Both Freshdesk and Zoho Desk have a 4.4/5 rating on G2. So, which one is the better alternative?
You’ll surely be left confused if you look at the reviews and ratings. This is because both players have their own space in the market.
Freshdesk and Zoho Desk are customer support solutions that empower businesses to manage customer interactions, resolve issues promptly, and build long-lasting relationships. Both platforms’ robust capabilities and user-friendly interfaces have garnered significant attention and a loyal user base.
In this article, we will dive deep into the features, functionality, pricing, and overall suitability of Freshdesk vs Zoho Desk for different businesses. We’re here to share valuable insights to make an informed decision!
Girish Mathrubutham created Freshworks, the parent business of Freshdesk, in India in 2010. In order to support its quick growth and expansion, this top software company has constructed a variety of customer service tools and acquired millions of dollars throughout the years.
This help desk platform lets you quickly address client requests and issues by combining discussions from email, chat, phone, help center, social media, etc. Your target audience has the option to self-serve, repetitive tasks can be automated, and team collaboration can be improved.
With its rich features and user-friendly interface, Freshdesk stands out as a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes, offering a seamless support experience.
Since its founding in 1996, Zoho Desk has introduced various software products to fulfill the demands of contemporary enterprises. Over 10,000 people work for the privately held corporation Zoho, which has offices worldwide.
Zoho Desk is a customer support software that allows businesses to deliver satisfactory customer service experiences.
With its wide array of features and customizable options, Zoho Desk stands out as a reliable and versatile tool for businesses of all sizes, ensuring streamlined management of customer support operations.
Let’s begin with a comparison on the features offered by both these platforms. Here’s the feature comparison of Freshdesk vs Zoho Desk.
Freshdesk and Zoho Desk have quite similar ticket management capabilities. Here are what they look like:
Helping your customers, help themselves is the new norm. At least that is what the Super Office’s report says. Both Freshdesk and Zoho Desk are competent in providing self-service features for customer support. Here’s a Zoho Desk vs Freshdesk comparison on self-service features.
Your human agents can get burnt out but an automated system won’t and that’s exactly what today’s customer demands—customer service without interruption. Here’s a comparison of Freshdesk vs. Zoho Desk in terms of automation.
You would want to see how your agents are performing and what your customer service levels are. Here are the analytics and insight features by Freshdesk and Zoho Desk.
Customer support is extremely important, especially when your entire customer service operations depend on just one software. Here is a Freshdesk vs. Zoho Desk on how well these platforms do in terms of customer support.
Freshdesk does not lag behind when it comes to customer support. Simple support channels like email, live chat, and contact numbers are available on the website.
Freshdesk also does a great job of providing interactive customer support. You get access to a vast video library filled with pertinent information. You can watch interactive videos on various subjects, including building a multilingual knowledge base, using canned responses, and developing knowledge base articles.
For new users to develop their abilities, Freshdesk also provides the Freshworks Academy. Users can have discussions with others and ask for help on the Freshworks community forum.
Zoho Desk’s customer support is available only five days a week. Still, it is a round-the-clock service during those days. Now, if your company is open every day of the week, this may be a serious problem.
You must pay 20% to 25% of your license cost to receive premium or enterprise support (24-hour assistance). In addition, a technical account manager is only available with the Enterprise subscription.
Although you must pay extra for human assistance, you can still use Zoho’s comprehensive help center. Finding information on integrations, webinars, and the most recent product updates or features is possible.
Lastly, Zoho Desk has email support, which may be less responsive.
Freshdesk has a forever-free plan for up to 10 agents. Apart from that, you can also get a 21-day free trial. Other pricing plans are:
Growth: $15/user/month. Provides fundamental features, including time monitoring, collision detection, help desk reporting, and more.
Pro: $48/user/month. Comes with a few additional features like customizable CSAT surveys, custom objects, advanced filtering, etc.
Enterprise: $79/user/month. All Growth and Pro features, skill-based routing, email bots, article suggestions, social signals, and more are available.
Zoho Desk also has a forever free plan limited to up to 3 agents. You can also get a 15-day free trial. The other pricing plans are:
Standard: $14/agent/month. Offers social and community channels, SLAs, customer happiness ratings, and more.
Professional: $23/agent/month. Comes with ten email channels, round-robin ticket assignment, agent collision detection, and more.
Enterprise: $40/agent/month. You can get Zia – Artificial Intelligence, Multi-Level IVR, Multi-Brand Help Center, scheduled reports, and more.
After seeing the list of capabilities of both platforms, you might want to know which is the best for you. We think it would be fair to say there is no clear winner here. Freshdesk and Zoho Desk have different capabilities that can be perfectly suited for different business needs.
Are you willing to pay extra for features and great customer support? If yes, Freshdesk is a great help desk software for you. Freshdesk is also for you if you’re already in the Freshworks system.
We think Freshdesk is the perfect solution for small businesses wanting to scale their customer service. Freshdesk could also be great if you’re just starting because it has a forever free plan with more features than the Zoho Desk’s free plan.
While Freshdesk may be a little more expensive than Zoho Desk, it provides bang for the buck and is suitable for businesses of all sizes and shapes.
If you’re already in the Zoho system, that means if you are already using their other apps, forms, Zoho CRM, or Sales IQ—Zoho Desk would be great for you! This way, you don’t have to go through the hassle of shifting from Zoho to Freshdesk.
Zoho Desk would be for you if you are an enterprise team but want the enterprise features at a lower cost. The enterprise plan at Zoho Desk is cheaper and comes with almost all enterprise features provided by Freshdesk.
Zoho Desk’s customer support and customization capabilities are not at par with Freshdesk. So if you can let that go, Zoho Desk is great for you!
| Freshdesk | ZohoDesk | |
| Features | Ticket management Automation Self service Analytics and Insights Customization | Instant messaging Zoho CRM integration Ticket assignment automation Headquarters for managers to get analytics |
| Pricing | Paid plans start at $15 per month. | Paid plans start at $14 per month. |
| Ease of Use | Easy to get started with it. | Easy to set up but does have a learning curve. |
| Integrations | With popular tools but only at upper tier plans | With most popular tools as well as Zoho CRM. |
| Customer Support | 24/7 live chat and email support | Available only 5 days a week and pay extra for extra support. |
| Customer Reviews | 4.4 on G2 | 4.4 on G2 |
Freshdesk feels too expensive and you want better customer support than Zoho Desk? We have the right solution for you.
Enter: Helpwise.
Helpwise, is an even better option than Freshdesk or Zoho Desk. Here’s how it wins:
Helpwise provides most features Freshdesk or Zoho Desk offers at lower cost, with better customer support and easy setting up. What else could be better?
Still not convinced? Here is what users have said about us:
“Helpwise is my everyday tool. I’ve tried many helpdesk services in the past, and they were either too complicated to use or too expensive. But helpwise is very super easy to use and the support system is just amazing. Continued development makes the helpwise software even better.”
“I use Helpwise daily to support all incoming emails. The saved replies are amazing and the ability to make internal notes is great.”
“Helpwise works just like other customer support software and it does more! You can create canned responses, automation rules, snooze or schedule a reply or email, make forms that can be embedded, integrate their own live chat widget, have an in-house file manager, and so much more! I really like the UI/UX of this app, it’s very modern-looking and easy to navigate. The onboarding was very easy for me. I was able to add a few inboxes in just a few minutes. I’m so glad I found Helpwise, it will be my go-to service for my customer support tasks.”
Try out Helpwise and its modern features for FREE by signing up here.
The main differences between Freshdesk and Zoho Desk are their features and pricing. Freshdesk comes with more features than Zoho Desk, but at the same time, it is more expensive as well. On the other hand, Zoho Desk is a more affordable option but may not come with as many features.
Freshdesk is surely a more suited software for small businesses. This is because Freshdesk is simpler to use and set up. It comes with more features with only some price difference. Freshdesk also has a longer free trial period. The forever free plan also allows up to 10 users.
Zoho Desk is the more affordable option. Whereas, Freshdesk is comparatively expensive.
Freshdesk is a winner regarding customer support because you get free customer support 365 days a year and 24 hours a day. With Zoho Desk, customer support is only available five days a week unless you have the enterprise plan.
The key advantage of Freshdesk is its scalability. The disadvantage is the cost of the software. For Zoho Desk, the key advantage is the availability of a wide range of features at a low cost. The key disadvantage is the lack of great customer support.
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