AI-first support solution for growing businesses

Freshdesk vs Intercom: Scale smarter with a complete solution that grows with you

Stop paying premium prices for basic features. Freshdesk gives you more out of the box—at a price Intercom can’t match.

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How do you choose the right customer support solution?

Superior support

Get the most out of your solution with smooth onboarding, real-time support, and true partnership.

Team collaboration

Agents effortlessly collaborate with cross-functional teams and external experts to resolve issues faster.

Transparent pricing

Feature-packed plans with transparent pricing so you can upgrade as your business grows- without breaking the bank!

Advanced routing

Intelligent routing and advanced workflows that allow users to prioritize, categorize, and assign tickets easily and efficiently.

Omnichannel support

Offer support to customers on their preferred channel, such as social, web, email, phone, messaging apps, and more.

AI-first support solution

Automate mundane tasks, resolve tickets quickly, and enhance response quality with a gen AI-powered assistant.

6 reasons why Freshdesk wins over Intercom

Work smarter, not harder with advanced ticketing

Why Freshdesk is the better choice

Freshdesk’s advanced ticketing capabilities automate workflows and enhance team collaboration. Admins can assign tickets based on an agent’s skill, load, or just round-robin. Additionally, agents can seamlessly collaborate with internal and external experts in the same conversation pane, leading to faster resolution and higher CSAT. 

Why Intercom might not fit your growing needs

Intercom is relatively new to the ticketing space and lacks advanced routing and collaborating capabilities, which makes scaling customer service harder. The absence of skill-based routing and ticket triaging leads to increased manual processes.

Pay 75% less for Freddy AI Agent

Why Freshdesk is the better choice

Freddy AI Agent offers AI-powered chatbots to resolve issues faster. These bots can emulate your agents' behavior and personalize answers based on customer interactions. Its session-based pricing model offers cost stability, as multiple issues can be resolved in a single session, avoiding fluctuating expenses.

For example, 1000 sessions with a 50% resolution rate cost only $100.

Why Intercom might not fit your growing needs

Intercom’s AI chatbot uses a pay-per-resolution model at $0.99 per automated resolution. This can lead to unpredictable costs, as expenses fluctuate with customer issue volumes.

For example, 1000 sessions with a 50% resolution rate would cost $495.

Affordably scale with maximum ROI

Why Freshdesk is the better choice

Freshdesk helps you grow cost-effectively with a pricing model that gives you access to advanced features at just $69/agent/month on the Pro plan.

Why Intercom might not fit your growing needs

Intercom’s pricing starts at $29/agent/month, but key features like custom roles and social media integrations are locked behind higher-tier plans (costs 19% more on the Advanced plan), forcing expensive upgrades for basic features.

Meet your customers in the channel they prefer

Why Freshdesk is the better choice

With Freshdesk, agents can seamlessly manage multiple dedicated support email addresses, enabling streamlined ticket assignment and advanced routing for faster, more efficient handling of support queries. Its intuitive UI organizes threaded conversations clearly, offering complete visibility into ticket history so agents can resolve issues with complete context and minimal back-and-forth.

Why Intercom might not fit your growing needs

Intercom’s conversational inbox blends email with other messaging channels, which, while seamless in theory, often muddles the context of email interactions. This can slow down support as agents struggle to understand the full history of an issue quickly.

Speed up resolution by 38% with AI Copilot

Why Freshdesk is the better choice

Freshdesk offers Freddy AI Copilot which has groundbreaking productivity features that can speed up resolution by 38% and improve CSAT by 6%. It serves as a real-time coach for agents, delivering feedback post-resolution, prioritizing issues with negative sentiments, and automatically summarizing tickets and calls, among other features.

Why Intercom might not fit your growing needs

Intercom’s AI Copilot falls short in prioritizing tickets based on customer sentiment, which may delay agents in addressing issues from frustrated customers. Agents also can’t assess their performance after every resolution, resulting in diminished support quality.

World-class support from a support-first company

Get started faster with Freshdesk

Freshdesk prioritizes customer success with 24/7 email support and 24/5 phone and chat for paid plans. Our complimentary onboarding helps you get started faster and tailor the product to suit your specific needs.

Why Intercom might not fit your growing needs

Basic queries can take 2-3 days to resolve, and weekend support is limited. The wait often drives users to self-help forums, where they find others with unresolved issues. 

Freshdesk vs. Intercom

Decoding the best support solution for your growing business

Criteria

Freshdesk

Intercom

Free Plan


 

Pricing

Pro plan starts at $69 / agent / month / billed yearly

Advanced plan starts at $85 / agent / month / billed yearly

Bring your own channel and telephony, LINE, Google Business Messages

 

 

Advanced email workflow automation



Skill-based routing



Collaborate with internal & external stakeholders



AI Chatbot Pricing

$100/1000 sessions (save up to 75% with Freddy AI Agent)


Predictable costs with session-based pricing

$0.99/automated resolution (*$495 for 1000 sessions & at 50% resolution rate)


Fluctuating costs with resolution-based pricing

Prioritize queues based on sentiments (AI Copilot)



Voice call transcription summary (AI Copilot)



Post-resolution quality coach (AI Copilot)



Call transfer (Inbound and Outbound)



Data centers

US, EU, IN and AU, MEA

US, AUS, and EU only

Trusted by 68K+ businesses worldwide

Freshdesk has helped us install more efficient workflows and processes while still maintaining HIPAA compliance. It has been a game-changer for agents and members.

Mahmoud ShehadehDirector of Member Support
Read case study
THE FRESHDESK ADVANTAGE

Frequently asked questions

To evaluate ticketing tools, learn more about admin, channel coverage, scalability, trial offers, and other key considerations for customer service leaders.

Which is better: Intercom or Freshdesk?

Freshdesk is better for comprehensive support with advanced ticketing capabilities, clean UI, and 24/7 support to get the most out of the solution.

What is Freshchat?

Freshchat enables businesses to deploy AI chatbots or use chat tools to resolve customer issues via web, mobile app, SMS, social, and more.

Which is better: Freshchat or Intercom?

Both are conversational support platforms, but Freshchat has an edge in channel coverage, ease of setup, and usability, as well as customer support and simplicity of pricing.

Do Freshchat and Freshdesk offer free trials?

Yes, both Freshchat and Freshdesk offer a 14-day free trial with access to features in the Enterprise plans.

Is Freshdesk suitable for businesses of all sizes?

Absolutely. Freshdesk is designed to scale, making it suitable for small businesses to large enterprises. Its flexible features and versatile plans cater to the unique needs of any organization.

Freshdesk Omni

Experience the seamless, AI-powered omnichannel solution

14-day free trial. No credit card required. Zero commitment.

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