Comparison
Help Scout is a polished, email-first help desk — priced per user, with SLAs, CSAT and workflows spread across Plus and Pro tiers, and AI billed per resolution. DeskPine ships the whole feature set on one flat plan.
14-day free trial — no credit card.
Help Scout
A mature shared inbox with Docs and a refined agent experience, backed by a large integration marketplace. Per-user pricing across Standard / Plus / Pro (~$25–75/user/mo), with SLAs, advanced workflows and the audit trail reserved for higher tiers, and AI Answers billed per resolution.
Best for: teams that rely on a specific Help Scout integration and can budget per-seat tiers.
DeskPine
Shared inbox, multi-language knowledge base, workflows with round-robin assignment, SLAs + business hours, CSAT, reports, audit log, customer portal and AI reply drafts — every feature included at $9.99 per agent, with read-only agents free.
Best for: support teams that want the Pro-tier feature set without per-seat tier pricing or AI meters.
| Feature | Help Scout | DeskPine |
|---|---|---|
| Shared team inbox (assignment, notes, collision) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Knowledge base / help center | Docs | Multi-language |
| SLA targets + business hours | Pro plan | ✓ |
| CSAT ratings | Plus and up | ✓ |
| Workflows / automation | Plus and up | ✓ |
| Round-robin auto-assignment | Plus and up | ✓ |
| Reports + scheduled email + CSV | Tiered | ✓ |
| AI reply drafts + summaries | AI add-on, per-resolution | Included |
| Custom fields + tags | ✓ | ✓ |
| Saved replies | ✓ | ✓ |
| Spam, trash, snooze, merge, bulk actions | ✓ | ✓ |
| REST API + webhooks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Audit log + roles/permissions | Pro plan | ✓ |
| Customer portal | ✕ | ✓ |
| Read-only (light) agents | Paid seats | Free |
| Dark mode | ✕ | ✓ |
| Every feature on every plan | ✕ | ✓ |
Help Scout tier names refer to where a feature unlocks on its plans. DeskPine has one plan — everything is included.
Help Scout prices per user across three tiers — roughly $25 (Standard), $45 (Plus) and $75 (Pro) per user per month (list prices; check helpscout.com for current terms). The tier matters as much as the number: workflows and CSAT unlock on Plus, while SLAs and the audit trail sit on Pro — so a support team that needs response-time targets is realistically shopping the upper tiers, not the $25 one.
AI is billed separately: AI Answers is a usage add-on at roughly $0.75 per resolution, so it scales with your ticket volume on top of the per-seat price.
DeskPine has one number: $9.99 per agent per month, flat. Every feature on the one plan, AI drafts and summaries included, read-only agents free.
| Team size | Help Scout Plus (~$45/user) | DeskPine ($9.99 flat) | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 agents | $225/mo | $49.95/mo | $175/mo |
| 10 agents | $450/mo | $99.90/mo | $350/mo |
| 20 agents | $900/mo | $199.80/mo | $700/mo |
Plus tier shown because it is the first with workflows and CSAT. Per-resolution AI fees would widen the gap further; DeskPine includes AI in the flat price.
Help Scout
$25–75
per user / month by tier
SLAs and advanced workflows on higher tiers; AI Answers ~$0.75 per resolution on top.
DeskPine
$9.99
per agent / month — flat
Every feature included. AI drafts included. Light (read-only) agents free.
DeskPine connects to your Help Scout account and mirrors it continuously while you evaluate — you don't migrate on faith, you watch your real queue running in both tools and switch when your team is ready.
1 · Import your history
A guided one-off import brings existing conversations, customers and replies into DeskPine from Settings → Import.
2 · Run both, in sync
The continuous sync mirrors new conversations, replies, status, assignees and tags from Help Scout on a schedule. It never writes back — your Help Scout account is only ever read.
3 · Point your mail here
Connect mailboxes over Gmail/Outlook OAuth or SMTP/IMAP with DKIM and full threading, and DeskPine becomes the live inbox. Cancel the old seats.
Yes — DeskPine covers the same core: a shared inbox for email support, a knowledge base, workflows, SLAs, CSAT and reporting. The difference is packaging: Help Scout spreads features across Standard/Plus/Pro tiers, while DeskPine ships every feature on the one flat plan.
Help Scout is per-user with feature tiers — roughly $25 (Standard), $45 (Plus) and $75 (Pro) per user per month, and AI Answers is a usage add-on around $0.75 per resolution. DeskPine is a flat $9.99 per agent per month with every feature included, AI drafts included, and light (read-only) agents free.
Help Scout is a mature product with a large integration marketplace and a long track record — if you depend on a specific Help Scout integration, check for it first. DeskPine counters with a REST API and webhooks, and ships the operational features (SLAs, audit log, portal) that Help Scout reserves for its higher tiers.
Yes, and without a cutover weekend. A guided import brings your existing Help Scout conversations, customers and replies into DeskPine, and a continuous sync then mirrors new conversations, replies, status, assignees and tags on a schedule while you run both tools side by side. The sync only ever reads from Help Scout — nothing is written back — so trying DeskPine carries no risk to your current setup.
Yes — that is the intended evaluation path. Enable the Help Scout sync and DeskPine mirrors your live queue continuously; your team can work the same conversations in DeskPine while Help Scout stays untouched. The sync is idempotent, so overlapping runs never create duplicates. When you are ready, point your mailboxes at DeskPine and cancel the old seats.
No. The 14-day free trial includes the full product with no credit card. After that it's a flat $9.99 per agent per month.
Want the long-form take? Read our Help Scout alternative guide or the Zendesk comparison.
The full product, no credit card. Connect a mailbox and see your shared inbox working this afternoon.
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