A Help Scout alternative for B2B SaaS teams
StayUpfront is the best support tool for small and medium-sized B2B SaaS companies. Help Scout makes a lovely shared inbox. StayUpfront treats your customers as companies, puts the portal on every plan, and includes everyone on the team.
One inbox, Una's first drafts, docs and a branded customer portal for your whole team. And when something breaks, the tickets already know about the incident.
Prices are the vendors' own list prices, checked on 25 October 2026, in US dollars as published. StayUpfront is in pounds, excluding VAT.
The short answer
- Choose StayUpfront if your customers are businesses, you want a portal and docs on every plan, and you don't want to count seats.
- Choose Help Scout if you want an email-first inbox with a polished feel, or a free plan for up to 5 users.
Same calm inbox, built around companies
- Inbox and replies. Assignment, categories, internal notes, @mentions, watchers and optional SLA clocks that pause while you wait on the customer. Help Scout Standard includes one basic SLA policy; advanced SLAs start on Plus.
- Una. Una triages each ticket, sends a labelled first acknowledgement automatically and drafts the reply for your team to send, included on every plan. Help Scout's Envoy AI agent is charged at $0.75 per resolution, and unlimited AI Drafts come with Plus.
- Customers as companies. Portal users see every ticket their company has raised. Help Scout's secure customer portal starts on Plus.
- Docs. A searchable help centre with public, customers-only or per-group visibility, on the same portal.
Your inbox knows when something is broken
Incidents, the status page and tickets are one record in StayUpfront, linked both ways. Help Scout has no incident or status tooling, so outages are run elsewhere. On-call and monitoring are included on every plan.
StayUpfront vs Help Scout, side by side (checked 25 October 2026)
| Help Scout Free | Help Scout Standard | Help Scout Plus | StayUpfront Starter | StayUpfront Growth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing unit | Up to 5 users | Per user | Per user | Contacts; whole team | Contacts; whole team |
| Five people, monthly (annual) | $0 (100 contacts a month) | $150 ($125) | $270 ($225) | £79 (founding £49) up to 100 contacts | £149 (founding £99) up to 500 contacts |
| Customer portal | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AI | Envoy is on paid plans | AI Inbox assistant; Envoy $0.75 per resolution | AI Drafts; Envoy $0.75 per resolution | Una | Una |
| Incidents and status page | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Best for | Tiny teams with few contacts | Email-first teams | Teams needing a portal | Small B2B SaaS | Growing B2B SaaS |
Prices checked 25 October 2026 on each vendor's pricing page; next re-check w/c 30 November 2026. Sources: Help Scout.
Help Scout charges per user, so each new person adds $30 a month on Standard, or $54 on Plus. StayUpfront's price follows the customers you support. On a small customer base, Help Scout Free costs less than any StayUpfront plan.
When Help Scout is the better buy
- You're a tiny team with few contacts. Up to 5 people with under 100 contacts a month: Free is hard to beat.
- You support consumers more than companies. StayUpfront is built around B2B customers and their contacts.
- You want a chat widget on your site. StayUpfront has none.
- You need to import your history. StayUpfront has no importer yet.
More on running one tool instead of several: why support tools sprawl.
Questions people ask
How much is Help Scout per month?
On 25 October 2026: Standard $30 per user billed monthly or $25 annually; Plus $54 or $45; Pro $90 or $75.
Does Help Scout have a customer portal?
Yes, from the Plus plan. StayUpfront includes one on every plan.
Does StayUpfront charge per user?
No. The whole team is included on every plan.
Is StayUpfront's AI extra?
No. Una is included on every plan, with no per-resolution charge.
Can I move from Help Scout?
There's no importer yet. Customers load via the bulk API and docs import as Markdown.
Related comparisons
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