Freshdesk vs Helply (formerly Groove) (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Freshdesk grades higher than Helply (formerly Groove): 2.4 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Freshdesk grades higher on value for money, the free plan and ease of use. Helply (formerly Groove) grades higher on features. They get the same grade on 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
Helply (formerly Groove)
Help desk with AI support agents, now sold as Helply
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 Helply (formerly Groove) if
- Fits if you run a small B2B or SaaS support team that wants AI agents included
- Makes sense if you are a Groove customer, as the page says your current price is locked
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you are alone or a pair: Starter is $99 a month for up to 2 agents
- Watch out: AI credits are capped per plan, with top-ups at $40 per 1,000 on Starter, Plus and Team
- Skip it if you want WhatsApp, SMS, Discord or SLAs, which need Team at $499
- Watch out: Pro and Growth are bought through a demo, and Salesforce and SSO need Growth
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAFreshdeskFair | 2.0GPAHelply (formerly Groove)Fair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | D$99 a month billed annually for up to 2 agents, and $199 for 5, in the dearest tenth by floor. |
| 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. | DA 14-day trial, but the page doesn't say whether a card is needed. 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, ticketing, chat, help centre and AI agents for support and the inbox. Nothing in the listing is missing. |
| 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. AI agents, rules and a help centre to set up. |
| 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, with Slack, Stripe, Zapier, HubSpot, Jira, Linear and GitHub. |
| Best for | email support with a help center from day one | a small-team help desk with AI agents bundled in |
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 Helply (formerly Groove). 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. Helply (formerly Groove) starts at $99 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Freshdesk starts $80 a month lower. Of the other help desk and live chat tools on the chart, 1 scores higher than Freshdesk for less, and 4 score higher than Helply (formerly Groove) 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.
- Helply (formerly Groove) also covers live chat and chatbots.
At a glance
| Freshdesk | Helply (formerly Groove) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $19 per agent / month, billed annually | $99 per month for up to 2 human agents, billed annually |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial of the Enterprise plan, no credit card needed | 14-day free trial |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Freshworks Inc. | Helply |
| Price read from | freshworks.com | helply.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Nov 12, 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.
Helply (formerly Groove)
- Groove has been renamed Helply; the product and its old Groove pricing have been replaced by the plans above.
- AI credits are pooled and capped per plan. Starter, Plus and Team can top up at $40 per 1,000 credits; Pro and Growth use a hard cap or an agreed overage rate.
- WhatsApp, SMS, Discord, SLAs and round robin routing need the Team plan at $499 a month; Salesforce and SSO / SAML need Growth.
- Pro and Growth are bought through a demo, and the page shows no self-serve sign-up for them.
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.
Helply (formerly Groove)
- Support agent
- An AI agent that works with customers directly to resolve issues end to end. It is included on every plan and uses AI credits when it acts.
- Assist agent in the inbox
- A second agent that works alongside human agents inside each ticket. It is also included on every plan.
- Background agents
- Agents that watch customer accounts instead of single conversations. Churn, Knowledge, Revenue, Feature request and Insights agents are listed, with the number available rising by plan.
- Shared inbox and ticketing
- Views, tags, macros, notes, snooze and collision detection on every plan, with SLAs, escalations and agent teams starting on Team.
- Chat and help center
- Live chat and a knowledge base on your own domain, with AI article writing and AI answers on every plan.
- Skills, MCP and custom actions
- From the Team plan, agents can be given written skills, memory, MCP connectors and custom API actions, with AI QA and backtesting.
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.
Helply (formerly Groove)
Starter$99
per month for up to 2 human agents, billed annually
2,500 AI credits a month, shared inbox, email and live chat, and a help center with AI article writing. One inbox and 5 rules.
Plus$199
per month for up to 5 human agents, billed annually
5,000 AI credits a month, chat flows, ticket forms, Facebook and Instagram, CSAT surveys, 3 inboxes and 10 rules.
Team$499
per month for 10 human agents, billed annually
15,000 AI credits a month, WhatsApp, SMS, Discord and Slack Connect, SLAs and round robin routing, HubSpot, Jira, Linear and GitHub integrations. Extra agents are $49 a month each.
Pro$999
per month for 25 human agents, billed annually
50,000 AI credits a month, all Background agents, AI reports, up to 3 brands, a customer portal, custom roles and an audit log. Sold through a demo.
Growth$1,999
per month for 50 human agents, billed annually
100,000 AI credits a month, unlimited brands, skills-based routing, account intelligence, SSO / SAML and Salesforce. Sold through a demo.
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.
Helply (formerly Groove)
- Annual discount
15% off with annual billing
Every plan can be billed monthly or annually; the pricing page says paying annually saves 15%. The prices listed are the annual ones.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Freshdesk or Helply (formerly Groove)?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Freshdesk starts at $19 per agent / month, billed annually, and Helply (formerly Groove) starts at $99 per month for up to 2 human agents, billed annually. 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 Helply (formerly Groove)?
As of Nov 12, 2026, neither Freshdesk nor Helply (formerly Groove) has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
Which platforms do Freshdesk and Helply (formerly Groove) run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Freshdesk lists iOS and Android apps. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
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.