# Drag vs FreeScout (slim)

> Drag scores 40 (E) to FreeScout's 27.9 (F) for support conversations. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/drag-vs-freescout.md (~4,250 tokens) · this version ~2,230 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/drag-vs-freescout.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/drag-vs-freescout
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Drag scores 40 (E) on agent readiness against FreeScout's 27.9 (F), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. FreeScout leads on reliability, agent ergonomics, security & auth and maintenance & community. Both do support conversations.

- Drag: E 40, rank #1330 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/drag.min.md
- FreeScout: F 27.9, rank #1431 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/freescout.min.md
- Drag, good for Small teams running support@ or sales@ in Gmail who want an agent to triage, label, assign and draft replies. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 71 against 35; Payments & pricing, 30 against 0; Transparency & trust, 49 against 36. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; Runs on your own machine; Free to start without a card; No incidents deducted, where FreeScout loses 15 points for them.
- FreeScout, good for Small teams that want a free, self-hosted Help Scout alternative and can run PHP. Ahead on Reliability, 73 against 28; Agent ergonomics, 50 against 43; Security & auth, 30 against 23; Maintenance & community, 70 against 43.

| Category | Drag | FreeScout |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 28 | 73 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 71 | 35 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 43 | 50 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 23 | 30 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 0 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 43 | 70 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 49 | 36 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Drag | FreeScout |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | DragApp.com Ltd | FreeScout |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://app.dragapp.com/mcp` | no (local only) |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP, stdio |  |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| Licence | none | AGPL-3.0 |
| Tools exposed | 47 | none |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `com.dragapp/mcp-server` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-08-13 | 2026-10-31 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-13 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-03 | no date given |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |

Why the edge:
- Reliability, FreeScout +45: Drag 28 (Graded as a hosted service on the MCP server at app.dragapp.com/mcp and REST API v2. No status page is linked and status.dragapp.com failed the TLS handshake (0). No readable incident history (5). The REST docs say rate limits apply without numbers; the hosted MCP server's source defaults to 60 calls a minute per key (5 of 15). The REST docs say to retry a 429 with exponential backoff, with no idempotency guidance for sends (8 of 15). No SLA found (0). Neither surface is labelled beta (10). 0 + 5 + 5 + 8 + 0 + 10 = 28.); FreeScout 73 (Read with the local-software lines, because FreeScout runs only on the operator's server; there is no first-party hosted service. Installs from official releases with a web installer and updater, with PHP and MySQL or PostgreSQL requirements stated (20). Public CI in test.yml, test-pgsql.yml and phpcs.yml with feature tests; pass status not read (18 of 25). Open crash and regression issues were not read because the GitHub API refused us for its rate limit (10 of 25, unchecked). Patch releases v1.8.238 to v1.8.249 with notes on GitHub, and module versions tied to a required core version (10 of 15). Past 1.0 (15). 20 + 18 + 10 + 10 + 15 = 73.)
- Schema & documentation, Drag +36: Drag 71 (No OpenAPI or other contract for REST v2 was found. Every MCP tool carries a JSON input schema in the open-source server (20 of 25). llms.txt for the site (10). Tool descriptions say which ID to pass, which tool to call first and when WhatsApp free text fails, and the server instructions add tips (17 of 20). Inputs are typed in the schemas, with IDs as strings and few enums (10 of 15). The REST docs show request and response examples for 24 endpoints and a shared error shape with 401, 429 and 500 (9 of 15). REST is v2, but no changelog was found; versions are visible only on npm and in the repository (5 of 15). 20 + 10 + 17 + 10 + 9 + 5 = 71.); FreeScout 35 (No OpenAPI, Postman collection or other machine-readable contract found (0). No llms.txt (404) or Markdown docs (0). Each endpoint has a short description and parameter notes such as what `imported` and `embed` do (10 of 20). Parameters are marked required or optional with types, and few enums (8 of 15). curl, JavaScript and PHP examples for each endpoint, and a status-code table with an `errorCode` and `errors` body (12 of 15). Module versions and core releases are tagged, with no dated API changelog (5 of 15). 0 + 0 + 10 + 8 + 12 + 5 = 35.)
- Payments & pricing, Drag +30: Drag 30 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-seat plan prices are public, and AI credits are priced at $0.01, with nothing per API call (10). The 7-day trial needs no card and includes every Pro feature, API and MCP among them (20). A person signs up in a browser and copies a key from settings (0). 0 + 10 + 20 + 0 = 30.); FreeScout 0 (Self-hosted rule, with pricing scored on the paid module the API needs. No x402, MPP or L402 (0). The module's price is drawn by the store's script and could not be read, so it scores as not found (0). The core is free, but no free route to the API exists (0). A person buys the module in a browser and installs it (0). 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 0.)
- Maintenance & community, FreeScout +27: Drag 43 (@dragapp/mcp-server 0.7.0 on npm on 13 August 2026, 85 days before this check; the repository had a commit on 6 November and its package.json reads 0.12.0 with no matching release (20). Only one dated release in the 90 days from 8 August, and no changelog (0). 43 commits since 6 July 2026 by the CTO; issues were not read (8 of 25). Domain-verified com.dragapp/mcp-server namespace, but the entry stops at 0.1.5 and lists only the stdio package, not the hosted remote (10 of 15). A secret-scan workflow and a tarball check before publish; no tests in CI (5 of 10). 20 + 0 + 8 + 10 + 5 = 43.); FreeScout 70 (Core v1.8.249 tagged on 31 October 2026 (30). Twelve tags from 30 August to 31 October (20). Issue responsiveness was not read because the GitHub API refused us for its rate limit (10 of 25, unchecked). No official SDK, and no MCP server from the project (0). CI with tests on MySQL and PostgreSQL, and a Laravel dependency advisory taken on 31 October (10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 70.)
- Transparency & trust, Drag +13: Drag 49 (Closed service under terms naming DragApp.com Ltd, with the MCP server under MIT (20 of 30). The privacy policy (3 September 2026) says servers are in the US, says the MCP connector keeps no copy of the data it carries, and names Google Analytics, but gives no retention periods (12 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices found (0). Hosting at AWS in Virginia is stated and the trust centre has a subprocessor section we could not open past its root page (10 of 20). 20 + 12 + 0 + 10 = 42.); FreeScout 36 (AGPL-3.0 core, and the module page says the module is AGPL-3.0 too (30). The software keeps data on the operator's server; the site's privacy policy was not read and no data-handling statement for the API was found (10 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices (0). No telemetry statement or opt-out found (5 of 20, since self-hosted data stays with the operator). 30 + 10 + 0 + 5 = 45.)
- Agent ergonomics, FreeScout +7: Drag 43 (47 MCP tools load by default, with no toolsets (5). Search and filter tools by label, assignee or status, and bulk moves; paging controls were not documented (10 of 20). REST errors return `error` and `message` with standard codes, and MCP error shapes weren't documented (8 of 20). Every tool sets readOnlyHint and destructiveHint, with sends marked destructive and open-world; no idempotency keys (15 of 20). One URL for the hosted server; the docs say official SDKs and a CLI are coming soon (5 of 15). 5 + 10 + 8 + 15 + 5 = 43.); FreeScout 50 (Responses can be sized with `embed` (threads, timelogs, tags) and `pageSize` (12 of 25). Page and pageSize paging, with conversation filters by mailbox, folder, status, state, type, assignee, customer email and phone (16 of 20). Errors return a status code, an `errorCode` and a list of messages, with each code explained (14 of 20). The docs say a timed-out call is safe to retry; no idempotency keys for creates (3 of 20). No official SDK; few required parameters on most calls (5 of 15). 12 + 16 + 14 + 3 + 5 = 50.)