KayakoAI help desk and customer support platform
vs
PlainThe AI support stack built for B2B
Comparison · Help Desk · weekly run Nov 3
Kayako vs Plain
Which one do AI engines recommend, and how do they differ on price, fit and features?
The short answer
Plain is the stronger AI pick in Help Desk: it has a visibility score of 1.5 versus 0 for Kayako.
Choose Kayako if…
- You want a lower entry price ($1 vs $45)
- You prefer a larger, established vendor (51–200 employees)
- Usage-based pricing suits your budget better than per seat
Choose Plain if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (1.5 vs 0)
- You need HIPAA coverage
- Per seat pricing suits your budget better than usage-based
- Recommended in B2B SaaS support shortlists
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 3
| Metric | Kayako | Plain |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 0% | 1.5% |
| Change vs last week | no change0% | down−0.8% |
| Rank in Help Desk | #37 | #24 |
| Share of voice | 0% | 0.4% |
| Mentions this run | 0 | 2 |
| Positive in AI answers | — | 20% |
The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days
Kayako 0pp · Plain −0.7999999999999998pp over 1 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Plain leads on 3 of 3 engines
ChatGPT
AI Mode
Perplexity
KayakoPlain
Head to head in AI answers
0 engine answers name both brands
0Kayako ranked higher
0Plain ranked higher
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | Kayako | Plain |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Per seat |
| Entry price | $1 / mo | $45 per seat / mo |
| Free plan | No | No · 7-day trial |
| Deployment | Cloud | Cloud (AWS eu-west-2, London) |
| Compliance | SOC 2 Type II, GDPR | SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR |
| Support | Help center, White-glove onboarding, Dedicated success manager | Help Center, Dedicated customer success manager (Frontier), White glove onboarding (Frontier), Community |
| Founded | 2001 | 2020 |
| Headquarters | Austin, Texas, United States | London, United Kingdom |
| Employees | 51–200 | 11–50 |
| Funding | Acquisition by ESW Capital | Series A · $21M raised |
| Best for | Support teams that want AI ticket automation deployed for them, either on a new help desk or on top of their existing one | Fast-growing B2B and developer-tools companies that support customers in Slack, Teams, Discord and email |
Plans side by side
Plain
Foundation$45user/month, billed annually
Horizon$99user/month, billed annually
FrontierCustomcustom, billed annually
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
Kayako
Profile in progress.
Plain
- Recommended in B2B SaaS support shortlists
- Strong fit for modern, Slack-connected developer-centric support
- Suited to B2B teams depending on customer interaction style
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 98.8%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “Kayako vs Plain”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/kayako-vs-plain, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.