Compare · Help Scout
A Help Scout alternative
for client work.
Help Scout is a polished shared inbox for customer support. Tend is built for small teams whose requests come from a known set of clients, with a private portal for each of them and the time and assets behind the work.
When Help Scout is the right call
Product and ecommerce teams supporting many customers they mostly never meet. Help Scout pairs its inbox with a public help centre, a website widget with live chat, an AI chatbot, a public API and over a hundred integrations, and offers SSO and HIPAA compliance as add-ons on its higher plans. Up to five users can start free, and on annual billing its Standard plan costs less per user than Tend.
When Tend is
Small agencies, practices and IT providers whose work comes from the same clients month after month. Each client gets a private portal to track their own requests, documents you need from them are chased automatically, and time, costs and assets sit against the client.
| Aspect | Help Scout | Tend |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free for up to 5 users; Standard US$25, Plus US$45, Pro US$75 per user/month on annual billing | US$29 per agent/month - one plan, founding price kept while subscribed |
| Plan limits | Users capped by plan (5, 25, 50); Pro needs at least 10 users and a sales demo; the free plan helps 100 contacts a month | No seat minimums; clients and portal users are free |
| Teammates who don't answer | Light users on Plus and Pro, who view and collaborate without a full seat | Read-only and finance roles sign in free; only admins and agents take a seat |
| Client portal | Help centre sites (Docs) and a website widget (Beacon) | Private, passwordless portal where each client tracks their own requests, on your own domain if you like |
| Documents from clients | Not among the published plan features | A checklist of what each client owes, chased by email every 3 days until it arrives |
| Time & assets | Not among the published plan features | Timers and time entries per request, costs, CSV export, and a per-client register of hardware, software, services and stock |
| AI | AI writing help on paid plans; AI Answers chatbot billed at US$0.75 per resolution | No AI add-on charges |
| Trial | 15 days on Standard and Plus, no card; Pro by demo | 14 days, no card, set up on your own |
Help Scout figures as published October 2026 · Help Scout's pricing page has current details · trademark of its owner; no affiliation · Tend prices in USD
Moving does not change the address your clients write to. Forward it to a Tend queue and new requests open there, with replies threading back to the same request.
Tend has no direct Help Scout importer, so most teams let open conversations finish where they started while new ones begin in Tend. Tend does not invoice clients, take payments or connect to accounting software: time and costs export as CSV for the tool you invoice from.
Bring your work across with importers for Zendesk and Freshdesk exports, or use the documented CSV format. Preview the changes before importing. See pricing or how your data is handled.
Start today
Your first ticket.
Start your own workspace, try a request and connect your email. No setup call. No card required.
14 days free · US$29 per agent / month after trial