You know a product is big when you google it and the first results are all “(product name) alternatives” and “a better (product name)” ads from competitors. Such is the case with HelpScout, a very popular help desk solution. I guess it’s a sign they’ve arrived…?
Founded in 2011, HelpScout is a popular solution in the help desk category. If you’re not familiar with this segment, it’s the software that sits between a company and it’s userbase, and usually consists of these functions:
- ticketing: user opens a request or problem, staff work the issue, etc.
- knowledge base: previous problems can be reviewed and referenced
- canned responses: to save staff from typing the same answers over and over
- live chat: so customers don’t have to wait for the ticket-response cycle if their issue can be quickly resolved. Chat bots are increasingly filling this role.
Many of our readers are familiar with WHMCS (either interacting with it or adminning it). That product has a help desk component, but also does other functions such as billing and automated provisioning. Not every company needs that and HelpScout is a “pure” help desk solution.
Is HelpScout a good solution? Yes. But it has one small drawback: it’s ghastly expensive.
We’re talking $22/month/user for the standard tier, which comes with a variety of limitations designed to make you really want the Pro plan, which is $44/month/user. That is the annual pricing, by the way – paying monthly is more expensive.
So for a small shop of, say, 6 people – pre-sales, tech support, etc. – you’re already at over $3000 a year (6 * $44 * 12 = $3168). And even if the Standard plan is enough for you, when you exceed 25 users, you’re arbitrarily forced onto the Plus plan. That 26th user is mighty expensive, since he or she costs $594/month! (Your costs go from 25*$22 on Standard to 26*$44 on Plus).
You can certainly make the argument that even at $10K a year, if the software is a core need in your business and you’re going to have a team banging on it 24×7, the cost is just table stakes. And if you’re benefitting from HelpScout support, if you’re using all kinds of integrations, have compliance needs, want “one throat to choke” because the software is the heart of your enterprise…sure, it’s worth it.
But what if you’re a small shop, operating on somewhat leaner margins, yet still need help desk software? Consider an attractive alternative: paying less than $3 a month for unlimited users.
Check Out FreeScout
FreeScout is a free, self-hosted alternative to HelpScout:
FreeScout is the super lightweight and powerful free open source help desk and shared inbox written in PHP (Laravel framework). It is a self hosted clone of HelpScout. Now you can enjoy free Zendesk & Help Scout without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don’t control.
It’s worth a look at the FreeScout web site – the list of features is very impressive! You can migrate to it from HelpScout.
How Does FreeScout Compare to HelpScout?
Very nicely:
- Unlimited agents, tickets, mailboxes, and everything else. If you can host it, you can scale to it without having to pay more as you grow.
- 100% mobile-friendly
- Supports 22 languages
- PHP and shared-hosting friendly
- A ridiculous number of first-party modules
HelpScout is able to offer concierge services and is offering new AI features. Some AI is available in FreeScout community modules, and might eventually be in the base product.
Ultimately it’ll be up to you to see if what FreeScout offers meets your need, but it’s a very capable platform.
…and where to host it?
Enter PikaPods
PikaPods is a good choice and an easy recommendation.
We’ve talked about them before. I’m a PikaPods user, and have several apps spun up. Their service has been reliable and performant for me. These pods are addictive! I scroll through the catalog periodically and find new needs I never knew I had. (Hint: Excalidraw would be nice).
With PikaPods you can spin up an instance for FreeScout for about $2.29/month. You could actually start for $1.88/month with 100MB storage, but $2.29/month gives you 10GB. that’s with .5 core and 1GB of RAM. And of course your system can be dialed up and dialed down. Let’s say you have a monster need and want 4 cores and 8GB of RAM…that’s only $6.79/month.
Here’s what provisioning looks like, after you create an account and fund it:
I deployed to their US datacenter.
Some apps require a little configuration – here, the essential admin credentials to login. Of course, you need to use real ones, not the examples I put in for the screenshot 😀
Choose your resources, click add pod, and you’re good to go!
If you just want to try out FreeScout, you can start with their demo (above), but it resets nightly and you’re probably going to want to do a deeper eval. So why not spin it up on PikaPods? And then you might just stay!
Some FAQs About PikaPods
Q: Can I host on my own domain?
Yes! You’ll be provisioned a container running the app and a URL with a name like cavorting-carrot.pikapods.net. After setup, the app has some additional settings that include support for aliasing to a custom domain:
Q: Can I backup the data?
Yes. You can enable SFTP access to the pod, and even turn on direct database access.
I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.
I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308
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FreeScout is just a PHP application so it can also be hosted on a shared hosting account (cPanel etc.) 🙂