12 Best Freshdesk Alternatives You Need to Consider

Freshdesk is a popular customer service software, currently ranked among the top 100 software products for 2024. But is Freshdesk really the right fit for you?

While it has a lot of hype and many great features, it might not be the best solution for your business.

Fortunately, there are many alternatives to Freshdesk that could work better for you.

In this article, I’ll discuss the 12 best Freshdesk alternatives that might be the perfect fit for your business.

But first, let me address some of the thoughts you might have:

Why do you need a Freshdesk Alternative?

Here’s why you may need a Freshdesk replacement:

1. Complex for a Small Business

Freshdesk has many features that are great for large companies with complex support needs. But for small startups, it can be overwhelming. Learning and setting up all the features takes time and training that some small businesses might not afford.

If your support needs are basic, a simplified helpdesk is more appropriate. Customizing Freshdesk to meet your workflow requires time and effort, which might be a struggle.

2. Lack of Adequate Customer Service

Here’s what a review says;

“It seems like they are not prioritizing small teams. I also had a bad experience with their customer support where it would often take up to 5 days for them to respond. They also promised us a certain price over the phone, only to backtrack and give me a much higher price in the follow-up email the next day.”

This is only one example of a customer’s lament over customer support. Many people have expressed dissatisfaction with Freshdesk customer service over time.

You do not want a poor quality of customer service when you are putting time and money into a product. Using an alternative wouldn’t be bad, what do you think?

3. Unorganized User Interface

Efficiency is important in the customer service industry because it results in better and faster replies, which are what you need the most. The Freshdesk interface has some clutter which is not done intentionally, but due to the abundance of features, navigation is challenging and complicated.

Honestly speaking, you don’t need both the packed UI and that many features.

4. Confusing Pricing Structure

They have different price tiers (Free, Growth, Pro, and Enterprise) with notable feature increases in between. Because of this, you might find it difficult to determine which plan provides the features you want without going over budget.

Although multifold pricing would be appealing to enterprise brands, but it will be too complex for any small firm. You need a customer support software with straightforward pricing that includes no additional fees.

Things You should Look Out for in a Freshdesk Alternative?

Here’s what to look out for in a Freshdesk alternative:

1. Suitable for a Startup

When searching for a Freshdesk replacement, it’s important to look out for scalability, cost-effectiveness, and a user-friendly interface.

If you’re a small business owner, you need capabilities that simplify customer support operations without mandating expensive training.

Flexible pricing plans and integrations are required to support expansion and react to changing needs. Responsive customer service is also essential for resolving any difficulties quickly.

In essence, the chosen alternative should strike a balance between functionality and simplicity.

2. Effective Collaboration Features

Effective collaboration tools are essential when looking for a Freshdesk alternative because they let team members communicate and work together more easily.

You should be able to collaborate quickly and effectively address your customers’ concerns by exchanging information and communicating easily.

These collaboration tools include task assignments, internal notes, and shared inboxes, making sure that everyone agrees and can contribute to providing exceptional customer service.

3. Easy Setup and Onboarding

You would agree with me that not everyone can cope with complex pricing systems or hidden costs. It is important to look for options that provide clear-cut price structures without any underground fee.

Scalable pricing solutions, which let you adapt to their subscriptions as your needs change.

A Quick Look At All The Alternatives

Note that some of the software listed below has more key features that I’ll be adding and explaining in the software review section.

The 12 Best Freshdesk Alternatives

1. Zendesk

Zendesk is a customer service solution designed to create good customer interactions and build strong relationships. Zendesk is known for its AI tools, which have been used in over 2 billion real customer service interactions.

In addition, over 1500 plug-and-play connectors, such as Microsoft Teams and Slack, are available. Your support team members can share and schedule dashboards with the appropriate people in the company. It has a pre-built and customizable dashboard, which guarantees you accurate reporting.

The display also includes customer context information such as order history, loyalty status, and web activity. Zendesk automatically shows you where you can find and download different third-party apps, integrations, and customizations.

Key Features

• Ticketing System: This is the foundation of Zendesk, allowing you to manage and track customer issues.
• Omnichannel Support: Zendesk supports multiple communication channels, ensuring you can reach customers where they prefer.
• Knowledge Base: You can create a self-service resource to empower and help you find solutions independently.
• Automation: This allows you to automate repetitive tasks like ticket routing and email responses to improve agent efficiency.
• Analytics and Reporting: You can gain valuable insights into customer support performance, agent productivity, and customer satisfaction through comprehensive reports.
• Integrations: Zendesk lets you connect with other business tools like CRM, marketing automation, and analytics platforms for seamless workflows.

Pros:

• Feature-rich ticketing system
• Improved AI capabilities
• Quick customer support system
• Wide variety of third-party apps in the marketplace

Cons:

• Expensive pricing plans
• Not an ideal ticket management system for e-commerce and small businesses
• Complex learning curve
• Best features are available at higher pricing tiers

Pricing:

• The Suite Team plan costs €55/agent/month/billed annually.
• The Suite Growth plan costs €89/agent/month/billed annually.
• The Suite Professional plan costs €115/agent/month/billed annually.

2. Front

Front is a tool for customer support that can help you improve communication. It provides an intuitive “Universal Inbox” for managing chats on different platforms, including Twitter, SMS, chat, email, and more.

This direct alternative to Freshdesk combines the automation and insights of a CRM with the convenience of an email inbox.

Collaborating across divisions allows team members to respond to messages more quickly, organize them, and add a personal touch. Front functions flawlessly to help everyone grow their communication without compromising on quality.

Key Features

• Unified Inbox: Centralizes emails from multiple accounts into a shared inbox for efficient team management.
• Automation: You can do routine tasks like email routing, assignments, and responses.
• Collaboration Tools: Features like internal comments, assignments, and tagging, facilitate teamwork
• Analytics: This tool can help you gain insights into team performance and email metrics.
• Integrations: You can connect with other tools to enhance functionality.

Pros:

• Seamless integration
• Minimal learning curve
• Advanced features
• Real-time collision detection
• Excellent support team
• Flexible pricing

Cons:

• Bulky dashboard
• Complex pricing and hidden charges
• Lack of calendar to schedule meetings

Pricing:

• Free plan
• Starter package costs $19/month
• Growth package costs $59/month
• The scale package costs $99/month
• Premier package costs $229/month

3. Zoho Desk

ZohoDesk is a superb customer service solution that competes with Freshdesk. Its main feature is the AI bot “Zia”. ZohoDesk is part of Zoho’s cloud software portfolio, so it’s easy to integrate with other Zoho products.

It is designed primarily to increase customer support agent productivity and provide an automation-powered ticketing system that allows tickets to be easily assigned to the appropriate agent.

It also allows you to set up department-specific inboxes, so you can create a helpdesk that corresponds to your company’s departments. It includes Zia, an artificial intelligence assistant who tags tickets, analyzes attitudes, and assists with responses.

ZohoDesk also has advanced features like Headquarters, and a live dashboard showing trends and details for managers.

Key Features

• Ticket Management: Organize and track customer support inquiries through a ticketing system.
• Zia Service: Utilize Zia, (Zoho’s AI assistant) to automate tasks, answer questions, and predict customer needs.
• Agent Productivity: Enhances your efficiency with features like collision detection, canned responses, and auto-tagging.
• Process Automation: Automate repetitive tasks and workflows to streamline support operations.

Pros:

• AI support
• Easy ticket management
• Collaborate teams effectively
• Multi-channel Help Desk
• It is user-friendly
• Integrated help center approach

Cons:

• Lacks compatibility with some Apple products
• Task automation needs improvement

Pricing:

• The Free plan is available.
• The Standard plan costs at $12/agent/month
• The Professional plan costs at $20/agent/month
• The Enterprise plan costs at $36/agent/month

4. HelpScout

HelpScout is a customer communication solution that allows you to transform disorganized processes into organized ones. It is an excellent help desk software designed for teams that do all of the functions of email and more.

HelpScout has collaborative features such as @ mentions, private notes, and collision detection. HelpScout focuses on AI features such as AI aid, drafts, and summaries.

There are pre-built dashboards for tracking metrics such as response time, handle time, and number of interactions. HelpScout also has a live chat function called the Beacon. Beacon makes your customer service available 24/7.

Key Features

• Mobile App:  Help Scout is so easy that you can operate on the go, this allows you to manage tickets and communicate with customers from anywhere.
• Integrations: You can connect  Help Scout with other tools like CRM, marketing automation, and analytics platforms to streamline workflows.
• Security and Compliance: Help Scout offers robust security measures to protect customer data.

Pros:

• A Mobile app that works well
• Easy to implement a knowledge base
• Intuitive and easy-to-use platform

Cons:

• Inability to snooze or schedule emails
• Cannot connect social media accounts

Pricing:

• The standard price costs $22/month
• The plus plan costs $44/month
• The pro plan costs $60/month

5. Live Agent

LiveAgent is a customer support platform that prides itself on being quick and easy to set up. It’s a great alternative to Freshdesk and is well-known for its live chat help.

Live Agent also offers a call center solution, as well as support through WhatsApp, Messenger, and social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Its ticketing system collects all customer conversations in one place, making it easy to solve problems without jumping between platforms. The audit log can be used as a reference point when queries escalate.

Key Features

• Messaging Channels: With Live chat, you can communicate with your customers across various platforms (live chat, social media, email).
• Report Analytics: Track customer behavior, agent performance, and chat volume for data-driven improvements.
• Sales and E-commerce: Generate leads, offer product recommendations, and support sales through live chat.
• Chat Widget Customization: Tailor the chat widget’s appearance and behavior to match your website’s design and branding.

Pros:

• A great ticketing system
• It is good for sorting and assigning incoming emails
• Easy to use and set up

Cons:

• It has a learning curve to learn all the features (not everyone has the time to start that)

Pricing:

One thing about Livechat is that it caters to all business sizes, their pricing order says it all.

• For small businesses, it costs $9/agent
• For Mid-size businesses, it costs $29/agent
• For large businesses, it costs $49/agent
• For Enterprise, it costs $69/agent

6. Kustomer

With Kustomer you can offer effective customer care by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and customer data. Kustomer can handle your customer contacts across several channels all in one place, it allows you to create custom workflows to make tasks more efficient. Aside from that, you can use pre-made email templates to save resolution time.

Overall, Kustomer streamlines customer service operations, improves agent productivity, and delivers exceptional customer experiences through its AI-powered features and unified platform.

Key Features

• Customer Service: Kustomer offers omnichannel support, giving agents a 360-degree view of customers.
• Self-Service: Kustomer allows you to automate conversations and deflect support volume through AI and a knowledge base.
• CRM for Customer Service: Kustomer puts your customer at the center of its CRM, focusing on customer relationships.
• AI Agent Copilot: Kustomer’s AI will help  you resolve customer issues quickly and accurately.
• AI Chatbots: Kustomer offers AI chatbots to increase efficiency and automate tasks.

Pros:

• It has 70 different languages
• Customer data can be generated by AI
• Easy to use pre-made templates
• Customized workflows

Cons:

• Fluctuations in price
• Takes time to log in

Pricing:

• The enterprise customer support costs $89/month
• The Ultimate plan customer support costs $139/month

7. Hiver

Hiver is a help desk that can convert your business queries into actionable tasks inside Gmail. While Gmail assistance is their specialty, they also offer chat, WhatsApp, and voice support.

It automatically transforms emails into actionable tickets, allowing you to assign them to team members, track their status (open, pending, closed), and ensure no inquiries slip through the cracks.

You can add internal notes to emails for discussions without forwarding or replying to all. Hiver goes beyond email, allowing you to integrate live chat, chatbots, knowledge base articles, and even phone support (if used with other tools) into your Gmail workspace.

 Key Features

• Collaboration features: Assigning emails as tasks, collaborating with notes and @mentions.
• AI and Automation: You can summarize conversations, get template suggestions, and also automate repetitive tasks.
• Analytics and Integration: Allows you to make data-driven decisions using analytics, track key support metrics, access reports, and integrate with popular tools.

Pros:

• Track open and closed client requests
• Efficient metrics and reporting
• Excellent email management
• Smooth integration with G Suite

Cons:

• Buggy Software
• Automation capabilities could be better

Pricing:

• The Lite package costs $19/month
• The pro package costs $49/month

8. Salesforce Service Cloud

Salesforce Service Cloud is a customer service powerhouse built on the Salesforce Customer Success Platform. It is more than a simple ticketing system because it provides a unified view of your customers.

Service Cloud offers different features to streamline your operations. Manage cases efficiently, create a self-service knowledge base, and automate repetitive tasks to free up your agents’ time.

Powerful analytics and reporting tools give you valuable insights into customer satisfaction and agent performance, allowing you to continuously improve your service. Additionally, Service Cloud leverages artificial intelligence to suggest knowledge articles, route cases intelligently, and personalize interactions.

You can also create a self-service knowledge base with articles, FAQs, and troubleshooting guides to empower customers to find solutions independently.

Key Features

• Appointment Scheduling: You can easily boost customer satisfaction with simplified appointment scheduling. Easily configure locations, hours, and the right resources using the Setup Assistant.
• Omni-Channel Routing: Intelligently route your work from any channel.
• Workflow Automation: You can use the workflow builder to eliminate manual tasks such as routing work to other departments, or accelerate processes like onboarding and budget approvals.
• Swarming: Transform your swarming processes with automated workflows. Save time by quickly capturing swarm learnings into knowledge articles directly in Slack, which can then be edited and published in Salesforce.
• Incident Management: Stay one step ahead of major disruptions with incident management best practices built directly into Service Cloud and monitor systems with out-of-the-box integrations to detect potential problems, and take action before widespread impact.

Pros:

• Customizable reporting features
• Accessible via mobile too
• Active community support

Cons:

• It is quite expensive for small business owners

Pricing:

• The Starter suite costs €25/month
• The Pro suite costs €100/month
• The Enterprise suite costs €165/month

9. Intercom

Intercom is a creative platform that uses behavioral targeting and user intelligence to help businesses get more out of customer communication.

It offers you useful insights into your product’s users and lets you send personalized messages. You can use Intercom to send behavior-driven emails and targeted in-app messages.

Intercom is a creative way to attract, engage, and keep customers. Your sales, marketing, and support teams will find it useful for connecting and interacting with customers.

Key Features

• Real-time Chat: Engage with website visitors and app users in real time, offering immediate support and resolving issues quickly.
• Targeted Messaging: Send targeted messages to specific user segments based on behavior, demographics, or website activity.
• Chatbots: Utilize AI-powered chatbots to answer common questions, deflect support volume, and qualify leads.
• In-App Messaging: Provide support directly within your web or mobile app for a seamless user experience.
• Conversation History: Access complete chat transcripts for future reference, training purposes, and customer analysis.
• Rich Messaging: You can improve your communication by sending and receiving images, videos, and files within the chat window.

Pros:

• It offers live segments and filters
• A great software for capturing more leads
• Analyze Real-time metrics
• Send triggered messages

Cons:

• Customer support tickets are not listed on the website
• Limited integrations

Pricing:

• The Essential plan costs $39/month
• The Advanced plan costs $99/month
• The Expert plan costs $139/month

10. ClickUp

ClickUp is a work and team management solution that can also be a versatile customer support platform. It has all the features you need to effectively handle support tickets and deliver first-rate customer service.

ClickUp’s Form view and Helpdesk Ticket Template make it simple for you to report issues, pose inquiries, and provide comments

You can assign and rank tasks, send automated emails and notifications, and monitor work progress until it is finished with the use of its project management features.

The QA Score view allows you to assess the performance of your customer support team and identify areas in need of improvement.

Key Features

• Task Management: It includes features like task lists, due dates, reminders, and progress tracking. Effective task management helps you stay organized and focused.
• Complete Customization: You can customize the interface, fields, and settings to match their unique requirements.
• Team Collaboration: This feature allows you to work together on projects, share information, and collaborate on tasks with your team. It includes features like task assignments, comments, and real-time updates.
• Integration – Easily integrates with the tools you already use

Pros:

• It can work for Microsoft teams
• Automations are easy to set up
• The free version comes with plenty features
• Great for capturing client feedback

Cons:

• Delays in adding new tickets/cards to boards
• The interface can be better

Pricing:

• A free forever plan
• Unlimited for small teams costs $7/month
• Business for mid-sized team costs $12/month

11. Kayako

Kayako is a special help desk software because it provides a complete picture of your client’s journey, allowing you to understand where they’re coming from.

Your team members will be aware of every encounter a customer has had with your company and the troubles they’re experiencing, even before they contact support.

Isn’t it interesting?

It also has a single-view feature that lets you bring every customer interaction into a visual list. Kayako can also be integrated with Zapier, Slack, or Salesforce.

Key Features

• Real-time Live Chat: Engage with website visitors instantly and provide immediate assistance.
• Multi-Language Support: It caters to a global audience by offering live chat support in multiple languages.
• Chat Routing: It helps you efficiently distribute incoming chats to available agents based on skills or availability.
• Chat Transcripts: You can save chat transcripts for future reference, quality assurance, and customer analysis.
• Visitor Tracking: Gain insights into website visitor behavior, allowing for targeted proactive chat invitations.
• Integration with CRM: You can connect Kayako to your CRM system (listed above) for a unified view of customer interactions and improved data management.

Pros:

• Easy-to-use interface
• Merge conversations from a single conversation
• Custom reporting
• Efficient SLA management

Cons:

• Basic chat and knowledge base tools
• For some reason, the pricing section doesn’t have monetary figures which might be a turn-off for some people

12. DragApp

The reason DragApp deserves your consideration is that it eliminates the need to switch between tools and allows you to operate your whole workflow directly from your mailbox.

You can start using all of the features right away by clicking the switch button in your Gmail. DragApp enables your customer service workers to manage customers, close sales, and manage projects from one spot.

Additionally, it provides a Forever-free edition for small teams with a limited budget.

Key Features

•  Template: Quickly select templates to send, instead of having to write them from scratch over and over again.
• Task management: Shorten the time to meaningful work by bringing task management into where you work – Gmail
• Automation: Automate repetitive tasks, like moving emails from board to board, build automated ways to manage your workflow, and send automated email follow-ups.
• Analytics: Understand what’s happening in your organization and get insights into how productive you and your team are.
• Integrations & API: Connect your favorite apps to Drag or build custom solutions using  API.

Pros:

• Easy-to-manage inbox
• Flexible email usage
• Unified platform
• Google Integration
• Easy to set up and install
• Intuitive interface

Cons:

• Bugs and glitches:
• Multiple people can’t “own” a board in DragApp, which can limit collaboration and make it unclear who’s responsible for tasks.
• DragApp uses tags instead of folders to organize emails, which some say may not be as intuitive.

Pricing:

• Free package
• The starter plan cost $8/month
• The plus plan costs $14/month
• The pro plan costs $20/month

Final Thoughts

I hope this article helped you see that there’s no one-size-fits-all alternative to Freshdesk

Start by assessing your needs and expectations. Then, review the top 12 Freshdesk competitors listed here.

The best fit will be the tool that offers the features you need at a price you can afford.