11 Freshdesk Alternatives: Which Helpdesk To Choose?

Freshdesk is a popular help desk software praised for its simple ticket management system and user-friendly workspace. It also comes with efficient automation capabilities, making Freshdesk a go-to solution for businesses in the IT and software industries. Despite its strengths, Freshdesk is not without its limitations. Users report: 

• A steep learning curve and onboarding process
• Occasional system glitches or downtime
• Limited customization options in the ticketing system
• Lack of advanced helpdesk automation features
• Higher-priced tiers that limit smaller businesses

While Freshdesk is a good starting point for new customer service teams, its limitations reveal themselves once a business starts thriving. Fortunately, there are alternative helpdesks that provide advanced features without an increased price tag. Here are 11 Freshdesk alternatives that can elevate your customer support.

Gorgias: Best Freshdesk alternative for ecommerce brands

Gorgias is a helpdesk designed specifically for ecommerce companies. Its robust ticket management system and competitive pricing help merchants advance their customer support operations with the least effort and budget. 

Features: Gorgias accelerates order management and ecommerce tasks

Gorgias surpasses conventional helpdesk solutions with its exceptional features that directly cater to daily ecommerce tasks, like intent detection for tickets, one-click Shopify order management actions, and over 100 integrations with popular ecommerce apps like BigCommerce and Magento.

Lessen manual work with Gorgias’s AI-powered intent detection

Gorgias’s intent and sentiment detection is an AI-powered feature that identifies the tone and subject matter of customer messages. This feature auto-categorizes tickets based on positive or negative sentiment and intent, which helps agents prioritize which customers to serve without sorting through a cluttered inbox.

Faster resolution times with one-click order management actions

With Gorgias, order management is quick and easy with seamless integrations with leading ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento. Users can conveniently update orders and actions within Gorgias, eliminating the need to switch programs. With a click, you can:

• Create, cancel, refund, or duplicate orders
• Generate unique discount codes
• Check stock
• View a customer’s order history

🛍️ Learn more about Gorgias and Shopify.

Automation: Gorgias’s automations make it 30x faster to resolve tickets

Gorgias accelerates your ticket resolution times with powerful automation features like Macros, Rules, and Flows right out of the box.

Macros are pre-set responses or templates you can save and reuse for particular customer conversations. For instance, you can use a Macro to send order confirmation messages, complete with customer and order details. 

Rules are custom actions that can be activated when specific conditions are met. This means you can create a Rule that identifies which incoming tickets pertains to refunds based on the ticket message, so you can locate and resolve them quickly.

Flows are interactive conversations that occur in the Gorgias live chat widget. With Flows, you can create product recommendation quizzes, answer frequently asked questions, and more to make the customer experience more enjoyable.

“Being able to build out self-service rules and order management flows without requiring a huge tech lift and an engineering team, and in a matter of one thoughtful hour? That's a unique advantage that Gorgias has brought to the marketplace for emerging brands, especially brands using Shopify."

— Leeor Cohen, Founder and CEO at Create CX

📈 Learn how Create CX uses Gorgias to accelerate growth for their clients.

Reporting: Gorgias offers extensive revenue and support performance reporting

Gorgias offers support performance statistics, real-time team statistics, and revenue statistics so you can learn how your support efforts directly create tangible results. 

Gorgias allows you to generate focused reports with Ticket Fields. This feature allows you to easily organize tickets with custom text fields. For instance, you can attach a required “contact reason” field to your tickets, so you can learn your customer behavior and address the gaps in your customer service.

🆚 Compare Gorgias and Freshdesk.

Integrations and channels: Gorgias connects to all the channels and apps most ecommerce brands use

Gorgias integrates with 100+ ecommerce apps like Klaviyo, Magento, Attentive, and ReCharge. In comparison, Freshdesk doesn’t prioritize ecommerce apps.

Integrations

As an omnichannel support tool, Gorgias provides the following channels: 

• Email
• Live chat
• Social media (Facebook and Instagram)
• WhatsApp
• SMS
• Voice
• Help Center
• Contact form

Channels

Gorgias also has strong API integrations with over 100 apps that ecommerce brands use daily, including:

• Ecommerce platforms: Shopify, BigCommerce, and Adobe Commerce (Magento)
• Marketing tools: Klaviyo, Attentive, and more
• Reviews and loyalty tools: Yotpo, LoyaltyLion, and more 
• Subscription tools: Recharge, Skio, and more
• Shipping and fulfillment tools: ShipBob, LateShipment.com, and more
• Returns tools: Loop Returns, Returnly, and more

🔌 See all 100+ Gorgias integrations. 

Pricing: Gorgias offers an unlimited user pricing model

Gorgias starts at $10 per month for 3 users and 50 billable support tickets. Bigger businesses can select the Growth, or Enterprise plan for increased features. Gorgias doesn’t charge by the user which makes it suitable for all team sizes, including small, local businesses or enterprise-level companies. 

Does Gorgias have a free trial?

Yes, Gorgias has a 7-day free trial.

🔢 You can check out Gorgias’s pricing here.

Intercom: Best CRM-like Freshdesk alternative

Intercom is a powerful alternative to Freshdesk, as it combines CRM capabilities with helpdesk and boosts it all with its OpenAI-powered chatbot, Fin. Intercom is particularly well-suited for large businesses operating in the sales and marketing sectors. 

If you specifically require a standalone support tool, Intercom's comprehensive features and capabilities may be considered too complex for your needs.

Features: Intercom competes with Freshdesk in terms of feature richness

Intercom is a robust alternative to Freshdesk, providing a blend of CRM-like functionalities and helpdesk features. Intercom mainly caters to large businesses operating in the sales and marketing sectors. This means if you're searching for a standalone support tool, Intercom's complexity might not be for you.

Automation: Intercom’s chatbot Fin is more advanced than Freshchat’s Freddy AI

Intercom's Fin is a powerful chatbot that outperforms Freddy AI with its natural language processing capabilities. Powered by OpenAI, Fin is already trained and ready to answer your customer’s inquiries in over 40 languages. 

In contrast, Freddy AI can’t deliver answers without prior setup. To get the most out of Freddy AI, you will need to create conversational flows to anticipate customer questions.

If chat is one of your main support channels, Intercom’s intelligent chatbot would give you the most value and customer engagement without the manual work. 

Reporting: Intercom’s reporting is wide, but not deep

Intercom offers a broad range of reporting capabilities, providing users with a comprehensive overview of key metrics and insights into customer interactions. However, when compared to Freshdesk, Intercom's reporting lacks the detail that data-driven companies require.

Freshdesk, on the other hand, offers customizable dashboards, detailed analytics, and the ability to generate detailed reports based on specific criteria. This level of reporting can be particularly beneficial for bigger businesses that are constantly monitoring their data.

Integrations and channels: Intercom and Freshdesk both integrate with hundreds of tools

Integrations

Intercom integrates with a wide range of tools across various industries, including popular project management software like Jira and CRMs like Salesforce. 

However, it's worth noting that integrations with industry-specific tools like Shopify or Klaviyo may lack the depth of functionality that is found on other helpdesks. 

Channels

Intercom offers the following channels:

• Email
• Live chat
• Social media (Instagram and Facebook)
• WhatsApp
• In-app
• Voice 
• SMS
• Knowledge base
• Contact form

Pricing: Intercom is pricier than Freshdesk

As an advanced customer support software, Intercom’s subscription plans are more expensive than Freshdesk’s. Intercom starts at $74 per month and charges per user. Its high-tier plans, Pro and Premium, are priced by AI usage, users, and the number of customers you communicate with. 

Does Intercom have a free trial?

Yes, Intercom has a 14-day free trial.

Zendesk: Best alternative for non-ecommerce enterprise companies

Zendesk is widely favored by non-ecommerce enterprises like tech startups, banks, and airlines. If you’re an enterprise company outside of the ecommerce sphere with an international customer base, Zendesk is the solution for you.

That said, online stores may find Zendesk overly sophisticated for its less intensive but unique needs due to its general user. Zendesk users often express similar views, as Zendesk's ease of setup received a lower-than-average rating of 7.9/10 on G2. 

🆚 Compare Zendesk and Gorgias.

Features: Zendesk features reach their full potential with coding

Zendesk is full of features designed for big customer support teams such as prebuilt analytics dashboards, hundreds of app integrations, integrated community forums, and custom agent roles. 

However, with such a wide range of users, Zendesk can only fully cater to your specific team’s needs with custom code, which means having developers who can personalize Zendesk’s API to your preferences will be crucial. 

Freshdesk also offers customizability but mainly leverages its AI feature, Freddy, that powers features like an automated knowledge base workflow and auto-triage for tickets.

Automation: Zendesk AI is powered by ChatGPT 

Zendesk, like Intercom, leverages OpenAI-powered bots, making it an ideal solution for teams dealing with high volumes of tickets. Zendesk's chatbots can be customized with predefined responses and utilize machine learning to provide customers with offline support. 

Zendesk's AI can also enhance internal workflows with macro suggestions. However, this feature is limited to the Suite Professional or Suite Enterprise plans. 

In contrast, Freshdesk’s Freddy AI performs best with internal processes like predicting ticket fields and suggesting canned responses for agents to use. So, if refining your self-service options is your priority, Zendesk will suit you best. 

Reporting: Zendesk Explore has more detailed reporting options 

In comparison to Freshdesk, Zendesk Explore provides a wider array of reporting. With Zendesk Explore, you have the ability to forecast growth and create dashboards tailored to your sales goals. You can either generate your own reports or conveniently select from a variety of Zendesk's pre-made reports. 

Zendesk Explore offers three different plans: Explore Lite, which includes ready-made reports; Explore Professional, which allows you to create custom reports; and Explore Enterprise, which provides a live dashboard and enables sharing.

Unfortunately, Zendesk offers these reporting features for a premium, whereas Freshdesk offers custom reports for a lower price.

Integrations and channels: Zendesk has hundreds more app integrations than Freshdesk

Zendesk offers an extensive collection of over 1,000 app integrations to cover a wide range of its users. Zendesk's most notable integrations are productivity apps such as Asana, Slack, Mailchimp Campaign, and Trello. However, some users find that certain features available in their native apps are absent once integrated with Zendesk. 

Integrations

Zendesk can connect to the following channels:

• Email
• Voice
• SMS
• Live chat

Channels

Zendesk integrates with a number of apps, like:

• Salesforce
• JIRA
• Klaus
• Dialpad
• Shopify

“We just started using Gorgias, came from Zendesk and had bad experiences there. Love the customer service and the help in setting everything up. I got a [walkthrough] step by step when I was having issues and am very grateful for that.”

– Puro Sound Labs

💰 Learn how Oger sped up resolution time by 69%.

Pricing:  Zendesk’s plans are pricier for fewer features than Freshdesk

Zendesk may be more inclusive of enterprise plans than most helpdesk tools, but its plans are more expensive.

Zendesk starts at $19 per month for its most basic plan, which gets you a ticketing system, customer information, email, Facebook, Twitter, basic automation, and basic reporting and analytics. 

For $15, Freshdesk comes with similar features plus phone support, business hours, custom ticket fields, and service level agreement (SLA) management. 

Does Zendesk have a free trial?

Yes, Zendesk has a 14-day free trial. 

8 other Freshdesk competitors to consider

Finding the right customer service software for your support team is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Whether you want a customer portal that’s just right or a tool with generous multi-channel support, there are more alternatives out there. Take a look at 8 more Freshdesk alternatives below.

Zohodesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, and Hubspot Service Hub: For teams already using products from one of these companies

If you're currently using Zoho, Salesforce, or Hubspot, the most convenient option is to stick to the product you know best. These advanced CRMs are highly effective for sales, operations, and teams in larger organizations. Plus, you can avoid the tedious process of onboarding and migrating your data when switching to new helpdesk software.

For new users, however, be prepared for a steep learning curve. The ease of setup for these helpdesks is below average and may demand more time to onboard than helpdesks like Gorgias.

Zoho Desk pricing

Zoho Desk starts at $14 per user per month with the Starter plan and goes up to the Enterprise plan at $40 per user per month.

Zoho Desk has a 15-day free trial. 

Salesforce Service Cloud pricing

Salesforce Service Cloud starts at $25 per user per month for up to 10 users and scales up to enterprise plans starting at $150 per user per month. If you need more than a service desk, you can also get the full Salesforce CRM, for $300 per user per month. 

Salesforce Service Cloud has a 30-day free trial. 

Hubspot Service Hub pricing

Hubspot Service Hub starts at $50 per month for 2 users with the Starter CRM Suite and scales up to enterprise-level plans starting at $500 for 5 users. 

Hubspot Service Hub has a 14-day free trial.

LiveAgent: Best live chat customization

LiveAgent is a highly suitable option for live chat and call center agents, offering strong call center and live chat features. 

Its live chat functionality is robust, with dozens of options for how the chat widget looks on your website. Plus, you can control when and where your chat widget shows up on your website or product. 

Its call center functionality comes with interactive voice responses and HD video calls for more interactive conversations. 

With its relatively low-priced plans, smaller teams that regularly deal with phone calls are the perfect fit for LiveAgent. Although LiveAgent also comes with a ticketing management system, it may be too elementary for bigger companies.

LiveAgent pricing

LiveAgent starts at $9 per month and charges per agent. Its highest plan, Enterprise, is $69 per month. LiveAgent also has a 7-day free trial or 30 days if you use a company email. 

Re:amaze: Best for customer activity tracking

With Re:amaze, agents can easily track and analyze customer activities such as page views, clicks, and session duration, to gain more detailed insights into their customer base. Businesses that have a gap in customer data would highly benefit from using Re:amaze to improve customer satisfaction.

Unfortunately, you can only access a live view of customer activity on Re:amaze’s more premium plans. 

Re:amaze pricing

Re:amaze starts at $29 per month. Re:amaze’s other plans are Pro starting at $49 per month and Plus starting at $69 per month. These premium plans contain more features and prioritize staff management features. Each plan bills per team member.

Re:amaze has a 14-day free trial.

🆚 Compare Re:amaze and Gorgias.

HappyFox: Best for IT support teams

HappyFox is best suited for organizations that require top-notch IT support services, particularly in the non-profit, education, and government sectors. With its strong emphasis on seamless integration with LogMeIn Remote, HappyFox enables technicians to securely access and troubleshoot customer devices from any location.

Whether it's resolving technical issues, providing remote assistance, or ensuring smooth operations, HappyFox is the ideal choice for organizations seeking reliable IT support tailored to their specific needs and industry requirements.

It's important to note that certain HappyFox users have experienced delays in notifications. This means if your organization deals with a high volume of tickets on a regular basis, it may be worthwhile to explore a more dependable ticket management system such as Gorgias. 

HappyFox pricing

HappyFox’s pricing starts at $29 per agent per month on the Mighty plan and goes up to enterprise-level plans starting at $69 per agent per month. If you have a large support team, you can get the Unlimited plan at $1,149 per month.

HappyFox has a 14-day free trial.

Help Scout: Best for small startups and SaaS

Help Scout is a great software solution for SaaS companies and startups because of its easy setup process. While Help Scout may be considered more basic compared to larger platforms like Intercom or Zendesk, it’s straightforward enough without lacking the most important features support agents need.

Help Scout pricing

Help Scout starts at $20 per month per agent. In addition to the base plan, Help Scout provides two other options: Plus, priced at $40 per user per month, and Pro, priced at $60 per user per month. These higher-tier plans offer multiple shared inboxes, knowledge bases, hands-on support, and advanced automation features. 

🆚 Compare Help Scout and Gorgias.

Front: Best for client services

Front's forte is on internal collaboration. Teams that deal with high-value clients would greatly benefit from Front’s shared inbox feature, which enables team to collaborate on email drafts. Front also allows emails to be tagged with private or shared tags to ensure your team's inbox is easily navigable and uncluttered.

On the downside, some users have reported reliability issues with Front's software and interface. Issues range from accidental activation of keyboard shortcuts to emails being lost in folders. To ensure a smooth workflow, it's crucial to properly set up Front to avoid interruptions in your workflow.

Front pricing

Front starts at $19 per user per month with a maximum of 10 users on the Starter plan. Scale, its most popular plan, costs $99 per user per month and requires a minimum of 20 users.

🆚 Compare Front and Gorgias.