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 | Not yet - paid plans are opening soon; the free plan works now |
Help Scout prices checked 14 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 centre, 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.
- Mobile apps - Coasting runs in a browser. Help Scout has native apps.
- Years of integrations - Help Scout connects to a long list of tools. Coasting has a REST API and webhooks, and that is it.
- Paid plans are not open yet - you can use the free plan today, but you cannot buy Growth or Scale until checkout opens.
If any of these is a must-have today, Help Scout is the better fit right now.
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