Help Scout vs LiveChat
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 1.4 for LiveChat, 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 1.4)
- You want a free plan to start
- AI answers describe it more positively (38% vs 36% positive)
- You need SOC 2 Type II or HIPAA coverage
Choose LiveChat if…
- You want a lower entry price ($19 vs $25)
- You need more native integrations (200+ vs 100+)
- You need SOC 2 Type 2 or GDPR or CCPA or WCAG 2.2 AA or PCI DSS SAQ A or Data Privacy Framework or BBB Accredited Business coverage
- Free trial with no credit card required
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 3
| Metric | Help Scout | LiveChat |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 29.8% | 1.4% |
| Change vs last week | up+1.5% | New |
| Rank in Help Desk | #4 | #25 |
| Share of voice | 8.2% | 0.4% |
| Mentions this run | 42 | 2 |
| Positive in AI answers | 38% | 36% |
The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days
Help Scout +1.6000000000000014pp · LiveChat +1.4pp over 1 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Help Scout leads on 3 of 3 engines
Head to head in AI answers
1 engine answers name both brands
| Prompt | Engine | Help Scout | LiveChat |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is the difference between a help desk platform and a live chat tool? | ChatGPT | #3 | #4 |
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | Help Scout | LiveChat |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per seat | Per seat |
| Entry price | Free; paid from $25 per seat / mo | $19 per seat / mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No · 14-day trial |
| Deployment | Cloud (hosted on AWS) | Cloud-hosted on Google Cloud in Texas, Iowa and Frankfurt, Germany |
| Integrations | 100+ | 200+ |
| Compliance | SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA | SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, CCPA, WCAG 2.2 AA, PCI DSS SAQ A, Data Privacy Framework, BBB Accredited Business |
| Support | Email, Dedicated onboarding specialist, Strategic account manager | Self-service help center, 24/7/365 support, Product Expert and dedicated team on Enterprise plan |
| Founded | 2011 | 2002 |
| Headquarters | Boston, MA, United States | Wrocław, Poland |
| Employees | 201–500 | 201–500 |
| Funding | Series B1 | Management buyout |
| Best for | Small businesses, growing companies and non-profits that want simple, multichannel customer support | Small teams earning their first revenue from chat, and scaling teams that want chat to drive sales; larger organizations can use the Enterprise plan. |
Plans side by side
LiveChat
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
LiveChat
- Free trial with no credit card required
- Reliable, high-performance real-time chat
- Polished website chat and straightforward agent workflows
- Transparent, publicly listed pricing
- Strong for e-commerce and sales-focused teams
- Can become expensive and complex for growing teams
- Free tier limited to 2 seats
- Ratings vary by review site
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 98.8%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “Help Scout vs LiveChat”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/help-scout-vs-livechat, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.