# FreeScout vs Kustomer (slim)

> Kustomer scores 49.9 (D) to FreeScout's 27.9 (F) for support tickets. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freescout-vs-kustomer.md (~5,350 tokens) · this version ~3,130 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freescout-vs-kustomer.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freescout-vs-kustomer
- 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)

Kustomer scores 49.9 (D) on agent readiness against FreeScout's 27.9 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. FreeScout leads on reliability and maintenance & community. Both do support tickets.

- FreeScout: F 27.9, rank #1431 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/freescout.min.md
- Kustomer: D 49.9, rank #1081 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kustomer.min.md
- FreeScout, good for Small teams that want a free, self-hosted Help Scout alternative and can run PHP. Ahead on Reliability, 73 against 38; Maintenance & community, 70 against 61. Also Open source.
- Kustomer, good for Larger support teams already on Kustomer who want an agent to read the full customer timeline and write messages, notes and status changes under a narrowly scoped key. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 63 against 35; Agent ergonomics, 56 against 50; Security & auth, 64 against 30; Payments & pricing, 5 against 0; Transparency & trust, 66 against 36. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; No incidents deducted, where FreeScout loses 15 points for them.

| Category | FreeScout | Kustomer |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 73 | 38 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 35 | 63 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 50 | 56 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 30 | 64 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 0 | 5 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 70 | 61 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 36 | 66 |

| Fact (where they differ) | FreeScout | Kustomer |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | FreeScout | Kustomer, LLC |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.kustomerapp.com/v1` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | Proprietary service under Kustomer's Master Subscription Agreement |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-31 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-06-18 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2025-05-15 |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |

Why the edge:
- Reliability, FreeScout +35: 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.); Kustomer 38 (Graded as a hosted service, on the REST API. Kustomer's Acceptable Use Policy (20 June 2022), which its Website Terms of Use apply to the websites, bars using "manual or automated software, devices, or other processes to 'crawl' or 'spider' any page contained within the Services", where the Services are its website and services. kustomer.com hosts, status.kustomer.com included, were therefore not read on 4 November 2026, and the 8 October readings are kept as not re-read. The provenance names a status page at status.kustomer.com. The 8 October reading of its components came only from the page's /api/v2 path, which this benchmark doesn't use, so it is struck, and nothing is readable today (0). The 8 October incident reading came from the same /api/v2 path and is struck, and nothing is readable today, so the line takes the no-readable-history score (5). Rate limits are published per plan, 1,000 requests a minute on Enterprise and 2,000 on Ultimate, plus 100 a minute for search and per-object update limits, per the 8 October check (15). 429 is documented with `x-ratelimit-limit`, `x-ratelimit-remaining` and `x-ratelimit-reset` headers. No `Retry-After`, backoff guidance or idempotency keys were found (8, a partial kept from 8 October). The pricing page lists "99.9% Uptime SLA Credits" as a plan item, and the SLA text itself was not found on a public page. A listed SLA nobody could read gives 0 (0). The v1 REST API is generally available (10). 0+5+15+8+0+10 = 38.)
- Security & auth, Kustomer +34: FreeScout 30 (A global API key and personal keys that act with a user's permissions, sent in a header or Basic auth, with no scopes. The docs list an `api_key` query parameter as a way to authenticate, so 10 off (20 less 10, 10). Personal keys follow user roles, with no read-only key and no confirmation step for deletes (5 of 20). Conversations carry customer email, the security policy notes that external images in received email load by default, and no prompt-injection guidance was found (0). No API audit log found (0). SECURITY.md routes core reports through GitHub security advisories, CVEs are requested after fixes, and advisories are published, with no bug bounty or certification (15 of 20). 10 + 5 + 0 + 0 + 15 = 30.); Kustomer 64 (API keys are created by an admin under Settings > Security > API Keys with one or more roles chosen from several hundred, at read, create, update and delete levels, an expiry in days and an optional CIDR IP restriction. The key is shown once, roles can't be edited afterwards and a key is revoked by deleting it. The MCP server signs in by OAuth and completes sign-in only for clients on an approved list (28). Read-only roles exist, the MCP server is read-only, and sensitive attributes are masked unless the token holds Read Sensitive permission. No confirmation step for destructive calls was found (14). Messages are customer-written and no prompt-injection guidance for API or MCP users was found (0). Audit Log is a plan item and `GET /v1/audit-logs` reads it with its own role (12). The pricing page lists SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 27701 and ISO/IEC 42001, with HIPAA as a paid add-on. security.txt returns 404, no disclosure policy or bug bounty was found, and the trust centre couldn't be read (10). Per the 8 October check, not re-read on 4 November 2026 (Kustomer's acceptable use policy bars crawling its website).)
- Transparency & trust, Kustomer +30: 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.); Kustomer 66 (Closed service under a published Master Subscription Agreement, updated 18 June 2026, with separate versions for seat-based and usage-based plans (15). The Product Privacy Statement of 15 May 2025 says client data is deleted within 90 days of termination or of an admin's deletion request, and that personal data is not sold. The DPA promises breach notice within 72 hours, and the supplemental terms say third-party LLM providers may not train on client materials. Kustomer keeps anonymous usage data to improve and market the service (24). No API deprecation policy or notice period was found. The reference lists legacy roles beside their replacements without dates (5). The privacy statement says the service is hosted in the US and the EU, and the status page shows US, EU and India environments. The sub-processor list is on a trust centre drawn by script, which we couldn't read (10). Per the 8 October check, not re-read on 4 November 2026 (Kustomer's acceptable use policy bars crawling its website).)
- Schema & documentation, Kustomer +28: 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.); Kustomer 63 (Each of the 449 operations in the reference carries an OpenAPI 3.0 definition, served in the page's Markdown at the page URL plus `.md`. No single downloadable spec was found (18). `llms.txt` returns 404 on developer.kustomer.com, though every reference page has a Markdown twin (5). Descriptions state purpose, the roles each endpoint needs and endpoint-specific limits, with little on when not to use one (12). Parameters are typed with enums and minimums, but custom attributes are free key-value pairs typed by a name suffix (10). Response examples on each operation, an errors page and 400, 401, 403 and 404 responses listed per endpoint (11). The path carries `/v1` and the reference has a v2 section, but the developer changelog address returns a not-found page. API changes appear only as occasional entries tagged API on the product updates page, the latest in August 2026 (7). Per the 8 October check, not re-read on 4 November 2026 (Kustomer's acceptable use policy bars crawling its website).)
- Maintenance & community, FreeScout +9: 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.); Kustomer 61 (The product updates page's newest entries were dated 6 October 2026, 29 days before this check, and the API reference was republished on 7 October 2026, per the 8 October check (30). At least nine dated entries since 10 July 2026 per the same check; how many fall after 6 August wasn't recorded and the page can't be re-read, so the line is kept (20). A public product updates page and support by email (the status page postmortems counted on 8 October came from the struck /api/v2 reading). No public issue tracker (8). No official SDK for the REST API. The iOS chat SDK repositories were pushed on 7 October 2026, and the MCP server is not in the official MCP registry (3). No REST package to assess (0). 30+20+8+3+0 = 61. Per the 8 October check, not re-read on 4 November 2026 (Kustomer's acceptable use policy bars crawling its website).)
- Agent ergonomics, Kustomer +6: 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.); Kustomer 56 (List endpoints take `page` and `pageSize`, search takes `idsOnly` and a `fields` list, and some reads take `include`. The MCP server lists 42 tools, all read-only, which a user can switch off one by one in the client (15). Page-number pagination with `links.next`, typically 100 items a page and no results past the 100th page, filters and sort on `GET /customers`, and a search endpoint with `and`, `or` and `not` criteria (17). Errors use standard status codes with an `errors` array of `code` and `message` (13). No idempotency keys. 409 signals an optimistic-locking conflict, and MCP tool annotations couldn't be read (5). Few required parameters. No official SDK for the REST API was found, only chat SDKs for web, iOS and Android (6). Per the 8 October check, not re-read on 4 November 2026 (Kustomer's acceptable use policy bars crawling its website).)