Help ScoutLiveAgentHelp Scout vs LiveAgent

Help Scout vs LiveAgent: $20 apart for five people

A shared inbox and help desk against a help desk with live chat and calls: Help Scout is $20 a month cheaper for five people. The six differences, what five people pay on each, and a third option.

By Khalid Nouri, founder of SellioPricing check dates are listed with each vendor below

Try the third optionSellio pricing

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The short answer

Pick Help Scout if email is your main channel and you want the calmest inbox your agents will ever use. Pick LiveAgent if you want email, chat and a call center in one ticket queue at a low seat price. For five people, Help Scout is $20 a month cheaper than LiveAgent ($125 a month on Help Scout against $145 on LiveAgent), before AI. Sellio Mini, at $45 for the workspace, is $80 under Help Scout. Help Scout and LiveAgent both include website chat and email in the price; only Help Scout has WhatsApp and Instagram. Neither Help Scout nor LiveAgent includes Telegram outright. Below, a third option for a team of two to ten that wants what Help Scout and LiveAgent sell here at one price.

At a glanceHelp ScoutHelp ScoutLiveAgentLiveAgent
Built aroundA calm email inbox · Beacon adds chatA universal inbox · email, chat and calls
Entry plan$25/user/mo · Standard: 2 inboxes$15/agent/mo · Small Business, yearly
Chat in the price$25/user/mo · Beacon on every plan$15/agent/mo · chat on every plan
AI agent$0.75 per resolution · AI AnswersIncluded · chatbot and answer assistant
Copilot for agentsIncluded · AI inbox assistantIncluded
Free planYes · 5 users, 100 contacts a monthNone · 30-day trial

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    Help ScoutHelp Scout

    As a conversation in a shared inbox, assigned and tagged; it is email first, with Beacon chat beside it. LiveAgent raises a ticket where Help Scout keeps a conversation.

    LiveAgentLiveAgent

    As a ticket in the universal inbox, whether it came by email, chat or a call. Help Scout has no ticket queue behind its conversations.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    Help ScoutHelp Scout

    $25 buys two inboxes on Standard. More inboxes are $10 a month each; Pro has a ten-user minimum. $125 for five people, against $145 on LiveAgent.

    LiveAgentLiveAgent

    $15 buys email and two chat buttons on Small Business; the call center starts on Medium at $29. $145 for five people, against $125 on Help Scout.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    Help ScoutHelp Scout

    AI Answers, the chatbot, is $0.75 per resolution. The AI inbox assistant is included. LiveAgent folds AI (included) into the plan instead.

    LiveAgentLiveAgent

    The chatbot, answer assistant and triage are included in the paid plans; no per-conversation meter. Help Scout meters AI ($0.75 per resolution) above the seats instead.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    Help ScoutHelp Scout

    Email, Beacon chat, Messenger and SMS; no WhatsApp, Instagram or Telegram in the inbox. WhatsApp and Instagram are here and not on LiveAgent.

    LiveAgentLiveAgent

    Email and chat on every plan; calls from Medium; WhatsApp, Viber, Instagram and Facebook on Large and up. Help Scout adds WhatsApp and Instagram, which LiveAgent lacks.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    Help ScoutHelp Scout

    Docs, the knowledge base, and customer profiles with properties; no contact center or campaigns. LiveAgent is a help desk with live chat and calls instead.

    LiveAgentLiveAgent

    A call center with IVR, a knowledge base and a customer portal. Help Scout is a shared inbox and help desk instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    Help ScoutHelp Scout

    An afternoon: forward the support address, add Beacon, invite the team. LiveAgent is a day.

    LiveAgentLiveAgent

    A day: connect the mailbox, add the chat button, set the departments. Help Scout is an afternoon.

Sources: Help Scout pricing · LiveAgent pricing. Each vendor’s own comparison of the other is linked so you can weigh both sides against ours.

What each one looks like

A look at the agent workspace. Interfaces can vary by plan and product version.

The Help Scout inbox: a conversation list, the email thread and the customer sidebar
Help ScoutHelp Scout. The Help Scout inbox: a conversation list, the email thread and the customer sidebar
The LiveAgent universal inbox: the ticket list with email, chat and call tickets together
LiveAgentLiveAgent. The LiveAgent universal inbox: the ticket list with email, chat and call tickets together

What your team would pay

Move the sliders. Yearly-billing rates from each vendor’s pricing page, next to Sellio’s plan for the same number of seats.

5 people who answer customers

50

300 AI Answers resolutions on Help Scout, AI conversations on LiveAgent

3000+
Help ScoutHelp Scout

$350/mo

Two inboxes, Beacon chat, Docs.

5 × $25 seats
$125
300 AI Answers resolutions × $0.75
$225

Yearly billing; monthly costs more. $0.75 per resolution by AI Answers, as printed. Rates recorded on 2026-09-06.

LiveAgentLiveAgent

$145/mo

Adds the call center.

5 × $29 seats
$145
300 AI conversations × $0
$0

Yearly billing; monthly costs more. LiveAgent includes its chatbot and answer assistant in the seat; no per-conversation rate is printed. Rates recorded on 2026-09-13.

Sellio · Mini

$55/mo

One price for the workspace: 3 channels, 2 AI agents, $5 AI credit a month.

Workspace, 5 of 5 seats
$45
AI past 100 included conversations
$10
Copilot for agents
Included

About $0.05 per AI conversation past the credit, with a daily and monthly cap you set. Yearly billing takes 20% off. See every plan.

Pricing references: Help Scout pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06); LiveAgent pricing page (recorded 2026-09-13). Calculator uses yearly-billing rates. Prices change; confirm current terms with each vendor.

5 people, website chat plus 2 more channels, 2 AI agents: $45 a month. Start free, no card.

Start freeSee every plan

Help Scout, LiveAgent and Sellio, side by side

Fifteen things a support team checks. A dash means the product does part of it or charges extra for it.

FeatureHelp ScoutHelp ScoutLiveAgentLiveAgentSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Per user; extra inboxes $10; AI per resolution.
Per agent; AI included
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
5 users, 1 inbox, 100 contacts a month.
None; 30-day trial
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
Beacon.
All plans
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
The core of the product.
All plans
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
Included on paid plans.
Large and up
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Included on paid plans.
Add-on below Large
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Not a channel.
Viber, not Telegram
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Slack notifications.
Slack integration
From Mini: two-way threads; a reply there reaches the customer

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
AI Answers, trained on Docs.
Chatbot included
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
$0.75 per resolution.
In the seat
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Hands to the inbox.
Hands to an agent
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

Tickets
Conversations with status; no separate ticket object.
Universal inbox
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Workflows; rule lists with counts per plan.
Rules and time rules
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Reports and Happiness ratings.
Reports and CSAT
From Essentials: response times, resolution, CSAT; topics and email reports on Plus

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Browser and mobile apps.
Windows and macOS apps
Native Windows and macOS apps

Which one, for whom

Pick Help Scout if

  • Email is your main channel and you want the calmest inbox your agents will ever use.
  • You want a mature knowledge base in the same product.
  • Five people cost $20 a month less than on LiveAgent ($125 against $145), before AI.
  • You need WhatsApp and Instagram in the price, which LiveAgent does not include outright.

Pick LiveAgent if

  • You want email, chat and a call center in one ticket queue at a low seat price.
  • AI included in the seat matters more than a tunable AI meter.
  • You want native desktop apps, which Help Scout does not ship.
  • You need a ticket queue, which Help Scout does not have.

The third option: Sellio

  • You are two to ten people on Help Scout or LiveAgent who answer chat, messaging and email, and want to compare workspace pricing with $125 a month on Help Scout against $145 on LiveAgent for five people.
  • You want the AI bill known before the month starts: Help Scout meters AI ($0.75 per resolution) above the seats, LiveAgent folds AI (included) into the plan; Sellio includes a credit and lets you cap it.
  • You need Telegram, which neither Help Scout nor LiveAgent includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

Help Scout on Standard: $50, $125 and $250 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. LiveAgent on Medium Business: $58, $145 and $290 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $80 less than Help Scout and $100 less than LiveAgent for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $155 under Help Scout and $195 under LiveAgent.

Where the two agree, and where they split

Help Scout is a shared inbox and help desk built around a calm email inbox; LiveAgent is a help desk with live chat and calls built around a universal inbox. Only Help Scout has a free plan (5 users, 100 contacts a month); LiveAgent offers a 30-day trial, no card. Help Scout and LiveAgent both include website chat and email in the price; only Help Scout has WhatsApp and Instagram. Neither Help Scout nor LiveAgent includes Telegram outright. Help Scout meters AI ($0.75 per resolution) above the seats; LiveAgent folds AI (included) into the plan. LiveAgent has tickets and Help Scout does not, and only LiveAgent ships desktop apps. Help Scout is an afternoon; LiveAgent is a day.

What each price leaves out

Help Scout: AI Inbox assistant included; AI Answers (the chatbot) $0.75 per resolution. LiveAgent: Chatbot, answer assistant, autoresponder and triage included in the paid plans. Beside Help Scout's $0.75 per resolution and LiveAgent's included, Sellio includes an AI credit with each paid plan. Usage consumes that credit; additional credits cost extra, and you can set a spending cap.

How to decide in an afternoon

  1. Step 1

    Count agents and channels

    Anyone who replies is a seat. List the channels customers actually use.

    5 people reply5 seats
    Website chat61%
    WhatsApp27%
    Email12%
  2. Step 2

    Price the AI you would use

    Estimate monthly conversations the AI could close, then apply each vendor's per-resolution or per-session rate.

    1,200 conversations × 40% AI closes480
    Help ScoutHelp Scout$0.75$360
    LiveAgentLiveAgentAssumed $0$0
    Sellio$0.05$19

    Illustrative AI-only estimate; vendor units differ. Pack billing is rounded up. Sellio assumes Mini’s $5 credit and $0.05 per conversation.

  3. Step 3

    Trial the shortlist

    Check each vendor’s trial, free plan or demo terms. Where access is available, test one real channel before committing.

    Help ScoutHelp Scout · 15 days, no card
    LiveAgentLiveAgent · 30-day trial, no card
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

    Confirm trial access and limits, then evaluate one real channel on each.

Continue your research

FAQ

Help Scout vs LiveAgent: the questions people ask

Help Scout is a shared inbox and help desk built around a calm email inbox; LiveAgent is a help desk with live chat and calls built around a universal inbox. LiveAgent has tickets and Help Scout does not, and only LiveAgent ships desktop apps.

  • Entry plan: Help Scout $25/user/mo (Standard: 2 inboxes); LiveAgent $15/agent/mo (Small Business, yearly).
  • Chat in the price: Help Scout $25/user/mo (Beacon on every plan); LiveAgent $15/agent/mo (chat on every plan).
  • Sellio: one inbox for every channel: Telegram, which neither Help Scout nor LiveAgent has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

The shared inbox page puts Sellio beside Help Scout and LiveAgent on the same rows.

Still have a question? Contact us or browse the docs.

Or the third option: one price, every channel.

Sellio puts website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and email in one inbox with tickets and an AI agent, for $45 to $295 a month per workspace.

Get startedRead the docs

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