Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Freshdesk
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Freshdesk (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
Help Scout
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Help Scout is help desk software. The vendor’s value proposition is that that their solution reduces time spent on training users because Help Scout is simple to use and set up and scales like any enterprise product. This solution includes multiple mailboxes to support as many email addresses as needed in order to work collaboratively across teams, and manage several products or brands from one account. Reports on conversation trends, team performance, productivity, and customer happiness are…
$30
per month starts with 100 contacts
UseResponse
Score 5.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
UseResponse helps companies provide customer service support using several channels and organize their community around products or services on their server. It's all-in-one support suite with feedback, help desk ticketing system, knowledge base and live chat in one package. Integrate it using API, built-in translation tool and fully customizable interface with extended modular system.
$39
per 2 agents/month
Pricing
FreshdeskHelp ScoutUseResponse
Editions & Modules
Growth
$18
per month per agent
Pro
$59
per month per agent
Enterprise
$95
per month per agent
Standard
$30
per month starts with 100 contacts
Plus
$90
per month starts with 200 contacts
Company
Contact sales team
Self-Hosted
$3200
includes one of the platforms, 5 support agents, announcements.
Basic
from $39
per 2 agents/month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FreshdeskHelp ScoutUseResponse
Free Trial
YesYesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
FreshdeskHelp ScoutUseResponse
Considered Multiple Products
Freshdesk
Chose Freshdesk
Freshdesk has a more modern and intuitive user interface, while Help Scout's interface is simpler and more minimalist.In case of features, Freshdesk offers a wider range of features, includes omnichannel support, AI powered automations, and advanced analytics. Help Scout is …
Chose Freshdesk
The product that Freshdesk compares to the most on this list is Zendesk, which was considerably more expensive and was missing a server integration that we required. It did have a lot of great features, though, and its Support and Account Managers are located in the U.S. (vs. …
Chose Freshdesk
Brings everything a company may need to elevate customer service and empower teams to solve the unique challenges and complex issues related to customer service. Helps bring in the right experts to collaborate even if they are not within the organization.
Chose Freshdesk
Freshdesk has a cleaner and more intuitive interface, and we also found support to be more responsive with a much quicker turnaround on quick questions and issues. Although we have found reporting shortfalls with Freshdesk, it is vastly better than its competitors, which is one …
Help Scout
Chose Help Scout
This is tricky because there's helpdesk apps and chat apps (now Help Scout offers both).

We first used just an email inbox (of course not scalable but we were very small), then we turned to Freshdesk, which was painful to use. It had some cool features but in general it was …
Chose Help Scout
We primarily chose HelpScout because they were an affordable, moderately robust, HIPAA compliant solution. All the other options (e.g. Zendesk, Freshdesk, Kayako, etc.) were out of our price range or did not provide the necessary features that our team has come to rely on.
Chose Help Scout
They all had their positives and negatives. For us, it came down to signing a BAA (Zendesk wanted $28,000 to sign one). We enjoy working with vendors who can support healthcare initiates such as we are building.
UseResponse

No answer on this topic

Features
FreshdeskHelp ScoutUseResponse
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
8.4
202 Ratings
2% above category average
Help Scout
8.5
23 Ratings
4% above category average
UseResponse
-
Ratings
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.2197 Ratings9.023 Ratings00 Ratings
Expert directory8.1134 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications7.06 Ratings7.813 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation7.67 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission9.3198 Ratings7.821 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket response8.9198 Ratings9.422 Ratings00 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
8.4
179 Ratings
5% above category average
Help Scout
8.3
21 Ratings
3% above category average
UseResponse
-
Ratings
External knowledge base8.4162 Ratings8.620 Ratings00 Ratings
Internal knowledge base8.4167 Ratings8.119 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
8.8
189 Ratings
10% above category average
Help Scout
8.4
23 Ratings
5% above category average
UseResponse
-
Ratings
Customer portal8.7160 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
IVR9.159 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Social integration8.5102 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Email support9.0188 Ratings9.523 Ratings00 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration8.5119 Ratings7.215 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
FreshdeskHelp ScoutUseResponse
Small Businesses
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
FreshdeskHelp ScoutUseResponse
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(260 ratings)
9.4
(23 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.4
(25 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(42 ratings)
9.4
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
7.0
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.5
(41 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.1
(192 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.1
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.2
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.8
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.6
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
8.4
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.4
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.5
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
FreshdeskHelp ScoutUseResponse
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.
Read full review
Help Scout
Small businesses that want a conversational type of customer support experience. Nothing wrong with support tickets, but it does make you feel like a number. Also, we needed to get up and running quickly so the "inbox" feel of the dashboard was already familiar with the team so they could adopt the new software quickly.
Read full review
UseResponse
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
Help Scout
  • Extremely simple to use and understand as a user - treats communications like human beings and provides a much more personal feel to communication (as opposed to making people feel like numbers).
  • The email newsletter.
  • They are super responsive. They are pretty rad and transparent: if something goes wrong on their end they are not afraid of admitting fault. Which leads me to trust them because I can believe them. I know that tells you very little about the product, but as leadership, that's something that I really need
  • Help Scout does exactly what it needs to (facilitate organized, efficient conversations between customers and support people) without getting in the way.
Read full review
UseResponse
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
Help Scout
  • Trying to group tickets is a bit unflexible. You can create folders which can be part of a workflow (automatic trigger) but you can't create a folder based on tags. This needs to be improved because there's a need to create smarter segments and mix them.
  • Metrics are useful but there needs to be more details about them. You can drill down in some but others are still not very actionable or visible (ok, that number went down, but what was the cause? what's the criteria with what you measure that?)
Read full review
UseResponse
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
Help Scout
We are receiving feedback from the organizational level that they may want us to transition to a different solution to provide consistency across the company.
Read full review
UseResponse
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
Help Scout
Help Scout is a great solution for support teams. There are many articles and webinars to help you learn how to use Help Scout. There are also many features to help make your workflows easier and more efficient. I would readily recommend Help Scout to any small or medium-growing support teams.
Read full review
UseResponse
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
Help Scout
No answers on this topic
UseResponse
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.
Read full review
Help Scout
No answers on this topic
UseResponse
No answers on this topic
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
Read full review
Help Scout
No answers on this topic
UseResponse
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
Help Scout
No answers on this topic
UseResponse
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.
Read full review
Help Scout
No answers on this topic
UseResponse
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.
Read full review
Help Scout
No answers on this topic
UseResponse
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.
Read full review
Help Scout
Only have minimal experience with G-Suite for a much smaller company. This worked well for that organization but did not have similar specialization functions that suite our larger organization very well. Help Scout's pricing makes sense, and continues to service our needs well. Minimal usage of other programs, but have no need to explore alternatives at this time.
Read full review
UseResponse
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
Help Scout
No answers on this topic
UseResponse
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.
Read full review
Help Scout
No answers on this topic
UseResponse
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
Read full review
Help Scout
No answers on this topic
UseResponse
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
Read full review
Help Scout
  • We are able to retain our customer base due to the outstanding customer service our Customer Experience department provides. Without an organized tool like Help Scout, this would not be possible. We pride ourselves in quick response times to customers and are able to do so by effectively routing tickets to the right agents.
Read full review
UseResponse
No answers on this topic
ScreenShots

Help Scout Screenshots

Screenshot of Build better relationships with your customers, and work together better as a teamScreenshot of Tools designed specifically for team collaboration on customer supportScreenshot of Docs Knowledge Base provides self-service that sets your customers up for successScreenshot of The conversation report can change the conversation with your customers from problems to praise by pinpointing what they write in about and when.Screenshot of Productivity Reports track your team's customer-helping velocity and identify sticking points to push through with even greater momentum.Screenshot of Happiness Reports are the closest you can get to your customer's true feelings without hiring a telepath.

UseResponse Screenshots

Screenshot of Help CenterScreenshot of Knowledge Base (Self Service)Screenshot of Live ChatScreenshot of Agents InterfaceScreenshot of Idea PageScreenshot of Dashboard