Top 7 Alternatives to Freshdesk In 2024

The 21st century's hyper-connected environment has ushered in an era of relentless competition for businesses. Businesses are no longer defined solely by their products, but by the experiences they deliver to their customers. Excellent customer service has morphed from a "nice-to-have" to an absolute necessity for sustainable business growth. Happy customers become loyal customers, and loyal customers are the backbone of any thriving business. They not only bring in repeat business but also act as brand advocates, spreading positive word-of-mouth through online reviews and social media. This organic promotion fuels organic growth, fostering long-term success.

Indeed, managing exceptional customer service can be a complex endeavor. That's where robust customer service software like Freshdesk comes in. Freshdesk is no stranger to any business with an emphasis on customer service success, it’s been regarded by many as a pioneer in the field and offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to streamline support operations and enhance customer satisfaction. However, as with any top platform, Freshdesk is not without its flaws; and as a result, it may not be the best option for certain businesses.

This blog delves into a comprehensive analysis of Freshdesk, exploring its strengths and weaknesses in detail. Furthermore, we’ll discuss the top 7 customer support alternatives to Freshdesk that are making waves in 2024 with special emphasis on each of their key features (pros and cons) and pricing.

Without further ado,

What is Freshdesk?

Freshdesk, developed by Freshworks Inc., is a cloud-based helpdesk system designed to empower businesses to deliver exceptional customer service.  This modern and intuitive platform offers a robust set of features to streamline your support operations and delight your customers effortlessly. Freshdesk acts as a central hub, consolidating customer inquiries from various channels  (email, web, phone, chat, messaging, social media) into a unified ticketing system. This eliminates the hassle of juggling multiple platforms and ensures all customer interactions are tracked and addressed efficiently.

Furthermore, Freshdesk goes beyond simple ticketing by leveraging the power of automation and AI.  These intelligent features handle repetitive tasks  (assigning tickets, prioritizing based on urgency, suggesting canned responses),  freeing up your agents to focus on complex issues and provide personalized support. Additionally, it integrates with a wide range of third-party tools,  extending its functionality and catering to your specific business needs.

Why might Freshdesk be the right fit for your team's customer support needs?

• Freshdesk allows businesses to manage customer requests and handle issues with its ticketing system.
• It supports multiple channels, like email, phone, and chat.
• Teams can automate ticket assignments and set automatic email notifications to notify customers of changes to their requests.
• Freshdesk also provides self-service software.

Why do you need a Fresdesk Alternative?

• Freshdesk’s advanced features require a deeper understanding of their functionalities and configurations.
• Its reporting is limited due to a lack of custom attribution and correlation as well as omnichannel reporting.
• Lack of dedicated support to assist with Freshdesk implementation and usage.
• Businesses with complex data analysis needs may encounter limitations that hinder their ability to extract valuable insights from their support data.

What are the Top 7 Customer Support Alternatives to Freshdesk in 2024?

1. Distrobird
2. Zendesk Support Suite
3. Zoho Desk
4. Help Scout
5. HubSpot Service Hub
6. Salesforce Service Cloud
7. LiveAgent

1. Distrobird

Distrobird is a cloud-based customer and sales engagement platform, designed to streamline sales and manage customer interactions. It is an all-in-one platform managing phone calls, SMS communications, and emails, along with product features like web chats, shared team inbox, and automated campaigns.

It also integrates seamlessly with various popular CRM and business tools, notably HubSpot, Gmail, Stripe, Microsoft Outlook, Twilio, Zapier, Clearbit, Zoho, Telnyx, Salesforce and NGP VAN.

Distrobird best features

• A free plan that incorporates all of our features
• Distrobird’s familiar interface helps you to onboard your team without hassle and deploy in minutes, not days.
• Distrobird seamlessly integrates with your existing software stack, offering unparalleled versatility.
• It organizes your website activities in a chronological timeline so your team can provide the world-class service customers deserve.
• Contacts data is automatically enriched so your team knows exactly who they’re talking to, and how to keep them delighted
• With Distrobird’s rule engine, you can create automated sequences targeting customers at every stage of your pipeline.

Distrobird limitations

• Its free plan supports a maximum of 3 users and 4 teams.
• Currently, Distrobird does not have a mobile app.

Distrobird pricing

• Free plan for the Voice, Sequences, and Shared Inbox products.
• Startup plan for Shared Inbox: $8/month.
• Startup, Growth & Enterprise plans for both the Sequences and Voice products: $25, $50, & $75 respectively.

2. Zendesk

Zendesk is another trusted leader in customer service, offering a platform exclusively focused on the customer experience. Within the Zendesk ecosystem, your support teams are equipped with an array of tools meticulously crafted to deliver personalized assistance on a large scale. Zendesk offers two options: Zendesk Support, a simple helpdesk ticketing system, and Zendesk Support Suite enhanced with omnichannel functionality. Remarkably, the Zendesk Support Suite stands as one of the foremost contenders within its market niche.

Zendesk is a great Freshdesk alternative because of its omnichannel customer communication tools and advanced automation features. This can help you streamline the workflow of your support team and increase agent productivity. Moreover, Zendesk's versatility extends to its availability in a multitude of languages, catering to diverse global audiences.

Zendesk best features

• Allows for customization of widgets/interface to suit corporate brand.
• Advanced reporting and analytics.
• Integrations that extend the functionality and capabilities of your systems and toolsets.
• Its AI-powered tools enhance self-service, agent productivity, and customer satisfaction.

Zendesk limitations

• You pay an extra €50 per month per agent for Advanced AI assistance and data privacy/protection.
• Zendesk lacks a centralized location for organizing tickets and documenting issues, making it difficult to track and identify patterns in client inquiries or problems.
• The absence of individual IDs for comments within tickets complicates referencing specific feedback or issues, thereby hindering efficient communication and issue resolution.
• At lower subscription levels, Zendesk does not offer the capability to export ticket information or run reports, critical features for any support team.

Zendesk pricing

• Team - $25 per agent per month
• Professional - $69 per agent per month
• Enterprise – $149 per agent per month.

3. Zoho Desk

This alternative to Freshdesk is an omnichannel solution that focuses on improving service desk agent productivity while creating customer happiness. It is well and truly capable of gathering support tickets from web forms, emails, live chat, social media, and telephone calls to your inbound call center, and storing it all in one central place, all you have to do is simply set up assignment rules to route tickets to the correct department for resolution, or sort using a filter like customer type, urgency, or ticket status.

However, because Zoho is a full-suite CRM and supports products for many use cases, you may not get the level of depth and expertise you would with a best-in-breed CX solution.

Zoho Desk's best features

• Helps reduce your call center costs by having the Zoho chatbot deal with routine questions and requests
• Use built-in AI to analyze customer sentiment so you can deal with recurring problems early on
• Create service level agreements (SLAs) for different types of customers, for example, specifying priority and resolution time

Zoho Desk limitations

• Artificial intelligence is only available on the Enterprise plan.
• Although the user interface is quite user-friendly, it can take some time to get to grips with some of the more advanced features.

Zoho Desk pricing

• Standard - $18 per user per month
• Professional - $30 per user per month
• Enterprise - $45 per user per month.

4. Help Scout

Help Scout, founded in 2011, has been dedicated to improving customer support for over a decade. Functioning primarily as a customer support platform, Help Scout aims to facilitate team collaboration and streamline interactions with customers. Through Help Scout, businesses can ensure their availability across various customer touchpoints, while equipping their teams with the necessary tools for collaboration, organization, and automation, thereby accelerating their workflow.

In contrast to complex enterprise customer support platforms that demand extensive setup and dedicated administration, Help Scout prioritizes simplicity, agility, and customer satisfaction, allowing businesses to operate efficiently and focus on delivering exceptional service.

Help Scout best features

• Help Scout has a shared inbox that helps teams collaborate and manage customer emails effectively.
• Its beacon help widget integrates with websites to offer immediate support assistance.
• Automated workflows to improve response times and streamline processes.
• Reporting capabilities for tracking performance and customer satisfaction.

Help Scout limitations

• Social channels and unlimited report history are only available on the Plus and Pro plans.
• Some users have expressed that customization options for the help documentation are somewhat limited, which may be a drawback for teams requiring more integrated solutions.

Help Scout pricing

• Standard: $20 per user per month.
• Plus: $50 per user per month.
• Pro: $65/month per user

5. HubSpot Service Hub

HubSpot Service Hub is part of the broader HubSpot software suite. It connects your customer information and your service channels on one platform, allowing you to accept queries from customers via inbound calls, emails, live chat, or social media channels like Facebook Messenger. It also has a customer portal that helps to keep conversations between customers and your service agents in one place, no matter where they started, and gives your front office team all the data and context they need to offer fast personalized service.

However, HubSpot started as a marketing and sales customer relationship management (CRM) platform and continues to push resources into those areas while also trying its hand at CS. Because HubSpot is newer to customer service, the Service Hub may not be as polished as their other products.

HubSpot best features

• Help desk automation.
• Functional knowledge base.
• Allows for calling your customers back using the built-in VoIP software.
• Lets you stay on top of everything going on using the reporting dashboard.

HubSpot limitations

• You need to use the HubSpot CRM too if you want seamless access to all your customer data.
• Automation features are only available on the paid plans and the customer portal only comes online from the Professional plan upwards.

HubSpot pricing

• Free: $0 per month
• Starter: $20 per month
• Professional: $1,200 per month
• Enterprise: $4,000 per month.

6. Salesforce Service Cloud

Salesforce Service Cloud serves as the customer service solution within the Salesforce CRM platform. Providing a comprehensive overview of your customer base, this help desk software simplifies customer support across various communication channels.

One standout feature is its remote assistance tool, enabling screen sharing between service agents and customers. This capability allows agents to visualize precisely what the customer sees on their screen, facilitating swift issue identification. Additionally, AI technology within the platform identifies elements within images shared remotely and suggests troubleshooting steps to aid support team members in efficiently resolving customer issues.

In cases where resolution proves challenging, easy escalation to higher support levels is available. Furthermore, the AI tool directs agents to relevant articles within the knowledge management system, enhancing productivity and service quality.

Salesforce best features

• Enables agents to efficiently collaborate with experts and resolve support queries faster.
• Monitor risks to customer relationships with incident detection and management tools, so you can address issues early on
• Automate workflows with AI within Service Cloud, streamlining operations, saving time, and reducing costs for your support team.

Salesforce limitations

• Highly priced compared to other options on this list.
• Many of the software features like AI, omnichannel routing, and self-service platforms come at extra cost.
• Its user interface may pose challenges for those who are not technically inclined, as it may not be the most intuitive.

Salesforce pricing

• Starter: $25 per month per user
• Professional: $80 per month per user
• Enterprise: $165 per month per user
• Unlimited: $330 per month per user
• Eistein 1 service: $500 per month per user.

7. LiveAgent

LiveAgent is a help desk solution with customer communication and organizational tools, like live chat and a ticket management system. LiveAgent includes a multichannel interface with access to voice, chat, social media, SMS, and email support. Their ticketing system can automatically distribute tickets to agents based on predefined rules.

It also offers customer service by phone with a LiveAgent call center solution, as well as support via WhatsApp, Messenger, and Viber, and social media channels like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

LiveAgent best features

• Built-in call center with call details automatically recorded and automatic customer callbacks enabled
• Allows for customization of the user interface.
• Integrations with third-party applications.
• Knowledge base functionality.

LiveAgent limitations

• Fewer features compared to most other alternatives.
• Lacks reporting and analytics features needed to gather key insights.
• Some verified users have described LiveAgent’s customer support experience as difficult and negative.

LiveAgent pricing

• Small business: $9 per agent per month
• Medium business: $29 per agent per month
• Large business: $49 per agent per month
• Enterprise: $69 per agent per month.

Which Customer Service Platform Is Right For You?

It's undeniable, the right customer support software makes life easier for everyone. Agents can focus on resolving issues, managers gain valuable insights, and the whole company benefits from happier customers. But juggling multiple channels and basic tools can make even simple requests an uphill battle.

While Freshdesk offers basic chat functionality, it might not be enough to provide a truly comprehensive customer support experience.

Distrobird on the other hand, goes beyond mere chat support, offering an omnichannel solution that streamlines communication across all channels.

If you are looking for a comprehensive and affordable solution with a free plan, Distrobird is a great option. It offers all the essential features you need to manage your sales & customer engagement tech stack in one place - multi-channel sequences and campaigns, web messenger, outbound dialer, inbound call center software, shared team inbox, and conversation analytics - in a single solution. Distrobird is also easy to use and integrates with a variety of popular apps.

Whether you're a startup or an established business, Distrobird's scalable pricing plans make it a cost-effective choice. Create your free Distrobird account and see how it can transform your customer interactions!