Help Scout (Free Plan)

Freemium

Shared inbox and knowledge base. Free for up to 50 contacts/month.

Limited Free Tier

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Help Scout (Free Plan) website screenshot

About Help Scout (Free Plan)

Help Scout offers a free plan for up to 1 user, providing access to its clean, email-focused help desk. Help Scout is known for making customer conversations feel like real email exchanges, not robotic ticket responses.

What You Get on the Free Plan

1 user - Single agent for managing customer conversations
Shared inbox - Email-based customer support inbox
Knowledge base - Create and publish help articles
AI-powered assistance - Draft replies and summarize conversations
Reporting - Basic conversation analytics
Beacon widget - Embedded help widget for your website

What to Know

The 1 user limit makes this a solo founder tool. Help Scout's strength is its human-centered approach: customers see replies as regular emails, not ticket notifications. Paid plans ($50/user/month) add more users, automations, and integrations.

Key Features

Shared inbox

Knowledge base

Customer management

Beacon widget

AI features

Reporting

Workflows

Satisfaction ratings

Pros & Cons

Clean, thoughtful design

Great for small teams

Excellent knowledge base

Very small free tier

Expensive paid plans

The free plan in practice

What you can actually do on Help Scout (Free Plan)'s free plan (50 contacts/month), where it stops, and when it's worth paying.

What you can do free

Shared inbox
Knowledge base
Up to 50 contacts/month
AI assist
Beacon widget

Where it stops

50 contact limit
Limited features
1 mailbox

When to upgrade to a paid plan

Stay on the free plan while you're comfortably under the free plan's limit (50 contacts/month). It's worth moving to a paid plan once you consistently bump into that ceiling, need to remove branding, or want features the free tier holds back.