Sales & CRM · Review · Updated 17 October 2026
Freshworks reviewHelp desk, IT service and CRM software with Freddy AI, priced for growing businesses
Excellent
Brent score, out of 5
Freshworks gives small and mid-sized companies help desk, IT service management, chat and CRM tools that are easier to set up and cheaper than Zendesk, ServiceNow or Salesforce. The Growth tiers are good value. Costs climb on Pro and Enterprise, and AI is billed separately: AI Agent sessions at $49 per 100 after the first 500 and Copilot at $29 per agent.
Price
Freshsales from $9/user/month; Freshdesk and Freshservice from $19/agent/month (USD, annual)
Free option
Free plan
Best for
SMB and mid-market support teams that want a help desk running in days, not months
Opens Freshworks Inc. in a new tab · No card needed to look around · We may earn a commission
Disclosure: we may earn a commission if you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you. It never affects our ratings. How we make money
Best for
- SMB and mid-market support teams that want a help desk running in days, not months
- IT teams that need ITSM (incidents, changes, assets) without enterprise complexity
- Sales teams that want an affordable CRM with built-in phone, email and chat
- Companies that want support, IT and sales tools from one vendor
Skip it if
- Very large enterprises with deep customisation needs that ServiceNow or Salesforce cover
- Teams that want AI included in the base price rather than billed per session
- Buyers who need month-to-month pricing published up front
Support tickets live in a shared inbox, IT requests arrive by Slack and email, and the sales team tracks deals in a spreadsheet. Each team wants proper software, but enterprise tools take months to roll out and cost more than the problem.
Freshworks builds business software for exactly this middle ground: Freshdesk for customer support, Freshservice for IT service management, Freshsales for CRM and Freshchat for messaging, all with Freddy AI built in.
This review explains what each product costs, how the AI pricing works, and where Freshworks is a better pick than Zendesk, HubSpot or ServiceNow.
What is Freshworks?
Freshworks is a publicly listed software company that sells cloud tools for customer service, IT and sales. Its main products are Freshdesk (ticketing help desk), Freshservice (IT service management), Freshsales (CRM) and Freshchat (live chat and messaging). Freddy AI runs across them as an AI agent for customers, a copilot for staff, and insights for managers. Each product is sold per agent or per user, usually with a free trial.
Pros and cons
What we like
- Clear per-agent pricing: Freshdesk Growth $19, Freshservice Starter $19, Freshsales Growth $9
- Free trials across products: 14 days for Freshdesk and Freshservice, 21 days for Freshsales
- Freshchat has a free plan for up to 10 agents
- Freddy AI Agent included on Freshdesk plans with 500 free sessions per account
- Day passes for occasional agents instead of full seats
- Products share one design and connect to each other, so expanding is straightforward
What could be better
- AI costs extra: $49 per 100 AI Agent sessions after the first 500, Copilot $29/agent/month
- Big jumps between tiers, such as Freshdesk Growth $19 to Pro $55 per agent
- Published prices are annual; monthly billing costs more (around 20%)
- Freshservice Enterprise has no public price
Overall
Excellent
- Features4.4
- Ease of use4.4
- Value4.2
- Support4.0
Key features of Freshworks
Freshdesk help desk
Ticketing with a shared inbox, customer portal, knowledge base and reports from the Growth plan. Pro adds multilingual support, custom dashboards, intelligent routing and multiple SLA policies.
Freshservice ITSM
Incident, knowledge and task management from Starter, with service catalog, SLA management and on-call from Growth. Pro adds problem, change, release and major incident management, alert management and a status page.
Freshsales CRM
Kanban pipelines, contact lifecycle stages, built-in chat, email and phone, and workflows from $9/user. Pro adds contact scoring, deal insights, territory management and sales sequences.
Freshchat messaging
Live chat, social messaging and an AI agent in one inbox. The free plan covers up to 10 agents.
Freddy AI
Freddy AI Agent answers customers and employees automatically; Freshdesk plans include 500 free sessions once per account. Freddy AI Copilot helps agents draft and summarise for $29 per agent per month.
Day passes and collaborators
Occasional agents can use day passes ($2 to $12 depending on plan) instead of a full seat. Freshdesk also supports external collaborators on higher plans.
Freshworks pricing
Checked 2026-10. Prices can change; confirm on Freshworks Inc.’s site.
Freshsales Growth
$9/user/month
billed annually
- Pipelines and lifecycle stages
- Built-in chat, email and phone
- 21-day trial
Freshdesk Growth
$19/agent/month
billed annually
- Ticketing and shared inbox
- Portal and knowledge base
- Freddy AI Agent (500 sessions once)
Freshdesk Pro
$55/agent/month
billed annually
- Multilingual help desk
- Intelligent routing
- Multiple SLA policies
Freshservice Starter
$19/agent/month
billed annually
- Incident and knowledge management
- Workflow automation
- ServiceBot for Teams and Slack
Freshservice Pro
$99/agent/month
billed annually
- Problem, change and release management
- Status page
- Up to 50 portals
Watch out: All prices are in US dollars, per agent or user, billed annually; Freddy AI Copilot ($29/agent/month) and extra AI Agent sessions ($49 per 100) are billed on top, and enterprise tiers run from $59/user (Freshsales) to $89/agent (Freshdesk) or custom (Freshservice).
See current Freshworks pricing →What people use Freshworks for
Customer support for a growing SaaS
A 12-agent support team moves from a shared Gmail inbox to Freshdesk Growth, adds a knowledge base and lets Freddy AI Agent answer password and billing questions.
IT help desk for a 300-person company
A small IT team uses Freshservice Growth for a service catalog, SLAs and on-call schedules, and handles requests from Slack or Teams through ServiceBot.
An affordable sales CRM
A five-person sales team starts on Freshsales Growth at $9 per user, tracks deals in pipelines and calls and emails prospects from inside the CRM.
How to get started with Freshworks
- 1
Pick the product that matches your biggest pain: Freshdesk, Freshservice, Freshsales or Freshchat
- 2
Start the free trial (14 or 21 days); most trials open on the top plan
- 3
Connect your support email, chat widget or calendar and invite your team
- 4
Build a few automations and knowledge base articles and switch on Freddy AI Agent
- 5
Before the trial ends, choose the lowest plan that covers the features you used
Freshworks alternatives
| Product | Choose it when |
|---|---|
| Freshworks 4.3 | SMB and mid-market support teams that want a help desk running in days, not months |
| HubSpot4.5 | Choose it if marketing automation and CRM matter more than help desk depth. |
| Zendesk | Choose it for a larger customer service ecosystem and marketplace, at a higher price. |
| Close4.5 | Choose it for a sales-only CRM built around calling and email outreach. |
Freshworks: frequently asked questions
What does Freshworks do?+
Freshworks sells cloud software for customer support (Freshdesk), IT service management (Freshservice), sales CRM (Freshsales) and messaging (Freshchat), with Freddy AI across the products.
How much does Freshworks cost?+
It depends on the product. Freshsales starts at $9/user/month, Freshdesk and Freshservice at $19/agent/month, all billed annually in US dollars. Freshchat has a free plan for up to 10 agents.
Is there a free Freshworks plan?+
Freshchat has a free plan. Freshdesk, Freshservice and Freshsales offer free trials of 14 to 21 days instead of free plans on their current pricing pages.
Is Freddy AI included?+
Partly. Freshdesk plans include Freddy AI Agent with 500 free sessions once per account, then $49 per 100 sessions. Freddy AI Copilot is a $29/agent/month add-on.
Freshworks vs Zendesk: which is better?+
Freshworks is usually cheaper and quicker to set up for small and mid-sized teams. Zendesk has a larger app ecosystem and is often chosen by bigger support organisations.
Can I cancel Freshworks anytime?+
Freshdesk's pricing FAQ says there are no cancellation fees, and downgrades or cancellations take effect at the end of the current term, so an annual plan runs to the end of the year.
Final verdict
Is Freshworks worth it?
If your support, IT or sales team has outgrown shared inboxes and spreadsheets, Freshworks is one of the quickest ways to get proper software running. Pick one product, start the free trial on the top plan, and see how much of your workload Freddy AI can take before you commit.
Start a free trialAffiliate link · we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Reviewed by
Amjid Ali, Founder and editor
Amjid Ali is a Melbourne-based AI and automation lead, author of five books on infrastructure, automation and digital transformation, and a corporate trainer whose courses on n8n, Proxmox, firewalls and ERP have taught thousands of IT professionals.
Last updated 17 October 2026 · How we review
You might also like
Sales & CRM
HubSpot review
A free CRM that grows into marketing, sales and service hubs on one platform
Sales & CRM
Tidio review
Live chat, help desk and the Lyro AI agent for small online businesses
Sales & CRM
Close review
A sales CRM with built-in calling, email, SMS and an AI sales agent
Freshworks 4.3
Freshsales from $9/user/month; Freshdesk and Freshservice from $19/agent/month (USD, annual)