Best Freshdesk Alternatives (Top 11 Free & Paid Competitors)

Freshdesk is a rising star when it comes to help desk, ticketing and customer service software. However, this article is all about the best Freshdesk alternatives, ranging from free versions, cheaper plans, to ones more suited to specific business needs.

We’ve got ten of the hottest Freshdesk competitors in this comparison review piece. Why? Well, just so you could see what else is there and if it suits your business goals better.

This text will break down a bit about each Freshdesk substitute, go over their main features, and give you a good idea of their pricing plans. Are you ready? Let’s do this.

Top 10 Freshdesk competitors with similar products

Here are the companies like Freshdesk that we think are the best Freshdesk alternatives. Although they are all fairly similar, some Freshdesk competitors will be better suited to your circumstances than others so read more about the Freshdesk competition below.

A lot of these software solutions are not limited to customer support. Sometimes, they are modules in a bigger SaaS, or are standalone apps under the larger umbrella of a business software brand, similarly like Freshworks offers both Freshdesk and Freshsales CRM.

For example, CRM and customer service are two areas of business applications that perform much better when they share data and sync up their updates. For this reason, you might consider some of the below platforms to be an excellent CRM ticketing system for your needs. 

Others might only excel at a singular task, like a self-service platform, an intelligent chatbot tool, or a serious support team collaboration system. You’ll see what we mean when you read all about it below.

Here’s our full list of the best Freshdesk alternatives 2023:

It is finally time to unpack all the pros and cons of our 11 best Freshdesk alternatives. Surely you know some of these names, like Zendesk, Hubspot, Zoho Desk and Jira. Other brands might seem new to you, which is cool, because it gives us purpose in presenting them.

Of course, we won’t get into detail here about our Freshdesk review, but you can check that out as well. Now, Here are 11 good alternatives to Freshdesk: 
 

1. Zendesk (Best Freshdesk alternative overall)

Zendesk is often considered the best alternative to Freshdesk, while many users even claim it is better than Freshdesk. Zendesk is mainly known as a CRM helpdesk solution. There are over 160,000 Zendesk subscribers today in over 160 countries. 

To see how Zendesk vs Freshdesk stack up, check out our comparison article.

Zendesk is best for:

• Individuals

• Freelancers

• Small teams

• Startups

• SMBs

• Ecommerce

• Large companies

Features

Zendesk has a great unified workspace functionality that brings together all customer-agent engagement from across all channels like web, mobile and social media. Plus, you can drill down into more interaction history details.

With Zendesk, you can provide SLA support, or service level agreement. What’s more, you can automatically offer your customers follow-up CSAT feedback, which stands for customer satisfaction ratings. This really boosts the customer experience. 

It’s a snap with Zendesk to create workflows which let you share and collaborate on tickets via multiple Zendesk accounts. There are also more excellent automatons based on triggers and customizable rules.

Pricing

• Support Team is $19 per user per month billed annually 

• Support Professional is $49 per user per month billed annually 

• Support Enterprise is $99 per user per month billed annually 

• Suite Team is $49 per user per month billed annually 

• Suite Growth $79 per user per month billed annually 

• Suite Professional $99 per user per month billed annually 

Zendesk Review 

Visit Zendesk
 

2. HubSpot Service Hub (Best free Freshdesk alternative)

When it comes to free Freshdesk alternatives, you do have some options. However, for the purpose of this article, HubSpot wins this category. HubSpot Service Hub is the customer support module from the famous inbound marketing SaaS.

HubSpot Service Hub is best for:

• Freelancers

• Startups 

• Small businesses

Features

HubSpot’s cloud-based free tools for customer support include a support ticket feature, live chat, a shared inbox, conversational bots, team email with email scheduling and email reply tracking, and a mobile app.

You get HubSpot’s canned snippets, with over 5,000 per month in the starter plan, as well as 5,000 email templates and 1,000 custom fields per object. 

You get simple ticket automation with repeating tasks and task queues in the more affordable plans, but not the free one.

There is a solid knowledge base with HubSpot too and this is a key aspect for providing self-service as part of any customer support software, and it also reduces the workload for your customer service team members.

Pricing

• HubSpot has a free plan for Service Hub

• Starter is $45 for 2 users per month billed annually, $23 per additional user 

• Professional is $450 for 5 users per month billed annually, $90 per additional user 

• Enterprise is $1,200 for 10 users per month billed annually, $120 per additional user 

Hubspot Service Hub Review

Visit Hubspot
 

3. Zoho Desk (Most similar to Freshdesk help desk software)

Zoho Desk is a great customer service software, and for many users, it is the most similar to Freshdesk help desk software. Zoho is known for its many different business SaaS products, and aside from offering a support and ticket management tool, it also has apps for things like CRM, project management, asset management and more.    

Zoho Desk is best for:

• Startups 

• Ecommerce

• Omnichannel customer communication

• Small business

• Medium-sized business

Features

Support agents can use Zoho Desk’s multi-channel support that includes an email channel, a help center, social media customer conversations including Facebook and Twitter messaging, live chat, telephone and even a feedback widget.

Zoho’s helpdesk ticketing system is ideal for boosting agent productivity. It lets support agents get access to complete customer data and ticket histories, there is also an advanced search tool as well as an automatic response editor which speeds up response time.

Tickets get automatic routing to the best support rep which is a great way to streamline each issue and problem.

Self-service portal tools include a knowledge management center, a customer portal with a Zoho community FAQ and forum, and other useful resources.

Pricing

• Standard is $14 per user per month billed annually 

• Professional is $23 per user per month billed annually 

• Enterprise is $40 per user per month billed annually 

Zoho Desk Review

Visit Zoho
 

4. LiveAgent (Cheaper alternative to Freshdesk software if you’re on a budget)

If you are looking for a cheap Freshdesk alternative, then perhaps look no further than LiveAgent. Sure, it might seem that at the lower end of the pricing packages they cost the same, but LiveAgent will get you more bang for your buck when you go into the more premium packages, and therefore we call it cheaper than Freshdesk. 

LiveAgent is best for:

• Freelancers

• Solo entrepreneurs

• Startups

• Small teams

• SMEs

Features

LiveAgent begins with a decent customer portal. This has a knowledge base, a forum and an FAQ which are very effective at helping customers use LiveAgent as a self-service desk.

You can set up call center support even in the free plan with one phone number, while more expensive plans also have video support. There is also call routing and call transfers.

Real-time dashboards are constantly analyzing your support activity and customer data for providing you with actionable statistics.

A Slack integration is on offer with automatic notifications which can be used to keep your support team members all aligned and up to date. Other integrations include Salesforce, Mailchimp and WordPress.

Pricing

• There is a LiveAgent free version

• Ticket is $15 per user per month 

• Ticket+Chat is $29 per user per month billed annually 

• All Inclusive is 49 per user per month 

Visit Liveagent
 

5. Help Scout (Top Freshdesk substitute for shared inbox)

Our next customer support software is Help Scout, thought of by many to be a fantastic substitute for Freshdesk if you need things like a shared inbox. Help Scout was launched in 2011 and is today used by over 12,000 teams in over 140 countries.

Help Scout is best for:

• Startups

• Small businesses

• Shared inbox

• Live chat

Features

Right off the bat in the standard plan, Help Scout provides 2 shared inboxes for your customer service team, and you can add extra ones for a small fee. You also get a docs site.

Help Scout’s live chat features are very powerful yet simple to use, thereby always making sure you can maintain a high level of customer engagement.

Lots of good integrations for Help Scout including Salesforce and Jira. There is also an advanced API access on offer.

Help Scout has workflow automations. It is not too difficult to set up and define workflow rules based on triggers for things like filtering emails or sending automatic notifications.

Pricing

• Standard plan is $20 per user per month billed annually 

• Plus plan is $40 per user per month billed annually 

• Pro plan is $65 per user per month billed annually 

Visit Helpscout
 

6. Front (Great Freshdesk replacement for team collaboration)

Front boasts over 8,000 businesses that use this customer service software solution. It is one of the best replacements for Freshdesk if you want good team collaboration and communication tools for your support reps.

Front is best for:

• Startups

• Small business

• Medium-sized business

• Team collaboration

• Team communication

Features

For communication with customers, there is multi-channel support with SMS messaging, email, social media, and with the more advanced plans, there is also voice and a custom messaging API.

You can also sync up your email accounts whether they be for Office 365, Outlook or Gmail. Meanwhile, ecommerce operations support a Shopify integration.

For team collaboration, Front is amazing for sending comments to one another, delegating tasks, and working together to draft service emails.

Front has a solid workflow builder for setting up automations to take over a lot of the repetitive administrative labor.

Pricing

• Starter plan is $19 per user per month billed annually 

• Growth plan is $49 per user per month billed annually 

• Scale plan is $99 per user per month billed annually 

Front Review

Visit Front
 

7. Intercom (Good Freshdesk alternative for chatbots)

Intercom is a fully-loaded customer support software with many features to help improve customer engagement as well as tools to help convert website visitors into customers or long-term loyal contacts. As an alternative to Freshdesk, Intercom is great if you like chatbots and other bots.

Intercom is best for:

• Freelancers

• Startups

• Small teams

• SMEs

• Chatbots

Features

There are many Intercom tools for all things bot related. There is a conversational routing bot, an operator bot, and you can create your own bot rules.

Other bot features include lead qualification bots, article suggestion bots, outbound and inbound custom bots, and a resolution bot, among others.

More premium plans include amazing tools like in-app messaging, website messaging, and push notifications. 

You get your team inboxes, team macros and assignment rules to best manage a customer service team.

Pricing

• For Intercom pricing you’ll have to visit their website and request a demo.

Intercom Review

Visit Intercom
 

8. osTicket (Best open-source substitute for Freshdesk)

osTicket is open-source and also makes their basic customer support platform free for download, although there are premium versions with more tools and options. It is probably the best Freshdesk substitute that is open-source.

osTicket is best for:

• Small teams

• Small businesses

• Companies on a budget

• open-source enthusiasts 

• Startups

Features

Almost all of the basic help desk software features are included with osTicket for free. Among these are first and foremost custom fields, custom forms and custom lists.

You can create special custom queues for ticket holders where you can choose what information you want displayed.

It is also simple to set up rules-based workflows to help streamline the work that goes into making a ticket, routing it, and providing a solution to your customer as quickly as possible.

Good enough analytics on your support work results in clear and useful dashboard reporting.

Pricing

• osTicket has a free plan that is open-source

• The Cloud Hosted plan is $9 per user per month 

• The Virtual Appliance plan is custom pricing so contact osTicket

Visit OS ticket
 

9. Tidio (Top replacement for Freshdesk for its mobile app)

Tidio has offices today in San Francisco as well as Szczecin, Poland, a country really gaining ground as a top tech hub with first class developers. Tidio has a really solid mobile app for Android and iOS, and for this reason it is a good Freshdesk replacement. 

Tidio is best for:

• Small teams

• Startups

• SMBs

• Mobile support

Features

Tidio, along with its top-class mobile app for Android and IOS, is a leading live chat customer service tool. 

You can also create and share chatbots with Tidio. There are many great chatbot templates to start with. Building a new one from scratch is not too hard either.

To go beyond chatbots, there is a very sophisticated AI response bot, which does more than its humans merely programmed it to do, because it can learn from your reps and customer responses to improve its overall accuracy and efficiency.

The ticketing system is a smooth tool for creating tickets, monitoring them, assigning them to the best rep, and setting priority levels.

Pricing

• Tidio offers a free plan which includes the Tidio mobile app

• Communication plan is $15.83 per user per month billed annually 

• Chatbots plan is $32.50 per user per month billed annually 

• Tidio+ plan is $ 240.83 per user per month billed annually 

Visit Tidio
 

10. Salesforce Service Cloud (Great Freshdesk competitor for self-service)

Everyone knows Salesforce, one of the original names in CRM and sales force automation. Now, Salesforce has SaaS for every department, including a thorough customer service module named Service Cloud. It is a top self-service competitor for Freshdesk any day of the week, although a tad more expensive.

Salesforce is best for:

• Startups 

• SMEs

• Large companies

• Enterprise-level organizations

• self-service tools

Features

Self-service with Salesforce Service Cloud barely lacks a feature or tool your customer support team will require.

There are automations and workflows which can seriously speed up the process for users to serve themselves.

A powerful AI called Einstein can communicate with customers and provide real-time answers to their questions. There is also a simple chatbot feature which is easy to program and run.

A customer community is available with Salesforce Service Cloud, and this includes features like a knowledge base builder, FAQs, forums, troubleshooting help, how-tos, case studies and more. You can also use this to create branded customer portals. 

Pricing

• Essentials plan is $25 per user per month billed annually 

• Professional plan is $75 per user per month billed annually 

• Enterprise plan is $150 per user per month billed annually 

• Unlimited plan is $300 per user per month billed annually 

Salesforce Review

Visit Salesforce Service Review
 

11. Jira Service Management (Good competitor for Freshdesk for IT service)

Jira is made by the software company Atlassian. Most people are familiar with Jira as a work management and project management solution, specifically for IT and software development. Jira has a customer support product called Jira Service Management, and it is a good Freshdesk alternative if you need ITSM support, which is part of the larger framework of ITIL, or the Information Technology Infrastructure Library.

Jira Service Management is best for:

• Startups 

• IT departments

• Software developers

• Small businesses

• ITSM and ITIL

Features

There is a free version of Jira Service Management which is good for 3 support reps, allows for an unlimited number of customers, offers 2 GBs of storage, but it is only good for one website.

You get email notifications about support issues and ticket updates, there is also an email support widget for your website. 

Jira lets you create a self-service portal that does everything you’d expect a decent portal to do.

Change management features include multi-user approvals or groups approvals, a risk assessment engine and deployment tracking.

You can create a knowledge base and embed it on your site, there is also a smart article suggestion tool and a special featured article tool. 

Pricing

• Jira Service Mamnagwmnr gas a free plan

• Standard plan is $20 per user per month 

• Premium plan is $45 per user per month 

• For the enterprise plan, contact Atlassian

Jira Service Management Review

Visit Jira Service Management

Which of the alternatives to Freshdesk help desk software is a good choice for you?

The key takeaway is that any of these ten customer support software solutions are decent Freshdesk alternatives or replacements. 

If you don’t want to take too much time deciding, give Zendesk, HubSpot Service Hub or Zoho Desk a spin. For those free and open-source lovers, osTicket is your best bet. And if your support needs are mostly IT and software related, Jira is a winning choice. And that is all, thank you.

There’s also one more software we didn’t mention on our list – Freshservice – but, only because both tools are made by Freshworks. There are subtle differences between Freshservice vs Freshdesk. The biggest difference is that Freshservice is mostly geared towards IT support. So, if you’re looking for that kind of helpdesk software, make sure to give it a look.