What is a flat-rate help desk?
A flat-rate help desk charges one price for the whole workspace, so adding an agent costs nothing. Most help desks charge per agent instead: Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom and Help Scout all multiply their price by the number of people who answer tickets. Flat pricing does not remove the limit, it moves it. Each tool below caps something else: tickets, AI usage, history, or how much hosting work you take on.
Every price here comes from the vendor’s own pricing page, checked on 29 October 2026. We make Supahelp, which is on this list. It is not the cheapest, and we say where another tool fits better.
| Tool | Flat price | What's capped instead | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| HelpCanvas | $29/mo billed annually (Pro); free for up to 3 agents | 500 AI reply drafts and 1,000 chatbot conversations a month on Pro | Live chat and the lowest hosted price |
| Helpzen | $39/mo billed annually, $49 monthly | No caps listed on its one plan | Email, WhatsApp, live chat, SMS and Instagram in one inbox |
| Supahelp | $64/mo billed annually, $79 monthly; Free plan for 1 staff | 5,000 AI credits (about 500 AI answers) and 2,000 sent emails a month | SaaS help center, request forms and AI replies a teammate approves |
| erelo Desk | $99/mo | 500 tickets a month, then $0.25 a ticket | Unmetered AI drafts, optional managed agents |
| Gorgias | $40/mo (Starter, monthly) or $77/mo billed annually (Basic) | 50 or 300 tickets a month, then $0.40 a ticket | Shopify and e-commerce stores |
| PileDesk | Free for 6 months, then €29/mo | None listed | IT and HR request queues on a small budget |
| Maxdesk | $0 | Ads in the workspace, a Maxdesk line on outgoing mail, 3 months of history | Teams that need free and accept the trade-offs |
| Jitbit | $2,490 once for unlimited agents (self-hosted) | Updates after year one cost 50% to renew | Teams that must run on their own servers |
| FreeScout | Free, open source (self-hosted) | You run and maintain the server | Email-first teams with someone technical |
| osTicket | Free, open source (self-hosted) | You run and maintain the server | Classic ticketing on your own server |
The 10 tools
1. HelpCanvas
HelpCanvas has a shared inbox, live chat, an AI chatbot, a knowledge base and ticketing. Its Pro plan is $29 a month billed annually for unlimited agents, with 500 AI reply drafts and 1,000 chatbot conversations a month. A free plan covers up to three agents, without live chat or automation rules. It is the lowest hosted price on this list.
2. Helpzen
Helpzen sells one plan: $39 a month billed annually, or $49 monthly, for unlimited agents and conversations. It covers email, WhatsApp, live chat, SMS and Instagram, with AI auto-replies, draft suggestions, a knowledge base and SLAs. It is also open source, so you can host it yourself for free.
3. Supahelp
Supahelp is a help center with structured request forms and a request queue behind it. Essential is $64 a month billed annually, or $79 monthly, for unlimited staff. It includes 5,000 AI credits a month, enough for about 500 AI answers, and 2,000 sent emails. Customers get AI answers from your published articles. Supa, the built-in AI agent, drafts email replies and request updates that wait until a teammate approves them. There is no live chat or phone. A permanent Free plan covers one staff member and 100 requests a month.
4. erelo Desk
erelo Desk charges per ticket instead of per agent: $99 a month includes 500 tickets, then $0.25 each, with a monthly cap you set. AI reply drafts, summaries and polishing are unmetered. erelo also offers a managed service where its own agents work your desk.
5. Gorgias
Gorgias is built for online stores, especially on Shopify. It prices by ticket volume, never per agent: Starter is $40 a month for 50 tickets, and Basic is $77 a month billed annually for 300. Extra tickets cost $0.40, and its AI Agent charges $1.50 per automated interaction past the plan’s limit.
6. PileDesk
PileDesk is free for six months, then €29 a month for the whole workspace, with unlimited tickets, a shared inbox and a help portal. It leans toward IT and HR request queues. Its pricing page lists no AI features.
7. Maxdesk
Maxdesk’s free plan includes unlimited agents, email-to-ticket, SLAs and a knowledge base. It says up front what free costs: ads inside the workspace, a Maxdesk line on outgoing replies ($20 a month removes it), three months of history and a cap on automations.
8. Jitbit
Jitbit sells a perpetual self-hosted license: $2,490 once for unlimited agents, with a year of updates. Renewing updates costs 50% of the plan price, and AI features for the self-hosted version are a $999 one-time add-on.
9. FreeScout
FreeScout is a free, open-source help desk and shared inbox that you run on your own server, with unlimited agents and mailboxes. The software costs nothing. Hosting, updates and backups become your team’s job.
10. osTicket
osTicket is the long-running open-source ticketing system. The self-hosted edition is free. Its hosted cloud version is priced per agent, from $12 a month, so it only counts as flat if you host it yourself.
When is flat pricing cheaper than per-agent?
Not always. A per-agent plan is cheaper for very small teams. Freshdesk Growth costs $19 per agent a month billed annually, so three agents pay $57, less than Supahelp’s $64. The fourth agent tips it: $76 a month, and $190 at ten agents, while the flat price stays put.
| Team size (agents) | Freshdesk Growth monthly cost | Supahelp monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $19 | $64 |
| 3 | $57 | $64 |
| 4 | $76 | $64 |
| 10 | $190 | $64 |
| 25 | $475 | $64 |
The same math applies to any flat-rate tool. Divide its monthly price by a per-agent tool’s seat price to find the team size where flat pricing starts to win. For HelpCanvas at $29, that is the second agent.
Where flat-rate help desks put the limit
Check these five things before you pick one:
- Ticket caps. erelo and Gorgias include a set number of tickets, then charge for each one. Estimate your busiest month, not your average.
- AI caps. HelpCanvas Pro includes 500 AI drafts a month. Supahelp includes 5,000 credits, about 500 AI answers, with no top-up. Unmetered AI, like erelo’s drafts, is rare.
- History. Maxdesk’s free plan keeps three months. HelpCanvas Pro keeps 365 days of tickets.
- Channels. Helpzen and HelpCanvas include live chat. Supahelp, PileDesk and erelo Desk are built around email, forms and a help center.
- Hosting work. FreeScout, osTicket and Jitbit cost little or nothing in license fees, but someone has to patch, back up and monitor the server.
Which flat-rate help desk should you choose?
- Choose HelpCanvas if you want the lowest hosted price with live chat, and 500 AI drafts a month is enough.
- Choose Helpzen if customers reach you on WhatsApp, SMS or Instagram, or you may want to self-host later.
- Choose Supahelp if you run a SaaS product and want a public help center, request forms for bugs, questions and feature requests, and AI replies that wait for a teammate’s approval. Choose something else if you need live chat, phone, or more than about 500 AI answers a month.
- Choose erelo Desk if you want AI drafts on every ticket without a meter, or might hand the desk to a managed team.
- Choose Gorgias if you sell on Shopify or another store platform.
- Choose Jitbit, FreeScout or osTicket if your data has to stay on your servers and someone on the team can run them.
- Choose a per-agent tool if you have one to three agents and expect to stay that size.
For a closer look at one per-agent tool against a flat rate, see our Freshdesk comparison. If you are choosing a first help desk, start with what a startup help desk needs.