Freshdesk vs SupportBee
We give Freshdesk and SupportBee the same GPA: 2.4 out of 4.0. Freshdesk grades higher on ease of use. SupportBee grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features 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
SupportBee
Email ticketing and shared inbox with a knowledge base and portal
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAFreshdeskFair | 2.4GPASupportBeeFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | BStartup is $17 a seat a month billed annually ($20 monthly), right on the edge of the cheaper quarter of help desks. That already covers the shared inbox, a knowledge base, the API and satisfaction ratings. The customer portal and business hours need Enterprise at $21, still under the middle. |
| 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. | CNo free plan, but a 14-day free trial with no credit card. Two weeks is long enough to run your real support email through it and decide. |
| 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. | CEmail ticketing done properly: assignment to teams then people, private comments, shared drafts, labels, a knowledge base on your own domain, a customer portal, reports and an audit trail. The gap its listing names: no live chat, chatbot or messaging-app inboxes. |
| 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 App Store rating on record. Customers just see email, which keeps their side simple, but you'll route your support address into it and set up teams, labels and snippets first. |
| 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 only, with Slack, Linear, Notion, Pipedrive, Asana, Trello, GitHub Issues and QuickBooks, plus webhooks and a public API on both plans. No desktop or phone app on record. |
| Best for | email support with a help center from day one | email support that still looks like email |
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 SupportBee. 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. SupportBee starts at $17 a month for each person and scores 2.3.
Freshdesk scores higher, and starts $2 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other help desk and live chat tools on the chart, 1 scores higher than Freshdesk for less, and 4 score higher than SupportBee 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 starts at $19 per agent / month, billed annually. SupportBee starts at $17 per seat / month, billed annually ($20 billed monthly).
- Only Freshdesk lists iOS and Android apps.
- Freshdesk also covers AI support agent.
At a glance
| Freshdesk | SupportBee | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $19 per agent / month, billed annually | $17 per seat / month, billed annually ($20 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial of the Enterprise plan, no credit card needed | 14-day free trial, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Freshworks Inc. | SupportBee Inc. |
| Price read from | freshworks.com | supportbee.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Freshdesk
- Support teams that work mainly from email
- Teams wanting a help center and ticket portal on the entry plan
- Companies that bring in occasional helpers on cheap day passes
SupportBee
- Small teams outgrowing a shared Gmail or Outlook login for support
- Teams that want ticketing to look like plain email to customers
- Support run mainly over email rather than chat or social channels
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.
SupportBee
- Email is the channel it is built for; the site lists no live chat, chatbot or messaging-app inboxes.
- The customer portal and business hours need the Enterprise plan; Startup includes 1 knowledge base and 1 team.
- The site lists no native desktop or mobile apps; the team works in a browser and through email notifications.
- There is no free plan after the 14-day trial.
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.
SupportBee
- Team inbox
- Emails become tickets that can be assigned to a team and then a person, with private comments, shared draft replies, labels and Gmail-style keyboard shortcuts.
- Knowledge base
- A public or private help site with categories, inline images, file uploads, search, your own branding and domain, and an embeddable widget called Hive.
- Customer portal
- Customers open, track and reply to their requests through a private link with no password. Included on the Enterprise plan.
- Teams for departments
- Separate inbox views for groups such as Sales or Billing, which can be made private to their members and admins.
- Reports and audit trail
- Performance reports by agent, team and label, customer satisfaction ratings, and a log of every action taken on a ticket.
- Integrations and API
- Links to project tools such as Linear, Asana and GitHub Issues, CRMs such as Pipedrive, Slack notifications, webhooks and a public API on both plans.
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.
SupportBee
Startup$17
per seat / month, billed annually ($20 billed monthly)
Shared inbox, snippets, 1 knowledge base and 1 team, filters, basic integrations, API access, unlimited email inboxes, satisfaction ratings and audit trails.
Enterprise$21
per seat / month, billed annually ($25 billed monthly)
Everything in Startup plus enterprise integrations, business hours, the customer portal, audit log and data history, and portal access for customer groups.
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.
SupportBee
- Annual discount
Save 20% with annual billing
SupportBee's pricing page lists a 20% saving on annual billing: Startup is $17 a seat a month billed annually against $20 monthly, and Enterprise $21 against $25.
