StartupAlternatives
Customer Support4 alternatives

Alternatives to Freshdesk

Helpdesk by Freshworks.

Visit Freshdesk
Freshdesk website preview
What is Freshdesk?
Freshdesk is a customer support helpdesk from Freshworks.
What does it do?
Turns inbound email, chat, phone and social messages into tickets, routes them to agents, and tracks SLAs. Adds a knowledge base, self-service portal, canned replies and reporting on agent workload.
Who is it for?
Small and mid-sized support teams that have outgrown a shared inbox and need ticketing, SLAs and several channels in one place.
What are the alternatives to Freshdesk?
Crisp leads with live chat rather than tickets, and BoldDesk is a similar hosted helpdesk. FreeScout and Chatwoot are open source and can be self-hosted.

Top alternatives

Smaller, founder-led tools that quietly compete with Freshdesk.

Crisp website preview

Helpdesk and chat.

Bootstrapped, with a friendly free tier.

$25/mo (Mini)Bootstrapped
FreeScout website preview

Open-source helpdesk.

Self-hosted helpdesk alternative.

OSS
BoldDesk website preview

Affordable helpdesk.

Pay-per-agent helpdesk built for SMB.

Chatwoot website preview

Open-source support.

Self-hostable Freshdesk alternative.

$19/seat/moOSS
4 alternatives to Freshdesk (2026) · Startup Alternatives