Freshdesk alternatives
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 Tidio, which covers 67% of the compared capabilities.
Find my alternative
Way less money.
Top Freshdesk alternatives
We compared 17 products and found 9 cheaper options (3 of them cover at least half the compared features) · 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 9 assessed alternatives that are cheaper in this scenario; 1 of them covers at least 75% of the 6 compared capabilities.
| Product | Match | Price | Annual savings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
TOP PICK Helply Per-ticket pricing plan · missing: Routing & assignment | 83% | $1/mo how? ⓘ | $216 / year 95% cheaper | |
Smartsupp Solo plan · missing: Ticketing, Knowledge base / help center, AI agents, Support automations | 33% | $17/mo how? ⓘ | $24 / year 11% cheaper |
Which Freshdesk alternative for which situation
Picked by the numbers in this scenario — same subtype unless stated, assessed products only.
- Best free plan
- Tidio — $0/mo (Free plan) · covers 67%
- Best open source or self-hosted
- Chatwoot — $0/mo (Hacker plan) · covers 0%
- Best paid drop-in
- Helply — $1/mo (Per-ticket pricing plan) · covers 83%
- Need ticketing, AI agents, AI copilot or support automations?
- Tidio — from $0/mo (Free plan)
- Need knowledge base / help center?
- tawk.to — from $0/mo (Free plan)
- Need routing & assignment?
- Smartsupp — from $0/mo (Free plan)
What you give up
Capabilities Freshdesk has that the top alternatives lack.
- Ticketing — Track customer requests as tickets through resolution.Missing from JivoChat.
- Knowledge base / help center — Publish a self-serve help center for customers.Missing from Tidio, JivoChat.
- AI agents — Let an AI agent resolve support requests automatically.Missing from tawk.to, Help Scout.
- AI copilot — Get AI-drafted reply suggestions for support agents.Missing from tawk.to, Help Scout.
- Routing & assignment — Automatically route tickets to the right agent or team.Missing from Tidio, tawk.to, Help Scout, JivoChat.
- Support automations — Automate routine support tasks like tagging or follow-ups.Missing from Help Scout, JivoChat.
Feature comparison
Freshdesk vs the top alternatives, on the 6 compared capabilities.
| Capability | Freshdesk | Tidio | tawk.to | Help Scout | JivoChat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ticketing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Knowledge base / help center | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| AI agents | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| AI copilot | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| 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
- ✓ Routing & assignment
- ✓ Support automations
- ↑ SLA management — only from Pro, not compared
Price ladder
Observed prices from the official pricing page.
Who switched
Anonymous: no account, no email, no IP stored. Reports are shown once a switch has 3 or more and never change ranking or order — alternatives are computed from prices and capabilities only.
Sources
Every claim traces to an official source and a check date.
- https://www.freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/ (official_pricing, checked 2026-10-26)
- https://www.freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/#main-content (official_pricing, checked 2026-10-26)
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. Tidio has a free plan that covers 67% of the 6 capabilities we compared against Freshdesk.
What is the cheapest Freshdesk alternative?
In our scenario (single user, monthly billing), Tidio is the cheapest assessed alternative at $0/mo (Free plan).
What is the cheapest Freshdesk alternative with Routing & assignment?
Smartsupp covers Routing & assignment 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 2026-10-26 and 2026-10-29, on the vendors' official pricing pages.