Self-host FreeScout, build your own, or pay for a helpdesk?
A small team choosing a helpdesk today has two good options that cost nothing up front: run an open source one on a server you already have, or ask an AI to write one. Both work. Here is when each is the right call, and what you sign up for.
When self-hosting is the right call
- Your customers' messages must stay on a server you control - a privacy promise, a contract or a regulator says so.
- You need more people answering than a free plan allows, and the budget is zero.
- Someone on the team already runs servers and does not mind one more.
- Replies must go out from your own support@ address.
If two of those are true, self-host. FreeScout is the usual pick: open source, free, a PHP and MySQL app that runs even on shared hosting, with no limit on agents. Extras such as live chat, a knowledge base and a customer portal are paid modules, bought once per install. Its AI module is free, drafts replies for an agent to send, and uses your own AI provider key.
Building your own
An AI coding assistant can write tickets, statuses and a reply box in an afternoon, and for a few emails a week that may be all you need. The first version is not the expensive part. What takes the time comes later:
- Email that arrives: inbound parsing, replies threading back into the right conversation, attachments, spam, bounces.
- Email that is delivered: sending domain records and a sender reputation that keeps you out of spam folders.
- Telling someone a customer is waiting, and not telling them twice.
- Backups you have restored at least once, security updates, and being the person who fixes it when it breaks.
When a hosted helpdesk is the better deal
- Nobody on the team wants to look after a server.
- You want email and website chat in one inbox today, without buying or wiring up modules.
- You want AI that answers customers from your own help articles, and emails your team when it cannot - without bringing your own AI key.
That is what Coasting is. We run it for you, with nightly backups kept offsite.
What it costs
| What you get | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| FreeScout | Unlimited agents; chat, knowledge base and portal are paid modules | Free, plus your server and your time |
| Build your own | Whatever you build | Your time, for as long as it runs |
| Coasting Starter | 3 agents, 50 AI answers a month | $0, no card |
| Coasting Growth | 5 agents, 500 AI answers a month | $29 a month for the team |
| Coasting Scale | Unlimited agents, 5,000 AI answers a month | $79 a month for the team |
Paid plans are by card, month to month. Full pricing.
What Coasting does not do yet
- Your data lives on our servers, not yours. If it has to stay in-house, self-host.
- Only conversations have an export button so far. Settings downloads every conversation as a CSV file, one row per message. Help articles and contacts have no export button yet - ask us and we will send them.
- Replies do not come from your support@ address. They carry your team's name but are sent from noreply@coasting.app.
- The free plan stops at 3 agents. FreeScout has no such limit.