Open.cx vs Help Scout
Open.cx and Help Scout, side by side across AI, pricing, channels, security, and seven more categories.
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Open.cx
RecommendedAn AI layer that runs on top of the helpdesk you already use, or works as its own. It resolves tickets across every channel on its own.
Best for High-volume teams (5,000+ tickets/mo) that want automation without switching helpdesks.
2024 (YC W24) · San Francisco, USA
Help Scout
The most intuitive customer support platform.
Best for SMB and mid-market across SaaS, ecommerce, education, and healthcare.
2011 · Boston, MA (fully remote).
Claimed: from the vendor, not independently verified.
3rd-party: sourced elsewhere, not on the vendor's site.
Everything else: from the vendor's own pages and verifiable.
Pricing
List prices, seat rules, trials, and pricing transparency.
- Pricing model
- Open.cxPer resolution. No seat, setup, or per-message fees.
- Help ScoutPer seat monthly; AI Answers billed separately per resolution.
- Free plan
- Open.cxNo
- Help ScoutYes. Up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site.
- Free trial / guarantee
- Open.cx30-day pilot, then a 120-day money-back guarantee (every dollar of Open spend, up to $2M)
- Help Scout15-day (Standard and Plus); 3-month unlimited AI Answers for new accounts.
- Price
- Open.cx$0.90 per resolution · $0.75 per resolution (higher volume) · Custom (100K+ resolutions/mo)
- Help ScoutStandard $25/user/mo (monthly); about $21 annual. · Plus $45/user/mo; about $38 annual. · Pro $75/user/mo; about $63 annual.
- Seat minimum
- Open.cxNone. Unlimited seats.
- Help ScoutPro: 10 users minimum; others none beyond Free's 5.
- Unlimited agents
- Open.cxYes. Every seat is free.
- Help ScoutYes. Pro (10-seat minimum).
- Implementation fee
- Open.cxNone
- Help ScoutNot disclosed; onboarding specialist is a paid add-on; Pro incl. account manager.
- Transparency
- Open.cxHigh. Tiered pricing published.
- Help ScoutHigh. All prices public.
- Pricing last verified
- Open.cx2026-06-02
- Help Scout2026-06-02
Channels
Where each tool can talk to customers.
- Open.cxNative
- Help ScoutNative
- Live chat
- Open.cxNative (web widget)
- Help ScoutNative (Beacon)
- In-app messenger
- Open.cxNative (web, React, Vue)
- Help ScoutNative (Beacon iOS and Android SDK)
- Voice
- Open.cxNative (hosted numbers in 100+ countries), inbound and outbound, or bring your own carrier via SIP
- Help ScoutVia integration (Aircall, CloudTalk, JustCall, Talkdesk, Ringover)
- SMS
- Open.cxNative
- Help ScoutVia integration (Aircall)
- Open.cxNative (WhatsApp Business)
- Help ScoutNative (added Mar 2026; Plus and Pro)
- Social
- Open.cxNative (Instagram, Facebook Messenger, X/Twitter)
- Help ScoutNative (Instagram confirmed; others implied)
- Unified inbox
- Open.cxNative, and syncs with Zendesk, Intercom, Front, Gorgias
- Help ScoutNative
Voice & Telephony
Native voice vs telephony integrations.
- Native vs via integration
- Open.cxNative numbers in 100+ countries, or bring your own carrier (SIP)
- Help ScoutVia integration only. No native telephony.
- Voice AI / transcription
- Open.cxYes. Real-time transcripts in the inbox.
- Help ScoutNot offered natively (depends on partner).
- Telephony billed separately
- Open.cxCarrier minutes at cost (<$0.10 per resolution); no per-minute fee
- Help ScoutYes. Billed by the integration partner.
AI & Automation
Autonomous resolution, agentic actions, models, and how AI is priced.
- Autonomous AI agent
- Open.cxYes. Autopilot resolves tickets end to end on its own, across every channel.
- Help ScoutYes. AI Answers resolves in Beacon and escalates to a human.
- Copilot / Assist mode
- Open.cxYes. Drafts replies for an agent to review and send (Assist).
- Help ScoutYes. AI Assist (tone, grammar, translate), AI Drafts, and AI Summarize.
- Claimed automation rate
- Open.cx77% average automation; up to 80% (Trunkrs)(claimed)source
- Help Scout73.19% average resolution with AI Answers.(claimed)source
- AI channel coverage
- Open.cxChat, email, voice, WhatsApp, SMS, Slack, social
- Help ScoutBeacon (web and mobile chat); AI Drafts and Assist in email, chat, and Docs.
- Agentic actions (API) vs answer-only
- Open.cxTakes real actions through your APIs, like processing a refund or updating an order.
- Help ScoutAnswer and resolution only. No external API actions.
- Knowledge sources
- Open.cxHelp Center, websites, and 28+ connected tools (Zendesk, Notion, Shopify, Slack, and more)
- Help ScoutDocs sites, public URLs, PDF, Word, Excel, Google Docs and Sheets, and Improvements snippets.
- Underlying model
- Open.cxAgent 5, its own model. Claims 95%+ accuracy and a 0% hallucination rate.(claimed)source
- Help ScoutOpenAI API (version undisclosed); does not train its own model.
- Trains on past tickets
- Open.cxYes. Learns from your resolved tickets, and you can roll back if a change misfires.
- Help ScoutNo. Never uses your data to train models.
- Pre-deploy simulation / sandbox
- Open.cxYes. Sandbox mode lets you test full workflows against a demo environment before you go live.
- Help ScoutYes. Run AI Answers through any scenario.(claimed)source
- Multilingual
- Open.cxYes. 100+ languages, with an auto-translated help center.
- Help ScoutYes. AI Answers in 50+ languages; AI Assist translates 13.
- Runs on your existing helpdesk vs native-only
- Open.cxBoth. Add it on top of the helpdesk you already run, or use it as your own inbox. Works with Zendesk, Intercom, Front, Freshdesk, Gorgias, Salesforce, HubSpot, Dynamics 365, Twilio Flex, and Creatio.
- Help ScoutNative only.
- AI pricing model
- Open.cxPer resolution, so you pay for outcomes. Escalations to a human are free.
- Help ScoutPay-per-resolution add-on ($0.75); Assist, Drafts, and Summarize on Plus and Pro; 3-month free trial.
- AI unit price
- Open.cx$0.75–$0.90 per resolution; lower at higher volume, custom above 100K/mo
- Help Scout$0.75 per AI resolution; prepay for up to 33% savings.
- Copilot / Assist price
- Open.cxIncluded free, with no separate copilot fee.
- Help ScoutIncluded on Plus and Pro (not Standard or Free).
Security & Compliance
Certifications, data residency, and access controls.
- SOC 2 Type II
- Open.cxSOC 2 Type II
- Help ScoutSOC 2 Type 2.
- GDPR
- Open.cxYes. EU-resident, TLS 1.3 and AES-256, tenant-isolated, with automatic PII redaction.
- Help ScoutYes. EU and UK GDPR, Swiss FADP; DPA; DPF participant.
- SSO / SAML
- Open.cxYes. SAML and OIDC (Okta, Entra, Google, or any IdP); SCIM. Enterprise plan.
- Help ScoutYes. SAML SSO (Pro).
- Data residency
- Open.cxEU. Storage in Frankfurt, AI processing in Sweden; all sub-processors EU-based.
- Help ScoutNo. AWS US only; no EU or regional hosting.
Integrations
Marketplace breadth, APIs, and developer tooling.
- Marketplace / integrations (approx.)
- Open.cx~40 integrations + 28 data sources (Notion, BigQuery, Snowflake, Slack, and more), plus Zapier
- Help Scout100+ apps.
- Shopify depth
- Open.cxReads Shopify orders, products, and customers (read-only)
- Help ScoutNative. Order status, refunds, and order management in the inbox; Shopify App Store.
- Open / public API
- Open.cxYes. REST API (~30 resource areas) with webhooks and scoped keys.
- Help ScoutYes. Inbox API, Docs API, Chat API, and Webhooks.
- Developer SDK / MCP
- Open.cxReact widget SDK (npm) plus a headless variant; MCP server (140+ tools) for Claude, Cursor, and VS Code; REST API and webhooks.
- Help ScoutCustom Apps framework; Beacon iOS and Android SDK; no server-side SDK.
Automation & Workflows
Builders, triggers, routing, and SLAs.
- Workflow builder
- Open.cxYes. Visual builder with 50+ prebuilt templates (API in beta).
- Help ScoutYes. If/then workflow builder.
- Triggers / automations
- Open.cxYes. Per-channel automation, topic routing, office hours.
- Help ScoutYes. Condition-triggered workflows (run once per conversation).
- Routing
- Open.cxYes. AI topic classification, VIP/segment, frustration and low-confidence triggers, office-hours-aware.
- Help ScoutYes. Auto-assign via workflow rules.
- Macros / canned responses
- Open.cxYes. Macros that can trigger workflows.
- Help ScoutYes. Saved Replies.
- SLA management
- Open.cxYes. SLA tracking and breach analytics.
- Help ScoutYes. 1 policy on Standard, 2 on Plus, unlimited on Pro; NRT tracking.
Collaboration
How support teams work a queue together.
- Internal notes
- Open.cxYes. Also posts notes into Intercom, Front, and Zendesk.
- Help ScoutYes. @Mentions.
- Collision detection
- Open.cxYes. Warns when teammates are on the same conversation.
- Help ScoutYes. Built in on all plans (yellow and red indicators).
- Side conversations
- Open.cxYes. Side conversations, internal notes, and @mentions.
- Help ScoutNot offered (notes and splits instead).
- Shared inbox
- Open.cxYes. Unified threads across channels.
- Help ScoutYes. Core product.
Self-Service & Knowledge
Knowledge base, help center, and deflection.
- Knowledge base
- Open.cxYes. Help Center with categories, versioning, and access controls.
- Help ScoutYes. Docs; 1 site on Free and Standard, extra at $20/mo.
- Help center
- Open.cxYes. Custom domain and branding.
- Help ScoutYes. Docs, embeddable in Beacon.
- Community forum
- Open.cxNo. (Can use forum content as a knowledge source.)
- Help ScoutNot offered.
- AI answers from knowledge base
- Open.cxYes. Cites articles and writes new ones from resolved tickets.
- Help ScoutYes. AI Answers from Docs; tracks search gaps.
Reporting & Analytics
Dashboards, custom reports, and CSAT.
- Dashboards
- Open.cxYes. Handoff, SLA, CSAT, and customer-insights dashboards.
- Help ScoutYes. 7 built-in reports.
- Custom reports
- Open.cxYes. Custom dashboards (Metabase) and natural-language queries.
- Help ScoutNo. Not native; raw data via Inbox API.
- Included in lowest tier
- Open.cxEverything's included. No feature tiers.
- Help ScoutReporting on all paid plans, including Standard.
- CSAT surveys
- Open.cxYes. Post-conversation, across 8 channels.
- Help ScoutYes. Happiness report (post-conversation surveys).
Onboarding & Support
Implementation, CSM tiers, and partners.
- Onboarding
- Open.cxWhite-glove. A named team runs your setup. Self-serve quickstart too.
- Help ScoutSelf-serve; onboarding specialist (paid add-on); Pro incl. dedicated onboarding.
- Support channels
- Open.cx24/7, included
- Help ScoutEmail on all paid plans (priority); no customer phone support.
- Dedicated CSM
- Open.cxYes. A named team owns your deployment end to end.
- Help ScoutStrategic account manager on Pro.
- Implementation partners
- Open.cxYes. Partner and reseller program.
- Help ScoutNot disclosed. No partner directory.
Frequently asked questions
Powered by Open.cx
Open.cx works with Help Scout, or replaces it
Open.cx resolves tickets end to end across chat, email, voice, and WhatsApp. Run it as an AI layer on top of Help Scout, or as your whole helpdesk. You pay per resolution, escalations to a human are free, seats are unlimited, and there's a 120-day money-back guarantee.