TeklDesk vs Help Scout: which fits how you support customers?
Help Scout is a helpdesk with a real free tier — up to 5 users, one inbox, one knowledge base site, no card required. Its AI answer bot, "AI Answers," is a separate add-on billed at $0.75 per resolution rather than included in a plan. TeklDesk is a website answer bot first: source-cited replies from your own content, with a monthly message count that's the whole bill.
If what you need is email support with a free tier, Help Scout's free plan is hard to beat and we're not trying to replace it. If what you need is your website answering visitor questions automatically without a per-resolution meter running, that's what we built.
No credit card required.
Feature-by-feature comparison
Free plan
- TeklDesk
- 100 content credits, 400 messages/mo, unlimited projects — doesn't expire
- Help Scout
- Yes — up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 knowledge base site. No AI Answers included
Entry paid plan
- TeklDesk
- Starter — $19/mo, or $190/year ($15.83/mo), 1,000 content credits, 4,000 messages/mo
- Help Scout
- Standard — $25/user/mo, up to 25 users
Mid paid plan
- TeklDesk
- Pro — $59/mo, or $590/year ($49.17/mo), 5,000 content credits, 15,000 messages/mo
- Help Scout
- Plus — $45/user/mo, their most popular plan
What the AI answer bot costs
- TeklDesk
- Nothing extra. Answers come out of your monthly message allowance
- Help Scout
- AI Answers is billed separately at $0.75 per resolution, after a 3-month free trial
Pricing model
- TeklDesk
- One account, no per-seat charge, a flat monthly message count
- Help Scout
- Per user seat, plus a per-resolution charge for the AI answer feature specifically
Answers from your own content, with sources
- TeklDesk
- Every answer links back to the pages it came from
- Help Scout
- AI Answers draws from the knowledge base and custom sources you connect
Built-in ticketing
- TeklDesk
- Inbox and board views, a status and priority workflow, canned replies, internal notes, threaded email replies with delivery status, and an audit trail in every ticket, included on every plan
- Help Scout
- Full email/shared-inbox ticketing on every plan, including Free
Canned replies and macros
- TeklDesk
- Shared and personal canned replies, inserted with / in the reply box, with placeholders for the customer's name and ticket details; a reply can also set status and priority
- Help Scout
- Saved replies, plus workflows that act on conversations automatically
Channels
- TeklDesk
- The widget on your website, and nothing else
- Help Scout
- Email, live chat, SMS, and more on paid plans
Integrations and enterprise controls
- TeklDesk
- Script tag and dashboard, Slack on paid plans, with alerts by email, Telegram or Slack. No CRM connectors, no SSO
- Help Scout
- 100+ app integrations on Plus and above; SSO/SAML and HIPAA compliance on Pro
Where TeklDesk wins
No per-resolution meter
Help Scout's AI Answers bills $0.75 every time it resolves a question, on top of your seat cost, once the trial ends. TeklDesk has no per-answer charge — it comes out of a flat monthly message count.
The AI is the whole product, not an add-on
Source-cited answers from your content are what we do by default, not a feature bolted onto a helpdesk with its own separate bill.
Where Help Scout wins
A genuinely useful free helpdesk
5 users, a real inbox, and a knowledge base site for free, indefinitely. If what you need is email support rather than an AI answer bot, that free plan is a strong starting point.
Multi-channel support
Live chat, SMS, and more on paid plans, unified in one inbox. Our bot answers on your website and in Slack, not in your inbox or by phone.
The enterprise and compliance checklist
SSO/SAML and HIPAA compliance on their Pro plan. Our security page is explicit that we do not have SSO or a signed DPA yet.
Bottom line
Choose TeklDesk if you want source-cited answers from your website content with a flat monthly bill and no per-resolution charge.
Choose Help Scout if you want a full free helpdesk first, and are comfortable paying per resolution for AI answers on top.
Index your site and see for yourself
The Free plan is the same crawler, the same cited answers, and the same one-line install as every paid tier — just with lower ceilings.
Or read the full pricing page.