Head to head
Help Scout vs eDesk
Both platforms are scored with the same methodology and the same category rubric. Nothing on this page is influenced by advertising.
46/100Higher score | 44/100 | |
|---|---|---|
| Category rank | #11 | #12 |
| Confidence | High confidence | High confidence |
| External Reputation | 80 | 74 |
| AI Authority | 15 | 1 |
| Web Authority | 32 | 34 |
| Expert Assessment | 50 | 71 |
| TOP10 User Score | — | — |
| Pricing | $25/user/month billed annually (Standard); vendor-supplied monthly figure on G2 is $30/user/month · free tier: Free plan: 5 users, 1 Inbox, 1 Docs site, 100 contacts/mo, 10 saved replies, 10 tags, 10 articles, 1 Beacon, 30-day report history, integrations limited to 1; 15-day free trial of Standard or Plus with no credit card | $39 per user/month billed annually ($49 monthly) — Essential, 1 online store or marketplace · free tier: None. 14-day full-feature free trial, no credit card required, running in 'Safe Mode' where channels connect but messages are not stored or sent until you disable it. |
| Pricing model | Subscription (per user/month) plus usage-based AI add-on | Per-agent subscription (annual or monthly) plus usage-based AI outcome charges and paid add-ons |
| Best for | Small-to-midsize support teams of roughly 5-50 agents with email- and chat-led volume who want a shared inbox and help centre live in days, and who value writing quality and ease of use over analytics depth — especially ecommerce, SaaS and services teams, plus non-profits and B Corps eligible for the Help Scout for Good discount. | Multichannel sellers of roughly 3–15 agents whose volume genuinely lands on Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Mirakl or TikTok Shop alongside a Shopify or Magento store, where the alternative is buying connectors on top of a generalist helpdesk — and who want unlimited tickets so the December bill matches the July bill. |
| Avoid if | Your priority is reporting depth, custom dashboards or per-agent productivity analytics; you need native voice/telephony rather than an Aircall integration; you need SSO/SAML, IP restrictions or HIPAA on a budget; you need complex routing, heavy automation, ITSM or a CRM in the same tool; or your team is mobile-first or works on unreliable connectivity. | You are DTC-only on a single Shopify store (you pay for marketplace breadth you will not use, and reviewers call the per-seat price steep at that size), you need a usable API, webhooks or BI extracts without an Enterprise contract, you require self-service billing control given the no-refund terms and post-cancellation charging complaints on Trustpilot, or you need a fixed monthly number before the unpriced add-ons are quoted. |
| Markets | SMB, Mid-Market, Ecommerce, SaaS, Non-profits | — |
| Founded | — | — |
| Headquarters | — | — |
A higher TOP SCORE means more of the evidence favours that platform on this methodology — it is not a recommendation, and it does not account for your specific requirements. Advertisers are never declared the winner of a comparison.