Helply (formerly Groove) vs Help Scout
A side-by-side comparison of Helply (formerly Groove) and Help Scout on what each one charges, what it meters, and which plan every capability actually sits on.
The short answer
7 of the 25 capabilities tracked on both differ, mostly in AI resolution and AI assist.
| Measure | Helply (formerly Groove) | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | Usage only | Free, then $25/seat/mo |
| Charged per | Not published | Each agent seat |
| AI billed at | $1 per ticket | $0.75 per AI resolution |
| Included, where the other says no | 3 capabilities | 0 capabilities |
Capability by capability
7 of the 25 capabilities tracked on both products differ.
Channels
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| IncludedIncluded. One of the eight channels feeding Helply's single queue, and on every Classic Groove plan. | IncludedAll plans, including Free | |
| Live chat | IncludedIncluded. In-app widget on Helply; branded chat widget for web and mobile on every Classic Groove plan. | IncludedStandard and above. Not on Free. |
| In-app messenger | IncludedIncluded. | Not published |
| Voice | NoHelply enumerates eight channels and voice is not one of them. Classic Groove offers call logging, which records a call against a conversation rather than carrying one. | Paid add-onAircall add-on on Standard and Plus; preferred Aircall pricing on Pro. Help Scout publishes no price for it. |
| SMS | IncludedIncluded. | IncludedStandard and above, listed alongside live chat. |
| IncludedIncluded. | IncludedStandard and above. | |
| Instagram / Facebook | IncludedClassic Groove only, on every plan, and counted against the plan's channel allowance at $10 per extra channel. Helply's published channel list is Slack Connect, Microsoft Teams, Discord, email, WhatsApp, SMS, in-app widget and a webhook API, and does not include Instagram or Facebook. | IncludedStandard and above. Instagram and Messenger. |
| Slack Connect | IncludedIncluded, and threaded into the same queue as email rather than mirrored. Named as a first-class B2B channel: "Slack Connect threading". | Not published |
| Microsoft Teams | IncludedIncluded, alongside Discord. | Not published |
Ticketing
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Shared inbox | IncludedIncluded, with unlimited seats. "Bring your whole team. Engineers triaging bugs, AEs reading churn signals, PMs scanning feature requests." | IncludedAll plans. Free 1 Inbox; Standard 2, Plus 5, Pro 10 included, extras at $10/mo annual. |
| Ticket queues | Not published | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. |
| SLA policies | IncludedIncluded on Helply, with per-account SLAs called out for enterprise. Classic Groove gates SLA management to Plus and Pro. | IncludedOne basic SLA on Standard, two advanced on Plus, unlimited on Pro. None on Free. |
| Business hours | Not published | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. |
| Macros / saved replies | IncludedIncluded. Saved replies on Helply; instant replies on every Classic Groove plan, though instant replies that carry actions are Plus and above. | 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 | IncludedClassic Groove: customer overview with custom fields on every plan, plus company fields and field categories. | 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 | Helply (formerly Groove) | 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 | IncludedIncluded on both products. Classic Groove offers round robin with load balancing on every plan for assignment, but gates chat routing with load balancing to Plus and Pro. | IncludedPlus and Pro. |
| Load balancing | Not published | IncludedPro only, listed as multiple routing types. |
| Triggers | Not published | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. |
| Workflow builder | IncludedIncluded. "Workflow rules with conditions" on Helply. Classic Groove ships a custom rule builder on every plan but gates time-based rules and advanced rule automations to Plus and Pro. | Included150 basic workflows on Standard, 500 advanced on Plus, unlimited on Pro. None on Free. |
| Escalation rules | Not published | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. |
AI resolution
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous resolution agent | IncludedIncluded at no extra charge. "The AI agent loads full account context, your KB, past tickets, CRM, Stripe, product usage, and only resolves a ticket when it has high confidence in a complete, correct answer." | 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 | IncludedIncluded, and trained on resolved tickets and macros as well as articles. | 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) | IncludedIncluded. Refunds, plan changes, seat provisioning, password resets and rate-limit increases executed across Stripe, the CRM and the auth provider, chained across multiple steps with failure handling. | NoNot on any plan. AI Answers is described as answering, never as doing. |
| Handoff to human | IncludedIncluded, on customer-set thresholds. "You set the thresholds, Helply respects them, and the agent log shows every decision it made and why." Handoffs carry the issue, customer history, resolution attempts and full thread. | 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. |
| Guardrails & citations | IncludedIncluded. Guardrails, brand tone and answer format are configurable, with a preview mode for reviewing answers before they go live, and drafts cite account context inline. | Not publishedThe pricing page describes the sources AI Answers reads and not whether a reply cites them. |
AI assist
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Reply drafting | IncludedIncluded on Helply. On Classic Groove this is Copilot at $49 per account per month, or the AI assist row, which is blank in the Standard column. | IncludedPlus $45 a user and above. |
| Tone rewrite | Not published | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. |
| Summarization | IncludedIncluded on Helply. Classic Groove gates AI summarize to Plus and Pro. | IncludedPlus $45 a user and above. |
| Translation | Not published | 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 | IncludedClassic Groove AI tag suggest, Plus and Pro only. Included on Helply. | NoNot on any plan. Tags are unlimited on paid tiers and applied by hand or by a workflow. |
| Sentiment analysis | IncludedClassic Groove Plus and Pro. Helply replaces it with signal detection: churn language, upsell asks, competitor mentions and plan-limit hits tagged in real time and attributed to the account and its ARR. | NoNot on any plan. Not among the four AI rows. |
AI voice
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Voice agent | 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. |
| IVR replacement | 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. |
| Real-time transcription | 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. |
| 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 | Helply (formerly Groove) | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Public help center | IncludedIncluded on Helply. Classic Groove includes a knowledge base per plan allowance, with additional ones priced but not published. | IncludedAll plans. Free 1 Docs site; Standard 2, Plus 3, Pro 5 included, extras at $20/mo annual. |
| Custom domain | IncludedClassic Groove supports a custom domain on the knowledge base, with either Groove's SSL or your own. Custom HTML and CSS are not supported. | Not published |
| Multi-brand | Not published | 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 | Not published | NoNot on any plan. The Docs rows cover sites, branding, articles, contact forms and access control. |
| Localization | Not published | NoNot on any plan. AI Assist translates agent text, not articles. |
| In-product widget | Not published | IncludedThe embeddable support hub: 1 on Free, 5 on Standard $25, unlimited on Plus $45 and Pro $75. |
| AI answers over KB | Not published | 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 | Helply (formerly Groove) | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Chatbot flows | Not published | NoNot on any plan. AI Answers is a retrieval agent, not a flow anyone builds. |
| Order lookup | Not published | 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 | Helply (formerly Groove) | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Conversation QA scoring | Not published | 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 | Not published | 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 | Not published | 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 | Not published | 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 | Not published | 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 | Not published | 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 | Not published | 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 | Helply (formerly Groove) | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Prebuilt dashboards | Not published | 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 | Not published | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. |
| Raw data export | Not publishedHelply publishes no export UI, format or API reference on the pricing, security, enterprise or migration pages, and docs.helply.com, developers.helply.com and api.helply.com do not resolve. Groove Classic, no longer sold, ticks "Data export" in all three columns of its feature matrix and offers a self-serve JSON export with no plan gate. | IncludedPaid plans. Reporting data only, delivered to CSV or Excel "with the exception of conversation thread contents". |
| Data warehouse sync | Not published | NoNot on any plan. The export row goes to CSV or Excel and no further. |
| CSAT / NPS | IncludedIncluded. Customer satisfaction surveys on Helply; CSAT ratings, customisable rating wording and CSAT reporting on every Classic Groove plan. | IncludedStandard $25 a user and above. Not on Free. |
| Real-time reporting | Not published | NoNot on any plan. Reporting is described by history window, not as a live dashboard. |
Collaboration
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Internal notes | IncludedEvery plan on both products, with @mentions. Lite users on Classic Groove can add notes but cannot reply. | Not published |
| Assignment | Not published | IncludedEvery plan including Free. |
| Collision detection | IncludedClassic Groove, every plan. | Not published |
| Approvals | Not published | NoNot on any plan. Nothing in the matrix reviews a reply or an article before it goes out. |
Enterprise
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| SAML SSO | Not publishedNot published for Helply, which has no plan matrix. Classic Groove's Security & Permissions matrix lists exactly four rows, two-factor authentication, mailbox access permissions, teammate roles and public downtime reporting, and SAML SSO is not one of them. | Paid add-onAdd-on on Plus and Pro, at a price Help Scout does not publish. Unavailable on Free and Standard. |
| IP allowlist | Not published | Paid add-onAdd-on on Plus and Pro, at a price Help Scout does not publish. |
| HIPAA / BAA | Not publishedHIPAA and a BAA appear nowhere on the security page, the enterprise page or the Classic Groove feature matrix. | Paid add-onPro only, and an add-on even there. Requires a signed BAA. Price not published. |
| SOC 2 | IncludedNot plan-gated. SOC 2 Type II, with the report and pen-test summaries "available on request" through the Vanta-hosted trust centre. | IncludedNot plan-gated. SOC 2 Type 2 for Security and Availability, report on request. |
| GDPR | IncludedNot plan-gated. GDPR is named on the security page, a DPA is offered on request, and Groove publishes a named DPO contact at dpo@groovehq.com. | IncludedNot plan-gated. A DPA is published, though the security page says only that Help Scout adheres to relevant privacy regulations without naming GDPR. |
| Right-to-erasure tooling | IncludedNot plan-gated. "Request deletion anytime. We maintain formal retention and disposal procedures to ensure your data is securely purged when you leave." Groove puts a figure on it: removal takes up to 30 days after cancellation. | Not published |
Developer
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | IncludedGroove Classic, no longer sold, ships a documented v1 REST API on every plan. Helply lists "API access" as included in the $1 ticket price and exposes a webhook API as one of its channels, but publishes no endpoint reference. | IncludedAll paid plans. Inbox API for customers, users and conversations; Docs API for articles. |
| GraphQL API | Not publishedGroove Classic, no longer sold, ships a GraphQL v2 API that can "both read and write all of your data", with the Inbox and Knowledge Base halves flagged as still being built. Helply names "API access" as included in the ticket price and publishes no reference for it, so whether a GraphQL surface exists on the product sold is not documented. | NoNot on any plan. The matrix lists API access with per-tier rate limits and nothing else. |
| Webhooks | IncludedEvery Classic Groove plan. Helply exposes a webhook API as one of its eight channels. | Not published |
| App framework | Not published | IncludedEvery plan including Free. |
| Published rate limits | Not publishedHelply publishes no rate limit, and no API reference to carry one. Groove Classic, no longer sold, publishes 200 calls per minute on Standard, 400 on Plus and 800 on Pro. | IncludedPublished per plan in the pricing matrix: Standard 200 calls/min, Plus 400, Pro 800. |
Both entries last checked Sep 9, 2026.
What Helply (formerly Groove) costs
- Billing unit
The only plan Helply sells - Free tier
No - AI pricing
$1 per ticket - Vendor calls it
Ticket - Human handoff
Still billed - Reopened chat
Not published - AI billing window
Not published - Data export
None published - Automation export
Not published
3 of 9 not published by Helply (formerly Groove), 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