The Help Scout alternative to choose depends on why you are leaving. For another support desk, Helply, Intercom and Keeping cover it at different prices. For routing across departments, Front. For Gmail or Outlook, Hiver. For one app with chat, Missive. For account management, Sektra keeps a record of what each client was promised.
Support desk billed differently: Helply by credit, Intercom per outcome, Keeping per seat in Gmail. Routing across departments: Front. A queue run from Gmail or Outlook: Hiver. Email, messaging and team chat in one app: Missive. The same clients writing for years: Sektra. Prices verified October 2026.
Our own product, Sektra, is one of the seven, placed with the job it does. The other entries are described from each vendor's own pages.
What is Help Scout?
Help Scout is a support platform with a shared inbox, a knowledge base and AI drafting. Paid plans add live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger. The free plan covers five users, one inbox and 100 contacts a month. Standard is $25 per user per month billed annually, Plus $45 and Pro $75, verified October 2026.
AI Answers, the bot that replies to customers, is billed at $0.75 per resolution. Round robin routing and advanced workflows start on Plus. Sektra vs Help Scout sets the two side by side, and Help Scout vs Intercom covers its nearest rival.
Why look for a Help Scout alternative?
Some reasons are about price and channels: the per-resolution AI line, the step to Plus for routing, or the ten-user minimum on Pro. The larger one is the job. Help Scout is built for support, where a customer has a problem, it gets resolved and the conversation ends.
Account management is continuous. The same clients write for months or years, promises pile up in both directions, and the relationship is never done. The signs show up in the queue:
- The same names fill the queue, and repeat correspondents outnumber new ones.
- Closed conversations keep reopening, because for the client it was never a ticket.
- Preparing for a client call means asking whoever knows the account.
- A promise such as revised numbers by Friday sits in a closed conversation, and nothing tracks whether Friday happened.
- Renewal prep means an afternoon of searching that never feels complete.
What are the best Help Scout alternatives?
The table compares the seven on where the team works, channels, the job each is built for and list price.
| Tool | Where the team works | Channels | Best for | List price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helply | Helply's own app | Inbox and ticketing with AI agents | Support desks paying for AI by credit | From $49 a month, unlimited users |
| Intercom | Intercom's own app | Chat, email and in-app; SMS, WhatsApp and phone pay as you go | High-volume chat answered by Fin first | Advanced $85, Expert $132, plus $0.99 per Fin outcome |
| Keeping | Gmail, through an extension | Gmail only | Small support desks in Gmail | $14 to $49, two-user minimum |
| Hiver | Gmail extension, or the Omni web app | Email; chat, voice and WhatsApp on Omni | Ticket queues from Gmail or Outlook | $25 to $85 |
| Front | Front's own app | One channel on Starter; email, SMS and social from Professional | Requests routed across departments | $25 to $105 |
| Missive | Missive's own app | Email, SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, live chat | Small teams wanting chat beside email | $14 to $36 |
| Sektra | Its own workspace, synced with Gmail, Outlook and IMAP | Email and WhatsApp Business | Account managers with named clients | See pricing |
If you want another support desk
Helply: an AI help desk billed by credit
Helply grew out of Groove and calls itself an AI-native support platform. It combines inbox and ticketing, a knowledge base, customer records and AI agents that work with customers or behind the scenes. Pricing is by credit with unlimited users, from $49 a month for 500 credits, verified October 2026.
A draft costs one credit and a full investigation twelve, so the bill moves with AI use. It is scoped for support teams. Sektra's assistant also draws on credits, an allowance pooled across the team for questions, drafts and reminders, and it works from a record of each client.
Intercom: AI resolution first
Intercom is a help desk built around Fin, its AI agent, for high-volume chat inside a product. Advanced is $85 per seat per month and Expert $132 on annual billing, and Fin is billed from $0.99 per outcome. Copilot is $29 per agent a month, verified October 2026.
The per-outcome line moves with volume, so model it before you commit. Fin is built to answer before a person does. Named accounts expect a person, which is the job Sektra keeps. Intercom alternatives covers that field.
Keeping: a small desk in Gmail
Keeping adds tickets, statuses, assignment, collision detection and response reporting to the Gmail interface. It works only with Gmail and Google Workspace, so an Outlook team is outside it. Essentials is $14 per user per month billed annually, capped at ten agents and two shared mailboxes.
Advanced at $24 adds SLAs, CSAT and round robin, verified October 2026. Like Help Scout, it closes the ticket and the trail with it.
If inbound moves between teams
Front: routing and SLAs across departments
Front is a customer operations app where rules route each message to the right team, with SLA policies, automations and analytics. Starter is $25 per seat for one channel type and ten seats. Professional at $65 adds email, SMS and social for up to 50 seats. Enterprise is $105, verified October 2026.
The rules need an owner. Copilot is a $20 per seat add-on below Enterprise, and Autopilot is billed per conversation. Sektra assigns by rule, round robin or workload with nothing to design.
If the team works in Gmail or Outlook
Hiver: a ticket queue from Gmail or Omni
Hiver in Gmail adds tickets, routing and reporting to Gmail through an extension. Hiver Omni is a web app for Gmail, Outlook and other providers, with chat, voice and WhatsApp. Plans run $25 to $85 per user per month on annual billing, with SLAs and CSAT from Pro, verified October 2026.
It is a support queue by design, the same model as Help Scout in a different place. Sektra vs Hiver covers where the two differ.
If the team wants one app with chat
Missive: email, messaging and team chat together
Missive is a team email app that puts shared inboxes, SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, live chat, team chat and tasks in one window. It connects Gmail, Outlook and IMAP accounts. Plans are $14 to $36 per user per month billed yearly, verified October 2026.
It pays off when the whole team moves in. Starter caps at five users, and rules and integrations start on Productive at $24. The Missive review covers it in full.
For account management rather than support queues
Sektra: a record of every client
Sektra is a shared inbox for teams whose inbound is named clients. It is a separate workspace that syncs two-way with Gmail, Outlook including shared mailboxes, and IMAP, and connects WhatsApp Business through your provider. Gmail and Outlook connect through Google or Microsoft sign-in, so Sektra never sees those passwords.
The basics match Help Scout's: assignment, mentions, internal notes, and a typing indicator when a teammate is already replying. The structure differs. Everything is organized by client, so a thread closes and the client's record stays open.
That record is the memory layer, built from the history already in your mailboxes. It holds commitments in both directions with dates, unanswered questions, the people involved and every past thread. Lens, the panel beside each thread, shows it while you reply, so a new account manager starts briefed.
A silence watch flags a client once they pass the quiet period you set. The morning digest lists what you owe today and who owes you a reply. The assistant answers questions such as what did we promise them, with links to the threads it used.
Analytics report response and resolution time per teammate, inbox and client, plus commitments made, met and overdue. CSAT surveys and a public knowledge base are outside its scope. The account management page shows the setup.
Which Help Scout alternative should you pick?
- Pick Sektra if the same clients write every week and the costly miss is a forgotten promise or a client who goes quiet.
- Pick Helply for a support desk with AI billed by credit and unlimited users.
- Pick Intercom if chat volume inside your product is high and Fin answering first is the goal.
- Pick Keeping if the support team is small, lives in Gmail and has nobody on Outlook.
- Pick Hiver if the queue needs SLAs and runs from Gmail or Outlook.
- Pick Front if requests move between departments and someone will own the rules.
- Pick Missive if the whole team will move into one app with chat.
A support desk is measured by how fast a ticket closes, and an account team is measured by whether the client stays.
