Unclaimed: Are you working at Freshdesk?
Freshdesk Reviews: 4.4/5 — Solid Choice
Freshdesk (formerly Freshcaller) is a cloud-based solution to improve a business’s customer service experience in the most cost-efficient way possible. With Freshdesk, users can deploy a flexible and smart contact center in a few steps, with zero phone hardware. Powerful features include multi-level IVRs, business hours, and holiday settings to help your agents manage call volumes without compromising your customer experience.
| Company | Freshworks |
|---|---|
| Year founded | 2010 |
| Company size | 5001-10,000 employees |
| Headquarters | San Mateo, California |
| Social Media |
| Capabilities |
AI
API
|
|---|---|
| Segment |
Small Business
Mid Market
Enterprise
|
| Deployment | Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based, Mobile Android, Mobile iPad, Mobile iPhone |
| Support | 24/7 (Live rep), Chat, Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support |
| Training | Documentation |
| Languages | English |
Freshdesk Pros and Cons
- There’s a free plan available
- Freshdesk uses powerful Freddy AI for its conversational chatbot
- You get access to high-quality website widgets like forms, personalized content, and click detection
- Some key features like AI are only available on the most expensive plan.
Freshdesk includes the first 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions on every plan, including the €17 entry tier. Additional sessions cost €45 per hundred, which values that inclusion at roughly €225 per plan — and its sibling product Freshchat includes none at all, charging from the first session. If you are choosing between Freshworks products, that difference is worth more than the feature lists suggest.
- What it is: Freshworks’ help desk — ticketing, shared inbox, knowledge base, and an AI agent.
- Best for: Support teams wanting email-led ticketing with AI deflection included rather than metered from zero.
- Pricing: Growth €17, Pro €52, Enterprise €84 per agent monthly on annual billing. Verified July 2026.
- The honest catch: There is no free plan on the current pricing page — only a 14-day trial.
What Is Freshdesk?
Freshdesk is the ticketing half of Freshworks’ customer service line: email and shared inbox, a customer portal and knowledge base, threads and tasks, roles and permissions, and analytics. Freshworks reports more than 74,000 businesses across its products.
The 2026 lineup is built around AI deflection. Every tier leads with the Freddy AI Agent and its 500 included sessions, and the tier descriptions are framed in AI terms — “launch AI-powered service over email”, “scale AI-powered service”, “deliver enterprise-grade, AI-powered service”. Freddy AI Insights is the Enterprise addition.
The 14-day trial runs on Enterprise rather than on the plan you intend to buy.
How Freshdesk Works
- Priced per agent, per month, with annual billing shown by default.
- 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions are included on every tier.
- Additional AI sessions cost €45 per 100 across all plans.
- Day passes cover occasional agents at €2, €7, or €12 by tier.
- Freddy AI Copilot is a per-agent add-on — €29 annually, €35 monthly, on Pro and above.
- No free plan is shown; the trial gives Enterprise access for 14 days.
Freshdesk Pricing
Captured from Freshdesk’s pricing page in July 2026 in euros, reading both billing toggles.
| Plan | Annual | Monthly | AI sessions | Day pass | Key additions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Growth | €17 | €20 | 500 included | €2 | Ticketing, portal, knowledge base, analytics |
| Pro | €52 | €63 | 500 included | €7 | Multilingual, routing, SLAs, custom dashboards |
| Enterprise | €84 | €101 | 500 included | €12 | AI Insights, skill-based routing, sandbox, audit logs |
What actually decides your plan:
- The included AI sessions are the quiet value. 500 sessions on every tier, with extras at €45 per hundred, means Freshdesk bundles roughly €225 of AI deflection into a €17 plan. Freshchat, the same company’s messaging product, includes none and meters from the first session. If AI deflection is part of your plan, Freshdesk starts from a much better position.
- Growth to Pro is a 3.06× jump. €17 to €52 per agent, with nothing in between. What it buys is multilingual support, intelligent routing, multiple SLA policies, custom dashboards, and external collaborators — real capabilities, but a large step for a small team that only needs one of them.
- There is no free plan on the page. Only a 14-day trial, and that trial runs on Enterprise, so what you evaluate is not what you will buy. Freshchat, by contrast, has a free tier for up to ten agents. Within one vendor’s line-up, that is a striking difference.
- The annual discount is smaller than advertised. The toggle says “SAVE 20%”, but €20 monthly against €17 annually is 15%, Pro is 17.5%, and Enterprise 16.8%. Still worth taking; just do not budget from 20%.
- Day passes are well designed and get expensive. €2 on Growth, €7 on Pro, €12 on Enterprise. Against the annual seat rates that puts break-even at roughly 8.5 days a month on Growth, 7.4 on Pro, and 7 on Enterprise — past about a week, buy the seat.
- Freddy AI Copilot is a separate per-agent charge at €29 on annual billing or €35 monthly, and only from Pro. It is distinct from the AI Agent whose sessions are included.
Who Should Use Freshdesk
- Email-led support teams. The clearest case — ticketing, shared inbox, and a knowledge base at €17 an agent.
- Teams deploying AI deflection. 500 included sessions per plan is a genuinely generous starting allowance.
- Existing Freshworks customers. Freshchat, Freshsales, and Freshservice share billing and data.
- Businesses with seasonal cover. Day passes at €2 on Growth are cheap for occasional agents.
It fits poorly for ecommerce support, where Gorgias’s store integrations and ticket-based pricing fit better; for teams needing a free tier, which Freshdesk no longer publishes; and for small teams needing routing or SLAs, given the threefold step to Pro.
Honest Pros and Cons
Strengths
- 500 AI Agent sessions included on every tier, worth roughly €225 at the published rate.
- A low entry price at €17 per agent for full ticketing.
- Day passes for occasional agents, which few help desks offer.
- Consistent add-on pricing, published rather than quoted.
- Part of a full suite if you already run Freshworks.
- A 14-day trial on Enterprise, so you see the top tier first.
Limitations
- No free plan on the current pricing page.
- A 3.06× jump from Growth to Pro, with nothing between.
- The 20% annual claim overstates it — 15% to 17.5% in practice.
- The trial runs on Enterprise, not the plan you will buy.
- Freddy AI Copilot costs extra and starts at Pro.
- Routing and SLAs require Pro, which many small teams will need.
Freshdesk Alternatives and How It Compares
- Freshchat is the same company’s messaging product, with a free tier for ten agents but no included AI sessions.
- Gorgias prices by ticket rather than by agent and is built specifically for ecommerce.
- Zoho Desk is the closest like-for-like competitor on price and breadth.
- HubSpot Service Hub suits teams already inside HubSpot, with costs rising as hubs are added.
- LiveChat and Tidio are chat-first rather than ticket-first.
- Zendesk is the enterprise incumbent Freshdesk has always positioned against, at higher cost.
For a broader survey, browse our help desk directory.
The Verdict
Freshdesk’s entry plan is better value than it first appears, and the reason is buried in a single line on the card. Every tier includes the first 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions, and additional sessions are priced at €45 per hundred — so a €17 plan arrives with roughly €225 of AI deflection already in it. Compare that with Freshchat, from the same company, which includes no sessions and charges from the first one, and the difference is substantial for any team planning to let AI handle routine tickets.
Two things to establish before you commit. The current pricing page shows no free plan — only a 14-day trial, and that trial runs on Enterprise, so you will evaluate features you are not buying and then choose a tier blind. That is a change worth noticing if you remembered Freshdesk as the help desk with a free tier; its sibling Freshchat still has one for ten agents, which makes the absence here more conspicuous.
And the step from Growth to Pro is threefold — €17 to €52 per agent — with nothing in between. What Pro adds is genuine: intelligent routing, multiple SLA policies, multilingual support, custom dashboards. But a five-agent team that needs only SLA policies is looking at €260 a month instead of €85, which is a large price to pay for one capability. Work out precisely which Pro feature you need before assuming the upgrade is inevitable, take annual billing (the saving is 15% to 17.5%, not the advertised 20%), and if you have occasional cover use the €2 day passes rather than full seats up to about eight days a month.
FAQ
How much does Freshdesk cost?
Captured in euros in July 2026: Growth €17 per agent per month billed annually, Pro €52, and Enterprise €84. On monthly billing those become €20, €63, and €101. Every tier includes the first 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions, with additional sessions at €45 per 100. Day passes cost €2, €7, or €12 depending on tier, and connector app tasks are €80 per 5,000.
Does Freshdesk have a free plan?
Not on the current pricing page. It shows three paid tiers and a 14-day free trial, and that trial gives you Enterprise access rather than the plan you are likely to buy. Freshworks’ messaging product Freshchat does still offer a free tier for up to ten agents, so if a free plan is what you need, that is where to look within the same suite.
How many AI sessions does Freshdesk include?
The first 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions are included on every plan — Growth, Pro, and Enterprise alike. Beyond that, additional sessions cost €45 per 100, which is the same rate Freshchat charges from its very first session. At that rate the included allowance is worth roughly €225, which materially improves the value of the €17 entry tier.
Why is Freshdesk Pro three times the price of Growth?
Pro adds multilingual helpdesk, custom dashboards and reporting, intelligent routing, multiple SLA policies, and external collaborators. Those are substantial capabilities, but they arrive together at €52 per agent against Growth’s €17, with no intermediate tier. For a small team needing just one of them, the upgrade is expensive — so identify the specific feature driving the decision before assuming Pro is necessary.
Does Freshdesk’s annual billing save 20%?
Not quite. The toggle advertises 20%, but the published figures are €20 monthly against €17 annually on Growth — a 15% saving — €63 against €52 on Pro at 17.5%, and €101 against €84 on Enterprise at 16.8%. Annual billing remains worth taking on every tier; the saving is simply a few points below the badge.
Compare Freshdesk with other popular tools in the same category.
Freshdesk comes with plenty of features, options and marketplace apps to customize your company's service desk. Alltogether is a very verstalie solution and probably capable of handle most of your company's needs.
We wanted to move from an omni plan to stand-alone plan as we were not really using Freshcaller and Freshchat. The entire process took several months and included several people from Freshworks. We had to explain over and over again any of our business-critial requirements. In the end we had to cancel the process because of the delay. We did not have the impression that those responsible at Freshworks had coordinated sufficiently.
Generel service desk tasks / service ticketing.
Their product is very solid and convenient
- Misalignment and miscommunication between their teams - Wrong info was given by their support - Lack of follow up from account managers
Their product is solid and well-integrated with other tools
We switched to FresDesk as an alternative to FogBugz (for ticketing), and were pretty pleased initially. The cost seemed reasonable and it provided a lot of good functionality. We weren't too crazy about the interface, but overall it did the job and offered
After using Freshdesk for 3+ years, we are all very displeased with it. Every single support agent using the system dislikes it. The system is often slow and laggy, even basic tasks like inserting signatures take a long time. The interface is also extremely cluttered, so much that you often only have about 1/3 of the screen space to write an actual message. The rest is just scroll bars and other information that is completely unnecessary. Freshdesk is also extremely buggy, which is frustrating everyone. Messages will disappear while you are typing, cursors will move around after signatures are inserted and other issues that make the system tedious to use.
We are simply using it provide email support to our customers.
We like our Account Manager Bhavani's support on each ticket we raise.
Very very slow tool. Analytics are poor. The loading time of tickets is way too high. The interface and design of features are so poor that we can't use them for customers. Latency is a huge issue.
We answer user queries with Freshdesk. We haven't seen much of the benifits so far
They offer a wide range of solutions, and it used to be at a reasonable price.
At the beginning of 2021 Freshdesk decided to limit their SSO (Single Sign-On) functionality to their new system. All customers had to implement the new system before May 31. Although this might be inconvenient, it is part of keeping systems up to date. So we started to change to the new system at the beginning of May. And then, the horror started... We have various labels/brand identities with different SSO URLs. This used to be no problem in the old system, and everything worked fine back then. After trying to configure different SSO configurations for the various labels, this didn't seem possible. So I emailed their customer service. From the Freshdesk customer service on May 19, 2021: "... Also, it possible to create different SSO policies for different portals, and you would need to be on an Estate plan having an active portal to view the same options. You will have to enable this SSO only for a specific portal and create other custom policies for the other portals. I can see that you are currently with a Garden subscription, and I assume you are exploring the Estate plan for now. In order to test this, I would suggest you sign up for a new Estate account to test. ..." So to keep using the functionality as we had before Freshdesk expected us to upgrade to a more expensive plan at MORE THAN 2.5x times the monthly cost. After pointing this out, another employee responded: From the Freshdesk customer service on May 20th: "... However, this could not be implemented in your current plan as this available only from the Estate plan and onwards. ..." After mailing back and forward, they eventually could offer us a 15% "discount", which was NOT a discount for us, but a 76.4% increase for something we already had before (and did not ask to change). Some more time and mails later (meanwhile it was August 11, 2021) Freshdesk changed their plans, and they could offer their "Pro" plan (which was formerly known as their Estate plan) for a lower price. Keep in mind that this was still almost 2x as expensive as the account we had before, for a change we didn't requested. Since all our processes and service flow were designed around Freshdesk, we decided to pay the price (all this time, our customers couldn't log in to Freshdesk via SSO from our applications). But wait, it gets worse ... After our account was upgraded I tried to configure SSO for our different labels. I made several attemps but the option still didn't seem available, so I contacted Freshdes support once again. From the Freshdesk customer service on August 16, 2021: "Being able to set up portal-specific SSO login flows is yet to be realized in Freshdesk. We would not be able to set custom SSO login flows for multiple product portals. It's not yet supported for Multiple Products or Portals setup." From the Freshdesk customer service on August 18, 2021: "I had a word with the Product and Development teams regarding this. They told me that we have had quite a few similar requests and that there may be a chance to take it up as a feature request though we do not have a current timeline or roadmap for this." We requested to be downgraded to our original plan (at the moment of writing that request is still pending). So for now we are stuck with double the monly costs and our customers who can't use the SSO for over three months (and counting). Buyer Beware: Be carefull what you get yourselfs/company into. Freshdesk has the tendency to change their plans (and the services therein), the story above is already the second time it happended to us (whe had simmilar issues with Freshchat). Freshworks has proven to be an unreliable business partner, making changes which limit the featureset and forcing unwanted upgrades to more expesive plans based on false promises. After a few years your processes and applications will be integraded with your service desk application and a switch is not quickly done. Alough, when taken everything in consideration, it definely will be worth it and say Freshdesk goodby.
We use Freshdesk (in combination with Freshcaht) for customer contact and care.
Relatively easy to set up. I do like their support page solution. But was better before some of their recent developments.
Not so long ago it was a really great product for us, then they changed the user experience of the platform which has lead to us repeatedly miscommunicating with clients. In the ticketing feature (the main feature you use) Freshdesk have hidden most of the conversation for 'faster loading' time, but has not considered the fact that people reading through the ticket will not see the whole picture before responding to the client. https://i.imgur.com/FF3W5Nh.png Yes, page speed is a consideration of UX, but so is... actual usability.
As an organisation, we were trying to provide a ticketing and support centre for our clients.
Nice simple interface, which makes it quick and easy to answer support tickets. The app generally works quite well as well.
Support is slow and unhelpful. I tried to change my billing currency, which I thought would be a reasonably simple task. It turns out I can't do it in the app, even though the support docs said I could. I contacted support, who were more interested in pointing me in the direction of self-service support docs than just doing it for me. After chasing them up with ten emails backward and forwards (which took a total of 37 days!), one document signed, one payment taken in the wrong currency, and having to re-enter my card details, they have finally changed my billing currency. All I got was an insincere "apologies for the inconvenience." I hope they improve with further interactions because I don't want to have to change provider.
Just using it as a help desk
It is easy to sign up for a subscription. Lots of online tools to help get started.
I signed up for a paid account back in August 2020. I added omni-channel to my account and less than a month into my paid account, I notified my sales rep that I needed to cancel the omni-channel feature because 1. I didn't know what it was 2. I have a very small team 3. I work in an educational setting. I really had no need for omni-channel. Initially, the sales rep was responsive and told me he could only prorate my credit, even though I had their paid account LESS THAN a month (started paid account on 08/07/2020. Notified sales rep on 08/26/2020). Eventually, he stopped responding altogether for periods at a time. Said he would call me and didn't. Said he would put in a request for my credit and didn't. Two months in, I finally called him (again) and I got a bunch of excuses about how finance is based in India and there's "so much going on there." After this call, he FINALLY put in a ticket to request a credit to my credit card. Three months into this nightmare, I am told they would only credit the difference to my account where I could use the credit for future purchases. I DO NOT recommend FreshDesk due to their terrible customer service and their bait and switch. e.g. super easy to sign up and plug in your credit card but you can forget about customer service, because there is none!
Easy to pull reports and track tickets.
I like the way that FreshDesk, FreshCaller and Freschat integrated together. We were able to a number of other programs that consolidated our stack.
The UI is very cumbersome to use when you have a lot of tickets coming through. We found that you have to refresh the page a lot to get updated tickets. The Search functionality isn't great at all. Search is a major feature for us and because this functionality was sub-par we decided to move away from FreshDesk. Customer support. We've been trying to cancel our account with FreshDesk for over 2 months now, they keep telling us it's canceled but we keep getting charged. The live chat support used to be available to us almost 24/5 but we believe they've cut back staff and the hours available now.
Customer support.
I think the ticket and email management features are useful!
I really don't like their text editor or the analytics tools available.
We use it to help with client management for a SaaS company, but feel it probably would work better in a traditional online retail context.
Fresdesk has brought us many more problems than we could solve with them, above all because their technical support is deficient. We lasted more than 4 days because if they wanted to pay attention to us and incidentally when they attended to us, we received annoying responses that they would soon contact us. which in the end never came like this our ordeal began as we began to lose clients since we could not solve the problems with freshdesk the agents never returned our calls and basically the message they sent us was that we were not important enough for them to deign to answer us
I really don't like anything about freshdesk since they brought us a lot of problems and waste of time and money. Their technical support never solves anything and I had problems with the caller ID and my database is completely messy. I do not recommend them at all.
use we didn't get any benefits since we could never work well with them so we could never make effective use of freshdesk
Simple to use and configure. I love the fact a client can send an email to start their ticket. Some of our clients are not tech savvy and it is simple enough for them to send an email. It has all the features I need and some I don't
Customer service is terrible. During the Covid-19 Pandemic, they were unwilling to provide any assistance for an annual subscription that had renewed that same day. They just said sorry you can use it for 365 more days though after we had told them we no longer used the product. Probably hadn't even accessed the platform in over 18 months.
Help keep client requests organized. Allow me to meet the expectations of the clients when they request support.
Ease of use was awesome, but when we were using it just as an incident managing application. Aesthetically it was OK. The mobile application was easy to use along with the ticket management via mobile app. Ease of use was awesome, but when we were using it just as an incident managing application. Aesthetically it was OK. The mobile application was easy to use along with the ticket management via mobile app.Ease of use was awesome, but when we were using it just as an incident managing application. Aesthetically it was OK. The mobile application was easy to use along with the ticket management via mobile app.Ease of use was awesome, but when we were using it just as an incident managing application. Aesthetically it was OK. The mobile application was easy to use along with the ticket management via mobile app.Ease of use was awesome, but when we were using it just as an incident managing application. Aesthetically it was OK. The mobile application was easy to use along with the ticket management via mobile app.
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Managing incident tickets of customers, supporting them and solving the issue, managing the SLA.
I really appreciate the built-in dashboards and actual ticket management features. There are some fairly obvious status indicators, which make it easier to find and address tickets in order of priority. Some the metrics have been very useful.
Automation rules are incomplete and difficult to manage. The system does not have the full functionality we were led to believe. System reports are bulky to create and often unable to include all of the data elements we'd like. Their support has been atrocious ever since implementation.
Freshdesk is our support ticket system across the board. We have the ability now to provide our customers with a portal for tracking their own issues, which has been a plus. The internal use is where the system is most lacking, however, and we are not able to deploy all of the features as we would have liked.
Having all customer service emails come in to one place.
It only allowed one email to transfer emails from. Some links they sent me would not work so would require more work from me to try and get the right link.
Having all emails in one place was great because then we could go one by one in order that email came in.
It’s customizable, I can rely on it to email my customers without delay. Not too many bells and whistles.
I often lose ongoing emails and have to search for them. I can’t easily see company information for my customer. I can’t split tickets when needed.
Allows me to manage my support inbox outside of just using gmail. Can tag priorities and create custom fields based on business needs. Easy to export data as well.
It's very minimalist design yet very robust. Their ux designer is fantastic.
Doesn't auto refresh. Support is non-existent and their solution to a chat is to revert you back to a "we aren't available" screen.
Ticket management; reporting.
I like how easy the product is to use and being able to view tickets in SalesForce. I also like being able to create custom fields easily and as well as automated scenario's. Lastly I do appreciate that a non-technical manager can mostly administer the product without needing an advanced engineering degree.
The reporting section is half-baked. While the data does provide good insights you can't export the tables (or data) into anything! Only PDF's are generated and those are un-workable when trying to do correlations to (let's say to sales). Sure you can export all your tickets and do the calculations yourself but then what's the point of having a reporting section? Which brings me to my next gripe. The ticket search tool (or view creator) is extremely slow and frustrating. Given the limited reporting capabilities of the software I must rely on that function to find and export the data I want to tabulate. Unfortunately, when I create a new view and include a specific date range, I need to re-enter that exact same date range after clicking the "export" button. If you forget it either won't work or return the wrong data. Lastly what I'm most disappointed with is their customer service. Perhaps its because we hold ourselves to a higher service standard but I have tried to work with them to review our implementation, I have even taken the time to re-document our requirements and associated use cases. After 3 weeks I finally managed to schedule a call but they showed up un-prepared and 15 minutes late.
Honestly right now it's creating more problems than it's solving.
Modular, customize-able, canned reporting is pretty good.
Support tended to ignore my issue until the third or fourth contact (took that long to clear up what my issue was, with screenshots included). Support would lie to me when they didn't know the answer. Support told me we could never change our Account Admins, invalidating this platform as a long term solution.
We needed a ticketing system. We got one. Just didn't realize it was built to be temporary.
Fairly intuitive for the end users to get the basics out of any helpdesk system.
Users can only be associated with one company, even if they work at multiple sites. Makes for a ticket management nightmare. The migration services, follow up and customer service are the worst I have ever experienced in my professional history.
Typical Technical Software Helpdesk
I like the simplicity of the product. It does what it is designed to do.
It only does what it was designed to do. The support team is friendly but not flexible to customization.
We have been using this tool for our support desk and the syncing between Salesforce and FreshDesk is incredibly minimal. Very little information syncs between the two databases.
