Help Scout vs osTicket
Help Scout
helpscout.com
osTicket
osticket.comSide by side
| Figure | Help Scout | osTicket |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $25/mo | $12/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 6 |
| Spec score · Help desk software | 9.0 (#11) | 8.1 (#42) |
| Spec score · Customer Service - Midmarket Software | 8.8 (#7) | 8.2 (#14) |
| Spec score · Customer Support Software | 8.7 (#7) | 8.1 (#16) |
| Spec score · Ticketing Software | 8.7 (#8) | 8.1 (#16) |
| API access | Yes | Yes |
| Customer portal | Yes | The customer portal archives support requests and responses online and provides a knowledge base for self-service. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Help center | Yes | Yes |
| SLA management | Yes | SLA plans track ticket due dates, issue overdue alerts, and support priority escalation; the features page says users can create unlimited SLA plans. |
| Ticket automation | Yes | Yes |
Plans
Help Scout
- FreeFree
- Standard$25 a month
- Plus$45 a month
- Pro$75 a month
- AI Answers Add-on$0.75, paid once
osTicket
- Open Source Free DownloadFree
- Cloud-hosted$12 a month
- 4-hour Training and Onboarding Session via Zoom$999, paid once
- osTicket Premium Business Support$12,500 a year
- osTicket Enterprise On-Call Support$25,000 a year
- Virtual AppliancePriced on request
In their own words
Help Scout
Help Scout is customer support software that brings email, SMS, social, chat, and voice into a shared Inbox. It also provides ticket automation, SLA management, a customer portal, and Docs sites for searchable, branded help centers or knowledge bases. Teams can manage visibility and access with permissions at company, team, or user level, and connect the service to more than 100 tools or apps. Help Scout offers API access and a mobile app. Its Free plan costs nothing and includes five users, one Inbox, and one Docs site, with 100 contacts per month, 10 saved replies, and 10 tags. Paid plans start at $25 per user per month; annual pricing is shown as 16% lower than monthly pricing. Standard and Plus plans offer 15-day trials without a credit card. New accounts receive three months of unlimited AI Answers resolutions. Help Scout states that it is HIPAA and SOC 2 Type II compliant. Support options include email, onboarding, customer success management, and priority support on paid plans.
osTicket
osTicket is an open-source support ticketing system that routes inquiries arriving by email, web forms or API. Ticket filters can create tickets automatically and direct requests to departments or agents, with options to reject, assign or send canned responses. Custom fields, forms and lists let teams collect details for specific help topics. Agents can create tasks linked to tickets or independently; a ticket cannot be closed while a related task remains incomplete. The documented API uses XML or JSON over HTTP, but supports ticket creation only. osTicket is a platform-independent web application that can be self-hosted. Its installation requirements list Apache, LiteSpeed or IIS, PHP 8.2–8.4, and MySQL 5.5 or later. Administrators can require multifactor authentication for agents, though agents are not required to enable it by default. The open-source download is listed at free and includes email integration and community support. Cloud hosting starts at $12 a month and includes a 30-day free trial. Paid training and support options are also listed.