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Freshdesk vs. HCL Digital Experience vs. Salesforce Experience Cloud

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Freshdesk

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AFreshdesk (a product of Freshworks Inc.) is a customer service solution with enterprise capability. Freshdesk unifies channels, conversations, AI capabilities, customer insights, and advanced ticketing into the Freshdesk Command Center so agents are ready to resolve. With Freddy, People-first AI, customer service teams can take AI agents live in minutes to fully resolve complex and simple queries, get response and resolution assistance from AI copilot, and stay ahead with AI insights.…

    $18

    per month per user

    HCL Digital Experience

    Score9.9 out of 10
    N/AHCL Digital Experience is based on the former IBM Web Content Manager and IBM WebSphere Portal products, acquired by HCL Technologies from IBM in late 2018. The product allows the user to create, manage and deliver engaging omnichannel digital experiences to audiences with responsive content, targeted offers, seamlessly integrated applications and consistent branding across channels (web, mobile, and hybrid mobile/web applications and more).N/A

    Salesforce Experience Cloud

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/ASalesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement (formerly Salesforce Experience Cloud or Salesforce Community Cloud) is an online forum powered by Salesforce that enables businesses to connect with their employees, customers, partner organizations, and prospects. Designed to help facilitate communication and information sharing, customers can ask questions and request help, administrators can integrate data from third-party apps, and employees can collaborate across projects and…N/A
    Pricing
    FreshdeskHCL Digital ExperienceSalesforce Experience Cloud
    Editions & Modules
    Growth
    $18
    per month per agent
    Pro
    $59
    per month per agent
    Enterprise
    $95
    per month per agent
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    FreshdeskHCL Digital ExperienceSalesforce Experience Cloud
    Free Trial
    YesNoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    FreshdeskHCL Digital ExperienceSalesforce Experience Cloud
    Considered Multiple Products
    Freshworks Inc
    Chose Freshdesk
    The decision was made before my time. I want to move to another platform ASAP.
    Incentivized
    Chose Freshdesk
    Easier to use and easier to transfer within departments and users. Better user interface. Freshdesk has a better and easier format to train clients and employees how to use. You can create individual private and public canned responses to make communicating to clients quicker …
    Incentivized
    HCLSoftware
    No answer on this topic
    Salesforce
    Chose Salesforce Experience Cloud
    Overall, Salesforce is the most effective solution since it is part of an integrated stack to house and activate CRM audiences within an email, but also expand upon it via the DMP. This can allow for cross channel reach and exposure frequency measurement. If we were to partner …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    93%
    Would buy again
    213 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Would buy again
    45 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    207 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    37 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    93%
    Happy with the feature set
    213 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    45 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    147 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    28 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    174 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    30 Answers
    Features
    FreshdeskHCL Digital ExperienceSalesforce Experience Cloud
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Freshdesk and HCL Digital Experience and Salesforce Experience Cloud
    Feature
    Freshdesk
    8.6
    210 Ratings
    5% above category average
    HCL Digital Experience
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Experience Cloud
    -
    Ratings
    Organize and prioritize service tickets9.3206 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Expert directory7.9140 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications7.812 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation8.115 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ticket creation and submission9.0207 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ticket response9.1207 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Self Help Community
    Comparison of Self Help Community features of Freshdesk and HCL Digital Experience and Salesforce Experience Cloud
    Feature
    Freshdesk
    8.0
    185 Ratings
    0% below category average
    HCL Digital Experience
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Experience Cloud
    -
    Ratings
    External knowledge base8.1169 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internal knowledge base8.0173 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-Channel Help
    Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Freshdesk and HCL Digital Experience and Salesforce Experience Cloud
    Feature
    Freshdesk
    8.3
    197 Ratings
    3% above category average
    HCL Digital Experience
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Experience Cloud
    -
    Ratings
    Customer portal8.3169 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    IVR8.563 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social integration8.2105 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email support8.6197 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Help Desk CRM integration7.8126 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Freshdesk and HCL Digital Experience and Salesforce Experience Cloud
    Feature
    Freshdesk
    -
    Ratings
    HCL Digital Experience
    5.0
    5 Ratings
    47% below category average
    Salesforce Experience Cloud
    -
    Ratings
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings5.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Freshdesk and HCL Digital Experience and Salesforce Experience Cloud
    Feature
    Freshdesk
    -
    Ratings
    HCL Digital Experience
    4.1
    5 Ratings
    64% below category average
    Salesforce Experience Cloud
    -
    Ratings
    API00 Ratings4.14 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings4.15 Ratings00 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Freshdesk and HCL Digital Experience and Salesforce Experience Cloud
    Feature
    Freshdesk
    -
    Ratings
    HCL Digital Experience
    2.9
    5 Ratings
    84% below category average
    Salesforce Experience Cloud
    -
    Ratings
    WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings7.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings3.15 Ratings00 Ratings
    Admin section00 Ratings3.15 Ratings00 Ratings
    Page templates00 Ratings1.15 Ratings00 Ratings
    Library of website themes00 Ratings1.15 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings4.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publishing workflow00 Ratings1.14 Ratings00 Ratings
    Form generator00 Ratings3.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Freshdesk and HCL Digital Experience and Salesforce Experience Cloud
    Feature
    Freshdesk
    -
    Ratings
    HCL Digital Experience
    1.9
    5 Ratings
    111% below category average
    Salesforce Experience Cloud
    -
    Ratings
    Content taxonomy00 Ratings1.15 Ratings00 Ratings
    SEO support00 Ratings2.15 Ratings00 Ratings
    Bulk management00 Ratings2.13 Ratings00 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings2.14 Ratings00 Ratings
    Community / comment management00 Ratings2.13 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    FreshdeskHCL Digital ExperienceSalesforce Experience Cloud
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    Help Scout
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Yext
    Score6.8 out of 10
    Egnyte
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Sitecore Digital Experience Platform
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Epicor ECM
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Progress Sitefinity
    Score7.9 out of 10
    Dashpivot - By Sitemate
    Score10 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    FreshdeskHCL Digital ExperienceSalesforce Experience Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.6
    (277 ratings)
    9.0
    (11 ratings)
    8.9
    (71 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.5
    (25 ratings)
    5.7
    (6 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (42 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.1
    (15 ratings)
    Availability
    7.5
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.6
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.4
    (41 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (18 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.7
    (207 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    6.5
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    8.5
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.9
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.4
    (4 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    6.8
    (6 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Professional Services
    8.7
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    7.6
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.7
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    FreshdeskHCL Digital ExperienceSalesforce Experience Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Freshworks Inc
    I believe Freshdesk is well-suited for companies that manage multiple accounts, such as those in the Business Process Outsourcing industry. It has all the necessary capabilities, such as ticket management that uses omnichannel to receive ticket requests from service requests (managed internally) in the system, emails, etc. There are also several workflow automations that can be built within the platform/system. What is lacking is the API documentation, which limits the possibilities for further automations. Overall, it is a highly recommended tool for managing employee productivity and timeliness.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    HCL DX does really well at managing and maintaining the site. It allows the business to basically maintain the site while IT spent time developing new and enhanced functions. The main issue I currently have with HCL DX is not directly with the product but it does play a role. It is difficult finding skilled resources to support HCL DX in my experience.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    For well-suited, this product is great for your external clientele groups that you would not necessarily want to have a high user fee rate for. So basically general public or a group that will be authorized to come in and just do a few things here and there, but you don't necessarily want them access to all of your systems and your data points for groups that it would not be a great use for. I'd say probably your high level internal staff, they're going to be using a lot of the backend functionality automations, evaluating data, managing data, and doing custom inputs. That's just not what's intended for.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Freshworks Inc
    • No prior experience with similar platforms is required to use Freshdesk. I found its interface to be quite intuitive, at least for the end user.
    • It's easy to connect with other platforms, so you can sync and manage data from other platforms because the integrations work correctly.
    • Freshdesk's technical support is quite responsive, with short and effective response times. They have easily handled my questions and issues.
    • It has tools for customizing automated chats, answering frequently asked questions before transferring to an agent. Its configuration is extensive and highly customizable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    • With Version 8.5, IBM Web Content Manager introduced in place editing capabilities which allow authors to make content edits on sections of the page instead of going to the content itself. This feature allows authors to make changes in context of the page and preview changes within the actual look and feel of a live page.
    • Projects provide a collaborative atmosphere for the author community so that authors can interact and work as a team to manage inter-dependent content changes under one project and publish all changes at once, instead of working separately on individual content changes. This brings awareness across authors in an organization and easy knowledge share.
    • IBM Digital Data Connector is a cool feature that allows [users] to integrate external content sources onto the portal using IBM Web Content Manager presentation components. This allows UI/UX designers to present integrated external data in any manner they want, manage UI changes with an underlying approval process and leverage syndication to push changes live immediately.
    • IBM Web Content Manager offers a targeted content feature that allows business users to deliver personalized content to customers based on customer demographic information, browsing history and other transaction related information. Any rules created follow the publishing process thereby making it just a configurable item resulting in less turn around to turn on the feature on a website.
    • IBM Web Content Manager offers 'multi lingual solution' out of the box which allows content creation for almost all popular languages.
    • Syndication feature has improved a lot and it now provides a detailed views comprising of 'failed items', 'items that have syndicated successfully, 'items in queue'. Failed items view provides detailed and clear cut information of what resulted in failure helping IT to troubleshoot problems easily.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    • Easy to use, just like Salesforce's other products. Many users can sit down and figure it out in no time, and with a little training become power users.
    • Fast and secure - Salesforce is a leader in the cloud world so you get consistently fast results and security that is top notch in the industry.
    • Accessible from anywhere - if you use cloud CMS already this is a no-brainer, but for those that do in-house CMS still, this is a major difference. Mobile access from anywhere on the planet without a VPN is something you just can't do without the cloud.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Freshworks Inc
    • Freshdesk is buggy, full stop. I don't know how many support tickets I submitted related to user login.
    • There can be a language barrier with support and sales.
    • There were a couple of hours-long outages that significantly impacted my company's customer experience.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    • IBM Web Content Manager should provide some easily usable connectors through a GUI to connect to bring content from custom data sources including connecting to Salesforce and custom databases.
    • Should further optimize and enhance creation of rich and responsive content driven UIs on various digital channels.
    • Should further optimize and enhance content personalization features.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    • Unlike other CMS platforms like Wordpress and Adobe Experience Manager, Salesforce does not provide a fully featured editor with a drag-and-drop design tool.
    • Our content creators and marketing team often struggle with permissions and how to distribute content across different experience cloud sites.
    • Also, there is no side-to-side comparison view for content editors to update the content easily.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Freshworks Inc
    New support agents can learn the system quickly, minimizing training time and maximizing productivity from day one. Agents are more willing to use a system that is simple, reducing resistance to change and ensuring all interactions are logged (a common problem with complex systems). The platform is known for being easy to set up and customize, allowing teams (especially smaller ones) to get started with minimal technical expertise.The platform makes it easy to set and monitor Service Level Agreements (SLAs), ensuring customers get timely responses and helping managers enforce performance standards.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    IBM products always moves forward to adapt to new requirements and technologies. I have used versions 6, 6.1, 7 and 8 of IBM WCM, and I know IBM is ready to revamp the tool based on emerging needs, and still provide the capabilities to migrate your old system to the newer versions.
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    Renewal exercise is already underway. Platform is to ubiquitous to not leverage, especially at a Fortune 50 firm
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Freshworks Inc
    Freshdesk is extremely easy to use as implemented it on our own with average technical skills. A lot of the options are straightforward and Freshdesk provides easy-to-understand explanations for some of the more complex-sounding ones. We recently onboarded new specialists and they were able to learn Freshdesk with minimal training.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    New versions has increased user experience facilitating usability.
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    Strengths: - Intuitive for Salesforce Users – If you’re already working within the Salesforce ecosystem, the Salesforce CMS is easy to navigate, with a clean UI, drag-and-drop content management, and reusable assets for quick updates. - Seamless Integration – Since it connects natively with Experience Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and CRM, it allows for efficient multi-channel content distribution without needing extra third-party tools. - AI-Powered Personalization – The ability to deliver dynamic content based on user profiles and engagement data is a huge plus, making content delivery more relevant and impactful. Challenges: - Learning Curve for New Users – If you're not already familiar with Salesforce, the interface can feel overwhelming, requiring training to fully leverage all features. - Limited Customization & Workflow Automation – While it works well for structured content, advanced approval workflows and deep editorial customization are limited compared to enterprise CMS platforms like Adobe Experience Manager. - Media & Design Limitations – Salesforce CMS is not as robust for managing rich media-heavy content, which can be frustrating for teams needing more flexibility in multimedia presentation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Freshworks Inc
    I have encountered a lot of errors in the Freshdesk, however, they tend to resolve it on priority or at least they will share the timeline by when this can be resolved. Most of the time the issue has been from the other partner's end. They take time to resolve their vendor issues and they don't have any timelines in case of developed app errors.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Freshworks Inc
    The reports take a lot of time to download if the time period is large. Also, the tickets take their sweet time to open and load. It is not fast as Zendesk. Only 30 tickets are visible in a single go and there isn't any option to select all. If we need to change the pages and dashboards it takes a lot of time to open.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    Again, since we provide and recommend solutions, I can't speak to every client's individual experience, but can offer general reflections as to keep their collaborations private, that they are satisfied with the experience. We hear a lot about how this system helps to encourage collaborations between their own business partners, customers, and internal members, and enables quality integrations with other products that help drive revenue.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Freshworks Inc
    Because I never worked with a company that responds so quickly to their customer! They are always fast at responding and very open to new ideas and quickly turning them around to include them in future releases. They walk us through when we need assistance and are very good at communicating. Overall top notch support
    Incentivized
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    HCLSoftware
    We had some issues related with performing and the support was suitable and sucessful.
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    Although support from Salesforce itself can be quite unresponsive sometimes, the community hub is incredibly helpful. The large user base of Salesforce products contribute to troubleshooting and the forums are a powerful tool for finding solutions and possible bugs and response times can be quite fast compared to your regular support channels.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Freshworks Inc
    In-person training is provided to all the agents and it is very easy to learn the basics of the Freshdesk interface. Solving tickets via dashboards, replying to the guest queries in bulk via Freshdesk. The training which is a bit hard is creating the logic according to the ticket flow and intergeration.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Freshworks Inc
    This tool is no doubt easy to learn but in-person training is a lot better than online training. It takes time to grasp things in the online training, however, in pandemic we have done all the training online. Apart from a bit more time we haven't faced any issues with online training.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Freshworks Inc
    Was a fairly quick implementation for us. However, we are only doing email integration and not some of the more complex integrations that are possible. One clarification on an earlier question. I selected that Freshdesk doesn't have a given feature, but this is not true. I selected this because there wasn't a selection for I don't use the feature. This is a weakness in the survey.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    Implementation was successful due to Websphere application server used.
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Freshworks Inc
    Compared to Crisp, Freshdesk offers much more organization and is just much more helpful when it comes to having more than one region/team. Not that Crisp is bad, but with Freshdesk, internal communication and collaboration are much easier, which was quite important for our team to grow.
    Incentivized
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    HCLSoftware
    Magento and Prestashop are E-commerce CMS platforms. They are used in a different scale of application than WCM.
    Concerning Joomla, it's a useful CMS forsmaller website. Once again this is an other scale of application than WCM Liveray can compete WCM 7 concerning the : ¤ specific development ¤ security ¤ responsive
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    Salesforce Experience Cloud was selected due to its tight integration with our existing Salesforce CRM platform. Customization of the portal was much, much simpler compared to Sharepoint - especially with role-based security parameters that are ultimately inherited based on attributes within the Salesforce CRM platform. Salesforce Experience Cloud was a natural fit for this customer-facing purpose.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Freshworks Inc
    I was not very involved with the purchase/contract (my company purchased Fresjdesk before I was brought on), but I will say that pricing per agent made it difficult to grow our support team. Additionally, we were kind of disappointed after our upgrade because it didn't solve our pain points as much as we expected.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Freshworks Inc
    My company had Freshdesk agents from support and success. It's generally difficult to customize permissions for different agent "roles." We were a fully distributed company, so "multiple sites" doesn't apply to us. We found Freshdesk features lacking as we grew our customer base, and adding agents wasn't easy because price steeply increases with number of agents.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    No answers on this topic
    Professional Services
    Freshworks Inc
    - good customer support
    - personal contact
    - usage limited to basic product features, individually designed solutions seem unlikely
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Freshworks Inc
    • Increased response times - Client Success maintains at 98% SLA for resolution
    • Categorization of feedback and issues - custom ticket fields make it easier for us to review why clients contact us on a high level
    • Standardization of internal procedures via templates, canned responses and automations
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    HCLSoftware
    • Negative: Very complex architecture for on-premise deployments (too many servers to installed)
    • Positive: Easy customization
    • Negative: Architecture limited to cloud solutions
    • WCM is an old product and needs an update
    • Blog, and community are not integrated in Digital Manager for discussion
    • Templates are not available to integrate basic services (FileNet, more complex BPM , e-commerce)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    • Time savings for our customer success team - no need to continually follow up on tickets as customers have access to see status themselves
    • In the future, it will also allow us to create more impactful knowledge articles that will increase self-service over ticket creation
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots