Freshdesk
Free trialA ticketing help desk with a customer portal, knowledge base and optional AI, for small and midsize teams.
Best for small and midsize support teams that want full email ticketing at a low per-agent price
Facts checked November 4, 2026
The short answer
Freshdesk suits a support team that answers customers by email and wants every request to have an owner, a status and a history. The Growth plan at $19 an agent a month billed yearly already includes ticketing, a shared inbox, automations, a customer portal and a knowledge base, so a small team can run proper support on the cheapest plan. Multiple SLA policies, round-robin assignment and a multilingual help desk need Pro at $55, and the AI that drafts replies is a separate $29 an agent add-on. Chat, phone and messaging apps belong to Freshdesk Omni, a separate product that costs more.
Choose it if
- Your support runs mostly on email and you want proper tickets, automations and reports from $19 an agent a month billed yearly
- You want customers to find answers themselves: the knowledge base and customer portal come with the entry Growth plan
- Some colleagues answer a ticket only now and then, so day passes ($2 each on Growth) cost less than a full seat
- You want to try an AI agent on email before paying for it, using the 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions each account gets once
- Your sales team already uses Freshsales and you want support and sales from the same company
Skip it if
- You need live chat, phone and WhatsApp in one inbox. Those belong to Freshdesk Omni, which starts at $29 an agent a month billed yearly, with voice as a further add-on
- You want a free plan that lasts. Freshdesk's free program ends after six months and covers two agents, while Help Scout has a free plan for 5 users and Zoho Desk one for 3
- You promise different response times to different customers on a tight budget. Multiple SLA policies start on Pro at $55 an agent a month billed yearly
- You support employees rather than customers. Freshworks sells Freshservice for IT service desks
- You want to compare monthly prices before committing. The pricing page shows only yearly rates per agent
Main features
Ticketing and shared inbox
Every email to your support address becomes a ticket with an owner, a status and a history, so two agents don't answer the same customer twice. Threads and tasks let your team discuss a ticket in private without the customer seeing it.
Customer portal and knowledge base
Customers can submit tickets and search your help articles in a portal on every paid plan. Pro adds community forums, article versioning and portal branding, and Enterprise adds an approval step before articles go live.
Automations and ticket dispatch
Rules sort, prioritize and send each new ticket to the right group, and automations handle follow-ups and escalations. Pro adds round-robin and load-balanced assignment, and Enterprise matches tickets to agents by skill.
Multiple SLA policies
On Pro and Enterprise you can set different response and resolution targets for different kinds of customers, such as a faster promise for your largest accounts.
Freddy AI Agent
An AI agent that reads customer emails and replies to them. Every account gets 500 sessions once, then packs cost $49 per 100, and an email session covers all AI replies in the 72 hours after the customer's first email.
Freddy AI Copilot
An add-on for agents on Pro and Enterprise that suggests replies and reads the customer's sentiment. You can buy it for some agents and not others, at $29 an agent a month billed yearly.
Day passes
Someone who helps out on busy days can log in with a day pass instead of a full seat. Passes cost $2 on Growth, $7 on Pro and $12 on Enterprise, and they don't cover Freddy AI Copilot.
Reports and dashboards
Standard reports and real-time dashboards come with Growth. Pro lets you build custom dashboards for each team and adds a view of which agents are available right now.
Mobile app
Agents can work tickets from the iOS and Android apps: swipe to pick up, close or mark one as spam, assign or merge several at once, and create new tickets with attachments.
Enterprise controls
Enterprise adds a sandbox for testing changes before they reach your live help desk, audit logs of who changed what, and allow lists that restrict sign-ins to approved domains and IP addresses.
Pricing
US dollar prices per agent, checked November 4, 2026 on Freshworks' Freshdesk pricing page, which lists yearly rates only. Add-ons: Freddy AI Copilot at $29 an agent a month billed yearly on Pro and Enterprise ($35 billed monthly in the price data the page loads), extra Freddy AI Agent sessions at $49 per 100, day passes at $2 (Growth), $7 (Pro) or $12 (Enterprise), connector app tasks at $80 per 5,000 and MCP actions at $15 per 1,000. Freshworks takes Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express, not PayPal. The Free program comes from a help center article updated September 22, 2026.
Free program
$0
Up to 2 agents, email and social ticketing, ticket dispatch, a knowledge base, ready-made reports and 24x5 email support; you switch to it from your account's billing settings
Growth
$19 an agent, billed yearly / month
Ticketing and shared inbox, threads and tasks, customer portal and knowledge base, automations and ticket dispatch, standard reports and real-time dashboards, roles and permissions, 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions once per account
Pro
$55 an agent, billed yearly / month
Everything in Growth, plus multiple SLA policies, round-robin and load-balanced assignment, a multilingual help desk, custom dashboards, an agent availability dashboard, community forums, article versioning and up to 5,000 external collaborators
Enterprise
$89 an agent, billed yearly / month
Everything in Pro, plus Freddy AI Insights, skill-based assignment, custom object analysis, a knowledge base approval workflow, a sandbox, audit logs and allowed domains and IP allow lists
Reviews
Write a reviewNo reviews yet. If you use Freshdesk, yours would be the first.
Alternatives to Freshdesk
| Product | Choose it instead if | Starts at |
|---|---|---|
| Help Scout | You want a free plan that doesn't expire: it covers 5 users with one inbox and one help site | Free |
| HubSpot | Your sales and marketing already run on HubSpot and you want support tickets on the same contact records | Free |
Questions people ask
Does Freshdesk have a free plan?
The pricing page lists only paid plans and a 14-day trial. Freshdesk's help center describes a separate Free program for small businesses and startups: up to 2 agents for 6 months, which you switch to from Plans and Billing in your account. It isn't available in Freshdesk Omni, and once you upgrade to a paid plan you can't go back to it.
How much does Freshdesk cost?
Growth costs $19 an agent a month, Pro $55 and Enterprise $89, all billed yearly. Freshworks says yearly billing saves 20% but doesn't show the monthly rates on the pricing page. Freddy AI Copilot is $29 an agent a month extra on Pro and Enterprise, and AI agent sessions beyond the first 500 cost $49 per 100. Prices were checked on November 4, 2026.
What is the difference between Freshdesk and Freshdesk Omni?
Freshdesk is the email help desk, and Freshworks describes its Growth plan as AI-powered service over email. Freshdesk Omni covers email, chat, phone and messaging apps such as WhatsApp in one place, and costs $29, $79 or $119 an agent a month billed yearly. Voice is a further add-on on Omni, from $15 an agent a month on Growth.
How does the Freshdesk free trial work?
When you sign up you get the Enterprise plan for 14 days, and Freshworks warns you before it ends. To keep going you pick a plan and pay by card. If you don't, Freshworks suspends the account.
How do Freddy AI Agent sessions work?
A session is one customer's conversation with the AI agent. For email, it covers every AI reply in the 72 hours after the customer's first message. Each account gets 500 sessions once, and extra packs expire with your billing cycle, so quarterly payers lose unused sessions each quarter.
What are Freshdesk day passes?
A day pass lets an occasional agent log in for a day without a full monthly seat. They cost $2 on Growth, $7 on Pro and $12 on Enterprise. They don't include Freddy AI Copilot.
Is Freshdesk the same as Freshservice?
No. Both come from Freshworks, but Freshdesk handles customer support and Freshservice is an IT service desk for requests from employees, with tools such as a service catalog and change management. Pick the one that matches who sends you tickets.
Can agents answer Freshdesk tickets from a phone?
Yes. Freshdesk has agent apps for iOS and Android. Agents can pick up, close, assign and merge tickets, and create new tickets or emails with attachments.
Sources we checked 14
- freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing for plan prices in US dollars, plan features, add-ons, day passes, Freddy AI sessions and Copilot price (including the monthly rate in the page's price data), trial terms, payment methods, cancellation terms checked November 4, 2026
- freshworks.com/freshdesk for product overview, Freddy AI Agent, Copilot and Insights descriptions, mobile app store links checked November 4, 2026
- freshworks.com/freshdesk/features for feature list by category checked November 4, 2026
- freshworks.com/freshdesk/integrations for 1,000+ Marketplace integrations, APIs, named integrations checked November 4, 2026
- freshworks.com/freshdesk/omni/pricing for Freshdesk Omni plan prices and voice add-on checked November 4, 2026
- freshworks.com/freshdesk/omni for Freshdesk Omni channels (email, chat, phone, messaging) checked November 4, 2026
- support.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/50000010099-explore-freshdesk-free-program-freshdesk-only- for Free program: 2 agents, 6 months, features, 24x5 email support, how to switch, no return after upgrading checked November 4, 2026
- support.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/235483-will-agents-be-able-to-respond-to-tickets-on-their-smartphones-using-freshdesk- for agent mobile apps for iOS and Android checked November 4, 2026
- support.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/50000001136-creating-new-tickets-and-accessing-the-ticket-list-from-mobile-app for what agents can do in the mobile app checked November 4, 2026
- support.freshworks.com for support phone line, email, community and training checked November 4, 2026
- freshworks.com/privacy for company name and San Mateo, California business address checked November 4, 2026
- freshworks.com/company/about for company background (no founding year stated) checked November 4, 2026
- helpscout.com/pricing for Help Scout free plan for 5 users (alternative) checked November 4, 2026
- zoho.com/desk/pricing.html for Zoho Desk free plan for 3 users (alternative) checked November 4, 2026