SaaStr AI 2026 recap
Helplyvs.Pylon

All the B2B depth, none of the seat tax

Helply and Pylon solve the same problem: B2B support where every ticket carries account context, flows through Slack Connect and email, and feeds back into the business. Pylon charges $89/seat/month on its Professional plan, adds $50/seat/month for AI Assistants, bills $0.50 per AI resolution on top of a $100/month base, and layers Account Intelligence at $10 per customer account per month with a 50-account minimum.

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.

Helply vs. Pylon at a glance

CapabilityHelplyBest fitPylon
Price$1 per ticket, everything included$59–$139/seat/mo
Seat minimumNone (unlimited seats)3 seats (Starter/Pro), 7 seats (Enterprise)
Pricing modelOne per-ticket pricePer-seat + AI add-ons + per-account intelligence
ChannelsSlack Connect, Teams, Discord, email, in-app chat, SMS, WhatsApp, portal, APISlack, Teams, Discord, email, chat, forms
Account contextCRM, Stripe, Gong, Linear, Mixpanel loaded by defaultCRM sync (Salesforce, HubSpot, Attio, Pipedrive)
AI-assisted draftsIncluded, unlimited$50/seat/mo add-on
Autonomous resolutionIncluded, unlimited$100/mo base + $0.50/resolution
Churn detectionIncludedRequires Account Intelligence ($10/account/mo, 50-account min)
Upsell opportunitiesIncludedRequires Account Intelligence ($10/account/mo, 50-account min)
Competitor monitoringIncludedNot available
Feature flagsIncludedNot a discrete capability
KB article creationIncluded, automaticIncluded in base plan (manual)
Support IntelligenceIncludedIncluded as Ask AI (Account Intelligence add-on)
ROI / Profit Center dashboardYes, ties every outcome to revenueNot available
ContractAnnual, one line item, no per-seat mathAnnual commitment, no free trial

Same B2B helpdesk foundation, better economics underneath

01

Shared channels, shared context

Both platforms treat Slack Connect, Microsoft Teams, Discord, and email as first-class ticket sources. Both load CRM and billing data into the agent view so your team sees ARR, renewal dates, and product usage before they type a word. Both offer a knowledge base, SLA management, and automation rules.

Helply also ships SMS, WhatsApp, and an embeddable in-app chat widget as native channels, giving your customers more ways to reach you without a third-party integration.

02

Where the economics split

Pylon bundles capabilities into seats and add-ons. Your team pays $89/seat/month to access the inbox, another $50/seat/month to unlock AI Assistants, $100/month plus $0.50/resolution for AI Agents, and $10/account/month (50-account minimum) for Account Intelligence. That layering means you commit to a recurring bill sized by headcount and customer count, regardless of how much value the platform delivers in any given month.

Helply removes the layers. One price, $1 per ticket, covers the platform, unlimited seats, every channel, and unlimited AI: drafts, resolutions, churn and upsell signals, competitor mentions, feature requests, and auto-written articles. The bill is a single line item that tracks ticket volume, not four fees that track headcount and account count.

03

The Profit Center dashboard

Pylon gives you analytics and reporting on ticket volume, response time, and resolution rate.

Helply gives you that, plus a Profit Center dashboard that ties every AI outcome to a dollar amount: churn prevented, expansion surfaced, competitor flags routed to your AE. Every month, you see the revenue your support team produced, not just the tickets they closed.

Helply vs. Pylon pricing: one line item versus the fee stack

Take a 10-agent B2B team managing 250 accounts and handling 2,000 tickets per month. Roughly 30% of tickets resolve autonomously; the rest get AI-drafted replies for human review.

Line itemPylon (Professional)Helply
Tickets (2,000/mo)No per-ticket price; you pay per seat, per add-on, per account2,000 × $1 = $2,000
Helpdesk seats$890/mo (10 × $89)$0 (unlimited)
AI Assistants/Drafts$500/mo (10 × $50 add-on)Included
AI resolutions (600/mo)$400/mo ($100 base + 600 × $0.50)Included
Account Intelligence / Revenue signals$2,500/mo (250 accounts × $10)Included
Product intelligence & KB articlesNot available / manual onlyIncluded
Monthly total~$4,290$2,000
Annual total~$51,480$24,000
Annual savings with Helply$27,480

Pylon's bill is built from recurring access fees: seats, per-seat AI add-ons, an AI Agent base fee, and per-account intelligence that charges whether anything fires or not. At this workload that stack works out to roughly $2.15 per ticket. Helply is $1 per ticket with all of it included.

The gap widens as you add seats and accounts. Each new agent on Pylon adds $139/month in seat and AI fees before they touch a ticket; each new customer account adds $10/month. On Helply both add $0. The bill only moves with ticket volume.

The AI work included in every ticket (and Pylon bundles behind recurring fees)

Ticket resolution

Resolutions & Drafts

Included

Helply's AI drafts every reply with sources and full account context, making your human agents dramatically faster on complex B2B tickets. For high-confidence tickets, it resolves autonomously across any channel. Both are in the ticket price.

Pylon: charges $50/seat/month for AI Assistants and $100/month plus $0.50/resolution for AI Agents, meaning you pay a recurring base whether or not the AI fires.
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.

Pylon: Account Intelligence surfaces health scores and churn risk, but charges $10/account/month on a 50-account minimum ($500/month floor) regardless of signal volume. No discrete competitor monitoring or upsell-opportunity routing.
Product intelligence

Feature Flags & KB gaps

Included

Feature requests are detected, structured, and weighted by ARR. Knowledge-base gaps are identified automatically. These discrete product signals feed your roadmap directly.

Pylon: does not offer these as standalone capabilities.
Knowledge base

Article Creation

Included

Articles are created from recurring ticket patterns and from the AI Recorder. Helply's knowledge base writes itself, then the AI trains on the new articles, closing the loop.

Pylon: includes a knowledge base in its platform, but article creation is manual.

Built for B2B companies that sell software

Helply serves one ICP: technical B2B companies that sell software, from upper-end SMB through mid-market. B2B SaaS (horizontal and vertical), AI-native and AI-infrastructure platforms, dev tools and developer infrastructure, data platforms, API-first and embedded platforms, HR and workforce tech, and DevOps and security tooling.

The sweet spot is $1M–$50M ARR, up to 100 agents, up to 15,000 tickets per month. Every default, every AI model, and every outcome category assumes you sell software to other businesses. That focus is the reason the account context layer, the revenue signals, and the per-ticket price work as well as they do.

  • 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 Pylon charges extra for

  • The full helpdesk, included.Unlimited seats, shared inbox, ticketing, email, live chat, knowledge base, macros, reporting. All in the ticket price, with no seat minimum.
  • Unlimited AI with no add-on fees.No $50/seat AI Assistant add-on. No $100/month AI Agent base fee. Drafts and resolutions are included on every ticket.
  • Revenue signals beyond deflection.Churn detection, upsell opportunities, and competitor monitoring are included, not bundled into a $10/account/month recurring charge with a 50-account floor.
  • B2B context loaded by default.CRM, Stripe, Gong, Linear, Mixpanel, and product-usage data connected from day one, feeding every AI draft and every revenue signal.
  • Self-improving knowledge base.Articles created from ticket patterns and the AI Recorder, included. The KB writes itself, then the AI trains on the new content.
  • Support Intelligence.Ask Helply anything across tickets, accounts, billing, and product data in natural language.
  • Profit Center ROI dashboard.Every outcome tied to a dollar amount, every month. Support becomes a revenue line, not a cost center.
Pylon Professional, per seat
$139/mo
$89 seat + $50 AI Assistant, plus AI Agent base and per-account fees.
Helply, per seat
$0
No seat fees, ever. One price per ticket covers everyone.
Helply versus Pylon cost
“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.”
J
Jason Lemkin
Founder, SaaStr
Switching from Pylon to Helply

Live on Helply in under a week

Migration from Pylon imports your ticket history, customer accounts, knowledge-base articles, and team configuration in a single pass. Account relationships, SLA rules, and CRM connections carry over so nothing resets. Most teams are live on Helply in under a week.

If you have time left on a Pylon contract, run both platforms in parallel until it expires: Helply bills per ticket, so the overlap costs only the tickets you route to it. Your team keeps working while the cutover happens in the background.

  1. 1
    Import in one pass
    Ticket history, accounts, knowledge base, team config, SLAs, CRM connections.
  2. 2
    Run both in parallel
    Pay only for the tickets you route to Helply. Cutover happens in the background.
  3. 3
    Compare at Pylon renewal
    Real cost data from Helply, side by side with the Pylon bill.

Ready to stop paying for seats?

Or try the numbers yourself on the cost calculator.

FAQs

How does Helply's AI pricing compare to Pylon's?

Pylon charges $50/seat/month for AI Assistants, plus $100/month and $0.50 per resolution for AI Agents. Helply includes unlimited AI, drafts, resolutions, and revenue signals, in its $1 per-ticket price.

What is the minimum monthly bill on Helply?

$250: pricing is $1 per ticket with a 250-ticket monthly minimum, on an annual contract of at least $3,000. Seats are free and unlimited.

Does Helply support Slack Connect for B2B customer support?

Yes. Slack Connect, Teams, Discord, email, in-app chat, SMS, and WhatsApp are all first-class channels.

How much does a 10-agent team pay on Helply vs. Pylon?

At 2,000 tickets a month, $2,000 on Helply with everything included, vs. roughly $4,290/month on Pylon Professional with AI and Account Intelligence add-ons.

Does Helply have Account Intelligence like Pylon?

Helply surfaces churn, upsell, and competitor signals on every ticket at no extra charge, instead of charging $10/account/month with a 50-account minimum.

Do revenue signals cost extra on Helply?

No. Churn, upsell, and competitor signals are included in the per-ticket price. One caught churn typically pays for the year's contract.

Can I keep my Pylon contract while migrating?

Yes. Helply bills per ticket, so run both in parallel and pay only for the tickets you route to it until your Pylon contract expires.

Does Helply connect to the same CRMs as Pylon?

Yes. Salesforce, HubSpot, and more, plus Stripe, Gong, Linear, and Mixpanel for deeper account context.

Does Pylon offer a Profit Center dashboard?

No. Helply ties every AI outcome to revenue impact; Pylon reports on ticket metrics only.