Crisp vs Help Scout
A side-by-side comparison of Crisp and Help Scout on what each one charges, what it meters, and which plan every capability actually sits on.
The short answer
12 of the 51 capabilities tracked on both differ, mostly in AI resolution and Self-service. Crisp starts at Free, then $45/mo, Help Scout at Free, then $25/seat/mo.
| Measure | Crisp | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | Free, then $45/mo | Free, then $25/seat/mo |
| Charged per | The workspace | Each agent seat |
| AI billed at | Hugo credit allowance, no rate published | $0.75 per AI resolution |
| Included, where the other says no | 6 capabilities | 1 capability |
Capability by capability
12 of the 51 capabilities tracked on both products differ.
Channels
| Capability | Crisp | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| IncludedMini $45 and above. The shared email inbox and a custom email domain are the headline Mini upgrade; Free has no email channel. | IncludedAll plans, including Free | |
| Live chat | IncludedAll plans including Free. The chat widget and contact form are the only two channels on Free. | IncludedStandard and above. Not on Free. |
| In-app messenger | IncludedAll plans. Chat SDKs, live typing preview and typing indicators are on every tier; widget customization and proactive chat messages start at Mini; the help widget starts at Essentials; removing the "We run on Crisp" watermark needs Plus. | Not published |
| Voice | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. "Answer phone calls and trigger outbound calls right from Crisp." | Paid add-onAircall add-on on Standard and Plus; preferred Aircall pricing on Pro. Help Scout publishes no price for it. |
| SMS | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, alongside Viber and Line. | IncludedStandard and above, listed alongside live chat. |
| IncludedEssentials $95 and above, as WhatsApp Business. One WhatsApp connection per workspace: "One and only one of each, except emails, can be centralized in one workspace. You can connect more by subscribing to higher limits." | IncludedStandard and above. | |
| Instagram / Facebook | IncludedSplit across two tiers. Facebook Messenger arrives at Mini $45, Instagram Direct at Essentials $95. | IncludedStandard and above. Instagram and Messenger. |
| X / Twitter | IncludedMini $45 and above. | Not published |
| Microsoft Teams | NoNot a channel. The Channels block enumerates chat widget, contact form, email, Telegram, Messenger, X, Instagram, SMS, Viber, phone, Line and WhatsApp Business. Microsoft Teams is absent from that list, and Slack appears only under Integrations rather than as an inbox channel. | Not published |
| Community forum | NoNo community product. The Help Center section covers articles, categories, search, feedback, a custom domain and SEO metadata, and offers no forum, member profiles or moderation. | Not published |
| Video | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, as video and audio chat inside the widget. | Not published |
| Co-browsing | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, published as MagicBrowse. Crisp documents it as passive, scoped to your own site and covered by privacy controls. | Not published |
Ticketing
| Capability | Crisp | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Shared inbox | IncludedAll plans. Sub-inboxes are the part that is gated: 0 on Free and Mini, 2 on Essentials, 5 on Plus. | IncludedAll plans. Free 1 Inbox; Standard 2, Plus 5, Pro 10 included, extras at $10/mo annual. |
| Ticket queues | IncludedTwo separate things. Sub-inboxes start at Essentials $95 (2, rising to 5 on Plus). The ticketing system with a customer portal, where customers open and follow requests, is Plus $295 only. | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. |
| SLA policies | IncludedEnterprise only, listed on the plan card as "Personalized SLA" alongside custom onboarding. No SLA policy engine appears on Free, Mini, Essentials or Plus. | IncludedOne basic SLA on Standard, two advanced on Plus, unlimited on Pro. None on Free. |
| Business hours | IncludedAll plans including Free. | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. |
| Macros / saved replies | IncludedMini $45 and above, published as canned responses and managed as message shortcuts. Import and export both run on CSV. | IncludedSaved replies on all plans. Free caps at 10, paid plans unlimited. |
| Side conversations | Not published | NoNot on any plan. The matrix has no row for a conversation held beside the customer thread. |
| Custom fields | IncludedAll plans, as custom attributes on customer profiles. Customer segmentation, smart filters and profile notes start at Mini; lifecycle tracking and timeline activity at Essentials. | IncludedPlus and Pro. |
| Custom objects | Not published | NoNot on any plan. Custom fields cap at 10 a conversation and customer properties at 50, which are fields rather than objects. |
| Ticket forms | Not published | IncludedEvery plan including Free. |
Routing & automation
| Capability | Crisp | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Skills-based routing | Not published | NoNot on any plan. Routing is round robin on Plus $45 and load balanced on Pro $75, neither of which reads a skill. |
| Round-robin assignment | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. "Assign conversations automatically to available agents in a fair, rotating manner." | IncludedPlus and Pro. |
| Load balancing | Not published | IncludedPro only, listed as multiple routing types. |
| Triggers | IncludedMini $45 and above for chat triggers on visitor behaviour. Keyword, CRM-based and AI-based triggers belong to the workflow builder at Essentials and Plus. | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. |
| Workflow builder | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. Conditional flows, custom input fields, webhook actions, iframes and API automation are all on this tier; unlimited chatbot templates and AI-based triggers need Plus. | Included150 basic workflows on Standard, 500 advanced on Plus, unlimited on Pro. None on Free. |
| Escalation rules | Not publishedNot published as a row. The Workflow section carries keyword, CRM and AI-based triggers plus conditional flows, which could implement an escalation, but no escalation rule is named as a capability. | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. |
AI resolution
| Capability | Crisp | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous resolution agent | IncludedHugo, the AI agent, from Mini $45 upward. Metered against the plan's USD credit allowance rather than sold per resolution, and it stops rather than overspending unless Pay-As-You-Go is enabled. | Paid add-onAI Answers add-on at $0.75 a resolution, on Standard $25 and above. Three months free from signup and a monthly spend cap that switches it off rather than overrunning. |
| Resolution over knowledge base | Not published | Paid add-onAI Answers add-on at $0.75 a resolution, on Standard $25 and above. Three months free from signup and a monthly spend cap that switches it off rather than overrunning. |
| Action-taking (API calls) | IncludedHugo integrations and the MCP server start at Essentials $95; unlimited task automations, which connect the agent to third-party tools, are Plus $295. Crisp describes order and account lookup and refunds as in-scope actions. | NoNot on any plan. AI Answers is described as answering, never as doing. |
| Handoff to human | IncludedBuilt into the billing model as well as the product: when credits run out, "New conversations are escalated to human operators until credits reset or additional usage is enabled." Hugo routing also escalates by situation. | Paid add-onAI Answers add-on at $0.75 a resolution, on Standard $25 and above. Three months free from signup and a monthly spend cap that switches it off rather than overrunning. |
| Multilingual AI | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. LiveTranslate covers over 50 languages on any channel. | Not publishedAI Assist translates agent text; the page does not say whether AI Answers replies in the customer's language. |
AI assist
| Capability | Crisp | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Reply drafting | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, as the AI writing assistant and the internal Hugo Copilot. Copilot output consumes Hugo credits. | IncludedPlus $45 a user and above. |
| Tone rewrite | Not published | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. |
| Summarization | IncludedConversation summary is a Plus $295 row in the compare table, though Copilot-generated summaries are documented from Essentials and consume credits. | IncludedPlus $45 a user and above. |
| Translation | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, as LiveTranslate. | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. |
| Next-best-action | Not published | NoNot on any plan. The four AI rows are Assist, Drafts, Summarize and Answers. |
| Auto-tagging | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. Hugo Topics classify conversations by intent and a single conversation can match several. | NoNot on any plan. Tags are unlimited on paid tiers and applied by hand or by a workflow. |
| Sentiment analysis | Not published | NoNot on any plan. Not among the four AI rows. |
AI voice
| Capability | Crisp | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Voice agent | Not publishedNot established. The AI Agent resolves conversations end-to-end and phone is a supported channel, but nothing states that the agent answers calls, and Crisp does not publish a voice-specific AI surface. | NoNot on any plan. The matrix lists phone and voice as "via integration" on every tier, which is Aircall billed separately, so there is no voice layer to put AI on. |
| IVR replacement | NoNo IVR. Phone is a channel on every plan and the voice feature set stops at answering calls, triggering outbound ones and transcribing recordings. No phone tree, queue or routing menu appears anywhere in the comparison. | NoNot on any plan. The matrix lists phone and voice as "via integration" on every tier, which is Aircall billed separately, so there is no voice layer to put AI on. |
| Real-time transcription | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. "Get immediate voice-to-text transcription for every audio message or recorded phone calls." | NoNot on any plan. The matrix lists phone and voice as "via integration" on every tier, which is Aircall billed separately, so there is no voice layer to put AI on. |
| Call summarization | Not published | NoNot on any plan. The matrix lists phone and voice as "via integration" on every tier, which is Aircall billed separately, so there is no voice layer to put AI on. |
Knowledge base
| Capability | Crisp | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Public help center | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. "The Knowledge Base feature is available on Crisp Essentials and Crisp Plus plans." Articles are written in Markdown. | IncludedAll plans. Free 1 Docs site; Standard 2, Plus 3, Pro 5 included, extras at $20/mo annual. |
| Custom domain | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. Defaults to a Crisp-hosted domain such as acme.crisp.help; a custom help.acme.com can be configured. | Not published |
| Multi-brand | Not publishedNot stated. Sub-inboxes are capped at 0, 0, 2 and 5 across the plans, but nothing says whether each carries its own help centre. | IncludedDocs sites by tier: 1 on Free, 2 on Standard $25, 3 on Plus $45, 5 on Pro $75, and $20 a month for each one beyond that. |
| Versioning | NoNo versioning. The Help Center section enumerates articles and categories, customisation, multilingual content, the SDK, search, article feedback, a custom domain and sitemap metadata. Revision history, drafts and rollback are not among them. | NoNot on any plan. The Docs rows cover sites, branding, articles, contact forms and access control. |
| Localization | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. Languages are added per knowledge base and "Articles are not translated automatically, so each language should be reviewed and localized manually." | NoNot on any plan. AI Assist translates agent text, not articles. |
| In-product widget | IncludedAll plans, twice over: a help widget that surfaces answers inside the site, and a help centre SDK for embedding it anywhere. | IncludedThe embeddable support hub: 1 on Free, 5 on Standard $25, unlimited on Plus $45 and Pro $75. |
| SEO controls | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, published as sitemap and SEO meta data. | Not publishedCustom site branding and CSS are in the matrix; nothing addresses indexing. |
| AI answers over KB | IncludedEssentials $95 and above for AI-generated answers and AI knowledge training. Customer-facing AI-powered site search is Plus $295. | IncludedAll paid plans, metered at $0.75 per resolution with no included allowance. Delivered through Help Scout's own Beacon widget over Docs content; there is no bring-your-own-helpdesk version. |
Self-service
| Capability | Crisp | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Chatbot flows | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, as the no-code AI chatbot builder. Scenario drafts let flows be tested before going live. | NoNot on any plan. AI Answers is a retrieval agent, not a flow anyone builds. |
| Order lookup | IncludedThe Shopify, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce and PrestaShop integrations are checked on all four plans including Free. Letting Hugo perform the lookup needs the integrations and MCP server at Essentials $95. | NoNot on any plan. AI Answers replies from content; the matrix describes no transactional actions. |
| Returns / RMA | Not published | NoNot on any plan. AI Answers replies from content; the matrix describes no transactional actions. |
| Account actions | Not published | NoNot on any plan. AI Answers replies from content; the matrix describes no transactional actions. |
QA & workforce
| Capability | Crisp | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Conversation QA scoring | NoNo quality management of any kind. Crisp's plan comparison enumerates twelve feature sections and none covers scoring, reviewing or grading conversations. It is an inbox, and measuring the work done in it is somebody else's product. | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix runs to roughly sixty rows across ten sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. |
| Automated QA coverage | NoNo automated scoring. The Artificial intelligence section is substantial (AI agent, knowledge training, copilot, multilingual, auto-tagging, spam filter, conversation summary) and every entry in it faces the customer or assists the agent. None of it evaluates the agent. | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix runs to roughly sixty rows across ten sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. |
| Calibration | NoNo calibration. Follows from there being no scorecard to calibrate against. | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix runs to roughly sixty rows across ten sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. |
| Agent scorecards | NoNo agent scorecards. The Analytics section covers prebuilt analytics, data export, custom dashboards and API access, and reports on conversations and operator activity rather than scoring individuals against a rubric. | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix runs to roughly sixty rows across ten sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. |
| Forecasting | NoNo workforce management. Nothing in the feature comparison forecasts contact volume, and the only capacity-shaped control is the agent count bundled into each plan. | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix runs to roughly sixty rows across ten sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. |
| Scheduling | NoNo shift scheduling. "Working hours settings" defines when the business is open so responses can be automated outside them, which sets expectations rather than rostering anyone. | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix runs to roughly sixty rows across ten sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. |
| Adherence tracking | NoNo adherence tracking, which follows from there being no schedule to measure against. | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix runs to roughly sixty rows across ten sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. |
Reporting
| Capability | Crisp | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Prebuilt dashboards | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. Custom dashboards and API analytics are on the same tier; advanced analytics is a separate Plus row. | IncludedEvery plan, but the history is the gate: 30 days on Free, two years on Standard $25, all-time on Plus $45 and Pro $75. |
| Custom reports | IncludedEssentials $95 and above for custom dashboards, which export and re-import as .json. | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. |
| Raw data export | API onlyContacts are the exception with a real CSV export, and it starts at Essentials $95. Everything else is the API: "Conversation data cannot be exported as a native CSV from the Crisp dashboard at the moment." Analytics CSV covers report data, not messages. | IncludedPaid plans. Reporting data only, delivered to CSV or Excel "with the exception of conversation thread contents". |
| Data warehouse sync | Not publishedNo first-party warehouse destination is listed. Analytics offers data export and programmatic access through the API, and Segment appears under integrations, which is a route to a warehouse rather than a sync Crisp documents. | NoNot on any plan. The export row goes to CSV or Excel and no further. |
| CSAT / NPS | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, as conversation ratings. Free and Mini cannot collect them. | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. |
| Real-time reporting | NoNo live dashboard. Analytics covers prebuilt reports, data export, custom dashboards and API access. The only real-time surface in the product is the live geolocation map of current site visitors, which is a visitor view rather than an operations one. | NoNot on any plan. Reporting is described by history window, not as a live dashboard. |
Collaboration
| Capability | Crisp | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Internal notes | IncludedMini $45 and above. Private notes and mentions are absent from Free. | Not published |
| Assignment | IncludedRound-robin routing and routing rules start at Essentials $95. Free and Mini have no automatic assignment. | IncludedEvery plan including Free. |
| Approvals | NoNo approval workflow. Nothing in the comparison routes a reply or a change through a reviewer before it goes out. | NoNot on any plan. Nothing in the matrix reviews a reply or an article before it goes out. |
Enterprise
| Capability | Crisp | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| SAML SSO | NoNot offered as far as Crisp publishes. The pricing page's Data & Security section enumerates five items, two-factor authentication, EU hosting, a data processing agreement, TLS encryption and data replication, and SSO is not among them. Neither the help center nor the developer hub documents SAML, OIDC or an identity provider connection anywhere, and 2FA is the only authentication article. Third-party pages claiming Crisp SSO refer either to a different company (gocrisp.com) or to external broker services. | Paid add-onAdd-on on Plus and Pro, at a price Help Scout does not publish. Unavailable on Free and Standard. |
| Role-based access control | IncludedTwo fixed roles. The terms name "the relevant Workspace role of 'Workspace Member' or 'Workspace Owner'", and operators and teams are managed under Workspace Settings. No plan gate is published. | Not published |
| Custom roles | NoCrisp publishes a two-role model, Workspace Member and Workspace Owner, and no mechanism for defining additional roles or per-permission grants on any plan, including Plus and the sales-gated Enterprise tier. | Not publishedAdvanced permissions and Teams appear as rows in the plan matrix, but the matrix is icon-only and Help Scout publishes no text describing which plans carry them. |
| IP allowlist | Not published | Paid add-onAdd-on on Plus and Pro, at a price Help Scout does not publish. |
| Multi-brand | IncludedGated by count, as sub-inboxes: 0 on Free, 0 on Mini, 2 on Essentials and 5 on Plus. A second brand is the reason to leave the $45 plan. | Not published |
| HIPAA / BAA | Not publishedNo Business Associate Agreement, HIPAA claim or healthcare page appears on the pricing page, the security practices page, the GDPR article or the terms. | Paid add-onPro only, and an add-on even there. Requires a signed BAA. Price not published. |
| SOC 2 | NoExplicitly denied by the vendor rather than merely unclaimed: "Please note that Crisp hasn't been over any SOC2 audit but we wish to show we are fully compliant with these specific needs." The article walks the five trust service principles as a self-assessment. No auditor, report or bridge letter is published. | IncludedNot plan-gated. SOC 2 Type 2 for Security and Availability, report on request. |
| GDPR | IncludedAll plans including Free. A data processing agreement is a checked row on every tier. Crisp is the customer's processor, names a DPO at dpo@crisp.chat, answers data subject requests within a week against the GDPR's one-month limit, and its supervisory authority is the French CNIL. | IncludedNot plan-gated. A DPA is published, though the security page says only that Help Scout adheres to relevant privacy regulations without naming GDPR. |
| Data residency | IncludedEU on every plan, Free included, and fixed rather than selectable. "All Crisp data is held on servers hosted in the European Union. Our Messaging data is stored in The Netherlands and our Plugin data is stored in Germany." Servers are DigitalOcean's EU subsidiary. Relay servers in the US, UK and Singapore reduce latency and "do not store any data except connection logs (IP address, date of connection, user-agent and source website)". No non-EU region is offered and none is planned. Sub-processors are Cloudflare, DigitalOcean and Stripe, with AI running on Mirage, Crisp's own service. | Not publishedThe security page says only that Help Scout is hosted in AWS. No region choice is offered on the pricing page or the security page, and no data-residency product is published. |
| Data retention policy | IncludedUnlimited data retention and full conversation history start at Mini $45; Free has neither. Crisp's own backups are GPG-encrypted and "retained for a maximum of 1 week". | Not published |
| Right-to-erasure tooling | IncludedNot plan-gated, and offered free to paid and free workspaces alike. "Crisp has set out to reply to all access requests (positively or negatively or when we must forward the request) under 1 week." End-user requests are referred back to the customer as controller. | Not published |
Developer
| Capability | Crisp | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | IncludedDeveloper APIs are checked on all four plans including Free. Tokens come in user, website and plugin tiers with per-scope permissions. | IncludedAll paid plans. Inbox API for customers, users and conversations; Docs API for articles. |
| GraphQL API | Not published | NoNot on any plan. The matrix lists API access with per-tier rate limits and nothing else. |
| Webhooks | IncludedWebhook actions inside workflows start at Essentials $95. The developer platform also carries its own webhook and plugin event system. | Not published |
| SDKs | IncludedAll plans. JavaScript web SDK plus published iOS, Android, React Native and Flutter chat SDKs, and a help center SDK from Essentials. | Not published |
| App framework | IncludedA plugin marketplace with plugin tokens, scoped permissions and per-plugin daily quotas. Third-party plugins include Jira Service Management, Briskport, IsDown and ChargeDesk. The 100+ integrations row is a Plus line item. | IncludedEvery plan including Free. |
| Published rate limits | IncludedPublished in structure, thin on numbers. Four limiters are named with their classifiers and tiers, and one figure is given: website tokens are "Limited to 10,000 requests per day". The load balancer, API Global and API Route limits carry no published values, and plugin quota increases are requested through the Marketplace, so an API-only conversation export cannot be planned against a fully known ceiling. | IncludedPublished per plan in the pricing matrix: Standard 200 calls/min, Plus 400, Pro 800. |
Both entries last checked Sep 9, 2026.
What Crisp costs
$45/month
4 published plans, billed monthly- Billing unit
$45 a month for the workspace - Free tier
Yes - AI pricing
Not published - Vendor calls it
Hugo credit - Human handoff
Still billed - Reopened chat
Not published - AI billing window
Not published - Data export
Self-serve - Automation export
Partial
3 of 9 not published by Crisp, checked
What Help Scout costs
$25/seat/month
4 published plans, billed annually- Billing unit
Per user per month - Free tier
Yes - AI pricing
$0.75 per AI resolution - Vendor calls it
AI Answers resolution - Human handoff
Not billed - Reopened chat
Not published - AI billing window
Not published - Data export
None published - Automation export
Not offered
2 of 9 not published by Help Scout, checked