Support software pricing for a 3-person SaaS team (October 2026)
By The Relay team · Published · 5 min read
The short answer
At list price, a team of three pays $19 a month for Relay Pro, $24.17 for Tidio Starter (limited by conversations, not seats), $45 for Crisp Mini, $57 for Chatwoot Cloud, $75 for Help Scout and $87 each for Featurebase and Intercom. That is before AI usage fees, which Intercom, Help Scout and Featurebase bill per resolution. Five of the six other tools have a free plan; Intercom and Relay don't.
How we counted
- The team: three people who all need to reply to customers.
- The plan: the lowest paid plan that covers them, billed monthly, at list price in US dollars. Where a vendor only publishes a yearly price, we use it and say so in the notes.
- The exclusions: taxes, add-ons, extra seats on plans with a seat cap, and AI usage fees. AI pricing is shown in its own column because it works differently on every tool.
- The sources: each vendor's own public pricing page, listed at the bottom. Where a page doesn't mention something, we write "not listed" instead of "no".
The table
| Tool | How you are charged | 3 people a month | Free plan | AI pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relay (Pro) | Per plan, seats included | $19 | No | Included in the plan |
| Tidio | By billable conversations | $24.17 | Yes: 50 conversations a month | Lyro conversations by plan; custom beyond |
| Crisp | Per workspace (seats included) | $45 | Yes: 2 seats, no AI | AI credits included in paid plans |
| Chatwoot | Per agent, plus AI credits | $57 | Yes: Hacker plan, and free self-hosting | Captain AI credits included; $20 per 1,000 extra |
| Help Scout | Per user, plus per AI resolution | $75 | Yes: up to 5 users, no AI | $0.75 per AI resolution |
| Intercom | Per seat, plus per AI outcome | $87 | No (14-day trial) | From $0.99 per outcome |
| Featurebase | Per seat, plus per AI resolution | $87 | Yes: 1 seat, no AI agent | $0.49 per AI resolution |
Notes on each tool
- Relay: $19 a month for Pro, which includes 3 seats. A fourth seat means Team at $49 a month. AI answers are included. No free plan or trial. Relay's plans.
- Tidio: Starter plan (not per seat; 100 billable conversations a month). Lyro AI includes 50 one-off conversations on Free and Starter; more are custom. Relay vs Tidio.
- Crisp: Mini plan, per workspace (4 seats included). Mini includes $5 of AI credits, about 90 automated conversations. Relay vs Crisp.
- Chatwoot: 3 × $19 Startups agents. Captain AI includes 300 credits a month on Startups; more are $20 per 1,000. Relay vs Chatwoot.
- Help Scout: 3 × $25 Standard users. AI Answers are billed on top at $0.75 per resolution. Relay vs Help Scout.
- Intercom: 3 × $29 Essential seats. Fin AI outcomes are billed on top, from $0.99 each. Relay vs Intercom.
- Featurebase: 3 × $29 Growth seats, billed yearly. AI resolutions are billed on top at $0.49 each. Relay vs Featurebase.
What stands out
- Three people is where flat pricing starts to pay. The per-seat tools land between $57 and $87 a month; the flat-priced ones are $19 and $45. See per-seat vs flat-rate pricing for the same comparison at 1, 5 and 10 seats.
- Almost everyone has a free plan. Five of the six other tools do. Intercom and Relay don't. If you are one or two people, a free plan may be all you need.
- The AI line is a second bill on at least four of the six. Intercom, Help Scout and Featurebase charge per outcome or resolution; Chatwoot charges for credits beyond its allowance. See what AI support costs.
- The cheapest tool isn't the one with the most features. The table can't show that, which is the next section.
What this table leaves out
Price is one column of a purchase. The table says nothing about quality of AI answers, speed, integrations, deliverability, support, or how well a tool fits how you work. It also leaves out features that sit on higher plans: workflows, round-robin assignment, multilingual support, SSO and SLAs on Intercom and Featurebase, multiple inboxes on Help Scout, and 12 channels on Crisp. Relay has none of those yet and supports website chat and email only. The comparison pages cover each tool's trade-offs.
How we keep it current
We re-check every figure against the vendors' pages and update the date at the top. This edition is 2026-10-02. If a price changed and we missed it, tell us on the feedback board.
Questions
Common questions
- What is the cheapest customer support software for a small SaaS team?
- It depends on size. For one or two people, free plans from Help Scout, Chatwoot, Featurebase, Crisp and Tidio may be enough. For three people on a paid plan, the lowest list prices in this table are Relay Pro at $19 a month and Tidio Starter at $24.17, then Crisp Mini at $45.
- Is Relay the cheapest option?
- At list price for three people, yes among these seven tools, but Relay has no free plan, and the tools differ in what they include. Relay is made by the team that wrote this index, so check the sources and compare features on the comparison pages.
- Why isn't Zendesk or Freshdesk in the table?
- We haven't verified their prices against their own pages yet, and we only publish figures we have checked. We plan to add them.
- How often is this updated?
- Every 90 days, or sooner when a vendor changes pricing. The date at the top and in the notes shows the last full check.
Sources and how we wrote this
Relay is made by the team that wrote this post. Figures for other tools come from their own public pages, listed under Sources, and are list prices in US dollars that can change. If something here is out of date, tell us on the feedback board and we'll correct it.