Help Scout
6.4/10Help Scout is a shared inbox and help desk for small and mid-sized support teams. It includes AI drafting, summaries, and an AI chatbot that answers from your knowledge base.
Data last updated November 2026 · Our methodology
Overview
Help Scout is a customer support platform built around an email-style shared inbox. It also includes Docs, a knowledge base, and Beacon, an in-app help widget, plus live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger. AI is layered on top of the inbox. AI Assist rewrites, shortens, expands and translates replies. AI Summarize condenses long threads. AI Drafts writes suggested replies. AI Answers, also referred to as Envoy on the pricing page, is an AI agent that answers customers from your Docs content and other sources. It suits small and mid-sized support teams that want a help desk that is easy to learn rather than an AI-only product. Pricing is per user per month: a Free plan for up to 5 users and 100 contacts a month, Standard at $25, Plus at $45 and Pro at $75, all quoted on annual billing. Paying monthly costs about 16 percent more. AI Answers is metered separately at $0.75 per resolution, and you can set a monthly spending cap. New accounts get three months of unlimited AI resolutions. Extra inboxes and Docs sites are paid add-ons. Plus adds Salesforce, Jira and HubSpot integrations. Pro adds SSO/SAML and HIPAA compliance. The main limitation is the cost model. AI resolutions are billed on top of seat fees and can grow quickly with volume. Help Scout also reversed a 2025 pricing change after customers pushed back. Reporting and routing are shallower than on enterprise help desks.
Our Rating
Who Help Scout is best for
Good fit
It is a shared inbox and help desk with a knowledge base, live chat and AI answers built for support teams.
Reviewers say its free plan, simple inbox and per-user pricing are aimed at small teams.
The Free plan for up to 5 users and the quick onboarding suit early-stage support teams.
Plus and Pro add advanced workflows, SLAs, CRM integrations and SSO, which mid-sized teams need.
Less suited
The Beacon in-app help widget and the Jira integration suit software companies that support users inside their product.
The Pro plan adds HIPAA compliance, but there are no healthcare-specific features.
Reviewers say its routing, entitlements and reporting fall short of enterprise help desks.
It is a support inbox with no sales pipeline features.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Reviewers say new agents learn the email-style inbox in under an hour.
- AI Assist, AI Summarize and AI Drafts come with paid seats at no extra charge.
- AI Answers charges only for conversations resolved without a human, and you can cap monthly spend.
- Paid plans include unlimited contacts, and there is a free plan for up to 5 users.
- Docs and Beacon let non-technical staff run self-service help that cuts ticket volume.
Cons
- AI Answers costs $0.75 per resolution on top of seat fees, so costs rise with volume.
- Help Scout reversed a 2025 pricing change after customer backlash, and legacy plans still run alongside current ones.
- Going past 25 agents forces a move from Standard to Plus, which raises the per-seat price sharply.
- Reporting, routing and multichannel depth are thinner than on enterprise help desks.
- AI answers become outdated unless the Docs content is kept up to date.
Key Features
Help Scout Pricing
Free
- 1 inbox
- 1 Docs site
- 10 articles
- Up to 5 users
- 100 contacts per month
- 30 days of report history
Pro
or $900/user/year (save 17%)
- SSO/SAML
- HIPAA compliance
- Up to 50 light users
- 800 API calls per minute
- 10 inboxes and 5 Docs sites
- Unlimited users, minimum 10
- Unlimited workflows and SLA policies
- Dedicated onboarding specialist and strategic account manager
Plus
or $540/user/year
- Up to 50 users
- Round robin routing
- Unlimited AI Drafts
- 500 advanced workflows
- Secure customer portal
- 2 advanced SLA policies
- All-time report history
- 400 API calls per minute
- 5 inboxes and 3 Docs sites
- Salesforce, Jira and HubSpot integrations
Standard
or $300/user/year
- Up to 25 users
- 1 basic SLA policy
- AI Inbox assistant
- Unlimited contacts
- 150 basic workflows
- 200 API calls per minute
- 2 years of report history
- 2 inboxes and 2 Docs sites
- Live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. New accounts get three months of unlimited AI Answers resolutions before per-resolution billing starts.
It costs $0.75 per conversation resolved without human help, billed monthly. You can set a spending cap, and pre-paid discounts are available.
Yes. Annual billing is about 16 percent cheaper than monthly. One review notes the discount applies to seats only, not to add-ons.
The Pro plan card lists SSO/SAML and HIPAA compliance. On lower plans they appear as add-ons.
It allows up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site, 10 articles and 100 contacts per month. One review reports that outgoing replies are blocked once the contact cap is reached.
Yes. The rate limit is 200 calls per minute on Standard, 400 on Plus and 800 on Pro.
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