Freshservice vs Zendesk
We give Freshservice and Zendesk the same GPA: 2.4 out of 4.0. Freshservice grades higher on value for money. Zendesk grades higher on features. They get the same grade on the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Freshservice
IT service desk for employee requests, assets and changes
Zendesk
Ticketing, messaging, help center and AI agents for support teams
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAFreshserviceFair | 2.4GPAZendeskFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CGraded against its own alternatives, as it's an IT desk for staff. Starter is $19 an agent a month billed yearly ($29 monthly), level with Freshdesk and Zendesk. But a service catalog and SLAs need Growth at $49, and change and problem management need Pro at $99. | DSupport Team is $19 an agent billed yearly, a little under this category's middle, but it's email tickets only. Chat, phone and a help center start on Suite Team at $55 an agent, above the dearest tenth of help desks, and extra AI resolutions are $1.50 to $2 each. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan, but a 14-day free trial with every feature switched on. That's long enough to put a week of real IT requests through it. | CA 14-day free trial of Suite Professional with Copilot, which shows you the top of the range. There's no free plan, and the listing doesn't say whether the trial needs a card. Funded startups can get 6 months free. |
| Features | CIt does the IT desk job fully: tickets from email, chat, a portal or Teams and Slack, asset tracking, on-call, and problem, change and release management on Pro. But it's built for your own staff rather than customers, which is a different job from this category's. | BTicketing across email, chat, social and phone, AI agents on every plan, help centers in 40+ languages with forums, voice numbers in 75+ countries, an IVR and reports you ask for in plain words. The whole job is covered. |
| Ease of use | B4.54 from 2,440 App Store ratings. Expect some setting up, though: portals, service catalogs, approvals and asset records all need building before IT runs on it. | B4.5 from 4,219 App Store ratings for the agent app. Prebuilt dashboards and pre-written replies come on every plan, but routing, triggers and automations take setting up. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, iPhone and Android, with Microsoft Teams, Slack, Jira, TeamViewer, Azure AD and SecPod. There's no desktop app, which keeps it off an A. | BWeb, iPhone and Android, with WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, X, Slack, WeChat and LINE as channels, and an API. No desktop app, which keeps it off an A. |
| Best for | IT teams handling their own staff's requests | support teams handling email, chat and phone |
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: Freshservice and Zendesk. How we grade
Price against what you get
Freshservice starts at $19 a month for each person and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Zendesk starts at $19 a month for each person and scores 3.0.
Zendesk scores higher for the same starting price. Of the other help desk and live chat tools on the chart, 1 scores higher than Freshservice for less, and 1 scores higher than Zendesk 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
- Freshservice starts at $19 per agent / month, billed annually ($29 billed monthly). Zendesk starts at $19 per agent / month, billed annually ($25 billed monthly).
- Freshservice also covers workflow automation.
- Zendesk also covers reports and live chat.
At a glance
| Freshservice | Zendesk | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $19 per agent / month, billed annually ($29 billed monthly) | $19 per agent / month, billed annually ($25 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial with access to every Freshservice feature | 14-day free trial of Suite Professional with the Copilot add-on |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Freshworks Inc. | Zendesk, Inc. |
| Price read from | freshworks.com | zendesk.com |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Freshservice
- IT teams handling employee incidents, requests and changes
- Companies that want ITIL processes and asset tracking in one tool
- Service providers running IT support for several client companies
Zendesk
- Support teams handling email, chat and phone in one queue
- Companies that want a public help center tied to their tickets
- Teams planning to hand routine questions to AI agents
Worth knowing
Freshservice
- It is an IT service desk for a company's own staff, narrower than the customer help desks here; Freshworks sells Freshdesk for customer support.
- There is no free plan: a 14-day trial, then Starter at $19 per agent / month billed annually. Enterprise is priced through sales.
- Problem, change and release management start on Pro at $99 per agent / month billed annually; Freddy AI Copilot is $29 per agent / month on top.
- Orchestration past the monthly allowance costs $250 per 1,000 actions. Occasional agents use Day Passes from $3 after 3 free ones.
Zendesk
- Support Team covers email ticketing only; live chat, voice and a help center start at Suite Team, $55 per agent / month billed annually.
- AI resolutions beyond the included allowance cost $1.50 each on a committed volume or $2.00 each pay-as-you-go.
- Copilot, which adds Auto Assist and suggested first replies, is an add-on at $50 per agent / month billed annually.
- Phone numbers and call minutes are billed as add-ons, and Suite Enterprise is sold only through the sales team.
Key features
Freshservice
- Incident and request tickets
- Employees raise issues by email, phone, chat, a portal widget or a ServiceBot in Microsoft Teams and Slack, and agents work them as tickets.
- Service catalog and portal
- From Growth, a shopping-style catalog for requests such as hardware or access. Starter and Growth have one support portal; Pro and Enterprise up to 50.
- ITIL processes
- Pro adds problem, change, release and major-incident management, with a change advisory board, change calendars and service health monitoring.
- IT asset management
- A configuration database tracks hardware and software, licensed in asset units sold in packs of 500. The mobile app adds assets by scanning barcodes and QR codes.
- Workflow automation
- A drag-and-drop Workflow Automator with multi-step approvals. Actions in other apps are capped from 1,000 a month on Starter to 20,000 on Enterprise.
- Freddy AI
- Copilot drafts replies, ticket summaries and help articles for $29 per agent a month on Pro and Enterprise; Enterprise includes the Freddy AI Agent for chat.
Zendesk
- Ticketing across channels
- Email, messaging, phone and social conversations land in one ticket queue, with routing, pre-written responses, triggers and automations.
- AI agents billed per resolution
- AI agents answer email on every plan and chat wherever messaging is on. Each agent seat includes 5 automated resolutions a month (10 on Suite Professional).
- Messaging and live chat
- Suite plans add chat for websites and apps plus WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, X, Slack, WeChat and LINE as channels.
- Help center
- Suite Team includes one help center in one language. Suite Professional allows up to 5 help centers in 40+ languages, plus community forums.
- Voice
- Phone support in the browser with toll-free or local numbers from 75+ countries. Suite Professional adds an IVR phone tree.
- Reporting
- Prebuilt analytics dashboards on every plan. Suite Professional adds Quick Reports, which builds reports from questions typed in plain language.
Plans
Freshservice
Starter$19
per agent / month, billed annually ($29 billed monthly)
Incident, knowledge and task management, one support portal, a ServiceBot in Teams and Slack, and 1,000 orchestration actions a month.
Growth$49
per agent / month, billed annually ($59 billed monthly)
Adds a service catalog, SLA policies, MSP mode for several clients, on-call and cloud management, time tracking and 2,000 orchestration actions.
Pro$99
per agent / month, billed annually ($119 billed monthly)
Adds problem, change, release and major-incident management, workload management, employee journeys, a status page and up to 50 portals.
EnterpriseCustom
Sold through sales. Adds a sandbox, audit logs, Freddy AI Insights and the Freddy AI Agent with 1,200 sessions per license a year.
Zendesk
Support Team$19
per agent / month, billed annually ($25 billed monthly)
Email ticketing with routing, prebuilt dashboards, pre-written replies and automations. No help center, live chat or phone.
Suite Team$55
per agent / month, billed annually ($69 billed monthly)
Adds messaging and live chat, telephony, omnichannel routing, a knowledge base and Action Builder, with one help center in one language.
Suite Professional$115
per agent / month, billed annually ($149 billed monthly)
Adds skills-based routing, an IVR phone tree, AI writing tools, Quick Reports and App Builder, and up to 5 help centers in 40+ languages.
Suite Enterprise + CopilotCustom
Adds intelligent triage, Auto Assist, generative AI for voice, approval workflows, a sandbox and custom agent roles. Sold through sales.
Ways to pay less
Freshservice
- Annual discount
Lower per-agent price with annual billing
The pricing page lists Starter at $19 per agent a month billed annually against $29 monthly, Growth at $49 against $59 and Pro at $99 against $119.
Zendesk
- Annual discount
About 20% off with annual billing
Zendesk's pricing page marks annual billing as 20% off: Suite Team is $55 per agent a month billed yearly against $69 billed monthly.
- Startups
Startups: 6 months free, up to 2 years via partners
Funded startups up to Series B and under 10 years old get Suite Professional and Copilot free for 6 months, or 1 to 2 years through VC partners, for up to 50 agents.
