Helpdesk and support inbox
Self-hosted alternatives to Help Scout, priced
1 open-source tool that can replace Help Scout, each shown with what it would actually cost to run for a team of 10 people. Help Scout on the Standard tier costs $300 a month at that size.
Start here
Help Scout's Free plan covers up to 5 users with one inbox and one Docs site. A small team that fits inside it pays nothing.
| Tool | Server only | With your time | vs Help Scout | Operational weight | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreeScout | $12.00 | $49.50 | +$8,868 | easy | AGPL-3.0 |
The final column is the 36-month difference: positive means self-hosting is cheaper.
Which one to pick
FreeScout 4,532 stars
Laravel and MySQL. A shared mailbox rather than a full support suite, which is exactly what most small teams are overpaying Zendesk for.
At 10 people it needs 1.4 GB of memory and 13 GB of disk, which fits the Starter 2 GB at VPSServer for $10.00 a month. Setting it up is roughly 2 hours of work, then 0.5 hours a month to keep it healthy.
Full Help Scout versus FreeScout breakdown · FreeScout at every team size
How the pricing was established
Help Scout pricing was read from its own pricing page on 2026-09-14. Server prices come from the providers listed on the hosting page. The sizing model and the cost of your time are set out in full on the methodology page.