Helpin vs Plane at a glance
Your agents need more than a task description. They need the customer’s conversation, the account history, the relevant docs and the code. Helpin brings that context into one fast workspace where agents can do the work.
Plane combines project planning, a wiki and AI workflows. Helpin combines objectives, roadmaps, sprints and epics with chat and email support, CRM, meetings and agents for planning, coding, review and docs.
Both offer self-hosting. Helpin includes its AI agents and product features in the free open-source edition, while Cloud uses one workspace price with unlimited teammates.
- Plan, build and follow up in one workspace. Helpin’s agents can work across customer support, projects, code, docs and sales. Those capabilities are included when you self-host.
- Plane connects projects, knowledge and AI. Its paid commercial edition adds AI and agents. Its customer help desk is listed as coming soon.
Compare what your team can do in each product. Plan requirements and connected tools are shown where they matter.
| Capability |  HelpinOpen source · Cloud or self-hosted | PlaneOpen-source project management |
|---|---|---|
| Open source and pricing | ||
| License | AGPL-3.0 for every product feature | AGPL-3.0 Community Edition; paid features in a closed-source Commercial Edition |
| AI agents included without a self-hosted license fee | Included; pay your AI provider for usage | Commercial Edition, with your own AI provider |
| Cloud price model | Per workspace | Per seat: Pro $6, Business $13 a month billed annually |
| Free plan | Self-hosted Community edition | Up to 12 seats on Cloud, and the self-hosted Community Edition |
| Cloud AI | AI usage allowance included in every Cloud plan | Personal allowances and a shared agent pool on paid plans |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card | 14 days of Business |
| Planning | ||
| Roadmaps and sprints | Cycles, modules, initiatives and milestones | |
| Triage | Intake; forms and email on Business | |
| GitHub and GitLab | PR and MR linking | On Pro and above |
| Code delivery from a task | Built-in planning, coding and review; GitHub PRs and GitLab MRs | Assign work items to Cursor on Pro and above |
| Native mobile apps | iOS and Android | |
| Customers | ||
| Support inbox and live chat | Web chat and email | Help desk coming soon |
| Help center | AI answers, own domain, API reference, agent-maintained docs | Published pages on Pro |
| Customer profiles | Contacts and companies with every conversation and task | Customers on Business |
| CRM with deals | Contacts, companies, deals and AI follow-ups | |
| Meeting notes | Meet, Zoom, Teams and Webex | Search Granola notes through Plane AI |
| MCP server | Read context, update work and start agents | Hosted for Plane Cloud, or run locally |
Comparison data verified October 2026.
Why choose Helpin over Plane?
Give agents the context and tools to carry out work, keep your team in control, and bring everyone into the same fast workspace.
Helpin- Workspace price
- Unlimited teammates
- AI allowance
Invite the whole team without seat fees.
Helpin charges per workspace with unlimited teammates and an included AI allowance. Invite support, engineering and sales without buying another seat. Extra AI usage is metered only if you enable it on a paid plan.
Helpin- Report
- Agent work
- Review
- Follow-up
Give agents the context to build the right thing.
A task can carry the original conversation, account history and linked docs. Planning and coding agents can use that context, plus your repository and connected tools, to investigate and prepare a fix. Your team sees the work and reviews the change.
Helpin- Release
- UI capture
- Article update
Keep the guides current as you ship.
Quill can update your help center and internal docs from released changes and unanswered questions. It can capture fresh screenshots and browser recordings too. Your team reviews and publishes the changes, so customers and agents have current instructions.
Helpin- Open source
- Your AI provider
- Built-in and custom agents
Self-host your agents without an AI license.
Helpin’s free Community edition includes agents for support, planning, coding, review, docs and sales. Build custom agents and flows with your own instructions and skills. You control the infrastructure and AI provider, and pay for their usage directly.
Core feature comparison
Feature names can sound alike across tools. What matters is how each product handles the work, and what your team does next.
Roadmaps, cycles and sprints
HelpinPlan in a fast workspace with objectives, roadmaps, epics, tasks, stories and sprints. Use triage, dependencies, saved views and reports to keep priorities clear. AI agents can break down a request, take on the code work and prepare it for review. Your team can see the customer need, the plan and the progress together.
Plane includes work items, cycles, modules, epics and multiple layouts. Paid plans add features such as initiatives, dashboards and time tracking. It also provides workflows, approvals and recurring work items on higher plans.
The difference: Helpin gives teams structured planning and fast day-to-day work, with AI agents and customer conversations connected to delivery.
AI agents that carry out work
HelpinAsk Helpin AI to investigate an issue and get the work moving. Scribe plans the task, Forge writes and tests the code, Lens reviews it, and Quill updates the docs. Build custom agents and flows in plain language, with your choice of tools, skills and approval rules. Start work in chat or through configured automations.
Plane AI can answer questions, create work items and run custom agents from mentions, assignments or schedules. Cloud plans use personal AI allowances and a separate shared budget for agent runs. Its Cursor integration can turn assigned work into a GitHub pull request.
The difference: Helpin’s agents cover the customer question, the code, the review and the guide update. They are included when you self-host.
Customer requests and support
HelpinHelpin gives your team a fast shared inbox for chat and email. Echo, the support agent, can answer from your docs and check connected tools for account details, code and logs. It can follow up after a reply or bring in a teammate. Customer history, internal notes and linked tasks stay with the conversation.
Plane collects requests through Intake, with public forms and an intake email address on Business, and links them to customer profiles with Customers on Business. Its Desk help desk is listed as coming soon, and there’s no live chat.
The difference: Helpin provides the live conversation as well as the task, so you can answer, investigate and follow up in one place.
Customer records and meetings
HelpinKeep deals, contacts and companies beside their conversations, meetings and open work. Beacon, the sales agent, can identify buying intent, suggest the next step and carry out approved follow-ups. Record meetings on Google Meet, Zoom, Teams or Webex, then turn decisions into assigned tasks. Your team can see what was promised and what still needs doing.
Plane’s Customers feature on Business gives each customer a profile with fields such as stage, contract status and revenue, linked to their requests. It has no deals, pipelines or meeting notetaker; Plane AI can search Granola meeting notes through a connector.
The difference: Helpin adds sales pipelines and recorded meeting context, with agents that can turn both into action.
Open source and self-hosting
HelpinRun Helpin Cloud or self-host the open-source Community edition with Docker Compose. Support, projects, CRM, docs and AI agents are included under AGPL-3.0. When you self-host, you choose the infrastructure, AI providers and external services your workspace uses.
Plane has an AGPL-3.0 Community Edition and a separate Commercial Edition for paid features, including AI. It supports Docker, Kubernetes and an air-gapped Enterprise deployment. Self-hosted AI uses your own provider.
The difference: Helpin includes support, projects, CRM and AI agents without a self-hosted license fee. Compare deployment needs separately.
Git, API and integrations
HelpinConnect Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Hermes and other compatible AI tools through Helpin’s MCP server. They can find context, update tasks and docs, and start Helpin agent runs with the access you allow. Helpin agents can also use external MCP tools. GitHub, GitLab and the web SDKs connect your code and product to the same workflow.
Plane connects to GitHub, GitLab, Slack and Sentry on Pro and above, offers a REST API with webhooks, an MIT-licensed MCP server and native mobile apps, and imports from Jira, Linear, Asana and ClickUp.
The difference: Helpin connects built-in and external agents to work across the business. Check specific importers if you need a historical migration.
Pricing and value
HelpinHelpin charges per workspace, with unlimited teammates. Starter is $79 and Growth $239 a month billed annually, or $99 and $299 billed monthly. Every Cloud plan includes an AI usage allowance. Extra usage is metered only when you enable it on a paid plan. Self-hosting has no Helpin license fee; you pay for your infrastructure and AI provider.
Plane charges per seat: Pro is $6 and Business $13 a month billed annually, or $8 and $15 billed monthly. Its free plan covers up to 12 seats. Paid Cloud plans include personal AI allowances and a separate workspace allowance for agent runs. Helpin charges per workspace, so inviting another teammate does not increase the subscription.
Estimate what your team would pay
Compare the plans for your team size and AI usage. Check the notes for costs outside the estimate, including any extra tools you need. See Helpin pricing.
Estimated at list prices · 20 people · billed annually
HelpinGrowth$239 a month
$2,868 a year
- Growth plan, one workspace
- $239
- 20 people
- Included
- AI usage allowance
- $239 included
Every Cloud plan includes an AI allowance. Extra usage is metered only if you enable it.
$260 a month
$3,120 a year
- 20 × Business at $13
- $260
Helpin is an estimated $252 less a year on these inputs.
Plane costs less up to 18 people. From 19 people, Helpin costs less.
- Plane Business includes Customers and intake forms. Paid plans include personal AI allowances and a separate shared budget for agents; no additional AI usage is priced here.
- For small teams on Pro, Plane costs less than Helpin, and its free plan covers up to 12 seats.
- Helpin measures AI usage in tokens, not resolutions. Paid plans can turn on metered overage beyond the allowance.
Cloud or open source
Helpin is the same product either way. Let us run it on Helpin Cloud, or self-host the open-source Community edition on your own servers.
HelpinRun Helpin Cloud or self-host the open-source Community edition with Docker Compose. Support, projects, CRM, docs and AI agents are included under AGPL-3.0. When you self-host, you choose the infrastructure, AI providers and external services your workspace uses.
Plane’s Community Edition is open source under AGPL-3.0 and matches its Free plan. Paid features, including Plane AI, run in the closed-source Commercial Edition with a license key and your own AI provider. An air-gapped edition is available on Enterprise Grid, with a 100-seat minimum.
Helpin Cloud
Hosted by Helpin- One price per workspace, unlimited teammates
- AI usage allowance included in every plan
- Your own AI keys on Enterprise
- Managed by Helpin, with support
Community edition
Open source · AGPL-3.0- Free, with no plan limits or seat counts
- Every product, coding agents included
- Runs on your own AI provider and keys
- Docker Compose on your own servers
Switching and onboarding
HelpinTry Helpin Growth for 14 days with no card and $140 of AI usage. Start with one support address or a real project, invite your team, and give the agents a job. We can help you plan the move around the data and tools you already use.
Plane imports from Jira, Linear, Asana and ClickUp, and exports work items as CSV, Excel or JSON. Helpin doesn’t import from Plane yet, but its agents can use Plane Cloud’s tools through MCP, so you can run both during a move.
Moving from Plane.
Start with one project or support inbox, then move more work when your team is ready.
Take from Plane
- Work items, as CSV, Excel or JSON
- Pages you want to keep as docs
- Cycles and modules you want to plan in Helpin
Set up in Helpin
- GitHub or GitLab connection
- Roadmap, sprints and objectives
- Support inbox and help center
- Plane connection for agents, through MCP (beta)
- 01
Keep Plane, connect it through MCP
BetaHelpin’s agents can use Plane Cloud’s tools through its hosted MCP server, so engineering can stay in Plane while support runs in Helpin.
- 02
Plan new work in Helpin Projects
Available nowRoadmaps, sprints and objectives, with the customer conversation attached to each task.
- 03
Import Plane work items
Not yetThere is no Plane importer yet. Plane exports work items as CSV, Excel or JSON, and Helpin imports projects from Shortcut today.
Check the features your team depends on.
These specific requirements are worth checking as you plan your move from Plane.
Deployment requirements.
Plane provides Kubernetes and an air-gapped Enterprise edition. Helpin’s documented setup uses Docker Compose.
Identity requirements.
Plane offers SAML and other company sign-in options on paid plans. Helpin does not currently provide SAML.
Native apps.
Plane provides mobile and desktop apps. Helpin currently provides a web workspace.
Historical work imports.
Plane imports from several project tools. Helpin imports Shortcut projects today, but does not have a Plane importer yet.
Bring planning and customer work together.
Helpin combines project structure with agents that work across the business. Check your deployment, identity and migration requirements separately.
Choose Helpin if…
- You want objectives, roadmaps, epics and sprints connected to a live support inbox.
- You want agents for planning, coding, review, docs and sales in the free self-hosted edition.
- You want deals and meeting decisions available beside the work.
- You want a fast workspace with unlimited teammates on Cloud.
Check Plane if…
- You require a packaged Kubernetes or air-gapped Enterprise deployment.
- You need SAML sign-in, native mobile apps or one of Plane’s existing importers.
FAQs about Helpin vs Plane
Is Helpin a Plane alternative?
Yes. Helpin combines fast project planning with AI agents, support, CRM, docs and meeting notes. Its free self-hosted edition includes agents for planning, coding, review and customer work; Cloud pricing is per workspace.
Are Helpin and Plane both open source?
Yes. Plane’s Community Edition is AGPL-3.0 and matches its Free plan; its paid features run in a closed-source Commercial Edition. Every Helpin product feature is open source under AGPL-3.0.
Which is better for self-hosting?
Choose Helpin if you want support, projects, CRM, docs and AI agents included without a license fee. You run it with Docker Compose and your own AI provider. Plane offers Kubernetes and an air-gapped Enterprise edition; AI runs in its commercial edition.
Does Plane have a help desk?
Plane lists its Desk help desk as coming soon. Today it collects requests through Intake, with public forms and email on Business, and links them to customer profiles with Customers on Business.
Can Helpin import from Plane?
Not yet. Plane exports work items as CSV, Excel or JSON, and Helpin imports projects from Shortcut today.
Can we run Helpin alongside Plane?
Yes. Add the Helpin widget to a few pages or forward one support address, and keep Plane for everything else while your team tries the workflow. Move the rest when you’re ready.
How is AI billed in Helpin?
Every Cloud plan includes a monthly AI usage allowance, measured in tokens at published rates. On an active paid plan you can turn on metered overage if you need more. Self-hosted installs use your own AI provider and pay it directly.
Is there a free trial?
Yes. The 14-day trial runs on the Growth plan, needs no card, and includes $140 of AI usage.
Will you help us switch?
Yes. Book a call and we’ll plan the move with you: what to set up first, how to run both tools side by side, and when to cut over.