Solves vs Help Scout, told straight.
Solves and Help Scout are both email-first support desks that turn a shared inbox into owned conversations. Help Scout is the long-established option with a free plan and a built-in knowledge base. Solves is the UK-first newcomer built for running several brands from one login, priced in GBP team bands. Here is where each one fits, with nothing oversold.
Help Scout figures verified 13 June 2026. This page is kept noindex and is re-checked before any change.
The short answer
Who each one is for
Help Scout is for teams that want a mature, friendly email helpdesk with a published knowledge base and a free plan to start on. Solves is for UK teams that run more than one brand, want GBP pricing and invoices, and need first-response and resolution SLA timers with a breaching view. Both are email-first, so this is a genuine like-for-like choice, not a rescue from a heavyweight suite.
Help Scout has been refining shared-inbox support for years. It includes Docs, a built-in knowledge base, on every plan including Free, plus optional live chat and a broad feature set on its paid tiers. If a self-serve help centre and a long track record are top of your list, Help Scout is a sensible, fair choice, and we will not pretend it lacks a free tier or a knowledge base, because it has both.
Solves is at pilot stage and deliberately narrower. It does one job well: owned email tickets across several brands, worked from one unified queue, with brand-locked sending, first-response and resolution SLA timers, saved queue views and reports. It does not yet ship a customer-facing knowledge base, and it never offers chat, phone or social. If multi-brand from one login and pounds matter more than a published help centre, Solves is built for you.
Honest comparison
Solves vs Help Scout, side by side
Where each desk is strong, and where it deliberately stops. Help Scout figures verified 13 June 2026.
| Solves | Help Scout | |
|---|---|---|
| Email-first shared support | Yes, the core of the product | Yes, the core of the product |
| Free plan to start on | Starter, GBP 29, 2 users, paid | Free plan, $0, up to 5 users |
| Built-in knowledge base | Not yet, on the roadmap | Yes, Docs, on every plan |
| Several brands from one login | Core, with brand-locked sending | Available, varies by plan |
| Pricing currency | GBP ex VAT, team bands | USD, per user per month |
| SLA timers | First-response and resolution, per-brand targets, breaching view | Configurable hours, US-headquartered |
| Live chat, phone, social | Not included, by design | Chat available, broader on paid plans |
| Stage | Pilot, UK-first | Established, global |
Competitor facts last verified 13 June 2026. Re-check the vendor's current plans before deciding.
Solves does not claim feature parity with Help Scout. Help Scout is the more complete platform today, with a published knowledge base Solves has not yet shipped. Where a help centre is essential, Help Scout is the better fit.
Where Help Scout wins
What Help Scout does that Solves does not
A fair comparison names the gaps. Help Scout is more mature and more complete, and there are clear reasons to choose it over Solves today.
A built-in knowledge base
Help Scout includes Docs, a customer-facing knowledge base, on every plan including Free. You can publish help articles, let customers self-serve, and cut repeat questions. Solves does not ship a knowledge base yet. It is on our roadmap, but until it lands, if a published help centre is essential to you, Help Scout has it and Solves does not. We would rather tell you that plainly than sell you a feature that is not built.
A genuine free plan and a longer track record
Help Scout offers a Free plan at $0 for up to 5 users, with 1 inbox, 1 Docs site and around 100 contacts a month (verified 13 June 2026). It is a real, open starting point from a platform that has been refining shared-inbox support for years, with a large feature set on its paid tiers. Solves has a Starter at GBP 29, but it is paid from the start for small teams, and Solves is at pilot stage rather than a decade in. If maturity and a free tier from an established vendor are decisive, that points to Help Scout.
Where Solves wins
What Solves does that suits UK multi-brand teams
Solves is narrower on purpose, and that focus pays off in three places that matter to a UK team running more than one brand.
Multi-brand from one login, with a send guard
Multi-brand is core to Solves, not a bolt-on. You create one brand per customer-facing identity, each with its own mailbox, sender name, signature and brand-scoped saved replies, and your whole team works every brand in one unified queue with brand badges and filters. The composer is locked to the ticket's brand and mailbox, so a reply for one brand cannot quietly go out looking like another. Contact history is grouped by brand, and per-brand access decides who can see and answer what.
GBP team bands and UK-first billing
Solves prices in pounds ex VAT, with VAT-visible invoices, as team bands rather than a strict per-seat charge: Starter GBP 29, Team GBP 79, Growth GBP 149 and Agency/MSP GBP 299, with annual billing priced as twelve months for ten. The first 20 pilot customers get Team at GBP 49 a month for six months, then GBP 79, with setup help and saved-reply migration. Help Scout prices per user per month in US dollars, so a UK buyer carries currency conversion and per-seat maths that Solves is built to avoid.
First-response and resolution SLA timers
Solves gives every ticket first-response and resolution SLA timers, with per-brand or organisation targets you set in minutes, and surfaces a Breaching SLA view so nothing quietly ages out. For a team that promises response times, that is a clear standard out of the box, rather than configuring a US-headquartered tool to match. Saved queue views, ageing reports, first-response and resolution reports round out the picture.
What ships in Solves today
The Solves feature set, at pilot stage
Every item here is shipped. We list nothing that is not built.
Owned email tickets
Shared inboxes become owned tickets with assignment, states from New through Resolved and Closed, priority and tags.
Multi-brand, one queue
Several brands from one login, each with its own mailbox, sender identity and brand-scoped saved replies, in one queue.
Saved replies
Reusable replies scoped per brand or shared across the organisation, inserted into a reply when you need them.
Replies and private notes
Hard separation between public replies and internal notes, with a wrong-brand send guard and stale-reply prevention.
SLA timers
First-response and resolution timers with per-brand or organisation targets, with a breaching view and ageing.
Encrypted at rest
Customer content is encrypted with per-organisation keys, with metadata-only logs and authorised access only.
Email-first, and honest about it
Solves handles support email: tickets, ownership, notes, SLAs and multi-brand. It does not do live chat, phone or social inboxes, and it does not yet ship a knowledge base. Help Scout offers a knowledge base and optional chat. If those channels are essential, factor that into your choice.
FAQ
Solves vs Help Scout, common questions
Does Help Scout have a free plan?
Yes. Help Scout lists a Free plan at $0 for up to 5 users, with 1 inbox, 1 Docs knowledge base site and around 100 contacts per month, plus a small allowance of saved replies and tags. Paid plans add more inboxes, contacts and features at USD 25, USD 45 and USD 75 per user per month (verified 13 June 2026). If a no-cost starting point matters most to you, Help Scout offers one, and so does Solves: our Starter is GBP 29 for 3 users, 1 brand, 1 mailbox and 1,000 tickets a month.
Does Solves have a knowledge base?
Not yet. A customer-facing knowledge base is on our roadmap but is not shipped, so we will not pretend otherwise. Help Scout includes Docs, its built-in knowledge base, even on the Free plan, so if a published help centre is essential today, Help Scout has it and Solves does not. Solves is focused first on owned email tickets, multi-brand support from one login and first-response and resolution SLA timers.
Are Solves and Help Scout both email-first?
Yes. Both turn a shared support inbox into owned, trackable conversations rather than leading with live chat. Help Scout adds optional chat and a wider feature set on paid plans; Solves is email-first by design and does not offer live chat, phone, social or omnichannel. If you want a single email-first desk that also runs several brands from one queue, that is where Solves is built to fit.
Can Solves run several brands from one login?
Yes. Multi-brand is core to Solves, not a top-tier add-on. You create one brand per customer-facing identity, each with its own mailbox, sender name, signature and brand-scoped saved replies, and your team works every brand in one unified queue with brand badges and filters. A built-in send guard locks the composer to the ticket's brand so a reply cannot quietly go out as the wrong brand.
How does pricing compare in pounds?
Help Scout prices per user per month in US dollars: Free at $0, then Standard USD 25, Plus USD 45 and Pro USD 75 per user per month (verified 13 June 2026). Solves prices in GBP ex VAT as team bands, not strictly per seat: Starter GBP 29, Team GBP 79, Growth GBP 149 and Agency/MSP GBP 299, with annual billing priced as twelve months for ten. Pounds, built-in SLA timers and team bands are the practical differences for a UK team.
Which should a UK small business choose?
If you need a published knowledge base today, or you want a long-established platform with a large feature set, Help Scout is a strong, fair choice and has a free plan to start on. If you run more than one brand, want GBP pricing and invoices, and value first-response and resolution SLA timers with a breaching view, Solves is built for that. Many small UK teams will weigh multi-brand and pounds against the knowledge base.
Run every brand from one UK-first queue
Join early access to the Solves pilot, or compare the GBP team bands before you decide.