Help Scout vs Zendesk
A side-by-side look at what Help Scout and Zendesk publish about pricing, plans and features.
This page sets the two products' recorded data side by side. It is not an editorial review — nobody has tested either product for this page, and the figures below are not independently verified. Read how we handle data and what each label means.
| Field | Help Scout | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Customer Support | Customer Support |
| Entry price | $22/mo | $19/mo |
| Free plan | No | No |
| Free trial | 15-day trial | 14-day trial |
| Tagged for | Small Teams | Enterprise |
| G2 rating unverified | 4.4 / 5 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Capterra rating unverified | 4.6 / 5 | 4.4 / 5 |
Where they differ
- Entry pricing recorded here is $19/month for Zendesk and $22/month for Help Scout. Plan structures differ, so these are not like-for-like — check both pricing pages before comparing totals.
Head to head
Help Scout
Help Scout keeps support human-scale: a shared inbox that feels like email, light workflows, Docs knowledge base and Beacon chat, without the enterprise machinery. Customers never see a ticket number, which fits brands that want conversations rather than cases. It is priced fairly and set up in a day; large operations needing complex routing, deep customization or heavy analytics will eventually need more platform than it offers.
Email-first support that feels personal.
What we record about Help Scout →Reported strengths
- Simple and human
- Great shared inbox
- Fast setup
Reported drawbacks
- Fewer enterprise features
- No free plan
Zendesk
Zendesk is the incumbent of customer support software: a mature ticketing core, help center, chat and voice, wrapped in reporting that support leaders trust. It scales from small teams to thousand-agent operations, with marketplace apps covering nearly every integration. Costs accumulate — per-agent pricing plus add-ons for AI and advanced analytics — and configuration depth means smaller teams often use a fraction of what they pay for.
Scalable help desk and ticketing.
What we record about Zendesk →Reported strengths
- Scales well
- Rich integrations
- Strong reporting
Reported drawbacks
- Pricey
- Setup complexity