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The Showdown

Help Scoutvsfreescout

Why pay monthly fees for Help Scout when you can self-host freescout for free? Let's look at the facts.

Help Scout

The Expensive Option

  • Closed Source (Black box)
  • Expensive monthly fees per user
  • Data stored on their servers
WINNER

freescout

The Freedom Choice

  • 100% Open Source Code
  • Free forever (Self-hosted)
  • You own your data completely
Get freescout Now
Interactive Calculator

Calculate Your "SaaS Tax"

SaaS pricing is designed to scale with your success. See how much wealth transfers from your bank account to Help Scout's shareholders.

10 people
150100200+
$

*Estimated standard pricing for Help Scout. Adjust if needed.

Estimated Annual Waste
$1,440
Monthly Burn Rate$120
5-Year Projection$7,200
Cost with Self-Hosted$0
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Calculations based on 10 users at $12/mo.

Detailed Breakdown

0
$20+/user/month
Free core, paid modules
1
Vendor-locked cloud
Self-hosted SQL database
2
Limited API access
Full source code access