If you’re reading this article, it’s likely that you’re dissatisfied with Freshdesk’s customer service offerings. While Freshdesk boasts impressive features like the AI agent Freddy AI, a self-service portal, automated ticketing, and omnichannel ticket management, it faces several criticisms.
These include inadequate customer support, limited advanced AI capabilities compared to competitors like Helpshift, overly complex features, and restricted integrations. These issues may have impacted your experience as well. In this article, we have reviewed the top Freshdesk alternatives to help you choose one that will enhance your customer service operations.
Why consider alternatives for Freshdesk?
- The free version and Growth plans lack features such as team dashboards, social ticketing, CSAT surveys & reports, multilingual knowledge base, etc. These options are available on higher-priced subscriptions, making the platform less budget-friendly. Lower-tier plans offer limited customization options for the self-service portal, significantly affecting branding efforts.
- Their AI support agent, Freddy AI, is an add-on to the product and is not native to the platform. The AI depends on scripted responses and may struggle with queries that require deep contextual understanding or background knowledge.
- Freshdesk primarily caters to small businesses requiring essential to moderate support, and their feature set may not suit enterprises handling high query volumes.
12 best Freshdesk Alternatives at a glance
| Tool | Key Features | Pricing (starting at) | Target Audience |
| Helpshift |
| $150/month | Mobile app developers, small to medium business, startups and enterprises in Gaming,Fintech, Entertainment and Lifestyle industries |
| Zoho Desk |
| Free plan available; paid plans start at $14/agent/month | Small to medium businesses, enterprises |
| Helpscout |
| $20/user/month | Small to medium businesses, customer-centric teams |
| Salesforce Service Cloud |
| $25/user/month | Enterprises, large organizations |
| Intercom |
| $39/month | Startups, SaaS companies |
| HubSpot Service Hub |
| Free plan available; paid plans start at $50/month | Small to medium businesses, enterprises |
| Kustomer |
| $89/user/month | Enterprises, large businesses |
| ClickUp |
| Free plan available; paid plans start at $5/user/month | Remote teams, project managers |
| HappyFox |
| $29/agent/month | Small to medium businesses, customer support teams |
| LiveAgent |
| $15/agent/month | Small to medium businesses, call centers |
| Kayako |
| $30/agent/month | Small to medium businesses, customer support teams |
| Jira Service Management |
| Free plan available; paid plans start at $20/agent/month | IT teams, service desks |
12 best Freshdesk alternatives
Here are some impressive Freshdesk alternatives to consider.
Helpshift
Helpshift is an AI-native, omnichannel customer experience platform designed to optimize customer service operations. Helpshift provides multiple tools for support agents to streamline workflows and automate repetitive tasks, helping them handle inquiries more efficiently and reducing resolution time.
Helpshift is much sought after for its AI-infused Modern Support Journey, driven by features such as its Smart Intent Recognition, AI-powered Answers, Sentiment Analysis, Language AI, and Agent Copilot.
AI-Powered Ticket Classification and Intent Detection
Helpshift leverages AI-enhanced tools like “Smart Intent AI” to categorize and prioritize incoming support tickets with an accuracy rate of up to 95%. Smart Intent analyzes the tickets and automatically classifies and routes them to agents based on intent, language and sentiment. This reduces triage chaos and the need for manual tagging, helping agents focus on higher-priority tickets in less time.
Embedded within Helpshift is the Sentiment Analysis feature. This gauges customer emotions to detect negative sentiments in customer messages and classify them based on priority and urgency.
With Helpshift, you can also pre-train the Smart Intent to understand issues specific to your industry. You can customize workflows to analyze incoming messages and automatically route them to the appropriate agent based on trigger actions.
AI Chatbots and Automation
What sets HelpShift’s conversational AI chatbots apart from Freshdesk’s chatbot is the former’s ability to use natural language processing (NLP) capabilities and advanced machine learning technology to understand the context and nuances of customer inquiries. Additionally, the system’s ability to learn from each interaction helps refine its understanding and improve response quality, ensuring that the service evolves with the customers’ needs.
Moreover, Helpshift’s AI bot can effectively resolve tickets and adapt responses based on customer queries without human intervention. It can understand support journeys and provide intuitive menu options by determining the intent behind the customer’s queries.
How does Freshdesk fall short?
Although their bots offer automation in ticket routing and can deliver canned responses to queries, their capabilities might not fully extend to automating the entire lifecycle of issue resolution—from identification to closure—without human intervention. This can lead to slower response times and potentially increased workload for support staff.
Unlike traditional chatbots that rely on predetermined outcomes, Helpshift’s AI chatbots are more flexible, learn from interactions and adapt to new and complex scenarios. They provide more accurate responses, and personalize their experiences based on customer interactions.
Multilingual Customer Support
Another advantage of Helpshift over Freshdesk is its “Language AI”, which translates customer queries into multiple languages allowing customers and agents to communicate seamlessly without the need for a third-party translator. When customers interact with the chatbot, Language AI accurately detects the language of the incoming message and adjusts the chatbot’s response to cater to global customers Using Language AI, the chatbot can route tickets to specific agents who accommodate the customer’s language preferences.
How does Freshdesk fall short?
Freshdesk integrates with Google Translate, which has a high error rate. Moreover, Freshdesk has no intent classification system capable of detecting customer intent behind each query. Helpshift uses advanced machine learning technology to provide more accurate translation with a low error rate. Language AI is also trained to maintain brand-specific terminology consistency across multiple language translations.
Omnichannel Support
Helpshift’s omnichannel support system consolidates customer interactions across different communication channels into a unified inbox. It offers a seamless and unified customer service journey that connects all customer interactions as they move through the buyer’s journey.
Driven by AI and bots, Helpshift takes an advanced approach to omnichannel. Support agents can see their conversation history across multiple digital channels and pick up where they left off without repeating themselves. This differs from the traditional omnichannel approach, which is disconnected.
Helpshift’s omnichannel approach relies on asynchronous messaging, which captures and embeds messages into a single messaging thread so support agents can follow, understand, and respond to customers promptly. It also integrates with customer profiles for a more holistic view of customer history, preferences, past interactions, and purchase behavior.
AI-Generated Answers
Helpshift leverages “Generative AI” technology to deliver quick, accurate, and automated responses to common queries and issues. These bots are trained with customer data and knowledge base articles to handle a large volume of inquiries and reduce the workload of human agents. Helpshift uses the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) technique, powered by its Quick Search Bot, to enhance the accuracy and reliability of its AI-powered responses. RAG allows transmitting additional information alongside the instructions in the Large Language Model (LLM) prompt, enabling more precise and dependable answers.
How does Freshdesk fall short?
We found no evidence that Freshdesk uses RATG for real-time data retrieval and integration within conversations. This could lead to the bot “hallucinating” or making up responses. This may also slow down the AI’s ability to adapt to new or complex queries. However, we noticed that Freddy AI uses historical customer interaction data to improve responses.
AI-enhanced Knowledge Base
Helpshift’s Self-help AI provides personalized answers to customer’s queries. The AI continuously learns from customer interactions and updates to the knowledge center. Working in tandem with Language AI, Self-help AI can also translate content into multiple languages and answer customer queries in the language they have posed their query.
How does Freshdesk fall short?
Although Freshdesk’s knowledge base can support multiple languages (in its higher-tier plans), its AI cannot translate content in real-time, it can only provide the user with pre-canned responses in their language.
Pricing
- Starter plan: $150 per month. It comes with a 30-day free trial
- Growth plan: Customized based on your team’s needs
- Enterprise plan: Customized based on your team’s needs
Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is a comprehensive and affordable help desk solution for customer support teams. Its free plan mainly targets small businesses. Its key features include ticketing, a knowledge base, basic automation features, and a self-service portal.
As a Freshdesk alternative, Zoho desk software offers a more competitive pricing plan with flexibility for smaller teams. Zoho Desk and Freshdesk offer comprehensive features, like reporting analytics and ticket management.
However, Zoho Desk offers extensive customization options and integrates seamlessly with other Zoho products, while Freshdesk emphasizes connectivity with third-party applications.
Pros
- User-friendly interface for users with a low level of technical expertise
- Extensive customization options
- Integration capabilities with third-party applications like Google Workspace and Slack
Cons
- Some users have reported occasional performance issues, such as slow loading times.
- The extensive features may be overwhelming for new users
Helpscout
Helpscout is a customer service software focusing on email and live chat support, with key features such as shared inboxes, canned responses, and reporting. This user-friendly customer support platform is easy to set up, making it an excellent option for small businesses.
As a Freshdesk alternative, Helpscout falls short in pricing as it has no free tier like Freshdesk, which offers a free plan with basic features. Helpscout focuses on collaboration but lacks advanced features like AI-driven capabilities.
However, it lacks some of the advanced features of Freshdesk, such as automation and self-service portal customization.
Pros
- Clean, intuitive interface
- Offers detailed reporting and analytics for customer satisfaction
- Features like customer profiles and workflows are customer-centric
Cons
- Requires third-party apps for live chat functionality
- The mobile app lacks some advanced functionality
Salesforce service cloud
Salesforce service cloud is part of the Salesforce CRM platform, which offers a comprehensive solution for customer service and serves as a sales and marketing hub.
Its comprehensive features include omnichannel routing, a knowledge base, and extensive integration capabilities with other Salesforce products, making it a good Freshdesk alternative.
However, the Salesforce service cloud best suits large enterprises with complex customer support needs and an existing Salesforce ecosystem. This is mainly due to its expensive pricing plan despite being highly customizable and scalable.
Pros
- Support across multiple channels
- Seamless integration with other Salesforce products and third-party apps
- Customizable web portal
Cons
- Initial set-up and customization may be complex
- Fairly expensive
Intercom
Intercom is an all-in-one customer service solution that combines live chat, email marketing, product tours, and support ticketing for exceptional customer service. It helps boost proactive customer engagement and provide personalized customer service.
Intercom provides quality customer service through features like customer data management and live chat to boost customer engagement. Compared to Freshdesk, it lacks some traditional ticketing system functionalities.
However, this customer support tool can be expensive for larger teams. Still, its intuitive interface strongly emphasizes ease of communication, whereas Freshdesk has a steeper learning curve.
Pros
- Advanced reporting and analytics
- Built-in AI self-service knowledge base
- Easy-to-use Flow Builder
Cons
- Small businesses may find this customer service software expensive
- It may be overwhelming for new users
Hubspot Service Hub
HubSpot Service Hub is a customer service software part of the HubSpot CRM platform. It offers a suite of marketing, sales, and customer service tools, making it great for businesses already integrated into the HubSpot ecosystem.
Hubspot is powerful as a sales and marketing hub, whereas Freshdesk offers more comprehensive customer support features. Freshdesk is a more affordable option, but its interface may be discouraging compared to the user-friendly Hubspot service hub.
Pros
- Seamless integration with Hubspot CRM for a more unified view of customer interactions.
- Real-time customer support through live chat.
- Robust ticketing system for efficient management of customer inquiries and support requests.
Cons
- Multilingual capabilities may not be as extensive as other tools
- Advanced features typically require higher-tier plans
Kustomer
Kustomer is customer support software designed for seamless project management and customer experience. This AI-powered platform is designed for large enterprises, as it streamlines customer service workflows through data centralization.
This robust help desk software is an excellent Freshdesk alternative as it addresses a critical pain point of managing multichannel customer engagement. It handles more complex customer interactions with detailed insights using AI.
As a Freshdesk alternative, Kustomer provides a unified customer view and advanced automation, focusing on customer satisfaction.
Pros
- Omnichannel support that centralizes customer conversations.
- Real-time data analysis using AI insights
- Seamless integration with other business systems
Cons
- More features than are necessary for smaller teams
- New users may find the customer support software overwhelming at first.
ClickUp
ClickUp is a project management tool that also offers help desk functionalities. Its key features include a knowledge base, email support, reporting, chat, and ticketing. This works great for businesses already using ClickUp for project management and needs a simple help desk solution.
ClickUp has a better pricing strategy. It offers a free forever plan, compared to Freshdesk’s free plan for essential support teams. This makes ClickUp more affordable for smaller businesses.
ClickUp handles more project management tasks with critical features like automation, time tracking, and task management, while Freshdesk works better for customer service management.
Pros
- Rich features include 50+ widgets, custom fields, and automation.
- Seamless team collaboration to handle customer issues.
- Project management features include time tracking for better time management.
Cons
- Steep learning curve compared to Trello and Asana.
- Costs extra per month to use advanced project management tools.
- Limited use of advanced tools on free trial plans.
Happyfox
Happyfox is a user-friendly customer service software and help desk solution that prioritizes improving customer interactions. It’s all about enhancing your support team by offering top-notch features for reporting, automation, self-service portal, knowledge base, and ticketing.
Happyfox plans start at $39 per agent/month, making Freshdesk, with its basic free plans and lower starting price, a more affordable option. Freshdesk also offers a broader range of features, including AI capabilities, while Happyfox focuses on help desk functionalities for customer communication.
Overall, Freshdesk may be better for small businesses on a budget, but Happyfox is best for customizable workflows at a higher price.
Pros
- Strong ticketing system to organize and manage customer queries
- Multi-channel support, including live chat, voice, email, and social media.
- Robust knowledge base as a self-service portal to help customers solve their issues without human interaction.
Cons
- No free trial of their full help desk software
- Some customers have challenges integrating this software with other customer support tools.
Liveagent
Regarding customer satisfaction at its peak, Liveagent is an all-in-one help desk software solution designed with this in mind through its ticketing system, call center, and live chat functionalities. Its live chat software is a powerful tool for businesses to provide top-notch support operations.
This is a good option for businesses needing a comprehensive multi-channel support solution. However, this is one of the best alternatives to Freshdesk in terms of pricing, as it offers a free plan with basic features.
Its paid plans also have more advanced capabilities. Liveagent is more focused on real-time engagement throughout the customer journey.
Pros
- Effective ticketing system for auto-routing customer support tickets.
- It offers excellent customer support to its users via email, live chat, and phone. It also includes an online support portal.
- Intuitive interface to help support agents monitor customer communication across multiple channels.
Cons
- Expensive social media support
- It can be challenging for first-time users
Kayako
Kayako is comprehensive customer service software designed to enable businesses to seamlessly manage customer interactions across multiple channels. Its broad range of key features includes ticketing, social media support, live chat, reporting, and analytics.
A great feature of this customer service software is its strong workflow automation capabilities. Service teams also find it easy to integrate this with other business tools.
Kayako can be an excellent option for businesses of all sizes looking for feature-rich customer service software and scalable solutions.
Pros
- Solid security foundation, including a Single Sign-On (SSO) capability.
- Direct out-of-the-box integration with Salesforce and Zapier.
- Promotes knowledge sharing among support teams.
Cons
- Users may experience a few inconsistencies when navigating the user interface.
- Customization can be complex and time-consuming
Jira Service Management
This customer service solution targets IT and service teams. Jira Service Management builds on Jira’s strengths. It is a great tool for tracking customer issues and responding to customer inquiries. This customer support tool is known for its focus on agile practices, integration capabilities, and flexibility. Features that make it one of the top Freshdesk alternatives include Service Level Agreement (SLA) management, change management, advanced reporting, and analytics.
Pros
- Great for tracking support tickets and solving issues quickly.
- Game-changing automation capabilities
- Centralized ticket management system
- Organized method for handling customer support requests.
Cons
- Offers basic reporting functionalities
- It can be expensive for small businesses
How to choose the suitable Freshdesk alternative
To choose the suitable Freshdesk alternative, you need a clear picture of your company’s needs and the customer support solution that best fits those needs.
- Understand your business needs, including team size and unique features for your target audience.
- Consider your budget, as this will help your business find a cost-friendly solution.
- Look out for a tool with multi-channel support to allow seamless customer interactions.
Conclusion
Choosing the best alternatives to Freshdesk is simple. You need the best customer service software that handles repetitive tasks and ticket management, boosts the productivity of your customer support team, and provides excellent customer support to reduce churn and increase customer retention.
Helpshift ticks all these boxes and more. Start with a free trial to see if this is great for your business needs and enhances customer support operations.
