Help ScoutZoho DeskHelp Scout vs Zoho Desk

Help Scout vs Zoho Desk: who includes website chat and Telegram

A shared inbox and help desk against a help desk: Zoho Desk is $55 a month cheaper for five people. What decides between Help Scout and Zoho Desk, and a third option for small teams.

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

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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 Zoho Desk if you already run Zoho CRM or Books and want support in the same suite. For five people, Zoho Desk is $55 a month cheaper than Help Scout ($125 a month on Help Scout against $70 on Zoho Desk), before AI. Sellio Mini is $45, $25 under Zoho Desk. Help Scout and Zoho Desk both include email, WhatsApp and Instagram in the price; only Help Scout has website chat; only Zoho Desk has Telegram. Between them Help Scout and Zoho Desk cover every channel Sellio ships. A team of two to ten choosing between Help Scout and Zoho Desk for chat and tickets at one price has a third option below.

At a glanceHelp ScoutHelp ScoutZoho DeskZoho Desk
Built aroundA calm email inbox · Beacon adds chatEmail tickets · part of the Zoho suite
Entry plan$25/user/mo · Standard: 2 inboxes$7/user/mo · Express, yearly
Chat in the price$25/user/mo · Beacon on every plan$40/user/mo · Enterprise, with SalesIQ
AI agent$0.75 per resolution · AI AnswersIn the plan · Zia on Professional and up
Copilot for agentsIncluded · AI inbox assistantZia · Professional and up
Free planYes · 5 users, 100 contacts a monthYes · 3 agents, email tickets

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. Zoho Desk raises a ticket where Help Scout keeps a conversation.

    Zoho DeskZoho Desk

    As a ticket from email, a form or a messaging app, in a queue with blueprints for the process. 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 $70 on Zoho Desk.

    Zoho DeskZoho Desk

    $7 buys email tickets on Express; WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram start on Standard at $14; live chat needs Enterprise. $70 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. Zoho Desk folds AI (in the plan) into the plan instead.

    Zoho DeskZoho Desk

    Zia's answer bot and generative AI are included by plan, with a token allowance, rather than metered per conversation. 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. website chat is here and not on Zoho Desk.

    Zoho DeskZoho Desk

    Email and social on every plan; WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and Messenger from Standard; chat on Enterprise. Telegram is here and not on Help Scout.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    Help ScoutHelp Scout

    Docs, the knowledge base, and customer profiles with properties; no contact center or campaigns. Zoho Desk is a help desk instead.

    Zoho DeskZoho Desk

    The Zoho suite: CRM, SalesIQ, Projects and Books share the account. 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. Zoho Desk is a day.

    Zoho DeskZoho Desk

    A day: connect the mailbox, set departments and a blueprint. Help Scout is an afternoon.

Sources: Help Scout pricing · Zoho Desk 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 Zoho Desk ticket view: the queue, the ticket with Zia's suggestions and the contact
Zoho DeskZoho Desk. The Zoho Desk ticket view: the queue, the ticket with Zia's suggestions and the contact

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 Zoho Desk

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.

Zoho DeskZoho Desk

$70/mo

WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, answer bot.

5 × $14 seats
$70
300 AI conversations × $0
$0

Yearly billing; monthly costs more. Zoho includes Zia and the answer bot in the plan with a token allowance; 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); Zoho Desk pricing page (recorded 2026-09-13; needs verification). 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, Zoho Desk 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 ScoutZoho DeskZoho DeskSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Per user; extra inboxes $10; AI per resolution.
Per user; AI in the plan
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
5 users, 1 inbox, 100 contacts a month.
3 agents
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
Beacon.
Enterprise, via SalesIQ
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.
Standard and up
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Included on paid plans.
Standard and up
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Not a channel.
Standard and up
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Slack notifications.
Slack and Teams integrations
From Mini: two-way threads; a reply there reaches the customer

AI

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

Support operations

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

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Browser and mobile apps.
Browser and mobile
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.
  • You need website chat in the price, which Zoho Desk does not include outright.
  • Time to the first reply is an afternoon here and a day on Zoho Desk.

Pick Zoho Desk if

  • You already run Zoho CRM or Books and want support in the same suite.
  • Email tickets with WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram at a low seat price.
  • Five people cost $55 a month less than on Help Scout ($70 against $125), before AI.
  • You need Telegram in the price, which Help Scout does not include outright.

The third option: Sellio

  • Two to ten of you answer chat, messaging and email. Compare Sellio's workspace plans with $125 a month on Help Scout against $70 on Zoho Desk for five people, including each product's limits.
  • The AI invoice should be known in advance: Help Scout meters AI ($0.75 per resolution) above the seats and Zoho Desk folds AI (in the plan) into the plan, where Sellio's credit is included and capped by you.
  • You need native Windows and macOS apps, which neither Help Scout nor Zoho Desk 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. Zoho Desk on Standard: $28, $70 and $140 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 $25 less than Zoho Desk for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $155 under Help Scout and $45 under Zoho Desk.

Where the two agree, and where they split

Help Scout is a shared inbox and help desk built around a calm email inbox; Zoho Desk is a help desk built around email tickets. Both have a free plan: Help Scout's is 5 users, 100 contacts a month, Zoho Desk's is 3 agents, email tickets. Help Scout and Zoho Desk both include email, WhatsApp and Instagram in the price; only Help Scout has website chat; only Zoho Desk has Telegram. Between them Help Scout and Zoho Desk cover every channel Sellio ships. Help Scout meters AI ($0.75 per resolution) above the seats; Zoho Desk folds AI (in the plan) into the plan. Zoho Desk has tickets and Help Scout does not, and neither Help Scout nor Zoho Desk ships a desktop app. Help Scout is an afternoon; Zoho Desk is a day.

What each price leaves out

Help Scout: AI Inbox assistant included; AI Answers (the chatbot) $0.75 per resolution. Zoho Desk: Zia answer bot from Standard; generative AI on Professional and up with a token allowance. Beside Help Scout's $0.75 per resolution and Zoho Desk's in the plan, 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 these figures were read

Zoho Desk does not print the figures above in a form a fetch can read (Per user per month, billed yearly; monthly costs more. The page could only be read in a local currency, so the dollar figures are Zoho's US list prices from published summaries.), so they are marked unverified here beside Help Scout's, and Zoho Desk's pricing page should be checked before you decide.

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
    Zoho DeskZoho DeskAssumed $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
    Zoho DeskZoho Desk · 15-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 Zoho Desk: the questions people ask

Help Scout is a shared inbox and help desk built around a calm email inbox; Zoho Desk is a help desk built around email tickets. Zoho Desk has tickets and Help Scout does not, and neither Help Scout nor Zoho Desk ships a desktop app.

  • Entry plan: Help Scout $25/user/mo (Standard: 2 inboxes); Zoho Desk $7/user/mo (Express, yearly).
  • Chat in the price: Help Scout $25/user/mo (Beacon on every plan); Zoho Desk $40/user/mo (Enterprise, with SalesIQ).
  • Sellio puts every channel in one inbox: all five channels on every paid plan, where Help Scout and Zoho Desk each include only some.

Sellio's side of the Help Scout and Zoho Desk rows is on the shared inbox page.

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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