Freshdesk vs ShipTell at a glance
Freshdesk details checked on its own site in October 2026.
Free Freshdesk alternatives (checked October 2026)
These four help desks have a free option today. Each line says what the free option covers, read from the vendor's own site.
- Zoho Desk Free Edition: email ticketing for up to 3 users. Paid plans start at US$5 per user per month billed annually.
- Help Scout Free plan: 5 users, 1 inbox and 1 Docs site.
- Chatwoot Hacker plan: $0 for up to 2 agents and 500 conversations a month, with 30 days of data retention. Chatwoot is open source, so you can also host it yourself.
- FreeScout: an open source help desk and shared inbox you host yourself, with unlimited agents and mailboxes. The core app is free. Extras such as tags, saved replies and workflows are paid modules with one-time lifetime licenses.
When a free help desk is enough
If your support is mostly email and two or three people answer it, a free plan from the list above will cover you. Start there and upgrade when you hit a limit.
A free help desk stops being enough when the same questions keep coming back because customers do not know what you shipped. That is the gap ShipTell is built for.
When ShipTell is the better fit
ShipTell is for small software teams that ship from GitHub. It reads your merged pull requests and writes the changelog. When a customer asks about a feature, the AI reply draft can point to the release that shipped it. Feature requests go on a public roadmap, and when a request ships, everyone who voted for it gets an email.
Freshdesk does more on the help desk side: routing rules, SLA policies and multilingual support on its higher plans. If that is what you need, stay with Freshdesk or one of the tools above.
Who ShipTell is not for
- Teams that need a free help desk. ShipTell has no free plan, only a 7-day trial.
- Large support teams that need skill-based routing, several SLA policies or a phone channel.
- Teams that do not ship software from GitHub. The changelog and the shipped-feature replies depend on a GitHub connection.
Why teams leave Freshdesk
Real frustrations that drive the switch.
Priced per agent: Growth is $19 per agent per month billed annually, so three agents cost $57 a month
Freddy AI Copilot is a $29 per agent per month add-on on the Pro and Enterprise plans
AI Agent sessions beyond the first 500 cost $49 per 100
The pricing page lists no changelog and no public roadmap with voting, so telling customers what shipped needs a second tool
Why they choose ShipTell
Everything you need, none of the bloat.
Flat monthly price, not per agent: Starter $29/mo, Pro $49/mo with up to 5 team members
AI reply drafts that know what you shipped, included on every plan
A changelog written by AI from your GitHub pull requests
A public roadmap where customers vote, and every voter gets an email when their request ships
Frequently asked questions
Does Freshdesk have a free plan?
Freshdesk's pricing page, checked in October 2026, lists Growth ($19), Pro ($55) and Enterprise ($89) per agent per month billed annually, plus a 14-day free trial. It does not list a free plan.
What is the best free alternative to Freshdesk?
It depends on team size. Zoho Desk's free edition covers 3 users. Help Scout's Free plan covers 5 users with 1 inbox. Chatwoot's Hacker plan is free for 2 agents and 500 conversations a month. FreeScout is free if you host it yourself.
Is ShipTell free?
No. ShipTell has a 7-day free trial and you do not need a credit card to start. After the trial, Starter is $29 a month and Pro is $49 a month.
Can ShipTell replace Freshdesk?
For a small software team that answers email and chat, yes: ShipTell has a shared inbox, live chat, email ticketing and AI reply drafts. If you rely on Freshdesk's routing rules, SLA policies or phone support, ShipTell does not replace those.
Ready to switch from Freshdesk?
7-day free trial on every plan. No credit card required.
Start your 7-day free trial