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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Freshdesk

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AFreshdesk (a product of Freshworks Inc.) is a customer service solution with enterprise capability. Freshdesk unifies channels, conversations, AI capabilities, customer insights, and advanced ticketing into the Freshdesk Command Center so agents are ready to resolve. With Freddy, People-first AI, customer service teams can take AI agents live in minutes to fully resolve complex and simple queries, get response and resolution assistance from AI copilot, and stay ahead with AI insights.…

    $18

    per month per user

    Help Scout

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/AHelp Scout is help desk software. The vendor’s value proposition is that that their solution reduces time spent on training users because Help Scout is simple to use and set up and scales like any enterprise product. This solution includes multiple mailboxes to support as many email addresses as needed in order to work collaboratively across teams, and manage several products or brands from one account. Reports on conversation trends, team performance, productivity, and customer happiness are…

    $30

    per month starts with 100 contacts

    Zendesk Talk

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/AZendesk Talk is call center software built on the Twilio cloud communication platform that integrates with the Zendesk Support ticketing system. This allows customer service teams to provide phone support from the same platform they use to manage all other channels.N/A
    Pricing
    FreshdeskHelp ScoutZendesk Talk
    Editions & Modules
    Growth
    $18
    per month per agent
    Pro
    $59
    per month per agent
    Enterprise
    $95
    per month per agent
    Standard
    $30
    per month starts with 100 contacts
    Plus
    $90
    per month starts with 200 contacts
    Company
    Contact sales team
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    FreshdeskHelp ScoutZendesk Talk
    Free Trial
    YesYesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details———
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    FreshdeskHelp ScoutZendesk Talk
    Considered Multiple Products
    Freshworks Inc
    Chose Freshdesk
    Freshdesk has a more modern and intuitive user interface, while Help Scout's interface is simpler and more minimalist.In case of features, Freshdesk offers a wider range of features, includes omnichannel support, AI powered automations, and advanced analytics. Help Scout is …
    Incentivized
    Chose Freshdesk
    Freshdesk was the system in place when I started with my current company.
    • Compared to Zendesk, they are very similar, but I'd give the advantage to Zendesk if asked.
    • Compared to Help Scout, Freshdesk is much more robust.
    Incentivized
    Chose Freshdesk
    The product that Freshdesk compares to the most on this list is Zendesk, which was considerably more expensive and was missing a server integration that we required. It did have a lot of great features, though, and its Support and Account Managers are located in the U.S. (vs. …
    Incentivized
    Chose Freshdesk
    Brings everything a company may need to elevate customer service and empower teams to solve the unique challenges and complex issues related to customer service. Helps bring in the right experts to collaborate even if they are not within the organization.
    Incentivized
    Chose Freshdesk
    Freshdesk has a cleaner and more intuitive interface, and we also found support to be more responsive with a much quicker turnaround on quick questions and issues. Although we have found reporting shortfalls with Freshdesk, it is vastly better than its competitors, which is one …
    Incentivized
    Help Scout
    Chose Help Scout
    We primarily chose HelpScout because they were an affordable, moderately robust, HIPAA compliant solution. All the other options (e.g. Zendesk, Freshdesk, Kayako, etc.) were out of our price range or did not provide the necessary features that our team has come to rely on.
    Incentivized
    Chose Help Scout
    This is tricky because there's helpdesk apps and chat apps (now Help Scout offers both).

    We first used just an email inbox (of course not scalable but we were very small), then we turned to Freshdesk, which was painful to use. It had some cool features but in general it was …
    Incentivized
    Chose Help Scout
    They all had their positives and negatives. For us, it came down to signing a BAA (Zendesk wanted $28,000 to sign one). We enjoy working with vendors who can support healthcare initiates such as we are building.
    Incentivized
    Zendesk
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    93%
    Would buy again
    213 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    14 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    207 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    12 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    213 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    14 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    147 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    90%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    9 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    174 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    14 Answers
    Features
    FreshdeskHelp ScoutZendesk Talk
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Freshdesk and Help Scout and Zendesk Talk
    Feature
    Freshdesk
    8.6
    210 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Help Scout
    8.7
    23 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Zendesk Talk
    -
    Ratings
    Organize and prioritize service tickets9.3206 Ratings9.123 Ratings00 Ratings
    Expert directory7.9140 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications7.812 Ratings8.113 Ratings00 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation8.115 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ticket creation and submission9.0207 Ratings8.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ticket response9.1207 Ratings9.522 Ratings00 Ratings
    Self Help Community
    Comparison of Self Help Community features of Freshdesk and Help Scout and Zendesk Talk
    Feature
    Freshdesk
    8.0
    185 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Help Scout
    8.5
    21 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Zendesk Talk
    -
    Ratings
    External knowledge base8.1169 Ratings8.720 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internal knowledge base8.0173 Ratings8.219 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-Channel Help
    Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Freshdesk and Help Scout and Zendesk Talk
    Feature
    Freshdesk
    8.3
    197 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Help Scout
    8.5
    23 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Zendesk Talk
    -
    Ratings
    Customer portal8.3169 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    IVR8.563 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social integration8.2105 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email support8.6197 Ratings9.623 Ratings00 Ratings
    Help Desk CRM integration7.7126 Ratings7.415 Ratings00 Ratings
    Contact Center Software
    Comparison of Contact Center Software features of Freshdesk and Help Scout and Zendesk Talk
    Feature
    Freshdesk
    -
    Ratings
    Help Scout
    -
    Ratings
    Zendesk Talk
    7.8
    16 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Agent dashboard00 Ratings00 Ratings9.916 Ratings
    Validate callers00 Ratings00 Ratings6.012 Ratings
    Outbound response00 Ratings00 Ratings10.014 Ratings
    Call forwarding00 Ratings00 Ratings8.915 Ratings
    Click-to-call (CTC)00 Ratings00 Ratings10.013 Ratings
    Warm transfer00 Ratings00 Ratings9.912 Ratings
    Predictive dialing00 Ratings00 Ratings5.08 Ratings
    Interactive voice response00 Ratings00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
    REST APIs00 Ratings00 Ratings5.07 Ratings
    Call scripts00 Ratings00 Ratings7.06 Ratings
    Call tracking00 Ratings00 Ratings9.914 Ratings
    Multichannel integration00 Ratings00 Ratings5.110 Ratings
    CRM software integration00 Ratings00 Ratings5.09 Ratings
    Workforce Optimization (WFO)
    Comparison of Workforce Optimization (WFO) features of Freshdesk and Help Scout and Zendesk Talk
    Feature
    Freshdesk
    -
    Ratings
    Help Scout
    -
    Ratings
    Zendesk Talk
    7.8
    16 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Inbound call routing00 Ratings00 Ratings9.912 Ratings
    Omnichannel inbound routing00 Ratings00 Ratings5.110 Ratings
    Recording00 Ratings00 Ratings9.915 Ratings
    Quality management00 Ratings00 Ratings9.913 Ratings
    Call analytics00 Ratings00 Ratings8.913 Ratings
    Historical reporting00 Ratings00 Ratings8.913 Ratings
    Live reporting00 Ratings00 Ratings4.914 Ratings
    Customer surveys00 Ratings00 Ratings5.08 Ratings
    Customer interaction analytics00 Ratings00 Ratings8.19 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    FreshdeskHelp ScoutZendesk Talk
    Small Businesses
    Help Scout
    Score9.3 out of 10
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    CloudTalk
    Score7.6 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Genesys Multicloud CX (discontinued)
    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Bright Pattern Contact Center
    Score8.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    FreshdeskHelp ScoutZendesk Talk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.6
    (277 ratings)
    9.6
    (23 ratings)
    9.9
    (16 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.5
    (25 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (42 ratings)
    9.4
    (6 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    7.5
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.6
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.4
    (41 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (3 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.7
    (207 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    6.5
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    8.5
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.9
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    6.8
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Professional Services
    8.7
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.6
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.7
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    FreshdeskHelp ScoutZendesk Talk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Freshworks Inc
    I believe Freshdesk is well-suited for companies that manage multiple accounts, such as those in the Business Process Outsourcing industry. It has all the necessary capabilities, such as ticket management that uses omnichannel to receive ticket requests from service requests (managed internally) in the system, emails, etc. There are also several workflow automations that can be built within the platform/system. What is lacking is the API documentation, which limits the possibilities for further automations. Overall, it is a highly recommended tool for managing employee productivity and timeliness.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Help Scout
    Small businesses that want a conversational type of customer support experience. Nothing wrong with support tickets, but it does make you feel like a number. Also, we needed to get up and running quickly so the "inbox" feel of the dashboard was already familiar with the team so they could adopt the new software quickly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    Zendesk Talk is a great partner that helps us in the customer care area by managing every type of contact with customers (both phone calls and emails). I know there is also the possibility to have integration with instant messaging apps (like messenger and WhatsApp but I have never used them in my experience). In my opinion, the best scenario for Zendesk Talk is represented by a context with a high amount of contacts/requests where a unique platform could be a help both on the external side (customers) and on the internal side (a lot of colleagues who are working in the same area and have to work in a coordinate way). For customers, they could benefit from tailor-made answers, also based on past contacts for the same topic, and avoid waiting times during phone calls, with an immediate follow-up. For internal work management, operators don't overlap in a single request, and even if the same operator is not available the one who manages the request later has complete visibility of the entire topic from the historical point of view. Last but not least, I think that Zendesk Talk helps a lot in the context in which the request's speed is a KPI to manage constantly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Freshworks Inc
    • No prior experience with similar platforms is required to use Freshdesk. I found its interface to be quite intuitive, at least for the end user.
    • It's easy to connect with other platforms, so you can sync and manage data from other platforms because the integrations work correctly.
    • Freshdesk's technical support is quite responsive, with short and effective response times. They have easily handled my questions and issues.
    • It has tools for customizing automated chats, answering frequently asked questions before transferring to an agent. Its configuration is extensive and highly customizable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Help Scout
    • Extremely simple to use and understand as a user - treats communications like human beings and provides a much more personal feel to communication (as opposed to making people feel like numbers).
    • The email newsletter.
    • They are super responsive. They are pretty rad and transparent: if something goes wrong on their end they are not afraid of admitting fault. Which leads me to trust them because I can believe them. I know that tells you very little about the product, but as leadership, that's something that I really need
    • Help Scout does exactly what it needs to (facilitate organized, efficient conversations between customers and support people) without getting in the way.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    • Call recording is a nice feature! It is great for training purposes and for quality assurance.
    • The metrics you get from Explore are a great insight into how the team is handling the call volumes.
    • Zendesk Talk has met most of our needs. It can be a bit unreliable at times.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Freshworks Inc
    • Freshdesk is buggy, full stop. I don't know how many support tickets I submitted related to user login.
    • There can be a language barrier with support and sales.
    • There were a couple of hours-long outages that significantly impacted my company's customer experience.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Help Scout
    • Trying to group tickets is a bit unflexible. You can create folders which can be part of a workflow (automatic trigger) but you can't create a folder based on tags. This needs to be improved because there's a need to create smarter segments and mix them.
    • Metrics are useful but there needs to be more details about them. You can drill down in some but others are still not very actionable or visible (ok, that number went down, but what was the cause? what's the criteria with what you measure that?)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    • The lag on the phone is by far the most annoying thing with Zendesk talk due to the voice over IP.
    • Using the Reporting feature in Zendesk has never been a walk in the park. We have to customize a lot of fields and when something doesn't seem to add up, it at times feels like pulling teeth to get to the final answer of what went wrong.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Freshworks Inc
    New support agents can learn the system quickly, minimizing training time and maximizing productivity from day one. Agents are more willing to use a system that is simple, reducing resistance to change and ensuring all interactions are logged (a common problem with complex systems). The platform is known for being easy to set up and customize, allowing teams (especially smaller ones) to get started with minimal technical expertise.The platform makes it easy to set and monitor Service Level Agreements (SLAs), ensuring customers get timely responses and helping managers enforce performance standards.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Help Scout
    We are receiving feedback from the organizational level that they may want us to transition to a different solution to provide consistency across the company.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Freshworks Inc
    Freshdesk is extremely easy to use as implemented it on our own with average technical skills. A lot of the options are straightforward and Freshdesk provides easy-to-understand explanations for some of the more complex-sounding ones. We recently onboarded new specialists and they were able to learn Freshdesk with minimal training.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Help Scout
    Help Scout is a great solution for support teams. There are many articles and webinars to help you learn how to use Help Scout. There are also many features to help make your workflows easier and more efficient. I would readily recommend Help Scout to any small or medium-growing support teams.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    Everything about it works, as I have previously detailed. Coming from different companies and using other tools like Twilio or Aircall, those are VOIP tools that are built to be plugged into other tools, Zendesk Talk is natively built into Zendesk and feels correct in the user experience of Zendesk
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Freshworks Inc
    I have encountered a lot of errors in the Freshdesk, however, they tend to resolve it on priority or at least they will share the timeline by when this can be resolved. Most of the time the issue has been from the other partner's end. They take time to resolve their vendor issues and they don't have any timelines in case of developed app errors.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Help Scout
    No answers on this topic
    Zendesk
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Freshworks Inc
    The reports take a lot of time to download if the time period is large. Also, the tickets take their sweet time to open and load. It is not fast as Zendesk. Only 30 tickets are visible in a single go and there isn't any option to select all. If we need to change the pages and dashboards it takes a lot of time to open.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Help Scout
    No answers on this topic
    Zendesk
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Freshworks Inc
    Because I never worked with a company that responds so quickly to their customer! They are always fast at responding and very open to new ideas and quickly turning them around to include them in future releases. They walk us through when we need assistance and are very good at communicating. Overall top notch support
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Help Scout
    No answers on this topic
    Zendesk
    In our experience, we have had to go through many support people then ultimately getting frustrated enough to go directly to our point of contact who then doesn't always seem to be able to assist. We tend to get the support we need when it is escalated up to me and I reach out to our point of a contact person to express our frustration.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Freshworks Inc
    In-person training is provided to all the agents and it is very easy to learn the basics of the Freshdesk interface. Solving tickets via dashboards, replying to the guest queries in bulk via Freshdesk. The training which is a bit hard is creating the logic according to the ticket flow and intergeration.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Help Scout
    No answers on this topic
    Zendesk
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Freshworks Inc
    This tool is no doubt easy to learn but in-person training is a lot better than online training. It takes time to grasp things in the online training, however, in pandemic we have done all the training online. Apart from a bit more time we haven't faced any issues with online training.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Help Scout
    No answers on this topic
    Zendesk
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Freshworks Inc
    Was a fairly quick implementation for us. However, we are only doing email integration and not some of the more complex integrations that are possible. One clarification on an earlier question. I selected that Freshdesk doesn't have a given feature, but this is not true. I selected this because there wasn't a selection for I don't use the feature. This is a weakness in the survey.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Help Scout
    No answers on this topic
    Zendesk
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Freshworks Inc
    Compared to Crisp, Freshdesk offers much more organization and is just much more helpful when it comes to having more than one region/team. Not that Crisp is bad, but with Freshdesk, internal communication and collaboration are much easier, which was quite important for our team to grow.
    Incentivized
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    Help Scout
    Only have minimal experience with G-Suite for a much smaller company. This worked well for that organization but did not have similar specialization functions that suite our larger organization very well. Help Scout's pricing makes sense, and continues to service our needs well. Minimal usage of other programs, but have no need to explore alternatives at this time.
    Incentivized
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    Zendesk
    Slack and Zoom phones cannot compare because they have no ticketing systems. Zendesk Talk was the only option we considered because we were already using Zendesk for our email ticketing with customer concerns. We then expanded to using Zendesk's chatbot and then the Zendesk Talk system to keep it all integrated and streamlined.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Freshworks Inc
    I was not very involved with the purchase/contract (my company purchased Fresjdesk before I was brought on), but I will say that pricing per agent made it difficult to grow our support team. Additionally, we were kind of disappointed after our upgrade because it didn't solve our pain points as much as we expected.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Help Scout
    No answers on this topic
    Zendesk
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Freshworks Inc
    My company had Freshdesk agents from support and success. It's generally difficult to customize permissions for different agent "roles." We were a fully distributed company, so "multiple sites" doesn't apply to us. We found Freshdesk features lacking as we grew our customer base, and adding agents wasn't easy because price steeply increases with number of agents.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Help Scout
    No answers on this topic
    Zendesk
    No answers on this topic
    Professional Services
    Freshworks Inc
    - good customer support
    - personal contact
    - usage limited to basic product features, individually designed solutions seem unlikely
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Help Scout
    No answers on this topic
    Zendesk
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Freshworks Inc
    • Increased response times - Client Success maintains at 98% SLA for resolution
    • Categorization of feedback and issues - custom ticket fields make it easier for us to review why clients contact us on a high level
    • Standardization of internal procedures via templates, canned responses and automations
    Incentivized
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    Help Scout
    • We are able to retain our customer base due to the outstanding customer service our Customer Experience department provides. Without an organized tool like Help Scout, this would not be possible. We pride ourselves in quick response times to customers and are able to do so by effectively routing tickets to the right agents.
    Incentivized
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    Zendesk
    • We were able to reduce global headcount by 20% in our call centers.
    • Allowing customers to leave voicemails creates the personal touch needed and really increases our customer connectivity score. We saw increases in our CSAT scores after the implementation of this solution.
    • Call handling time and case reopen rates both decreased. Y/y it decreased 18% and 60%.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Help Scout Screenshots

    Screenshot of Build better relationships with your customers, and work together better as a teamScreenshot of Tools designed specifically for team collaboration on customer supportScreenshot of Docs Knowledge Base provides self-service that sets your customers up for successScreenshot of The conversation report can change the conversation with your customers from problems to praise by pinpointing what they write in about and when.Screenshot of Productivity Reports track your team's customer-helping velocity and identify sticking points to push through with even greater momentum.Screenshot of Happiness Reports are the closest you can get to your customer's true feelings without hiring a telepath.