10 help desks compared on the things that decide a switch from Freshdesk: the per-agent price on annual and monthly billing, how AI is charged, whether there is a free plan, and what each vendor's own pricing page said on 14 September 2026.
10 tools compared · Last reviewed
Freshdesk is the mid-market help desk most teams price first, and its pricing page on 14 September 2026 listed Growth at $19 per agent a month billed annually, Pro at $55 and Enterprise at $89, with Freddy AI Copilot at $29 per agent, AI Agent sessions at $49 per 100 and day passes from $2, and annual billing marked 20% cheaper than monthly. People look elsewhere for three reasons: the AI add-ons double the bill, Gmail-based teams want a lighter tool, and stores want a desk built for Shopify.
The alternatives split by shape. Zendesk and Intercom are the bigger platforms. Gorgias is for e-commerce. Hiver and Front are shared inboxes. Crisp and Chatwoot start free. Re:amaze, HappyFox and Kayako price differently, by flat rate, by product or by resolved ticket.
Every price here was read from the vendor's pricing page on 14 September 2026, all in plain HTML. Vendors whose pages could not be read are named below rather than guessed at.
Freddy AI Copilot is $29 per agent on top of the plan and AI Agent sessions are $49 per 100. HappyFox sells AI from $14 per agent, Kayako bills $1 per resolved ticket, Crisp includes AI credits in each workspace plan.
Annual billing is the only readable price
Freshdesk shows annual rates and says monthly is 20% more. Hiver, Gorgias and Re:amaze print both terms; Chatwoot and Front are annual too.
You live in Gmail
Hiver turns Gmail into the help desk and Front adds a collaborative inbox for up to 50 seats. Neither needs agents to learn a new console.
You sell on Shopify
Gorgias meters by ticket and integrates order data; Re:amaze offers a flat $59 Starter for small stores. Freshdesk is built for general support.
How we chose
We added HappyFox and Kayako to our directory and ranked them with Zendesk, Intercom, Gorgias, Hiver, Front, Crisp, Re:amaze and Chatwoot, all re-priced from their pricing pages on 14 September 2026. Vendors we checked and could not price honestly are left out: Zoho Desk's page rendered only its $6 light-agent rate, Help Scout's rendered add-ons but not plan prices, Groove was unreachable, and UVdesk is open source without a public cloud ladder. Freshchat and Missive are listed in our directory but not ranked here, Freshchat because it is Freshworks' own product and Missive because it is a team inbox rather than a help desk. Zendesk, Crisp and Kayako rank on Google for "freshdesk alternatives" with their own pages.
Best for: The enterprise benchmark with AI agents on the Suite tiers
The incumbent. Its pricing page on 14 September 2026 listed Support Team at US$19 per agent a month paid yearly, Suite Team at $55 with AI agents and omnichannel routing, Suite Professional at $115 and Suite Enterprise custom, with Copilot at $50 per agent as an add-on. It writes its own Freshdesk-alternatives page, which ranks sixth.
Free tier: No — a free trial.
Watch out: Costs climb fast once you add Copilot and the workforce bundle, and everything is paid yearly.
Best for: Messaging-first support with the Fin AI agent priced per outcome
The AI-agent leader. Its pricing page on 14 September 2026 listed Essential at $29 per seat a month, Advanced at $85 and Expert at $132 on the page's default billing view, with Fin from $0.99 per resolution and Copilot at $29 per agent billed annually.
Free tier: No — a 14-day free trial.
Watch out: Per-seat plus per-resolution pricing is hard to forecast, and the billing term of the seat prices needs confirming on the page toggle.
Best for: E-commerce support on Shopify with ticket-based pricing
The Shopify help desk. Its pricing page on 14 September 2026 listed Starter at $40 a month for 50 tickets, Basic at $90 a month or $77 billed annually for 300 tickets, and Pro at $550 or $471 for 2,000 tickets, with overage at $0.40 a ticket.
Free tier: No — a free trial without a card.
Watch out: Ticket-based pricing punishes growth, and it is built for online stores rather than SaaS or IT.
The Gmail help desk. Shared inboxes, assignments and SLAs inside Google Workspace. Its pricing page on 14 September 2026 listed Growth at $25 per user a month billed annually or $35 monthly, Pro at $55 or $65, and Elite at $85 or $95.
Free tier: No — a 7-day free trial.
Watch out: If your team is not on Gmail or Outlook, it is the wrong shape; no free plan.
Best for: Shared inbox and collaboration for teams up to 50 seats
The collaborative inbox. Its pricing page on 14 September 2026 listed Starter at $25 per seat a month for up to 10 seats, Professional at $65 for up to 50 and Enterprise at $105, all billed annually, with Copilot at $20 per seat as an add-on.
Free tier: No — a 14-day free trial.
Watch out: Annual billing only was readable, seat caps per tier, and AI is sold separately.
Best for: A free shared inbox that grows into chat, chatbots and a knowledge base
The free-first option. Its pricing page on 14 September 2026 listed Mini at $45 a month per workspace with 4 seats, Essentials at $95 with 10 seats and Plus at $295 with 20-plus, each with automated conversations and AI credits included, extra agents at $10. It writes its own Freshdesk-alternatives page, which ranks twelfth.
Free tier: Yes — a free-forever plan for a first shared inbox.
Watch out: Per-workspace pricing suits small teams better than large ones, and the free plan is one inbox.
Best for: Small e-commerce and SaaS teams that want a flat-rate option
The flexible one. Its pricing page on 14 September 2026 listed Basic at $29 per team member a month or $26.10 billed annually, Pro at $49 or $44.10, Plus at $69 or $62.10, and a flat Starter at $59 a month for unlimited members and 500 conversations.
Free tier: No — a 14-day free trial without a card.
Watch out: AI resolutions beyond the per-user allowance cost $0.85 each, and the interface is older than Intercom's or Front's.
Best for: Open source you can self-host, with a cheap cloud plan
The open-source help desk. Its cloud pricing page on 14 September 2026 listed Startups at $19 per agent a month billed annually, Business at $39 and Enterprise at $99, with AI credits at $20 per 1,000 and a 15-day trial.
Free tier: Yes — free to self-host, and a free Hacker cloud plan for 2 agents.
Watch out: Self-hosting is your operations burden, and the cloud plans are annual.
Best for: Mid-market teams that want AI as a separate line item
The unbundled desk. Its pricing page on 14 September 2026 listed Help Desk from $24 per agent a month, HappyFox AI from $14 per agent, a chatbot at $0.33 per resolution, Contact Center from $99 per agent and Service Desk from $49.
Free tier: No — a startup programme waives per-user fees for a year for eligible companies.
Watch out: Full tier ladders sit behind per-product pages, so the starting prices are the floor, not the bill.
Best for: High-volume teams that want AI billed per resolved ticket
The outcome-priced desk. Its pricing page on 14 September 2026 led with $1 per fully resolved ticket for its Kay AI agent, with escalations and simple deflections free, on a Kayako One platform priced by sales call. It ranks fourteenth for "freshdesk alternatives" with its own page.
Free tier: No — priced through a strategy session.
Watch out: No public platform price; what counts as a resolution decides what you pay.
Yes. Crisp has a free-forever shared inbox, Chatwoot is free to self-host with a free Hacker cloud plan for two agents, and HappyFox waives per-user fees for a year for eligible startups. The rest offer trials. Freshdesk's own page showed no free plan on the day we checked.
What is the cheapest Freshdesk alternative per agent?
On 14 September 2026, Chatwoot Startups at $19 per agent billed annually and Zendesk Support Team at US$19 paid yearly matched Freshdesk Growth's $19; HappyFox Help Desk starts at $24, Hiver Growth at $25 billed annually, Front Starter at $25 and Re:amaze Basic at $26.10 billed annually.
Which alternative is best for e-commerce?
Gorgias for Shopify stores with ticket volume, Re:amaze for small stores that want a flat $59 Starter, and Kayako if you want AI refunds billed per resolution.
Which alternative works inside Gmail?
Hiver, from $25 per user a month billed annually. Front also connects Gmail and Outlook into a collaborative inbox from $25 per seat billed annually.
What does Freshdesk cost?
Growth $19, Pro $55 and Enterprise $89 per agent a month billed annually, with Freddy AI Copilot at $29 per agent, AI Agent sessions at $49 per 100 and day passes from $2, as listed on 14 September 2026. Monthly billing is about 20% more.
Will my Freshdesk tickets move?
Export tickets, contacts and articles as CSV or through the API; most of these vendors import them, and Zendesk, Intercom, Gorgias and HappyFox offer migration help. Automations, macros and SLAs are rebuilt by hand.
