Help Scout
A shared support inbox that looks and feels like email, with AI drafting replies and summarising long threads, built for small teams who dislike ticket software.
What you'd use it for
Giving a small support team one shared inbox that still reads like personal email, with AI drafting replies and summarising long threads.
- Draft a reply to a customer email for an agent to edit and send, rather than starting from a blank box (AI Inbox assistant, Standard plan and up)
- Summarise a long back-and-forth thread so a new agent is not re-reading the whole history before replying
- Save and reuse canned replies for common questions (10 on Free, more on paid plans)
- Route conversations automatically through workflows, from basic on Standard to unlimited on Pro
- Run live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger conversations through the same shared inbox (Standard and up)
The verdict
Help Scout is the right shared inbox for a small team that wants support to feel like email rather than a ticket queue, and the AI Inbox assistant is a genuine time-saver for drafting replies and catching up on long threads -- but only once you are on Standard, since it is not part of the free plan. The bill is seat-based, so it scales with headcount rather than ticket volume, and if you also turn on AI Answers to resolve tickets automatically, that is billed separately per resolution and can grow faster than the seat price suggests. It suits a team under a few dozen people that has outgrown a personal inbox but finds Zendesk-style ticket numbers alienating for customers. It does not suit a team chasing cheap enterprise compliance, since HIPAA and SSO sit behind the top tier at $75 a user a month.
What it costs
| Tier | Price | For | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/month | A small team just getting started with basic support needs. | 5 users, 1 shared inbox, 1 Docs help-centre site, 10 saved replies, 10 tags, and email support. |
| Standard | $25/user/month | A growing team wanting to automate more of the routine work. | Multiple inboxes, live chat, SMS, WhatsApp/Instagram/Messenger channels, multiple knowledge bases, basic workflows, and an AI Inbox assistant. |
| Plus | $45/user/month | Teams managing higher volume and more channels at once. | Everything in Standard, plus advanced workflows, SLA policies, a secure customer portal, unlimited AI Drafts, round-robin routing, and Salesforce/Jira/HubSpot integrations. |
| Pro | $75/user/month | Teams that need the highest scale and security available. | Everything in Plus, plus unlimited workflows, unlimited SLA policies, SSO/SAML, HIPAA compliance, and a dedicated onboarding specialist. |
Read from Help Scout's own pricing page on 25 Sep 2026. Vendors change prices without notice.
What you need to start
- A support email address to forward into Help Scout, since it replaces your day-to-day inbox rather than sitting beside it
- Admin or Account Owner access to that email account to set up the forwarding
- The Standard plan or higher for the AI Inbox assistant that drafts replies and summarises threads -- the free plan does not include it
Your first run Forwarding your existing support email into Help Scout and answering a live customer message from inside the shared inbox, with the AI assistant drafting the first reply for you to edit and send.
Where it breaks
The AI Answers add-on — which resolves customer questions automatically without a human — is billed separately at $0.75 per resolution on top of any plan, with a 3-month free trial; it is not bundled into the per-user tier price.
Browser-based, with a mobile app for on-the-go replies. Deliberately styled to feel like a personal inbox rather than a ticketing system with case numbers.
First entry in this reference. There is no previous check to compare it against.
When not to use it
Not for a team that wants one flat predictable number each month -- per-seat pricing rises with headcount regardless of support volume, and turning on AI Answers to actually cut the human workload adds a separate charge that scales with contacts resolved, so the real cost driver is not the seat count you budgeted for. Also not for a team that needs formal SLA policies or a self-serve customer portal on the cheapest paid tier, since those only arrive at Plus.
Help Scout’s entire design argument is that most small teams don’t need a ticketing system — they need email that several people can share without stepping on each other. There’s no case number, no “your ticket has been updated” formality; a customer just gets a reply that reads like a person wrote it, because for the most part a person did.
The AI layer sits on top of that same premise: the AI Inbox assistant on Standard drafts replies and summarises long back-and-forth threads so an agent isn’t re-reading a whole history before responding, and Plus lifts AI Drafts from a capped number a month to unlimited. It’s assistive rather than autonomous — someone still reviews and sends.
What actually separates the tiers
The free plan caps out at 5 users and one inbox, which is fine for a very small team but starts to bind quickly once you need a second inbox for a second product or department — that’s the real reason most paying customers move to Standard. Plus is where the SLA policies and a self-serve customer portal show up, useful once support volume is high enough that response-time commitments matter.
Against the alternatives
Against Front, the two solve nearly the same problem with different personalities: Front leans further into automation rules and omnichannel routing at a comparable price point, while Help Scout stays closer to its “shared inbox, not a help desk” roots even as it adds AI features. A team that finds Zendesk-style ticketing alienating for customers is the natural fit for either; the choice between them mostly comes down to which one’s workflow builder feels more natural to your team.
The AI Answers add-on, priced per resolution rather than per seat, is worth trialling separately before committing — it changes the cost model from a flat monthly number to one that scales with how much of your support volume gets automated away.
Alternatives
Support & inboxAgentsFront
A shared team inbox for email and other channels, with AI drafting replies, tagging conversations and summarising long threads for anyone on the team.
Support & inboxAgentsChatwoot
An open-source shared inbox and live chat you can run on your own servers, with AI reply assistance built in.
Support & inboxAgentsCrisp
A live chat widget, shared inbox and knowledge base with an AI agent that answers from your docs, priced flat per workspace rather than per agent seat.
Support & inboxAgentseesel AI
An AI support agent that sits inside your existing help desk, trains itself on your past tickets and docs, and lets you test its answers on real history before it ever replies to a customer.
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