Alternatives
A help desk alternative priced per mailbox.
Help desks charge per agent, so the bill grows every time someone joins. Parly charges per mailbox and lets the whole team in, answers from Slack and Microsoft Teams, and is hosted in the EU. Here is how it compares, with each vendor’s own prices.
What a team of 5 pays per month
Parly
€19
The whole team, replies from Slack and Teams included. €39 with helpdesk mode.
Zendesk alternative →
€95
5 agents on Support Team, billed annually (€125 monthly).
Freshdesk alternative →
$95
5 agents on Growth, billed annually ($115 monthly).
Help Scout alternative →
$125
5 agents on Standard, billed annually ($150 monthly).
Front alternative →
$125
5 agents on Starter, billed annually ($175 monthly).
Hiver alternative →
$125
5 agents on Growth (Hiver Omni), billed annually ($175 monthly).
Each vendor’s cheapest plan with a shared email inbox and assignment, as of October 2026, excluding tax, in the currency its pricing page shows. Sources on each comparison page.
Questions
- What is the cheapest alternative to Zendesk for a small team?
- It depends on how many people answer. Per-agent help desks multiply by headcount: 5 agents on Zendesk Support Team pay €95 a month billed annually. Parly is €19 per mailbox with unlimited teammates, or €39 with helpdesk mode. Prices as of October 2026.
- Which help desk lets you reply to customer email from Slack?
- In Parly the customer email arrives in Slack as a thread, and Reply there sends a real email from your address. Freshdesk allows a public reply from its Slack app's Home tab; Zendesk, Help Scout, Front and Hiver use Slack for notes, notifications or actions, not email replies.
- Which help desks work with Microsoft Teams?
- Parly posts each customer email in a Teams channel as a card with a Reply button. Zendesk and Freshdesk also allow public replies from their Teams apps. We found no native Teams integration for Help Scout, Front or Hiver.
- Is Parly a full help desk?
- Parly is a shared inbox that grows into a help desk: own logins, notes and status for everyone, plus assignment, customer companies and categories with helpdesk mode, SLAs, automation, reports, live chat and AI assist. It has no phone channel and no customer portal.
One price per mailbox. The whole team in.
Connect the mailbox you already have, invite everyone, and answer from Parly, Slack or Teams. €19 per mailbox per month, first month free.