Can a competitor really write a fair list of alternatives?
Youâre here searching for Help Scout alternatives, and we happen to be one of them. ThriveDesk is the tool we know best, so of course itâs the one we believe in the most. That makes us a little biased â weâll admit it.
…but bias doesnât mean we canât be useful. After helping thousands of businesses, we know ThriveDesk isnât the perfect match for everyone, and thatâs okay. Our goal is to help you find the right fit, even if itâs not us.
We hope youâll give ThriveDesk a try after reading â and if itâs not the one, weâre happy to point you to some other great options below.
5 Help Scout alternatives
Your 5 Help Scout alternatives for 2025

To save you from endless tabs, we pulled all the key data into one spreadsheet that helps you find Help Scout alternatives and competitors on data points like pricing, documentation, and customer support. The data is accurate as of Sep 20, 2025.
Weâll walk you through some of the strongest alternatives in the market, including ourselves, of course. Whether youâre a lean eCommerce shop or a growing SaaS team, thereâs an option out there that wonât drain your budget or sanity.
1. ThriveDesk (hi đ)

In 2019-2022 we were customers of Help Scout. We paid the bills, tried to get help, and realized something. If you are on a lower plan, you barely exist to them. The software grew harder to use, and the costs never stopped growing.
So we started ThriveDesk. Our goal was to create support software that small businesses can trust. A tool that combines helpdesk, chat en direct, chatbot, and Centre d'aide in one place. It is modern, lightning fast, and backed by support that treats you like a person, not a ticket number.
We know choosing support software is tough, but ThriveDesk was designed to be the kind of tool you donât have to wrestle with. Itâs simple where it should be, powerful where it matters, and always transparent about what youâre paying for.
đ Pros
- Lightning-fast and modern UI: ThriveDesk is built with speed in mind. The interface loads quickly, looks clean, and stays clutter-free, so your team can focus on helping customers instead of wrestling with menus and settings. New teammates can jump in and feel at home within minutes.

- All-in-one toolkit: No need to juggle multiple tools. ThriveDesk brings helpdesk, live chat, chatbot, and knowledge base into one seamless platform. Everything connects, so you can handle tickets, chat in real time, publish self-serve articles, and automate responses without switching tabs.
- Smooth Notion-like editor + AI: Writing documentation doesnât have to be painful. Our knowledge base editor feels smooth and intuitive, just like Notion. AI helps with suggestions, summaries, and edits, so your team can publish articles that are clear, polished, and helpful in less time.
- Transparent pricing, stellar support: What you see is what you pay. There are no hidden fees, add-on charges, or extra costs for features you actually need. Plus, our own support team is here for you at no extra charge â responsive, human, and ready to help.
- No pushy upsells: We only recommend extras if you truly need them.
- Smart apps without coding: With our Smart Apps, you can pull data from any system â CRM, payment processor, or shipping tool â directly into your tickets. No developers required, no custom coding, just a few clicks to connect the dots.
- Purpose-built for SMBs and eCommerce: Tailored features for lean, fast-moving teams.
- Neo, our AI support agent: Neo is more than a chatbot. Itâs an AI agent built to actually solve customer problems, not just deflect them. It can answer complex queries, guide customers through solutions, and even capture leads for your business while your team is offline.

đ Cons
- Growing ecosystem: Our integrations are expanding quickly, but we donât have every app on the market (yet).
- No iOS app (yet): Our Android app is live, but iOS is still in development.
Prix de ThriveDesk
ThriveDesk uses straightforward pricing based solely on the number of inboxes per month. Hereâs a pricing snapshot:
- De base : $29/mois
- Standard : $69/month
- Unlimited: $129/month
đ Friendly tip: Many tools look affordable at first but get expensive once you add extra fees for agents, overages, or âpremiumâ support. ThriveDesk is the only provider on this list that gives you unlimited agents on Unlimited plan and never charges extra for support.
One final thingâŠ
We think youâll like knowing there are real humans behind this product. Weâre a nimble team, part remote and part in-office, working side by side to build mighty things. We love doing team activities and regular outings, because building great software is easier when you actually enjoy the people you work with.

2. GrooveHQ

GrooveHQ brands itself as the âanti-Zendeskâ â a simplicity-first helpdesk for small businesses that want collaborative inboxes without the enterprise bloat. The tradeoff? Itâs great for small teams but doesnât scale well into complex setups.
But simplicity has its tradeoffs. Groove doesnât scale as gracefully into more complex support setups, and many advanced features youâd expect from modern helpdesks are either limited or missing altogether.
đ Pros
- Clean and simple UI: Grooveâs interface is straightforward, reducing the learning curve for small teams.
- Shared inbox focus: Designed around making email-based support collaborative and transparent.
- Transparent founder story: Alex Turnbull famously blogged his “Journey to $100K” publicly, building trust through radical transparency.
- No surprise add-ons: Pricing is transparent compared to competitors with hidden extras.
đ Cons
- Not ideal for scaling: Works fine for a small team, but larger organizations quickly hit ceilings.
- Fewer integrations: The ecosystem is smaller compared to major players, limiting workflow flexibility.
- Reporting is basic: Analytics donât go deep, making it harder to optimize or track performance over time.
Groove Pricing
Three tiers with per-agent pricing:
- Standard: $29/user/month
- Plus: $45/user/month
- Pro: $70/user/month
While predictable, the Pro tier costs as much as Help Scout but without the same feature depth.
đ Fun Fact: Blog to Success
Groove was famously bootstrapped for years by founder Alex Turnbull, who blogged transparently about every stage of growth. His posts about âstartup honestyâ (sharing revenue numbers, struggles, and mistakes) built Groove a cult following in the SaaS world â arguably making their blog more famous than the product itself.
3. HelpDesk

The confusingly named “HelpDesk” from Polish company Text (formerly LiveChat Software S.A.) is a legacy ticketing system that’s been around since the early 2000s. Despite the generic name, it’s actually just one piece of a multi-product puzzle that Text has been building for over two decades.
The platform focuses narrowly on email ticketing, which would be fineâexcept that in 2025, businesses expect live chat, chatbots, and knowledge bases to come standard. Spoiler alert: they don’t, and acquiring them means buying separate products from the same company at separate price points.
đ Pros
- Simple ticketing system: Does email ticketing competently without unnecessary complexity.
- Security focused: GDPR compliant with strong encryption and audit logs for enterprise customers.
- AI features included: Basic AI assist for ticket summarization and sentiment analysis comes with all plans.
đ Cons
- Live chat sold separately: Despite being made by the âLiveChatâ company, chat support requires their separate LiveChat product ($41+/agent/month).
- No built-in knowledge base: Self-service is only possible through their KnowledgeBase product ($59/month).
- Automation locked away: ChatBot is another add-on starting at $52/month.
- Fragmented experience: Feels like buying a car where the stereo, AC, and seats are all extra.
HelpDesk Pricing
Base HelpDesk pricing:
- Team: $34/agent/month
- Business: $59/agent/month
- Enterprise: Custom
Add-ons:
- LiveChat: $41+/agent/month
- KnowledgeBase: $59/month flat
- ChatBot: $52+/month
That â$34â plan quickly turns into $100+/agent/month for a complete setup â with separate logins and bills to manage.
đïž Fun Fact: Built on LiveChatâs Legacy
HelpDesk was created as part of the LiveChat ecosystem. It started as a lightweight ticketing product for handling email. The product is reliable, but its roots show because it was built first for email tickets. Other support channels were added later as separate products.
This strategy worked for Text, the parent company, and they even went public on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. For customers, though, it can add extra complexity and cost when all they want is simple and unified customer support software.
4. Zendesk

The granddaddy of customer support software, Zendesk has been around since 2007. It quickly became the âenterprise defaultâ for large companies that needed robust ticketing, reporting, and integrations. If Help Scout is the sleek new car, Zendesk is the heavy-duty truck â not flashy, but it can carry a lot.
đ Pros
- Enterprise-ready: Rock-solid infrastructure with 99.9% uptime SLA and enterprise security features that big companies actually trust.
- Massive app ecosystem: Works with just about every CRM, marketing tool, and analytics platform.
- Advanced reporting: Deep analytics and customizable dashboards that make data nerds happy.
- Multichannel mastery: Email, chat, phone, social media, and SMS all in one platform without feeling bolted-on.
đ Cons
- Steep learning curve: Zendeskâs interface can feel clunky and overwhelming for new users.
- Expensive quickly: Basic plans look reasonable until you add phone support, advanced AI, or premium features.
- Over-engineered for small teams: If you just need simple customer support, Zendesk might be overkill.
Prix Zendesk
Zendesk Suite plans (includes everything):
- Team: $55/agent/month
- Growth: $89/agent/month
- Professional: $115/agent/month
- Entreprise : $169/agent/month
The Costco effect: That $55/month base price is just the starting point. Add AI features, premium integrations, or advanced analytics, and you’re quickly looking at $100+ per agent. It’s like ordering a car where the engine, wheels, and seats are all optional extras.
đȘ Fun Fact: The Danish Disruption
Zendesk was famously started in a loft in Copenhagen by three Danish guys with secondhand furniture from IKEA. The company went from zero to IPO in just 7 years, proving that sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to get really annoyed with existing solutions first.
Recommended Reading

5 Zendesk alternatives, recommended by… a Zendesk competitor?!
5. Gorgias

Think of it as the Shopify store ownerâs helpdesk sidekick â it pulls in your order data, customer details, and even lets you refund or modify orders without leaving the helpdesk. Perfect if youâre answering âWhereâs my package?â all day. The tradeoff? Gorgias lives for eCommerce and a real Intercom alternative but feels out of place for SaaS or B2B support.
All this power doesnât come cheap (more on that in a bit), and some of Gorgiasâs coolest tricks only unlock on higher-tier plans. Now, letâs break down the highs and lows:
đ Pros
- Ecommerce-first design: Built specifically for online stores with native integrations that let agents edit orders, issue refunds, and manage subscriptions directly from tickets.
- Shopify integration depth: The most seamless Shopify helpdesk integration available, pulling customer data, order history, and product info automatically.
- No per-agent fees: Unlike many helpdesks, Gorgias doesnât charge per seat on its main plans. In fact, aside from the smallest plan (3 users), all others let you have up to 500 users at no extra cost.
đ Cons
- Ecommerce-only focus: If you’re not selling products online, Gorgias isn’t for youâthe entire platform assumes you’re running an online store.
- Confusing pricing model: Ticket-based pricing with separate charges for voice, SMS, and AI automation makes budgeting difficult as you scale.
- Limited customization outside ecommerce: Great for stores, but lacks flexibility for other business models or custom workflows.
- Paywalls on some features: Be prepared to pay more for certain capabilities. For example, fancy add-ons like phone support (voice integration) or SMS are not included in standard plans â they cost extra per ticket.
Gorgias Pricing
Gorgias uses ticket-based pricing that gets complicated fast:
Base plans:
- Starter: 50 tickets/month at $10/month
- De base : 300 tickets/month at $60/month
- Pro: 2,000 tickets/month at $360/month
- Advanced: 6,000 tickets/month at $900/month
What looks like $60/month can balloon to $200+ once you add phone support, text messaging, and AI features. The ticket-based model means unpredictable costs during busy seasons like Black Friday.
đ Fun Fact: From Chrome Extension to Helpdesk
Gorgias wasnât always a full-blown helpdesk â it actually started life in 2015 as a Chrome extension for Gmail. The original tool helped customer support reps send faster templated email replies. After getting accepted into Y Combinator, the founders (two French entrepreneurs) realized that the real opportunity was in overhauling eCommerce customer support software, which led to the Gorgias we know today.
We made it to the end, friends!
Here is the comparison spreadsheet once again: if you need to see it, just click on it â

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