Are you the one who is tired of hopping and looking from one helpdesk to another helpdesk, trying to figure out which platform can be the right choice and fits your budget as it is one of the main concerns?
We all have heard of Help Scout, one of the renowned customer support platforms. If you are thinking of opting for Help Scout for your business, you will re-think after going through the features and detailed Help Scout pricing that we have sorted and compared with Desku.
Let’s understand Help Scout a little better!’
Key Takeaway :
Help Scout’s pricing is worth considering for its features and support, but it’s essential to analyze your specific needs and budget before making a decision. Consider the value it will bring to your business and whether it aligns with your customer support requirements.
What is Help Scout?
Help Scout is a help desk customer support platform, that helps to navigate customer queries in one. Communication with customers can be done under one roof by integrating multiple communication channels like Email, Live Chat, social channels, knowledge base and much more. Help Scout is considered to be the most interactive platform between support agents and customers. It streamlines the support queries and helps in resolving the queries faster.
It has more than 80 integration, that helps in connecting third-party application/software with Help Scout so that you do not have to go to another platform for accessing and doing activity that needs to be done.
But apart from all the features given, is it worth the price? Is it something that should be paid for the features that they provide?
Let’s understand the Pricing Plan of Help Scout
What are Help Scout Pricing?
There are basically three Pricing Plans of Help Scout, let’s understand each pricing plan and its features.
Standard Plan: $20/month
👉🏻 2 mailboxes (email + live chat)
👉🏻 Knowledge Base
👉🏻 In-App messaging
👉🏻 100+ Integration
👉🏻 AI-Assistant (it is in beta version)
Plus Plan: $40/month
👉🏻 All standard features included
👉🏻 5 mailbox + social channels
👉🏻 2 Knowledge Base
👉🏻 Custom teams and fields
👉🏻 Permission and roles
👉🏻 AI-Summarise
Pro Plan: $65/month
👉🏻 25 mailbox
👉🏻10 Knowledge base
👉🏻50 light users
👉🏻Advanced security
👉🏻API Access
👉🏻Complimentary training
👉🏻Account manager
Desku
Desku is an all-in-one AI-powered customer support platform that helps navigate and streamline customer queries under one roof. It has the intrusive AI functionality that helps support agents to decrease their customer query load.
Features like shared inbox, live chat, no-code chatbot builder, knowledge base, customer management, advanced reports and analytics will help to manage customer queries as well as internal team collaboration in smoother ways. Desku is especially built for Ecommerce businesses where they can connect Shopify, WooCommerce, or Ecwid stores with it.
Let’s understand the pricing plan of Desku in bits.
What is the pricing of Desku?
Startup Plan: $29/month
👉🏻 5 mailboxes
👉🏻 Knowledge Base
👉🏻 5 Chatbot
👉🏻 Integrations
👉🏻 Live Chat
👉🏻 Customer Management
Team Plan: $59/month
👉🏻 Unlimited Inbox
👉🏻Whitelabel and CNAME
👉🏻 3 Shopify Store
👉🏻 3 WooCommerce Store
👉🏻 CSAT
👉🏻 All Integration
(all features of startup plan included)
Business Plan: $89/month
👉🏻 Unlimited Inbox
👉🏻 Social Media Integration
👉🏻 All Integration
(all features of the Startup and Team plan included)
Help Scout and Desku Features: Compared
We have sorted and summed up all the features of Help Scout for you so that you do not have to go and get all confused. The feature will help you to have a look if that suits your business or not.
Shared Inbox: Help Scout
A shared inbox is the place where customer’s queries are gathered and from where you will be able to answer seamlessly. You can manage everything from the Help Scout’s inbox whether the tickets are assigned to any agent or is unassigned. It can be easily managed with the help of status changes such as open, close, pending etc. according to your convenience.
You can easily create a workflow for sending or receiving emails. Saved replies will save you time from which you will be able to send the answers to the repeated and common questions.
Shared Inbox of Desku
The Shared Inbox of the Desku is considered to be one of the best features. The unified inbox helps to have seamless conversations between customers and support agents. There are so many features that you should know about the Shared Inbox of Desku and they are stated below:
Manage queries by sorting tickets
Change the status of the ticket by sorting it under, “open”, “close”, “pending”, etc. so that you have an organised view of tickets along with less confusion. Support agents can easily track, which ticket is to be taken next for resolution.
Prioritise Tickets
Setting priority is an important thing to follow as it will help to resolve queries according to the need of customers’ urgency. Resolution according to the priority will help to gain the trust of customers and they can easily rely on you whenever they need any help or have queries.
Get Customer Details
Find the customer details in the sidebar of the ticketing section, where you do not need to ask for the common contact details again and again. If you customer of your Ecommerce platform like Shopify or WooCommerce, you will be able to see the order details too. The sidebar is not just a sidebar but the treasure for customer’s details.
Internal Notes
Internal notes help to keep track of important things that should not be missed, no matter by whom the ticket is taken over. It can be used for internal communication effectively so that there is no communication gap between any support agents.
Send relevant articles from “search articles”
You can access the knowledge base, search articles, and easily send the link of articles to your customers as a reference.
AI-Powered Unified Inbox
- Ticket Summary
- Sentiment Detection
- Suggested Answers
Live Chat: Help Scout
Help Scout have named Live Chat: “Beacon”. Live Chat or Help Scout has an intuitive chat widget that can be embedded in your website, it helps to provide real-time support to customers through instant messaging, help centre articles, and even the option of emailing for customers. Every option is available considering the Live chat, may it be self-help or talking to an agent. It gives you the option of whether you want to keep the live chat dedicated to help centre articles, or do you want to both support chat and access help centre articles. It becomes convenient for the users, it can be easily managed, edited and removed.
Live Chat: Desku
It has a highly embeddable Live Chat widget suitable for any website. The chat widget is highly customizable, and it can always match up with the branding. The knowledge base can be easily integrated for customers to search and find the articles for the information that they are looking for. So before coming in contact with the support agent, a visitor or a customer can always go through the Knowledge Base, read articles and go through the information that they require. Not only does it have integrated knowledge base options, but it also gives the option of contacting support agents or emailing the support team!
Do you know how Live Chat in Desku works? Know more by clicking here
Customers can always have a history of the previous chats that can be referred to anytime and whenever needed. Knowing your customers is one of the important tasks and CSAT helps in seeking knowledge about your own customers, from how they feel to what they expect. Let them give reviews so that it becomes easier for you to take forward your business in better ways.
Key Features of Live Chat: Desku
- Customer detail sidebar panel
- Customer location tracing
- Chat Summary (AI)
- Sentiment Analysis (AI)
- Suggested Answer (AI)
- Customer visited page
- Internal notes
- Search articles
Knowledge Base: Help Scout
A knowledge base or Help Center helps to provide guidelines and information to customers when they are seeking any self-help. It is considered to be one of the important factors as with the help of the help centre articles, the support team always has the decreased ticket and query in line and to solve. One of the attractive features of Help Scout’s knowledge base is the keyword section that will allow you to search by just adding main keywords rather than finding the accurate words in the search section.
Knowledge Base: Desku
Desku’s knowledge base is a sleek wholesome feature that allows you to post infinite articles to keep your customers in the loop whenever they feel lost. The help centre source is open everywhere like in a live chat widget and it also provides different help centre websites for customers to have a look at. It provides the categories through which you can add articles under it for easy finding.
The search filter is amazing as you do not need an exact keyword to find an article, you can easily find relevant articles by adding related keywords. The knowledge base is SEO-equipped which helps in ranking and bringing in to the top of the search.
Analytics and Reports: Help Scout
Having track of a support agent’s performance is a crucial part as it helps to understand if the customer strategies that you have been executing are working or not. With the help of the Help Scout Analytics and Reports, you get insights and data records on every performance activity that is done. Total number of tickets received, busiest days and rush, total resolution, everything is remarked well.
Analytics and Reports: Desku
Desku is equipped with advanced reports and analytics that are categorised according to the needs and requirements of the support agents. The right insights can help you track down the overall insights. Let us break into each category of the Analytics and Reports of Desku.
Helpdesk Reports and Analytics
- Support ticket monitoring
- Customer ticket interaction
- SLA management dashboard
- Support agent performance
- Customer management
- CSAT report
- Ticket activity report
Livechat Reports and Analytics
- Live Chat CSAT Report
- Live Chat inflow
Knowledge Base Reports and Analytics
- Knowledge base reports
- Knowledge base articles
Customer support: Help Scout
Customer support of Help Scout is easier to contact through multiple channels like Live Chat, Emails, and a help centre that helps with self-service for customers. Help Scout has the embeddable live chat widget, visitors and customers can directly contact through live chat to get proactive replies that can also resolve some common questions and answer them promptly.
Customer Support: Desku
Customer support of Desku is 24/7 available for prompt replies to customer’s common queries where you can Email or contact them through live chat which also has the Knowledge Base Help Center so that customers can have the reference prior.
Contact Desku support anytime with the
Pros and Cons of Help Scout
Pros of Help Scout
✔️ Includes live chat, email, and help centre.
✔️ Easy searching articles in the knowledge base by simply adding related keywords
✔️ Cost-effective than most of the help desk platforms
✔️ User-friendly UI and customer experience for new users.
Cons of Help Scout
✔️ Does not have a chatbot to complement the automated conversation
✔️ It has a little complicated ticketing system
✔️ Customer Support is not prompt
✔️ For some users it seems like an updated Gmail account and nothing new
Who has the better pricing plan?
Pricing plans are not always compared with the charges of the monthly or annual plans, it is always seen and compared considering features that are provided in an individual’s pricing plan. Considering the pricing plan of Help Scout, it gives fewer features than what Desku provides. Once you subscribe to any plans, Desku does not have any hidden charges that you will have to pay at the end of the month. Whereas Help Scout has the hidden charges.
AI is an addon part in the Desku but in Help Scout it is still in beta version which means they are still experimenting with the AI. In a way, Desku happens to have more advantages and functionality compared to what Desku is providing.
A quick comparison between Desku and Help Scout Pricing and Key Features👇🏻
| Desku: $89/per user/month | Help Scout: $65/per user/month |
|---|---|
| Unlimited Inbox | 25 Email Inbox |
| Unlimted Knowledge Base | 10 Knowledge Base |
| 5 Chatbot | ❌ |
| White Label | ❌ |
| 3 Shopify Store | ❌ |
| 3 WooCommerce Store | ❌ |
| CSAT | ❌ |
| Social Integration | ✔️ |
| Multiple Integration | ✔️ |
Final Words
If you are looking for the easiest customer support platform that streamlines customer queries under one roof, then Desku is the best fit for your business. There is no doubt that Help Scout is more cost-effective than most of the help desk customer support platforms, but considering the features, Desku is a win.
You can look for yourself, by taking the 7-Days Free Trail, where the highest-paid plan features are included for you to explore!
Frequently Asked Questions
1 What is the cheapest plan offered by Help Scout?
The cheapest plan offered by Help Scout is the Basic plan, which costs $10 per user per month.
2 Is Help Scout Free?
Help Scout has basically 3 pricing plans that start from $20 to $60 per month it does not have a free plan but has a free trial that you can take before availing of any paid plan.
3 Is Help Scout suitable for ecommerce businesses?
While Help Scout can be used by ecommerce businesses, the blog post suggests that Desku might be a better fit due to its specific design for ecommerce.
