Listopedia

Help Scout

Shared inbox vendor whose Docs sites provide a customer knowledge base

Overview

Help Scout is a customer support software company founded in 2011 by Nick Francis, Denny Swindle and Jared McDaniel. It is fully remote, with staff working from more than 115 cities, and says its products serve more than 12,000 customer-facing teams[27]. Its knowledge base product, Docs, is included with the shared inbox rather than sold separately.

Docs sites are public or restricted help centres with custom branding through preset options or custom CSS, contact forms and restricted sites controlled via the API. The number of Docs sites grows with the plan: one on Free, two on Standard, three on Plus and five on Pro, with extra sites available as add-ons. Help Scout’s AI features draw on Docs content: Envoy answers customers from knowledge base content and is billed per resolution, and AI Drafts uses help content to draft replies[26].

The free plan includes five users, one inbox and one Docs site but caps Docs at 10 articles, so it is a trial of the knowledge base rather than a usable one. Paid plans are priced per user, which makes Help Scout economical for small support teams and less so as a company-wide wiki. The pricing page shows a 16% saving for annual billing without clearly labelling which period the headline prices reflect[26].

Help Scout features

  • Docs help-centre sites included with every plan
  • Custom branding via presets or CSS
  • Restricted Docs sites controlled via API
  • Envoy AI answers from Docs content
  • AI Drafts using help content
  • Extra Docs sites as add-ons

Help Scout pricing

Free: 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site, 10 articles. Standard: $25 per user per month, 2 Docs sites. Plus: $45, 3 Docs sites. Pro: $75, 5 Docs sites. Additional Docs site $20 per month annually ($24 monthly). Envoy: $0.75 per resolution.

Help Scout strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Free plan with five users
  • Email-like interface with a short learning curve
  • Free plan for up to five users
  • Live chat included from Standard
  • Combined inbox, chat and knowledge base
  • Lowest published per-resolution AI price in this list

Limitations

  • Pro plan has no self-serve trial and is sold by demo
  • Fewer voice and IT-service features than full ITSM suites
  • Free plan has tight contact limits
  • Pro plan requires a demo
  • Pro plan requires a demo despite a listed price
  • Fewer voice and telephony features than contact-centre suites

Appears in

Help Scout alternatives and competitors

Alternatives to Help Scout: companies ranked in the same lists.

Is this your company?

Update the description, logo, image and link through the submission form. Editors review every change.

Update this listing

Is your company missing from a list?

Send your logo, description and link. Editors review every submission, and approved listings are clearly labelled.

Add your company