Moving from Help Scout, the honest way.
Help Scout is a good shared inbox. If you are leaving, it is usually for a UK-first, email-first desk that runs several brands from one queue and bills in GBP on team bands. There is no one-click importer yet, so we move you across by hand during early access, starting with your live email the same day.
No automatic Help Scout import yet. The live email switch is quick; history and saved replies come across with our help.
No automatic Help Scout import yet
Be clear-eyed about this before you start. Solves does not have a one-click Help Scout importer. During early access we move you across with a guided, mostly by-hand migration: the live email switch is quick using forwarding-first mailbox setup, while historic conversations, contacts and saved replies are brought over in agreed batches with our help. If a hands-off, automatic transfer is a hard requirement, we are not the right fit today.
The honest version
Why people move, and where Help Scout still wins
We are not going to pretend Help Scout is bad software. It runs a tidy shared inbox, it has a genuine Free plan, and its Docs knowledge base is a real feature. If those are the things keeping you, staying put is a perfectly good answer. This page is for teams whose needs have moved on.
The usual reasons to look elsewhere are practical, not dramatic. The first is multiple brands. Once you are answering email for more than one identity, a single shared inbox starts to strain, and the workaround of one workspace per brand splits your team and your context. Solves treats multi-brand as a first-class job: one queue, brand badges, brand-locked sending.
The second is money and where you are based. Help Scout is priced per user in US dollars, which suits some teams and frustrates others, especially when an occasional helper costs a full seat. Solves bills in GBP, ex VAT, on team bands, so you size the plan to the team rather than the head count, and your invoices show VAT the way a UK business expects.
The third is focus. Solves is email-first on purpose. It does not run live chat, phone lines or social inboxes, and it is not trying to become a contact centre. If your support is fundamentally email and you want a desk that does that one job well in a UK context, the switch makes sense. If you need a free tier or a built-in knowledge base today, Help Scout has both and Solves does not yet.
What you gain
What a Solves desk gives a leaving team
Shipped features only. Nothing here is a roadmap promise.
Several brands, one queue
Run each brand with its own support address, from-name, signature and saved replies, all worked from a single unified queue with a brand badge on every ticket.
Wrong-brand send guard
The composer is locked to the ticket's brand and mailbox, so a reply for one brand cannot accidentally go out wearing another brand's identity.
GBP team bands
Pay in pounds, ex VAT, sized to your team rather than per user. Helpers who pick up overflow do not each cost a full seat.
SLA timers and a breaching view
First-response and resolution SLA timers with per-brand or organisation targets, and a breaching view that surfaces overdue tickets.
Replies and notes kept apart
Public replies and private notes are hard-separated, with stale-reply prevention and a wrong-brand guard, so an internal note never reaches a customer.
Encrypted at rest
Message bodies, subjects and contact details are encrypted before they touch the database, with metadata-only logs and authorised access only.
How the switch works
A guided migration, in plain steps
Book a call and agree scope
We look at your Help Scout setup together: how many brands and inboxes, which saved replies still earn their place, and how much history you actually want brought across.
Switch the live email first
We add each brand's mailbox in Solves and run the plain-English checks. Using forwarding-first setup, new messages start arriving as owned tickets, usually the same day. Help Scout stays open in the background.
Bring across replies and history by hand
With our help, we copy saved replies and set their brand scope, and move the contacts and historic conversations you have chosen, in agreed batches. Nothing is pulled automatically, so nothing arrives in a mess.
Go live and wind Help Scout down
Once your team is working the Solves queue confidently and the historic data you need is in place, you close Help Scout on your own timeline. No hard cut-over, no lost mail.
What moves, and how
A realistic look at what comes across
It helps to be specific about what a by-hand migration means in practice, so there are no surprises on the day.
| Live support email | Moves first and fast. Forwarding-first mailbox setup is shipped, so new messages arrive as owned, assignable tickets once each brand's checks pass. |
|---|---|
| Saved replies | Copied by hand with our help. Solves saved replies are plain text scoped to a brand or the organisation, with no placeholder engine, so we move the wording and set the scope with you. |
| Contacts and history | Brought across in agreed batches, not pulled automatically. You decide how far back to go; the rest stays readable in Help Scout for as long as your account is open. |
| Knowledge base (Docs) | Not migrated. Solves has no knowledge base yet, so a Help Scout Docs site is not moved across. If a public KB is essential to you today, keep that in mind. |
| Workflows and automations | Not migrated. Solves does not have an automations engine yet, so Help Scout workflows are not recreated. Tickets, assignment, states, priority, tags, queue views and SLA timers are all shipped. |
In short, the part that keeps your customers waiting, live email, moves quickly and cleanly. The rest is a guided exercise we do alongside you, at a pace that does not break anything. We would rather set that expectation now than promise a button that does not exist.
Honest comparison
Solves and Help Scout, side by side
Where Solves helps a UK multi-brand team, and where Help Scout is plainly the better fit.
| Solves | Help Scout | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Paid Starter, not free forever | Genuine Free plan available |
| Built-in knowledge base | Not yet | Docs knowledge base included on paid plans |
| Multi-brand from one queue | Core to the product, brand-locked sending | Available, but inbox-led rather than brand-led |
| Pricing and currency | GBP team bands, ex VAT, VAT-visible invoices | Per user, priced in US dollars |
| SLA timers | First-response and resolution timers with a breaching view | Configurable, not UK-specific by default |
| Live chat, phone and social | Not included, email-first by design | Email-led, with its own channel mix |
| Migration | Guided, by hand during early access; no importer yet | Established product with mature tooling |
Competitor facts last verified 13 June 2026. Re-check the vendor's current plans before deciding.
Help Scout figures verified on 13 June 2026 from the official pricing page. Help Scout has a Free plan and a Docs knowledge base; if either is essential to you, it is the better fit today. Solves does not claim feature parity, and we are clear that we have no automatic importer yet.
Email-first, on purpose
Solves handles support email: owned tickets, assignment, notes, SLAs and multi-brand. It does not do live chat, phone or social inboxes, and it has no knowledge base yet. That focus is exactly why a small UK team can run several brands from one queue without drowning in channels.
FAQ
Questions about switching from Help Scout
Is there an automatic Help Scout importer?
Not yet. During early access we move you across with a guided, mostly by-hand migration rather than a one-click importer. Your live support email is the priority, and that part is straightforward: we point each brand's support address at Solves using forwarding-first mailbox setup, so new messages start arriving as owned tickets the same day. Historic conversations and saved replies are brought over with our help, in agreed batches, not pulled automatically.
Will I lose my Help Scout conversation history?
Your history stays in Help Scout for as long as your account there is open, so nothing is deleted by switching the live flow to Solves. For the period you need it, you can keep Help Scout open in read-only mode while Solves handles new mail. During a guided migration we agree which historic conversations and contacts to bring across and in what order, so the queue your team works in day to day is the one that matters.
Does Help Scout have a free plan and a knowledge base?
Yes. Help Scout offers a Free plan and includes Docs, its knowledge base, on paid plans. We are not pretending otherwise. People usually look at moving for different reasons: running several brands cleanly from one queue, paying in GBP on team bands rather than per user in dollars, and wanting a UK-first, email-first desk. If a free plan and a built-in knowledge base are exactly what you need, Help Scout remains a sensible choice.
How are saved replies moved across?
By hand, with our help, during the guided migration. Solves saved replies are real text scoped to a brand or to the whole organisation, with no placeholder or merge-field engine yet, so we copy the wording across and set the brand scope with you. Most teams use the move as a chance to tidy a list that has grown messy, keeping the replies that still earn their place and rewriting the rest.
Can I run several brands after I move?
Yes, and it is a common reason for the move. Each brand keeps its own support address, sender name, signature and saved replies, while your team works every brand from one unified queue with a brand badge on each ticket. The composer is locked to the ticket's brand and mailbox, so a reply for one brand cannot quietly go out as another. How many brands you can run is set by your plan band rather than charged per seat.
How long does a guided migration take?
Switching the live email flow is usually a same-day job once your mailbox checks pass: forwarding-first setup means new messages arrive as tickets quickly. Bringing across historic conversations, contacts and saved replies takes longer and depends on how much you want moved. We book a call, agree the scope and batches, and keep Help Scout open until you are happy the Solves queue is doing the real work.
Thinking of moving? Let us do it properly.
Book a guided migration and we will switch your live email first, then bring the rest across by hand at a pace that does not break anything.