Pylon vs Plain vs Thena in 2026
A customer messages your shared Slack channel at 11pm about a broken integration. Someone on your team replies before checking whether anyone else already answered part of it, and by morning the thread has three overlapping responses and no clear resolution. Pylon, Plain, and Thena were all built to fix that specific moment: B2B support that lives inside Slack, instead of forcing customers into a separate portal.
Modem is also something we build, and it sits downstream of whichever of these three a team picks, not in competition with them. This guide compares the three support platforms on their own claims first. Where Modem fits comes after.
The short answer
- Pylon fits B2B teams that want AI agents already scoped to specific jobs (Assist, Background, Slack, Support) handling the widest range of channels, phone and SMS included, on published per-seat plans.
- Plain fits teams that want an API-first base to build a custom support workflow around, with Linear and Jira wired in from the entry tier.
- Thena fits teams that want a familiar ticket queue with AI included on the cheapest plan and a known monthly ticket cap.
- Modem fits teams that want what happened in that inbox turned into prioritized product topics engineering can act on, not just a closed ticket.
#shared-customer-channel
Prioritized topicsSide by side
| Dimension | Pylon | Plain | Thena | Modem |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capture channels | Slack, Microsoft Teams, email, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, phone | Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, email | Slack, email, web chat (Standard tier and up) | Reads Pylon and Plain directly and Thena through the Slack channels it runs in, plus Discord, sales calls, and email on top |
| Ticketing model | Shared Slack and Teams channels become tickets automatically | API-first, composable no-code or all-code workflows | Traditional ticket queue with AI-assisted routing | No ticket queue; clusters conversations into product topics instead |
| AI agent depth | Four named agents (Assist, Background, Slack, Support) that investigate and act | Ari agent plus Sidekick and multi-agent orchestration | AI baseline on every plan: detection, summaries, tagging, co-pilot | Agent files issues and drafts release notes from a conversation when asked; no autonomous support agent |
| Pricing model | Per seat with seat minimums, published on its pricing page; Slack Connect from the Professional plan | Per seat, published on its pricing page, with AI credits and a 7-day trial | Free plan; paid plans per user, billed annually, from $29/user/month | Free $0, Startup $80/month, Scale $250/month, with event and agent-credit allowances, opt-in pay-as-you-go overage under a budget cap, and unlimited seats; 14-day trial on the Scale plan |
| Best for | Wide channel coverage handled mostly by AI agents | Building a specific support workflow on an API-first base | A conventional ticket queue with AI included from the cheapest plan | Turning whatever runs the conversation into product decisions, with engineering attached |
Pylon
Pylon calls itself "the Agentic Support Platform," purpose-built for B2B and claiming more than 1,500 B2B customers. Four distinct agents (Assist, Background, Slack, and Support) investigate issues, resolve what they can, and take action, rather than offering one general-purpose assistant.
It also covers the widest set of channels of the three: Slack, Microsoft Teams, email, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, and phone all feed into the same system. The Slack Agent specifically answers your team's questions and takes action inside Slack using the same customer context and tools available in Pylon, so nobody has to switch apps.
Strengths:
- Broadest channel coverage of the three, extending into SMS, WhatsApp, and phone
- Four scoped agent roles instead of one general assistant covering every job
- Workflow automation is described in natural language rather than built in a rules editor
Limits:
- Per-seat pricing comes with seat minimums, and Slack Connect starts at the Professional plan
- Check Pylon's pricing page for whether a self-serve trial is offered before planning an evaluation
- Four separate agent types means some onboarding time to understand what each one covers
Best for: B2B teams that want AI agents handling a wide range of channels, phone and SMS included, and are fine with per-seat plans that carry seat minimums.
Plain
Plain positions itself as "the AI support stack built for B2B teams," composable infrastructure you build a support motion on top of, no-code or all-code, rather than an out-of-the-box ticketing tool. Ari handles triage and resolution, Sidekick assists human agents, and Insights surfaces trends automatically.
Foundation, the entry tier, already includes Linear and Jira integrations and a monthly allowance of AI credits. Horizon adds Microsoft Teams, SLAs, escalation paths, and CRM integrations. Frontier, custom-priced, adds Discord channels, SSO and SCIM, and a dedicated customer success manager. Current per-seat prices are on Plain's pricing page.
Strengths:
- Linear and Jira integrations ship in the base Foundation tier, not gated behind a higher plan
- The API-first design suits teams that want a support workflow shaped around tools they already use
- A 7-day free trial with no credit card required lets you test the setup before paying
Limits:
- AI credits are metered starting at the entry tier, so usage can outpace the base seat allotment quickly
- Discord support and SSO/SCIM are locked to the custom Frontier tier
- The composable-infrastructure framing means more configuration up front than a plug-and-play helpdesk
Best for: teams that want to build a specific support workflow rather than adopt a fixed one, and have someone willing to configure it.
Thena
Thena leads with "Resolve customer issues, right where they start," unifying Slack, email, and chat into one flow. Its own description says AI is the baseline across every plan rather than a feature reserved for higher tiers, with ticket detection, summaries, tagging, and an AI assistant included even on the cheapest plan.
A Free plan covers Slack and email with up to 1,000 tickets a month. Starter runs $29 per user per month, billed annually, for up to five seats and 1,000 tickets monthly, with Slack and email channels and the AI features above included. Standard, at $79 per user per month billed annually, adds AI web chat, an agent studio, and MCP access. Enterprise adds custom AI agent deployments, Microsoft Teams support, and unlimited MCP access; Thena's pricing page has the current figures.
Strengths:
- AI features ship on every plan, Free included, instead of being gated to a higher tier
- MCP access starts at the Standard tier, useful if other tools need to query Thena directly
- Clear ticket-volume caps per plan make it straightforward to estimate cost before signing up
Limits:
- Starter caps at 5 seats and 1,000 tickets a month, tight for a team that's scaling support headcount
- Microsoft Teams support doesn't appear until Enterprise, the top tier
- No trial length is listed on the pricing page, though the Free plan covers Slack and email up to 1,000 tickets a month
Best for: teams that want a conventional ticket queue with AI included from the cheapest plan and a predictable monthly ticket volume.
Head to head
Pylon vs Plain
The deciding difference is pre-built agents versus a workflow you assemble. Pylon ships four named agents already scoped to specific jobs, so a team can turn on support handling quickly without deciding how each piece should work. Plain gives you Ari plus a multi-agent orchestration layer and expects your team to shape the workflow, which pays off if the support process needs to match tools or rules Pylon's fixed agents don't cover. A small team with no one to spend on configuration is usually better served by Pylon's assigned roles; a team with an engineer already comfortable wiring up Linear and Jira gets more out of Plain's base tier.
Pylon vs Thena
Both lean on AI handling the response, but the pricing model splits them. Pylon publishes per-seat plans with seat minimums, and its AI agents are priced separately (Pylon's pricing); Thena has a Free plan and includes AI on every plan, with paid plans from $29 per user per month billed annually. A team that wants AI in the cheapest plan leans Thena; a team that wants broader channel reach (phone, SMS, WhatsApp) leans Pylon.
Plain vs Thena
The gap shows up in how each prices AI as you grow. Both put AI in their entry tier: Plain's Foundation includes Ari and Sidekick with a monthly allowance of AI credits, and Thena bakes AI into every plan, Free included, with a hard 1,000-ticket monthly cap on Free and Starter. The next step up diverges: Thena's Standard tier, at $79 per user per month billed annually, mainly adds agent studio and MCP access, while Plain's Horizon buys SLAs and CRM integrations rather than deeper AI.
Where Modem fits
Pylon, Plain, and Thena all sit inside the support conversation, routing it, responding to it, closing the ticket. None of them are built to answer a different question that comes up right after, which is what this pattern of tickets means for the product, and who on engineering should see it.
Modem answers the product question the three support platforms leave open. It reads the same Slack channels these platforms run in, plus Pylon and Plain tickets directly, clusters the requests and bug reports into topics, and links each one to the customer and company behind it, quotes included.
Ticket-by-ticket, a spike is hard to see. Nine customers mentioning the same broken CSV import over a week look like nine separate conversations to whoever's working the queue, each one closed once that customer's immediate question is answered. Modem sees the same nine messages as one topic that's trending, prioritized ahead of a one-off request nobody else has raised. From there the Modem agent can file a Linear or Jira issue straight from the conversation when asked, without anyone copying details into a separate tracker by hand. Our guide on mining feedback out of Slack covers the capture side in more depth, and the Pylon comparison covers how the two fit together for teams running both.
Modem isn't a helpdesk, and doesn't try to be one. It doesn't run a ticket queue, doesn't resolve a customer's issue, and doesn't reply to the customer on its own; any reply starts when someone asks for it, and in Slack and, by default, in the dashboard it waits for a person's approval. Support and CS teams still need one of the three above to close the loop on the individual conversation; Modem picks up what that conversation means once it's over.
Which one by use case
| Situation | Pick |
|---|---|
| Want the widest channel coverage with AI agents scoped to specific jobs | Pylon |
| Want to build a custom support workflow with Linear and Jira wired in from the start | Plain |
| Want a familiar ticket queue with AI included on the cheapest plan | Thena |
| Want what happens in that inbox turned into prioritized product work, with engineering attached | Modem |
FAQ
Can Modem run alongside Pylon, Plain, or Thena?
Yes. Modem doesn't replace the support inbox. It reads the same Slack channels and connects directly to Pylon and Plain, clusters what it sees into topics, and can file the result into Jira or Linear when asked so engineering sees the pattern without someone summarizing it by hand.
Which of the three includes AI at the lowest price?
Thena bakes AI detection, summaries, tagging, and an assistant into every plan, including its Free plan, which caps at 1,000 tickets a month; paid plans start at $29 per user per month billed annually. Plain includes Ari from its Foundation entry tier, with per-seat prices on its pricing page. Pylon publishes per-seat pricing with seat minimums, and its AI agents are priced separately on its pricing page.
Does Modem replace my support inbox?
No. Modem doesn't run a ticket queue, and any customer-facing reply starts when someone asks for it, and in Slack and, by default, in the dashboard it waits for a person's approval. It sits downstream of whichever inbox you use, turning the conversations happening there into prioritized product topics that reach engineering with the customer context attached. Support still needs Pylon, Plain, Thena, or a comparable tool to close the loop with the customer who asked.
How is Modem different from Pylon's AI agents?
Pylon's agents work inside the support conversation: investigating a ticket, drafting a reply, resolving what they can. Modem doesn't work inside that conversation on its own. It reads the same channels afterward and turns the pattern across many conversations into one prioritized topic engineering can act on. Pylon closes the ticket; Modem tells you what the ticket was part of.