How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Rankite is independent; if a vendor ever pays for a featured spot, that listing is clearly labeled Partner.
Key takeaways
- The cheapest credible entry points are Zoho Desk ($14/agent/month) and LiveAgent ($15/agent/month); both include ticketing, chat and a knowledge base at that price.
- Zendesk, Freshdesk and Intercom all start at $19 to $55 per agent or seat per month, then add AI costs per resolution, which is where the real bill hides.
- Real free plans still exist: Help Scout (5 users), Zoho Desk (3 agents), HubSpot (2 users) and Freshdesk's limited 6-month program for 2 agents.
- Gorgias is the ecommerce specialist: priced per ticket instead of per seat, starting at $10/month for 50 tickets, which beats per-seat plans for lean, high-volume stores.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Zendesk | Support teams that want the most mature ticketing platform available | $55/agent/month (Suite Team, billed annually) | Free trial (14 days) |
 Freshdesk | Small and mid-market teams that want multichannel ticketing live fast | $19/agent/month (Growth, billed annually) | 6-month program (2 agents, classic product only) |
 Intercom | Companies whose support happens inside a website or app messenger | $29/seat/month (Essential, billed annually) | Free trial (14 days) |
 HubSpot Service Hub | Teams already running their business on HubSpot CRM | $20/seat/month (Starter) | Yes (free service tools for up to 2 users) |
 Help Scout | Small teams whose support is mostly email | $25/user/month (Standard, billed annually) | Yes (up to 5 users, 100 contacts/month) |
 Zoho Desk | Budget-conscious teams, especially ones using other Zoho apps | $14/agent/month (Standard, billed annually) | Yes (Free edition, up to 3 agents) |
 LiveAgent | SMBs that want ticketing, live chat and a call center in one tool | $15/agent/month | Free trial (30 days) |
 Gorgias | Ecommerce stores where tickets are mostly order questions | $10/month (Starter, 50 tickets) | No |
 Front | Teams that manage email, SMS and social from shared inboxes | $25/seat/month (Starter, up to 10 seats) | No |
 HelpDesk | Teams that want straightforward per-agent pricing without meters | $29/agent/month (Team, billed annually) | Free trial (14 days) |
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Here is the uncomfortable truth about help desk pricing in 2026: the seat price on the pricing page is a down payment. Zendesk, Freshdesk and Intercom now charge for AI by the resolution on top of seats, which means a team with heavy automation can pay double the headline figure. The ten tools below are ranked by fit for different buyers, with the pricing model spelled out for each so you can model your real bill before the trial ends.
#1
Zendesk
Best for: Support teams that want the most mature ticketing platform available
Visit zendesk.com
Starting price$55/agent/month (Suite Team, billed annually)
Free planFree trial (14 days)
Zendesk is the reference point every other help desk is measured against, and Suite Team at $55 per agent per month is the real entry point: email, social, chat, basic ticketing and a help center. Growth at $89 adds SLAs and multilingual support; Professional at $115 adds skills-based routing, custom analytics and HIPAA compliance. The product never runs out of depth, which is why large support orgs stay.
The cost structure is the honest catch. Everything advanced is an add-on: Copilot, voice minutes, AI resolutions at roughly $1.50 to $2.00 each. A 20-agent team on Professional with Copilot and moderate AI usage can land near $4,000 a month against $1,100 on bare Suite Team. Model the full stack, not the seat price, and get Enterprise quotes in writing.
What we like- Deepest feature set in the category: ticketing, chat, voice, help center and 1,000-plus marketplace apps
- Automated tax of scale: reporting, SLAs and multilingual support grow with you
- Startups program offers six months free for eligible companies
Watch out for- No permanent free plan and no published price for Enterprise
- AI costs stack fast: Copilot around $50/agent/month plus per-resolution AI fees on top of seats
#2
Freshdesk
Best for: Small and mid-market teams that want multichannel ticketing live fast
Visit freshdesk.com
Starting price$19/agent/month (Growth, billed annually)
Free plan6-month program (2 agents, classic product only)
Freshdesk's pitch is speed: a team can connect its support email, add agents and be answering tickets the same afternoon. Growth covers core ticketing, the customer portal, knowledge base and automations. Pro at $55 adds multilingual support, custom dashboards and intelligent routing; Enterprise at $89 adds skill-based routing, sandbox and audit logs.
Watch the AI meter. The 500 included Freddy sessions are a one-time allowance per account, not a monthly refill, and they burn fast: about 25 conversations a day for a month. Past that, sessions cost $0.49 each, and Copilot needs Pro or above. Freshdesk is still the value pick of the big three, but budget the AI line separately.
What we like- The cheapest entry among the big three at $19 per agent
- Setup takes under an hour for the basics
- Freddy AI Agent runs on all paid tiers with 500 sessions included
Watch out for- No real free plan anymore, just a limited program and a 14-day trial
- AI costs stack: Copilot is $29/agent/month on Pro and Enterprise, and extra AI sessions cost $49 per 100
#3
Intercom
Best for: Companies whose support happens inside a website or app messenger
Visit intercom.com
Starting price$29/seat/month (Essential, billed annually)
Free planFree trial (14 days)
Intercom is built around the messenger, not the ticket queue: visitors start a chat in your product, and the conversation lands in a shared inbox with their plan and history attached. Essential at $29 per seat covers the messenger, inbox, ticketing and help center. Advanced at $85 adds workflows and round robin; Expert at $132 adds SSO, HIPAA and SLAs.
Fin is the reason teams choose Intercom and the reason bills surprise them. At $0.99 per outcome, a team resolving 2,000 conversations a month with AI pays nearly $2,000 on top of seats. Model a month of your own conversations at your expected resolution rate before signing. Note that Salesforce completed its acquisition of Fin, the company behind Intercom, in September 2026, so packaging may shift.
What we like- Fin AI Agent is one of the most capable support AIs, answering from your help center and past conversations
- Messenger, inbox, ticketing and proactive messaging share one customer record
- Onboarding and support run from the same platform
Watch out for- Per-outcome AI pricing punishes success: $0.99 per resolution with a 50-outcome monthly minimum, so better automation means a bigger bill
- No free tier, and Expert at $132/seat/month is steep
#4
HubSpot Service Hub
Best for: Teams already running their business on HubSpot CRM
Visit hubspot.com
Starting price$20/seat/month (Starter)
Free planYes (free service tools for up to 2 users)
Service Hub makes sense for exactly one buyer: the company already on HubSpot. The free tools cover ticketing, live chat and simple automation for two users, which handles a freelancer or a two-person startup. Starter at $20 per seat adds automation and removes branding. Professional adds health scores, skill-based routing, conditional SLAs and the Customer Agent.
The mandatory onboarding fee on Professional and Enterprise ($1,500 and $3,500) is the line item buyers miss. And the Customer Agent's included credits cover roughly 60 resolutions a month on Pro before overages at $0.45 each. If you are not on HubSpot CRM, the standalone competitors above give you more support depth per dollar.
What we like- Free tier is genuinely usable for tiny teams: ticketing, live chat and a rule-based chatbot
- Tickets attach to the same CRM record as marketing and sales, so context is complete
- Starter is cheap for what it includes
Watch out for- The jump to Professional is steep: about $100/seat/month plus a mandatory $1,500 onboarding fee
- The Breeze Customer Agent needs Pro and consumes credits on top of seats
Starting price$25/user/month (Standard, billed annually)
Free planYes (up to 5 users, 100 contacts/month)
Help Scout is the anti-Zendesk: a shared inbox that feels like email, built for teams that do not need a contact center. Standard at $25 per user covers 25 users, two inboxes and a Docs site; Plus at $45 covers 50 users, five inboxes and workflows; Pro at $75 removes the user cap and adds SSO, SAML and HIPAA. Because pricing is per user, a three-person team handling 1,800 tickets a month still pays $75.
The ceilings matter more than the price. Outgrow 25 users and you must jump to Plus; need SSO with a six-person team and Pro's 10-user minimum prices you out. The 2024 experiment with contact-based pricing was reversed after customer pushback, which is worth knowing before you trust a quote.
What we like- The most generous real free plan on this list: 5 users with a shared inbox, Docs and Beacon
- Per-user pricing with no ticket meters, so volume never changes the bill
- Clean email-first interface agents learn in a day
Watch out for- Standard caps at 25 users and Plus at 50, with Pro requiring a minimum of 10 users
- AI Answers costs $0.75 per resolution on top, and extra inboxes and Docs sites are add-ons
#6
Zoho Desk
Best for: Budget-conscious teams, especially ones using other Zoho apps
Visit zoho.com
Starting price$14/agent/month (Standard, billed annually)
Free planYes (Free edition, up to 3 agents)
Zoho Desk is the value play done right: Free for three agents, Express at $7, Standard at $14, Professional at $23 and Enterprise at $40, all per agent per month on annual billing. Standard is where most teams land, with the Answer Bot, public knowledge base, ASAP self-service widget and custom dashboards. Professional adds native Zia AI, telephony and Blueprints; Enterprise adds live chat via SalesIQ and multi-brand help centers.
The ecosystem is the real argument. If you run Zoho CRM and Zoho Books, Desk shares data with both, and nothing else at this price does that. Standalone, it is still a strong budget desk, but expect a longer setup and a pricing page you will need to read twice.
What we like- The lowest paid entry on this list with real features: Standard includes the Answer Bot, knowledge base and community forum
- Free edition is free forever for 3 agents
- Deep native integration with Zoho CRM, Books and the rest of the suite
Watch out for- The feature matrix is complex, with AI and telephony spread across tiers
- Configuration takes more effort than Freshdesk or Help Scout
- Some channels like WhatsApp carry usage-based charges
#7
LiveAgent
Best for: SMBs that want ticketing, live chat and a call center in one tool
Visit liveagent.com
Starting price$15/agent/month
Free planFree trial (30 days)
LiveAgent's pitch is the flat $15 per agent per month with unlimited tickets: a 10-agent team pays about $150 a month whether it handles 500 tickets or 5,000. That alone makes it worth a look for high-volume teams priced out of per-ticket tools. The package includes live chat, a call center with IVR, social channels, a knowledge base and a customer forum.
It is not the prettiest tool here, and its AI is rules and canned responses rather than the agent-style AI Zendesk and Intercom sell. But for an SMB that needs voice, chat and email in one place without meter anxiety, it is one of the most honest deals in the category.
What we like- Flat per-agent pricing with unlimited tickets, so volume never surprises you
- Built-in call center with IVR and unlimited call recording
- 200-plus integrations including Shopify, plus a knowledge base and customer forum
Watch out for- The interface is functional rather than modern
- AI features lag the big three
- Advanced reporting lives on higher tiers
#8
Gorgias
Best for: Ecommerce stores where tickets are mostly order questions
Visit gorgias.com
Starting price$10/month (Starter, 50 tickets)
Free planNo
Gorgias prices by ticket, not seat: Starter at $10 a month for 50 tickets, Basic at $60 for 300, Pro at $360 for 2,000 and Advanced at $900 for 5,000. For a three-person store handling 250 tickets a month, Basic at $60 beats any per-seat plan. The killer feature is acting on orders inside the ticket: edit an order, issue a refund, pause a subscription without opening Shopify.
The math flips with headcount. That same three-person team at 1,800 tickets needs Pro at $360, while Help Scout would charge $75. Gorgias wins when tickets are order-heavy and the team is small; it loses when the team is large or the tickets are general support.
What we like- In-ticket order editing, refunds and subscription management for Shopify and other platforms, which kills tab-switching
- Per-ticket pricing favors lean teams with high volume
- Purpose-built for ecommerce workflows
Watch out for- Per-ticket pricing punishes large teams with moderate volume: 2,000 tickets a month costs $360
- Weak fit outside ecommerce
- Overage fees add up if volume spikes
#9
Front
Best for: Teams that manage email, SMS and social from shared inboxes
Visit front.com
Starting price$25/seat/month (Starter, up to 10 seats)
Free planNo
Front is the shared inbox grown up: it handles email the way a help desk should, with assignments, SLAs, tags and rules, then extends the same workflow to chat, SMS and social. Starter at $25 per seat covers 10 seats and one channel type; Professional at $65 goes omnichannel with advanced analytics; Enterprise at $105 adds all AI features and advanced permissions.
The 10-seat cliff is the thing to price. Growing from 10 to 11 people forces the jump from $250 to $715 a month, a 186 percent increase. Teams that live in email and want inbox-style collaboration will like Front; teams that need a full ticket system with a knowledge base should compare Zendesk or Freshdesk.
What we like- Excellent shared-inbox workflow with collision detection, internal comments and assignment rules
- Omnichannel on Professional: email, chat, SMS and social in one queue
- Strong analytics and multiple workspaces for larger teams
Watch out for- Starter allows only one channel type and caps at 10 seats, forcing a jump to Professional at $65
- AI features are add-ons ($20/seat for Copilot) until Enterprise
- WhatsApp is a paid add-on with per-message fees
#10
HelpDesk
Best for: Teams that want straightforward per-agent pricing without meters
Visit helpdesk.com
Starting price$29/agent/month (Team, billed annually)
Free planFree trial (14 days)
HelpDesk, from the Text team, positions itself as the simple alternative: per-agent pricing, no ticket meters, AI summaries and suggested replies included rather than metered. Team at $29 per agent per month covers five teams, email templates and basic automation; Business at $50 adds advanced automations, custom branding and multi-brand support.
The limits on Team are tight: five teams and five active rules will not survive a growing support org, which pushes you to Business at $50. But the pricing is honest and the product is easy to run. For a team that finds Zendesk overkill and Freshdesk's AI meters annoying, it is a sensible middle ground.
What we like- Clean per-agent pricing: Team $29, Business $50, Enterprise custom, with unlimited free viewer seats
- Includes chat, ticketing and AI assistance from the entry tier
- 24/7 support on all plans
Watch out for- Team tier limits teams to 5 and active automation rules to 5, which growing teams outgrow
- Smaller marketplace and community than the big three
- Enterprise pricing is quote-only
The pricing models, decoded
Help desk pricing now comes in three shapes, and the shape decides your bill more than the brand. Per-seat plans (Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom, Help Scout, Zoho Desk, LiveAgent, Front, HelpDesk) charge for every agent and scale with headcount; they favor teams with high ticket volume per agent. Per-ticket plans (Gorgias) charge for volume and favor lean teams; they punish you the moment you hire. Per-resolution AI fees (Intercom, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Help Scout, HubSpot) sit on top of either model and scale with automation success.
To compare honestly, build one scenario: your agent count, your monthly ticket volume, and the share of tickets you expect AI to resolve. A five-agent team with 1,000 tickets a month pays very different totals on Zendesk, Gorgias and Help Scout, and the ranking changes again if AI resolves half the tickets. Run that math on every shortlist, because the pricing page never shows the stacked total.
When the cheap plan is a trap
The entry tier is designed to get you in, not to keep you. Freshdesk Growth lacks Copilot and skill-based routing. Zendesk Suite Team lacks SLAs and multilingual support. Front Starter allows one channel type. Help Scout Standard caps at 25 users. In each case, the feature that forces the upgrade is the one a growing team needs within months: SLAs, routing, or a second channel.
Before committing, list the three features you will need in 12 months and check which tier holds them. If two of the three sit on the next tier up, price that tier, not the entry one. The vendors count on upgrade revenue; the buyers who avoid it are the ones who read the feature comparison table instead of the pricing headline.
Frequently asked questions
How much does help desk software cost?
For a five-agent team, expect $70 to $350 a month on entry tiers: Zoho Desk Standard ($70), LiveAgent ($75), Freshdesk Growth ($95), Help Scout Standard ($125), Front Starter ($125), HelpDesk Team ($145), Intercom Essential ($145), HubSpot Starter ($100), Zendesk Suite Team ($275). AI fees and upgrades can double those figures.
Is there really free help desk software?
Yes, with limits. Help Scout is free for 5 users, Zoho Desk is free forever for 3 agents, HubSpot's free service tools cover 2 users, and Freshdesk runs a 6-month program for 2 agents on the classic product. Open-source options like Zammad, Chatwoot and osTicket are free to self-host if you have a server.
What is the difference between a help desk and a shared inbox?
A shared inbox routes email to a team with assignments and notes. A help desk adds ticket tracking, SLAs, automation, a knowledge base, reporting and multiple channels. Front and Help Scout sit in the middle; Zendesk, Freshdesk and Zoho Desk are full help desks.
Which help desk is best for ecommerce?
Gorgias, if your tickets are mostly order questions: in-ticket order editing and refunds save real time, and per-ticket pricing suits lean teams. For larger stores or mixed support, Zendesk, Freshdesk or LiveAgent with a Shopify integration give you more depth without the per-ticket meter.
Do I need the AI add-ons?
Probably not on day one. Start with rules, macros and a knowledge base, which deflect a large share of repeat questions for free. Add AI when you can measure what it resolves: the per-resolution fees only make sense once you know your volume and resolution rate. Every vendor on this list now meters AI separately, so treat it as its own buying decision.
Can I switch help desk software later?
Yes, and most vendors offer migration help: LiveAgent advertises free assisted migration, and Zendesk and Freshdesk both have import tools and partner services. The switching cost is mostly retraining and rebuilding automations, not data loss. Avoid signing long annual contracts until the team has run a full month on the new tool.
How we chose
We started with the searches buyers run: help desk software, ticketing software, customer support software and helpdesk pricing. For each candidate we verified the product is actively sold and maintained, checked the pricing page structure (per seat, per ticket, or hybrid), and noted what the free tier or trial really includes. Seat prices above come from vendor pricing pages and recent third-party pricing guides; where AI pricing could not be tied to a vendor page we described the model instead of quoting a number.
Sources we checked (17)
- https://www.getmacha.com/blog/zendesk-pricing-explained
- https://www.getmacha.com/blog/freshdesk-review
- https://hiverhq.com/blog/freshdesk-pricing
- https://www.gleap.ai/blog/intercom-fin-ai-pricing-2026
- https://smartkeys.org/intercom-review/
- https://www.intercom.com/learning-center/intercom-vs-front
- https://www.clarify.ai/blog/hubspot-crm-pricing
- https://www.eesel.ai/blog/hubspot-pricing
- https://www.dragapp.com/blog/help-scout-pricing/
- https://www.gleap.ai/blog/help-scout-pricing
- https://www.helpdesk.com/blog/zoho-desk-pricing/
- https://www.eesel.ai/blog/zoho-desk-reviews
- https://www.liveagent.com/gorgias-alternative/
- https://ecommerceparadise.com/help-scout-vs-gorgias/
- https://www.eesel.ai/blog/help-scout-vs-front
- https://www.helpdesk.com/blog/freshdesk-pricing/
- https://ciroapp.com/ur/helpdesk-review/
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has spent more than a decade helping SaaS and e-commerce brands grow through search. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.