Helply (formerly Groove) vs Pylon
A side-by-side comparison of Helply (formerly Groove) and Pylon on what each one charges, what it meters, and which plan every capability actually sits on.
The short answer
1 of the 13 capabilities tracked on both differs.
| Measure | Helply (formerly Groove) | Pylon |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | Usage only | Sales-gated |
| AI billed at | $1 per ticket | Not published |
| Included, where the other says no | 0 capabilities | 1 capability |
Capability by capability
1 of the 13 capabilities tracked on both products differs.
Channels
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Pylon |
|---|---|---|
| IncludedIncluded. One of the eight channels feeding Helply's single queue, and on every Classic Groove plan. | IncludedAny address, plus Gmail and Outlook Mail connectors. | |
| Live chat | IncludedIncluded. In-app widget on Helply; branded chat widget for web and mobile on every Classic Groove plan. | IncludedChat widget with mobile SDKs. |
| 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. | IncludedListed as a Phone and SMS channel. No voice pricing or minute rate is published. |
| SMS | IncludedIncluded. | IncludedListed as a Phone and SMS channel. |
| IncludedIncluded. | Included | |
| 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. | Not published |
| Slack Connect | IncludedIncluded, and threaded into the same queue as email rather than mirrored. Named as a first-class B2B channel: "Slack Connect threading". | IncludedUnknown. No plan table is published, so no channel can be shown as gated or ungated. |
| Microsoft Teams | IncludedIncluded, alongside Discord. | IncludedUnknown. No plan table is published. |
Ticketing
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Pylon |
|---|---|---|
| Shared inbox | IncludedIncluded, with unlimited seats. "Bring your whole team. Engineers triaging bugs, AEs reading churn signals, PMs scanning feature requests." | Not published |
| SLA policies | IncludedIncluded on Helply, with per-account SLAs called out for enterprise. Classic Groove gates SLA management to Plus and Pro. | Not published |
| 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. | IncludedProduct feature with a dedicated API endpoint, so saved replies are extractable. |
| Custom fields | IncludedClassic Groove: customer overview with custom fields on every plan, plus company fields and field categories. | Included |
| Custom objects | Not published | Included |
| Ticket forms | Not published | Included |
Routing & automation
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Pylon |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Not published |
| Triggers | Not published | IncludedDocumented product feature. Absent from the API reference index, so trigger logic cannot be exported. |
| 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. | Not published |
AI resolution
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Pylon |
|---|---|---|
| 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." | Not published |
| Resolution over knowledge base | IncludedIncluded, and trained on resolved tickets and macros as well as articles. | Not published |
| 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. | Not published |
| 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. | Not published |
| 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 published |
AI assist
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Pylon |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Not published |
| Summarization | IncludedIncluded on Helply. Classic Groove gates AI summarize to Plus and Pro. | Not published |
| Auto-tagging | IncludedClassic Groove AI tag suggest, Plus and Pro only. Included on Helply. | Not published |
| 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. | Not published |
Knowledge base
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Pylon |
|---|---|---|
| Public help center | IncludedIncluded on Helply. Classic Groove includes a knowledge base per plan allowance, with additional ones priced but not published. | Not published |
| 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 |
Reporting
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Pylon |
|---|---|---|
| Data warehouse sync | Not published | IncludedUnknown. No plan table is published. |
| CSAT / NPS | IncludedIncluded. Customer satisfaction surveys on Helply; CSAT ratings, customisable rating wording and CSAT reporting on every Classic Groove plan. | Not published |
Collaboration
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Pylon |
|---|---|---|
| Internal notes | IncludedEvery plan on both products, with @mentions. Lite users on Classic Groove can add notes but cannot reply. | Not published |
| Collision detection | IncludedClassic Groove, every plan. | Not published |
Enterprise
| Capability | Helply (formerly Groove) | Pylon |
|---|---|---|
| Custom roles | Not publishedClassic Groove publishes "teammate roles" and mailbox access permissions with no detail on what roles exist or whether they can be defined. Helply publishes nothing on roles at all, which is a notable gap for a product whose selling point is putting the whole company in the inbox. | IncludedUnknown. No plan table is published. |
| Audit logs | Not publishedHelply logs AI decisions ("Every AI action, resolution, escalation, signal, is logged with the source data it used and the decision it made") but publishes nothing about an administrative audit trail or how to retrieve either. Classic Groove's security matrix does not list one. | IncludedUnknown. No plan table is published. |
| HIPAA / BAA | Not publishedHIPAA and a BAA appear nowhere on the security page, the enterprise page or the Classic Groove feature matrix. | IncludedEnterprise tier only. Verbatim: "We're happy to sign a BAA in the enterprise plan". |
| 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. | IncludedNo gate stated. SOC 2 Type 2, monitored via Vanta. |
| ISO 27001 | Not publishedNot claimed for either product. Groove's GDPR article mentions ISO 27001 only as a property of its hosting providers, which is a statement about AWS rather than about the product. | IncludedNo gate stated. ISO 27001 plus ISO 42001 for AI management systems. |
| 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. | IncludedNo gate stated. DPA available on request. |
| 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) | Pylon |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Included |
| Webhooks | IncludedEvery Classic Groove plan. Helply exposes a webhook API as one of its eight channels. | Included |
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 Pylon costs
- Billing unit
No price is published anywhere - Free tier
Not published - AI pricing
Not published - Vendor calls it
Not published - Human handoff
Not published - Reopened chat
Not published - AI billing window
Not published - Data export
Self-serve - Automation export
Partial
6 of 9 not published by Pylon, checked