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Introduction

Help Scout is one of the leaders in the customer support solutions market. With its customer service-oriented features, Help Scout has won over many support teams. But is it the best solution for managing your internal team emails?

In this detailed comparison, we analyze Clearbox and Help Scout to help you understand which solution best fits your needs: customer support or internal team email management.

Overview: Clearbox vs Help Scout

Clearbox

Price: Starting at 19€/user/month
Target: Internal team email management
Philosophy: Simplicity and collaboration
Support: English and French
Setup: 5 minutes

Help Scout

Price: Starting at $25 (≈23€)/user/month
Target: Customer support and customer service
Philosophy: Advanced customer support features
Support: Mainly English
Setup: Several hours

Detailed Comparison by Criteria

1. Price and Cost

Clearbox:

Base plan: 19€ per user per month
For a 10-person team: 190€/month (2,280€/year)
No hidden fees
14-day free trial

Help Scout:

Standard plan: $25 (≈23€) per user per month (minimum 3 users)
For a 10-person team: $250/month (≈230€/month, 2,760€/year)
More advanced plans available ($50+/user)
14-day free trial

Verdict: Clearbox is slightly cheaper, but the main difference lies in orientation: Help Scout is optimized for customer support, Clearbox for team email management.

2. Use Cases and Orientation

Clearbox:

✅ Internal team email management
✅ Collaboration between team members
✅ Shared inbox management (info@, contact@, etc.)
✅ Internal communication via email
✅ Email task assignment and tracking
⚠️ No integrated knowledge base
⚠️ No live chat

Help Scout:

✅ Customer support and customer service
✅ Customer ticket management
✅ Knowledge base
✅ Live chat
✅ Support performance reports
✅ Customer support workflows
⚠️ Less suited for internal emails
⚠️ Very "customer service" oriented

Verdict: Help Scout excels for customer support, Clearbox for internal team email management. The choice depends on your primary use case.

3. Simplicity and Ease of Use

Clearbox:

✅ Ultra-simple, intuitive interface
✅ No training needed
✅ Your team members can start immediately
✅ 5-minute setup
✅ No complex concepts to learn

Help Scout:

✅ Modern and polished interface
⚠️ Moderate learning curve
⚠️ Requires understanding of customer support concepts
⚠️ Longer setup (several hours)
⚠️ Support workflows to configure

Verdict: Clearbox wins on simplicity for team email management. Help Scout is more complex but offers more features for customer support.

4. Specific Features

Clearbox:

✅ Shared email management
✅ Assignment and collaboration
✅ Internal comments
✅ Smart notifications
✅ Tags and categorization
✅ Advanced search
✅ Unified view of all inboxes
⚠️ No knowledge base
⚠️ No live chat

Help Scout:

✅ Customer ticket management
✅ Knowledge base
✅ Live chat
✅ Performance reports (response time, satisfaction)
✅ Customer support workflows
✅ Support integrations (Zendesk, Intercom, etc.)
✅ Beacon (support widget on website)
⚠️ Less suited for internal emails

Verdict: Help Scout offers more features for customer support, Clearbox is simpler and better suited for team email management.

5. Support and Documentation

Clearbox:

✅ Support in English and French
✅ International team, understanding of local needs
✅ Documentation in multiple languages
✅ Fast support response

Help Scout:

⚠️ Support mainly in English
⚠️ Documentation mainly in English
✅ Responsive and professional support
✅ Large English-speaking community
✅ Many tutorials and resources

Verdict: Clearbox wins for multilingual teams. Help Scout has excellent documentation but mainly in English.

6. Integrations

Clearbox:

✅ Gmail, Outlook (direct connection)
✅ Slack (notifications)
✅ Essential integrations for teams
⚠️ Fewer integrations than Help Scout

Help Scout:

✅ Many customer support integrations
✅ Zendesk, Intercom, Salesforce
✅ E-commerce (Shopify, WooCommerce)
✅ Analytics and reporting
✅ More than 50 integrations available

Verdict: Help Scout offers more integrations, but customer support oriented. Clearbox covers essential needs for teams.

Complete Comparison Table

Who is Each Solution For?

Clearbox is Ideal For:

✅ Teams managing internal emails (info@, contact@, team@)
✅ Small businesses needing simple email collaboration
✅ Teams wanting a quick-to-setup solution
✅ Teams that prefer multilingual support
✅ Team email management needs (not just customer support)
✅ Limited budgets

Help Scout is Ideal For:

✅ Dedicated customer support teams
✅ Knowledge base needs
✅ Live chat needs
✅ Detailed support performance reports
✅ Complex customer support workflows
✅ Many customer support integrations

Concrete Use Cases

Case 1: Small Business - Internal Team Email Management

Need: Manage contact@, info@, team@ emails for a 10-person team.

With Clearbox:

✅ Setup: 5 minutes
✅ Cost: 190€/month
✅ All members see emails
✅ Simple assignment
✅ Effective collaboration
✅ Multilingual support

With Help Scout:

⚠️ Setup: Several hours
⚠️ Cost: 230€/month
⚠️ Customer support oriented (may be too complex)
✅ Advanced support features (but not needed here)

Recommendation: Clearbox - simpler, cheaper, better suited for internal emails.

Case 2: Dedicated Customer Support Team

Need: Manage customer tickets, knowledge base, live chat.

With Clearbox:

⚠️ No knowledge base
⚠️ No live chat
✅ Effective email management
⚠️ Missing customer support features

With Help Scout:

✅ Integrated knowledge base
✅ Live chat
✅ Performance reports
✅ Customer support workflows
✅ Perfect for customer support

Recommendation: Help Scout - essential customer support features.

Case 3: Mixed Team (Support + Internal)

Need: Manage both customer emails and internal emails.

Recommended solution: Use both solutions in complement:

Clearbox for internal emails (info@, team@)
Help Scout for customer support (support@, help@)

Or use Clearbox for everything if support needs are simple.

Can You Use Both Solutions?

Yes, it's possible and even recommended in some cases:

Clearbox for internal team email management
Help Scout for dedicated customer support

This allows you to have:

A simple solution for internal emails
A complete solution for customer support

Migration from Help Scout to Clearbox

If you're using Help Scout only to manage team emails (not for customer support), you can migrate to Clearbox:

Evaluation: Test Clearbox for 14 days (free)
Migration: Your emails remain in your original inbox
Setup: Connect your inbox to Clearbox (5 minutes)
Team invitation: Add your team members
Training: None needed - intuitive interface

Migration benefits:

Increased simplicity for internal emails
Multilingual support
Faster setup
Savings if you don't use advanced support features

FAQ

Can Clearbox replace Help Scout?

For internal team email management, yes. For customer support with knowledge base and live chat, Help Scout remains better.

Can Help Scout replace Clearbox?

Help Scout can manage team emails, but it's more complex and customer support oriented. Clearbox is simpler and better suited for internal emails.

Can I use both in parallel?

Yes, it's even recommended if you have distinct needs: Clearbox for internal emails, Help Scout for customer support.

Is data lost during migration?

No, your emails remain in your original inbox. Clearbox simply connects to your existing inbox.

Which solution for a small 5-person team?

For a small team with simple needs, Clearbox is generally sufficient and simpler to use.

Conclusion

Clearbox is the best choice for internal team email management. With an ultra-simple interface, multilingual support and quick setup, Clearbox excels for teams that need to collaborate on shared emails (info@, contact@, team@).

Help Scout is the best choice for customer support. With its knowledge base, live chat and advanced support features, Help Scout is ideal for dedicated customer service teams.

The choice depends on your primary use case:

Internal team emails → Clearbox
Customer support with knowledge base → Help Scout
Both → Use both solutions in complement

For most small businesses that simply need to manage shared team emails, Clearbox represents the best solution: simple, affordable and effective.

Ready to try Clearbox? Start your 14-day free trial today and discover why Clearbox is the best solution for team email management.

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