Productlane is the closest match to Ellie Desk: a support inbox with a help centre that updates itself from your code. The differences are screenshots captured from your running app, several products on the entry plan, and a price with no seats and no per-resolution bill. Here's an honest look at both.
Both pair an inbox with a help centre that updates from your code. Ellie adds captured screenshots, several products and no seat fees.
No card needed. Your trial includes Support, three products and your whole team.
you want screenshots in your articles captured from your running app and kept current, you run more than one product and don't want the top plan to put them in one inbox, or you want a flat monthly price without per-user or per-resolution charges.
your team plans its work in Linear and wants support to feed it, you need Slack or Microsoft Teams as support channels, or you publish your help centre in many languages. Productlane does all three today; Ellie Desk doesn't yet.
Productlane details from productlane.com, checked 3 November 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll fix it.
Both products read your code, keep a help centre current as you ship, answer customers from it, and hand over to a person. Productlane leans on Linear and your ticket history to decide what to update; Ellie checks each release against the published articles and drafts the fixes. If the loop is all you need, compare the answers each one gives about your own product.
Ellie captures screenshots from your logged-in app and re-captures them when screens change, so the pictures in an article match what customers see. Productlane's help centre updates its text but doesn't capture screenshots for you.
Productlane puts several products on its Scale plan. On Ellie Desk, Starter can add them at $29 a month apiece, each with its own help centre, website chat and support address, all in one inbox.
As of November 2026, Productlane charges $29 per user and $0.79 per AI resolution beyond the 25 to 100 included. Ellie Desk has no per-user fee and counts conversations against a monthly allowance; at the limit Ellie keeps drafting for your team and you're never charged automatically.
Like for like: three products, two people answering, about 300 AI-answered conversations a month. List prices as of November 2026, excluding tax.
Starter with two extra products ($29 each) plus the Support add-on, billed yearly ($216 billed monthly): three products, email and website chat, and enough seats and Ellie conversations for this example. No seat fee and no charge per answer.
2 users at $29 ($58) plus 200 to 275 AI resolutions at $0.79 after the 25 to 100 included (about $160 to $220), as of November 2026. Several products need the Scale plan, which isn't priced in here.
Give Ellie your website and your help centre's address: she imports your articles as drafts and writes the rest from your product, with screenshots once your app is connected. Then forward your support email and add the website chat.
Not yet. Ellie hands conversations to your team with a brief and can turn an unanswered question into a help-centre draft, but she doesn't create or close Linear issues. If that loop matters to you, Productlane has it today.
Not yet. Customers can write in their own language and Ellie replies in it, while your team reads and replies in yours, but each help centre is published in one language today.
A conversation counts once in a month if Ellie replied to your customer at least once, however long it runs. Spam, drafts and notes for your team, and conversations handed to a person before Ellie replied don't count. At your plan's limit Ellie keeps drafting for your team and stops replying to customers until next month. You're never charged automatically; top up or move up a plan if you want.
Start free for 14 days. Support, three products and your whole team included. No card.
Start free for 14 days