Helply (formerly Groove) vs Plain (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Helply (formerly Groove) and Plain share a 2.0 GPA, neither has a free plan and their prices can't be set side by side, so the choice depends on whether you care more about features, where Helply (formerly Groove) grades higher, or the free plan, where Plain does.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on value for money, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Helply (formerly Groove)
Help desk with AI support agents, now sold as Helply
Plain
Support platform for B2B teams, built around Slack and AI agents
Which one is for you
Pick Helply (formerly Groove) if
- Fits if you run a small B2B or SaaS support team that wants AI agents included
- Makes sense if you are a Groove customer, as the page says your current price is locked
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you are alone or a pair: Starter is $99 a month for up to 2 agents
- Watch out: AI credits are capped per plan, with top-ups at $40 per 1,000 on Starter, Plus and Team
- Skip it if you want WhatsApp, SMS, Discord or SLAs, which need Team at $499
- Watch out: Pro and Growth are bought through a demo, and Salesforce and SSO need Growth
Pick Plain if
- Fits if your customers are software companies that talk to you in Slack
- Works for a team of 5 or fewer on Foundation
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you grow: Foundation caps at 5 seats and Horizon needs 3 to 10 at $99 each
- Skip it if you need SLAs or Microsoft Teams without Horizon
- Tight if you lean on AI: 1,000 credits a month on Foundation, with extra at $10 per 1,000
- Watch out: SSO, SCIM and HIPAA need the sales-only Frontier plan
How we grade them
| 2.0GPAHelply (formerly Groove)Fair | 2.0GPAPlainFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | D$99 a month billed annually for up to 2 agents, and $199 for 5, in the dearest tenth by floor. | D$45 per user a month billed annually is above the dearer quarter ($39), Foundation stops at 5 seats, and SLAs and escalation paths need Horizon at $99, past the dearest tenth ($89). |
| Free plan and trial | DA 14-day trial, but the page doesn't say whether a card is needed. No free plan. | CA 7-day trial with no credit card. There is no free plan. |
| Features | BShared inbox, ticketing, chat, help centre and AI agents for support and the inbox. Nothing in the listing is missing. | CSlack, email and in-app channels, customer cards, workflows, a help center and AI agents. The listing's gap: SLAs, Teams and CRM links are Horizon only. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. AI agents, rules and a help centre to set up. | CNo store rating on record, and workflows, channels and AI agents need setting up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with Slack, Stripe, Zapier, HubSpot, Jira, Linear and GitHub. | BWeb only, with 8 listed integrations including Linear, Jira and Slack. No phone or desktop app on record. |
| Best for | a small-team help desk with AI agents bundled in | B2B support that lives in Slack |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Helply (formerly Groove) and Plain. How we grade
Price against what you get
Helply (formerly Groove) starts at $99 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Plain starts at $45 a month for each person and scores 2.3.
Helply (formerly Groove) scores higher, and starts $54 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other help desk and live chat tools on the chart, 4 score higher than Helply (formerly Groove) for less, and 19 score higher than Plain for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Helply (formerly Groove) also covers chatbots.
- Plain also covers workflow automation.
At a glance
| Helply (formerly Groove) | Plain | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $99 per month for up to 2 human agents, billed annually | $45 per user / month, billed annually ($55 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial | 7-day free trial, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Helply | Not Just Tickets Ltd |
| Price read from | helply.com | plain.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Helply (formerly Groove)
- Groove has been renamed Helply; the product and its old Groove pricing have been replaced by the plans above.
- AI credits are pooled and capped per plan. Starter, Plus and Team can top up at $40 per 1,000 credits; Pro and Growth use a hard cap or an agreed overage rate.
- WhatsApp, SMS, Discord, SLAs and round robin routing need the Team plan at $499 a month; Salesforce and SSO / SAML need Growth.
- Pro and Growth are bought through a demo, and the page shows no self-serve sign-up for them.
Plain
- Foundation is capped at 5 member seats and Horizon needs at least 3, up to 10; larger teams go to the sales-only Frontier plan.
- AI credits are limited per month (1,000 on Foundation, 2,500 on Horizon); extra credits are $10 per 1,000 up to $100 per 10,000.
- SLAs, escalation paths and Microsoft Teams need Horizon at $99 per user / month; SSO, SCIM and HIPAA need Frontier.
- Plain lists a startup program with a $6,000 flat fee for Horizon, 10 seats and 12 months, for early-stage teams of ten or fewer.
Key features
Helply (formerly Groove)
- Support agent
- An AI agent that works with customers directly to resolve issues end to end. It is included on every plan and uses AI credits when it acts.
- Assist agent in the inbox
- A second agent that works alongside human agents inside each ticket. It is also included on every plan.
- Background agents
- Agents that watch customer accounts instead of single conversations. Churn, Knowledge, Revenue, Feature request and Insights agents are listed, with the number available rising by plan.
- Shared inbox and ticketing
- Views, tags, macros, notes, snooze and collision detection on every plan, with SLAs, escalations and agent teams starting on Team.
- Chat and help center
- Live chat and a knowledge base on your own domain, with AI article writing and AI answers on every plan.
- Skills, MCP and custom actions
- From the Team plan, agents can be given written skills, memory, MCP connectors and custom API actions, with AI QA and backtesting.
Plain
- Customer Agent
- An AI agent that answers customers directly. It uses 100 credits per resolution on every plan.
- Sidekick Agent
- An AI agent for the support team that uses 15 to 300 or more credits a task depending on effort.
- Slack and email channels
- Support threads come in from Slack channels, email addresses, in-app forms and live chat, with Microsoft Teams and Discord on higher plans.
- Customer cards
- Unlimited customer cards show account data next to a thread, with a stated data freshness of 15 seconds.
- Workflows
- Unlimited workflows, auto-labelling, urgency detection and thread summaries are on every plan.
- Developer platform
- The comparison table lists an API, webhooks, events, MCP and custom channels.
Plans
Helply (formerly Groove)
Starter$99
per month for up to 2 human agents, billed annually
2,500 AI credits a month, shared inbox, email and live chat, and a help center with AI article writing. One inbox and 5 rules.
Plus$199
per month for up to 5 human agents, billed annually
5,000 AI credits a month, chat flows, ticket forms, Facebook and Instagram, CSAT surveys, 3 inboxes and 10 rules.
Team$499
per month for 10 human agents, billed annually
15,000 AI credits a month, WhatsApp, SMS, Discord and Slack Connect, SLAs and round robin routing, HubSpot, Jira, Linear and GitHub integrations. Extra agents are $49 a month each.
Pro$999
per month for 25 human agents, billed annually
50,000 AI credits a month, all Background agents, AI reports, up to 3 brands, a customer portal, custom roles and an audit log. Sold through a demo.
Growth$1,999
per month for 50 human agents, billed annually
100,000 AI credits a month, unlimited brands, skills-based routing, account intelligence, SSO / SAML and Salesforce. Sold through a demo.
Plain
Foundation$45
per user / month, billed annually ($55 billed monthly)
Up to 5 member seats, unlimited viewers, 1,000 AI credits a month, Slack, email and in-app channels, Linear, Jira and a help center. 7 days of reporting.
Horizon$99
per user / month, billed annually
3 to 10 member seats, 2,500 AI credits a month, Microsoft Teams, SLAs, business hours, escalation paths, CRM integrations and all-time reporting history.
FrontierCustom
Custom credits and seats, multiple workspaces, SSO and SCIM, HIPAA, custom contracting and a dedicated customer success manager. Billed annually.
Ways to pay less
Helply (formerly Groove)
- Annual discount
15% off with annual billing
Every plan can be billed monthly or annually; the pricing page says paying annually saves 15%. The prices listed are the annual ones.
Plain
- Startups
50% off Horizon for early-stage startups
A $6,000 flat fee covers 12 months and 10 seats of Horizon. Eligibility is VC-backed up to $5 million in funding, 10 or fewer on the support team, and not already a customer.
- Annual discount
20% off Foundation with annual billing
The pricing page shows Foundation at $45 per user a month billed annually against $55 billed monthly, labelled a 20% saving.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Helply (formerly Groove) or Plain?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Helply (formerly Groove) starts at $99 per month for up to 2 human agents, billed annually, and Plain starts at $45 per user / month, billed annually ($55 billed monthly). One is priced for each person and the other is not, so which costs less depends on how many of you use it.
Which has a free plan, Helply (formerly Groove) or Plain?
As of Nov 12, 2026, neither Helply (formerly Groove) nor Plain has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.