Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Freshdesk
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer service software that helps businesses of all sizes to deliver customer support. Freshdesk converts requests coming in via email, web, phone, chat, and social into tickets, and unifies ticket resolution across channels. Additionally, Freshdesk lets the user automate workflows, provide self-service, manage SLAs, and measure metrics, to stay on top of customer support. Freshdesk also offers out-of-the-box features like an AI-powered support chatbot,…
$0
Up to 2 agents
Microsoft 365
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is a Microsoft Cloud subscription service that includes Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access). The software can be installed across multiple devices and ensures that users always have the most up-to-date version of the included Office applications.
$5
Per User Per Month
Pricing
FreshdeskMicrosoft 365
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
Up to 2 agents
Growth
$15
per month (billed annually) per agent
Pro
$49
per month (billed annually) per agent
Enterprise
$79
per month (billed annually) per agent
Business Basic
$5.00
Per User Per Month
Individual
$5.84
*Per Month
Business - Apps
$8.25
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - F3
$10.00
Per User Per Month
Business Standard
$12.50
Per User Per Month
Business Premium
$20.00
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - E3
$32.00
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - E5
$57.00
Per User Per Month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FreshdeskMicrosoft 365
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details*When billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
FreshdeskMicrosoft 365
Considered Both Products
Freshdesk
Chose Freshdesk
Freshdesk has better tracking of communications with clients / customers
Chose Freshdesk
we decided to use Freshdesk based on the fact that a sister company was also using it and recommended we use it as well
Chose Freshdesk
We set up test instances of Zendesk, Zoho Desk, UVdesk, Freshdesk and trakdesk and asked our agents to evaluate the products themselves. It was very clear to all that Freshdesk was the more user-friendly, easy-to-set-up and more innovative solution. In the meantime we are very …
Chose Freshdesk
Before Freshdesk, we used to just use Microsoft Outlook, which, as you know, has no functionality to it at all. So don't have much experience or comparisons to other platforms similar to Freshdesk.
Chose Freshdesk
Spiceworks was powerful, but we also found it quite clunky and heavy-duty. Freshdesk is a lot lighter, quicker, and generally feels easier to use.
Chose Freshdesk
I have previously used MS CRM now MS Dynamics 365. Their setup of Freshdesk compared to Microsoft products is seamless. Answer a few questions and off you go. If you are looking for an out-of-the-box easy setup go with Freshdesk.
Chose Freshdesk
The most important is the pricing. Freshdesk/Freshworks all the solution and base price is available on the internet, which is easier for us to make fast decisions rather than waiting for other sales reps to get back to us. The graphic user interface is easy to see and use.
Chose Freshdesk
Freshdesk's biggest advantage over some other service desk solutions is that it is completely web-based, so that helps to eliminate the need for a Systems Administrator having to install/set up/manage this on a server. This includes managing a database for the helpdesk …
Microsoft 365

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
FreshdeskMicrosoft 365
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
8.5
174 Ratings
5% above category average
Microsoft 365
-
Ratings
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.0170 Ratings00 Ratings
Expert directory8.1115 Ratings00 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications8.43 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation7.64 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission8.8170 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket response8.9170 Ratings00 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
8.1
156 Ratings
4% above category average
Microsoft 365
-
Ratings
External knowledge base8.2142 Ratings00 Ratings
Internal knowledge base7.9145 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
8.4
165 Ratings
7% above category average
Microsoft 365
-
Ratings
Customer portal8.1141 Ratings00 Ratings
IVR8.451 Ratings00 Ratings
Social integration8.287 Ratings00 Ratings
Email support9.1164 Ratings00 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration8.3101 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
FreshdeskMicrosoft 365
Small Businesses
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.8 out of 10
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
FreshdeskMicrosoft 365
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(241 ratings)
8.3
(239 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.3
(21 ratings)
9.5
(6 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(41 ratings)
7.5
(8 ratings)
Availability
5.5
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
6.2
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.1
(39 ratings)
8.9
(54 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.7
(171 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Configurability
5.4
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
6.8
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.6
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.2
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
6.4
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.9
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
6.9
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
FreshdeskMicrosoft 365
Likelihood to Recommend
Freshworks Inc
Freshdesk is really good for start-up companies that want to update their current system or buy a new one. It is the best option possible when it comes to having a structure, following up, and making a better strategy because you can always see what your team is doing, and you have some great reports to help you.
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Microsoft
I usually recommend Microsoft 365 to my clients to keep them away from the Exchange server (sorry!) Our business has a lot of issues with exchange email functions and copy machines. I always recommend they download the desktop version and use the online version as needed. You never know when you will be without an internet connection, but you can usually trust your laptop will have a decent charge, and you can still be productive! Let it sync when the powers are back on - or your connection is alive.
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Pros
Freshworks Inc
  • The price is great for small startups just large enough to need a support ticketing system.
  • This may seem minor, but many tools don't have this: the ability to link a contact to multiple companies/accounts.
  • Agent collision detection is great for making sure agents don't duplicate each others' work!
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Microsoft
  • keeps me extremely organized. It is so easy to link calendars, emails, and documents.
  • keeps me well connected. It is so easy to send a quick message on teams or send an email to a group (for example, my particular team within the company).
  • easy to use. Everything is straightforward, making it easy to find an answer to a question. There is even a search option to figure out how to do something within Microsoft.
Read full review
Cons
Freshworks Inc
  • Data Security.
  • SLA Policies where it is not customer / contract driven but agents / groups driven.
  • Audit Trail is not available in Pro version makes the tool adoption difficult from compliance perspective.
  • Chat Bot and Fresh Chat Services has greater potential to explode, but the pricing model tagged to chat bot sessions .are illogical as it limits the ability to use the fresh chat feature
  • Agent Logon Screen use earlier version of Captcha as it is annoying for the agents to login. Very frustrating experience.
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Microsoft
  • Microsoft 365 really needs to work on protection part. In complex environment it is not reliable as compared to its competitors like Proofpoint. There are many instances where it fails to perform effectively.
  • In SharePoint Online the versioning feature of the document needs to be improved by Microsoft. Sometimes when we have to roll back to the previous version it does not work as expected.
  • In Teams messaging and app permission policies can be improved. There are some settings where we have to add a lot of things manually.
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Likelihood to Renew
Freshworks Inc
We are extremely happy with Freshdesk and can foresee using it for the next year. We might only consider using a different platform if our average daily ticket volume reaches four digits and its AI isn’t enough to handle our needs by then. While we haven’t tested this yet, we have read reviews that it’s AI capabilities are lacking
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Microsoft
There are many features of Office that we cannot replicate in any other tool. Plus people know it already. It's not going away anytime soon.
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Usability
Freshworks Inc
I gave it a rating of 9 out of 10 because they delivered on everything we asked them to do. Easy to setup, easy to deploy to end users, easy to customize, easy to enter tickets and so much more. Our experience with their support is top notch! After opening a ticket for support they call use back within 10 minutes every time!
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Microsoft
While Microsoft 365 is an amazing toolset, its still a Microsoft product. Sadly, I think the quality control regarding updates has dropped a lot the last few years. Also, I think things like the new Outlook are no improvement. In my opinion, so many features are missing. Still they proceed to push this. Microsoft knows their suite is one of the only of its kind broadly used and because of that, in my opinion, they can pull whatever they want on the users and do that without issue.
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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.
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Microsoft
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.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Freshworks Inc
The main thing about Freshdesk user service is that once a request has been made for information about a feature of the platform, the support team responds to tickets quickly, within a day of writing and submitting them, with information that is concise enough so that there is no need to ask for help on the same topic again.
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Microsoft
Over the past 8 years of using Microsoft 365, I have noticed that they change vendors often. This always leads to a poor experience in the beginning, then levels out after some time for the company to get things worked out. As a customer, it is really frustrating because I don't have time when something isn't working to have them "look into my issue" and get back with me. They have even closed a ticket I specifically told them to keep open. Your applications are only as good as the support.
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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.
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Microsoft
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.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Freshworks Inc
Most important, Freshdesk is a user- friendly platform which directly supports interfaces and navigates user to start. Helps to provide multiple and complex documentation and troubleshooting. It provides build templates for different workflows and processes also refuces effort and time to implement and perform corporate tasks and complete the execution.
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Microsoft
Everything works and I use it all the time.
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Alternatives Considered
Freshworks Inc
AI-powered automation, with its ability to integrate multiple communication channels—such as email, chat, and phone—into a single platform, helps us resolve common issues more quickly, reducing response times and allowing agents to focus on more complex inquiries. Their 24/7 customer support is highly responsive, and they proactively engage with clients through regular reviews to ensure alignment with business goals.
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Microsoft
Its very user-friendly, collaborative and efficient that boosts productivity using cloud tools. their security is strong and it provides data protection. There are regular updates that shields us from attackers too. It offers a wealth of learning resources, including tutorials, help articles and video guide to help users make the most of the application and personally upgrade their skills.
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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.
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Microsoft
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.
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Microsoft
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
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Microsoft
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
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Microsoft
  • Positively, it has increased productivity and efficiency in creating templates and being able to systemize some of the protocols we are working on putting into place.
  • It has been a positive as well as most individuals and companies that we associate with also use MicroSoft 365 and therefore there is no need to have formats change in our documents when they open them up using another type of program.
  • Getting work done quickly.... One and Done!!!
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ScreenShots