.

Ticket resolution

Resolutions & Drafts

$0.50 / $0.25

Helply's AI assistant drafts every reply with full account context and sources ($0.25/draft), making human agents dramatically faster on complex B2B threads. High-confidence tickets are resolved autonomously across any channel ($0.50/resolution). 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 with no per-action transparency.

Revenue intelligence

Upsell, Churn, Competitor

$2.99 each

Every ticket is scanned for churn risk ($2.99/signal), upsell intent ($2.99/signal), and competitor mentions ($2.99/mention). Signals route automatically: churn alerts to the CSM, upsell flags to the AE, competitor mentions flagged the day they happen. One caught churn save pays for hundreds of $2.99 signals. Feature requests are detected, structured, and weighted by ARR ($2.99/flag).

Plain: does not offer discrete revenue intelligence outcomes.

Product intelligence

KB gaps

$0.50 each

Knowledge base gaps are identified automatically ($0.50/gap).

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

$2.99 each

Articles are drafted from recurring ticket patterns ($2.99/article) and from the AI Recorder ($2.99/article). 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 a free helpdesk, the AI is the product, and you pay only when it delivers, including the revenue outcomes 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

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 that grows as you hire.
Pay only when AI delivers.$0.50 per resolution, $0.25 per draft, with spending caps included. No per-seat fee carried in quiet months.
Revenue signals beyond deflection.Churn Detection, Upsell Opportunities, Competitor Monitoring: $2.99 each, only when a signal fires. Plain resolves; it does not surface these as outcomes.
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. $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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Plain Horizon, per seat

$89/mo

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

Helply, per seat

Free, forever. AI billed per outcome only when it delivers one.

“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's helpdesk is free, so there is no platform cost overlap while you ramp. Keep Plain running, point new conversations at Helply, and compare resolution quality, the revenue signals each surfaces, and the real monthly bill 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
No platform overlap cost. Point new conversations at Helply 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 included; Helply makes the helpdesk free, charges per outcome, and prices 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 and no per-resolution fee. Helply's helpdesk is free, with pay-per-outcome pricing.

Does Plain charge per resolution like some AI tools?

No. Plain includes its Ari agent in the seat with no per-resolution fee. Helply charges $0.50 per resolution but makes seats free, so cost tracks outcomes 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 as discrete outcomes. Helply routes each to the CSM or AE at $2.99 per signal.

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 outcomes and a free helpdesk 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.