Help Scout
Verified Oct 15, 2026 ActiveShared-inbox helpdesk with knowledge base, live chat and an AI agent billed per resolution.
Listed on EffectHub ·
Pricing
- Pricing model
- Freemium
- Paid options from
- $25/seat/mo
- Billing
- Per seat, monthly
Free plan: 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 docs site and 100 contacts a month. Standard $25, Plus $45 and Pro $75 per user per month with the default annual toggle; monthly billing costs about 16% more. Extra inboxes $10/month ($12 monthly-billed), extra docs sites $20 ($24). AI Answers is a separate add-on at $0.75 per resolution with a three-month free trial.
Use tool ↗About Help Scout
Help Scout is a support desk built around a shared inbox rather than a ticket queue, so replies reach customers as ordinary email with no ticket numbers attached. On top of that it adds a hosted knowledge base, live chat, proactive in-app messages, reporting and a large integration catalogue covering Shopify and around a hundred other tools. The AI layer drafts and summarises inside the inbox, and a separate autonomous agent called AI Answers is billed at $0.75 per resolution instead of being folded into the seat price. The company has been fully remote since it started in 2011. A free plan covers five users; paid seats start at $25 a month.
- API
- Yes
- Last verified
- Oct 15, 2026
Verified sources
- Pricing page with Annual selected by default (-16%): Standard $25, Plus $45, Pro $75 per user/mo; AI Answers add-on $0.75 per resolution with a 3-month free trial; Free plan 5 users, 1 Inbox, 1 Docs site (15 October 2026)helpscout.com ↗
- Plan comparison: Free limited to 100 contacts a month; API access at 200/400/800 calls per minute by tier; extra Inboxes $10/month paid annually or $12 monthly, extra Docs sites $20 or $24 (15 October 2026)helpscout.com ↗
- Footer reads 2026 Help Scout; site links a mobile app and 100+ integrations (15 October 2026)helpscout.com ↗
Is Help Scout legit?
We don’t label tools safe or unsafe. Below are the records we checked ourselves, each with the date we read it.
- Domain registered
- Aug 19, 2009 (17 years ago)Registry record (RDAP), registrar Amazon Registrar, Inc., looked up Sep 6, 2026
- TLS certificate
- Issued by Let's Encrypt, valid until Nov 28, 2026Seen in our own connection to the site on Oct 15, 2026
- Last checked
- Oct 15, 2026The site answered
- On the market since
- 2011The vendor's own material, read by us
- Operated by
- Help Scout, United StatesOur research, card verified Oct 15, 2026
Pros & cons of Help Scout
The oldest idea in the category done well: customers get an email, not a ticket, and your team gets a shared inbox with real reporting behind it. Fifteen years of remote operation shows in the polish and the integration list. The pricing is where to look hard - AI Answers is metered per resolution on top of seats, and extra inboxes and docs sites are billed separately, so the seat price is not the whole bill.
Pros
- Shared inbox sends plain email, so customers never see ticket numbers
- Free plan is a real 5-user tier, not a trial
- Knowledge base, live chat and proactive messaging included rather than sold as separate products
- Around 100 integrations plus a documented API
- Reporting and analytics built in at every paid tier
Cons
- The AI agent is a per-resolution add-on at $0.75, on top of per-seat pricing
- Additional inboxes and docs sites are billed separately from seats
- Standard tier caps you at 2 inboxes, which small multi-brand teams outgrow quickly
- No published headquarters address - the company is fully distributed
Best for
- Small and mid-sized support teams that want email-style replies
- Companies needing a help centre, chat and inbox from one vendor
- Shopify and SaaS support desks with a long integration list
Not for
- Enterprises needing heavyweight ITSM ticketing and asset management
- Teams on a fixed budget where per-resolution AI billing is unpredictable
Watch out: Budget the AI agent separately: at $0.75 a resolution, a desk closing a few thousand conversations a month can spend more on AI than on seats.
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Help Scout head-to-head
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