Help Desk Pricing in 2026: Seven Tools on One Table
Shayan, Founder9 min read
The cheapest seat with live chat runs from $20 a month on Zoho Desk to $85 on Front, and the seat is the smaller half of the bill. All seven charge for the AI agent on top of the seat, by resolution, by session, by plan tier or by credit, and that meter is what separates the bills. Ten agents handling 5,000 conversations a month, with AI resolving 30% of them, pay $500 on Zoho Desk, $965 on Freshdesk, $1,425 on Help Scout, $1,875 on Intercom, $2,185 on Front and $3,590 on Zendesk. Document360 does not publish a price. UserJot, which we make, puts live chat, email and an AI agent next to a feedback board for $0, $29 or $59 a month for the whole workspace, and the same three teams are costed on it at the end.
The cheapest seat with live chat
| Tool | Plan with chat | Monthly billing | Annual billing | AI agent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho Desk | Standard | $20 per agent | $14 per agent | Enterprise only, $50 per agent, tokens included |
| Freshdesk | Omni Growth (Growth is email only) | $35 per agent | $29 per agent | $49 per 100 Freddy sessions |
| Help Scout | Standard | $30 per user | $25 per user | $0.75 per resolution after three free months |
| Intercom | Essential | $39 per seat | $29 per seat | $0.99 per Fin resolution |
| Zendesk | Suite Team | $69 per agent | $55 per agent | $2 per resolution after five per agent |
| Front | Professional | $85 per seat | $65 per seat | $0.89 per Autopilot resolution, $0.39 per handoff |
| Document360 | Quote | Not published | Not published | Credits, priced on the call |
Three of the rows hide a step. Front's Starter plan at $35 monthly is one channel type, email or chat, so a team that wants both starts on Professional. Freshdesk's Growth at $23 is tickets and email; chat means Freshdesk Omni, a separate SKU from $29 a seat on annual billing or $35 monthly. Zoho's Standard has the chat widget but not the AI agents, which are Enterprise features at $50 a seat monthly. Help Scout and Zoho Desk have free plans that do not expire: Help Scout up to five users and 100 helped contacts a month, Zoho three agents on email only. Freshdesk gives two agents six months.
How each one bills the AI
| Tool | Unit | Rate | What is included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intercom | Resolution | $0.99 | Nothing; every Fin resolution is billed |
| Zendesk | Resolution | $2, or $1.50 on committed volume | Five per agent a month on Team plans |
| Help Scout | Resolution | $0.75 | Three months free on new accounts, then every one is billed |
| Front | Resolution and handoff | $0.89 resolved, $0.39 handed off | Nothing |
| Freshdesk | Session, in packs of 100 | $49 per pack | 500 sessions once |
| Zoho Desk | Plan tier | Enterprise seat, $50 monthly | 30 million tokens a month, then $1 per million |
| Document360 | Credits | On the quote | On the quote |
A resolution is a conversation the AI closes without a person. Intercom bills Fin when the customer confirms or goes quiet; Zendesk is moving to a model where a second model judges whether the request was resolved, with rates it has not published; Front charges a smaller fee when Autopilot drafts and a person finishes. Freshdesk's session is looser than a resolution, since a customer who writes back on day four starts a new one. Zoho is the only vendor here where the AI line does not grow per conversation: Enterprise includes 30 million tokens a month, which its post estimates covers 150 to 1,500 AI answers, and then $1 per million. It is also the only one that makes you climb to the top plan to switch the AI on.
Three teams, humans only
Monthly billing, every agent on the cheapest plan with chat from the first table, except Freshdesk, which is Growth without chat. No add-ons, no startup credit.
| Tool | 2 agents, 500 conversations | 5 agents, 2,000 conversations | 10 agents, 5,000 conversations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho Desk | $40 | $100 | $200 |
| Freshdesk | $46 | $115 | $230 |
| Help Scout | $60 | $150 | $300 |
| Intercom | $78 | $195 | $390 |
| Zendesk | $138 | $345 | $690 |
| Front | $170 | $425 | $850 |
| UserJot | $0 | $29 | $29 |
Seats are the predictable part. They scale with the team, the team grows slowly, and the vendors have mostly left the prices alone: Intercom's seat has not moved since at least January 2024. On annual billing the six vendor rows drop by a sixth to almost a third.
Three teams with AI at 30%
The same teams, with the AI agent resolving 30% of conversations. Zoho's row is Enterprise, since that is where its agents live; Freshdesk's is Growth plus Freddy packs, rounded up to whole packs.
| Tool | 2 agents, 500 conversations | 5 agents, 2,000 conversations | 10 agents, 5,000 conversations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho Desk | $100 | $250 | $500 |
| Freshdesk | $144 | $409 | $965 |
| Help Scout | $173 | $600 | $1,425 |
| Intercom | $227 | $789 | $1,875 |
| Front | $304 | $959 | $2,185 |
| Zendesk | $418 | $1,495 | $3,590 |
| UserJot | $0 | $29 | $29 |
This is the table that decides it. At two agents the AI roughly doubles or triples the bill on every metered tool. At ten agents and 5,000 conversations, the AI is $1,485 of Intercom's $1,875, $2,900 of Zendesk's $3,590 and $1,125 of Help Scout's $1,425. The seat is the entry fee and the meter is the revenue, and the meter grows with your customers rather than your team. A support tool priced this way earns more when more of your customers need help, which is the opposite of what you want from it.
The order flips between the two tables. Zendesk has cheaper seats than Front and ends up the most expensive once the AI is on, because its $2 resolution is the highest rate here. Zoho is cheapest on both because its AI is not metered per resolution, with the catch that its agents only run from US and India data centres.
Live chat, email and an AI agent, one flat price.
UserJot's support inbox and Juno come with every plan. No agent seats, no per-resolution fee.
Which one to read next
Intercom pricing. $29 to $132 a seat on annual billing and $0.99 per Fin resolution. The messenger, product tours, surveys and phone, SMS and WhatsApp channels; the right tool when the chat widget is the product. Early Stage gives startups under 15 people most of it for $65 a month in year one.
Zendesk pricing. $19 to $115 an agent on annual billing, chat from Suite Team at $55, and the $2 resolution. SLAs, skills routing, phone queues and several brands; the tool for a support department with an admin to run it. The Intercom vs Zendesk comparison puts the two bills side by side.
Help Scout pricing. $25 to $75 a user on annual billing, a free plan that does not expire, and $0.75 per AI Answers resolution. The best-liked shared inbox in its class, and a return to per-user pricing after a year of charging by contact. Help Scout vs Intercom sets it against the pricier meter.
Front pricing. $25 to $105 a seat on annual billing, with the one-channel Starter and the $0.89 Autopilot resolution plus $0.39 handoffs. A shared inbox built as an operations tool for logistics, finance and travel companies, where the inbox is the system of record.
Freshdesk pricing. $19 to $89 an agent on annual billing, with chat sold separately as Omni and Freddy sold as $49 session packs. Two agents free for six months, then the renewal letter. Zendesk vs Freshdesk puts the two $19 seats side by side.
Zoho Desk pricing. $7 to $40 an agent on annual billing, three agents free with no time limit, and AI agents on Enterprise only. Belongs with the rest of the Zoho suite if you are already in it.
Document360 pricing. No published price. A knowledge base platform sold by quote on six numbers: writers, readers, projects, workspaces, languages and AI credits. One reviewer's bill came to $11,000.
The same three teams on UserJot
UserJot runs your public feedback board, roadmap and changelog, and the same product carries your support. Live chat on your site and support email land in one inbox. Juno, our AI agent, answers from your docs and the sites you point her at, searches the feedback board before she replies, writes in the customer's language, and hands the thread to a person the moment a question needs one. A feature request that arrives in a support chat gets filed, voted on and announced from the same place, and the customer who asked hears about it when it ships. Everyone on the team can work the inbox, because there are no agent seats.
The price is flat: $0, $29 or $59 a month for the whole workspace, with no meter on resolutions. We priced it that way on purpose. Free covers three teammates, which is the first row of both tables. Starter at $29 covers up to 100, which is every other row, and adds a custom domain, private boards, guest posting and the API. Pro at $59 adds single sign-on, identity masking and white-labelling. None of the tiers charge for conversations or for Juno. Conversations is in beta and free on every plan while it is.
UserJot is a support inbox with a feedback board, not a contact centre. It has no phone or SMS channel, no SLA policies, no skills-based routing, no workflow builder and no app marketplace. A support department that needs those should read the Zendesk, Front or Freshdesk post and buy one of them. The SaaS team whose support is a chat widget, a support address and a docs site, and whose customers ask for features as often as they ask for help, can have the board and the inbox live this afternoon on the Free plan.
Questions people ask
What is the cheapest help desk with live chat?
Free, on UserJot: live chat, email and Juno for three teammates with no contact cap. The cheapest paid seat with chat is Zoho Desk Standard at $14 an agent on annual billing, or $20 monthly.
Which help desks have a free plan?
Help Scout, up to five users and 100 helped contacts a month, with no expiry. Zoho Desk, three agents with no time limit. Freshdesk, two agents for six months. UserJot, three teammates with live chat, email and the AI agent. Intercom, Zendesk, Front and Document360 have trials only.
How much does an AI support agent cost?
Between $0.75 and $2 per resolved conversation on the metered tools: Help Scout $0.75, Front $0.89, Intercom $0.99, Zendesk $2. Freshdesk sells sessions at $49 per 100, which is $0.49 each if every session resolves. Zoho includes a token allowance with its $50 Enterprise seat. UserJot includes Juno on every plan with no per-conversation charge.
Why does the AI cost more than the seats?
Because the seats scale with your team and the AI scales with your customers. Ten agents handling 5,000 conversations a month, with the AI resolving 30%, is 1,500 resolutions, which is $1,485 on Intercom and $2,900 on Zendesk against $390 and $690 in seats. The included allowances are small enough not to matter: Zendesk's five per agent covers 50 of those 1,500.
Which help desk is best for a small SaaS team?
We make UserJot, so weigh this accordingly. For a team whose support happens in the app and over email, and whose customers also ask for features, UserJot puts the inbox, the AI agent and the feedback board in one product at a flat price. Of the others, Help Scout is the one most teams like using and has the cheapest per-resolution AI, and Zoho Desk is the cheapest overall if you can live with the AI sitting on the top plan.
Is there a free alternative to Intercom and Zendesk?
UserJot's Free plan includes live chat, an email inbox and Juno for up to three teammates, next to a feedback board and changelog. Help Scout's Free plan covers five users and 100 helped contacts. Neither Intercom nor Zendesk has a free plan.
