Top 5 Freshdesk Competitors and Alternatives

Freshdesk is a leading customer support platform. Freshworks, its parent company, was named a "Visionary" in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Engagement.

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Freshdesk offers two main packages: Helpdesk and Omnichannel. The Omnichannel suite includes:

• Freshdesk Helpdesk
• Freshcaller
• Freshchat
• Freshworks CRM

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The "Unified" Challenge

While Freshdesk markets itself as a unified platform, the user experience can feel fragmented.

• Users often need multiple browser tabs open for different tasks.
• Separate apps are required for calling versus chatting.
• Standalone dashboards have different layouts for each product.
• Interactions on different channels can create duplicate tickets, forcing customers to repeat themselves.

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Pricing Note: Freshdesk Omnichannel starts at US$79 per licence/month (billed annually). Costs increase for WhatsApp integration, call/chat packages, or advanced analytics.

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Top 5 Freshdesk competitors and alternatives based on unified customer and user experience, and cost:

CINNOX

CINNOX empowers businesses to optimize the entire customer journey. It is designed for startups, SMEs, and enterprises alike.

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The Key Differentiator:

‍CINNOX was built as a native omnichannel platform from day one. Communication channels are not "add-ons." This provides deeper insights and stronger data analysis.

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Top Features:

• Large Suite of Native Channels: Centralized dashboard for WhatsApp Business, WeChat, Facebook Messenger, Live Chat, Web Calls, and SMS.
• Global Virtual Numbers: Access local numbers in 150+ countries to build a global presence instantly.
• Native SMS Campaign Manager: No additional integrations or subscription fees required.
• Unified Customer Profiles: Connects identities across different channels. It uses a single chat room per customer instead of an "issue-based" ticket.

Great for: Personalized, contextual omnichannel engagement from marketing to loyalty.

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Pricing:

• ESSENTIALS Plan: US$55 per month, per licence (billed annually). No minimum licence requirement.

Zendesk (Zendesk Support Suite)

Zendesk is a service-first CRM company. Its Support Suite unifies ticketing, knowledge bases, call center software, and live messaging.

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Top Features:

• Advanced Ticketing System: The industry leader for creating, assigning, and solving customer issues.
• Agent Workspace: A redesigned interface that keeps all context and interactions in one place.
• Self-Service: High-quality Knowledge Bases allow customers to find answers to FAQs independently.
• Extensive Integrations: Over 700 integrations available, including Slack and Outlook.

Great for: Large-scale support operations requiring advanced ticketing and comprehensive self-service.

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Pricing:

• Suite Team: US$49 per month, per licence.
• Suite Growth: US$70 per month, per licence.
• Suite Professional: US$99 per month, per licence.

Zoho (Zoho Desk)

Zoho Desk is a web-based help desk software that emphasizes team collaboration and CRM integration. With their expertise in CRM, they provide businesses with a deep understanding of customer profiles during every interaction.

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Top Zoho Desk Features:

• CRM Context: Agents can view a customer's history and profile directly within the ticket.
• Social Media Integration: Manage inquiries from Facebook and Instagram shops through a robust ticketing system.
• Work Management: Features like "Work Modes" help agents prioritize tickets based on urgency or customer type.
• Automation: Use "Blueprints" to automate repetitive tasks and ensure consistent support processes.

Great for: Businesses already using the Zoho ecosystem who need a help desk with deep CRM roots and automation.

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Zoho Desk Pricing:

• Standard: US$14 per month, per licence (billed annually).
• Professional: US$23 per month, per licence (billed annually).

Front

Front is a customer engagement platform. It uses automation and custom workflows to drive natural conversations at scale. It routes customers to the right support agent efficiently.

Top Front Features:

• Automate and Plan Workflows: Businesses can plan in-depth maps for the customer journey, with advanced rule triggers and assignments. Customer support is easily and efficiently automated with templates, and quality SLA’s can be set for every step before customers eventually reach an agent only when needed.
• Customisation: Businesses have a lot of flexibility in branding and designing their dashboard for staff, while agents are able to customise their personal workspace to suit their unique preferences. Front’s focus on individual productivity allows agents to integrate their calendar, save their own templates, and see their own individual analytics.
• Email management: Front has a big focus on emails, so it’s no surprise a lot of their unique innovations are around email handling and management. Email workflows are streamlined, drafts can be shared between colleagues, and agents can see who has viewed an email to make following up easier.

Great for: Businesses that want to automate much of the support process, and empower their staff to provide their best service, efficiently.

Front Pricing:

• Starter: US$19 per month, per licence, billed annually
• Prime: US$49 per month, per licence, billed annually
• Enterprise: US$99 per month, per licence, billed annually

Gorgias

Gorgias is a help desk for e-commerce stores. It allows teams to manage support in one place. It integrates with Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce.

Top Gorgias Features:

• Shopify Integration: Part of the powerful integration between Shopify and Gorgias means that businesses can simply see order details for a customer, refund, cancel, duplicate orders, and see the shipping details/timeline right next to the support ticket – without leaving the Gorgias help desk app.
• Loyalty Building: Unified customer communication history across different channels along with purchase data, and loyalty programme integration, businesses have rich data and tools to grow loyalty and target customers with relevant products, messaging, and offers.
• Reward Customers: Gorgias allows easy and quick rewards for customers, such as creating and sending loyalty programme points, gift cards, special offers and more straight to the customer in your current ticket, without leaving the help desk app or having to open another platform.

Great for: Small to medium sized e-commerce retailers with Shopify or Magento that have a strong flow of repeat customers.

Gorgias Pricing:

• Basic: US$50 per month, billed annually, 350 monthly tickets
• Pro: US$250 per month, billed annually, 2,000 monthly tickets
• Advanced: US$624 per month, billed annually, 6,000 monthly tickets

Summing things up

License cost is only one component of the total cost of your communications. There are costs beyond license fees – these are costs incurred when you have poor customer experience, an inefficient agent experience, messy and disconnected data, and a disconnected technology framework/product suite (remember that lack of unification).

When you consider these costs incurred, CINNOX offers a fantastic ROI for your communications investment through its native unification of channels and tools to make your business the omnichannel success story customers crave.