Help Scout vs Hiver
Which one do AI engines recommend, and how do they differ on price, fit and features?
The short answer
Help Scout is the stronger AI pick in Help Desk: it has a visibility score of 29.8 versus 1.9 for Hiver, and ranks ahead in 100% of the answers that name both.
Choose Help Scout if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (29.8 vs 1.9)
- You want a free plan to start
- AI answers describe it more positively (38% vs 18% positive)
- Shared inbox with email-like, human feel
Choose Hiver if…
- You need more native integrations (1000+ vs 100+)
- You need GDPR or ISO 27001 or CCPA coverage
- Turns shared Gmail and Outlook inboxes into collaborative help desks
- Good fit for small and midsize email-first support teams on Gmail or Google Workspace
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 3
| Metric | Help Scout | Hiver |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 29.8% | 1.9% |
| Change vs last week | up+1.5% | up+0.9% |
| Rank in Help Desk | #4 | #22 |
| Share of voice | 8.2% | 0.8% |
| Mentions this run | 42 | 4 |
| Positive in AI answers | 38% | 18% |
The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days
Help Scout +1.6000000000000014pp · Hiver +0.9999999999999999pp over 1 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Help Scout leads on 3 of 3 engines
Head to head in AI answers
3 engine answers name both brands
| Prompt | Engine | Help Scout | Hiver |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alternatives to the most popular help desk platform | AI Mode | #3 | #7 |
| Is there a free help desk platform for small teams? | Perplexity | #2 | #8 |
| Official website of the top help desk platform vendors | ChatGPT | #4 | #17 |
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | Help Scout | Hiver |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per seat | Per seat |
| Entry price | Free; paid from $25 per seat / mo | $25 per seat / mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No · 7-day trial |
| Deployment | Cloud (hosted on AWS) | Cloud (SaaS); runs inside Gmail or as a standalone web application |
| Integrations | 100+ | 1000+ |
| Compliance | SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA | GDPR, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, CCPA, HIPAA |
| Support | Email, Dedicated onboarding specialist, Strategic account manager | 24/7 email support, 24/7 chat support, Free data migration |
| Founded | 2011 | 2011 |
| Headquarters | Boston, MA, United States | San Jose, California, United States |
| Employees | 201–500 | 201–500 |
| Funding | Series B1 | Series B · $30M raised |
| Best for | Small businesses, growing companies and non-profits that want simple, multichannel customer support | Support teams handling complex, cross-team requests, including teams that work from Gmail |
Plans side by side
Hiver
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
Help Scout
- Shared inbox with email-like, human feel
- Simple, straightforward support for small teams
- Clean, intuitive interface
- Free plan for small teams
- Free trial with full feature access
- Costs more for extra inboxes and Docs sites
- Free plan limited to 100 contacts per month
Hiver
- Turns shared Gmail and Outlook inboxes into collaborative help desks
- Good fit for small and midsize email-first support teams on Gmail or Google Workspace
- Described as a good customer support platform
- Described as a unique tool
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 98.8%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “Help Scout vs Hiver”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/help-scout-vs-hiver, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.