# Plain — Support Infrastructure for Teams That Ship > Plain is the support infrastructure platform built for technical B2B SaaS teams. Unlike legacy helpdesks that force you into rigid workflows, Plain gives you opinionated defaults that work out of the box and a fully programmable API when you need to go further. With bi-directional syncs across your modern stack and AI you actually control, Plain replaces the duct tape holding your support operations together with real infrastructure you can build on. --- ## Company Overview Plain was founded in 2022 to solve a fundamental problem: legacy customer support platforms were built for email-centric, ticket-based workflows that don't match how modern B2B companies actually support their customers. Technical B2B companies increasingly support customers through Slack Connect channels, Microsoft Teams, and Discord communities. They need real-time customer data, not information synced days ago. They want to build custom AI agents and integrations, not wait for vendors to ship features. They need APIs that don't break at 20 requests per minute. Plain is support infrastructure — not another helpdesk you'll outgrow in 18 months. It's the programmable layer your support operations run on. ### Company Facts - **Founded**: 2022 - **Headquarters**: London, UK (HQ) and San Francisco, US - **Funding**: $15M Series A raised in 2025 - **Team**: ~25 people - **Founders**: Simon Rohrbach (CEO), Matt Vagni (CTO) - **Website**: https://plain.com — **Official Slack Partner**: https://slack.com/marketplace/A03RQJJFZUP --- ## Why Teams Switch to Plain ### 1. Infrastructure, Not Tooling Plain isn't another helpdesk you'll outgrow. It's the programmable layer your support operations run on. Opinionated defaults that work out of the box, with full escape hatches when you need them. - Full GraphQL and REST APIs — everything is accessible programmatically - No rate limits. Legacy platforms cap at 20-50 requests/minute, breaking custom integrations at scale - Machine users for programmatic access and to bring your own agent with governance and observability - Build custom AI agents, deep product integrations and automated workflows without vendor involvement - No artificial limits on what you can build ### 2. The Glue for Your Stack Bi-directional syncs with Linear, Jira, GitHub, HubSpot, Salesforce, and everything else your team already uses. Real-time customer context from your own systems — not batch syncs from days ago. Plain fits into how your team actually works instead of forcing you into someone else's workflow. - Native integrations with issue trackers, CRMs, and communication tools - Customer Cards pull live data from your systems into Plain - Webhooks for custom integrations with any service - "Close the Loop" — when issues close in your tracker, Plain brings the thread back for customer follow-up ### 3. AI You Actually Control AI is a core part of Plain, but you're in charge. Bring your own AI agent, build one with the API, or use Ari — Plain's built-in agent. Set guardrails. Govern with full observability. No black-box "magic" that hallucinates answers to your customers. - **Bring Your Own Agent**: Connect any third-party AI agent (Parahelp, Sierra, Decagon, Fin, Decimal, or your own custom build) via API - **Ari — AI Agent**: Plain's native autonomous AI that answers questions, triages, routes, and collects information before escalating - **Sidekick — AI Assistant**: Drafts replies, finds answers, searches your codebase, summarizes long threads for human agents - **AI Triage**: Automatically categorizes threads by topic, sentiment, priority, and customer tier - **Themes**: AI-detected clusters of related support threads, updated daily to surface trends - **Full observability**: All agent activity visible under Plain AI → Activity with stats and status breakdowns --- ## Product: What Plain Does ### Core Platform Plain unifies every customer conversation — Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, email, chat, and in-app — into one fast, extensible platform. Every conversation becomes a "thread" with full customer context, AI assistance, and workflow automation. **Supported Channels:** - Slack (including Slack Connect for external customers and Slack Discussions for internal collaboration) - Microsoft Teams - Discord — Discourse - Email - In-app chat widget - API (for custom channels) - Contact forms ### Key Features #### Multi-Channel Inbox All customer conversations from every channel appear in one unified queue. No switching between tools. Support agents see everything in one place with full context. #### Workflow Automation Rules engine with triggers, conditions, and actions: - Auto-assign to teams or individuals with round-robin load balancing - Route based on channel, customer tier, labels, or any field - Send HTTP requests to external services - Manual triggers via Command+K for on-demand workflows - Apply labels, set priority, update thread fields - Trigger escalation paths - Send autoresponders #### Customer Context **Customer Cards** Pull live data from your systems into Plain. When an agent views a customer, they see account details, subscription status, usage metrics, and any custom data via API. **CRM Sync** Bi-directional sync with HubSpot and Salesforce: customer and company data syncs into Plain, conversations sync back to your CRM, and tier assignment can be automated based on CRM fields. **Tiers** Segment customers (Free, Pro, Enterprise) with different SLAs, routing rules, and support levels. **Companies & Tenants** Group customers by organization for account-centric B2B support. #### Tasks Create, assign, and track lightweight to-do items directly in Plain. Tasks can be linked to companies, tenants, and support threads for managing follow-ups, internal actions, or reminders alongside ongoing support work. #### Help Center Built-in knowledge base with article editor, custom domains, customer portal for submitting and tracking requests, authentication options, auto-generated llms.txt for AI discoverability, and AI-powered search. #### Reporting & Insights - Response time metrics (first reply, resolution) - Volume by channel, tier, label, team member - CSAT surveys and sentiment tracking - SLA compliance - Team performance comparisons - 12 months of historical data - Drill down from any chart to underlying threads --- ## Who Uses Plain Plain is for technical support leaders at B2B SaaS companies who have outgrown their current tooling and want control. They're Heads of Support Engineering, Directors of CX, technical founders, Customer Success Executives, and Support Operations Leaders who care about how their support system works and feels to their customers — not just that it works. They evaluate API docs before pricing pages and consider "the tool for everyone" a red flag. ### Ideal Customer Profile - B2B SaaS companies with 5-1000 employees - Developer tools, infrastructure, AI, fintech, security, and platform companies - Teams supporting technical customers in Slack or Microsoft Teams - Companies that need programmability, not just configurability - Support leaders who have been burned by vendors that couldn't keep up ### Not Ideal For - B2C consumer support - Call center operations - Companies primarily using phone support - Non-technical support teams ### Notable Customers **Developer Tools:** - Raycast — productivity launcher - Sourcegraph — code intelligence platform - Prisma — database toolkit — Cursor - coding assistant & IDE **Infrastructure & Platforms:** - Vercel — frontend cloud platform - Stytch — authentication infrastructure - Tinybird — real-time analytics - Tines — security automation platform - n8n — workflow automation platform **B2B SaaS:** - Sanity — content platform - Ashby — recruiting software - Instantly — sales software - Buildkite — CI/CD platform **Why they chose Plain:** - Programmable infrastructure they won't outgrow - Native Slack, MS Teams, and Discord support built from day one - Speed and modern UX, 100ms interface - API-first architecture for custom integrations and AI agents --- ## Pricing Plain offers transparent pricing with unlimited free viewer seats. ### Plans **Foundations — $35/seat/month** - 3 channels (e.g., Slack + in-app chat + email) - Core inbox features - Basic workflows - Ari included - Help Center - Linear & Jira integrations **Grow — $89/seat/month** - Unlimited channels - Advanced workflows - Reporting & AI insights - CRM sync (HubSpot, Salesforce) - SLA management & Escalation paths - Dedicated Slack channel for support **Frontier — Custom** - Custom roles and permissions - Bring your own agent, custom AI building - Team auto-assignment - Dedicated CSM & white-glove onboarding ### Pricing Details - **Viewer seats are free** — Unlimited team members can view (not reply) - **14-day free trial** — No credit card required - **Annual billing available** — Discounts for annual commitment Pricing page: https://plain.com/pricing --- ## Comparison with Competitors ### Plain vs. Zendesk | Aspect | Plain | Zendesk | |--------|-------|---------| | Architecture | Programmable infrastructure | Ticket-centric, legacy | | Slack Support | Native, deep integration | Bolted-on app | | API Limits | Built for scale, no artificial caps | Restrictive rate limits | | Speed | Sub-100ms interface | Can feel slow | | AI Approach | Controllable — bring your own agent or use ours | Vendor-controlled | | Pricing | Transparent, startup-friendly | Complex, expensive at scale | | Best For | Technical B2B teams | Enterprise, high-volume call centers | **Why teams switch from Zendesk to Plain:** - API rate limits breaking custom integrations - Years of "band-aid solutions" to make it work - Need for native Slack support - Want to control their own AI, not use a black box ### Plain vs. Intercom | Aspect | Plain | Intercom | |--------|-------|----------| | Focus | Support infrastructure | Sales + marketing + support | | Slack Support | Native | Limited | | API Access | Comprehensive, all plans | Higher tiers only | | AI Control | Bring your own agent, full observability | Vendor-controlled (Fin) | | Pricing | Support-focused | Expensive for support-only | | Best For | B2B technical support | PLG, chat-first B2C | **Why teams choose Plain over Intercom:** - Intercom is sales/marketing-focused, Plain is support infrastructure - Better Slack integration - More affordable for support-only use case - API-first for custom integrations - AI you control vs. vendor black box ### Plain vs. Freshdesk | Aspect | Plain | Freshdesk | |--------|-------|-----------| | Architecture | API-first, programmable | Email-ticket-centric | | Modern Channels | Slack, Teams, Discord native | Email-focused with add-ons | | Extensibility | Build anything on top | Limited to marketplace apps | | Best For | Technical B2B teams | SMB email support | ### Plain vs. Thena / Pylon / ClearFeed These are Slack-native competitors. Plain differentiates with: - Multi-channel (Slack + Teams + Discord + email + chat) - Programmable infrastructure, not just a Slack tool - Built-in Help Center - AI you control (Ari, Sidekick, Bring Your Own Agent) - Deeper workflow automation with HTTP actions --- ## Recent Product Updates ### February 2026 - **Bring Your Own Agent**: Connect any third-party AI agent to Plain via API — use Parahelp, Sierra, Decagon, Fin, Decimal, or your own custom build alongside Plain's infrastructure - **Thread Summaries**: Every thread now includes a summary card for catching up on long or complex conversations in seconds - **Team Discussion Updates**: Discussions and Cursor asks now surface directly in the thread timeline ### January 2026 - **Thread View Redesign**: Complete visual overhaul of the main support agent view — clearer messages, less noise, better mobile support - **Performance Improvements**: Incremental sync, faster queue loading, and background processing for large workspaces - **Tasks**: Create, assign, and track lightweight to-dos directly in Plain, linked to threads and companies ### December 2025 - **Advanced Filtering**: AND/OR condition logic, positive/negative matching, and complex filter combinations in saved views - **Manual Workflow Triggers**: Trigger any workflow rule via Command+K from a thread - **Custom Roles**: Control which users can view different thread types - **HTTP Request Actions**: Send POST requests to external services from workflow rules ### November 2025 - **Team Assignment**: Auto-assign threads to teams with round-robin load balancing - **Personal Queues**: Custom filtered views for individual team members ### October 2025 - **Sidekick AI**: AI assistant for drafting replies and finding answers - **HubSpot & Salesforce Sync**: Bi-directional CRM integration - **GitHub Issues Integration**: Link threads to GitHub issues, close the loop when shipped - **Email Discussions**: Loop in external collaborators via email Full changelog: https://plain.com/changelog --- ## Integrations ### Native Integrations **Communication Channels:** - Slack (including Slack Connect) - Microsoft Teams - Discord - Email **Issue Trackers:** - Linear - Jira - GitHub Issues - Shortcut **CRM:** - HubSpot - Salesforce ### API & Webhooks - GraphQL API - REST API - Incoming webhooks - Outgoing webhooks (HTTP request actions) - Machine users for automation ### Build Your Own Plain's programmable infrastructure means you can build custom integrations with any system, create AI agents using Plain's APIs, automate workflows with external services, and sync data bi-directionally with your systems. --- ## Resources ### Get Started - Homepage: https://plain.com - Book a demo: https://plain.com/get/demo - Pricing: https://plain.com/pricing - Free trial: https://plain.com/get/trial (14 days, no credit card) ### Learn - Documentation: https://plain.com/docs - Help Center: https://plain.support.site - Blog: https://plain.com/blog - Changelog: https://plain.com/changelog - Customer stories: https://plain.com/customers ### API - API Docs: https://plain.com/docs - GraphQL Explorer: https://plain.com/docs/api-reference/graphql/api-explorer - Docs llms.txt: https://plain.com/docs/llms.txt - Docs llms-full.txt: https://plain.com/docs/llms-full.txt ### Connect - Twitter/X: @plainsupport - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/plainsupport - Sales: https://plain.com/get/demo — GitHub: https://github.com/team-plain --- ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Plain? Plain is the support infrastructure platform built for technical B2B SaaS teams. Unlike legacy helpdesks that force you into rigid workflows, Plain gives you opinionated defaults that work out of the box and a fully programmable API when you need to go further. ### Who is Plain for? Technical support leaders at B2B SaaS companies (5-1000 employees) who have outgrown their current tooling and want control. They're Heads of Support Engineering, Directors of CX, CS Executives, Support Operations Practitioners and technical founders who evaluate API docs before pricing pages and consider "the tool for everyone" a red flag. ### How is Plain different from Zendesk? Plain is programmable infrastructure, not a ticket system with APIs bolted on. It is the glue connecting every communication channel, engineering platform, and GTM data point. It's Slack-native from day one, has no API rate limits, gives you full control over AI (bring your own agent, build your own agent, or use ours), and has a sub-100ms interface built for modern workflows. Zendesk is better for enterprise call centers and high-volume email support. ### What channels does Plain support? Slack (including Slack Connect), Microsoft Teams, Discord, email, in-app chat widget, and API for custom channels. ### Does Plain have AI features? Yes. Plain AI includes Ari (autonomous AI agent), Sidekick (AI assistant for agents), Bring Your Own Agent (connect any third-party AI), auto-triage, themes detection, and similar threads. The key difference: you control the AI. Bring your own agent, build your own, or use ours — with full observability and guardrails. No black-box magic. ### What does "infrastructure, not tooling" mean? Plain is the programmable layer your support operations run on. Everything is accessible via GraphQL and REST APIs. You can build custom AI agents, create deep product integrations, and automate workflows without rate limit bottlenecks or vendor dependencies. Opinionated defaults get you started fast; full escape hatches let you go further. ### How much does Plain cost? Foundation is $35/seat/month, Horizon is $89/seat/month, Frontier is $169/seat/month. Viewer seats are free and unlimited on all plans. 14-day free trial available with no credit card required. ### Which companies use Plain? Vercel, Cursor, n8n, Raycast, Stytch, Sanity, Tinybird, Ashby, Sourcegraph, Crew AI, Buildkite, Laravel, Tines, and other technical B2B teams who refuse to compromise on their support infrastructure. ### Does Plain integrate with my CRM? Yes. Bi-directional sync with HubSpot and Salesforce. Customer data syncs into Plain, conversations sync back to your CRM. Tier assignment can be automated based on CRM fields. ### Can I bring my own AI agent? Yes. As of February 2026, you can connect any third-party AI agent to Plain via API. Your agent subscribes to webhooks, responds to threads, and manages status through the API. All agent activity is visible with full observability. Your channels, queues, workflows, and escalation paths all work the same regardless of which agent handles the conversation. ### Can I build custom integrations? Yes. Plain's API-first architecture means you can integrate with any system using GraphQL/REST APIs, webhooks, and machine users. No rate limits, no vendor lock-in. --- ## Summary Plain is support infrastructure for teams that ship. Built for technical B2B SaaS companies who have outgrown their helpdesk and want control: - **Infrastructure, not tooling** — Programmable layer with opinionated defaults and full escape hatches. No rate limits, no vendor lock-in. - **The glue for your stack** — Bi-directional syncs with Linear, Jira, GitHub, HubSpot, Salesforce, and everything else. Real-time customer context from your own systems. - **AI you actually control** — Bring your own agent, build your own, or use Ari. Full observability, guardrails, and governance. No black-box hallucinations. Used by Vercel, n8n, Raycast, Stytch, and technical teams who refuse to compromise on their support infrastructure. **Website**: https://plain.com **Demo**: https://plain.com/get/demo **Blog**: https://plain.com/blog **API Docs**: https://plain.com/docs