Product overview — Customer Support • Low

Help Scout

Help Scout is optimized for teams that want email-based support done well: clean shared inboxes, collision detection, and a simple knowledge base—without the configuration overhead of enterprise platforms.

Sources linked — see verification below.

Open decision brief → Compare vs alternatives →

What it is Who it fits Next steps

Freshness & verification

Last updated 2026-02-09 Intel generated 2026-02-09 2 sources linked

Who is this best for?

This is the fastest way to decide whether Help Scout is in the right neighborhood.

Best for

Small teams (5–25 users) where email is primary support channel
Startups wanting free tier (5 users, 1 Inbox) with no expiration
Teams prioritizing simplicity and clean UX over feature depth
B2B support with shared inbox and company/contact grouping (Plus+)
Teams needing workflows and routing without Zendesk-level complexity
Product companies with Docs + Beacon for self-service and light chat

Who should avoid

Heavy ticketing, SLA policies, queue-centric workflows—Zendesk/Freshdesk better
E-commerce with order lookup—Gorgias native; Help Scout requires integrations
Chat-first, AI deflection–led support—Intercom's Fin and chat UX stronger
Team over 50 users; tier limits and scaling cost add up
Need 1,000+ integrations; Help Scout's marketplace smaller
Collaborative inbox for multi-touch B2B—Front built for that

Next steps

Decision brief →

Pricing behavior, constraints, and what breaks first.

Pricing behavior →

Where the cost cliffs appear and what triggers upgrades.

Alternatives →

Common switches and why buyers pick them.

Sources & verification

Pricing and behavioral information comes from public documentation and structured research. When information is incomplete or volatile, we prefer to say so rather than guess.