No matter what your business is, you always want to provide customers with top-notch support. Freshdesk is an all-in-one solution specifically designed to provide and expedite help desk support.

Needless to say, there are varying forms of customer support, and you might find Freshdesk is not suited for your specific industry needs. Fortunately, there are several alternatives and competitors to Freshdesk, so let’s take a look through them and find a perfect CRM for you.

Top 10 Best Alternatives & Competitors

  1. Zendesk – Most Established Alternative
  2. ProProfs – Most Easy-to-Use Alternative
  3. Intercom – Most Chatbox-Oriented Alternative
  4. Help Scout – Most Collaborative Alternative
  5. Zoho Desk – Most Customizable Alternative
  6. Front – Most Email-Focused Alternative
  7. HubSpot – Most Integrative Alternative
  8. Kayako – Most Attentive Alternative
  9. HappyFox – Most Automated Alternative
  10. Kustomer – Most AI-Powered Alternative

1. Zendesk – Most Established Alternative

PRICING: starts at $19 per user month

Zendesk is a huge name in custom support products, and it’s not difficult to see why. Zendesk functions as an all-in-one solution, offering a sales CRM, community forum, answer bot, and more. Zendesk handily keeps all of your communication channels (voice, email, messaging, etc.) with customers in one place.

Ironically, some users have reported problems with Zendesk’s customer service. Other users are dissatisfied with Zendesk’s tickets, noting the interface cannot be changed and that tickets are difficult to sort.

KEY FEATURES:

  • Community forum
  • Knowledge base
  • Answer bot
  • Voice software

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Can integrate with your website
  • Highly customizable
  • Scalability
  • Relatively easy interface

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Poor customer service
  • Difficulties managing tickets

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2. ProProfs – Most Easy-to-Use Alternative

PRICING: starts at $10 per user per month

ProProfs Help Desk is a highly integrated, cloud-based customer support tool. With ticket prioritization and a shared inbox, ProProfs can ensure your agents respond to customers in a timely and organized manner.

On the downside, ProProfs lacks integration with other third-party tools like various social media apps. If you want additional modules from ProProfs, the cost will quickly add up.

KEY FEATURES:

  • Help desk CRM integration
  • Internal knowledge base
  • Surveys/polls
  • Ticket creation and response
  • SLA management

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Shared inbox makes responding to tickets a breeze
  • Now has mobile apps for iOS and Android
  • Ticket prioritization to order responses

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Not integrated with other software
  • Additional modules are expensive

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3. Intercom – Most Chatbox-Oriented Alternative

PRICING: starts at $59 per month

Intercom is a customer service solution notable for its usage of chatbots. The platform already comes with three different types of chatbots and allows you to customize your own. With a shared inbox, ticket prioritization, and automatic conversation rerouting, Intercom is excellent at guaranteeing professional support for your customers.

Unfortunately, some users have reported issues getting Intercom’s customer support to respond quickly, noting day-long delays. A few have also expressed dissatisfaction with Intercom’s rising prices.

KEY FEATURES:

  • Automatically reroute customers to different agents
  • Three kinds of chatbots
  • Ticket prioritization
  • Shared inbox
  • Multiple conversation channels

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Integrates with SalesForce
  • Highly unified platform
  • Customizable chatbots

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Customer support can be slow
  • Increasing prices

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4. Help Scout – Most Collaborative Alternative

PRICING: starts at $20 per user per month

Help Scout is the go-to help desk solution for many. Not only is Help Scout easier to set up than other similar solutions, but the interface is also user-friendly even for novices. Help Scout is very collaboration-oriented, coming with a shared inbox, private notes, and tagging. Not only can your agents help customers better, but they can also help each other better.

While Help Scout has an app for iPhone, the app’s interface could use improvement, as it’s difficult to navigate. Some users are also upset with Help Scout’s rising prices.

KEY FEATURES:

  • Help Desk CRM integration
  • Ticket prioritization
  • Attachments and screencasts
  • External and internal bases

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Very easy to set up
  • Clear interface
  • Highly integrated
  • iOS compatible
  • Can set automated workflows

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Needs to be integrated with more third-party programs
  • Rising prices

>>More: Best FreshDesk CRM Alternatives | Intercom Alternatives & Competitors | Monday.com vs Freshdesk: Which Is Better For You | SalesLoft Alternatives & Competitors 

5. Zoho Desk – Most Customizable Alternative

PRICING: starts at $14 per user per month

Zoho Desk comes complete with a wide variety of features like automated responses and call scripting. As the company offers a suite of products like email and a word document platform, they all seamlessly integrate with Zoho Desk. Zoho also comes with a chatbot, Zia, that automatically responds to customers with information from your knowledge base.

On the other hand, some note that Zoho Desk requires a lot of customization and fine-tuning before it can go up and running. While Zoho provides a lot of customization options, some modules can be customized more than others, and users are upset that certain areas like the support desk cannot be sufficiently customized.

KEY FEATURES:

  • Q&A’s and surveys
  • Automated responses
  • Call scripting
  • Customer portal
  • Expert directory
  • Zia chatbot

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Integrates with Zoho products
  • Pretty customizable
  • Ease of use
  • Automated responses

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Requires a lot of customization
  • Not everything can be fine-tuned

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6. Front – Most Email-Focused Alternative

PRICING: starts at $19 per user per month

Front’s interface is designed to reflect email, and while email support is definitely Front’s greatest strength, Front also works with live chat and integrates readily with social media. With a shared inbox and @mentioning, Front is highly collaborative.

While Front integrates with other CRM and customer service solutions, some find these integrations to be lacking. For instance, some calendar integrations appear as HTML code. Front is also highly email oriented, so if your support is more call or video-based, you might find better options.

KEY FEATURES:

  • CRM integration
  • Live chat
  • Basic automation
  • Multi-channel messaging
  • Shared inbox

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Very similar interface to Gmail
  • Highly collaborative
  • Integrates with many third-party apps

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Integrations not fully-fledged
  • Mainly email oriented

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7. HubSpot – Most Integrative Alternative

PRICING: starts at $50 per user month

HubSpot Service is an excellent alternative for those already using HubSpot software. HubSpot can help your business put sales, marketing, and customer service all in a single, manageable location. One of the program’s biggest strengths is tracking and prioritizing tickets, ensuring speedy service.

While HubSpot is replete with many helpful modules, many of them are sold separately so your cost may quickly go up. A few users express dissatisfaction that HubSpot isn’t the most flexible with contracts on top of this. Other uses find ticket reassignment to be rather difficult

KEY FEATURES:

  • Ticket prioritization
  • Calling SDK
  • Internal knowledge base
  • Multiple ticket pipelines
  • Team email

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Integrated with HubSpot software
  • Efficient at tracking tickets
  • Great workflow automation

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Prices of additional modules
  • Contract negotiation
  • Difficulty with ticket reassignment

» MORE: Leading Alternatives and Competitors of Zendesk

8. Kayako – Most Attentive Alternative

PRICING: starts at $60 per user per month

What sets Kayako most aside from competitors as a customer service platform is its ability to individually track customer conversations. Many praise the solution for its ease of ticket management. Kayako can also be self-hosted, which opens up the door for deeper customization.

Some users wish certain features of Kayako were more customizable like ticketing. You’ll have more customization options if you self-host, but this will require familiarity with Linux

KEY FEATURES:

  • Internal knowledge base
  • Shared inbox
  • Internal help desk
  • Automated workflows

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Highly personalized service
  • Integrates with social media
  • Mobile friendly
  • Can be self-hosted

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Needs more customization

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9. HappyFox – Most Automated Alternative

PRICING: starts at $24 per user per month

HappyFox is a great customer service platform for smaller businesses and large ones alike. One of HappyFox’s most popular features is its Smart Rules which automatically perform actions if certain conditions are met. HappyFox’s dashboard also receives a lot of praise for its customizability

Some users find the analytics side of HappyFox to be lacking. For instance, there are no monthly ticket reports. Also, there is no room for multiple timezones on its interface

KEY FEATURES:

  • Smart Rules
  • Canned actions
  • Ticket prioritization
  • Smart Rules
  • Unified dashboard

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Automated
  • Highly customizable portal
  • Customizable dashboard

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Lacking in analytics
  • No multiple time zones

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10. Kustomer – Most AI-Powered Alternative

PRICING: starts at $89 per month

Kustomer streamlines customer relations with its AI-powered services. In fact, Kustomer boasts that 40% of all customer interactions can be automated, even detecting a customer’s language and responding accordingly. Further, tickets are centered around the customer, a very holistic approach to customer support.

On the downside, some users report the program as buggy, noting it crashes when dealing with a high volume of information.

KEY FEATURES:

  • Powered by AI
  • Internal and external knowledge bases
  • CRM integration
  • Multi-lingual support

REASONS TO BUY:

  • Highly automated
  • In-depth reporting
  • Customer, not ticket-oriented

REASONS TO AVOID:

  • Buggy

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References and Links

  • https://www.zendesk.com/
  • https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/zendesk-support
  • https://www.techradar.com/reviews/zendesk-support
  • https://www.proprofsdesk.com/
  • https://www.peerspot.com/products/proprofs-help-desk-reviews
  • https://www.intercom.com/
  • https://helpcrunch.com/blog/intercom-pricing/
  • https://chatimize.com/reviews/intercom/
  • https://www.helpscout.com/
  • https://www.trustradius.com/products/help-scout/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons
  • https://www.zoho.com/desk/
  • https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/zoho-crm-review/
  • https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/zoho-crm
  • https://front.com/
  • https://www.softwareadvice.com/collaboration/front-profile/
  • https://www.hubspot.com/
  • https://www.techradar.com/reviews/hubspot-crm-review
  • https://www.nectafy.com/blog/hubspot-reviews
  • https://kayako.com/
  • https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/kayako
  • https://www.happyfox.com/
  • https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/happyfox
  • https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/happyfox
  • https://www.kustomer.com/
  • https://webtribunal.net/crm/kustomer/

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