Comparison
Airclou Helpdesk vs Help Scout
The two most alike products on this page share a creed: support should feel like email, not enterprise software. Help Scout has spent fourteen years perfecting that inbox. Airclou keeps the calm and adds an AI with hands — drafting, executing, and resolving under approval gates you set.
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The honest verdict
The same calm — one of them has hands
Both products believe a small team deserves a quiet inbox. They part ways on what the software should do while the team isn’t looking.
Help Scout organizes. Airclou also executes.
Help Scout’s AI drafts and summarizes; a person still does every refund and account change by hand in another tab. Airclou’s AI verifies against Stripe and your APIs and carries the work out — behind approval gates, on an audit trail.
AI included vs AI à la carte
On Help Scout, AI Drafts skip the entry plan and the AI Answers chatbot bills $0.75 per resolution. On Airclou, drafting and auto-resolution are in every paid plan — no per-resolution meter.
Where Help Scout is ahead
Fourteen years of polish, a free plan for up to five users, a beloved support team, and Docs that set the standard for simple knowledge bases. If you want zero AI touching your systems, it’s a fine — and safer — choice.
Side by side
Feature by feature
| Feature | Airclou Helpdesk | Help Scout |
|---|---|---|
| Helpdesk core | ||
| Email, live chat & help center in one inbox | Included | Included |
| SLAs, business hours & escalations | Included | Workflows, no formal SLAs |
| Reporting & CSAT | Included | Included |
| Voice / phone channel | — | Via integrations |
| WhatsApp & social channels | — | — |
| App marketplace | Stripe + your own APIs | 100+ integrations |
| AI | ||
| AI-drafted replies, grounded in your knowledgebase | Every paid plan | Plus plan and up |
| Drafts cite their sources (articles, account data) | Included | — |
| AI executes real work (refunds, plan changes) | Growth plan and up | — |
| Human approval gates on AI actions | Included | — |
| Full audit trail of every AI action, approver included | Included | — |
| Pricing | ||
| Starting price | $19 per agent / month | $25 per user / month |
| AI pricing | Included in the plan | AI Answers $0.75 per resolution |
| Free plan | 1 agent, no AI | Up to 5 users (limited) |
| Free trial | 14 days, no credit card | Included |
Help Scout features and pricing are from their public pages at the time of writing and can change — check helpscout.com for current details.
The difference, shown
What an AI with hands looks like on a real ticket
Drafts that arrive with receipts
Before an agent opens the ticket, a reply is waiting — written from your knowledgebase and the customer’s actual account data, with the sources attached. Verify in a glance, not a re-research.
- Grounded in your articles, SOPs, and live billing data
- One click to send, or edit in place
- Low-confidence drafts are flagged, never auto-sent
Refunds that wait for your approval
The AI can verify a duplicate charge and prepare the refund — but anything irreversible parks at a gate you configured. Your team stays in charge of the money; the AI does the legwork.
- Approval envelopes by action, amount, or customer segment
- Idempotent execution — a retry can never double-refund
- Every action logged with who approved it and why
Switching
Questions teams ask before leaving Help Scout
We chose Help Scout for its simplicity. Is Airclou more complex?
The surface is the same shape: a shared inbox your team already understands, not an enterprise console. The difference is underneath — an AI that arrives with drafts ready and can carry out the routine work. You can ignore the autonomy entirely at first and still have a calm inbox with better drafts.
How does the AI pricing compare?
Help Scout includes the agent-facing AI tools in its plans — but AI Drafts and AI Summarize skip the entry Standard plan, and the AI Answers chatbot bills $0.75 per resolution on top of seats. Airclou includes drafting and auto-resolution in every paid plan with no per-resolution fee, so deflecting more of your queue never raises the bill.
How do we move our Docs site over?
Point Airclou at your existing Help Scout Docs and it imports your articles into the knowledgebase — the same knowledge that grounds every AI draft from day one. You review and publish; nothing goes live unedited.
Can we run Airclou next to Help Scout during the trial?
Yes, and we recommend it. Forward a portion of your support address to Airclou and compare the AI drafts against your real queue for two weeks — no cutover, no risk to your current setup.
When is Help Scout the better choice?
If you want the most proven simple shared inbox, a generous free plan, and you specifically don’t want an AI acting on your systems — Help Scout has fourteen years of polish and a beloved support team. The comparison only tips when you want the queue worked, not just organized.
Are we locked into a contract?
No. Airclou bills monthly per agent and you can cancel anytime. Annual billing exists for the discount, not as a lock-in — and your data is exportable either way.
Make the switch
Keep the calm. Add the hands.
Import your Docs in an afternoon, forward part of your inbox, and judge the drafts on your own tickets — while Help Scout keeps running.
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