Zoho Desk vs Freshdesk vs Help Scout

Compared on	ZD Zoho Desk Free plan · from ₹420/user/mo VisitRemove	Freshdesk Free trial · from $19/agent/mo VisitRemove	HS Help Scout Free plan VisitRemove
What it is	Help desk software with email, chat, phone and AI agents, priced per user in a tiered plan ladder	Freshworks help desk with ticketing, a knowledge base and Freddy AI	Shared inbox and help desk for customer support teams, with an AI chatbot billed per resolution
Free plan	Three user licenses with email ticketing; the page says these three users are not included after upgrading to a paid plan	No	Up to 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site and 100 contacts a month; 10 saved replies, tags and articles each
Cheapest paid plan	₹420/user/mo billed annually (Express)Zoho Desk pricing	$19/agent/mo billed annually (Growth)Freshdesk pricing	Not publishedHelp Scout pricing
What it covers	Billed annually; the pricing page we read showed rupee prices only and no monthly-billing prices.	Cheapest plan; includes the Freddy AI Agent with 500 free sessions once per account.	Not stated
Free trial	15-day free trial on any plan, no credit card needed; the account reverts to the Free plan afterwards	14-day free trial with access to the Enterprise plan, no credit card required	15-day free trial of Standard and Plus, no credit card needed; Pro is not offered as a trial
Platforms	Web	Web	Web
Integrations (vendor's figure)	360+ apps	Not stated	100+ tools
Open source	No	No	No
Good for	Teams already using other Zoho products Small teams that want a free three-user starting point	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	Generative AI on Express needs your own OpenAI or DeepSeek key Light agents cost ₹345 a month each on Professional and Enterprise Monthly-billing prices and USD prices were not shown on the page we read	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 by	Zoho	Freshworks 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.