Is Cardel an alternative to Help Scout or WordPress?

Cardel is a home for your craft: a site of your own with a blog, newsletter, shop, community, and one inbox. It can replace Help Scout or WordPress when you want your work, audience, and sales in one place. The feature list on this page shows where Help Scout and WordPress are marked.

Can I use Cardel with Help Scout or WordPress?

Yes. Cardel pages can link out to other products, so you can keep Help Scout or WordPress for what it does best and bring the rest of your work to Cardel.

How much does Cardel cost compared with Help Scout and WordPress?

You don't pay for Cardel until you publish. Choose Starter, Pro, or Studio when your site goes live. Help Scout and WordPress set their own prices, so check their pricing pages on this page for current plans.

How do I switch from Help Scout or WordPress 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.

Compare

Help ScoutvsWordPress

Help Scout is a human-feeling help desk: shared inbox, Docs, Beacon chat, and AI drafts. WordPress.com hosts the world's most used publishing software with themes, plugins, and commerce plans.

Compare Pricing Compare Features

How Help Scout and WordPress compare

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.

WordPress powers a huge share of the web for good reason. This page compares WordPress.com hosted plans. You get the block editor, thousands of themes, comments and likes, Jetpack newsletters, and on higher plans the full plugin ecosystem and WooCommerce. Nothing else offers this much freedom to extend, and your content is exportable and yours.

Where they are different

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.

WordPress

WordPress extends by plugin: a form plugin, a booking plugin, an email plugin, each with its own settings.
WordPress email is Jetpack newsletters or a plugin.
WordPress accessibility and SEO depend on your theme and plugins.

Choose Help Scout when a small team needs a warm, organized help desk with a knowledge base.

Choose WordPress when you want maximum control, plugins for anything, and the option to self-host.

Compare features

What's on Help Scout and WordPress

A check means that capability is available. Help Scout and WordPress are marked only when the offer is comparable, not the same product.

Site and brand

Workspace site
Help Scout: Not included
WordPress: Included

Public content

Blog
Help Scout: Not included
WordPress: Included

Audience and email

Audience
Help Scout: Included
WordPress: Included
Email on your domain
Help Scout: Included
WordPress: Not included
Marketing emails
Help Scout: Not included
WordPress: Included

Messaging

Built-in chat
Help Scout: Included
WordPress: Not included
Messaging Center
Help Scout: Included
WordPress: Not included

Commerce

Shop payments
Help Scout: Not included
WordPress: Included

Team

Admin users
Help Scout: Included
WordPress: Included
Per-admin permissions
Help Scout: Included
WordPress: Included
AI Assistant
Help Scout: Included
WordPress: Included

Feature comparison for Help Scout and WordPress
Feature	Help Scout	WordPress
Site and brand
Workspace site	Not included	Included
Public content
Blog	Not included	Included
Audience and email
Audience	Included	Included
Email on your domain	Included	Not included
Marketing emails	Not included	Included
Messaging
Built-in chat	Included	Not included
Messaging Center	Included	Not included
Commerce
Shop payments	Not included	Included
Team
Admin users	Included	Included
Per-admin permissions	Included	Included
AI Assistant	Included	Included

* Note: This table does not capture every feature of Help Scout or WordPress, and is not intended as a comprehensive list. We keep this page current, but Help Scout or WordPress may add or remove features that are not shown here.