Head to head
Help Scout vs Zendesk Guide
Both platforms are scored with the same methodology and the same category rubric. Nothing on this page is influenced by advertising.
50/100 | 51/100Higher score | |
|---|---|---|
| Category rank | #11 | #2 |
| Confidence | High confidence | High confidence |
| External Reputation | 80 | 86 |
| AI Authority | 15 | 19 |
| Web Authority | 32 | 35 |
| Expert Assessment | 72 | 57 |
| 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 | $19/agent/month billed annually (Support Team — does not include the knowledge base) · free tier: No free plan; 14-day free trial on Suite Team |
| Pricing model | Subscription (per user/month) plus usage-based AI add-on | Subscription (per-agent) with usage-based AI billing |
| 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. | Organisations already on or migrating to Zendesk Suite for ticketing that want multilingual self-service and AI deflection tightly coupled to the ticket queue. |
| 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 need a standalone knowledge base, public docs site or internal wiki without a helpdesk, or you have a tight, predictable budget that cannot absorb unpublished AI usage rates and $55+/agent/month. |
| Markets | SMB, Mid-Market, Ecommerce, SaaS, Non-profits | SMB, Mid-Market, Enterprise |
| 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.