Helploom and Kayako are direct competitors in customer support software, but they price the AI and seat model very differently: Helploom charges per account…
Freemium · From Free (paid plans from $29/month)
Best for: Teams that want predictable, flat per-account pricing with unlimited seats for live chat, a help center, and an AI agent.
Freemium · From Free (100 deliveries/day); paid plans from $30/month
Best for: Engineering teams that need reliable, managed webhook delivery and retries rather than building that infrastructure in-house.
Subscription with pay-per-resolution AI add-on · From Custom pricing (Kay AI Agent from $1 per resolved ticket)
Best for: Support teams that want ticketing and a shared inbox with AI automation billed by resolution volume rather than seats.
| Helploom | Hook Relay | Kayako | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary category | Customer Support | Customer Support | Customer Support |
| Rating | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium | Subscription with pay-per-resolution AI add-on |
| Starting price | Free (paid plans from $29/month) | Free (100 deliveries/day); paid plans from $30/month | Custom pricing (Kay AI Agent from $1 per resolved ticket) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Not documented |
| Free trial | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented |
| Platforms | Web | Web | Web |
| Team collaboration | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented |
| AI features | Yes | Not documented | Yes |
| Public API | Not documented | Yes | Yes |
Unlimited-seats-per-account vs pay-per-resolution AI
Helploom's pricing is built around one account fee covering unlimited seats, making cost predictable regardless of team size. Kayako instead layers a pay-per-resolution AI add-on, from $1 per resolved ticket, on top of custom subscription pricing, so a high-ticket-volume team's bill grows with usage in a way Helploom's doesn't.
Helploom, Kayako
Both Helploom and Kayako combine live chat with a help desk
Helploom bundles live chat, a help center builder, and an AI support agent. Kayako bundles ticketing, live chat, a shared inbox, and its pay-per-resolution AI agent. The core channel mix overlaps closely between the two, making them genuine alternatives for the same buyer.
Helploom, Kayako
Hook Relay is infrastructure, not a help desk
Hook Relay doesn't have a support inbox, chat widget, or AI agent — it's a managed webhooks-as-a-service product from Honeybadger Industries that handles delivery, retries, security, and logging for webhook events. It would only enter this comparison as backend plumbing for syncing ticket data out of Helploom or Kayako, not as an alternative to either.
Hook Relay
Free-to-start options exist on both sides
Helploom and Hook Relay are both freemium with genuinely usable free tiers — Helploom is free before paid plans start at $29/month, and Hook Relay is free for up to 100 deliveries/day before paid plans start at $30/month. Kayako has no published free tier; it's custom-priced from the start.
Helploom, Hook Relay, Kayako
| Feature | Helploom | Hook Relay | Kayako |
|---|---|---|---|
| Live chat | Available | Unavailable | Available |
| Help center / knowledge base builder | Available | Unavailable | Not documented |
| Ticketing with shared inbox | Not documented | Unavailable | Available |
| AI support/ticket agent | Available | Unavailable | Available |
| Feature | Helploom | Hook Relay | Kayako |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier available | Available | Available | Unavailable |
| Flat per-account pricing with unlimited seats | Available | Not documented | Unavailable |
| Usage-based / pay-per-resolution pricing component | Unavailable | Not documented | Available |
| Managed webhook delivery, retries, and logging | Not documented | Available | Not documented |
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
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It depends on ticket volume and team size. Helploom charges one flat per-account fee (paid plans from $29/month) that covers unlimited seats, so cost stays flat as headcount grows. Kayako is custom-priced with a pay-per-resolution AI add-on starting at $1 per resolved ticket, so its total cost scales with how many tickets the AI agent resolves rather than with seat count.
No. Hook Relay is a managed webhooks-as-a-service platform from Honeybadger Industries focused on delivering, retrying, and logging webhook events — it has no live chat, ticketing, or help desk functionality. It could be used alongside either Helploom or Kayako to reliably sync ticket events to other systems, but it isn't a substitute for either.
Helploom and Hook Relay both have usable free tiers — Helploom is free before paid plans start at $29/month, and Hook Relay is free for up to 100 deliveries per day before paid plans start at $30/month. Kayako has no published free tier and is custom-priced from the outset.
Kayako's Kay AI Agent is billed per resolution starting at $1 per resolved ticket, on top of custom subscription pricing, so a team resolving thousands of tickets a month with AI could see costs scale significantly compared to Helploom's flat per-account rate, which doesn't add a per-resolution charge.
Only if they're building custom integrations — for example, sending ticket-created or ticket-resolved events from Helploom or Kayako into another internal system reliably. Hook Relay's managed retries and logging handle that webhook plumbing so a team doesn't have to build it themselves, but it's an infrastructure add-on, not a help desk replacement.
Read the full Helploom review · Read the full Hook Relay review · Read the full Kayako review