8 Help Scout Alternatives: Best Budget-Friendly Help Desk Solutions

Help Scout alternative in 2025? There are tons of them. But which one is right for you? Let’s answer that question.

Help Scout is undoubtedly one of the best help desk software, but it’s not the only help desk solution out there.

Here are few reasons why you should consider Help Scout alternatives:

• More affordable and cheaper to scale as your business grows.
• Solutions that excel at specific features such as knowledge base, CRM, live chat.
• Advanced reporting and automation capabilities.

I recommended 8 Help Scout alternatives in this guide. Without doubt these are all great tools, and constantly improving as of 2025.

Before that, let’s see if changing Help Scout is the right choice for you or not.

Why Look Beyond Help Scout?

Personally, I like Help Scout for its simplicity and user-friendly UI. To be honest — you get what you are paying for.

But not every business can manage to pay hundreds of dollars each month for a help desk software, especially small businesses and startups.

In one of my previous organizations, we had built a DIY help desk ticketing system and that just worked fine with 4-6 members.

I’ve managed to test over 30 help desk software in the last week and here is the main criteria that helped me create this list.

• Affordability and scalability: Even though Help Scout offers a free plan with unlimited users, it’s way more costly than other alternatives. Accept it — answering 50 tickets a month? No way any business can run like that. You will at least need a standard plan (which allows 100 tickets), which will cost you a whopping $600 a year, and that’s just a starting point.
  
  In this guide, I have listed some Help Scout alternatives that are free, and it might be just what you are looking for.
• User experience: The help desk software needs to be user friendly, especially if you are coming from a Help Scout. The ease of setup, collaboration, and day-to-day workflows, all need to be optimized.
• Features and integrations: Help Scout provides you with features to create a shared inbox, a self-service portal (knowledge base), live chat, social media integration, SMS notifications and integrations with third party software like Shopify, WooCommerce.
  
  Based on your need, you might just need a shared inbox or any other features.
• Performance: Having a slow, unresponsive system just not going to work in the help desk or customer service scenario.
  
  I have tested and worked with such systems (e.g. HelpNinja) and it was a nightmare and frustrating to work with. Even though they are affordable and feature rich help desk software, I will never recommend such systems, unless they are fast.
• Reporting: Many users have found Help Scout’s reporting tool to be lacking in features. For small businesses it’s good enough, but for large organizations it needs to be more than basic functionality, especially when you consider its cost.
• Uniqueness: Recommending the same copy-pasted system multiple times will not help you choose the right one, instead I looked for uniqueness in feature offering, ease of use, UI, UX, and pricing structure.

Now let’s look at the 8 Help Scout alternatives that will help you deliver superior customer service, manage emails, and business communications in 2025.

List of the Best Help Scout Alternatives in 2025

Here’s a quick summarized table of Help Scout alternatives if you are in a hurry. You won’t go wrong with any of these software, but I do recommend taking 10-15 minutes to look at all these product offerings and specialties.

Solution	Key Strengths	Ideal For	Free Plan?	Pricing
Heroic Inbox	Simple, robust shared inbox	Startups and growing teams needing streamlined workflows	No	$199/year for unlimited users and tickets
Tawk.To	Live chat, knowledge base	Anyone that wants a robust live chat	Yes	Paid add-ons and service
Awesome Support	Ticketing system	Small teams	Yes	Paid add-ons
HubSpot Service Hub	Integrated CRM, robust automation	HubSpot ecosystem, large organizations	Yes	$20/month per seat
HappyFox	Advanced reporting and AI	Mid-to-large teams	No	$24/month per agent
Zoho Desk	Comprehensive multichannel support	Mid-to-large teams	No	$5/month per agent
ThriveDesk	Shared inbox, live chat	Teams seeking very similar software to Help Scout	No	$29/month for 2 teammates
Missive	Team collaboration and unified inbox	Teams seeking intuitive, scalable ticketing solution	No	$14/month per user

1. Heroic Inbox: Affordable Shared Inbox Software

Heroic Inbox is the best Help Scout alternative to have a shared inbox functionality.

Heroic Inbox is powerful, easy to set up, flexible, and a very affordable solution that can save you 40-70% each year compared to Help Scout.

It’s a modern help desk solution ideal for small to midsize businesses that need a platform that adapts as they scale.

Furthermore, you can also choose a bundled package to get the Heroic Knowledge Base plugin to create a self-service portal as well.

Heroic Inbox Key Features:

• Unified team inbox: A centralized inbox to manage thousands of emails or tickets with ease.
• Unlimited users and tickets (or contacts): Unlike Help Scout, you can communicate with thousands of customers without paying a cent extra — that’s where you save thousands of dollars.
• One-click Google mail setup: Connect and import your Google mailbox with Heroic Inbox one-click setup assistance. Or easily connect with Outlook and any other email services.
• Collaboration: Assign tickets to teammates, add notes, draft, and schedule responses to solve customer issues effectively.
• Automation and workflow: Send an automated response after receiving an email, and create saved replies to speed up the reply drafting process.
• Integration capabilities: Out of the box it provides integration for eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. It’s a WordPress based system, meaning you can easily use thousands of free and premium WordPress plugins with it.
  
  For example: Easily add live chat, create forms, create self-service portal, landing pages and more.

Brand Reputation

Heroic Inbox is from HeroThemes — our own software. But, just don’t take my word for it:

• HeroThemes has been in business for the last 16 years.
• It specifically creates customer support products.
• Has a 4.5+ author rating¹ based on 1419 reviews and 20,391 sales on EnvatoMaket.
• Over 30,000 premium customers.
• Trusted by brands like Sennheiser, Jetpack, NC State University and AirBnB.

Cons

• No built-in reporting or analytical functionally yet, which should be included in future updates.
• WordPress based DIY system. If for some reason you don’t like WordPress, this is not the option for you.

Pricing

Heroic Inbox plans start at $199/year, which will allow you to create 2 mailboxes to be used with unlimited users and for unlimited conversations.

Heroic Inbox Vs Help Scout

Heroic Inbox offers a simple, flexible alternate solution to Help Scout shared inbox features. It’s a constantly improving helpdesk that is affordable and scales well with your business.

2. Tawk.to Live Chat

Want to create a knowledge base and offer a live chat experience similar to Help Scout for free?

Tawk.to is what you need. It’s a free alternative to Help Scout’s live chat and knowledge base solution.

It’s very easy to set up – just copy and paste provided JavaScript code into your web pages, and the chat widget starts working instantly. Plus, it also provides a WordPress plugin for easy integration and more features.

Tawk.to Key Features:

• From emojis to in-chat payments, get tons of features with real-time live chat functionality.

• Fully customizable knowledge base with block-based builder.
• Hire chat agents at $1/hr. The ability to hire chat agents for just $1/hr basis is what makes Tawk.to stand out from the crowd.

Brand Reputation

• As per BuiltWith² data Tawk.to is the most popular live chat service, and is used on 11.68% of websites that use live chat service.
• Tawk.to was first launched in October, 2013.

Cons

• No shared inbox feature. Help Scout is best known for its shared inbox feature; however, the additional knowledge base builder and live chat are also very important features for any business.

Pricing

The core Tawk.to live chat and knowledge base software is free without any limitations on features or any other restrictions.

You just have to stick with their “Powered by tawk.to” branding. If you want your own branding or remove it completely, you will have to pay $29/month.

Tawk.to also offers a service to hire professionally trained human agents for $1/hr basis.

Tawk.to Vs Help Scout

Tawk.to is ideal for any business that needs a cost affecting live chat tool and customer support service. Help Scout is a robust email-based ticketing system with added features to create a knowledge base and live chat.

If you are just starting out, have little budget to spend on a help desk team, or want a robust live chat software, try Tawk.to and its $1/hr service.

I highly recommend pairing Heroic Inbox helpdesk software and Tawk.to together to get the most needed Help Scout features at an affordable price.

3. Awesome Support

If you are using Help Scout as a ticketing system to provide customer support, Awesome Support can be your free alternative.

Awesome Support is a helpdesk WordPress plugin designed to simplify customer support with a ticketing system.

It’s a great tool for startups and small businesses. In fact, compared to the Help Scout’s free plan you can manage much more with Awesome Support.

Awesome Support Key Features:

• Ticket submission form: Create ticket submission forms through which customers can connect with the support team.
• Create custom ticket fields, workflows, and automation rules.
• Create a knowledge base to offer a self-serve and reduce the number of tickets.
• No limit on the number of agents and tickets.
• Extend it further with premium add-ons.

Brand Reputation

• Awesome Support is quite an old plugin (almost 6-7 years old) and is constantly showing improvements with new updates.
• Based on WordPress.org data it has 8,000+ active users and a rating of 3.5/5.

Cons

• The plugin UI is hard to get used to. It’s quite old looking, and definitely not as good and modern as Help Scout.
• WordPress based ticketing system.

Pricing

The core plugin is free to download. To further add functionality such as FAQs, private notes, canned responses, and other integrations you have to purchase a bundled plan that starts at $149/year.

Awesome Support Compared to Help Scout

Compared to Help Scout, Awesome Support UI feels very outdated, but the free version sure packs some important features needed for a help desk solution. There are lots of missing features that Help Scout offers, like live chat, but these can be easily integrated into your helpdesk with other free software.

4. HubSpot Service Hub

HubSpot, one of the leaders in the marketing and customer service niche. It offers a wide range of software including CRM, help desk, AI chatbot, live chatbot, knowledge base, and more.

If you have some budget and a large company to manage, HubSpot can be your Help Scout replacement.

HubSpot Key Features:

• Integrated CRM: HubSpot is known for its CRM capability, and you have full integration for it.
• Robust automation tools to automated routing, status tracking, and custom workflows.
• Very advanced reporting features compared to Help Scout.
• Omnichannel support to manage email, chat, and social media from a single platform.

Brand Reputation

There is really no need to introduce HubSpot and its credibility, but here are some details anyway:

• Over 248,000+ customers
• Rated 4.4+/5 through most popular review platforms like G2, Gartner.

Cons

• Advanced features will lead to higher costs as you scale.
• Not really recommended for small teams because it has tons of features that you definitely don’t need at the start and it just makes HubSpot costlier to use.

Pricing

HubSpot offers a free plan that is good enough to test out the system. The free plan comes with contact management, ticketing, and a bunch of other stuff.

The premium plans are starting at $20/month per seat, however for the main features such as help desk, knowledge base, and customer portal you have to choose a professional or a higher plan that costs $100/month per seat.

HubSpot Service Hub Vs Help Scout

HubSpot Service Hub is a comprehensive customer service solution compared to Help Scout, and it is best suited for large companies.

5. HappyFox

HappyFox is another cloud-based Help Scout alternative solution that promotes itself as an omnichannel help desk solution. Which includes ticketing, automation, and advanced reporting features.

If you are looking to integrate AI with your helpdesk system, HappyFox promises lots of features in 2025. For example, it can prepare initial drafts for knowledge base articles based on support tickets and provide real-time assistance to the customers.

Key Features of HappyFox:

• AI integration: AI integration can be found in every software in 2025, but it’s not always helpful. HappyFox offers many features where AI can be useful to provide support and help agents.
• Compared to Help Scout, HappyFox has advanced reporting and SLA management features.
• Integrated solution for a live chat and knowledge base creation.
• Collaboration tools to create Internal notes, collision detection, and more.
• Automation features to automate first response, AI responses, and do customer satisfaction surveys.

Cons

• Features can be overwhelming for small teams.
• The operating costs will be higher compared to Help Scout.

Pricing

Just talking about HappyFox help desk software, the basic plan will cost you $24/month per agent with no limit on tickets.

They also offer plans that support unlimited agents with limited yearly tickets, but just forget about it (it’s very very costly).

HappyFox Compared to Help Scout

If you are looking for better automation, reporting and AI functionality, switching to HappyFox from Help Scout can be worth it.

6. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk has become quite a prominent solution in the help desk niche and is no less than a Help Scout at offering useful features

It’s a cloud-based customer service solution that’s a part of the Zoho ecosystem.

Zoho Desk Key Features:

• Multichannel ticketing software to handle inquiries from email, phone, chat and social media channels.
• Includes tools for building self-service portals and providing a live chat service.
• Deep integration with other Zoho products (like CRM) and a huge list of third-party integrations.
• New AI based features to understand and prioritize tickets based on their content.
• Built-in analytics to get real-time insights and track productivity.
• Mobile app to manage tickets on the go.

Brand Reputation

• Zoho Desk is trusted by brands like Mercedes-Benz and Godrej.
• Rated 4.5/5 based on 19,000+ reviews on platforms like G2, Gartner, and Capterra.

Cons

• Steep learning curve, and might be overwhelming for new users.

Pricing

Zoho desk’s most affordable plan will cost you as less as $5/month for each user.

Zoho Desk Vs Help Scout

Zoho Desk is in its own league compared to Help Scout. Help desk, ticketing, CRM, live chat, self-service portal, AI capabilities, Omnichannel capabilities, analytics, automations, and who knows what.

I got overwhelmed by the number of services and features Zoho offers, but it’s indeed a great alternative to Help Scout.

7. ThriveDesk

ThriveDesk is very similar software to Help Scout in terms of feature offering, pricing, and cloud-based system.

With the recent update ThriveDesk UI became very modern and clean, and the experience with it feels very smooth.

ThriveDesk Key Features:

• Offers most of the features that comes with Help Scout such as, shared inbox, live chat and knowledge base.
• Huge list of third-party integrations, including Slack, MailChimp, Facebook, Shopify and WooCommerce.
• Free migration service.
• Robust automation and collaboration capabilities.
• Built-in reporting feature.

Brand Reputation

• ThriveDesk has been in the SaaS industry for the last 10 years.
• It has a rating of 4.9/5 on G2 based on 30 reviews.

Cons

• The basic plan doesn’t have the option to remove ThriveDesk branding and is limited to 2 teammates.
• The cost of using this software for startups and small businesses will be very close to Help Scout if you have a recurring plan.

Pricing

ThriveDesk basic plan starts at $29/month that supports 1 mailbox and up to 2 teammates. There is also a plan that supports 5 mailboxes and unlimited teammates for $129/month.

Through regular promotions you can also purchase ThriveDesk for a one-time fee, which allows up to 10 seats and 3 mailboxes and can cost $999. Which in my opinion is a very great deal for startups and small businesses.

ThriveDesk Vs Help Scout

ThriveDesk promotes itself as a Help Scout alternative, and it sure stands up to its claims. Its feature rich, modern, and offers robust automations in 2025.

8. Missive

My final recommendation for Help Scout lovers, but not less than any other recommendation here.

Only the best Help Scout alternatives are listed here.

Missive is here on this list for its innovative UI and UX. When you have to work on repetitive tasks everyday — things become boring quickly.

Most of the help desk software you’ll find on the market has the same features with the same copy-pasted UI, but Missive does it differently, and it’s refreshing to see.

Missive Key Features:

• Focus on user experience with well-crafted UI, workflows, and features that promote visibility and accountability.
• Shared inbox software with omnichannel support and live chat functionality.
• Native apps for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS.
• A way better automation feature than a Help Scout.
• Collaboration features to easily assign tickets to team members, tag them, private messages, link sharing and so on.
• AI to draft quick replies.

Brand Reputation

• Missive has a rating of 4.7/5 on G2 based on 329 reviews.

Cons

• No built-in knowledge base functionality.
• The cost is comparable to Help Scout.

Pricing

The Missive starter plan starts at $14/month per user.

Missive Vs Help Scout

If you are not really looking for an alternative to Help Scout because of the cost, Missive offers a uniquely refreshing work experience.

Final Thoughts

😮‍💨, going through hundreds of help desk software that basically do the same thing and recommending a few was really tiring.

Nevertheless, it’s refreshing to see some unique concepts and use them.

There you have it, the 8 best Help Scout alternatives. When choosing a software like Help Scout, I will suggest testing out a few software. Most of the listed software in this guide offers a free trial, free plan, or refund policy, so try them out.

As you scale you may find a need for a more advanced and feature-rich solution, but if you have a small team and are just starting out, Heroic Inbox may be your best bet. It’s simple, feature-rich, affordable, and scales very well with your business.

In fact, even popular and large brands like Sennheiser and AirBnB trust Heroic Inbox as their help desk solution.

Now a question for you: Have you used any of the above listed software? What did you like about it and what not? Any new good software like Help Scout that I’m unaware of? do let me know by commenting down.

Mentioned Resources in This Guide

1. HeroThemes author rating at EnvatoMarket ↩︎
2. Live Chat Usage Distribution on the Entire Internet by BuiltWith ↩︎