Pylon vs Plain vs Thena in 2026

Short answer. Pick Pylon for the widest channel coverage (Slack, Teams, Discord, email, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, and phone) and four named AI agents. Pick Plain for an API-first build with the closest Linear link. Pick Thena for a conventional ticket queue with AI on every plan, Free included. Modem, which we build, works next to any of the three for your support team. It groups repeat reports across customers and channels, shows who is affected, and links the engineering issue.

All three run support in shared Slack channels, where B2B customers already talk to you, with email and other channels alongside. Each turns customer messages into tracked work with a status and an owner. They differ in how many channels they cover, how much of the work an AI agent does, how they hand bugs to engineering, and how they price. This guide compares the three on their own published claims first, then covers what your support team still needs next to whichever one you pick.

#shared-customer-channel

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↓ grouped + counted · chatter ignored

Prioritized topics

Export failures · 12 people

SSO requests · 8 people

Rate limits · 5 people

prioritized by AI score

Side by side

Details come from each vendor's own site and docs, checked in October 2026. Plans and prices change, so confirm on the vendor's page before you buy.

Pylon

Pylon calls itself agentic B2B support. It covers the widest set of channels of the three. Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, email, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, and phone all feed one system, and conversations become issues with response and resolution SLAs, adherence tracking, and breach alerts.

Its AI comes as four named agents. The Assist agent investigates and acts for a teammate, the Background agent runs when triggered and posts back to the issue, the Slack agent answers your team's questions and takes actions from Slack with the same customer context Pylon has, and the Support agent answers customers across channels and brings in a person when needed. Product Intelligence groups feature requests from issues and call recordings, sorts them by ARR or number of mentions, and creates a Linear or Jira ticket with the evidence attached.

Strengths:

• Broadest channel coverage of the three, including SMS, WhatsApp, and phone
• Agents scoped to separate jobs, with one built for customers and one for your team in Slack
• Feature requests grouped inside the support tool, with ARR attached

Limits:

• Per-seat pricing with seat minimums; as of October 2026, Slack Connect starts on Professional, and Microsoft Teams and AI agents on Enterprise, with AI agents priced separately
• We didn't find a self-serve trial on Pylon's site, so ask about evaluation terms
• Product Intelligence is described for feature requests; we didn't find bug-report grouping in its docs

Best for: B2B teams that want AI agents across a wide range of channels and are fine with per-seat plans that carry minimums.

Plain

Plain describes itself as an API-first support platform for B2B and technical teams, across Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, and email. Shared Slack channels are ingested without mirroring, so a thread with both your team and the customer keeps its context. Ari is the customer-facing AI agent that handles first-line questions from a knowledge base and hands off to a person. Sidekick helps your team and reads linked context from Linear, Sentry, GitHub, and Datadog. Plain also supports bringing your own AI agent.

The engineering link is why many technical teams shortlist it. Plain says you can press a key to create a Linear issue pre-filled from the thread with your team's bug template, and when that issue closes in Linear, Plain brings the thread back so you can tell the customer.

Strengths:

• The tightest Linear loop of the three, from issue creation to the thread coming back when it closes
• API-first, for teams that want the workflow shaped around tools they already run
• A 7-day free trial without a credit card, plus free viewer seats

Limits:

• Plain's own pages quote different starting prices, so read the pricing page itself
• Plain's blog places SLAs, Microsoft Teams, and escalation paths on its higher Horizon plan; confirm on the pricing page
• AI credits come with the plans, and Plain's pages differ on how much Ari draws on them, so ask before you size a plan

Best for: engineering-led teams that want to build a specific support workflow with Linear as a first-class link, and have someone to configure it.

Thena

Thena is an AI customer support platform with omnichannel ticketing. You add it to Slack Connect or guest channels, and it monitors them and turns customer requests into tickets. Thena says every plan includes AI as the baseline. Its AI detects ticket-worthy messages, writes titles and descriptions, and predicts sentiment and urgency. Engineering escalation works by linking. Paste the URL of a Linear, Jira, or Shortcut issue into the internal triage thread and it links to the request.

Strengths:

• AI on every plan, Free included
• A Free plan for Slack and email, capped at 1,000 tickets a month, so you can start without a contract
• AI web chat, an agent studio, MCP, and APIs on the Standard plan

Limits:

• Free and the entry paid plan cap tickets at 1,000 a month, which a growing support team can outrun
• Microsoft Teams arrives only on Enterprise
• We found linking existing Linear and Jira issues documented, not creating them from Thena

Best for: Slack-first B2B teams that want a conventional ticket queue fed from shared channels, with AI included from the start. Current plan prices are on Thena's pricing page.

Head to head

Pylon vs Plain

The deciding difference is ready-made agents versus a workflow you shape. Pylon ships four agents already scoped to specific jobs and covers more channels, so a team can turn on AI handling without designing each piece. Plain ships Ari and Sidekick too, but its pitch is the API-first base and the Linear loop, which pays off when your support process has to match tools and rules your team already has. A team without anyone to spend on configuration usually gets going faster on Pylon; a team with an engineer comfortable wiring Linear gets more out of Plain.

Pylon vs Thena

Both put AI in the response, and the pricing model splits them. Pylon publishes per-seat plans with seat minimums and prices its AI agents separately. Thena has a Free plan and includes AI on every plan. A team that wants AI in the cheapest plan leans Thena; a team that needs phone, SMS, or WhatsApp leans Pylon.

Plain vs Thena

The split is the engineering link and the shape of the queue. Plain creates the Linear issue from the thread and brings the thread back when it closes. Thena links an existing Linear, Jira, or Shortcut issue to the request. Thena's AI decides which channel messages become tickets; Plain treats the thread as the unit of work. Teams that live in Linear lean Plain; teams that want a familiar queue with ticket caps they can plan around lean Thena.

What your support team still needs next to any of these three

Pylon, Plain, and Thena each run the conversation in front of you. Support also spends time on questions that cut across conversations, and that's the part Modem handles.

Modem is an AI teammate for support and product teams at software companies that groups every report of the same problem across Slack, Pylon, Plain, Intercom, and Zendesk, shows which customers are affected, links the engineering issue, and drafts the follow-up when a teammate asks for it. Modem isn't a helpdesk. It has no ticket queue, SLAs, or assignment, and it never replies to customers on its own. Your team uses it next to Pylon, Plain, or Thena for four jobs.

1. Has this been reported before? Modem has native connectors for Pylon and Plain (importing the last 30 days, up to 500 conversations, is optional and an admin starts it), reads the Slack Connect channels you add it to, and also reads Zendesk, Intercom, Discord, email, calls, and GitHub issues. It groups conversations by meaning into topics, so today's ticket sits next to last month's reports of the same problem. There's no native Thena connector; Modem reads those conversations through the Slack channels Thena runs in. Ask @Modem in Slack (members of your Modem organization only) or ask in the dashboard.
2. Who else hit this, and what do they pay? Each topic lists the people and companies behind it. With Stripe connected, matched customers' person and company pages show plan and subscription status, and the agent can tell you which paying customers reported a problem when you ask. Inside Pylon, Product Intelligence also sorts feature requests by ARR; Modem groups bug reports and requests from every source it's connected to.
3. What is engineering doing about it? Topics link to the Linear, Jira, GitLab, and GitHub issues and merged pull requests that cover them, and Sentry user feedback comes in as a source. When a teammate asks, the agent files a new issue. A Linear issue carries a summary, the affected companies, up to three quotes, and a link back to the topic. On a public repo, leave customer names out.
4. Tell everyone when it's fixed. An opt-in automation posts an internal Slack note naming who to follow up with when a PR directly linked to the topic merges. Merged isn't released, so time the reply to your release. When a teammate asks, the agent drafts a reply for each requester. It can send through Pylon once an admin turns on "Allow AI agent to write to Pylon", and through Plain within the API key's permissions, and in Slack and, by default, in the dashboard each customer-facing write waits for approval. Replies appear as the API token's owner or machine user, not as Modem.

Why we built it this way. Working out whether a problem was new, who else had it, and who to tell when it was fixed was almost entirely manual, spread across the support tool, Slack, and the tracker. Modem keeps that context attached to each problem. In Slack and, by default, in the dashboard, anything a customer will read waits for a person's approval, because a reply in a shared channel or a support thread reaches another company. Automations, Discord, Microsoft Teams, and MCP runs have no approval step.

When Modem is the wrong pick: you need the ticket queue, SLAs, assignment, CSAT, or an AI agent answering customers. That's one of the three above. And if every conversation already runs through Pylon and Product Intelligence covers your feature requests, start there. Modem vs Pylon covers how the two work together, and the best Pylon alternatives covers ClearFeed, Unthread, Atlas, Zendesk, Intercom, and Front.

Pricing: Free ($0), Startup ($80/month), and Scale ($250/month), each with unlimited seats and a monthly allowance of events and agent credits, opt-in pay-as-you-go overage under a budget cap, and custom Enterprise plans. New Gong connections need the Scale plan or a trial. See Modem's pricing.

You can run the same four checks by hand while volume is low. Search the tracker for the error text before escalating, write the customer and company on the issue, link the issue back in the thread, and reply when the fix is released. How to close the feedback loop with customers walks through it, and tools to manage feedback from Slack Connect channels covers the capture side.

Which one by use case

FAQ

Which of the three includes AI at the lowest price?

Thena includes AI (ticket detection, titles, descriptions, sentiment, and urgency) on every plan, including its Free plan, which covers Slack and email up to 1,000 tickets a month. Plain includes Ari and Sidekick with AI credits on its plans and has a 7-day free trial; prices are on its pricing page. Pylon publishes per-seat pricing with seat minimums, and its AI agents are priced separately on its pricing page.

Which one has the best Linear or Jira link?

Plain has the tightest Linear loop. A key press creates a Linear issue from the thread, and the thread comes back when the issue closes. Pylon connects Linear, Jira, and GitHub, and its Product Intelligence creates a Linear or Jira ticket with the evidence attached. Thena links an existing Linear, Jira, or Shortcut issue when you paste its URL into the triage thread.

Can our support team use Modem with Pylon, Plain, or Thena?

Yes. Modem connects to Pylon and Plain directly and reads Thena's conversations through the Slack channels it runs in. Your team asks Modem whether a problem has been reported before, which customers hit it, and what engineering is doing about it, and asks it to draft the follow-up. The support tool keeps the tickets, SLAs, and assignment.

How is Modem different from Pylon's AI agents?

Pylon's agents work on the issues inside Pylon, investigating them, acting for a teammate, or answering a customer. Modem works across conversations and tools. It groups the same problem from Pylon, Slack, Zendesk, Intercom, Discord, and calls into one topic with the people and companies behind it, and it files issues or drafts replies only when a teammate asks or an automation your team built runs.

Can Modem reply to customers in Pylon or Plain?

Yes, when a teammate asks. In Pylon the agent can reply, add an internal note, or change tags once an admin turns on agent writes. In Plain it can reply, add internal notes, and change status, priority, labels, and assignee, within the API key's permissions. In Slack and, by default, in the dashboard, each customer-facing write waits for approval, and the reply appears as the API token's owner or machine user.