Top 9 strong alternatives to Freshdesk (Free & Paid)

Benefits of Freshdesk

To understand a little bit more about why many companies prefer Freshdesk, it's important to learn about its benefits. The most critical ones are listed below:

Limitations of Freshdesk

While Freshdesk provides several beneficial features to businesses across domains and regions, it is not perfect. Much like other brands in the field, Freshdesk also has some limitations. We can look at the major ones here:

Gallabox

Gallabox is one of the leading no-code workspace providers in India. The brand primarily delivers custom WhatsApp API & chatbot solutions for businesses. It is committed to ensuring a seamless customer experience for businesses by providing affordable solutions to engage with their customers.

Pros:

• The dashboard is highly intuitive and the tools are easy to set up & integrate. In fact, you can set up a chatbot in minutes using Gallabox.
• The platform is highly affordable and is focused on helping small businesses succeed.
• Complete Suite of WhatsApp Solutions that can be easily integrated with your existing CRM databases, e-commerce stores, and payment & logistic partners.
• Multilingual support for customers across India.

Cons:

• Since it is an evolving company, the enterprise management solutions that it offers might feel limited.
• Currently, Gallabox only supports WhatsApp solutions but is planning to expand.

Price: Starts from ₹2000/- per month.

Zendesk Support Suite

Zendesk is a SaaS company that was formed with the goal of creating personalized customer support software. The platform is well-known for providing a variety of ticketing and customer service solutions for small businesses. Zendesk provides one of the best live chat support with features like file sharing, visitor/behavioral tracking, etc.

Pros:

• Provides self-help support to customers and regularly updates FAQs with most asked questions.
• Excellent omnichannel communication support that integrates 1000s of apps and platforms.
• Provides excellent workflow automation support that enables small businesses to streamline operations.

Cons:

• The platform is not fluid and intuitive in nature. This makes it difficult to navigate.
• It is expensive and there is also a lack of free plans.
• Lack of collaborative features and tools that are mostly present in many of its competitors.

Price: Plans start from ₹3880.56 per agent/month

Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is the helpdesk support service provided by Zoho, one of the leading CRM and email support providers in India. Zoho Desk provides all the necessary helpdesk and customer support tools that are offered by Freshdesk and it also has a free plan that is designed to assist small businesses.

Pros:

• Zoho’s other platforms make it easier for businesses to integrate all of their business functions under the same umbrella.
• Offers call-center and telephonic functionality for small businesses.
• A free plan is present for small businesses that want to try it.

Cons:

• The pricing of its paid plans is considered more expensive by many customers.
• The user interface is considered to be outdated when compared to most of its competitors.
• SMS notifications need a Twilio account, which might hinder businesses that aren’t using the platform.

Price: Free plan available. Prices start from ₹950 per agent/month

Front

Front is a tool that provides omnichannel customer communication solutions to businesses. It acts as a communication hub for businesses and combines the information from various apps, platforms and emails to a single screen. While the tool might be simple in nature, Front has been providing efficient tailor-made communication solutions to businesses since 2013. Explore more on alternatives like Interakt alternative.

Pros:

• The shared inbox feature combines communications from emails, apps and other platforms.
• Ability to tag and label customer communications allow seamless integration between teams.
• Flexibility to scale as your business grows. You can add features and functionality as and when you need them.

Cons:

• While the pricing is not that high, the cost for enabling key features & functionalities is high.
• Front’s processes are not flexible and intuitive in nature. Many customers have also noted that there are issues with email sync and notifications.
• While there are self-help options, the tool is hard to get used to. It is also important to note that there is a lack of creative service mentality.

Price: Prices start from ₹1500 per agent/month

Help Scout

Help Scout is a global helpdesk software provider that offers email-based customer support solutions, knowledge base tools and embedded widgets for businesses. While it doesn’t offer a wide range of customer support features, the ones that it provides are meaningful and useful. Help Scout also has a clean interface and simple yet efficient workflow, which bodes well with businesses that are looking to scale globally.

Pros:

• A simple and clutter-free interface that suits the needs of growing businesses.
• Comes with a knowledge base feature that can host FAQs for business sites.
• Has one of the best tracking and reporting features in the current market. Helps track SLAs, intent, satisfaction, etc., easily.

Cons:

• When you increase your staff, your expenses might increase. When your business scales up, Help Scout’s plans might become expensive as it is dependent on the number of users.
• Doesn’t support adding multiple stores or business locations to the same account/screen. Multi-location/multi-level businesses need to switch between accounts frequently.
• One of the main issues with Help Scout is their support. Instead of providing clear and tailored solutions, the team provides predefined replies for all queries.

Price: Prices start from ₹475 per agent/month

HubSpot Service Hub

As one of the major CRM service providers, HubSpot is well-known around the world. The HubSpot Service Hub is a part of the CRM platform that connects all customer service channels. By consolidating all customer service data, businesses can support, retain, and grow their customer base easily. Explore more on alternatives like Verloop alternative.

Pros:

• As a global platform, Hubstaff’s CRM solutions support multiple languages.
• The API interface is highly flexible and can be customized to suit specific business needs.
• One of the very few platforms that offer JIRA integration for smooth ticketing and customer support process.

Cons:

• The Service Hub is intended to be used with HubStaff CRM. However, HubStaff’s pricing varies based on the number of features a business uses. Thus, small businesses might find it expensive to integrate it as the backbone of their service offerings.
• Since HubStaff provides a host of services and provides too much information about all the services, many customers have reported that it's hard to find specific information about critical processes.
• Many of the services and features like attribution are only available in the higher-end packages.

Price: Free plan available. Prices start from ₹3500 per agent/month

LiveAgent

LiveAgent is a FreshDesk alternative that provides customer service, ticketing and chatbot solutions. The platform offers 130+ ticketing features and integrations to 200+ tools including SalesForce, Squarespace, Google Analytics, etc. LiveAgent is the first service to offer personalized real-time live chat widgets to businesses. Its simple yet powerful interface is considered one of its USPs.

Pros:

• Ability to set up support and chat widgets in multiple languages.
• Offers fast live chat integration with customized workflows and functionalities.
• Provides call center and customer knowledge-base features.
  

Cons:

• LiveAgent’s interface is clunky and not versatile when compared to many of its competitors.
• The reporting and analytics features are not well-defined. This makes process improvements a little more challenging for businesses.
• There are issues with customer support and many customers have reported that issues are not resolved in a timely manner.

Price: Free plan available. Prices start from ₹1800 per agent/month

ProProfs Help Desk

ProProfs Help Desk offers centralized information and support management services for businesses. The company’s goal is to provide software that can not only act as a one-stop point of contact but also help automate repetitive tasks, collaborate better, and make data-driven decisions. In addition to the Help Desk, ProProfs also offers ProProfs Chat, ProProfs Knowledge Base, and ProProfs Survey Maker to offer a comprehensive & seamless customer support solution for businesses.

Pros:

• The platform provides excellent ticket routing and SLA management support.
• ProProfs helps agents seamlessly communicate using internal notes and chats.
• Businesses can use a common dashboard to collaborate and solve challenging issues, share notes, prioritize conversations, and track every single support ticket.

Cons:

• Tickets are not assigned to specific agents but are assigned to any available agent. This might not help specific business processes and might even result in delayed resolutions in some cases.
• The user interface of ProProfs Help Desk is not user-friendly and customizable in nature.
• Automated responses cannot be personalized for specific circumstances. This is a major drawback for emerging businesses.

Price: Free plan available. Prices start from ₹790 per agent/month

Intercom

Intercom is a software company that helps businesses generate quality customer experiences with superior customer support software. It builds industry-leading support systems that are capable of offering three layers of human, self-serve, and proactive support to customers. In addition to helpdesk support, the company enables businesses to launch marketing campaigns, onboard customers, and share proactive messages with their customer base.

Pros:

• Helps businesses offer omnichannel support through multiple channels including websites, mobile apps & social media platforms.
• Offers several self-help articles and in-app tours to help customers familiarize themselves with the products and features.
• Provides marketing and sales support in addition to customer service solutions. This greatly benefits small businesses.

Cons:

• While it provides marketing/sales support, Intercom’s plans are expensive when compared to other alternatives like Gallabox.
• Their notifications are not highly responsive and many customers have reported missed opportunities due to this issue.
• Their analytics and reporting systems are not robust and it is confusing at times. This might result in a lack of valuable insights.

Price: Free plan available. Prices start from ₹6250 per agent/month

Suggested Read: WhatsApp Business API: All you need to know!