Help Scout vs Zoho Desk
Help Scout and Zoho Desk are both customer support tools. Help Scout is aimed at small businesses, while Zoho Desk is aimed at small businesses and enterprise. Zoho Desk costs less, from $7/mo versus $25/mo for Help Scout. Both have a free plan.
Email-centric helpdesk with a human touch
Multichannel help desk with the Zia AI assistant from Zoho
| Pricing | Freemium · $25 | Freemium · $7 |
| Starting price | $25/mo | $7/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | 15 days | 15 days |
| Built for | Small businesses | Small businesses, Enterprise |
| Platforms | web, ios, android | web, ios, android |
| Country | US · 2011 | IN |
| Rating | — | — |
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.
Choose Zoho Desk if
Small and mid-sized support teams, especially Zoho CRM users, that want a full-featured help desk at a lower per-agent price than Zendesk.
- Much lower per-agent cost than Zendesk at comparable tiers
- Free plan for up to three agents
- Tight integration with Zoho CRM and the wider Zoho suite
Look elsewhere if: Teams that need the largest third-party app ecosystem or a very simple shared inbox (Zendesk, Help Scout).
Help Scout vs Zoho Desk pricing
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
Zoho Desk
- Free$0Up to 3 agents, email ticketing basics
- Express$7/agent/moBilled annually; AI agents with BYOK or Zoho LLM
- Standard$14/agent/moBilled annually; live chat, knowledge base, answer bot
- Professional$23/agent/moBilled annually; Zia AI, Blueprints, telephony
- Enterprise$40/agent/moBilled annually; multi-brand, skill routing, sandbox
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
Zoho Desk · Key features
- Unified ticket queue for email, chat, phone, social and messaging
- Round-robin and skill-based assignment with SLAs and escalations
- Blueprints to enforce step-by-step support processes
- Multilingual help center with knowledge base and community forum
- AI agents on Express with bring-your-own-key or Zoho LLM
- Zia assistant for sentiment, reply suggestions and anomaly detection
Cons
- Interface feels dense and dated in places
- Blueprints, telephony and full Zia require Professional or higher
- Monthly billing is significantly pricier than annual
Help Scout vs Zoho Desk: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Help Scout or Zoho Desk?
Zoho Desk starts at $7/mo and Help Scout at $25/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Help Scout and Zoho Desk have a free plan?
Yes, both Help Scout and Zoho Desk have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.