Help Scout and Zendesk both help a team answer customers from one place. Help Scout is built around a shared email inbox, with a knowledge base and chat added. Zendesk is a full help desk with more channels and routing, built to grow into a large support team.
The short verdict
Pick Help Scout if most of your support is email, and you are a small team that wants a simple shared inbox. Its free plan is a low-risk start.
Pick Zendesk if you need phone support in the same tool, expect your support team to grow a lot, or want detailed routing rules.
Prices and plans
All prices are in US dollars, as of October 2026, from each vendor's pricing page.
Help Scout, per user per month:
- Free: up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 help site and 100 contacts a month.
- Standard: $25 billed annually, or $30 monthly. Up to 25 users, 2 inboxes, live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.
- Plus: $45 billed annually, or $54 monthly. Up to 50 users, 5 inboxes, advanced workflows and unlimited AI drafts.
- Pro: $75 billed annually, or $90 monthly. A minimum of 10 users, sold through the sales team.
Help Scout counts a contact as a person who got a reply from your team or from its AI. Several conversations with the same person count once. Paid plans have unlimited contacts.
Zendesk, per agent per month:
- Support Team: $19 billed annually, or $25 monthly. Email and ticketing, routing, reports and automations.
- Suite Team: $55 billed annually, or $69 monthly. Adds AI agents, messaging, live chat and phone.
- Suite Professional: $115 billed annually, or $149 monthly. Adds AI writing tools and skills-based routing.
What the price gets you
Zendesk's entry plan is cheaper, but it covers email and ticketing only. Chat starts at Suite Team, $55 per agent billed annually. Help Scout Standard already includes live chat and social messaging at $25 per user.
So for a team that wants email plus chat, Help Scout Standard costs less than Zendesk Suite Team. For a team that only needs email tickets, Zendesk Support Team costs less than Help Scout Standard.
Free plan and trials
Help Scout has a free plan with no end date. The limit to watch is 100 contacts a month. Its Standard and Plus plans also have a 15-day trial with no credit card.
Zendesk has no free plan. It offers a 14-day free trial.
AI costs
Help Scout sells AI Answers, an assistant that replies to customers, for $0.75 per resolution. A conversation counts as resolved only when the customer does not ask for more help or a person. You can set a monthly spending cap, and the first three months are free. Help Scout lists AI drafts as unlimited from the Plus plan.
Zendesk includes 5 automated resolutions per agent per month on Support Team and Suite Team, and 10 on Suite Professional. Extra ones cost $1.50 each with a commitment, or $2.00 pay-as-you-go. Its Copilot assistant for agents is $50 per agent per month, billed annually, on Suite Professional and above.
Before you turn on either one, read AI chatbots for customer service. An AI agent repeats what you give it, so your help articles need to be right first.
Phone and other channels
Zendesk includes phone from Suite Team, with a phone menu on Suite Professional. Help Scout lists phone and voice through an integration, such as Aircall. If calls are a big part of your support, test the phone setup in both trials.
Knowledge base
Help Scout calls its help site Docs. The free plan includes 1 Docs site, Standard includes 2, and extra sites cost $20 a month billed annually. Zendesk's Suite Team adds an AI knowledge base. Either way, start with the ten questions you get most. The guide to creating an FAQ page shows how to write them.
How to decide
- Email only, small team: try Help Scout's free plan, then compare with Zendesk Support Team.
- Email and chat: compare Help Scout Standard with Zendesk Suite Team.
- Phone is a main channel: start with Zendesk Suite Team.
- Large or fast-growing team with complex routing: Zendesk has more room to grow.
For more options, see Zendesk alternatives for small business and Help Scout vs Front.
The reply still matters most
A tool decides where messages go. The reply decides how the customer feels. For hard moments, how to handle difficult customers and refund request response emails have wording you can use.