PimiDesk vs Help Scout
Pick PimiDesk if you want tickets and a shared inbox for several products at one flat price, worked from your own AI tool. Pick Help Scout if you want a free plan, a help center or an in-app widget.
The rows that decide it
| PimiDesk | Help Scout | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $9 a month for 2 members | $25 per user a month (Standard, billed monthly) |
| How it is billed | A flat price per plan, monthly only | Per user; 16% off with annual billing |
| Free plan | None | Up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site |
| Trial | 14 days, card at the start, replies only | 15 days, no credit card |
| Help center | None | Help Scout Docs |
| In-app widget | None | Beacon |
| Tickets with status, priority and SLA targets | Yes, beside the shared inbox | The shared inbox is the core product |
| AI | None built in. Your own AI tool connects through an MCP server with 40 tools, on every plan | AI Answers add-on, $0.75 per resolution |
Where Help Scout is the right pick
- You want to start for nothing. Help Scout's free plan covers five users with one inbox. PimiDesk has no free plan, and its trial needs a card.
- You need a help center. Help Scout includes Docs for public articles. PimiDesk has no knowledge base.
- You want support inside your app. Beacon puts help articles and a contact form in your product. PimiDesk has no widget.
- You want customers answered by AI. Help Scout sells AI Answers per resolution. PimiDesk has no AI of its own.
Where PimiDesk is the right pick
- A small team, a flat bill. Two people pay $9 a month on Lite. On Help Scout Standard the same two pay $50, and five pay $125.
- You need tickets as well as an inbox. An address can feed tickets with a status, a priority and SLA targets, a shared inbox, or one person's private inbox.
- Several products, each on its own domain. One workspace takes mail for up to 5 domains on Lite.
- You want it scriptable. The API has an OpenAPI 3.1 description with 250+ operations. Help Scout documents an Inbox API and a Docs API; we found no public OpenAPI file.
- You already work in an AI tool. Claude or ChatGPT can read the queue and draft replies through the MCP server, at the access level you set.
What each one costs
PimiDesk
- Lite: $9 a month. 1 workspace, and in each one 2 members, 20 email addresses and 5 domains.
- Pro: $29 a month. 2 workspaces, and in each one 5 members, 40 email addresses and 10 domains.
- Business: $79 a month. 3 workspaces, and in each one 20 members, 100 email addresses and 25 domains.
- Every plan has every feature. There is no free plan.
- A new subscription starts with a 14-day trial. You enter a card at Paddle checkout and are charged when the trial ends. During the trial a workspace can receive mail and reply to it, but cannot start a new thread.
Help Scout
- Standard: $25 per user, billed monthly.
- Plus: $45 per user, billed monthly.
- Pro: $75 per user, billed monthly.
- Free: $0 for up to 5 users, 1 inbox and 1 Docs site.
- Annual billing is advertised at 16% off; annual prices were not listed.
Help Scout prices and features were read on its pricing page and its developer documentation. Last checked: April 2026. They may have changed since, so check the source before you decide.
Switching from Help Scout
What moves. Your support address: point its mail at PimiDesk or forward it, and new mail arrives in the shared inbox or as tickets, whichever you set for that address. Contacts can be created through the API. Saved replies become canned responses, set up again by hand.
What does not. Conversation history. PimiDesk has no importer, and a thread created through the API is dated the day it is created. Docs articles and Beacon have nowhere to go, because PimiDesk has no help center and no widget.
The practical route is to start fresh in PimiDesk and keep Help Scout open to read until the old conversations stop mattering.
See if PimiDesk fits
14-day trial. Card needed, cancel anytime. The API reference is open to read before you sign up.