The best Zendesk alternatives for a small business (2026)

Why do people look for alternatives to Zendesk?

• Per-agent pricing adds up fast: Suite Team lists at $55 an agent a month billed yearly, or $69 monthly.
• AI is billed on top: after the included automated resolutions, each costs $1.50 committed or $2.00 pay as you go.
• It's support only, so a small team still pays for email, a CRM, tasks and chat elsewhere.

What are the best Zendesk alternatives?

1. Help Scout: best for a simple shared inbox with a free plan

Help Scout feels like email rather than a ticketing system, which suits teams moving off a shared Gmail. Its free plan covers five users, and AI Answers is billed only when it resolves something, with a monthly cap you set.

• Free plan: Yes: Free plan with up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site, 100 contacts per month, 10 saved replies, 10 tags.¹
• Standard: $25 per user per month, billed annually (page default toggle 'Annual', 16% off vs monthly); $30 billed monthly²
• Envoy (AI chatbot / 'AI Answers') add-on: $0.75 per resolution, paid per resolution monthly; 3-month free trial; pre-paid discounts available³

2. Freshdesk: best for classic ticketing at a lower price

Freshdesk is the closest like-for-like swap for Zendesk: tickets, automations, SLAs and a help center, at a lower list price per agent. Its Freddy AI Agent comes with 500 sessions to start and is then sold in packs.

• Growth: $19 per agent per month, billed annually (20% off annual); $23 billed monthly⁴
• Pro: $55 per agent per month, billed annually; $66 billed monthly⁵
• Additional Freddy AI Agent sessions: $49 per 100 sessions⁶

3. Intercom: best for website chat support led by an AI agent

Intercom is built around Fin, its AI agent, and charges for each Fin outcome on top of seats. It suits teams that want most website questions answered by AI in a chat messenger, with people taking the rest.

• Essential: $29 per seat per month, billed annually, published list price; new-customer promotion is separate; $39 billed monthly⁷
• Fin AI Agent: $0.99 per outcome on all plans; no charge if Fin cannot answer or the customer asks for a human; at most one charge per conversation. Fin used with another helpdesk: $0.99 per outcome, no seat cost, minimum monthly commitment applies (e.g. 50 outcomes)⁸
• Copilot add-on: $29 per agent per month billed annually, or $35 billed monthly; each agent gets 10 Copilot and 10 AI Auto-translation conversations free per month⁹

4. Gorgias: best for online stores that price by ticket volume

Gorgias is made for ecommerce, with order details beside every ticket, and it charges by ticket volume rather than by agent. That suits a store with a few people answering many tickets.

• Starter (helpdesk only): $10 per month, flat (not per agent), billed monthly only¹⁰
• Basic (helpdesk only): $50 per month, flat (not per agent), billed annually ($600 a year); $60 billed monthly¹¹
• AI Agent is available on every plan: the visible bundle cards charge $1.50 per automated interaction beyond the included limit. Included interactions are 30 for Starter and Basic, 190 for Pro and 530 for Advanced.¹²

5. Mojobase: best for small teams that do support, sales and everything else

Mojobase puts the support inbox next to email, calendar, tasks, the CRM and the store's numbers, so one AI drafts answers from the customer's emails, their invoices and the Handbook. It's per person, with AI included, and replaces several tools at once.

• 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