Front vs Help Scout
Front and Help Scout are both customer support tools. Front is aimed at small businesses and enterprise, while Help Scout is aimed at small businesses. Help Scout costs less, from $25/mo versus $35/mo for Front. Only Help Scout has a free plan.
Shared inbox for customer-facing teams
Email-centric helpdesk with a human touch
| Pricing | Paid · $35 | Freemium · $25 |
| Starting price | $35/mo | $25/mo |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days | 15 days |
| Built for | Small businesses, Enterprise | Small businesses |
| Platforms | web, macos, windows, ios, android | web, ios, android |
| Country | FR · 2013 | US · 2011 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Front if
Email-heavy, collaborative customer teams in B2B and services.
- Natural for teams living in email
- Excellent collaboration features
- Omnichannel without a ticket mindset
Look elsewhere if: High-volume consumer support (Zendesk, Freshdesk) or small teams on a budget (Help Scout).
Choose Help Scout if
Small and mid-size companies that want personal email-based support with a knowledge base.
- Free plan for up to 5 users
- Simple, email-like experience agents like
- Fast to set up; good docs product
Look elsewhere if: Call centers or enterprises needing WFM, QA and voice.
Front vs Help Scout pricing
Front
- Starter$35/seat/mo$25 billed annually; up to 10 seats
- Professional$85/seat/mo$65 billed annually; up to 50 seats, omnichannel
- Enterprise$105/seat/moAnnual billing only; advanced AI tools
Help Scout
- Free$05 users, 1 inbox, 100 contacts/mo
- Standard$25/user/mo25 users, 2 inboxes, unlimited contacts; 16% off annually
- Plus$45/user/mo50 users, 5 inboxes, Salesforce/Jira/HubSpot
- Pro$75/user/moMin 10 users; 10 inboxes, SSO/SAML, HIPAA
Front · Key features
- Shared and personal inboxes in one email-like interface
- Internal comments, assignments and collision detection
- Rules, SLAs and workload balancing
- Front AI for drafts, summaries and tagging
- Knowledge base, chat widget and customer profiles
- Analytics and CRM integrations
Cons
- Expensive per seat
- Starter plan limited to 10 seats
- Ticket-style reporting is weaker than Zendesk
Help Scout · Key features
- Shared inboxes with assignments, tags and workflows
- Docs knowledge base with multiple sites
- Beacon widget for chat, contact forms and article suggestions
- AI drafts, summaries and AI Answers for customers
- Customer profiles with app data via integrations
- Reports on volume, happiness and productivity
Cons
- No phone support channel
- Routing and automation less deep than Zendesk
- Per-user pricing adds up as the team grows
Front vs Help Scout: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Front or Help Scout?
Help Scout starts at $25/mo and Front at $35/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Front and Help Scout have a free plan?
Front has no free plan, a 14-day free trial. Help Scout has a free plan.