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Freshdesk is one of the most popular help desk platforms on the market. It’s part of the Freshworks suite and competes directly with Zendesk, though typically at a lower price point.
But Freshdesk’s pricing is more complex than it first appears. The base plans look affordable, but AI features, add-ons, and session-based billing can double or triple your actual costs. Here’s what you need to know before you commit.
Freshdesk Pricing at a Glance
Freshdesk uses per-agent-per-month pricing. The more support agents you have, the more you pay.
| Plan | Annual Billing | Monthly Billing | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | Up to 2 agents, basic ticketing |
| Growth | $15/agent/mo | $18/agent/mo | Automation, SLAs, marketplace apps |
| Pro | $49/agent/mo | $59/agent/mo | Custom reports, CSAT, multiple SLAs |
| Pro + AI | $78/agent/mo | $94/agent/mo | Pro features plus Freddy AI Copilot |
| Enterprise | $79/agent/mo | $95/agent/mo | Sandbox, skill-based routing, audit logs |
14-day free trial available. No credit card required. Annual billing saves 15-20%.
Free Plan
Freshdesk offers a genuinely useful free tier for very small teams.
What’s included:
- Up to 2 agents
- Email and social ticketing
- Basic knowledge base
- Team collaboration
- 24x7 email support
- Pre-built reports
What’s missing:
- No automation rules
- No SLA management
- No collision detection
- No custom roles
- No marketplace apps (limited access)
- No time tracking
Reality check: The 2-agent limit is strict. The moment you need a third support person, you’re looking at $15-18/month per agent. It’s fine for testing or solo operations, but not for growing teams.
Growth Plan ($15/agent/month)
The Growth plan is Freshdesk’s entry point for real support operations.
What’s included:
- Everything in Free
- Automation rules (event-based, time-based)
- SLA management and business hours
- Collision detection (prevents duplicate work)
- Access to 1000+ marketplace integrations
- Custom email servers
- Custom ticket views
- Time tracking
What’s missing:
- No custom reports or dashboards
- No CSAT surveys
- No multiple SLAs or timezones
- No round-robin ticket assignment
- No custom roles
- No customer segments
Cost example for a 5-agent team:
- Growth plan: 5 × $15 = $75/month
- Annual total: $900/year
Pro Plan ($49/agent/month)
The Pro plan adds analytics and more sophisticated ticket management.
What’s included:
- Everything in Growth
- Custom reports and dashboards
- Customer satisfaction surveys (CSAT)
- Multiple SLA policies
- Multiple timezone support
- Round-robin and load-balanced ticket routing
- Custom roles and permissions
- Shared ownership of tickets
- Customer segments
- Knowledge base versioning
- Up to 5,000 collaborators
What’s missing:
- No sandbox environment
- No skill-based routing
- No audit logs
- No IP whitelisting
- No HIPAA compliance
- No Freddy AI features (unless you buy Pro + AI)
Cost example for a 10-agent team:
- Pro plan: 10 × $49 = $490/month
- Annual total: $5,880/year
Pro + AI Plan ($78/agent/month)
This bundles the Pro plan with Freshdesk’s AI capabilities.
What’s included:
- Everything in Pro
- Freddy AI Copilot for agents
- AI-powered ticket summaries
- AI-suggested responses
- Freddy Insights (account-level analytics)
- 500 free Freddy AI Agent sessions
What you need to know:
The AI features are genuinely useful, but this plan costs 59% more than standard Pro. For a 10-agent team, that’s an extra $290/month ($3,480/year) compared to Pro alone.
Cost example for a 10-agent team:
- Pro + AI plan: 10 × $78 = $780/month
- Annual total: $9,360/year
Enterprise Plan ($79/agent/month)
The Enterprise plan is for large organizations needing advanced security and customization.
What’s included:
- Everything in Pro
- Sandbox environment for testing
- Skill-based ticket assignment
- Audit logs
- IP whitelisting
- HIPAA compliance
- Knowledge base approval workflows
- Agent assist bot
- Social signals
- Auto-triage
What’s missing:
- Freddy AI Copilot costs extra ($29/agent/month)
- AI Agent sessions cost extra ($100 per 1,000 sessions)
Cost example for a 20-agent team:
- Enterprise plan: 20 × $79 = $1,580/month
- Annual total: $18,960/year
Freshdesk Omni Pricing (Omnichannel)
If you need unified support across email, chat, phone, and messaging, Freshdesk Omni is a separate product with its own pricing.
| Plan | Annual Billing | Monthly Billing |
|---|---|---|
| Growth | $29/agent/mo | $35/agent/mo |
| Pro | $69/agent/mo | $83/agent/mo |
| Enterprise | $109/agent/mo | $131/agent/mo |
No free plan available for Freshdesk Omni.
Freshdesk Omni combines ticketing, live chat, phone support (Freshcaller), and messaging into one platform. The pricing is higher because you’re getting multiple products bundled together.
The Hidden Costs
Freshdesk’s base pricing is just the beginning. Here’s what can inflate your actual bill:
Freddy AI Copilot Add-on
If you’re not on Pro + AI, the AI Copilot costs extra:
- $29/agent/month (annual billing)
- $35/agent/month (monthly billing)
You can buy Copilot for specific agents rather than your whole team, which helps manage costs. But you need to be on Pro or Enterprise first—AI add-ons aren’t available on Growth.
Freddy AI Agent Sessions
Freshdesk’s AI can handle customer conversations automatically, but it runs on a session-based model:
- First 500 sessions: Free with Pro/Enterprise
- Additional sessions: $100 per 1,000 sessions
- Sessions expire at the end of each billing cycle—no rollover
A “session” is a 24-hour window of interaction between a customer and the AI. For chat, that’s one conversation. For email, it’s each bot reply.
The problem: Session costs are unpredictable. A marketing campaign, product launch, or service issue can spike support volume—and your AI bill. If you run out mid-month, the AI stops working until you buy more.
Day Passes for Occasional Agents
If you have part-time or occasional support agents:
- $3-18 per day pass depending on your plan
- Day passes allow 24 hours of access (00:00-23:59 in the agent’s timezone)
- Must be purchased separately from regular subscriptions
Field Service Management
If you need in-person support capabilities:
- $15/employee/month (available on all plans except the old Sprout tier)
- Includes scheduling, mobile apps, offline support, and location tracking
Extra Costs for Advanced Features
- Custom reports: Only available on Pro and above
- Multiple SLAs: Only on Pro and above
- HIPAA compliance: Enterprise only
- Audit logs: Enterprise only
What Freshdesk Does Well
Established platform: Freshdesk has been around since 2010 and handles millions of tickets. It’s battle-tested and reliable.
Competitive pricing vs. Zendesk: Freshdesk’s Enterprise plan ($79/agent) costs less than Zendesk’s Suite Growth plan ($89/agent). For budget-conscious teams, that’s significant.
Good automation: The automation rules, SLA management, and ticket routing work well. You can build sophisticated workflows without code.
Marketplace integrations: 1000+ apps means Freshdesk connects to most tools you’re already using.
Solid knowledge base: The built-in Solutions feature lets you create help articles, organize them into categories and folders (up to 5 levels deep), and publish in multiple languages.
Flexible AI licensing: Unlike Zendesk (which forces AI on every agent), Freshdesk lets you buy Copilot licenses for specific team members.
What Freshdesk Doesn’t Do
Knowledge base is passive: Freshdesk’s Solutions feature is a traditional documentation tool. You write articles, customers read them. There’s no AI that automatically drafts documentation based on your codebase or support tickets.
No proactive content updates: When your product changes, Freshdesk won’t detect it or suggest documentation updates. You’re responsible for keeping everything current manually.
No support-to-docs automation: Despite having both ticketing and a knowledge base, Freshdesk doesn’t analyze your support conversations at scale to identify FAQ opportunities or automatically generate articles.
AI costs are unpredictable: The session-based pricing for Freddy AI Agent makes budgeting difficult. High-volume months can blow up your costs unexpectedly.
Per-agent pricing scales poorly: A 50-agent team on Pro pays $29,400/year before any add-ons. Add Copilot for everyone and you’re at $46,800/year.
Reporting requires upgrades: Basic plans get basic analytics. Meaningful insights require Pro or higher.
Cancellation headaches: Multiple user reviews mention difficulties canceling subscriptions and unexpected charges continuing after cancellation.
When Freshdesk Makes Sense
Freshdesk is a reasonable choice if:
- You need a full-featured help desk at a lower price than Zendesk
- Your team is 5-20 agents and you want robust ticketing
- You’re already using other Freshworks products (Freshsales, Freshservice)
- Automation and SLA management are critical to your operation
- You want a traditional support inbox with proven reliability
- Budget is a primary concern and you can live without cutting-edge AI
When to Consider Alternatives
You might want to look elsewhere if:
- You want documentation that maintains itself automatically
- Per-agent pricing doesn’t work for your team size
- You need AI with predictable costs (not session-based)
- You want to reduce ticket volume through better self-service
- Your knowledge base needs outweigh your ticketing needs
- You’ve been burned by cancellation or billing issues
For a detailed feature comparison, see our Freshdesk alternatives guide. You might also want to compare Help Scout pricing or Zendesk pricing if you’re evaluating multiple platforms.
How Ferndesk Compares
| Feature | Freshdesk | Ferndesk |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $15/agent/month | $39/month (flat) |
| Pricing model | Per-agent | Flat monthly rate |
| AI documentation | Manual knowledge base | Automatic AI agent |
| Support ticket analysis | No | Up to 5,000 tickets/month |
| Content gap detection | No | Yes, weekly audits |
| AI costs | $29/agent + per session | Included in plan |
| Customer self-service | Basic Solutions portal | AI-powered search, widgets, analytics |
| Codebase integration | No | Yes |
Freshdesk and Ferndesk solve different problems. Freshdesk is a help desk platform focused on ticket management. Ferndesk is an AI-native help center focused on customer self-service.
Different philosophy: Freshdesk excels at managing support conversations efficiently. Ferndesk excels at preventing them in the first place. With AI-powered search, embedded help widgets, and customer behavior analytics, Ferndesk helps customers find answers themselves before they ever open a ticket.
Predictable pricing: Freshdesk’s per-agent model plus session-based AI costs makes budgeting difficult. A 10-agent team on Pro + AI pays $9,360/year—and that’s before additional AI sessions. Ferndesk charges flat monthly rates starting at $39/month, regardless of how many support agents you have or how much AI you use.
Documentation that maintains itself: Freshdesk’s Solutions is a manual knowledge base—you write and update everything yourself. Ferndesk’s AI agent (Fern) drafts articles from your codebase, changelogs, and support tickets, then audits content weekly to keep it fresh.
Support ticket intelligence: Ferndesk analyzes up to 5,000 support tickets per month to identify patterns and generate FAQs automatically. It can connect to Freshdesk to analyze your existing conversations and draft documentation based on what customers actually ask.
They work well together: Many teams use Freshdesk for their ticketing system and Ferndesk for their customer-facing help center. Ferndesk reduces ticket volume by helping customers self-serve, while Freshdesk handles the conversations that need human attention.
Bottom Line
Freshdesk is a capable help desk with competitive pricing compared to Zendesk. The base plans are affordable, and the automation features are solid.
But the true cost is often higher than advertised. AI add-ons, session fees, and per-agent pricing can push a 10-agent team’s bill from $1,800/year (Growth) to $9,360/year (Pro + AI) or higher. The session-based AI model makes costs unpredictable.
And fundamentally, Freshdesk is still a reactive platform. It helps you manage tickets better—but it doesn’t help you get fewer of them.
If you want a help center that reduces support volume through AI-powered self-service, Ferndesk offers automatic documentation starting at $39/month with unlimited AI usage. It can even analyze your Freshdesk tickets to draft articles.
Already using Freshdesk? Keep it for ticketing, but consider adding Ferndesk as your customer-facing help center. Fewer tickets means lower Freshdesk costs—and happier customers who find answers instantly.
