Help Scout alternative for small teams
For a team of 3 answering 500 emails a month, Help Scout's Standard plan costs $75 a month without its AI, and $262.50 if its AI resolves 250 of the emails without a person, billed annually, excluding VAT. Airmailer's Growth plan, about 810 replies a month, is €99 a month including VAT.
Prices read on 22 October 2026
How Help Scout works
Help Scout is a helpdesk. A team moves its support email into Help Scout and answers customers there. Help Scout charges for each user, and bills its AI for each conversation it resolves without a person. On its pricing page, AI Assist, which edits and translates text, is on every paid plan, and AI Drafts, which drafts replies from past conversations and help content, is on Plus ($45 a user a month, billed annually) and Pro.
How Airmailer works
- Your support mailbox forwards a copy of each customer email to Airmailer and keeps the original. Your email address and mailbox stay as they are.
- Pip, the AI agent in Airmailer, drafts a reply to each email that needs one, from your FAQ, policies, product list and web pages, in the customer's language. When those don't answer a question, the draft says your team will get back to the customer, and waits for approval.
- Automatic sending is off at the start, so someone on your team approves each draft. Turned on, it sends the drafts Pip is most confident about. Pip never sends an automatic reply to an upset customer, a refund dispute, a legal threat or a report of an injury.
- Replies go out under your business's name, from your support address once its domain is verified. Until then they come from an address at reply.airmailer.app, with your support address as Reply-To.
Each plan has a monthly price in euros, VAT included, for the whole team. Extra usage, if an owner turns it on, is billed with the next payment. Accounts, conversations and documents are stored in Frankfurt, Germany. Email is sent and received through Resend in the US, which keeps each email for 30 days.
Price for a team of 3 answering 500 emails a month
Help Scout's prices were read from its pricing page on 22 October 2026 and exclude VAT. Airmailer's prices include VAT.
- The Standard plan is Help Scout's lowest paid plan, billed annually.
- The example assumes Help Scout's AI resolves 250 of the 500 emails without a person.
- Airmailer's plan is the smallest that covers 500 replies a month. Its price is the same whether someone approves each draft or Pip sends it automatically.
| Cost | Help Scout | Airmailer |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | Standard plan, billed annually | Growth: €99 a month for about 810 replies, billed monthly |
| 3 users | 3 × $25 = $75 | Included |
| 250 AI resolutions | 250 × $0.75 = $187.50 | Included: a draft for each of the 500 emails |
| A month with Help Scout's AI | $262.50, excluding VAT | €99, including VAT |
| A month without Help Scout's AI | $75, excluding VAT | €99, including VAT |
Airmailer's other plans: Free for about 50 replies, Starter at €29 for about 200 replies, Scale at €299 for about 2,600 replies.
When Help Scout is the better choice
- Customers also write through live chat, WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger, and your team wants those next to email. Help Scout's Standard plan includes them. Airmailer handles email only.
- Most emails need someone to look up or change an order or an account in another system. Pip can't see or change either, so those drafts say your team will get back to the customer, and a person answers.
- Your team wants conversations assigned automatically. Help Scout's workflows assign them. In Airmailer, conversations are assigned by hand.
- Your team answers most emails itself. Help Scout has a Free plan for up to 5 users with 1 inbox, and its Standard plan is $25 a user a month, billed annually.
Trying Airmailer
The Free plan includes about 50 replies a month for the whole team, with no card needed. Create an account with an email address on your business's domain, then forward a copy of your support email to the address Airmailer gives you.