Free Help Scout vs Zendesk Cost Calculator

Last updated: November 11, 2026

Quick answer: Help Scout and Zendesk look almost the same price at first glance — $25 against $19 at the entry tier — until one choice changes the answer completely: Help Scout's Standard plan covers omnichannel support at $25 a seat, while Zendesk only turns on chat and phone at Suite Team's $55. And under 5 users the comparison is not close at all, because Help Scout has a free plan and Zendesk does not. This free Help Scout vs Zendesk cost calculator prices both on your agents, your channel mode, your plans, your AI resolutions and your seat growth over year 1 and 3 years. On the defaults (5 agents, omnichannel, annual billing, no AI), Help Scout Standard costs $125 a month, $1,500 in year 1 while Zendesk Suite Team costs $275 a month, $3,300 in year 1 — a $150 monthly gap, $5,400 over 3 flat years. Switch to email-only and the verdict flips: Zendesk Support Team at $95 a month undercuts Help Scout Standard at $125. Everything runs in your browser; your headcount stays private.

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How to Use the Help Scout vs Zendesk Cost Calculator

1. Enter your support agents — everyone who answers tickets, on either vendor. Both vendors charge per agent per month, so the headcount is the single biggest lever on the total.
2. Pick your channel mode. Email-only means tickets and nothing else; omnichannel adds live chat and phone. The mode matters because Zendesk's entry plan is email-only — pick omnichannel and the calculator prices Zendesk on Suite Team instead, with a warning, because Support Team cannot do the job.
3. Pick each vendor's plan. Help Scout Free covers up to 5 users at $0; Standard ($25) is the omnichannel workhorse, Plus ($45) adds more workflows and reporting, Pro ($75) adds the most. Zendesk Support Team ($19) is email-only, Suite Team ($55) is the omnichannel entry, Suite Professional ($115) adds advanced routing and AI features.
4. Choose annual or monthly billing. Annual is cheaper on both vendors — Help Scout Standard drops from $30 to $25, Zendesk Suite Team from $69 to $55 — so the calculator defaults to annual and shows the monthly premium if you switch.
5. Tick Add AI resolutions and enter your monthly volume if either vendor's AI will answer tickets for you. Help Scout Envoy charges $0.75 for every resolution; Zendesk includes a small block (about 5–10) and then charges $2.00 per extra resolution, so the AI line can be the biggest gap on the page at high volumes.
6. Add annual agent growth and a one-time migration cost if you are planning ahead. Growth compounds year over year and is rounded up to whole people — you hire whole agents, not fractions — and migration is charged once in year 1. Press Compare total cost for the monthly, year-1 and 3-year totals side by side.

Why Use Our Help Scout vs Zendesk Cost Calculator?

• The free-plan cutoff, priced honestly — Help Scout Free is $0 up to 5 users and the calculator enforces the cap: enter 6 agents on Free and it tells you to pick a paid plan instead of silently pricing a plan you cannot buy.
• The omnichannel price jump, not the headline price — the entry prices ($19 vs $25) suggest a $6 gap. The real gap opens when you add chat and phone: $55 vs $25, a $30 gap per agent per month. The calculator prices the channel mode you actually need, and warns you when the plan you picked cannot do it.
• AI per-resolution pricing, both ways — Help Scout's $0.75-per-resolution (every resolution billed) against Zendesk's small included block then $2.00 overage. At 100 resolutions a month that is $75 against $190 — a $115 monthly gap the subscription lines never show.
• Annual vs monthly billing on both vendors — the monthly premium is real money at scale: Suite Team costs $69 monthly against $55 annual, $14 a seat a month, $840 a year on a 5-agent team. The calculator shows it instead of hiding it behind an annual default.
• Growth and migration in the 3-year total — headcount growth compounds year over year (whole people, rounded up), and a one-time migration cost lands in year 1 only, so the 3-year figure is a plan, not a multiplication.
• Private by design — the maths runs entirely in your browser. Your headcount and ticket volumes never leave your device.

Common Use Cases

• A 5-agent startup going omnichannel: 5 agents, omnichannel, annual billing: Help Scout Standard 5 x $25 = $125 a month, $1,500 in year 1; Zendesk Suite Team 5 x $55 = $275 a month, $3,300 in year 1. Gap $150 a month, $1,800 a year, $5,400 over 3 flat years — enough to fund a part-time agent.
• A 3-person team on email only: 3 agents, email-only, annual billing: Zendesk Support Team 3 x $19 = $57 a month against Help Scout Standard 3 x $25 = $75 — Zendesk wins by $18 a month, $648 over 3 years. But Help Scout Free at $0 wins outright while the team stays at 3 users, so the real question is whether the team will grow past 5.
• A 20-agent team with AI answering tickets: 20 agents, omnichannel, 500 AI resolutions a month: Help Scout Standard 20 x $25 = $500 plus AI 500 x $0.75 = $375, $875 a month. Zendesk Suite Team 20 x $55 = $1,100 plus AI (500 − 5) x $2.00 = $990, $2,090 a month. Gap $1,215 a month, $14,580 a year — the AI line alone is $615 of it, so the AI volume is worth measuring before you choose.
• A 10-agent team growing 20% a year: 10 agents, omnichannel, 20% annual growth: Help Scout year 1 $3,000, year 2 $3,600 (12 agents), year 3 $4,500 (15 agents) — $11,100 over 3 years. Zendesk Suite Team year 1 $6,600, year 2 $7,920, year 3 $9,900 — $24,420 over 3 years. Gap $13,320, and it widens every year because the per-agent gap compounds with headcount.

Help Scout vs Zendesk Cost Calculator vs Alternatives

• Entry price: Zendesk Support Team $19 a seat against Help Scout Standard $25 — Zendesk wins the email-only entry by $6 a seat. But Help Scout Free at $0 under 5 users beats both, and the entry price is the least important number on the page once channels enter the picture.
• Omnichannel: Help Scout Standard $25 a seat against Zendesk Suite Team $55 — Help Scout wins by $30 a seat a month, $1,800 a year on a 5-agent team. This is the gap that decides most comparisons, and it is invisible if you only read the entry prices.
• Free plan: Help Scout: Free plan, $0, up to 5 users. Zendesk: no free plan at any team size. For a 3-person team the choice is $0 against $57 a month — the free plan is the whole decision until the team grows.
• AI pricing: Help Scout Envoy $0.75 per resolution, every resolution billed. Zendesk about 5–10 resolutions included, then $2.00 each. At 100 resolutions a month: $75 against $190. At 500: $375 against $990. High AI volume favours Help Scout by a widening margin.

The honest summary: under 5 users, Help Scout Free wins by default. Email-only past 5 users, Zendesk Support Team wins by $6 a seat. Omnichannel, Help Scout Standard wins by $30 a seat. And the more AI resolutions you run, the wider Help Scout's lead gets. Price the channels and the AI volume you actually need — the entry price alone will mislead you.

Frequently Asked Questions