Freshdesk vs Gleap (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Freshdesk and Gleap share a 2.4 GPA, neither has a free plan and their prices can't be set side by side, so the choice depends on whether you care more about ease of use, where Freshdesk grades higher, or features, where Gleap does.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Freshdesk
Email ticketing help desk with a knowledge base and AI agents
Gleap
AI-led support inbox with live chat and in-app bug reporting
Which one is for you
Pick Freshdesk if
- Fits if your support team works mainly from email
- Works for teams that want a help center and ticket portal on the $19 plan
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if most of your customers reach you by chat or WhatsApp, which needs Freshdesk Omni from $29 an agent
- Pricey if you want AI help drafting replies, at $29 an agent extra ($35 monthly) and not on Growth
- Skip it if you lean on the AI agent: 500 sessions are free once per account, then $49 per 100
- Tight if you need round-robin routing, several SLA policies or custom dashboards, which start on Pro at $55
- Watch out: the $19 is the yearly price, monthly billing costs more, and there's no free plan after the 14-day trial
Pick Gleap if
- Fits if you ship an app and want bug reports and support in one place
- Works for small product teams with 1 to 4 seats
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you use the AI, since it is billed from a separate balance, about $0.05 a conversation, on top of the plan
- Tight if you are on Hobby, because it is 1 seat and 1 project with Gleap branding
- Watch out: integrations such as Jira, Linear and GitHub start at Growth
- Skip it if you want voice cheaply, as it is $0.075 a minute in the widget and $0.20 by phone
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAFreshdeskFair | 2.4GPAGleapFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CGrowth is $19 an agent a month billed yearly, a little under this category's middle of $24, and paying monthly loses the 20% yearly discount. A portal and knowledge base are included, but chat means Freshdesk Omni from $29. | C$29 a month for 1 seat billed yearly, $99 for 4. Growth works out near $25 a seat before AI usage. |
| Free plan and trial | CA 14-day free trial of the Enterprise plan with no card needed, so you see everything. There's no free plan, and the 500 free AI agent sessions come once per account, not every month. | CA 7-day trial with no card. No free plan. |
| Features | CEmail ticketing, a shared inbox, a portal and knowledge base, routing, SLAs, reports and an email AI agent. The gap is named in the listing: chat and messaging channels aren't in Freshdesk at all, they're sold as Freshdesk Omni. | BShared inbox, live chat, AI agents, bug reporting, help center, surveys and voice. The listing shows no gap in the core support job. |
| Ease of use | B4.5 from 2,996 App Store ratings for the agent app. Emails turning into tickets is a simple idea to pick up, and occasional helpers can come in on day passes instead of full seats. | CNo store rating on record. You install an SDK, connect channels and set up the AI. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, iPhone and Android, with Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, Jira, Slack, Microsoft Teams and Stripe. There's no desktop app, so it stops at a B. | BWeb plus iOS and Android, with Jira, Linear, GitHub, Slack, HubSpot and WhatsApp. |
| Best for | email support with a help center from day one | AI support inbox with in-app bug reporting |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Freshdesk and Gleap. How we grade
Price against what you get
Freshdesk starts at $19 a month for each person and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Gleap starts at $29 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Freshdesk starts $10 a month lower. Of the other help desk and live chat tools on the chart, 1 scores higher than Freshdesk for less, and 3 score higher than Gleap for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Freshdesk also covers reports.
- Gleap also covers surveys, live chat and session replay.
At a glance
| Freshdesk | Gleap | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $19 per agent / month, billed annually | $29 per month for 1 seat, billed yearly ($35 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial of the Enterprise plan, no credit card needed | 7-day free trial on every plan, no credit card needed |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Freshworks Inc. | Gleap GmbH |
| Price read from | freshworks.com | gleap.ai |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Freshdesk
- Freshdesk plans are built around email; chat and messaging channels come with Freshdesk Omni, from $29 per agent / month billed annually.
- Only 500 AI agent sessions are free, once per account; after that sessions cost $49 per 100.
- Freddy AI Copilot costs $29 per agent / month billed annually ($35 monthly) and is not offered on Growth.
- The pricing page shows annual prices only; monthly billing costs more, as the page offers 20% off for paying annually.
Gleap
- AI is paid from a separate balance, about $0.05 per conversation by Gleap's estimate, on top of the plan price.
- Hobby is limited to 1 seat and 1 project and shows a Powered by Gleap badge.
- Voice calls cost $0.075 a minute in the widget and $0.20 a minute by phone; extra phone numbers are $5 a month.
- Native integrations such as Jira, Linear, GitHub and HubSpot start at Growth.
Key features
Freshdesk
- Ticketing and shared inbox
- Incoming emails become tickets that can be prioritized, assigned and tracked, with internal threads and linked tasks for teammates.
- Freddy AI Agent for email
- An email AI agent replies to customers and works through back-and-forth threads. Each account gets 500 sessions once; more cost $49 per 100.
- Customer portal and knowledge base
- Customers submit tickets and read help articles in a portal. Pro adds portal branding, community forums and article versioning.
- Routing and SLAs
- Business rules dispatch tickets on every plan. Pro adds round-robin and load-balanced assignment and multiple SLA policies; Enterprise adds skill-based routing.
- Freddy AI Copilot
- A paid add-on from Pro up that drafts replies, summarizes long threads, translates in 60+ languages and suggests similar tickets.
- Reports and dashboards
- Standard reports and real-time dashboards on all plans, with custom dashboards on Pro and conversational AI insights on Enterprise.
Gleap
- Kai AI agents
- Kai Support answers customer conversations from your knowledge, Kai Copilot drafts replies for the team, and Kai Code opens pull requests from bug reports.
- Shared inbox and live chat
- Live chat, support email, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Slack and Telegram land in one inbox, with no ticket limit on any plan.
- In-app bug reporting
- Customers report bugs from an app or site with a screenshot, console logs and custom data; session replay is part of the product.
- Help center
- A public knowledge base with articles and collections, which Kai can also learn from together with crawled website pages.
- Surveys, tours and roadmap
- In-app surveys, product tours, checklists, a public feature roadmap and changelogs sit in the same workspace.
- Kai Voice
- Kai answers phone calls and widget voice calls, and teammates take calls from the inbox; calls are billed per minute.
Plans
Freshdesk
Growth$19
per agent / month, billed annually
Email ticketing and a shared inbox, a customer portal and knowledge base, standard reports, threads and tasks, and roles.
Pro$55
per agent / month, billed annually
Adds a multilingual help desk, custom dashboards, round-robin routing, multiple SLA policies, community forums and 5,000 outside collaborators.
Enterprise$89
per agent / month, billed annually
Adds Freddy AI Insights, skill-based routing, a sandbox, audit logs, IP allowlisting and an approval step for knowledge base articles.
Gleap
Hobby$29
per month for 1 seat, billed yearly ($35 billed monthly)
1 seat and 1 project with live chat, shared inbox, in-app bug reporting and Kai; shows Gleap branding.
Growth$99
per month for 4 seats, billed yearly ($119 billed monthly)
4 seats, unlimited projects, every channel, help center, surveys. Extra seats $25 monthly or $21 a month yearly.
Pro$299
per month, unlimited seats, billed yearly ($359 billed monthly)
Unlimited seats, LLM model choice, advanced reports, custom roles, SLA policies, SOC 2 report, first phone number.
Enterprise$999
per month and up, billed yearly ($1,199 billed monthly)
Adds single sign-on, invoice billing, bring-your-own-model and a success manager; AI priced by agreement.
Ways to pay less
Freshdesk
- Annual discount
Save 20% with annual billing
Freshdesk's pricing page offers 20% off when plans are paid annually rather than monthly.
Gleap
- Startups
$1,200 in AI credits for early-stage startups
Gleap lists $1,200 in AI credits on the Growth or Pro plan for early-stage startups that pass an eligibility check.
- Annual discount
Two months free with yearly billing
Yearly billing is shown as two months free compared with paying monthly, for example $29 instead of $35 a month on Hobby.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Freshdesk or Gleap?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Freshdesk starts at $19 per agent / month, billed annually, and Gleap starts at $29 per month for 1 seat, billed yearly ($35 billed monthly). One is priced for each person and the other is not, so which costs less depends on how many of you use it.
Which has a free plan, Freshdesk or Gleap?
As of Nov 13, 2026, neither Freshdesk nor Gleap has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.