WhosOn versus HelpScout

WhosOn, by Parker Sofware, originally one of the first website visitor analytics tools, has been a major player in the live chat business since 2003.

WhosOn defines itself as a specialist for niche projects, while still offering a robust out of the box chat service. They have the possibility for cloud-based, on-premise, or hybrid deployment.

All their plans include a multitude of features and integration options. They also offer paid options like an AI chatbot, remote desktop control, and real-time, two-way translation in 100 languages.

Their most simple plan starts at $33 per month for one agent. A 30 days free trial is available.

Customers of WhosOn include First International Bank & Trust, Harvard University, and Thomas Cook.

Founded in 2011, Help Scout has been a promotor of fully remote companies long before it reached mainstream popularity in mid-2020. With over 12.000 customers, they are a prominent player in the support-desk space. Help Scout is also a certified B-Corp.

Help Scout is a communication platform that helps teams across an organization have better conversations with their customers. Quick to set up and easy to use, companies use Help Scout to create email inboxes like support@ and info@, put live chat on their websites, build help centers, and more. All of those customer interactions flow into a single view that looks just like an inbox but offers powerful collaboration and automation tools under the hood.

Help Scouts offers an extensive collection of free templates, guides, courses, and resources in the Support Toolkit on their website. They also have a range of open source tools and APIs created by the community in the Help Scout GitHub repository