Freshdesk alternatives in 2026: eight options and what they cost

The alternatives at a glance

Prices are for annual billing, per agent a month, on each vendor's cheapest paid plan.

Two prices on these pages are lower for a while. LiveAgent shows $11 an agent in an offer that runs until November 22, and Intercom shows $19 a seat for new customers.^7,6 The table uses the regular prices.

What Freshdesk costs

Freshdesk has three plans. Growth costs $19 an agent a month, Pro $55 and Enterprise $89, all billed annually.¹

Growth includes Freshdesk's AI agent, Freddy, for the first 500 sessions. After that, more sessions cost $49 for 100, which is $0.49 a session. On Pro, the AI assistant for your own staff is an add-on at $29 an agent a month.¹

So the question for a small team is whether an alternative does the job for less than $19 an agent, or charges less once AI starts answering.

The same team on every help desk

Per-agent prices are easy to compare. The trouble starts when one vendor sells tickets and another sells answers. So we gave every help desk the same two teams and worked out the monthly bill from its own price page, on annual billing.

Across the eight services other than ours, the small team's bill runs from $45 to $87, with a median of $66. We left Conecto's row out of that range.

Three things the table shows:

• Tickets cost nothing extra on a seat plan. Seven of the eight charge per agent, so the bill is the same at 300 tickets or 3,000.
• Gorgias turns that around. It charges for tickets and never per agent. Its $50 plan covers 300 tickets, and at 1,000 tickets the cheapest fit is the $300 plan for 2,000.⁸
• Conecto charges per answer. A ticket costs $0.01 to open and $0.05 for each reply, and a support inbox costs $1.00 a month.^9,10 We counted two replies a ticket, which makes $0.11 a ticket.

That last one cuts both ways. Against a $19 seat for three people, Conecto costs less until about 500 tickets a month and more after that.

What an AI answer costs on each

Every vendor here now sells an AI agent that answers tickets on its own, and each one bills it differently. This is where the plans really differ.

The units are not the same thing. Zendesk and Intercom charge only when the AI finishes the job: Zendesk says you pay "only for customer requests that were successfully resolved by the AI agent, without any escalation to a human agent," and Intercom counts an outcome once per conversation.^2,6 Gorgias says you "pay only when it resolves a conversation."⁸ Freshdesk counts sessions, and its page doesn't say whether a session has to end the ticket.¹

Conecto's price is different in kind. It has no AI agent of its own. Your agent, such as Claude or ChatGPT, reads the ticket and writes the reply, and you pay that agent's own plan on top of the $0.05.

Each alternative in one paragraph

Zendesk

Support Team costs $19 an agent a month on annual billing and $25 monthly. The Suite plans cost $55 and $115 and add AI agents and more channels.² Good for: a team that expects to grow into a full support platform and wants the most common one.

LiveAgent

Starter is $15 an agent for up to five agents, with email, live chat, contact forms and a knowledge base. It has no social channels, call center or reporting. AI runs at your own provider's price with no fee from LiveAgent.⁷ Good for: the lowest bill for a very small team.

Help Scout

Standard costs $25 a user on annual billing and $30 monthly. Plus is $45 and Pro $75. AI answers cost $0.75 a resolution, paid monthly.³ Good for: a team that wants a simple shared inbox with a knowledge base.

Front

Starter costs $25 a seat for up to 10 seats and covers one channel. Professional is $65 and Enterprise $105. Its AI agent starts at $0.39 a conversation, and its assistant for staff is $20 a seat.⁴ Good for: a team that works from shared email and wants ticketing on top.

Hiver

Growth costs $25 a user on annual billing and $35 monthly, and lists AI agents and an AI copilot as included. Pro is $55 and Elite $85.⁵ Good for: a team that wants AI included in the seat price.

Intercom

Essential costs $29 a seat, Advanced $85 and Expert $132. Fin, its AI agent, costs $0.99 an outcome on every plan.⁶ Good for: a product company that supports customers mostly in chat.

Gorgias

Gorgias sells tickets a month. Its plans run from 50 to 5,000 tickets, "never priced per agent." Basic is $50 a month for 300 tickets on annual billing, then $0.40 a ticket.⁸ Good for: a team with many part-time helpers and few tickets.

Conecto

Conecto is our product, and it is a different kind of thing. It has no agent seats and no screen your staff work in all day. It gives your AI agent a help desk to run: email to a support inbox opens a ticket, the agent replies in the same thread, and queues show what is overdue. Reading is free.⁹

Two limits to know. It has no built-in AI of its own, so it only makes sense if you already work with an agent. And a team that wants a full app for several human agents will be better served by one of the eight above. AI help desk shows how the agent works the queue, and Zendesk MCP covers the same question for Zendesk.

How to choose

• You want the lowest bill for a few people: LiveAgent, then Freshdesk itself or Zendesk at $19.
• Many people answer a few tickets: Gorgias, because it doesn't count agents.
• You want AI answering and a price per answer you can plan: compare the AI table first. The gap between $0.11 and $2.00 an answer is wider than any gap between seats.
• You pay per resolved ticket only: Zendesk, Intercom or Help Scout.
• Your own AI agent should do the answering: Conecto.

Before you switch, check how each one imports your Freshdesk tickets and what happens to your knowledge base.

How we compared them

We read each vendor's pricing page on November 12, 2026, in US dollars. Each price is the one for annual billing, per agent a month, on the cheapest paid plan, with limited-time offers left out. Zendesk's site sends visitors in Europe to prices in euros, so we used the archived copy of its US page from November 6, 2026.²

For the two teams, we multiplied the seat price by the number of agents. For Gorgias we took the cheapest plan that covers the tickets. For Conecto we counted $0.01 to open each ticket, two replies at $0.05 and one inbox at $1.00 a month.^9,10

We compared prices and what each page lists. We did not run a team on each one, so this guide doesn't judge how good each help desk is to work in. AI answers are left out of the two team bills, because how many tickets an AI resolves differs for every business.

Questions

What is the best alternative to Freshdesk?

It depends on what you need. Zendesk is the closest full help desk at the same $19 an agent, LiveAgent is the cheapest for a small team at $15, and Help Scout at $25 suits a team that wants a simple shared inbox.^2,7,3

Is there a cheaper alternative to Freshdesk?

On annual billing, LiveAgent's Starter plan is $15 an agent against Freshdesk's $19, for up to five agents.^7,1 Gorgias is $50 a month for 300 tickets with any number of agents.⁸

Is Zendesk more expensive than Freshdesk?

At the entry level, no. Zendesk Support Team and Freshdesk Growth both cost $19 an agent a month on annual billing.^2,1 Zendesk's AI answers cost more: $1.50 to $2.00 a resolution against $0.49 a session at Freshdesk.^2,1

How much does Freshdesk's AI agent cost?

The Growth plan includes the first 500 sessions. More sessions cost $49 for 100.¹

Which help desk has the cheapest AI answers?

Of the ones here, LiveAgent, which passes on your AI provider's price of about $0.11 a chat with no fee of its own. Front starts at $0.39 a conversation and Freshdesk charges $0.49 a session.^7,4,1

Is there a Freshdesk alternative with no price per agent?

Gorgias charges by tickets a month and never per agent.⁸ Conecto charges per ticket and per reply, with no seats.⁹

Sources

We read these pages on November 12, 2026. Each number in the guide links to the page behind that sentence.

1. Freshdesk pricing, Freshworks
2. Zendesk pricing, archived copy of November 6, 2026
3. Pricing, Help Scout
4. Pricing, Front
5. Pricing, Hiver
6. Pricing, Intercom
7. Pricing, LiveAgent
8. Pricing, Gorgias
9. Help desk tools, Conecto
10. Email tools, Conecto

Conecto publishes this guide and sells business tools for AI agents. How we write our guides. To report a mistake, write to hello@conecto.chat.

Written by Amelia Cardona Hernandez, Co-founder of Conecto. LinkedIn