Automate Basics

Zendesk vs Freshdesk vs Help Scout

Pick up to 4 tools and see their free plans, entry prices, platforms and limits in one table. Every fact comes from each vendor's own pages, checked 7 November 2026.

Written head to head: Freshdesk vs Zendesk, with when to choose each side.

Compared on
Zendesk

Free trial · from $19/agent/mo

Freshdesk

Free trial · from $19/agent/mo

Help Scout

Free plan

What it isCustomer service software with ticketing, messaging, voice and AI agentsFreshworks help desk with ticketing, a knowledge base and Freddy AIShared inbox and help desk for customer support teams, with an AI chatbot billed per resolution
Free planNoNoUp to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site and 100 contacts a month; 10 saved replies, tags and articles each
Cheapest paid plan$19/agent/mo billed annually (Support Team)Zendesk pricing$19/agent/mo billed annually (Growth)Freshdesk pricingNot publishedHelp Scout pricing
What it coversCheapest self-serve plan; email-based support. AI agent usage is billed per automated resolution.Cheapest plan; includes the Freddy AI Agent with 500 free sessions once per account.Not stated
Free trial14-day free trial of Suite Professional (Copilot included in the trial)14-day free trial with access to the Enterprise plan, no credit card required15-day free trial of Standard and Plus, no credit card needed; Pro is not offered as a trial
PlatformsWebWebWeb
Integrations (vendor's figure)1,800+ apps, partners, and integrationsNot stated100+ tools
Open sourceNoNoNo
Good for
  • Handling customer emails as tracked tickets in a small support team
  • Combining chat, messaging and phone support in one queue
  • Resolving common questions with an AI agent that is billed only for requests it resolves without a human
  • Managing customer emails as tickets in a shared inbox
  • Publishing a self-service knowledge base and customer portal
  • Trying an AI agent on common questions using the included sessions
  • Small and mid-sized teams that want a shared inbox rather than a heavy ticketing system
  • Teams that want a free starting plan for up to five people
Watch out for
  • No free plan; the 14-day trial runs on Suite Professional
  • Support Team is email-focused; messaging, live chat and telephony need a Suite plan
  • Copilot costs extra ($50/agent/month paid yearly) except on Suite Enterprise + Copilot
  • No free plan on the pricing page; after the 14-day trial you buy a plan or, on Freshdesk only, move to a 6-month Free Program for up to two agents
  • Freddy AI Copilot is not offered on Growth and costs $29 per agent a month billed annually ($35 monthly)
  • The 500 free AI Agent sessions come once per account; more cost $49 per 100
  • Envoy chatbot resolutions are billed on top of the plan at $0.75 each
  • Additional inboxes cost extra ($10 a month paid annually, $12 monthly)
  • Plan limits on inboxes and users are stated differently in different parts of the pricing page
Made byZendeskFreshworks Inc.Help Scout

Entry prices are the cheapest paid plan, as each vendor publishes it; “What it covers” says what that price is per (a user, a channel, a brand, a number of contacts). The sources are listed on each tool's page.

Every tool in AI customer support tools is on its category page, with the written head-to-heads on Compare.