Feature-rich helpdesk with a generous free plan and affordable team pricing
Freshdesk is the leading Zendesk alternative, used by over 60,000 companies, offering a comprehensive helpdesk with ticketing, live chat, phone, social media, and a self-service portal. Its free plan supports unlimited agents with basic ticketing, and its paid plans deliver enterprise-grade features at significantly lower per-agent costs than Zendesk — making it the default recommendation for cost-conscious teams that need full helpdesk capability.
Freshdesk is a strong fit if its core strengths match your workflow, budget, and support needs. Use the quick signals below before opening the full review.
Freshdesk's competitive strategy is straightforward: deliver Zendesk-comparable features at substantially lower cost, with a genuinely useful free tier that enables teams to start without budget commitment. This positioning has attracted 60,000+ companies and made Freshdesk the most credible Zendesk alternative in the market.
Freshdesk's free plan supports unlimited agents — not the 1-3 seat limits typical of other free tiers — with email and social media ticketing, a customer portal, knowledge base, team inbox, and basic automations. For small teams and startups evaluating helpdesk software, the free plan provides enough functionality to run a real support operation, with a clear upgrade path when SLA management and reporting become necessary.
Freshdesk's Freddy AI handles bot conversations, auto-triage of incoming tickets to correct teams, article suggestions to agents during ticket resolution, and sentiment analysis. Freddy is available across pricing tiers — not locked to enterprise plans — making AI assistance accessible to teams that Zendesk's AI pricing excludes.
Freshdesk integrates natively with Freshservice (IT helpdesk), Freshsales (CRM), and Freshchat (messaging) — sharing customer data across the Freshworks suite. For organisations willing to consolidate their customer-facing toolstack with one vendor, this native integration eliminates the data silos that separate-tool stacks create.
Score: 8.8/10 — Best Zendesk alternative with the most generous free tier in the category; advanced features require paid plans.
Free
Free billed annually
$18/mo
$216/mo billed annually
$59/mo
$708/mo billed annually
$95/mo
$1,140/mo billed annually
Freshdesk is best for SMBs and mid-market teams that need full helpdesk capability — ticketing, automations, reporting, self-service — at lower per-agent cost than Zendesk, Support teams starting with a free tier and planning to grow into paid features as ticket volume increases, Companies already using other Freshworks products who want CRM, sales, and support data in one vendor ecosystem.
Yes. Freshdesk currently lists a free plan in ToolRankr data.
It has a free plan.
Freshdesk is reviewed using ToolRankr's scoring model for ease of use, value, features, support, and overall quality. Affiliate links may earn a commission, but sponsored labels do not change editorial scoring.
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