HiverHelp ScoutHiver vs Help Scout

Hiver vs Help Scout: the same $125 for five people, compared

A Gmail-based shared inbox against a shared inbox and help desk: five people cost the same on both. What decides between Hiver and Help Scout, and a third option for small teams.

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 Hiver if your agents live in Gmail or Outlook and you do not want them to learn a new tool. Pick Help Scout if email is your main channel and you want the calmest inbox your agents will ever use. Five people cost the same on Hiver and Help Scout, $125 a month before AI; Sellio Mini is $45, $80 less. Hiver and Help Scout both include email in the price; only Help Scout has website chat, WhatsApp and Instagram. Neither Hiver nor Help Scout includes Telegram outright. A team of two to ten choosing between Hiver and Help Scout for chat and tickets at one price has a third option below.

At a glanceHiverHiverHelp ScoutHelp Scout
Built aroundGmail and Outlook · nothing new to learnA calm email inbox · Beacon adds chat
Entry plan$25/user/mo · Growth, yearly$25/user/mo · Standard: 2 inboxes
Chat in the price$45/user/mo · Pro adds live chat$25/user/mo · Beacon on every plan
AI agentHarvey AI · features by plan, no per-use price$0.75 per resolution · AI Answers
Copilot for agentsBy plan · HarveyIncluded · AI inbox assistant
Free planYes · core shared inboxYes · 5 users, 100 contacts a month

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    HiverHiver

    As an email in a Gmail or Outlook inbox with Hiver's assignment, status and notes layered on it. Help Scout has no ticket queue either.

    Help ScoutHelp Scout

    As a conversation in a shared inbox, assigned and tagged; it is email first, with Beacon chat beside it. Hiver has no ticket queue either.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    HiverHiver

    $25 buys the shared inbox on Growth; seats come in packs of 2, 5 and 10, so a sixth user means buying ten. $125 for five people, against $125 on Help Scout.

    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 $125 on Hiver.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    HiverHiver

    Harvey AI features are tied to the plan you are on rather than metered per conversation. Help Scout meters AI ($0.75 per resolution) above the seats instead.

    Help ScoutHelp Scout

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

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    HiverHiver

    Email first; live chat and WhatsApp on the higher plans, no Instagram or Telegram. Help Scout adds website chat, WhatsApp and Instagram, which Hiver lacks.

    Help ScoutHelp Scout

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

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    HiverHiver

    SLAs, CSAT and analytics on top of the mailbox; strong for finance and operations teams. Help Scout is a shared inbox and help desk instead.

    Help ScoutHelp Scout

    Docs, the knowledge base, and customer profiles with properties; no contact center or campaigns. Hiver is a Gmail-based shared inbox instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    HiverHiver

    An hour: install the Gmail extension and share the inbox. Help Scout is an afternoon.

    Help ScoutHelp Scout

    An afternoon: forward the support address, add Beacon, invite the team. Hiver is an hour.

Sources: Hiver pricing · Help Scout 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 Hiver sidebar inside Gmail: assignment, status and notes beside the email
HiverHiver. The Hiver sidebar inside Gmail: assignment, status and notes beside the email
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

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 conversations on Hiver, AI Answers resolutions on Help Scout

3000+
HiverHiver

$125/mo

Shared inbox, assignment, notes.

5 × $25 seats
$125
300 AI conversations × $0
$0

Yearly billing; monthly costs more. Hiver ties Harvey AI to the plan rather than metering it; no per-conversation rate is printed. Rates recorded on 2026-09-06.

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.

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: Hiver pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06; needs verification); Help Scout pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06). 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

Hiver, Help Scout 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.

FeatureHiverHiverHelp ScoutHelp ScoutSellio

Pricing

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

Channels

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

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
Harvey AI assists agents; limited autonomous answering.
AI Answers, trained on Docs.
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
By plan.
$0.75 per resolution.
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Not applicable to an assist model.
Hands to the inbox.
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

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

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Runs inside Gmail and Outlook.
Browser and mobile apps.
Native Windows and macOS apps

Which one, for whom

Pick Hiver if

  • Your agents live in Gmail or Outlook and you do not want them to learn a new tool.
  • Email is nearly the whole job and you need SLAs and analytics on it.
  • You want the AI in the seat price (Harvey AI) rather than Help Scout's meter at $0.75 per resolution.
  • Time to the first reply is an hour here and an afternoon on Help Scout.

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, WhatsApp and Instagram in the price, which Hiver does not include outright.
  • Time to the first reply is an afternoon here and an hour on Hiver.

The third option: Sellio

  • Two to ten of you answer chat, messaging and email. Compare Sellio's workspace plans with $125 a month on Hiver against $125 on Help Scout for five people, including each product's limits.
  • The AI invoice should be known in advance: Hiver folds AI (Harvey AI) into the plan and Help Scout meters AI ($0.75 per resolution) above the seats, where Sellio's credit is included and capped by you.
  • You need Telegram and native Windows and macOS apps, which neither Hiver nor Help Scout includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

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

Where the two agree, and where they split

Hiver is a Gmail-based shared inbox built around Gmail and Outlook; Help Scout is a shared inbox and help desk built around a calm email inbox. Both have a free plan: Hiver's is core shared inbox, Help Scout's is 5 users, 100 contacts a month. Hiver and Help Scout both include email in the price; only Help Scout has website chat, WhatsApp and Instagram. Neither Hiver nor Help Scout includes Telegram outright. Hiver folds AI (Harvey AI) into the plan; Help Scout meters AI ($0.75 per resolution) above the seats. Neither Hiver nor Help Scout has a ticket queue, and neither Hiver nor Help Scout ships a desktop app. Hiver is an hour; Help Scout is an afternoon.

What each price leaves out

Hiver: Harvey AI features by plan. Help Scout: AI Inbox assistant included; AI Answers (the chatbot) $0.75 per resolution. Beside Hiver's Harvey AI and Help Scout's $0.75 per resolution, 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

Hiver does not print the figures above in a form a fetch can read (Per user per month with yearly and monthly rates and seat packs (2, 5, 10 and so on). Hiver renders its table in the browser; figures confirmed from published summaries.), so they are marked unverified here beside Help Scout's, and Hiver'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
    HiverHiverAssumed $0$0
    Help ScoutHelp Scout$0.75$360
    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.

    HiverHiver · Free trial offered
    Help ScoutHelp Scout · 15 days, no card
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

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

Continue your research

FAQ

Hiver vs Help Scout: the questions people ask

Hiver is a Gmail-based shared inbox built around Gmail and Outlook; Help Scout is a shared inbox and help desk built around a calm email inbox. Neither Hiver nor Help Scout has a ticket queue, and neither Hiver nor Help Scout ships a desktop app.

  • Entry plan: Hiver $25/user/mo (Growth, yearly); Help Scout $25/user/mo (Standard: 2 inboxes).
  • Chat in the price: Hiver $45/user/mo (Pro adds live chat); Help Scout $25/user/mo (Beacon on every plan).
  • Sellio: Telegram, which neither Hiver nor Help Scout has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the Hiver and Help Scout 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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