FreeScout Pricing
- Support pricing
- No published price
- Free plan
FreeScout pricing is recorded here from the vendor's own published plans. There is a free plan. Every figure below was read from the vendor's pricing page on 20 August 2026.
FreeScout publishes no standalone pricing page, so this opens the product site. Figures here were read on 20 August 2026.
FreeScout ranking and coverage
- In Support
- #1 of 7
- Overall
- #1 of 122 tied
- Terms score
- 9 /10
- Referenced here
- 2 pages
Cost position 10 · Portability 9 · Subscription flexibility 8 - Ranked on published terms only: entry price against category peers, portability and subscription flexibility, equally weighted. This is not a quality score.How the rank is calculated.
FreeScout pricing at a glance
| Entry price | Free and self-hosted, with unlimited agents; official modules $2 to $24, paid once |
|---|---|
| Seat minimum | None on the entry plan |
| Free plan | Yes |
| Free trial | No trial offered |
| How it charges | one time |
| Priced plans published | 8 rows on the vendor's page |
| Affiliate programme | No |
| Prices read from | The vendor's own pricing page |
| Last checked | 20 August 2026 |
Every FreeScout plan and what it costs
Read from the vendor's own pricing page on 20 August 2026. Charged as one time. No free trial is offered.
| Plan | Price | Billing | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| FreeScout core, self-hosted | $0 | per month | Unlimited agents - Unlimited support agents, tickets and mailboxes, under AGPL-3.0, run on your own server. Shared inbox, ticketing, notes, tags-free basics and mobile apps |
| Knowledge Base module Add-on | $12 | per one-time | A public self-service help centre. One-time payment with lifetime updates |
| Live Chat module Add-on | $13 | per one-time | Live chat with customers. One-time payment with lifetime updates |
| Workflows module Add-on | $14.99 | per one-time | Automation rules, the equivalent of the automation tiers rivals charge per agent for |
| Reports module Add-on | $14.99 | per one-time | Support reporting and metrics |
| API and Webhooks module Add-on | $12.99 | per one-time | REST API and webhooks, which most rivals include in the subscription |
| Satisfaction Ratings module Add-on | $8.99 | per one-time | CSAT collection on replies |
| Every official module together Add-on | $539.73 | per one-time | The total of all 71 official modules listed on 20 August 2026, from Ticket Number at $2 to Mail Signing and Encryption at $24 |
FreeScout pricing against its competitors
Compared on the smallest invoice each vendor will accept, not on the advertised per-seat rate. Where a product has a seat minimum, the figure below is the minimum times the rate, because that is the cheque you would actually write.
| Product | Cheapest paid entry | Free plan | Against FreeScout |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zendesk | $19 a month | No | – |
| Freshdesk | $19 a month | No | – |
| Help Scout | $25 a month | No | – |
| FreeScout | Not published | Yes | This product |
Which FreeScout plan should you buy?
| Your situation | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You want a shared inbox and nothing else | The free core | Unlimited agents, mailboxes and tickets at no cost, self-hosted. |
| You want the equivalent of a paid help desk's entry tier | Core plus the Knowledge Base and Live Chat modules | $25 once, against $3,000 a year for ten seats on Help Scout Standard. |
| You want automation and reporting too | Add Workflows and Reports | $14.99 each, once. On rivals these arrive with a tier change priced per agent. |
| You need SSO for compliance | Add the SAML SSO or LDAP module | $10 and $17.99 respectively, where rivals reserve SSO for enterprise tiers. |
| You need an AI agent to deflect tickets | Look elsewhere | There is no official AI module. Freshdesk includes 500 AI agent sessions, and Intercom's Fin can run on top of another desk at $0.99 an outcome. |
| You have nobody to run a server | Consider Chatwoot's cloud instead | Same open-source premise with a managed option, free for two agents. |
Verdict by who you are
Small team with technical capacityYes
$25 of one-time modules replaces a $3,000-a-year subscription, and the agents are unlimited.
Growing support team of twentyYes
Per-agent pricing is the thing that hurts at this size, and here there is none. The modules cost the same whether you have three agents or thirty.
Team that needs AI deflectionNo
No official AI module exists, and none of the published modules carries an AI price.
Business with no sysadminNo
You host, patch and back this up. There is no managed cloud from the project and support is a community forum.
Enterprise with procurement requirementsCompare first
AGPL-3.0 and self-hosting suit data-residency rules, and there is no vendor to sign an SLA or a DPA with.
Should you buy FreeScout?
Buy FreeScout if…
- Teams whose support cost should not scale with headcount
- Businesses that must hold their own customer conversations
- Anyone with a server and a preference for buying over renting
Do not buy FreeScout if…
- Teams with no capacity to run and patch a PHP application
- Buyers who need an AI agent with a published price
- Organisations wanting a vendor to phone when it breaks
Best FreeScout alternative for each job
Chosen by what you are trying to do rather than by which product is closest overall, because the right replacement depends on the job.
| If you mainly need to… | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Open source with a managed cloud option | Chatwoot | MIT-licensed core, free for two agents on the cloud, $19 an agent after that. |
| The same shared-inbox feel, hosted | Help Scout | $25 a user a month billed annually, with live chat and knowledge bases in the entry tier. |
| AI deflection on top of any desk | Intercom | Fin runs standalone at $0.99 an outcome with no seat cost. |
| Deep routing, SLAs and an app marketplace | Zendesk | The category's deepest platform, at $55 an agent a month for the comparable tier. |
What leaving FreeScout would cost
low lock-in
FreeScout scores on self-hostable, public API, open source. Portability 9/10 ; lock-in is the inverse. How this is calculated.
Unlimited agents, and features you buy once
Every commercial help desk we price in support charges per agent per month, so the bill tracks the size of the team. FreeScout charges nothing per agent and sells features as one-time modules.
What a ten-agent team pays for a shared inbox, a knowledge base and live chat:
| Ten agents | Year one | Year two | Year three |
|---|---|---|---|
| FreeScout core plus two modules | $25 | $0 | $0 |
| Help Scout Standard | $3,000 | $3,000 | $3,000 |
| Freshdesk Omni Growth | $3,480 | $3,480 | $3,480 |
| Zendesk Suite Team | $6,600 | $6,600 | $6,600 |
The FreeScout figure is the Knowledge Base module at $12 once plus the Live Chat module at $13 once. The rest are the vendors’ own per-agent rates multiplied out. Modules are one-time payments with lifetime updates, per the project’s own FAQ, and there are no refunds.
Even buying every one of the 71 official modules comes to $539.73 paid once - a twelfth of one year of Zendesk for ten agents.
What the free core actually is
Unlimited agents, unlimited mailboxes, unlimited tickets, under AGPL-3.0, on your own server. It is a PHP and Laravel application that runs on ordinary shared hosting, which matters: the practical operating cost of self-hosting this is a few dollars a month, not a Kubernetes cluster.
The shared inbox is deliberately modelled on Help Scout - conversations that read like email rather than tickets with reference numbers. If that is the shape you want and the price is what stopped you, this is the direct answer.
The unbundling cuts both ways
The corollary of paying once is that the basics arrive separately, each a single payment: a knowledge base is $12, live chat $13, workflows $14.99, reports $14.99, the API $12.99, and SSO $10 for SAML or $17.99 for LDAP.
None of that is expensive, and all of it is a decision you have to make, plus an install and an update cycle you own. A hosted rival hands you the same list switched on, for a hundred times the money over three years.
The gap is AI, and it is a real one
Every commercial product in this category now ships an AI agent with a published price: Freshdesk includes 500 sessions, Intercom charges $0.99 an outcome, Help Scout $0.75 a resolution, Zendesk includes AI agents in Suite Team.
We read all 71 official FreeScout modules on 20 August 2026 and none of them is an AI module. Community modules exist outside the official directory and publish no price we can record.
So the decision is clean. If your support problem is cost per agent, FreeScout answers it completely. If your support problem is volume of repetitive questions, it does not answer it at all, and the honest move is Fin on top of whatever desk you already have.
What we have not done
Nobody here has installed FreeScout, bought a module or run a ticket through it. What is checked is the licence, the free core’s stated limits, every official module price, and the one-time payment terms - all read on 20 August 2026. Whether it survives contact with a busy support team is not something a pricing page can tell you, and neither can we.
FreeScout questions, answered
- Is FreeScout worth it?
- FreeScout is the cheapest credible help desk in this catalogue by an enormous margin, and the reason is structural rather than promotional: the core is AGPL-3.0 with unlimited agents, so support cost stops tracking headc
- How much does FreeScout cost?
- Free and self-hosted, with unlimited agents; official modules $2 to $24, paid once. Verified against the vendor's pricing page.
- Does FreeScout have a free plan or free trial?
- FreeScout has a free plan. No free trial is offered.
- What is the best FreeScout alternative?
- It depends on the job. Chatwoot: The other open-source option, MIT-licensed, with a managed cloud and a free two-agent tier. Help Scout: The product FreeScout is modelled on, hosted, at $25 a user a month billed annually. Zendesk: Far deeper routing, SLAs and app ecosystem, at $55 an agent a month for the comparable tier.
- Can I self-host FreeScout?
- Yes. FreeScout can be run on your own infrastructure, so the data stays under your control.
FreeScout publishes no standalone pricing page, so this opens the product site. Figures here were read on 20 August 2026.
What this profile is based on
Every claim below is about our work, not about FreeScout. A "no" is recorded rather than omitted, because the difference between a tested review and careful desk research is the reader's to weigh. How we research a profile.
-
Prices read from the vendor : yes
Read from FreeScout's own pricing page on 20 August 2026
-
Plans and terms recorded : yes
8 rows, each with its billing period
-
Original screenshots : yes
1 captured by us: pricing page
-
Sources cited and dated : yes
4 primary sources, each with the date it was read
-
Product used first-hand : no
Not tested. This profile is desk research from primary sources
-
Alternatives used first-hand : no
None, so comparisons here rest on published facts rather than use
-
Vendor contacted : no
Not contacted for this profile
Desk research from FreeScout's own home page, module directory and modules FAQ, read on 20 August 2026, plus the licence and star count from the GitHub repository. The $539.73 total is the sum of all 71 official module prices listed on the directory page that day, computed rather than quoted. Nobody here has installed FreeScout, and no module was purchased or tested.
Where FreeScout appears on this site
2 other pages here reference FreeScout. Every one is listed below, so the figure can be checked rather than taken.
- Another profile Chatwoot picks it for never pay per agent
- Another profile Front picks it for never pay per seat
Counts pages on this site that name the product by choice - price guides, pricing question pages, deal records and other profiles. Category and directory indexes list everything automatically and are not counted.
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Provenance and freshness
When each fact was last checked
- Pricing ·
- Plans ·
- Free trial
- Features
- Platforms
- Integrations
- Affiliate programme
- Company details
Individually sourced claims
-
The core is free, self-hosted and supports unlimited agents, tickets and mailboxes
FreeScout home page ↗ · checked
-
The repository is licensed AGPL-3.0 and shows 4,487 stars
-
Official module payments are one-time only and include lifetime updates, with no refunds and no bulk or nonprofit discounts
FreeScout modules FAQ ↗ · checked
-
The Knowledge Base module is $12 and the Live Chat module $13, each a one-time payment
FreeScout modules directory ↗ · checked
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71 official modules are listed, from $2 for Ticket Number to $24 for Mail Signing and Encryption, totalling $539.73
FreeScout modules directory, every listed price summed ↗ · checked
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No AI or ChatGPT module appears in the official modules directory
FreeScout modules directory ↗ · checked
What has changed
-
August 2026
- First published, with the module directory read in full and every price summed
- Recorded that module payments are one-time with lifetime updates
- Recorded that no official AI module exists, which is the gap against every commercial rival
Sources & verification
Facts on this page were read from the sources below on the dates shown. Where a vendor does not publish a figure, we record it as not disclosed rather than estimating it.
- FreeScout home page - checked 20 August 2026
- FreeScout modules directory - checked 20 August 2026
- FreeScout modules FAQ - checked 20 August 2026
- freescout-help-desk/freescout on GitHub - checked 20 August 2026
Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected] and we will re-check it. Corrections are logged on the page.
