Freshdesk alternatives
The best Freshdesk alternatives for a small business (2026)
The best Freshdesk alternatives are Zoho Desk for the lowest price per agent, Help Scout for a friendly shared inbox, Hiver for support run inside Gmail, Zendesk for more channels and apps, Missive for a small team's shared email and chat, and Mojobase if support should sit with email, sales and invoices.
Updated . Prices and features checked on each company's own site
Why do people look for alternatives to Freshdesk?
- The Freddy AI Agent's 500 free sessions come once per account; after that it's $49 per 100 sessions.
- Freddy AI Copilot, which summarizes tickets and suggests replies for your agents, is an add-on at $29 an agent a month billed yearly.
- Intelligent routing, custom dashboards and multiple SLA policies start on Pro, at $55 an agent a month billed yearly or $66 monthly.
- Ticket numbers, statuses and a portal can feel heavy for a team that only wants to answer email together.
What are the best Freshdesk alternatives?
| Tool | Best for |
|---|---|
| Zoho Desk | The lowest price per agent, free for three users |
| Help Scout | A shared inbox your team will actually enjoy using |
| Hiver | Support run from inside Gmail |
| Zendesk | More channels and apps as you grow |
| Mojobase | Small teams where support, sales and invoices share one inbox |
| Missive | A small team's shared email, chat and tasks in one app |
1. Zoho Desk: best for the lowest price per agent, free for three users
Zoho Desk's Express plan is the cheapest paid help desk here, with email, social and web-form ticketing and pre-built AI agents that run on your own AI key or Zoho's model. It's free for three users, and phone support arrives on Professional.
- Free plan: Yes: Free Edition, free forever, 3 user licenses, easy email ticketing.1
- Express: $7 per user per month, billed annually; $9 billed monthly2
- AI: AI Agents: build and deploy agents with your own LLM key or Zoho's LLM; pre-built agents; up to 30M free tokens per month on Express3
2. Help Scout: best for a shared inbox your team will actually enjoy using
Help Scout keeps support looking like email, with a shared inbox, saved replies, tags, snooze and customer profiles. Standard adds live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, and AI Summarize condenses long threads.
- Free includes: Up to 5 users; 1 inbox, 1 Docs site; 100 contacts per month; 10 saved replies and 10 tags4
- Standard includes: Up to 25 users; Multiple inboxes (2 included, extra $10/mo each); Live chat and SMS; WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger; Multiple knowledge bases; One basic SLA policy; Basic workflows; AI Inbox assistant5
- AI: AI Summarize: summarizes back-and-forth conversations into bullet points6
3. Hiver: best for support run from inside Gmail
Hiver can run the whole help desk inside Gmail, so nobody learns a new app, or as a separate workspace with chat, Slack and Teams, and voice as an add-on. AI agents, Copilot and a knowledge builder are on every plan, and agents pause for approval on actions marked sensitive.
- Growth: $25 per user per month, billed annually (page 'Annual' toggle); $35 billed monthly7
- Growth includes: AI Agents, AI Copilot, Skills, AI Knowledge Builder; Shared inbox and ticketing; Omnichannel support (Hiver Omni); Help Center (Hiver in Gmail); Rule-based automations, pre-built analytics; Basic integrations; 24x7 support; Voice available as add-on8
- AI: AI agents are included on all plans: triage and resolve requests, look up orders, issue refunds, update records across systems; they pause for approval on actions marked sensitive.9
4. Zendesk: best for more channels and apps as you grow
Zendesk's Support Team starts at the same price per agent as Freshdesk Growth, and the Suite plans add messaging, live chat and telephony in one place. Its marketplace lists over 1,800 apps, partners and integrations, which matters once you connect billing, ecommerce and CRM tools.
- Support Team: $19 per agent per month, billed annually; $25 billed monthly10
- Support Team includes: Email and ticketing system; Ticket routing; Prebuilt analytics dashboards; Automations and triggers; 5 automated AI-agent resolutions per agent per month included11
- Integrations: Zendesk Marketplace: 1,800+ apps, partners and integrations12
5. Mojobase: best for small teams where support, sales and invoices share one inbox
Mojobase turns support@ into a shared Inbox beside email, the CRM, invoices and store orders, so an AI draft can mention the customer's last order or open invoice. It answers from your published Handbook and replies alone only on topics you set to Auto. No phone or SMS channel.
- Price: $39 a month for the first person and $25 for each after; the first 10 companies pay $29 and $19, for life
- AI: included, with your choice of model, or bring your own
6. Missive: best for a small team's shared email, chat and tasks in one app
Missive is a shared inbox for teams that don't want a help desk: email, SMS, WhatsApp and social messages with internal chat, assignment and tasks in the same app. Its AI assistant drafts replies and searches email and calendar, on Productive and up.
- Starter: $14 per user per month, up to 5 users, billed yearly (20% off); $18 billed monthly13
- AI: AI assistant inside the inbox: drafts replies, searches emails and calendar across connected accounts, looks up contacts, finds canned responses; powered by OpenAI, Anthropic Claude or Google Gemini14
- Feature: Tasks with due dates, assignees and calendar view15
How should a small team choose a Freshdesk alternative?
Name the reason you're leaving, because each alternative fixes a different one. If it's the price per agent, Zoho Desk costs less and has a free plan. If Freshdesk feels like too much software for a few people answering email, Help Scout, Hiver or Missive keep support close to an ordinary inbox. If you've outgrown it, Zendesk adds channels and integrations. If the problem is that support, sales and billing live in three tools, Mojobase puts them in one.
Then check the AI. Freshdesk's Freddy AI Agent comes with a one-time allowance and is then sold in packs, and its Copilot is a separate add-on. Compare what each alternative includes in the base price, and what it charges for once you're busy.
How do Freshdesk alternatives compare on price and AI?
Prices are per agent or user a month, billed yearly, from each company's own pricing page.
| Help desk | Free plan | Paid plans start at | AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freshdesk | None; 14-day trial | $19 (Growth) | 500 AI Agent sessions once, then $49 per 100; Copilot $29 an agent |
| Zoho Desk | Up to 3 users | $7 (Express) | AI agents with your own key or Zoho's model; Zia from Professional |
| Help Scout | Up to 5 users | $25 (Standard) | AI Drafts unlimited from Plus; Envoy $0.75 per resolution |
| Hiver | None; 7-day trial | $25 (Growth) | AI agents and Copilot on every plan |
| Zendesk | None; 14-day trial | $19 (Support Team) | 5 automated resolutions per agent a month; Copilot $50 from Professional |
| Missive | None; 30-day trial | $14 (Starter, up to 5 users) | AI assistant from Productive, with credits or your own key |
| Mojobase | None | $39 a month for the first person, $25 each after | A monthly allowance included, or your own API key |
Hiver Growth is $25 per user per month billed annually; seats start at two, then five, then increments of five. Successful AI resolutions add $0.80 each, separate from seats; handoffs and assumed resolutions are not charged.
Mojobase's price includes email, team chat, calendar, documents, tasks, the CRM, Numbers and the Handbook, so the comparison is with Freshdesk plus the other tools a small team pays for. For five people it's $139 a month.
What does Mojobase do differently from Freshdesk?
Freshdesk turns email into tickets; Mojobase keeps support as email and puts the business around it. You switch a mailbox you've connected, such as support@ or help@, to Support. Its mail moves into Customers' Inbox, so nobody answers twice, and replies go out from the same address and stay in its Sent folder. Each conversation is open, waiting or closed, with one person responsible.
Every customer is also a person in the CRM. Their page shows past emails, meetings, tasks, files and, once Stripe is connected, their subscription and what they owe. When a customer asks where their refund is, the AI drafts a reply from the Handbook's refund policy and the order details in Numbers. A person sends the reply, or it goes automatically only for a reply topic set to Auto. The actual refund is handled at the payment or store provider; Mojobase's connections only read.
The Handbook replaces Freshdesk's knowledge base: publish a collection as your help center, and the support AI answers from exactly those pages. Mojobase has no phone or SMS channel, SLA policies, skill-based routing or customer login portal. It's built for 1 to 25 people, and it works well for teams up to 100.
What do you lose by leaving Freshdesk?
You lose a complete ticketing system at a modest price. Freshdesk Growth already includes ticketing, a shared inbox, a customer portal, a knowledge base, reporting, roles and permissions, and threads and tasks linked to each ticket. Pro adds a multilingual help desk, intelligent routing and SLA policies, and Freshdesk's MCP works both ways, letting AI tools read tickets and letting workflows call other systems.
You also lose the Freshworks marketplace and its other products. If your team relies on SLAs and routing, Zendesk or Zoho Desk is the safer move.
How do you move from Freshdesk?
Keep the support address customers already use, and point it at the new tool before you stop answering in Freshdesk. Recreate your top twenty help articles first, since they answer most questions, and set up saved replies for the rest.
With Mojobase, there's no ticket import to plan: connect the support mailbox, and its own history with each customer is read from the mailbox. Close the open tickets in Freshdesk over a week, then cancel the agent seats.
Questions people ask
What is the cheapest Freshdesk alternative?
Zoho Desk is free for three users, and its Express plan costs $7 a user a month billed yearly. Help Scout is free for five users with one inbox. Freshdesk itself lists no free plan, and its Growth plan is $19 an agent a month billed yearly.
Is Zendesk better than Freshdesk for a small team?
They start at the same price per agent. Freshdesk includes a customer portal and knowledge base on every plan; Zendesk's entry plan is email and ticketing, with messaging, chat, telephony and its knowledge base from Suite Team. For a small team that only needs email, Freshdesk Growth gives more for the money.
Which Freshdesk alternative works inside Gmail?
Hiver runs its help desk inside Gmail on every plan. Missive connects Gmail, Google Workspace, Outlook and IMAP accounts in its own app. Mojobase reads the Gmail or Outlook mailbox you already use for support, or hosts support@ on your own domain.
Does Mojobase have SLAs, routing rules or a phone channel?
No. Each Mojobase conversation has a state and one assignee, and you can ask the AI which have waited too long, but there are no SLA policies, skill-based routing, phone or SMS. Teams that need them should look at Zoho Desk Professional, Hiver Pro or Zendesk.
Can AI tools read my help desk tickets?
Freshdesk's Inbound MCP gives compatible AI tools access to tickets, billed as MCP actions at $15 per 1,000. Mojobase's one MCP server gives Claude, ChatGPT or your own agent the support Inbox along with email, calendar and tasks, under the same rules as the screens.
Sources
- Zoho Desk: Free plan. zoho.com/desk/pricing.html, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Zoho Desk: Express. zoho.com/desk/pricing.html, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Zoho Desk: AI. zoho.com/desk/pricing.html, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Help Scout: Free includes. helpscout.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Help Scout: Standard includes. helpscout.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Help Scout: AI. helpscout.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Hiver: Growth. hiverhq.com/pricing/hiver-omni, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Hiver: Growth includes. hiverhq.com/pricing/hiver-omni, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Hiver: AI. hiverhq.com/pricing/hiver-omni, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Zendesk: Support Team. zendesk.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Zendesk: Support Team includes. zendesk.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Zendesk: Integrations. zendesk.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Missive: Starter. missiveapp.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Missive: AI. missiveapp.com/docs/ai/overview, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Missive: Feature. missiveapp.com/pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Hiver: About the pricing. hiverhq.com/pricing/hiver-omni, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Hiver: AI resolutions. hiverhq.com/blog/live-chat-software-pricing, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Freshdesk: Pro. freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Freshdesk: Additional Freddy AI Agent sessions. freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Freshdesk: MCP actions. freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Help Scout: Envoy (AI chatbot / 'AI Answers') add-on. helpscout.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.
- Zendesk: Copilot add-on. zendesk.com/pricing/, checked 7 Nov 2026.