Comparison
Coasting vs Help Scout
Help Scout is a mature shared inbox used by thousands of support teams. Coasting is a newer, smaller helpdesk with the same core idea and a different bill: one flat price, with AI answers included instead of charged per resolution.
The short answer
- Choose Help Scout when you want a proven product with years of integrations behind it, or when your team is one or two people who fit inside its free plan and barely use AI.
- Choose Coasting when your AI answers are the part of the bill that hurts, or when adding the fourth and fifth person should not change what you pay.
Pricing
| Help Scout | Coasting | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes: 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site, 100 contacts a month | Yes: 3 agents, 50 AI answers a month |
| Cheapest paid plan | Standard, $25 per user a month | $29 a month flat, up to 5 agents |
| A team of five costs | $125 a month on Standard | $29 a month |
| AI answers | $0.75 for every AI resolution, on top of the seats | 500 a month included at $29; 5,000 at $79 |
| 500 AI answers a month cost | $375 on top of your seats | Included |
| Can you pay today? | Yes | Yes - by card, month to month; the free plan needs no card |
Help Scout prices checked 18 September 2026 from helpscout.com/pricing and their AI resolutions pricing doc. Check both before deciding - prices change.
What Coasting does today
- Customer email and website chat in one shared inbox, with assignment, tags, private notes and collision detection.
- AI that answers from the help articles you write, and hands anything it is unsure about to your team.
- A public help center, saved replies, CSAT surveys, automations and analytics.
- When the month's AI answers run out, new messages simply go to your team.
What Coasting does not do yet
- Social inboxes and phone - no Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or calls.
- App store apps - Help Scout has native apps. Coasting installs to your phone's home screen instead and the whole inbox works there, but there is nothing in an app store and no push notifications - we email your team when someone is waiting.
- Years of integrations - Help Scout connects to a long list of tools. Coasting has a REST API and webhooks, and that is it.
If any of these is a must-have today, Help Scout is the better fit right now.
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