Help Scout vs Zoho Desk

Two customer support tools side by side. Prices are the starting plan a small business would pick, in USD.

Short version

Zoho Desk costs less for a six-person team.
Help Scout: Simple for the team.

Compare	Help ScoutHelp Scout	Zoho DeskZoho
In one line	Shared inbox that feels like email, plus a help center	Help desk with a free plan and $7 agents
Starting price	From $25/person	From $7/person
Six-person team	$150/mo	$42/mo
Plans	Free (5 users, 100 contacts/mo); Standard $25/user/mo; Plus $45/user/mo; Pro $75/user/mo; 16% off annual	Free for 3 agents; per agent, billed yearly: Express $7 (up to 5 agents); Standard $14; Professional $23 (phone); Enterprise $40 (live chat). Monthly $9/$20/$35/$50
Pricing model	Free tier	Free tier
Free trial	15 days	15 days
Users	Per user; 5 on free	3 on free; up to 5 on Express
Integrations	Shopify, HubSpot, Slack, Jira, 100+	Zoho CRM, Google Workspace, Slack, Salesforce, Jira, Microsoft Teams, Zapier (Standard and up)
Team size	2–10 people · 11–50 people	2–10 people · 11–50 people
Available in	US · UK · CA · AU	US · UK · CA · AU
Phone support	None listed	Every paid plan
Live chat	None listed	Professional and up
Support hours	Not published	Email: 24/7 (every paid plan) · Phone: 8 hours x 5 days (Classic); 24 hours x 5 days (Premium support plan); 24 hours x 7 days (Enterprise support plan) · Live chat: standard business hours (Classic); 24 hours on weekdays (Premium support plan)
Incidents posted	6 incidents posted on Help Scout's status page in the 90 days to Oct 27, 2026; 0 marked major or critical by Help Scout. Status page	Zoho has a public status page. Status page
Capterra score	4.6 / 5 from 226 reviews	4.5 / 5 from 2,216 reviews
Trustpilot score	3.0 / 5 from 40 reviews	Not listed
Fit: Retail shop	60	65
Fit: Restaurant or café	40	45
Fit: Service business	80	80
Fit: Agency or studio	75	78
Fit: Trades or contractor	55	55
Fit: Online store	90	82
Why people pick it	Simple for the team Docs site included	Free plan for 3 agents Express at $7 per agent billed yearly
Where it falls short	Per-user pricing adds up Light on automation	Most integrations start on Standard Live chat only on Enterprise
	Visit Help Scout	Visit Zoho Desk

Six-person prices are what a team of six would pay on the published plans; "Not listed" means those plans don't cover six. How we calculate prices

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Help Scout vs Zoho Desk

Short version

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