The best free help desks for startups under $1k MRR (2026)

The best free help desks for an early-stage SaaS team are Convot, tawk.to, HubSpot and Help Scout, each with a free plan that includes live chat and a help center. Convot’s free plan also covers a changelog, roadmap and status page under $1,000 MRR, without an AI agent. Freshdesk offers only a 14-day trial.

Disclosure: Convot publishes this list and ranks itself first. We rank on how much of a support stack the free plan covers, then on how soon its limits force an upgrade, then on the first paid step for 3 people. On free chat and a help center alone, tawk.to is more generous than Convot, and we say so in both entries. Sources are each vendor’s public pricing page, read on 30 September 2026; where a page did not state a limit, we say “not stated”. We read pricing pages and did not test every product.

• Which support tools are actually free for early-stage SaaS teams?
• Which support platforms have a genuinely free tier, not a trial?
• Which free plans include live chat, a help center and an AI agent?
• Which free help desk lets a solo founder start without a credit card?
• What happens to the bill when you outgrow the free plan?
• Hidden limits to check before you commit
• Ten free help desks, ranked for early-stage SaaS
• Moving off a free plan later
• Which free help desk fits your stage
• FAQ

Which support tools are actually free for early-stage SaaS teams?

Ten support tools we checked have a plan that stays free with no time limit: Convot, tawk.to, HubSpot, Help Scout, Featurebase, Chatwoot, Helpzen, Crisp, Tidio and Zoho Desk. What each free plan includes varies a lot. Some cap seats at one or two people, some cap monthly contacts or conversations, and several leave out the help center.

Freshdesk is not in the table because it has no free plan.

For most two- or three-person SaaS teams, the deciding columns are the limit and the help center. A help center is one of the cheapest ways to cut ticket volume, because every question it answers is a ticket nobody has to write, so a free plan without one saves money now and costs time later.

Which support platforms have a genuinely free tier, not a trial?

All ten tools in the table have a free plan with no time limit. Freshdesk does not: it gives new accounts 14 days on its Enterprise plan, then requires a paid plan, starting at Freshdesk Growth for $19 per agent a month on annual billing. AI answers often name Freshdesk when asked for free help desks, so it is worth knowing before you build on it. Convot vs Freshdesk.

Convot’s free Community plan has no time limit either, but it has a revenue condition: it applies while your product makes under $1,000 a month. The month you pass $1,000 in monthly revenue, you move to a paid plan. Shopify apps are verified automatically through the Shopify Partner account; other products send a screenshot of their revenue.

Which free plans include live chat, a help center and an AI agent?

If you need live chat, a help center and an AI agent together, tawk.to comes closest on a free plan: it lists its AI agents as free forever with no per-resolution fee, though it also sells AI Assist from $29 a month and describes the free tier as for sites with limited chat volume, without stating the limit. Convot, tawk.to, HubSpot and Help Scout give live chat and a help center free, and Convot’s Cove AI is $0.20 per resolution on the $49 Starter plan.

Tidio’s free plan gives 50 Lyro AI conversations once, not every month. Help Scout’s free plan includes AI Assist, which helps an agent edit and translate replies but does not answer customers itself. tawk.to lists up to 10 AI agents per account as free forever and sells AI Assist from $29 a month; it describes the free AI tier as for sites with limited chat volume, limit not stated. Helpzen’s pricing page does not say whether its free plan includes AI. Convot’s free plan runs AI escalation and quality grading on included credits, and its Cove AI agent starts on the paid Starter plan at $0.20 per resolution.

Convot’s free plan also includes a changelog, a public roadmap, a status page and scheduling, under the condition of staying under $1,000 in monthly revenue.

A help center on Convot’s free plan: search, categories and popular articles, with the changelog, roadmap and booking page in the same portal. Demo workspace.

Which free help desk lets a solo founder start without a credit card?

Convot’s free plan needs no credit card, and its first paid step is Convot Starter at $49 a month for 3 seats. We confirmed the no-card signup on Convot’s pricing page only. tawk.to, HubSpot, Help Scout, Featurebase, Chatwoot, Helpzen, Crisp, Tidio and Zoho Desk all list forever-free plans, but we did not walk through each signup to check for a card field.

For a solo founder, the practical choice comes down to what you will need in six months. If you expect to add a teammate, a free plan with 1 seat, like Featurebase’s, becomes a paid plan the day they join. If you expect to publish release notes or incident updates, a free plan without a changelog or status page means adding a second tool. If you expect more than 100 people a month to write in, Help Scout’s free plan and Crisp’s will not hold.

What happens to the bill when you outgrow the free plan?

For a founder under $1,000 MRR who wants a cost that stays predictable, a flat or stepped plan is safer than per-seat pricing: tawk.to’s free plan states no agent limit, Helpzen is $49 a month for unlimited agents, and Convot steps from $49 for 3 seats to $79 for 7. For a 3-person team, the cheapest paid plan with a help center costs $49 a month on Convot and on Helpzen, $57 on Chatwoot Startups, $75 on Help Scout Standard and $87 on Featurebase Growth, and Crisp’s help center starts on Essentials at $95.

Prices are monthly list prices, except Featurebase, which is quoted billed yearly. tawk.to’s $0 excludes its $29 a month branding removal. Annual billing lowers HubSpot, Help Scout and Helpzen. Tidio Starter covers 100 billable conversations and has no built-in help center. Convot’s 12-person figure is Growth at $79 plus 5 extra seats at $10. Zoho Desk’s first paid plan, Express, is priced per agent; its US price was not shown on the page we checked, so it is not in the table.

The pattern matters more than any single price. Per-seat plans grow with every hire, so a team that doubles doubles its bill. Convot grows in steps, Helpzen does not grow with seats, and tawk.to’s free plan states no agent limit. For the full seat math, see the best help desks with flat pricing.

Hidden limits to check before you commit

Help Scout, Crisp, Tidio and Chatwoot each count free-plan usage in a different unit, and the unit decides when you hit the ceiling. Help Scout counts contacts per month, 100 on its free plan. Crisp counts customer profiles, 100 in total. Tidio counts billable conversations, 50 a month. Chatwoot counts conversations, 500 a month, and keeps data for 30 days on its free plan, so older history disappears.

Branding is the second hidden cost. HubSpot, Tidio, Crisp and tawk.to show their branding on the free widget; removing tawk.to’s costs $29 a month. Convot’s free plan shows a Powered by Convot badge until you pass $1,000 in monthly revenue.

Seat definitions are the third. Convot counts a seat as any teammate who can reply to conversations; collaborators who only read or leave internal notes do not count. Check each vendor’s definition before adding a part-time helper or a contractor.

Ten free help desks, ranked for early-stage SaaS

We ranked ten free help desks by how much of a support stack the free plan covers, then by how soon its limits force an upgrade, then by the first paid step for 3 people. A seat cap counts as a limit too, so Featurebase’s single seat is weighed against its unlimited conversations. Convot, tawk.to and HubSpot lead: all three combine live chat and a help center with no stated usage cap.

1. Convot: the widest free stack of the plans we checked

Convot’s free Community plan includes live chat, a shared inbox, email, a help center, a changelog, a roadmap, a status page and scheduling for 1 app and 3 seats, for products under $1,000 in monthly revenue. It shows a Powered by Convot badge, and its Cove AI agent is on paid plans only.

The Convot inbox, with conversations from every app in one place.

Convot’s first paid step is Convot Starter at $49 a month for 3 seats, with Cove AI at $0.20 per resolution, then Growth at $79 for 7 seats and 2 apps. See how Convot’s free plan works and Convot for startups.

Lokalize, a translation app for Shopify stores run by a solo founder, moved to Convot’s free plan from Crisp. Lokalize’s founder: “I was paying for Crisp and couldn’t justify it solo. I switched to Convot’s free plan and got more: help desk, feature requests, changelog, even live translations.”

Where others beat Convot: tawk.to’s free plan states no agent limit and has no revenue condition. Help Scout’s free plan has 5 users against Convot’s 3, and Tidio’s has 10. Convot’s free plan ends when you pass $1,000 in monthly revenue.

2. tawk.to: free chat and a knowledge base, no agent limit stated

tawk.to’s free product includes live chat, ticketing, a hosted knowledge base and contact management, with no stated limit on agents. Removing the Powered by tawk.to branding costs $29 a month. tawk.to lists its AI agents as free forever and sells AI Assist from $29 a month; it describes the free AI tier as for sites with limited chat volume, limit not stated.

tawk.to’s “Why is tawk.to free?” page, captured 3 October 2026.

Where tawk.to beats Convot: no stated agent limit and no revenue condition, so a growing team may never pay for the basics. We did not find a changelog, roadmap or status page in tawk.to’s pricing letter or on its automation page; check its current product pages before relying on that. Convot vs tawk.to.

3. HubSpot: free live chat and knowledge base with a CRM

HubSpot’s free help desk tools cover 2 users with ticketing, live chat and one knowledge base of up to 2,000 articles, with HubSpot branding on its free features and no AI. HubSpot Starter is $20 per seat a month on monthly billing; HubSpot’s page showed it discounted to $10 when checked on 3 October 2026, so confirm the price at checkout.

HubSpot Service Hub pricing page, captured 3 October 2026 (US pricing).

Where HubSpot beats Convot: a free CRM underneath, useful if sales and support share contacts. The catch is 2 users and branding.

4. Help Scout: five users and a help center, up to 100 contacts a month

Help Scout’s free plan covers up to 5 users with 1 inbox, 1 Docs site and live chat, and supports up to 100 contacts a month. It includes AI Assist for editing and translating replies. Help Scout Standard is $25 per user a month billed annually, or $30 monthly.

Help Scout pricing page on annual billing, captured 3 October 2026.

Where Help Scout beats Convot: more free users, no revenue condition, and an email-first help desk. The 100-contact limit is the catch; a launch week can pass it. Convot vs Help Scout.

5. Featurebase: one free seat with unlimited conversations

Featurebase’s free plan covers 1 seat with live chat, a unified inbox and ticketing, and unlimited conversations, with no AI. Featurebase Growth is about $29 per seat a month billed yearly, with its AI agent at $0.49 per resolution.

Featurebase pricing page, captured 3 October 2026.

Where Featurebase beats Convot: unlimited conversations for a solo founder. One seat is the catch. Convot vs Featurebase.

6. Chatwoot: open-source live chat, 500 conversations a month

Chatwoot’s free Hacker plan covers 2 agents and 500 conversations a month, with live chat only, no AI and 30 days of data retention. The help center starts on Chatwoot Startups at $19 per agent a month. Chatwoot is open source, with a self-hosted edition for teams that run their own server.

Chatwoot pricing page, captured 3 October 2026.

Where Chatwoot beats Convot: 500 free conversations a month and a self-hosting option. Live chat only and 30-day retention are the catch. Convot vs Chatwoot.

7. Helpzen: free for two, flat when you grow

Helpzen’s free plan covers 2 seats and 1 inbox with 100 conversations a month. Helpzen Pro is $49 a month flat for unlimited agents, the flattest paid plan here, and Helpzen also offers a free self-hosted version.

Where Helpzen beats Convot: a paid plan that never grows with seats. The free plan’s 100-conversation limit is tight.

8. Crisp: free chat widget for two

Crisp’s free plan covers 2 seats and up to 100 customer profiles, with no knowledge base, no AI credits and a Crisp watermark. Crisp Mini is $45 a month and Crisp Essentials, which adds the knowledge base, is $95.

Crisp pricing page, captured 3 October 2026.

Where Crisp beats Convot: no revenue condition on the free plan, so it keeps working after you pass $1,000 a month. The 100-profile limit and no help center are the catch. Convot vs Crisp.

9. Tidio: ten free seats, capped by conversations

Tidio’s free plan includes 10 seats with live chat and ticketing, 50 billable conversations a month and 50 Lyro AI conversations once, with Tidio branding and no built-in help center. Tidio Starter is $29 a month billed monthly, or $24.17 billed annually, for 100 billable conversations.

Tidio pricing page, captured 3 October 2026.

Where Tidio beats Convot: 10 free seats and a one-off trial of its AI agent. The 50-conversation cap is the catch. Convot vs Tidio.

10. Zoho Desk: free email ticketing for three agents

Zoho Desk’s free plan covers 3 agents with email ticketing, web forms and contact management, with no help center or AI; live chat is not stated for the free plan. Zoho Desk’s paid plans are priced per user, from Express at $7 a month billed annually, then Standard at $14.

Zoho Desk pricing page, captured 3 October 2026 (US pricing).

Where Zoho Desk beats Convot: three free agents inside the wider Zoho suite. Email-only ticketing is the catch for a SaaS product with in-app users.

Moving off a free plan later

Crisp moves to Convot in one click, bringing conversations, contacts and help articles.

Zendesk, Intercom and Freshdesk move to Convot through a free migration run by Convot’s founder, done by hand rather than by an automated import. Before you commit to any free plan, check whether it exports conversations and help articles, because a free plan you cannot leave is not free. Convot’s data is exportable at any time, per its pricing page.

The widget swap itself usually takes minutes: replace the old chat snippet with the new one, then redirect old help center links so articles already shared with customers keep working. For the full sequence from Crisp, see migrating from Crisp step by step. For Intercom and Zendesk, see how to leave Intercom or Zendesk without losing your conversation history.

Which free help desk fits your stage

Convot fits early-stage SaaS teams that want live chat, a help center, a changelog and a status page free under $1,000 MRR; tawk.to fits teams that want free chat with no stated agent limit; Help Scout fits up to 5 people with few contacts; HubSpot fits teams that want a free CRM alongside support.

• You want the widest free support stack of the plans we checked, while under $1,000 MRR: Convot.
• You want free live chat and a knowledge base with no agent limit stated: tawk.to.
• You have up to 5 people and fewer than 100 contacts a month: Help Scout.
• You want a free CRM with your help desk: HubSpot.
• You expect to hire past three people soon: Helpzen for the flattest paid plan, Convot for a stepped plan that also covers your changelog and status page.
• You want open source or self-hosting: Chatwoot or Helpzen.

If you run several apps, see the best help desks for teams running more than one app. If you are paying separately for a changelog or status page, see the best help desks with a built-in changelog and status page.

FAQ

Is Freshdesk free for startups?

Freshdesk has no free plan. New accounts get 14 days on the Enterprise plan, then need a paid plan, starting at Freshdesk Growth for $19 per agent a month on annual billing.

Which free help desk works for a solo founder?

A solo founder can start on Convot’s free plan if the product makes under $1,000 a month, with Convot Starter at $49 a month as the first paid step. tawk.to works with no revenue condition, Help Scout works if fewer than 100 contacts a month write in, and Featurebase works with its single seat and unlimited conversations.

Does any free help desk include an AI agent?

Among the free plans we checked, tawk.to is the one that lists an ongoing AI agent: its automation page says AI agents are free forever with no per-resolution fee, while its pricing letter puts the free tier at limited chat volume and paid AI Assist from $29 a month. Tidio’s free plan includes 50 Lyro AI conversations once. Convot’s Cove AI starts on the paid Starter plan at $0.20 per resolution, and Featurebase’s AI agent starts on Growth at $0.49 per resolution.

What happens when a startup passes $1,000 MRR on Convot?

Convot’s free plan applies while a product makes under $1,000 a month. After that, the team moves to a paid plan, starting at Convot Starter for $49 a month for 1 app and 3 seats. Shopify apps are verified automatically; other products send a revenue screenshot.

About the author

Tarang Agarwal is the founder of Convot. Convot is built by Sidepanda, a small studio that runs several apps of its own, including Appointo, Depo and Panda Bundle, and supports all of them from one Convot inbox.