What is Help Scout?

Help Scout is a shared-inbox customer support platform. Its pricing page lists email, live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger support, multiple Docs knowledge bases, and AI tools that draft and summarize replies and answer customers automatically on a website or in an app.

Who it's for

The pricing page positions Standard for growing teams that automate more and go beyond email, Plus for higher volume across channels, and Pro for the highest scale and security needs. A Free plan covers small teams of up to 5 users with the basics.

Pros & cons

Strengths

Help Scout lists a Free plan with 5 users, 1 inbox and 1 Docs site, and says Free accounts need no payment method.
Help Scout lists Salesforce, Jira and HubSpot integrations on Plus, and its AI page mentions connecting to 100+ tools and a mobile app.
Help Scout lists unlimited AI Drafts on Plus and Pro, and its AI page describes thread summaries, tone and grammar edits, and translation for agents.
Help Scout says its AI Answers agent supports over 50 languages, can be tested privately before launch, and lets you set monthly spending caps.
Customers don't need a login and are not billed; Help Scout's billing guide says a billable user is anyone who needs a login to manage or view conversations.
Help Scout's terms and billing guide offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on the first payment, for monthly and annual plans.

Limitations

Free is capped at 100 contacts a month, 10 saved replies, 10 tags, 10 articles and 30 days of reporting history.
Pricing is per user per month, and the Account Owner counts as a billable user. Extra inboxes cost $10 a month billed annually ($12 monthly), extra Docs sites $20 ($24 monthly), and extra light users $10 ($12 monthly).
Pro has a minimum of 10 users and a trial requires contacting sales; SSO/SAML and HIPAA are listed in the Pro plan highlights. HIPAA-covered accounts need a signed BAA and an AI addendum to use AI features.
AI Answers costs $0.75 per resolution, billed monthly in arrears, after a 3-month free trial for new customers; hitting a monthly spending cap disables it for the rest of the cycle.
Terms of Service say there are no refunds for partial months or annual payments outside the 30-day guarantee, and that Help Scout may use de-identified customer data to build AI training datasets unless you opt out by emailing help@helpscout.com.
Help Scout's own pages disagree in places: the pricing table's inbox counts (1, 2, 5, 10) conflict with its plan descriptions, and the AI add-on is called Envoy AI on the pricing page, Scout in the docs, and AI Answers on the AI page.

Plans and pricing

Free: $0. Up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site, 100 contacts a month; 10 saved replies, tags and articles; 30-day reporting history.
Standard: $25 per user a month. Up to 25 users, 2 inboxes, 2 Docs sites, unlimited contacts, 150 basic workflows, 1 basic SLA policy, live chat and SMS; 15-day trial, no card needed.
Plus: $45 per user a month. Up to 50 users, 5 inboxes, 3 Docs sites, 500 advanced workflows, secure customer portal, unlimited AI Drafts, Salesforce/Jira/HubSpot; 15-day trial.
Pro: $75 per user a month. Minimum 10 users, 10 inboxes, 5 Docs sites, unlimited workflows and SLA policies, SSO/SAML, HIPAA, onboarding specialist; trial via sales.

Prices were read from the official pricing page, which has a Monthly/Annual toggle with a -16% badge but does not say which period the $25, $45 and $75 figures show. One independent source (Unthread) states Standard as $25 per user a month billed annually, so the figures are Reported as annual; monthly plan prices could not be read. Prices are in USD. Confirm on the live pricing page.

Details checked October 2026 against the vendor's own pages. Prices and limits change, so confirm before you buy. Official pricing page ↗

Sources

This profile was compiled from these public pages. We have not run hands-on tests.

Summary

Help Scout — at a glance

Try Help Scout →

We couldn't find that tool

Help Scout

At a glance