The Freshdesk alternatives worth comparing in 2026 differ first in what they are built around. Zendesk, Zoho Desk, HubSpot Service Hub and Gorgias are ticketing help desks, as Freshdesk is. Help Scout, Front, Hiver and Sektra work from a shared inbox, and Intercom from a website messenger. For each of the nine, this guide sets out what the tool is built for, what its entry and middle plans include, how it prices AI and where its prices start. We build Sektra, so read that entry with that in mind, and every figure was checked on the vendor's own pages in November 2026.
The closest Freshdesk competitors on the same ticketing model are Zendesk and Zoho Desk, with HubSpot Service Hub for teams on HubSpot CRM and Gorgias for online stores. A team that wants a shared inbox in place of tickets can compare Help Scout, Front, Hiver and Sektra, which keeps mail in Gmail or Outlook and adds WhatsApp. Intercom is the option that starts from website chat. The nine also bill AI in different ways: per resolution, per automated interaction, or as an allowance inside the plan.
What is Freshdesk?
Freshdesk is the ticketing help desk from Freshworks, built for support teams that track each request as a ticket with an owner, a status and a service level. Plans are priced per agent and start at about $19 a month on annual billing, and Freshworks sells chat as a separate product, Freshchat. The Freddy AI Agent is billed per session after a one-time allowance of 500 sessions, and Freddy AI Copilot is a per-agent add-on on the two higher plans. Freshdesk pricing covers the plans and add-ons in full, so this guide stays with the alternatives.
Freshdesk alternatives compared
| Tool | Built for | Channels | AI pricing | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freshdesk | Ticketing for support teams | Email and a customer portal, with chat sold as Freshchat | 500 AI agent sessions once, then $49 per 100, and Copilot at $29 per agent | From $19 per agent |
| Zendesk | Support operations with phone and routing | Email on the entry plan, then messaging, live chat and telephony | $1.50 to $2.00 per automated resolution beyond the included allowance, and Copilot at $50 per agent | From $19 per agent |
| Zoho Desk | Support teams in the Zoho suite | Email, social media and web forms, then live chat, WhatsApp and telephony | Included in the plan, with no fee per resolution | Free for 3 users, then from $7 per user |
| HubSpot Service Hub | Support on the HubSpot CRM record | Email and live chat, with calling minutes on paid plans | Customer Agent on Professional, at $0.50 per resolved conversation in credits | Free for 2 users, then $20 per seat |
| Gorgias | Ecommerce support priced by ticket | Email, chat, social and a help center, with voice and SMS add-ons | Automated interactions at $0.90 to $1.00 each, then $1.50 past the allowance | From $10 a month for 50 tickets |
| Help Scout | Email-first support with a knowledge base | Email, live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger | AI help for agents in the seat, and Envoy at $0.75 per resolution | Free for 5 users, then from $25 per user |
| Front | Shared inboxes with routing between departments | One channel type on Starter, then email, SMS, social and WhatsApp | Copilot at $20 per seat, and Autopilot at $0.39 to $0.89 per conversation | From $25 per seat |
| Hiver | A help desk inside Gmail or in its own workspace | Email and live chat, with Slack, WhatsApp and voice on Hiver Omni | Copilot and agents in every plan, and $0.80 per automated resolution | From $25 per user |
| Sektra | Client teams that need a record of what was promised | Gmail, Outlook, IMAP, WhatsApp Business and website chat | Included in the seat price, with a pooled monthly credit allowance | From $18 per seat a month, billed yearly |
| Intercom | Messenger-led support with an AI agent | Messenger chat and email, with WhatsApp, SMS and phone billed by usage | Fin at $0.99 per outcome, and Copilot at $29 per agent | From $29 per seat |
How to choose a Freshdesk alternative
Channel mix is the first filter, because the entry plans differ in which channels they cover. Zendesk's entry plan is email ticketing and Front's covers a single channel type, with further channels arriving on the plans above. Help Scout, Hiver and Intercom include live chat from the first paid plan, and Sektra runs Gmail, Outlook, IMAP, WhatsApp Business and website chat in one workspace.
How AI is billed is the second filter, since each vendor meters it differently. Zendesk, Intercom, Help Scout, Hiver, Front and HubSpot charge for each conversation their AI agent resolves, at rates from $0.50 to $2.00. Freshdesk charges per session and Gorgias per automated interaction, while Zoho Desk and Sektra include AI in the plan price. A rough estimate of the AI line is the team's monthly conversations multiplied by the share it expects the agent to handle, at the vendor's rate.
Team size settles which plans are open to a team at all. Front Starter stops at 10 seats, Zoho Desk Express at 5 users and Sektra Standard at 5 seats, while Hiver sells a minimum of 2 seats and Help Scout Pro a minimum of 10. Gorgias prices by ticket volume instead of by seat, so its bill follows the number of conversations and stays the same when a teammate is added.
Freshdesk competitors built around tickets
1. Zendesk: a ticketing suite with voice and skills-based routing
Zendesk is a ticketing suite built for support operations that run email, messaging and phone through one queue. The entry plan, Support Team, covers email ticketing with routing, saved responses, automations and prebuilt dashboards. Suite Team, the first of the Suite plans, adds messaging and live chat, telephony, a knowledge base and AI agents, and Suite Professional adds skills-based routing and an IVR phone menu.
AI agents are billed per automated resolution: each plan includes 5 to 10 a month per agent, and further ones cost $1.50 on a committed volume or $2.00 pay-as-you-go. Copilot, the assistant for agents, is an add-on at $50 per agent a month from Suite Professional. The entry price is about $19 per agent a month on annual billing. Zendesk suits a support operation that needs phone and routing in the same suite, and Zendesk alternatives covers the tools around it.
2. Zoho Desk: a help desk inside the Zoho suite
Zoho Desk is the help desk in the Zoho suite, built around tickets with assignment rules, workflows and escalations. Express, the entry paid plan, covers email, social media and web forms for up to 5 users. Standard, the next plan, adds a live chat widget, messaging channels such as WhatsApp and Instagram, a knowledge base and custom reports, and Professional adds telephony, round-robin assignment and separate departments.
AI is included in the per-user price, with no fee per resolution. From Express a team can connect its own OpenAI account for ticket summaries and suggested replies, and Zia, Zoho's own generative AI, starts at Professional. A Free edition covers 3 users, and paid plans start at about $7 per user a month on annual billing. It fits a support team that already works in other Zoho apps.
3. HubSpot Service Hub: a help desk on the HubSpot CRM record
Service Hub is the support product on HubSpot's CRM, built to keep tickets and conversations on the same customer record as sales and marketing. Its free tools include ticketing and team email for up to 2 users, and Starter, the entry paid plan, adds live chat, simple ticket automation and several ticket pipelines. Professional is the middle plan, with the help desk workspace, a knowledge base and the Customer Agent, and it carries a required one-time onboarding fee of $1,500.
AI is paid for in HubSpot credits. The Customer Agent uses 50 credits for each conversation it resolves, which is $0.50 at the listed rate of $10 per 1,000 credits, and Professional includes 3,000 credits a month. Starter lists at $20 per seat a month, and Professional at about $90 per seat a month on an annual commitment. Service Hub suits a team that already runs sales or marketing on HubSpot.
4. Gorgias: a help desk for online stores priced by ticket volume
Gorgias is a help desk for ecommerce, with Shopify and WooCommerce connections on every plan, and it prices by tickets a month instead of by agent. Starter, where the plans begin, covers 50 tickets a month and 3 user seats across email, chat, social channels and a help center. Basic covers 300 tickets, and Pro, the middle plan, covers 2,000 tickets and adds Magento and revenue attribution.
The AI Agent is sold beside the helpdesk fee as a monthly allowance of automated interactions, 30 on Starter and Basic and 190 on Pro. An interaction works out to about $0.90 on annual billing or $1.00 on monthly billing, and each one past the allowance costs $1.50. The helpdesk fee starts at $10 a month on Starter, and at about $50 a month on Basic with annual billing. Gorgias suits a store whose support is mostly order questions at volume.
Freshdesk alternatives built around a shared inbox
5. Help Scout: an email-first help desk with a knowledge base
Help Scout is built around a shared email inbox, with its Docs knowledge base and live chat alongside. Standard, the entry paid plan, includes 2 inboxes, live chat, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger channels, one basic SLA policy and an AI assistant in the inbox. Plus, the middle plan, raises that to 5 inboxes and adds round-robin routing, a customer portal, unlimited AI drafts and integrations with Salesforce, Jira and HubSpot.
AI help for agents is part of the seat, and Envoy, the AI agent that answers customers directly, is an add-on at $0.75 per resolution. A Free plan covers 5 users with 1 inbox and 100 contacts a month, and paid plans start at about $25 per user a month on annual billing. Help Scout suits a support team whose requests arrive mostly by email and can often be answered from a knowledge base.
6. Front: shared inboxes with routing rules between departments
Front is a customer operations platform built around shared inboxes, for teams that route conversations between departments with rules. Starter is the entry plan: one channel type for up to 10 seats, with ticketing, 10 automation rules, basic analytics and a public knowledge base. One step up, Professional adds omnichannel work across email, SMS, social and WhatsApp, with macros, 20 rules and advanced analytics for up to 50 seats.
AI comes as two add-ons. Copilot, which drafts and summarizes for teammates, is $20 per seat a month on Starter and Professional. Autopilot, the agent that replies on its own, costs $0.39 for a conversation it hands off and $0.89 for one it resolves. Seat prices begin at about $25 a month on annual billing. Front fits an operations or support team that works several channels under shared rules, and Front alternatives covers that field.
7. Hiver: a help desk inside Gmail or in its own workspace
Hiver is a help desk sold in two forms: Hiver in Gmail, which adds shared inboxes to the Gmail interface, and Hiver Omni, a separate workspace that also works with Outlook. Growth, the entry plan, includes shared inboxes with ticketing, live chat, rule-based automations and prebuilt analytics. Pro is the middle plan and adds SLAs, a customer portal, CSAT surveys, advanced analytics and integrations with CRMs and other business systems.
Hiver includes its AI Copilot and AI agents in every plan and bills automated resolutions separately, at $0.80 each according to its own comparison page. Plans start at about $25 per user a month on annual billing, with a two-seat minimum. Hiver suits a support team on Google Workspace that wants to keep working in Gmail, and Hiver pricing explains the tiers.
8. Sektra: an AI shared inbox synced with Gmail, Outlook and WhatsApp
Sektra, which we build, is an AI shared inbox for teams whose customers are named clients. It syncs two-way with Gmail, Outlook, IMAP mailboxes and WhatsApp Business, so the mail stays where it is, and it adds a live chat widget, a hosted help center, rules and service level policies. Starter, the entry plan, covers 2 shared inboxes and up to 10 seats, with a 12-month window in the memory layer, the record Sektra keeps of what each side promised. Team is the middle plan, with 10 shared inboxes, up to 50 seats, the complete history in that record and drafts written without being asked.
Every AI feature is part of the seat price, and scoring, summaries and tagging run on each thread at no extra cost. Questions to the assistant and drafts draw on a monthly credit allowance pooled across the team. Pricing starts at $18 per seat a month on Starter or $29 on Team, billed yearly, and the pricing page lists what each plan includes. Sektra suits account, agency and operations teams that answer the same clients by email and WhatsApp and need a record of what was agreed.
A messenger-first alternative to Freshdesk
9. Intercom: messenger-led support with the Fin AI agent
Intercom is a customer service platform built around its website Messenger and the Fin AI agent, with email handled in the same inbox. At the entry level, Essential includes Messenger live chat, a shared inbox with ticketing, a public help center and prebuilt reports. Advanced, the middle plan, adds a workflow builder, several team inboxes, round-robin assignment and 20 free Lite seats for colleagues who collaborate internally.
Fin is billed at $0.99 per outcome on every plan, counted at most once per conversation. Copilot, the assistant for agents, is free for 10 conversations per agent a month and costs $29 per agent a month on annual billing for unlimited use. Seats start at about $29 a month on annual billing. Intercom fits a product company that answers a high volume of questions in chat, and Intercom alternatives covers its field.
Where Sektra fits
Sektra is a shared inbox, so it fits a team that wants owners, internal notes and service levels on its conversations without turning each one into a ticket. The mail stays in Gmail, Outlook or the IMAP mailbox, and email, WhatsApp and website chat from one client build a single record of what was promised and what is still open. It has no phone channel, which matters to a team that takes support calls in the same tool. The pricing page lists the plans, and Sektra vs Help Scout sets it beside an email-first help desk.
Freshdesk alternatives by type of team
A support operation that needs phone and routing in one suite can look at Zendesk, and an online store at Gorgias. A team already on Zoho or HubSpot has a help desk inside the suite it uses. Email-first support with a knowledge base points to Help Scout, routing between departments to Front, and a queue that stays in Gmail to Hiver. A product company that answers mostly in chat can look at Intercom. Named clients who write by email and WhatsApp, and expect the team to remember what was agreed, are the case for Sektra.
Whichever tools make the shortlist, the figure to compare is the plan the team would use, with the AI line added at its own conversation volume. Freshdesk pricing works through that calculation for Freshdesk itself, which gives a baseline for the comparison. Every tool in this guide has a free plan or a free trial, so the shortlist can be tested on real conversations before anyone is asked to move.
Common questions
Who are Freshdesk's main competitors?
Freshdesk's closest competitors are the other ticketing help desks: Zendesk, Zoho Desk and HubSpot Service Hub, with Gorgias for ecommerce stores. Help Scout, Front, Hiver and Sektra compete for the same support and account teams with a shared inbox in place of tickets. Intercom overlaps where the first contact is website chat.
Is there a free alternative to Freshdesk?
Three of the tools in this guide publish a free plan. Zoho Desk has a Free edition for 3 users, Help Scout has a Free plan for 5 users with 1 inbox and 100 contacts a month, and HubSpot's free tools cover 2 users. The others offer a free trial instead, and all were checked on the vendors' pricing pages in November 2026.
What is cheaper than Freshdesk?
Freshdesk starts at about $19 per agent a month on annual billing. Zoho Desk lists Express at about $7 and Standard at about $14 per user a month, and Gorgias starts at $10 a month for 50 tickets, checked November 2026. Zendesk starts at the same $19, while Help Scout, Front and Hiver start at about $25. Each tool bills AI on its own meter, so the total depends on how many conversations the AI handles.
Which Freshdesk alternatives include AI in the plan price?
Zoho Desk includes its AI features in the per-user price, with Zoho's own generative AI from the Professional plan and no fee per resolution. Sektra includes every AI feature in the seat price, with a monthly credit allowance pooled across the team. The other tools in this guide bill their customer-facing AI agent separately, per resolution or per automated interaction, checked November 2026.
Is there a Freshdesk alternative that works with Gmail and Outlook?
Hiver in Gmail adds shared inboxes and workflows to the Gmail interface, and Hiver Omni is a separate workspace that also works with Outlook. Sektra syncs two-way with Gmail, Outlook including Microsoft 365 shared mailboxes, and IMAP mailboxes, so mail stays in the mailbox and a teammate can still reply from the mail client. The Gmail integration and Outlook integration pages describe how each connects.
