The Plain alternative that works out of the box
Plain is powerful if you want to shape a custom B2B support motion. Fernand is for small SaaS teams that want a finished support product. Developer-friendly, product-aware, and ready today: shared inbox, live chat, AI agents, custom data, unlimited conversations, unlimited history, and a Notion-like knowledge base.
Trusted by hundreds of
modern founders like you
Purposely built for small teams
Not a watered-down enterprise tool. Every decision in Fernand is made with small, fast-moving teams in mind.
Simple pricing
$29 per human per month. Predictable, transparent, and built for small teams.
Built for SaaS support
Inbox, live chat, AI agents, customer context, and docs in one calm workspace.
Consolidate all your support channels
into one shared inbox
Everything consolidates into one shared inbox you can access from your desktop or mobile. Collaborate on customer inquiries with your team, no matter what channel they started with.
Add any email you'd like, like help@yourapp.com or sales@yourapp.com and handle customer inquiries from a shared inbox.
Learn more โLive chat widget
Embed a live chat in your product and respond to customers in real time, right from your inbox.
Learn more โKnowledge base
Publish a beautiful, SEO-friendly help center your customers can search through before reaching out.
Learn more โSlack
Receive and reply to Slack messages from your customers directly from Fernand without switching tools.
Learn more โ๐ DMs
Receive and reply to direct messages from your customers directly from Fernand without switching tools.
Learn more โContact forms
Add headless contact forms to your product or website and funnel all submissions into your shared inbox.
Learn more โHeadless API
Build a fully custom support experience inside your product using our API. Your UI, your flow, Fernand's inbox behind the scenes.
Learn more โWhy teams switch from Plain
Composable support infrastructure is great when you have the time and team to design your own support system.
Most small SaaS teams need something more immediate. They need the inbox, chat widget, AI agent, docs, customer context, and escalation flow to work without turning support into another internal product.
Fernand is still dev-friendly. It is just more opinionated.
Choose Plain ifโฆ
You want to build a custom B2B support motion with more infrastructure flexibility, deeper workflow control, and a team ready to maintain it.
Choose Fernand ifโฆ
You want dev-friendly SaaS support that works out of the box, with a clean inbox, live chat, AI agents, docs, and free API actions.
"Fernand is the bedrock of my solo business. It's the reason I'm able to stay solo and move quick while growing my SaaS and providing a human touch to all my thousands of paying customers. For the first time I'm not managing a mess of mailboxes but greeted every morning with a clear path to resolution."
Bring in custom data from your API endpoint
Point Fernand at any HTTP endpoint and it pulls the data that matters most right into the conversation sidebar. Use Liquid templating to control exactly what gets displayed. No extra tooling needed.
See how it works โA support widget you do not have to build yourself
Fernand gives you a polished support widget out of the box. Customize color, behavior, position, and features. Keep your product experience clean without building support UI from scratch.
Integrates with your entire stack
Native integrations with your payment providers and dev tools. Connect anything else with the API, or orchestrate with n8n, Zapier, or Make.
Plain is support infrastructure you can customize.Fernand is already calm, fast, and ready.
Every detail of Fernand is intentionally designed using proven principles from cognitive psychology and behavioral science to make support feel calmer.
One thing at a time
One task at a time, so you never freeze wondering what to do next.
"Bonjour" welcome screen
Always know what your support queue looks like at a glance, instead of scanning through it manually.
Progress to inbox zero
We communicate your progress transparently, to give you a sense of completion and fulfilment.
Keyboard shortcuts for everything
Optimized for efficiency. Reply, add a note, close a request and much more.
Loads under 100ms
No spinners, no loading. Everything is synced between all your screens at all times. It's like magic.
Plain vs Fernand comparison
Built for founders, developers, PMs, and first customer ops hires who still touch support directly.
| Plain | Fernand | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | B2B teams shaping a custom support motion | Small SaaS teams that want support ready now |
| Pricing | Seat-based plans with higher tiers, custom plan, and AI overage | $29 per human per month |
| Buying process | Start free on entry plan, demo for higher tiers | Try for free, no mandatory demo |
| Product shape | Flexible B2B support stack | Opinionated support tool |
| Automation | Limited to 5 on the $35/m plan | Unlimited workflows |
| Emails | Email addresses vary by plan | Unlimited emails and domains |
| Channels | Slack, email, in-app, Teams, Discord and more by plan | Email, live chat, Slack, X DMs, contact forms, API |
| AI | Ari AI agent, workflows, assistant, credits | AI agents ride free โ Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex can own your entire support flow |
| API actions | API, webhooks, events | Free API access for AI agents to perform actions |
| Knowledge base | Help Center and Knowledge Base features | Notion-like knowledge base |
| Custom data | Customer cards and integrations | Point to any HTTP endpoint, rendered live in the sidebar |
| Migration | Importers available, white-glove migration on higher tiers | Free, hands-on migration included |
| Product philosophy | Flexible and composable | Calm, focused, opinionated |
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know before switching from Plain to Fernand.
Yes. Fernand is a good Plain alternative for small SaaS teams that want a complete support product instead of support infrastructure to configure.
Yes. Fernand is built for dev-first SaaS teams. AI agents can connect through your API for free and perform actions.
Yes. Fernand is opinionated by design so teams can start fast.
Yes. Fernand includes a modern, Notion-like knowledge base with resolution step blocks, automatic 301 redirects when you rename articles, and paste-to-embed for screenshots and Screen Studio videos.
Teams that want to design a custom B2B support motion, maintain more workflow flexibility, or need stronger Slack Connect workflows may prefer Plain.