Top 13 Freshdesk alternatives and competitors for 2024
Don’t let unintuitive, disjointed, and basic software limit your team. Instead, try a Freshdesk alternative that's purpose-built for CX.
Why you might want a Freshdesk alternative
Last updated October 28, 2024
According to a Nucleus study, the primary advantages of opting for a Freshdesk alternative are ease of use, adaptability and scalability, advanced reporting, and support and partnership. Additionally, organisations increasingly must prioritise solutions that can adapt to evolving needs and provide advanced functionality to remain competitive. This focus on adaptability and performance are compelling reasons to explore these Freshdesk alternatives so your team can deliver greater value.
More in this guide:
- Best 13 Freshdesk alternatives and competitors at a glance
- A deep dive into the top competitors and alternatives to Freshdesk
- Frequently asked questions
- How to choose the best Freshdesk alternative
Best 13 Freshdesk alternatives and competitors at a glance
Our comparison chart highlights key factors businesses should consider when evaluating Freshdesk competitors. Explore it to find the best solution for your needs.
| Freshdesk alternative | Starting price | Free trial | Key features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zendesk | $19 per agent/month (billed annually) | 14 days |
|
| Zoho Desk | $0 per user/month (limited tools) | 15 days |
|
| Intercom | $29 per seat/month (billed annually) | 14 days |
|
| Help Scout | $22 per user/month (billed annually) | 15 days |
|
| HubSpot Service Hub | $0 per user/month (Limited tools) | Unavailable |
|
| Front | $19 per seat/month (billed annually) | 7 days |
|
| LiveAgent | $0 per agent/month (limited features) | 14 or 30 days |
|
| HappyFox | $0 per agent/month (limited tools) | Available |
|
| ProProfs Help Desk | $0 per user/month (limited users) | Unavailable |
|
| Kustomer | $89 per user/month (billed annually) | Unavailable |
|
| Kayako | $39 per agent/month (billed annually) | Available |
|
| Groove | $16 per user/month (billed annually | 7 days |
|
| Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk | $0 per user/month | Not applicable |
|
A deep dive into the top competitors and alternatives to Freshdesk
Choosing your new customer service solution doesn’t have to be challenging. Our list takes a deep dive into the top alternatives to Freshdesk so you can make the right choice for your business.
1. Zendesk
Zendesk is the most complete customer experience solution for the AI era. With over two decades of leadership in CX, our software is purpose-built for customer service—offering ease of use, scalability, and security.
Our industry-leading omnichannel Agent Workspace provides a centralised hub that allows support teams to manage customer interactions across all channels without switching between different tabs or interfaces. This unified approach significantly improves agent efficiency and collaboration, ensuring they can move at the speed of your business.
Zendesk AI, pre-trained on over 18 billion real customer interactions, is seamlessly integrated into the Agent Workspace. Our agent copilot assists agents with timely, relevant insights, empowering them to deliver fast, personalised, and efficient support at scale. AI agents autonomously handle even complex enquiries, reducing the workload on human agents and helping your team manage increasing customer interaction volumes with ease.
Our powerful real-time reporting software provides managers with immediate insights into team performance and key CX metrics, empowering organisations to make quick, informed decisions and adjust support strategies on the fly. Zendesk AI-driven quality assurance tools review 100 percent of customer interactions across all channels, identifying areas for improvement, flagging at-risk customers, and recognising top performers. Additionally, our AI-powered workforce management tools offer valuable insights for optimal staff forecasting.
Additionally, the Zendesk Marketplace offers a vast selection of pre-built apps and integrations, enabling businesses to tailor their support ecosystem, streamline data workflows, and scale the solution to fit any use case.
Features:
- Industry-leading omnichannel agent workspace
- AI-powered workforce management
- AI-powered quality assurance
- 1,700+ apps and integrations
- Real-time reporting
- AI pre-trained on over 18 billion interactions
- Help desk ticketing system
- AI agents
- Agent copilot
- Workflow automation
Pricing: Plans start at $19 per agent/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.
Recommended reading: See how Zendesk and Freshdesk compare.
Explore more Zendesk pricing plans.
2. Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is a cloud-based help desk solution. Zoho offers a range of products, including customer service, marketing, finance, IT, project management, and developer platforms. The Zoho Desk knowledge base provides a centralised library for storing and organising customer-facing information.
Its omnichannel ticketing system allows agents to manage customer enquiries from email, phone, live chat, and social media. Additionally, Zoho Desk incorporates a round-robin ticket assignment system to distribute incoming tickets among agents. Furthermore, Zoho Desk has integrated chatbots that can handle routine enquiries and provide basic support.
Features:
- Omnichannel agent workspace
- Integrations
- Real-time reporting
- AI
- Knowledge base
- Round-robin ticket assignment
Pricing: Paid plans start at $7 per user/month, billed annually. A free plan and a 15-day free trial are available.
Recommended reading: Learn how Zoho integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. Zoho compare.
3. Intercom
Intercom offers customer service software while also extending its platform to marketing and sales. Its shared inbox allows teams to collaborate on customer conversations and ensure a consistent customer experience. This feature provides visibility into customer interactions and helps to identify trends and areas for improvement.
The help centre is a self-service platform where customers can find answers to common questions and resolve issues on their own. Intercom Messenger is a communication tool that allows for live chat interactions via mobile devices. Additionally, Intercom offers lite seats, which allows other team members to access the platform without paying for a full plan.
Features:
- Omnichannel agent workspace
- Integrations
- Real-time reporting
- AI
- Help centre
- Lite seats
Pricing: Plans start at $29 per seat/month. A 14-day free trial is available.
Recommended reading: Learn how Intercom integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. Intercom compare.
4. Help Scout
Help Scout is a customer service platform that lets businesses converse with customers over email, live chat, and social channels. Automated workflows allow businesses to automate repetitive tasks, such as assigning tickets, sending follow-up emails, and updating customer records.
The Beacon help widget is a customisable live chat widget that can be embedded on a company's website. This widget allows customers to connect with agents and get help in real time. Beacon also offers features such as proactive chat invitations and canned responses. Additionally, Help Scout provides reporting features that allow businesses to track metrics, such as customer satisfaction, agent performance, and ticket resolution times.
Features:
- Omnichannel agent workspace
- Integrations
- AI
- Custom reports
- Help widget
- Light users
Pricing: Plans start at $22 per user/month, billed annually. A 15-day free trial is available.
Recommended reading: Learn how Zendesk vs. Help Scout compare.
5. HubSpot Service Hub
HubSpot provides customer service, marketing, and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. The customer portal allows customers to self-serve and find answers to common questions. Pre-written responses can be used to quickly respond to frequently asked questions, improving response times and ensuring consistency.
Email scheduling allows agents to send emails at a later time. Conversation intelligence uses AI to analyse customer interactions and provide insights into customer sentiment and behaviour. Pre-built apps and integrations allow businesses to integrate the software with other tools.
Features:
- Omnichannel agent workspace
- Quality assurance
- 1,500+ apps and integrations
- AI
- Pre-written responses
- Email scheduling
Pricing: Paid plans start at $15 per seat/month, billed annually. A free plan is available for up to two users.
Recommended reading: Learn how HubSpot integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. HubSpot compare.
6. Front
Front is a customer service platform. The omnichannel inbox allows agents to manage customer enquiries from various channels, such as email, phone, live chat, and social media. Collaboration workflows facilitate teamwork among agents. The knowledge base allows businesses to store and organise customer-facing information, enabling agents to find answers to common questions and provide accurate information to customers.
Real-time reporting gives businesses insights into metrics, such as customer satisfaction, agent performance, and ticket resolution times. This data can identify areas for improvement and optimise customer service operations. Finally, SLA management allows businesses to track and enforce service level agreements so customers can receive timely and effective support.
Features:
- Omnichannel agent workspace
- Integrations
- Real-time reporting
- AI
- Knowledge base
- Service level agreement management
Pricing: Plans start at $19 per seat/month, billed annually. A seven-day free trial is available.
Recommended reading: Learn how Zendesk vs. Front compare.
7. LiveAgent
LiveAgent is a help desk solution with customer communication and organisational tools, like live chat and a ticket management system. Collision detection prevents multiple agents from working on the same ticket simultaneously. Users can employ gamification tools, such as leaderboards and badges, to motivate agents.
Agent reports provide insights into key metrics, such as agent performance, ticket resolution times, and customer sentiment. Workforce management tools, such as scheduling and time tracking, help businesses to manage agent workloads and maintain staffing levels.
Features:
- Omnichannel agent workspace
- Quality assurance
- Workforce management
- Integrations
- Real-time reporting
- AI
- Team gamification
- Collisions detection
Pricing: Paid plans start at $9 per agent/month, billed annually. A free plan is available, and 14- or 30-day free trials are also available.
Recommended reading: Learn how Zendesk vs. LiveAgent compare.
8. HappyFox
HappyFox customer support software provides teams with an omnichannel workspace and ticketing system. It includes live chat and messaging for real-time and asynchronous communication options. HappyFox includes automation that helps with repetitive tasks. Bulk editing allows agents to change multiple tickets at once, such as updating statuses and assigning tickets to agents.
HappyFox service desk has self-service options, like help centre articles, FAQs, and community forums, that provide 24/7 customer support. The platform’s real-time reporting and analytics dashboards are also customisable to meet your preferences.
Features:
- Omnichannel agent workspace
- Quality assurance
- Integrations
- Real-time reporting
- Customised ticket fields
- Bulk editing
Pricing: Plans start at $9 per agent/month, billed annually. A free trial is available.
Recommended reading: Learn how HappyFox integrates with Zendesk.
9. ProProfs Help Desk
ProProfs Help Desk provides omnichannel support through a shared inbox. The platform features automation that allows you to configure ticket assignments or round-robin distribution. Automated alerts and notifications keep agents aware of priority tickets, and pre-written responses allow for aligned replies.
ProProfs has reporting and analytics that provide metrics that help management teams assess individual and team performance. You can also share customer satisfaction (CSAT), Net Promoter ScoreⓇ, and custom surveys to collect customer feedback.
Features:
- Omnichannel agent workspace
- Workforce management
- Integrations
- Real-time reporting
- AI
- Shared inbox
- Roles and permissions
Pricing: Paid plans start at $19.99 per user/month, billed annually. A free plan is available for up to two users.
Recommended reading: Learn how ProProfs integrates with Zendesk.
10. Kustomer
Kustomer is a cloud-based customer service platform that is an alternative to Freshdesk. Its custom workflows allow businesses to automate repetitive tasks, such as assigning tickets to agents, sending follow-up emails, and updating customer records. The customer portal provides customers with a self-service platform where they can find answers to common questions and resolve issues independently.
Sentiment scores analyse customer interactions to gauge customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement. The team pulse dashboard provides a real-time overview of team performance, allowing managers to monitor agent activity and identify potential issues.
Features:
- Omnichannel agent workspace
- Workforce management
- Integrations
- Real-time reporting
- AI
- Custom workflows
- Customer portal
Pricing: Plans start at $89 per user/month, billed annually.
Recommended reading: Learn how Zendesk vs. Kustomer compare.
11. Kayako
Features:
- Omnichannel agent workspace
- Integrations
- Real-time reporting
- AI
- Ticket summaries
- Shared notes
- Audio file transcriptions
Pricing: Plans start at $39 per agent/month, billed annually. A free trial is available.
Recommended reading: Learn how Zendesk vs. Kayako comparison.
12. Groove
Groove is a help desk software with a shared inbox that helps agents collaborate on requests in an “email-style” interface. It also offers live customisable chat tools, to better match your brand and a knowledge base for 24/7 self-service support. Organisations can embed the knowledge base widget on any page of their website.
The workflow rule builder allows businesses to automate repetitive tasks, such as assigning tickets to agents, sending follow-up emails, and updating customer records. Round-robin assignment with load balancing ensures that tickets are distributed evenly among agents.
Features:
- Omnichannel agent workspace
- Integrations
- AI
- Knowledge base widget
- Workflow rule builder
- Round-robin assignment
- Shared inbox
Pricing: Plans start at $16 per user/month, billed annually. A seven-day free trial is available.
Recommended reading: Learn how Zendesk vs. Groove compare.
13. Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Spiceworks provides customer service solutions for SaaS use cases, including online community forums and networking resources. Although it leans towards IT support, Spiceworks offers customer service features, including a ticket management system, a customisable web portal, and a basic reporting system.
The incident management tools allow IT teams to track and resolve issues. Automated ticket routing assigns tickets to the appropriate agent or team based on pre-defined rules. Furthermore, the mobile app allows IT teams to manage their IT infrastructure and respond to incidents on the go.
Features:
- Real-time reporting
- AI
- Incident management
- Automated ticket routing
- Knowledge base
- Mobile app
Pricing: Spiceworks plans are free.
Recommended reading: Learn how Zendesk vs. Spiceworks compare.
Frequently asked questions
Fast growth, fast resolution times: How Showpo is scaling support with Zendesk
“We wanted to go from our startup vibes to a big company structure. We’re getting a lot of assistance from Zendesk in doing that. It's a game-changer.”
Paul Waddy
Head of Operations
Read customer story
How to choose the best Freshdesk alternative
Zendesk provides everything you need to meet both your current and future customer and business needs. Unlike Freshdesk, Zendesk offers a unified omnichannel agent workspace, advanced reporting, and unrivalled scalability. As a company dedicated solely to customer experience (CX), we empower you with industry-leading insights, best practices, and access to a community of CX experts. Our purpose-built AI enhances scalability, delivering a high return on investment with a low total cost of ownership.
Start a free trial with Zendesk—the trusted leader in customer service—and experience the best alternative to Freshdesk.
Zendesk vs. the rest: Compare the software
There are plenty of alternatives to Freshdesk when deciding what customer service software to use. Check out these resources to see how Zendesk edges out the competition.