Can Help Scout pricing fit into your company’s budget? Are there better alternatives for smaller teams? Here’s what you need to know about this tool and its resources.
Many industries rely on email as their primary form of communication. With the rise of remote work, establishing a helpful system at work is more important than ever. That can lead to better and faster solutions. Operations managers and customer support teams, for instance, can benefit a lot from an organized, categorized inbox.
What is Help Scout?
Help Scout is a well-known platform that creates a customer-centered support team. Basically, it’s a way to organize and assign customer service tasks, but making it easier to identify potential issues. This is done by centralizing all incoming tickets into one platform, in which agents can see their assignments and collaborate on solutions.
In short, it allows for small and big teams to offer great customer service without having to go through multiple channels to find all inquiries. This can be great for many industries, such as IT and e-commerce.
However, as with any software, investing in it can be detrimental if it doesn’t work out. That’s why, in this article, we’re getting into the details of Help Scout pricing tiers, what each plan offers and what are the alternatives.
Help Scout features: why people like Help Scout
Of course, before talking about Help Scout pricing, it’s crucial to look deeper into its features. The platform consists of a centralized dashboard and there, managers can assign tasks that will be shown in each agent’s board.
But while the system isn’t too different from other customer service tools, there are a few resources that set it apart. Here are some of them:
Happiness reports
A happy client is a continuing client and customer service teams know it. However, keeping track of satisfaction rates and other metrics can take some time if your work is done through a regular email client.
When you use Help Scout, you can monitor the Happiness rates. The platform offers customer surveys and data analytics to monitor the overall happiness score of your client base. That is a great way to understand how efficient your team is with their solutions and what has to be done better in the future.
Productivity reports
If you need a deeper view of team and agent productivity, you can also access the Productivity reports. They monitor each user’s solution rate, time spent on tickets and other workflow metrics.
Those can be great insights to counter inefficient workflows. But they can also be used as a way to develop a better workload distribution. For example, if an agent specializes in a certain field and they have some extra time, the manager can assign them more tasks accordingly.
Light users
One of the things that set it apart from other applications and might justify Help Scout pricing is the light user category. Unlike many other tools, Help Scout offers two different options for user permissions.
Regular users are full team members and collaborators with access to your workflow. But often, some projects require extra input. These can be independent contractors, people from other departments and even consultants.
For instance, if you hire a specialist to help with the onboarding of your product with your new clients. They might need access to certain parts of your workspace, but not all of them, especially if they’re only working on a single project. Instead of having to assign them an agent role and pay for it, you could use Help Scout’s light user feature.
These users aren’t a part of your limited open seats plan, so they don’t add extra to Help Scout pricing.
Help Scout reviews: what users say
Before testing out Help Scout, you might want to read some opinions from current users across industries. Here are some reviews:
HelpScout also makes it really easy to collaborate and leave notes for each other.
Computer software industry reviewer on G2
Having the ability to share the links with colleagues has made my life much easier when it comes to collaborating on a project.
Business developer reviewer on G2
Integration with some channels not available, as well as round robins and more complex adjustments not available on this platform. So not sufficient for larger, more complex operations.
Product manager reviewer on G2
Help Scout pricing breakdown
Help Scout offers different price points depending on your team’s size and what resources you need. You can also start a free 15-day trial to get a better demo before committing to the platform. Unsure about which tier is the right for you? Here are the details of Help Scout pricing and options:
Standard
Plus
$ 40
user/month- Unlimited users
- 5 shared inboxes
- 25 light users: limited version for infrequent collaborators
- 2 knowledge bases
- Custom data points: create your workflows, teams and assignments
- AI conversation insights: stay updated on what’s going on in your inbox
Pro
$ 65
user/month- From 10 users
- Email, chat, voice and social channels
- 25 shared inboxes
- 50 light users
- 10 knowledge bases
- Advanced security
- More API access and reporting endpoints
- Custom training for your team
Knowledge base
With the least expensive Help Scout pricing tier, Standard, you can build your knowledge base. That’s a way to document and organize guides and solutions to your products and their implementation. Some customer service teams offer a public-facing knowledge base as well.
However, to do this with Help Scout, you’d need the Plus or Pro plans. Plus offers the ability to create two different bases, one could be internal and the other external. But with the Pro plan, you can build 10 knowledge bases, which could be useful for companies with multiple products.
AI assistance
Do you want some extra help in the form of artificial intelligence? In fact, AI can be a huge timesaver to get answers to clients quicker. AI assistance in Help Scout is in beta testing, but it can already give you important insights.
On the Standard plan, it can help you translate words, sense tone and shorten paragraphs. That way, you can make sure your replies are always the best replies to delight customers.
For extra support, the Plus plan includes AI summaries. So, you can get the brief of ongoing conversations to get a full context. This tool can be very useful for customer support, since it allows the whole team to stay on top of any concerns and changes, even if they aren’t directly involved in the conversation.
APIs and customization
A good customer support and email management tool adapts well to what you need. Help Scout’s pricing for the Standard plan includes over a hundred app integrations. That means you can connect CRM, task management and other platforms to it. Basically, your entire digital workspace can be fully in sync.
The Plus plan offers more personalization. AKA, it includes custom fields and the ability to create teams for specific parts of your workflow. Even better, the Pro plan offers increased API access, with 800 calls per minute and endpoint reports.
Help Scout pricing alternatives: what you need to look for
Before you pick a Help Scout alternative, you should research all the options and compare their experience. That way, you can get a better understanding of their pros and cons and find the one that adjusts better to your needs.
Shared Inboxes and dashboards
Help Scout centralizes all the incoming messages into a dashboard. That is useful to offer multi-channel support, but it requires users to switch from their email inbox to Help Scout’s interface.
Another way to support email-based teams is by implementing shared inboxes. A shared inbox is a collaborative digital space that receives all information and is accessible to the entire team.
Some alternatives tools like Drag allow users to access shared inboxes right from inside Gmail. No more logging in and out of accounts just to forward an email to yourself. With this system, all messages are available in your own space.
Other tools and integration
Help Scout offers 100+ app integrations with software like Salesforce and Jira, which makes it pretty useful for daily operations. Some other tools, like Hubspot, have even more apps in their library and offer their own tools and add-ons.
That way, instead of having to connect multiple apps, you can opt for a full service of digital hubs on the same accounts.
Cost and company size
With Help Scout pricing, the amount of users really makes a difference. If you go over the 25-user limit on the Standard plan, the next option is double the price at $40/user/month. That can be detrimental to growing companies, especially if they don’t need all the extra resources the Pro and Plus plans offer.
Ethics and industry development
One of the main points of Help Scout is that they are a B Corp. This means they are committed to fair business practices that impact their community for the better. This means planting trees with NGOs, offering discounts for nonprofits and having a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion project.
Industry members who believe in better, more fair business practices are likely to look for software developers who share their views. Here at Drag, we’re also committed to building a better community. We support non-profits close to our heart and offer curated founder resources to help you grow your project with us.
Turn Gmail into your Team’s Workspace.
- 2.5x faster email responses.
- 20 hours less spent per month, per team member.
- 40% more deadlines achieved and happier teams.
Top 5 alternatives to Help Scout: the resources you need
Even though Help Scout is a great tool, it might be over your budget. That’s because Help Scout pricing depends a lot on the size of your company and its needs. Most of the time, however, the least expensive plan isn’t enough to scale your business and grow as a company.
Considering this, here are 5 alternatives to Help Scout that might be a better fit for you:
DragApp
Drag is a Help Scout alternative that offers a faster, more efficient way to support your clients. Instead of having to switch between Gmail and another platform, why not implement customer support into Gmail? No more context switching, no more productivity loss. DragApp offers task management, ticketing automation and storage from your own Gmail inbox.
Capterra review: 4.4 stars
Price: From $8/user/month (free version available)
Main features
- Shared inbox: work with a team from your own inbox
- Shared templates: pre-written replies that can be customized to each client’s needs
- Cross-domain collaboration: add users from your domain or from Gmail to your workspace
Zendesk
Zendesk is a powerful office platform that offers tools for help desk teams. Basically, with this platform, you can automate your customer service workflows, collaborate on ongoing tickets and track analytics to improve your team and projects. That means Zendesk is widely used to develop better business strategies across industries. However, compared to Help Scout pricing, Zendesk is more expensive, which makes it more suitable as a tool for enterprises.
Capterra reviews: 4.4 stars
Pricing: $55/user/month (free trial available)
Main features
- Email and social media channels: chat with customers anywhere
- Assignments: based on expertise and availability
- Knowledge base builder: a self-service portal for your customers
Groove
Groove is a flexible customer support hub that offers multi-channel connections. With Groove, you can support your customers on social media, email and voice channels from one single dashboard. The platform also offers productivity reports and conversation overviews to identify service bottlenecks and improve performance.
Capterra reviews: 4.5 stars
Pricing: from $12/user/month up to 5 users (free trial available)
Main features
- Time-based automations: establish your business hours
- Knowledge base: optimized for mobile, so that your customers can find their answers from anywhere
- AI conversation summaries: get an overview of chats from the dashboard
Gorgias
In terms of Help Scout vs. Gorgias, it’s important to know that both tools offer a great way to visualize and solve customer support inquiries. However, Gorgias has a flexible subscription plan, that allows managers to pay for the amount of tickets they need and the add-ons that make sense for their industry. This flexibility is great for growing teams that have a less steady workflow.
Capterra reviews: 4.7 stars
Pricing: from $10/month for 50 tickets (free trial available)
Main features
- Unlimited social channels
- 94 apps with integration tools
- Live stats and customer satisfaction scores
- Pay-as-you-need ticket amounts
HubSpot
With Hubspot‘s Service Hub, you benefit from the work behind the multiple CRM and Operations Management tools, but optimized for customer support work. A central dashboard collects all incoming messages and allows managers to distribute tasks across the team and monitor productivity stats.
Capterra review: 4.4 stars
Pricing: there’s a free version available and paid plans start at $45/month
Main features
- Multiple tools: users can start with the Service Hub and later subscribe to plans that include other management tools, depending on what the company needs
- Custom fields and branding: make your help desk system a reflection of your company
- Response templates: pre-defined email layouts to streamline customer support
A simpler help desk software
Picking the right app to build your customer service system requires some knowledge.
First, you should check the tools you need the most and look for platforms that offer them at no extra cost or as an inexpensive add-on. For example, if you need multiple shared inboxes, such as info@company or sales@company. Or perhaps you need full e-commerce live chat integration, so your help desk team sees any questions right away.
The second part of this process is researching the compatible tools in depth. This guide is a great start. Then, read reviews, look for customers with similar backgrounds as you and compare the different plans. Help Scout pricing doubles from the first tier to the second, but some tools offer other options.
The last part is testing out the software. Get a free trial or a freemium version that allows you to use the tool as best as you can. That way, you’ll know if it works for your operations, and fits into your company’s budget and your workflow.
In the end, the chosen platform should adapt to you and not the other way around. And it will allow your customer service to reach its full potential.
Turn Gmail into your Team’s Workspace.
- 2.5x faster email responses.
- 20 hours less spent per month, per team member.
- 40% more deadlines achieved and happier teams.
