Compare
Heartbeatvs
Help Scout
Heartbeat is a friendly home for a small paid community with chat, events, and courses. Help Scout is a human-feeling help desk: shared inbox, Docs, Beacon chat, and AI drafts.
How Heartbeat and Help Scout compare
Heartbeat is a friendly place to start a paid community without a big budget. For $49 a month you get channels, threads, chat, voice rooms, DMs, unlimited courses and events, a custom domain, checkout pages, five automation workflows, and Pulse, an AI that actually sets up channels, offers, and pages for you. Grow adds unlimited workflows, DM rules, an affiliate program, and white-label email; Scale adds a branded app. For a founder with a small group who wants courses and calls next to the conversation, Heartbeat covers a lot for the price.
Help Scout is support that feels like email from a person. A shared inbox with assignments and saved replies, Docs for a knowledge base, Beacon for chat and self-service, customer profiles, workflows, reports, and AI drafts and summaries help small teams deliver warm, organized support. Nothing about it feels like a ticket number.
Where they are different
Heartbeat
- Heartbeat's landing page is the door to a private space.
- Heartbeat emails members through workflows and a weekly digest.
- Heartbeat's events sync to members' calendars.
- Heartbeat charges 5% to 1.25% on payments.
Help Scout
- Help Scout is the support tool beside your site.
- Help Scout handles email and Beacon chat for anyone.
- Help Scout has no marketing email.
Choose Heartbeat when a small paid community with courses, calls, and member chat is the product.
Choose Help Scout when a small team needs a warm, organized help desk with a knowledge base.
Compare features
What's on Heartbeat and Help Scout
A check means that capability is available. Heartbeat and Help Scout are marked only when the offer is comparable, not the same product.
Site and brand
- Workspace siteHeartbeat: IncludedHelp Scout: Not included
Audience and email
- AudienceHeartbeat: IncludedHelp Scout: Included
- Email on your domainHeartbeat: Not includedHelp Scout: Included
- Marketing emailsHeartbeat: IncludedHelp Scout: Not included
- Campaign workflowsHeartbeat: IncludedHelp Scout: Not included
Messaging
- Built-in chatHeartbeat: IncludedHelp Scout: Included
- Messaging CenterHeartbeat: Not includedHelp Scout: Included
Commerce
- Shop paymentsHeartbeat: IncludedHelp Scout: Not included
Team
- Admin usersHeartbeat: IncludedHelp Scout: Included
- Per-admin permissionsHeartbeat: IncludedHelp Scout: Included
- AI AssistantHeartbeat: IncludedHelp Scout: Included
* Note: This table does not capture every feature of Heartbeat or Help Scout, and is not intended as a comprehensive list. We keep this page current, but Heartbeat or Help Scout may add or remove features that are not shown here.
Heartbeat vs Help Scout pricing
Compare plans, prices, and what it costs to get started.
Heartbeat
Current plans and prices
See what Heartbeat charges on their pricing page.
Help Scout
Current plans and prices
See what Help Scout charges on their pricing page.
Cardel: An alternative to
Heartbeat and Help Scout
You don't pay until you publish.
Cardel provides a home for your craft. Share and sell your work, grow your audience, and bring your community together on a site of your own.
Common questions
Is Cardel an alternative to Heartbeat or Help Scout?
Cardel is a home for your craft: a site of your own with a blog, newsletter, shop, community, and one inbox. It can replace Heartbeat or Help Scout when you want your work, audience, and sales in one place. The feature list on this page shows where Heartbeat and Help Scout are marked.
Can I use Cardel with Heartbeat or Help Scout?
Yes. Cardel pages can link out to other products, so you can keep Heartbeat or Help Scout for what it does best and bring the rest of your work to Cardel.
How much does Cardel cost compared with Heartbeat and Help Scout?
You don't pay for Cardel until you publish. Choose Starter, Pro, or Studio when your site goes live. Heartbeat and Help Scout set their own prices, so check their pricing pages on this page for current plans.
How do I switch from Heartbeat or Help Scout to Cardel?
Start with Build Your Site, set up your home, and bring your work over at your own pace. You do not have to move everything on day one.