Help Scout vs Front: A complete comparison for 2025

Picking a customer support platform is a big deal. It is the command center for your entire customer experience, and getting it right can make or break your team's sanity. Two names that pop up a lot are Help Scout and Front, but they come at the problem from completely different angles. Help Scout is all about keeping support personal and human, while Front aims to be the central hub for every single customer conversation, no matter where it happens.

How do you decide between Help Scout vs Front? This guide will break it all down for you. We will get into the nitty-gritty of their communication channels, collaboration tools, AI features, reporting, security, and of course, pricing. By the end, you will have a clear picture of which one fits your team's requirements and budget for 2025.

What is Help Scout?

Help Scout is a customer-centric help desk built for small to medium-sized businesses that want to keep a personal touch as they grow. It is designed to feel less like a ticket-churning machine and more like a shared inbox where real conversations happen.

Its main features are a clean shared inbox that is great for email, a built-in knowledge base tool called Docs, and a live chat widget known as Beacon. It is known for being super easy to use, which is why a lot of SaaS and ecommerce companies love it. You can scale your support without adding a ton of complexity. Plus, they take security seriously, offering HIPAA compliance on their Pro plan and being SOC 2 Type 2 certified.

What is Front?

Front positions itself as a customer operations platform. It is not just a help desk; it is a central place for your team to manage every single customer-facing conversation. Think of it as a unified inbox that does a lot of heavy lifting.

Its biggest strength is its truly omnichannel inbox that pulls in email, SMS, social, chat, voice. This makes it a beast for larger teams dealing with complex conversations across a dozen different channels. It also has slick internal collaboration tools like comments and @mentions that happen right inside the conversation thread. A unique feature is its ability to manage both shared team inboxes (like support@) and your individual work email in one app, which is a big deal for collaboration between support, sales, and success teams.

Key feature comparison: Help Scout vs Front

When you look at these two side-by-side, the differences in their philosophy become obvious. One wants to stay simple and clean, while the other wants to be the one tool to rule them all. This infographic provides a clear visual breakdown of how their features stack up against each other.

At a glance: Feature showdown

Feature	Help Scout	Front
Primary Focus	Human-centric email & chat support	Omnichannel customer operations
Channels	Email, Live Chat, Facebook & Instagram DMs	Email, SMS, Social (DMs & comments), Chat, Voice, WhatsApp
Individual Inboxes	No	Yes
Core AI Features	AI Assist, AI Summarize, AI Drafts	Topics, Summarize, Compose, Translate
AI Chatbot	AI Answers (Beacon only, add-on)	Autopilot (All channels, add-on)
Advanced AI	N/A	Smart QA & Smart CSAT (add-ons)
Custom Reports	Included on all paid plans	Professional & Enterprise plans only
Security	SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA option	SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001
Integrations	100+	110+

Communication channels

When it comes to where you can talk to your customers, there is a pretty clear difference between the two.

Help Scout Help Scout is fantastic at email. Its shared inbox is clean, intuitive, and feels like a familiar email client, which makes it easy for teams to pick up. Beyond email, it offers live chat through its Beacon widget and can pull in DMs from Facebook and Instagram.

The main limitation here is the breadth of channels. Based on its official integrations, it does not natively handle things like WhatsApp, voice calls, or public mentions on X (formerly Twitter). If your customers are trying to reach you from every corner of the internet, you might find yourself juggling a few different tools.

Front This is where Front really shines. It offers a genuine unified inbox that centralizes everything: email, SMS, social media (both DMs and public comments), live chat, and even voice. It has native integrations for WhatsApp and can even pull in conversations from Slack.

Its standout feature is the ability to manage both shared team inboxes (support@, sales@) and individual work emails in the same place. This breaks down silos and lets your support team loop in an account manager or a salesperson without ever leaving the conversation. The trade-off? All this power can make the initial setup and learning curve a bit steeper than with a more focused tool like Help Scout.

Collaboration and workflow

Both platforms offer tools to help your team work together and automate the boring stuff, but they approach it differently.

Help Scout Help Scout provides the essentials for team collaboration: you can leave internal notes for colleagues, use @mentions to loop someone in, and its collision detection stops two agents from replying to the same customer. Its workflow automation is solid, letting you tag, assign, and manage conversations with rules. These are effective for most teams, but there are limits on how many active workflows you can have depending on your plan (plan limits), which might be a constraint for larger operations.

Front Front’s collaboration feels more like a modern chat app. You can comment directly within a conversation thread and even create shared drafts to write a reply together in real-time. It is incredibly fluid and great for complex issues that need input from multiple people. Its workflow rules are also more advanced, allowing for sophisticated routing and escalations across every channel. It even has a "guest accounts" feature, so you can bring in folks from other departments for a quick opinion without having to buy them a full license.

AI capabilities

AI is no longer just a buzzword; it is a core part of modern support. Here is how Help Scout and Front handle it.

Help Scout Help Scout has baked in some useful AI features called AI Assist, which helps with tone, grammar, and length. It also offers AI Summarize and AI Drafts to speed up replies. A key thing to note is that unlimited AI Drafts are only available on the Plus plan and higher.

They also have an AI chatbot called AI Answers, but it comes with two big caveats. First, it only works through their Beacon live chat widget, not over email or other channels. Second, it is a paid add-on that costs $0.75 per resolution, which can add up quickly.

Front Front goes all-in on AI with an extensive suite of tools: Autopilot (an AI chatbot for all channels), Topics (auto-categorization), Smart QA (AI-powered quality assurance), and Smart CSAT.

Here is the catch: these powerful features are locked behind a massive paywall. According to their pricing page, most of these are sold as separate add-ons. The AI Copilot is an extra $20/user/month, Smart QA is another $20/user/month, and Smart CSAT is $10/user/month. Their chatbot, Autopilot, is priced per resolution at $0.89 per resolution. This means that to get the full power of Front's AI, you are looking at a significant increase in your monthly bill.

This is a common frustration with platform-native AI. Instead of getting locked into costly add-ons, a better approach might be to add a more powerful AI layer to your existing tools. For example, eesel AI plugs into help desks like Zendesk and learns from all your past tickets. This allows it to generate high-quality, context-aware drafts that sound just like your best agents, without forcing you to migrate platforms or pay for expensive AI features.

Reporting and security

Understanding your performance and keeping customer data safe are non-negotiable.

Reporting Help Scout offers solid reporting on key metrics like conversation volume, response times, and team performance. A huge plus is that custom reports are available on all paid plans, so even small teams can get deep insights without upgrading.

Front also has extensive analytics, especially when paired with its AI-powered "Topics" feature. However, a major limitation is that custom reports are only available on the more expensive Professional and Enterprise plans. If you are on the Starter plan, you are stuck with the basics.

Security Both platforms have strong security credentials. Help Scout is SOC 2 Type 2 certified and offers HIPAA compliance as an option on its Pro plan. Front is both SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified, and it supports regional data hosting in either the U.S. or the EU.

Help Scout vs Front: Pricing breakdown

Let's talk money. The sticker price can be misleading, especially when you factor in add-ons and plan limitations. The following infographic breaks down the true cost of getting the features you need from both platforms.

Help Scout pricing

• Free: Up to 5 users (1 inbox, 1 docs site, email only).

• Standard: $25/user/month (adds chat, social DMs, automation, and custom reporting).

• Plus: $45/user/month (adds unlimited AI Drafts/Summarize and key integrations like Salesforce and Jira).

• Pro: $75/user/month (adds HIPAA compliance and SSO/SAML).

• Add-on: AI Answers is usage-based at $0.75 per resolution.

Front pricing

• Starter: $25/user/month (up to 10 users, single channel type only, no custom reports).

• Professional: $65/user/month (up to 50 users, adds omnichannel support and custom reports).

• Enterprise: $105/user/month (includes all core AI add-ons).

• Crucial Add-on Costs: For Starter and Professional plans, the AI features get pricey, fast:

  • AI Copilot: $20/user/month
  • Smart QA: $20/user/month
  • Smart CSAT: $10/user/month
  • Autopilot: $0.89 per resolution

Comparison summary

When you lay it all out, Help Scout is significantly more affordable for teams that need a complete feature set from the get-go. Front’s pricing model starts at a similar point but quickly becomes much more expensive once you need true omnichannel support or its advanced AI tools. The total cost of ownership for Front is often much higher than it first appears.

The final verdict on Help Scout vs Front

So, who wins in the Help Scout vs Front showdown? It really depends on what your team looks like.

Choose Help Scout if: You are a small to medium-sized business and your main support channels are email and chat. You value a personal touch, an easy-to-use interface, and an affordable, all-in-one price.

Choose Front if: You are a larger company managing a high volume of conversations across a wide range of channels (email, SMS, social, voice, etc.). You need deep, real-time collaboration across multiple departments and have the budget for a premium platform and its expensive AI add-ons.

For a more dynamic look at how these platforms compare, the video below offers a detailed walkthrough of their key features and user experiences, which can help solidify your decision.

A detailed video comparison reviewing the features, pricing, and ideal use cases for both Help Scout and Front, helping viewers decide which platform is better for their specific needs.

An alternative approach: Adding an AI teammate to your existing stack

Instead of choosing a platform based on its built-in AI, which can be limited or expensive, there is another way. You can give your current workflow a boost by adding a specialized AI teammate.

eesel AI is an AI platform that acts like your best new hire. It plugs directly into the tools you already use with a simple, one-click integration. This approach solves some of the biggest headaches of native AI.

Human-in-the-loop rollout

eesel AI starts by drafting replies for your team to approve. This lets you test performance with zero risk and builds trust before you let it handle conversations autonomously. It is a very safe way to get started with AI.

Learns from your data

Unlike generic AI, eesel AI trains on your past support tickets and internal knowledge docs. This means that from day one, its answers match your brand voice, tone, and specific policies.

Transparent pricing

eesel AI offers clear, interaction-based pricing. You won't find expensive per-resolution fees or costly per-seat add-ons for essential AI features.

Final thoughts

The choice between Help Scout vs Front comes down to a core trade-off. Help Scout offers simplicity, affordability, and a human touch for teams focused mainly on email and chat. Front provides unmatched power for omnichannel communication and deep collaboration, but it comes at a premium price, especially if you want its AI features.

The best platform is the one that fits your team's workflow, channels, and budget. But if you are looking to truly leverage AI without getting locked into a single platform's expensive ecosystem, consider a more flexible approach. An AI teammate like the eesel AI Agent can bring context-aware automation to the tools you already love.

Ready to see what an AI teammate can really do? Invite eesel for free.

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