Help Scout vs Zendesk
Pick Help Scout if your support is mostly written (email, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger) and you want it in one inbox at $25 a user a month billed annually, with AI charged at $0.75 per resolution. Pick Zendesk if phone is a real channel, if customer data has to be hosted in Europe or Asia Pacific, or if you are routing work across a large team by skill and priority. Phone and data hosting decide most cases, because Help Scout has no native phone and hosts in the United States only. Zendesk's most popular plan, Suite Professional, has both, at $115 an agent a month against $45 for Help Scout Plus, both billed annually.
| Fact | Help Scout | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $30/agent/mo | $25/agent/mo |
| Plans | Free, Standard, Plus, Pro | Support Team, Suite Team, Suite Professional, Suite Enterprise + Copilot |
| Best for | Small teams, SMB SaaS, Docs plus inbox | Large support orgs, Multi-brand deployments, Complex routing |
| Deployment | Cloud | Cloud |
| Headquarters | Boston, MA, USA | San Francisco, US |
| Founded | 2011 | 2007 |
| Facts checked |
Which one fits your team?
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Pick Help Scout if
Pick Zendesk if
Tick what describes your team. We'll tell you which way it leans.
What each costs
Eight agents, billed annually, at an email-led store with live chat, Instagram and WhatsApp. It wants two SLA policies (VIP and standard). That puts Help Scout on Plus, which has 2 advanced SLA policies (Standard has one basic policy) and round robin routing. Zendesk's SLA management starts at Suite Professional, so Zendesk is priced there. The AI agent resolves 250 conversations a month on both, priced at each vendor's rate with no commitment.
Help Scout Plus
- Seats: 8 × $45 = $360 a month, $4,320 a year
- AI: 250 × $0.75 = $187.50 a month. New accounts get three months of unlimited resolutions free, so year one is 9 × $187.50 = $1,687.50
- First year: $4,320 + $1,687.50 = $6,007.50
Zendesk Suite Professional
- Seats: 8 × $115 = $920 a month, $11,040 a year
- AI: Suite Professional includes 10 automated resolutions per agent a month, so 80 for eight agents. The other 170 cost $2.00 each pay-as-you-go, which is $340 a month or $4,080 a year
- First year: $11,040 + $4,080 = $15,120
Help Scout comes out $9,112.50 cheaper in year one. In year two, with twelve paid months of AI, Help Scout is $6,570 and Zendesk $15,120, a gap of $8,550.
Both vendors discount AI you commit to. Zendesk's committed rate is $1.50 a resolution, which makes the 170 cost $255 a month and Zendesk's first year $14,100. Help Scout offers prepaid discounts on AI resolutions but doesn't publish the rate.
Without the two SLA policies, both drop a tier: Help Scout Standard at 8 × $25 = $200 a month ($2,400 a year), Zendesk Suite Team at 8 × $55 = $440 a month ($5,280 a year). Zendesk's $19 Support Team plan has no chat or messaging, so it doesn't fit this team.
The fees the headline leaves out:
- Zendesk Copilot is $50 an agent a month billed annually, $4,800 a year for eight agents. Help Scout Plus includes unlimited AI Drafts and AI Summarize in the seat
- Zendesk's Advanced Security or Advanced Compliance add-on (needed for HIPAA) has no published price
- Zendesk telephony bills call minutes and numbers by usage once the plan allowance is used. Help Scout's phone is Aircall, billed by Aircall, with preferred Aircall pricing only on Pro
- Help Scout Plus includes 5 inboxes and 3 Docs sites. Extra inboxes are $10 a month billed annually ($12 monthly), and extra Docs sites $20 ($24 monthly)
- Paying monthly, Help Scout Plus is $54 a user ($432 a month for eight) and Zendesk Suite Professional $149 an agent ($1,192 a month for eight)
Help Scout plans
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed annually | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Free | Up to 5 users, 1 Inbox, 1 Docs site, 1 Beacon, 10 articles, 10 tags, 10 saved replies, and 100 contacts a month. |
| Standard | $30 | $25 | Up to 25 users. |
| Plus | $54 | $45 | Up to 50 users. |
| Pro | $90 | $75 | Unlimited users with a 10-user minimum. |
Prices are an agent a month, in US dollars. Source: helpscout.com/pricing, checked .
Zendesk plans
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed annually | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support Team | $25 | $19 | Ticketing without the wider Suite. |
| Suite Team | $69 | $55 | The entry point to the Suite, which is where the AI and the extra channels start. |
| Suite Professional | $149 | $115 | Marked Most Popular by Zendesk. |
| Suite Enterprise + Copilot | Contact sales | – | Quoted, not published. |
Prices are an agent a month, in US dollars. Source: zendesk.com/pricing, checked .
Where the features differ
29 of the 32 features we checked on both differ in availability or the plan you need. The other 3 are the same on both. Each answer links to the page on the vendor’s own site that says so.
| Feature | Help Scout | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Channels | ||
| Contact form and widget | Every plansource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource |
| Every plansource | Every plansource | |
| Live chat | Some plansfrom Standardsource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource |
| Phone | Paid add-onsource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource |
| SMS | Some plansfrom Standardsource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource |
| Social DMs | Some plansfrom Standardsource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource |
| Some plansfrom Standardsource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource | |
| AI and automation | ||
| Agent copilot | Some plansfrom Standardsource | Paid add-onfrom Suite Professionalsource |
| AI agent (customer-facing) | Paid add-onfrom Standardsource | Every plansource |
| AI agent takes actions | Not availablesource | Paid add-onsource |
| Automation rules | Some plansfrom Standardsource | Every plansource |
| Intent detection and routing | Some planssource | Some plansfrom Suite Professionalsource |
| Macros and saved replies | Every plansource | Every plansource |
| Voice AI | Not availablesource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource |
| Self-service | ||
| Customer portal | Some plansfrom Plussource | Some plansfrom Suite Growthsource |
| Customer-facing help centre | Every plansource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource |
| Multilingual support | Some plansfrom Standardsource | Some plansfrom Suite Growthsource |
| Workflow and admin | ||
| Custom fields | Some planssource | Every plansource |
| Native mobile app for agents | Every plansource | Some plansfrom Suite Growthsource |
| Public API | Some plansfrom Standardsource | Every plansource |
| Roles and permissions | Some planssource | Some plansfrom Suite Enterprisesource |
| Single sign-on | Some plansfrom Prosource | Every plansource |
| SLA management | Some plansfrom Standardsource | Some plansfrom Suite Professionalsource |
| Reporting and quality | ||
| Custom reports and export | Some planssource | Some plansfrom Suite Professionalsource |
| Reporting dashboards | Every plansource | Every plansource |
| Ecommerce | ||
| Multiple storefronts | Some plansfrom Standardsource | Some plansfrom Suite Growthsource |
| Order actions in the ticket | Some planssource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource |
| Security and reliability | ||
| EU data residency | Not availablesource | Some plansfrom Suite Professionalsource |
| HIPAA | Some plansfrom Prosource | Paid add-onsource |
AI agents: what they can do and how they bill
Help Scout is cheaper per resolved conversation and easier to budget. Zendesk's AI can do more inside your other systems, and Copilot, the add-on that does it, costs $50 an agent a month.
- Help Scout's customer-facing agent is Scout, part of Envoy (the pricing FAQ still calls it AI Answers). It runs on your website and inside your app, and email is marked coming soon
- Scout answers from your help content and hands the rest to your team. Help Scout says its MCP connections are read-only today, so Scout can't change an order
- Help Scout bills a resolution only when the customer gets an AI answer and doesn't escalate, search the knowledge base or ask for more help, once per conversation. Prepaid discounts are available, at a rate Help Scout doesn't publish
- Zendesk includes AI agents on every Support and Suite plan and bills per automated resolution, a request the AI resolves without escalating to a human. Suite Team includes 5 a month per agent and Suite Professional 10. Beyond that it is $2.00 pay-as-you-go or $1.50 committed
- For your agents, Zendesk's Copilot can take actions in Shopify, Jira and Slack, including processing returns. Without it, Suite Professional's writing tools are limited to 5 pooled uses per agent a month
Our view: a store whose AI mostly answers policy questions (return windows, shipping times, sizing) will spend less on Help Scout. Order-specific questions need order data, and the Apps connection that would bring it into Scout is marked coming soon. If you want returns processed from inside the help desk with an agent approving, Zendesk with Copilot is the one of these two that can.
Phone and routing at volume
Zendesk handles both better. Telephony comes with Suite Team, and Suite Professional adds IVR and skills-based routing.
- Zendesk Suite Team includes telephony, and Suite Professional adds IVR. AI voice agents need Zendesk's own voice channel
- Help Scout has no native phone on any plan. Calls are handled in Aircall
- Zendesk Suite Team routes by agent status and capacity, and Suite Professional also by skill and ticket priority
- Help Scout Plus routes round robin, and Pro adds more routing types. Plus caps the team at 50 users. Pro has no cap but a 10-user minimum and a sales-led signup, so $750 a month is the floor on annual billing
- Suite Professional includes up to 100 light agents for people who only need to read and comment. Help Scout Plus includes 5 light users and Pro 15
Getting your data in and out
Zendesk is the better choice for where data lives. Leaving is a developer job on both.
- Help Scout is hosted on AWS in the United States and publishes no other region. Zendesk Suite Professional lets you choose a data center in the United States, the EEA, the UK or Asia Pacific (Zendesk notes some restrictions apply); Suite Team doesn't list the option
- HIPAA: Help Scout's docs say it is only included on Pro, with a signed BAA. Zendesk needs the Advanced Security or Advanced Compliance add-on, its specified security settings and a BAA
- Help Scout's in-app export covers four reports and leaves out conversation contents. Its docs say the API "is currently the only means of obtaining data" beyond that
- Zendesk's ticket, user and organization exports need Suite Growth or above, or Support Professional or above. Team plans get the REST API only. Exports are off by default and the account owner has to ask Zendesk support to switch them on, and CSV exports leave out ticket comments and descriptions
We would budget developer time to leave either one, so weigh the hosting region more heavily than the export menu.
How we checked this
- Plan names and prices come from the tiers on file, read from each vendor's rendered pricing page. Each plan table shows the date its prices were last verified
- Checked 2026-10-29
Sources
- helpscout.com/pricing
- helpscout.com/agent
- helpscout.com/industry/ecommerce
- docs.helpscout.com/article/466-data-export-options
- docs.helpscout.com/article/1263-security-at-help-scout
- docs.helpscout.com/article/330-hipaa
- zendesk.com/pricing
- zendesk.com/service/ai/copilot
- zendesk.com/trust-center
- support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408846875034
- support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408886165402
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