What Freshdesk does best, and who should stay
A conventional ticketing help desk with a generous entry price and a deep feature list above it. Growth covers ticketing and automations, and already has one SLA policy. Pro, at $55, adds multiple SLA policies, intelligent routing, custom dashboards and a multilingual help desk, and it is the first plan Copilot can be added to.
That is a cheaper route to service rules than Zendesk offers: a team of 3 pays $1,980 a year on Freshdesk Pro and $4,140 on Zendesk Suite Professional. If your team runs on those rules, the price rise is a reason to budget, not to migrate.
What changed at Freshdesk
The prices. Prices rose in 2026: Growth from $15 to $19, Pro from $49 to $55 and Enterprise from $79 to $89 on annual billing. Freshworks’ own page description still says "starts at $15".
The free plan. The permanent free plan ended on 9 June 2025, replaced by the 6-month free program. A free program for up to 2 agents for the first 6 months. It is not on the pricing page; you switch to it from inside an account, under plans and billing.
After the program, a team of 3 on Growth pays $684 a year, and $1,980 on Pro. Every rung, the add-ons and the AI session costs are on Freshdesk pricing.
Which alternatives are still free
Read from each vendor’s own pricing page on 27 September 2026.
| Tool | Free plan | Trial |
|---|---|---|
| Freshdesk | Free for up to 2 agents for the first 6 months, switched on from inside an account. | 14 days of Enterprise. |
| Zoho Desk | Free for up to 3 users on one email channel. | 15 days of any plan, no card needed; the account drops to the free plan afterwards. |
| Help Scout | Free for up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site and 100 contacts helped a month, with no AI tools. | 15 days on Standard or Plus, no card needed. |
| Gmail | Free, or included in Google Workspace | Not applicable |
| Missive | None | 30 days of Productive, no card needed. No free plan. |
| Zendesk | None | 14 days of Suite Professional with Copilot. No free plan. |
| Hiver | None | 7 days of Elite, no card needed. No free plan. |
| Moorline | None | None; a 30-day refund on any payment instead. |
Two tools here are free with no end date, and each free plan has a limit worth knowing. Zoho Desk’s covers one email channel, so live chat means paying for Standard. Help Scout’s has no AI tools and caps the contacts helped each month. Gmail is free as well, and at low volume that is a fair answer, with one blind spot. It has no idea a customer is still owed a reply. An archived thread and a finished job look identical.
And one more free plan went the same way as Freshdesk’s. Hiver replaced its earlier plan line-up with Growth, Pro and Elite, and the free plan left its pricing page in September 2026.
The alternatives, ranked for small teams
Per seat, per month, on yearly billing.
| Tool | From | Free plan | Your mailbox | Pick it when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freshdesk (what you have) | $19 Growth | Time-limited program | Forwards your address into their inbox | You use Pro’s SLA policies and routing. |
| 1. Zoho Desk | $7 Express | Yes, no end date | Forwards your address into their inbox | You want tickets for less, or free. |
| 2. Help Scout | $25 Standard | Yes, no end date | Forwards your address into their inbox | You want free, and email that reads like email. |
| 3. Missive | $14 Starter | No | Connects your mailbox over IMAP, syncs to their cloud | You want a shared inbox on your own mailbox. |
| 4. Zendesk | $19 Support Team | No | Forwards your address into their inbox | You are moving for channels, not price. |
| 5. Hiver | $25 Growth | No | Works inside Gmail | Your team lives in Gmail. |
| 6. Gmail | Free | Yes | It is your mailbox | Volume is low and you want nothing new. |
| 7. Moorline | $9 a month | No; 30-day refund | Reads it over IMAP, replies from your address | You are one person on a Mac. |
What a year costs
| Plan, per year | 1 person | 3 people | 10 people |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho Desk Express | $84 | $252 | Not offered |
| Zoho Desk Standard | $168 | $504 | $1,680 |
| Missive Starter | $168 | $504 | Not offered |
| Freshdesk Growth | $228 | $684 | $2,280 |
| Zendesk Support Team | $228 | $684 | $2,280 |
| Help Scout Standard | $300 | $900 | $3,000 |
| Hiver Growth | Not offered | $900 | $3,000 |
| Freshdesk Pro | $660 | $1,980 | $6,600 |
For 3 people, Freshdesk Growth is $684 a year. Zoho Desk Standard, which includes live chat and a knowledge base, is $504, and Missive Starter $504. “Not offered” means the plan’s seat limits rule that team size out.
Seats only, on yearly billing. The free plans are not rows because they cost nothing within their limits. Moorline is not in the table because it has no seats to multiply: one person, $9 a month, $108 over a year.
Each alternative, and who should pick it
1. Zoho Desk: the like-for-like, cheaper and still free
Best at: A conventional ticketing help desk, priced well below its rivals and bundled into an unusually wide suite of business software. The free plan has no end date. Free for up to 3 users on one email channel. Standard, at $14, adds the rest a small team needs. Unlimited users, 5 channels, knowledge base, live chat and 5 workflow rules per module. AI does not add a meter either. Generative AI uses your own OpenAI key. No per-resolution fee.
The catch: Express caps you at 5 users and a single workflow rule, and leaves out the knowledge base, live chat and extra channels that the Standard plan at $14 adds. Multi-department routing starts at Professional, $23. Your support address is forwarded into its inbox, as with Freshdesk, and it is web only.
Pick it if you want to keep a ticketing help desk and pay less for it, or want a small team to run free without a clock on it.
2. Help Scout: a free plan and a different way of working
Best at: A shared inbox for support teams who want their replies to look like ordinary email rather than tickets. Its free plan does not expire. Free for up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site and 100 contacts helped a month, with no AI tools.
The catch: The paid seat costs more. Standard is $25 per user against Growth’s $19. Standard has no AI drafts or summaries, basic workflows only, no round robin and no Salesforce, Jira or HubSpot integration. AI is billed by result. AI Answers: $0.75 per resolution, with a monthly spending cap available.
Pick it if you are a small team that wants a free plan with no end date, and conversations rather than tickets. The plan-by-plan view is in Help Scout vs Freshdesk.
3. Missive: cheaper seats on your own mailbox
Best at: A shared inbox and team chat in one app, built around drafting replies collaboratively. It connects your existing mailbox over IMAP instead of asking you to forward it, and it has an Electron desktop app for Mac and Windows.
The catch: Starter caps you at 5 users and leaves out rules, integrations and API access, which is most of what people upgrade for. Those arrive on Productive at $24. Its offer is a trial: 30 days of Productive, no card needed. No free plan.
Pick it if the ticket model was never what you wanted, and a shared inbox on the mailbox you already have is.
4. Zendesk: the same shape, a bigger platform
Best at: A full customer-service platform: ticketing, routing, SLAs, reporting, voice, and a workforce to run it. Its channels live in the Suite: Suite Team, at $55, adds messaging and live chat, AI agents, telephony and omnichannel routing.
The catch: It is not the cheaper move. Support Team has no messaging or live chat, no AI agents, no telephony, no SLAs and a single ticket form. Its offer is a trial: 14 days of Suite Professional with Copilot. No free plan. AI is metered too. AI resolutions past the included ones: $1.50 each committed, $2.00 pay as you go.
Pick it if you are leaving Freshdesk for channels rather than price. The rung-by-rung pairing is in Zendesk vs Freshdesk.
5. Hiver: a shared inbox inside Gmail
Best at: Meeting a Gmail team where it already works. Growth, at $25 a user, puts a shared inbox inside Gmail or Hiver’s own web app, with AI agents, a copilot and rules included.
The catch: Growth has no customer portal, no SLAs, no CSAT and no API access. Every plan has a minimum of 2 users. Hiver replaced its earlier plan line-up with Growth, Pro and Elite, and the free plan left its pricing page in September 2026.
Pick it if your team runs on Google Workspace and does not want another app to open.
6. Gmail: free, and fine at low volume
Best at: Being there already. It costs nothing beyond the mail hosting you pay for, there is nothing to set up or migrate, and it is the honest baseline any support tool has to beat.
The catch: It has no idea a customer is still owed a reply. An archived thread and a finished job look identical.
Pick it if support is a handful of emails a week and a help desk would be more process than the volume needs.
7. Moorline: only if the team is one person
Best at: One person answering their own customers on a Mac. It reads the mailbox you already have (Gmail or Google Workspace, iCloud, Fastmail, Zoho Mail or another IMAP host), replies from your own address, and keeps each customer on a list until the work is handled and they have been told. Snippets and optional read-only Stripe context come with it, at $9 a month flat with no per-resolution charge.
The catch: It is for one person and nothing else: no seats, no shared inbox, no assignment and no chat widget. It does not connect to Microsoft 365 or Outlook.com mail, it needs macOS 15 or later, and there is no free plan or trial, only a 30-day refund. If free is what you need, Zoho Desk, Help Scout or Gmail is the better answer.
Pick it if you ran Freshdesk as its only agent and want something built for that. The tradeoff is set out in the Freshdesk alternative for one support person.
Questions people ask
Is Freshdesk still free?
Not permanently. The permanent free plan ended on 9 June 2025, replaced by the 6-month free program. A free program for up to 2 agents for the first 6 months. It is not on the pricing page; you switch to it from inside an account, under plans and billing.
What is a free alternative to Freshdesk?
Two alternatives have a free plan with no end date. Zoho Desk: Free for up to 3 users on one email channel. Help Scout: Free for up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site and 100 contacts helped a month, with no AI tools. Gmail itself is free as well and fine at low volume, with one blind spot. It has no idea a customer is still owed a reply. An archived thread and a finished job look identical.
What is cheaper than Freshdesk?
Zoho Desk, at every rung: Express is $7 per agent for up to 5 users and Standard is $14, against $19 for Freshdesk Growth. Missive Starter is $14 per user if you would rather have a shared inbox on your own mailbox than tickets. All prices on yearly billing.
Did Freshdesk raise its prices?
Yes. Prices rose in 2026: Growth from $15 to $19, Pro from $49 to $55 and Enterprise from $79 to $89 on annual billing. Freshworks’ own page description still says "starts at $15".
Is Zoho Desk better than Freshdesk?
Both are conventional ticketing help desks. Zoho Desk is cheaper at each rung and still has a free plan. Free for up to 3 users on one email channel. Freshdesk puts multiple SLA policies and intelligent routing on Pro at $55 per agent, while Zoho Desk's multi-department routing and round robin start on Professional at $23. Neither wins across the board: Zoho Desk on price, Freshdesk if your team already relies on what Pro does.
Prices read from each vendor’s own pricing page on 27 September 2026, including Freshdesk’s.