Freshdesk
Customer Support · www.freshworks.com
Freshdesk is an AI-powered customer service help desk with ticketing, shared inbox, knowledge base, and reporting, sold per agent per month.
Switching to Help Scout, which covers 100% of the compared capabilities.
Find my alternative
Way less money.
Top Freshdesk alternatives
We compared 13 products and found 6 cheaper alternatives · vs Freshdesk Growth at $19/mo · scenario: single user, monthly billing, USD.
Freshdesk costs $19/mo on the Growth plan at single user, monthly billing. We found 6 assessed alternatives that are cheaper in this scenario; 3 of them cover at least 75% of the 7 compared capabilities. The cheapest option that covers everything we compared is Help Scout at $0/mo (Free plan), 100% less.
| Product | Match | Price | Annual savings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
TOP PICK Helply Per-ticket pricing plan · missing: SLA management, Routing & assignment | 71% | $1/mo how? ⓘ | $216 / year 95% cheaper |
Which Freshdesk alternative for which situation
Picked by the numbers in this scenario — same subtype unless stated, assessed products only.
- Best full coverage
- Help Scout — $0/mo (Free plan) · covers 100%
- Best free plan
- Help Scout — $0/mo (Free plan) · covers 100%
- Best open source or self-hosted
- Chatwoot — $0/mo (Hacker plan) · covers 14%
- Best paid drop-in
- Helply — $1/mo (Per-ticket pricing plan) · covers 71%
- Need ticketing, knowledge base / help center, AI agents, AI copilot, SLA management, routing & assignment or support automations?
- Help Scout — from $0/mo (Free plan)
What you give up
Capabilities Freshdesk has that the top alternatives lack.
- Knowledge base / help center — Publish a self-serve help center for customers.Missing from Tidio.
- SLA management — Set and track response-time targets for tickets.Missing from Crisp, Tidio.
Feature comparison
Freshdesk vs the top alternatives, on the 7 compared capabilities.
| Capability | Freshdesk | Help Scout | Zoho Desk | Crisp | Tidio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ticketing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Knowledge base / help center | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| AI agents | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI copilot | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| SLA management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Routing & assignment | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Support automations | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scenario price cheapest qualifying plan | $19/mo Growth | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free |
✓ means the product offers the capability — possibly only on a higher tier than the plan priced below it. The price row shows the cheapest plan that qualifies for our comparison scenario, with its plan name; a $0 free plan may not include every checked capability.
What Freshdesk covers
The capability set used for comparison. Grey entries are not available on self-serve plans.
- ✓ Ticketing
- ✓ Knowledge base / help center
- ✓ AI agents
- ✓ AI copilot
- ✓ SLA management
- ✓ Routing & assignment
- ✓ Support automations
Price ladder
Observed prices from the official pricing page.
Sources
Every claim traces to an official source and a check date.
- https://www.freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/ (official_pricing, checked 2026-08-31)
- https://www.freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/#main-content (official_pricing, checked 2026-08-31)
Frequently asked
How much does Freshdesk cost?
Freshdesk's Growth plan costs $19/mo in our scenario (single user, monthly billing).
Is there a free Freshdesk alternative?
Yes. Help Scout has a free plan that covers 100% of the 7 capabilities we compared against Freshdesk.
What is the cheapest Freshdesk alternative?
In our scenario (single user, monthly billing), Help Scout is the cheapest assessed alternative at $0/mo (Free plan).
What is the cheapest Freshdesk alternative with SLA management?
Help Scout covers SLA management and costs $0/mo (Free plan) in our scenario.
Does Freshdesk have a free plan?
No. Freshdesk has no free plan on its official pricing page.
When were these prices checked?
Between 2026-08-31 and 2026-09-07, on the vendors' official pricing pages.