Helpin vs Plane at a glance
Plane and Helpin are both open source, and both can run on your own servers. Plane is a project tracker. Helpin puts projects next to support, CRM, meetings and docs.
Plane says more than 50,000 teams use it. It covers work items, cycles, modules, pages, initiatives and dashboards, adds Plane AI and agents on its paid plans, and can hand a work item to Cursor’s coding agent.
Helpin includes roadmaps, sprints and objectives alongside a support inbox, help center and CRM, so the request, the task, the pull request and the follow-up share one customer history. Every product feature is open source, AI agents included.
This guide compares Helpin and Plane feature by feature, with list prices checked in September 2026, so you can decide which fits the way your team works.
- Plane is built around the work item: planning and tracking projects, with requests collected through Intake and linked to customer profiles on its Business plan.
- Helpin is built around the customer: the conversation, the work it becomes and the follow-up, in one open-source product.
Here’s how the two compare across the capabilities teams ask about most. A check means included, a dash means partly or on some plans, and a cross means not available.
| 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 |
| Self-hosted AI agents | Included; connect your own AI provider | 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 | 500 credits per seat on Pro, 1,000 on Business, none on Free |
| 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 |
| Coding agents | Opens GitHub PRs and GitLab MRs for review | 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 | Custom domain, AI answers, API reference | Published pages on Pro |
| Customer profiles | Contacts and companies with every conversation and task | Customers on Business |
| CRM with deals | Contacts, companies, deals | |
| Meeting notes | Meet, Zoom, Teams and Webex | Search Granola notes through Plane AI |
| MCP server | Hosted and self-hosted (beta) | Hosted for Plane Cloud, or run locally |
Comparison data verified September 2026.
Why teams look beyond Plane
Four common reasons teams give for looking elsewhere, and how Helpin handles each one.
- Intake form or email
- Work item
Helpin- Support inbox
- Task
- Pull request
- Customer told
Customer requests start somewhere else
Plane collects requests through Intake, with public forms and an intake email address on the Business plan, and lists its Desk help desk as coming soon. Helpin includes the support inbox, chat widget and help center, so the customer’s conversation is already attached to the task, and the team can follow up in it when the work ships.
- Community: Free-plan features
- AI: Commercial Edition
Helpin- Every product feature
- AGPL-3.0
AI and agents need the paid edition
Plane’s Community Edition matches its Free plan. Plane AI, agents, time tracking, Customers and SSO need the closed-source Commercial Edition and a license key. Every Helpin product feature is open source under AGPL-3.0, AI agents and coding agents included. Self-hosted, there’s no license fee at all.
- Per seat
- + AI credits per seat
Helpin- Workspace price
- AI usage included
AI is metered in credits per seat
Plane Cloud charges per seat, and Plane AI draws on monthly credits: 500 per seat on Pro and 1,000 on Business, none on Free, and no top-up. Helpin charges one price per workspace with unlimited teammates, and each Cloud plan includes an AI usage allowance, with metered overage only if you turn it on.
- Customers
- Work items
Helpin- Contacts
- Companies
- Deals
- Meetings
No CRM or meeting notes
Plane’s Customers feature, on Business, gives each customer a profile linked to their requests. Helpin adds a CRM with contacts, companies, deals and pipelines, plus meeting notes from Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Webex, on the same account as the work.
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
Plane organizes work into work items, cycles, modules and epics, with list, board, calendar, Gantt and spreadsheet layouts. Pro adds initiatives, milestones, a wiki, dashboards and time tracking; Business adds recurring work items, a workflow and project templates.
HelpinHelpin Projects covers roadmaps, sprints, objectives, epics, dependencies, estimates and triage, with velocity and sprint reports. Tasks can carry the customer requests and conversations behind them.
The difference: Plane offers more planning views and depth. Helpin’s planning keeps customer context on the work.
AI and coding agents
Plane AI answers questions, builds work items and runs agents on mentions, events or schedules. On Cloud it uses monthly credits: 500 per seat on Pro and 1,000 on Business, with none on Free and no top-up. You can assign a work item to Cursor’s coding agent, which opens a GitHub pull request.
HelpinHelpin’s agents answer customers, plan the work and prepare follow-ups. Its coding agents work from the task and the customer conversation behind it, and open a GitHub pull request or GitLab merge request for your team to review. On Cloud, usage comes from the AI allowance in your plan; self-hosted, the agents are part of the free Community edition and use your own AI provider.
The difference: Both put AI next to the work. Helpin’s agents also cover support, and they’re included in the free edition.
Customer requests and support
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.
HelpinHelpin includes the support inbox, chat widget and help center, so requests start in the same product as the task. When the work ships, the team can follow up in the original conversation.
The difference: If requests come from your own team, Plane’s Intake covers it. If they come from customers, Helpin puts the conversation next to the work.
Customer records and meetings
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.
HelpinHelpin includes a CRM with contacts, companies, deals and pipelines, and a meeting notetaker for Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Webex. Decisions and action items from calls stay on the same customer record as the conversations and tasks.
The difference: If account context matters to your roadmap, Helpin keeps deals and meetings next to the work.
Open source and self-hosting
Plane’s Community Edition is AGPL-3.0 and matches the Free plan. Plane AI, agents, time tracking, Customers and SSO need the closed-source Commercial Edition, with a license key bound to one workspace and one machine. Plane supports Docker, Kubernetes and an air-gapped edition on Enterprise Grid.
HelpinHelpin is open source under AGPL-3.0. Use Helpin Cloud, or run the Community edition (0.2 beta) on your own infrastructure with Docker Compose and your own AI provider. Nothing leaves your servers unless you connect it.
The difference: Plane has more deployment options. Helpin’s free edition includes more of the product.
Git, API and integrations
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.
HelpinHelpin links GitHub pull requests and GitLab merge requests to tasks and updates delivery status when work merges. It offers a Helpin MCP server (in beta), connections to external MCP servers, including Plane Cloud’s, and web SDKs for your product.
The difference: Plane has more integrations and importers. Helpin can reach Plane Cloud through MCP, so the two can run side by side.
Pricing and value
Plane charges per seat: Pro is $6 and Business $13 a month billed annually ($8 and $15 billed monthly), with a free plan for up to 12 seats. Plane AI uses monthly credits included per seat on the paid plans, with no top-up. Helpin charges one price per workspace, so it can cost more for a small team and less as the team grows.
HelpinHelpin charges one price per workspace, with unlimited teammates. Starter is $79 and Growth $239 a month billed annually ($99 and $299 billed monthly), and each includes an AI usage allowance. The self-hosted Community edition is free.
Estimate what your team would pay
Change the team size, plans and AI volume to match your team. The estimate uses list prices and says plainly when Plane costs less. See Helpin pricing.
Estimated at list prices · 20 people · billed annually
$260 a month
$3,120 a year
- 20 × Business at $13
- $260
HelpinGrowth$239 a month
$2,868 a year
- Growth plan, one workspace
- $239
- 20 people
- Included
- AI usage allowance
- $239 included
Heavy AI use can go past the allowance; overage is metered.
Helpin costs $252 less a year than Plane.
Plane costs less up to 18 people. From 19 people, Helpin costs less.
- Business is the Plane plan with Customers and intake forms. Plane AI uses monthly credits included per seat, with no top-up, so AI isn’t 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.
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.
HelpinHelpin is open source under AGPL-3.0. Use Helpin Cloud, or run the Community edition (0.2 beta) on your own infrastructure with Docker Compose and your own AI provider. Nothing leaves your servers unless you connect it.
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 · 0.2 beta- 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
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.
HelpinHelpin’s trial runs for 14 days on the Growth plan, with no card. Our team will help you plan the move: what to set up first, how to run both tools side by side, and when to cut over.
Moving from Plane.
You don’t have to move everything at once. Many teams start with support.
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.
Where Plane is stronger
Plane is a good product. These are the areas where it’s ahead of Helpin today.
Planning depth.
Cycles, modules, epics, initiatives, milestones, dashboards and estimates, with list, board, calendar, Gantt and spreadsheet layouts.
Adoption.
Plane says more than 50,000 teams use it, and its repository has about 60,000 GitHub stars.
Compliance and deployment.
SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2022, SAML and OIDC, Kubernetes, and an air-gapped edition on Enterprise Grid.
Mobile and imports.
Native iOS, Android and desktop apps, and importers for Jira, Linear, Asana and ClickUp.
Which one fits your team?
Plane focuses on planning and tracking the work. Helpin adds the customer side: support, CRM and meetings on the same history as the work.
Choose Plane if…
- You want a dedicated project tracker with cycles, modules, initiatives and dashboards.
- You need SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, or an air-gapped Enterprise deployment.
- You want native mobile apps and importers from Jira, Linear, Asana and ClickUp.
- You have a small team and want a free plan for up to 12 seats.
Choose Helpin if…
- Customer requests arrive in your own support inbox and become tasks with the conversation attached.
- You want a CRM with deals and meeting notes next to your roadmap.
- You want AI agents, coding agents included, in the free self-hosted edition.
- You want one price per workspace instead of per seat.
Questions about Helpin vs Plane
Is Helpin a Plane alternative?
For teams that want projects, support and CRM in one open-source product, yes. If you want a dedicated project tracker with deep planning features, Plane is a strong choice.
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?
Plane has more deployment options, including Kubernetes and an air-gapped Enterprise edition. Helpin’s free Community edition includes AI agents, support, projects and CRM, and is currently a 0.2 beta.
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.