Help Scout vs Zoho TeamInbox

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.

Zoho TeamInbox gives teams a shared workspace for managing incoming and outgoing messages. Shared inboxes can connect email, WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. Team members can assign, delegate, comment on, follow, snooze, or archive threads, and organize conversations into views. They can also chat, share files, co-author emails, and discuss messages internally. Automated workflows can send auto responses or assign and sort threads; the Professional plan includes analytics. Listed integrations include Zapier, Zoho CRM, n8n, Make, and Microsoft Power Automate. Available eWidgets include Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk, Zoho Meeting, Zoho Recruit, Zoho Vault, Asana, Trello, and Zoho WorkDrive. Zoho says email data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and supports multi-factor authentication, admin-controlled inbox access, and activity logs. TeamInbox runs on Android, iOS, and the web. The Free plan supports up to three users and 30 conversations per month. Paid plans include Solo at $0.99 a month, Team at $4.99 a month, and Team Plus at $7.99 a month. A 14-day Professional trial offers features for up to five users without payment information at signup.