The Help Scout alternative built for SaaS teams
Help Scout is simple and human, but small SaaS teams often need more than an email-first help desk. Fernand gives you shared inbox, live chat, AI agents, custom data, unlimited conversations, unlimited history, and a Notion-like knowledge base in one clean tool.
Trusted by hundreds of
modern founders like you
Purposely built for small teams
Not a watered-down enterprise tool. Every decision in Fernand is made with small, fast-moving teams in mind.
Simple pricing
$29 per human per month. Predictable, transparent, and built for small teams.
Built for SaaS support
Inbox, live chat, AI agents, customer context, and docs in one calm workspace.
Consolidate all your support channels
into one shared inbox
Everything consolidates into one shared inbox you can access from your desktop or mobile. Collaborate on customer inquiries with your team, no matter what channel they started with.
Add any email you'd like, like help@yourapp.com or sales@yourapp.com and handle customer inquiries from a shared inbox.
Learn more โLive chat widget
Embed a live chat in your product and respond to customers in real time, right from your inbox.
Learn more โKnowledge base
Publish a beautiful, SEO-friendly help center your customers can search through before reaching out.
Learn more โSlack
Receive and reply to Slack messages from your customers directly from Fernand without switching tools.
Learn more โ๐ DMs
Receive and reply to direct messages from your customers directly from Fernand without switching tools.
Learn more โContact forms
Add headless contact forms to your product or website and funnel all submissions into your shared inbox.
Learn more โHeadless API
Build a fully custom support experience inside your product using our API. Your UI, your flow, Fernand's inbox behind the scenes.
Learn more โWhy teams switch from Help Scout
Help Scout is great when support mostly happens over email. SaaS support usually gets more complex.
Users ask about billing. They report bugs. They need help setting up features. They expect live chat. They ask the same questions again and again. Your team needs customer context without opening five tools.
Fernand keeps the simplicity, then adds the SaaS-native layer: product context, live chat, AI agents, API actions, docs, and unlimited history.
Choose Help Scout ifโฆ
You want a friendly, traditional support desk and most of your support happens through email.
Choose Fernand ifโฆ
You want a cleaner SaaS support stack with shared inbox, live chat, AI agents, product context, and docs in one opinionated product.
"Fernand is the bedrock of my solo business. It's the reason I'm able to stay solo and move quick while growing my SaaS and providing a human touch to all my thousands of paying customers. For the first time I'm not managing a mess of mailboxes but greeted every morning with a clear path to resolution."
Bring in custom data from your API endpoint
Point Fernand at any HTTP endpoint and it pulls the data that matters most right into the conversation sidebar. Use Liquid templating to control exactly what gets displayed. No extra tooling needed.
See how it works โA support widget designed for SaaS products
Unlike a generic help beacon, Fernand's widget is built to feel native inside your app. Show chat, docs, contact forms, or AI support. Control the behavior, position, theme, and branding.
Integrates with your entire stack
Native integrations with your payment providers and dev tools. Connect anything else with the API, or orchestrate with n8n, Zapier, or Make.
Help Scout feels friendly.Fernand feels fast, focused, and SaaS-native.
Every detail of Fernand is intentionally designed using proven principles from cognitive psychology and behavioral science to make support feel calmer.
One thing at a time
One task at a time, so you never freeze wondering what to do next.
"Bonjour" welcome screen
Always know what your support queue looks like at a glance, instead of scanning through it manually.
Progress to inbox zero
We communicate your progress transparently, to give you a sense of completion and fulfilment.
Keyboard shortcuts for everything
Optimized for efficiency. Reply, add a note, close a request and much more.
Loads under 100ms
No spinners, no loading. Everything is synced between all your screens at all times. It's like magic.
Help Scout vs Fernand comparison
Built for founders, developers, PMs, and first customer ops hires who still touch support directly.
| Help Scout | Fernand | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Friendly email-first support teams | Small SaaS teams that need email, chat, AI, docs, and product context |
| Pricing | User-based plans with feature limits and add-ons | $29 per human per month |
| Buying process | Free trial, demo available | Try for free, no mandatory demo |
| Conversations | Plan and billing model dependent | Unlimited conversations |
| History | Available inside the help desk | Unlimited history |
| Inboxes | Additional inboxes can cost extra | Unlimited team inboxes on all plans |
| Docs sites | Additional Docs sites can cost extra | Knowledge base included |
| AI | AI Answers with resolution-based pricing | AI agents ride free |
| API actions | API access and custom apps available with plan limits | AI agents can connect through API for free |
| Custom data | Custom apps can pull data into the sidebar | Point to any HTTP endpoint, rendered live in the sidebar |
| Live chat | Beacon with AI agent | Support widget with live chat & AI agent |
| Knowledge base | Docs | Notion-like knowledge base |
| Migration | Self-managed or assisted depending on setup | Free, hands-on migration included |
| Product philosophy | Human support desk | Calm SaaS support stack |
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know before switching from Help Scout to Fernand.
Yes. Fernand is a strong Help Scout alternative for small SaaS teams that want more AI, live chat, product context, and unlimited support history.
Yes. Fernand includes unlimited conversations, unlimited history, and unlimited emails and domains.
Yes. Fernand includes a modern, Notion-like knowledge base that can power self-serve support and train your AI agents.
No. Unlike Help Scout AI Answers, Fernand's AI agents ride free. Unlimited conversations and agent actions are included in the flat $29/human/month price.
No. Fernand is self-serve. You can start a 14-day trial without talking to anyone. That said, if you want to chat with a founder before signing up, you're always welcome to book a call โ no pressure at all.
$29 per human per month. AI agents ride free, no extra charge per resolution.
We handle it for you, for free. Your past conversations, attachments, and knowledge base articles are imported into Fernand. We also set up 301 redirects from your old help center URLs so you keep your SEO rankings. Once the migration is done, we'll review everything with you to make sure you're properly set up before going live.
Teams that want a simple email-first support desk and do not need deep SaaS context, live chat, or AI automation may prefer Help Scout.