Kayako alternatives in 2026, with prices

The Kayako alternatives a small software team should weigh in 2026 are Help Scout, Zendesk, Freshdesk, HappyFox, Intercom and Crisp. If the job you want done is answering customers on your website rather than working tickets, add Deacon. We read every price below in US dollars on the vendor’s own pages on 15 October 2026, and each one links to where we read it.

Kayako has changed what it sells. Its pricing page leads with Kay, an AI agent billed at $1 for each resolved ticket, and puts no figure on Kayako One, the full helpdesk. To learn that price you talk to an expert. If you want to know your bill before a sales call, that’s the first reason to look around.

Deacon is the one we make, and it’s no helpdesk. It’s an AI support agent for founders without a support team. It answers your customers from your own docs and turns what they ask into a list of what to build and fix next. Signing up for its free plan takes no card details.

How each Kayako alternative charges

Kayako is the first row, so every tool below reads against it. The price is the cheapest paid plan, and the last column is what the AI that answers customers costs.

What Kayako sells now, and why teams look elsewhere

Kayako Classic, the version you host yourself, has served support teams for more than 15 years, by Kayako’s own Classic page. The same page says Kayako has moved the platform from on-premise to the cloud, and that it heard some Classic customers were looking into Zendesk and Freshdesk.

The new Kayako sells results rather than seats. Its own landing page is headed The First Helpdesk That Doesn’t Charge by the Seat. On the pricing page, Kay is an AI agent that Kayako says processes refunds, creates accounts and sends return labels through tools such as Stripe, Shopify and HubSpot. You pay $1 when Kay settles a ticket without a person, either by taking an action or by giving an answer the customer confirms. Escalations and partial resolutions cost nothing.

For a small team, the catches are these.

• The helpdesk has no price on the page. Kayako One brings a unified inbox, ticketing, a knowledge base, a live chat widget, automation rules and reporting, with Kay included at $1 a resolution and white-glove onboarding. Its button reads Talk to an Expert.
• The way in is a call. The pricing page’s buttons book a demo, a strategy session or a talk with a pricing expert.
• The AI bill follows your volume. By our sums, if Kay resolves 300 tickets in a month, that part of the bill is $300, and it climbs with every ticket it resolves.

None of that makes Kayako a poor choice. If you run a support team with plenty of repeat tickets, and you want an AI agent that refunds orders and updates accounts in your other systems, paying only when it resolves something is a fair deal. Kayako also offers Kay on its own, on top of the helpdesk you already have.

Help Scout, a calm shared inbox priced by the user

Help Scout suits two to five people answering from one support address. Its free plan gives 5 users, 1 inbox and 1 Docs site for your help articles. Standard is $25 a user a month billed yearly, and its card lists live chat and SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, and more than one knowledge base. Plus is $45 a user and Pro $75, on the same yearly billing.

Its AI is AI Answers, an add-on at $0.75 a resolution, which Help Scout sets up from your website or other sources. Like Kay, it charges only when the AI settles the conversation, once per conversation however many questions it answers, and nothing when the customer asks for more help. A new account gets 3 months of unlimited resolutions free, and you can set a monthly cap that switches AI Answers off when it’s reached. Help Scout pricing works out what one, three or five people pay, and Help Scout alternatives looks at it from the other side.

Zendesk, the helpdesk to grow into

Zendesk is where some Kayako Classic customers were looking, by Kayako’s own account, and it’s built for a support team that will keep hiring. Its first plan, Support Team, costs $19 an agent a month billed yearly, or $25 monthly, and covers email tickets, routing, pre-written responses and automations. AI agents arrive on Suite Team, at $55 billed yearly or $69 monthly, along with a knowledge base, messaging and live chat, and telephony. Suite Professional costs $115 billed yearly or $149 monthly.

Zendesk also bills its AI agents by the automated resolution. Each plan includes a set number, which depends on the plan and how many agents you have. Past that, resolutions committed in advance cost $1.50 each and pay-as-you-go ones $2.00. The trial runs 14 days on Suite Professional, and the startups programme gives early-stage startups a 6-month trial of the Suite for up to 50 agents. Zendesk pricing adds up what one to three agents pay, AI included, and Zendesk alternatives covers the tools people weigh against it.

Freshdesk, email ticketing with AI sessions to start

Freshdesk is the other name Kayako’s Classic page mentions, and it’s a per-agent helpdesk built around email. Growth is $19 an agent a month billed yearly, for ticketing, a shared inbox, a customer portal and knowledge base, and reporting. Pro is $55 and Enterprise $89, also billed yearly.

Every plan comes with Freddy AI Agent and 500 free sessions, once per account. After that, sessions cost $49 per 100. On email, a session is the 72 hours from a customer’s first message, however many replies the AI sends in that time, so Freshdesk counts conversations it takes part in, where Kay counts tickets it resolves. The 14-day trial opens on Enterprise, and if you don’t pick a plan at the end, the account is suspended. Freshdesk pricing works out what a team of one to three pays, and Freshdesk alternatives turns the question round.

HappyFox, a helpdesk with the extras sold apart

HappyFox is a ticketing helpdesk, and Kayako names it among the tools it compares itself with. Help Desk starts at $24 an agent a month, and yearly billing saves 20%. The Basic plan stops at 5 agents, and the higher plans have no agent limit. A bigger team can choose unlimited-agent pricing instead, a flat yearly fee with a yearly ticket allowance.

Its AI comes in separate products with their own prices. HappyFox AI, which helps your team on each ticket, starts at $14 an agent a month. The Chatbot, which answers customers, is $0.33 a resolution. Autopilot, its AI agents that finish repetitive tasks end to end, costs as little as 2 cents a successful action. Web messaging, workflows and BI are sold apart too, and HappyFox suggests a call to bundle them. You can try any HappyFox plan for 14 days without a card.

Intercom, the AI priced closest to Kay

Intercom is a chat-first helpdesk, and Fin, its AI agent, is on every plan at $0.99 an outcome, a cent under Kay’s $1. Fin counts an outcome when the customer confirms the issue is resolved, doesn’t ask for more help after Fin replies, or Fin finishes a workflow, handoffs included. So a workflow that ends in a handoff can count on Fin, where Kayako charges nothing for an escalation. Intercom charges once per conversation, however many questions Fin answers.

Essential was $29 a seat a month billed yearly on both of our reads, for Fin, the Messenger, a shared inbox and ticketing, and a public help centre. Advanced is $85 a seat and Expert $132, billed yearly too. The page carries a test on Essential’s price, so you may be shown another figure. The 14-day trial needs no card and includes Fin. Like Kay, Fin is also sold on its own for the helpdesk you already have, with no seats and a monthly minimum, such as 50 outcomes. Fin AI pricing explains how outcomes add up, and Intercom pricing covers the seats.

Crisp, one price for the whole team

Crisp is the nearest thing here to Kayako’s promise of no seat fees, because it prices the workspace. Free Forever, as Crisp calls it, covers 2 seats, a shared inbox and a chat widget for your site, and holds no AI credits. Mini costs $45 a month and brings 4 seats, an email inbox the team shares and $5 of AI credits, enough for around 90 automated conversations by Crisp’s estimate. Essentials costs $95 for 10 seats and $25 of credits, around 450 conversations, with WhatsApp, Instagram and SMS, a knowledge base and routing. Plus, at $295, adds a portal where your customers open and follow tickets.

Crisp lets you try every plan for 14 days at no cost. Crisp chat pricing explains how the credits are spent, and Crisp alternatives weighs Crisp against its own rivals.

What the AI costs at 200 resolutions a month

Kayako’s whole pitch is paying for results, so here is what each tool’s AI charges for 200 tickets settled in a month. The sums are ours, from the prices above. Each vendor counts its unit its own way, so read the second column before the third.

Deacon doesn’t charge by the resolution. A plan gives a set number of answers a month, about 2 to a conversation, and nothing is billed once they’re used.

Deacon, for a founder who wants to know what to build next

Kay is sold on clearing a queue, refund by refund and label by label. A founder with no support team has a different problem. The questions come in one at a time, and the useful part is what they add up to. Deacon is made for that founder, and these four things are why one picks it.

1. It shows you what to build next. Topics group your customers’ questions, count the people behind each and mark a topic a feature ask or a bug report when that kind of question leads it. Analytics › Widget lists what visitors ask you to build, in their own words. Once one page’s questions go unanswered clearly more often than the rest, with enough questions to tell, it names that page as the one where people get stuck.
2. You see what people asked on each page. Analytics › Website lists your most visited pages, each with its visits, the questions Deacon was asked there and how many it couldn’t answer. The Unanswered filter in Conversations lists the questions your content didn’t cover.
3. What it can’t answer becomes your to-do list. What needs you lists the questions Deacon didn’t know, each a click from writing the answer. Write it once and press Save & check. Deacon uses your answer next time, and shows you the reply it now gives.
4. It’s made for vibe-coded sites. Install opens on the steps for Lovable, Bolt, Replit or Base44 when your home page shows one of them built it. Either way, Deacon goes on with one script tag.

Day to day, Deacon answers your customers on your site in seconds, at any hour and in the language they write in, from your pages, files and pasted text. When your content doesn’t cover something, it says it doesn’t know rather than guess, and offers a box for the visitor’s email. Anyone who leaves an address or asks for a person shows in your dashboard at once, and your reply reaches their chat under your name, as human handoff shows.

All three plans carry every feature. What changes between them is answers, knowledge, pages a month from your website and seats. On the free plan you get 50 answers a month and 1 seat, and it never ends or asks for a card. Starter gives 1,000 answers a month and 3 seats for $50 a month, or $40 a month billed yearly. Growth gives 4,000 answers a month and 10 seats for $150 a month, or $120 a month billed yearly.

What Kay does that Deacon won’t

The biggest thing you’d give up is Kay’s reach into your other systems. Kayako sells Kay on refunding orders, creating accounts and sending return labels. Deacon does none of that. It acts nowhere outside the chat, and it always declines a question about a visitor’s own account, invoice or data, so a refund still waits for you.

Kayako One’s helpdesk has no match in Deacon either. Deacon keeps no ticketing system, takes no email into a support inbox, and has no routing, assignment or rota. It answers on your website only, with no phone, voice, WhatsApp, Instagram or SMS channel. It doesn’t connect to a helpdesk or export to CSV, and it sends customers no surveys.

So the choice turns on who does the work. A team closing tickets all day, refunds and account changes among them, needs a helpdesk, and Kayako or one of the six above will serve it. A founder handling support alone mostly sees the same questions again and again, and Deacon answers the ones your docs cover and brings you the others. AI help desks sets out how each helpdesk bills its own AI, for a team that wants its AI to come from its helpdesk.

Picking a Kayako alternative

Start with who answers support today, and how you want the AI billed.

If a few of you share one inbox, Help Scout is the calm choice and starts free. If you’re hiring a support team and need routing and reporting that grow with it, Zendesk is the full helpdesk, and Freshdesk is the email-first one with AI sessions to start. If you want ticketing and would rather add each extra as you need it, HappyFox sells them apart. If you liked Kayako’s pay-per-result AI, Intercom’s Fin is priced a cent under Kay. If seat fees were what you wanted to escape, Crisp charges by the workspace. Free ticketing systems compares the free helpdesks if you’re starting from nothing.

If you’re a founder without a support team, start with Deacon. It answers your customers, brings you the ones who need a person, and turns their questions into your list of what to build next.

Questions people ask about leaving Kayako

How much does Kayako cost in 2026?

Kay, Kayako’s AI agent, is $1 for each resolved ticket, with no seat or setup fees and nothing charged for escalations. Kayako One, the full helpdesk with Kay included, has no price on the pricing page. You get one by talking to Kayako’s team.

Is there a free alternative to Kayako?

Yes. Help Scout’s free plan takes 5 users with 1 inbox and 1 Docs site. Crisp’s gives 2 seats and a chat widget, with no AI credits. Deacon’s free plan includes its AI, with 50 answers a month and 1 seat, though it isn’t a helpdesk. Zendesk, Freshdesk, HappyFox and Intercom each offer a 14-day trial.

Which alternative charges for AI by the resolution, like Kayako?

Several do. Intercom’s Fin is $0.99 an outcome, Help Scout’s AI Answers $0.75 a resolution, and HappyFox’s Chatbot $0.33 a resolution. Zendesk includes some automated resolutions with each plan and charges $1.50 or $2.00 for each one past them. Each vendor defines a resolution its own way, so read its terms before comparing.

Can I keep Kay and change my helpdesk?

Kayako says so. Its pricing page offers Kay on your existing helpdesk, and its seat-pricing page says Kayako works with Zendesk, Freshdesk and other platforms.

What happened to Kayako Classic?

Kayako Classic is the self-hosted Kayako. Kayako’s own page says it moved the platform from on-premise to the cloud with the new Kayako, and it invites Classic customers to make the same move.

Can Deacon refund an order or update an account, like Kay?

No. Deacon answers from your own content, and it declines any question about a visitor’s own account, invoice or data. When a visitor needs something done, they can leave their email or ask for a person, and you reply from Deacon’s dashboard.