Freshdesk vs Zoho Desk comparison

Freshworks and Zoho are both solutions in the Help Desk Software category. Freshworks is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.4, while Zoho is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.5. Freshworks holds a 3.6% mindshare in HDS, compared to Zoho’s 2.7% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Freshworks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Zoho users who would recommend it.

Freshdesk

Read 29 Freshdesk reviews

2,021 Views
1,363 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Zoho Desk

Read 19 Zoho Desk reviews

1,455 Views
816 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Freshdesk

Zoho Desk

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

Freshdesk and Zoho Desk compete in the customer service and support software category. Based on the feature comparison, Zoho Desk appears to have the upper hand with its strong integration capabilities and flexibility.

Features: Freshdesk offers customizable solutions, ticket automation, and comprehensive reporting. It is known for its accessible cloud version, along with easy integration of social media and email. Zoho Desk stands out with strong integration features, parent-child task management, and consolidates customer contacts while providing a robust knowledge base.

Room for Improvement: Freshdesk users face customization issues in its solutions center, limitations in social media post handling, and integration challenges. Users of Zoho Desk suggest needing better social media integration, improvements in night mode display, and enhanced IT service management features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Freshdesk primarily offers deployment via the public cloud, with some on-premises options, and receives mixed reviews for customer support. Zoho Desk provides flexibility with public, hybrid, and private cloud deployment. Customer service is generally responsive, though technical support could be enhanced for IT service management.

Pricing and ROI: Freshdesk offers competitive pricing based on features, showing significant ROI, especially in ticket handling efficiency. Costs vary per agent and can increase for additional functionalities. Zoho Desk is seen as more economical with a subscription model that includes access to multiple Zoho products, offering flexible pricing options suitable for various business sizes.

To learn more, read our detailed Freshdesk vs. Zoho Desk Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Freshdesk vs. Zoho Desk

January 2025

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Helped 832,138 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Freshdesk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

8th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Customer Experience Management (6th), Field Service Management (3rd), Knowledge Management Software (5th)

Zoho Desk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

6th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Freshdesk is 3.6%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoho Desk is 2.7%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software

Featured Reviews

Alexey Timchenko

Senior Vice President Information Technology at TASC Towers

Incredibly user-friendly, flexible, and affordable

Automation and ticket routing rules in Freshdesk save us daily by streamlining routine tasks. We use reports to identify issues, allocate resources, and continuously improve our processes. It is a vital part of our daily operations, helping us stay proactive and efficient in handling various types of tickets. The reporting and analytics tools in Freshdesk are effective for measuring customer service performance. While our current subscription level has some limitations in terms of reporting, the next level provides more options. Budget constraints currently prevent us from upgrading, but the available reporting features still meet our basic needs. I highly recommend Freshdesk, especially for companies in their early stages. It is user-friendly, easy to configure, and great for those with a moderate volume of customer requests. The cost is reasonable, making it a quick and efficient solution to implement. Overall, I would rate Freshdesk as an eight out of ten.

Read full review

Babatunde-Olugbode

Technical presales engineer at Avetium Consult Ltd

End-to-end solution to manage customer support tickets and consolidate all communication channels into one platform

For me, the valuable features are related to customer engagement because I want to ensure I don't miss any customer inquiries, no matter the channel. For example, I haven't seen any other platform that consolidates all channels into one console. That's a valuable feature to me. Then there's the pricing, which is better than Zendesk. Zendesk charges in USD per user, per month, whereas Zoho let us pay in Naira (Nigerian currency). Zoho can also identify user locations, letting you leverage existing reviews. These are valuable features that many organizations have adopted Zoho Desk for. We can download the mobile app to see requests and respond from anywhere. It is one of the most improved applications and widely integrated systems I've worked with. You can virtually integrate it with almost anything, like Microsoft Teams and other data applications. The marketplace lets you find native integrations. For example, we have an organization that uses multiple systems and wants to ensure agents don't log in to multiple platforms to see emails. They have a native integration system that takes care of that and works seamlessly.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The UI is easy to use."

"We have made use of the training academy and the technical support team from Freshdesk. Both have been very good resources."

"The feature that I have found most valuable is the way that it connects to various folders especially because we use it as a CRM tool. We can connect it with our phones and our chat, and also with the API and have it as an email service. Freshdesk just makes our life easier."

"Technical support is outstanding."

"Omnichannel is one of the most valuable features of the solution."

"I like that it's very user-friendly. The way they designed this application, any layperson can just do some drag and drop actions and use it. It's not that difficult. It's also easy to implement. The most important thing is, you don't need to go to this application to create a ticket. You just send out an email, and the ticket is created automatically. I have never seen a feature like this before."

"Its simplicity is most valuable. It is easy and simple, and it requires negligible training effort. I don't spend all my time goofing around trying to find stuff in the ticketing system."

"The most valuable features of Freshdesk are the automation of tickets to assign them to different agents, and the managing of documents is easy."

More Freshdesk pros

"The initial setup is easy."

"The tool has made support very flexible and strong. We can use chat boxes and auto-responses. If someone creates a ticket, it will be created in Zoho Desk's ticket module. We can get emails and respond to them within the product. We don't need a support email product to manage emails. We can easily manage it within Zoho Desk. The tool's interface is good since it updated the layout three months ago and the current interface is more effective."

"The most valuable feature of Zoho Desk is the parent and child task management feature."

"The product is quite stable."

"The solution doesn't have any bugs."

"The ticketing feature is very easy to use, compared to other systems."

"Zoho Desk is very flexible, just like the other applications of Zoho."

"The integration part is a valuable feature in the solution, especially if we're talking about Zoho One solution. Zoho Desk is easy to integrate with Zoho platform."

More Zoho Desk pros

Cons

"The dashboards are useful but could be so much better. As a product manager, and data scientist, we couldn't use the dashboard for analytics and had to move the data in Power BI."

"I would like to see improvements in the account management aspect, having a customer portal for better visibility into my subscription, invoices, and trouble tickets."

"I would like to see a little bit more color in the solution."

"Asset management and branding are two areas in the solution that have scope for improvement."

"There are some restrictions where you need automation and sometimes there is just no way to achieve what you need."

"Freshdesk could improve its capabilities. It's missing the article formatting, and the overall look and feel make it not easy to use. The administration instructions on how to manage the automation, capability, and integration with third parties, such as chat or bots, are very important in these types of solutions."

"I would like on-the-go translation,"

"There are a few things we have asked for, like a forward button. When a ticket comes in, we forward it, but it doesn't sync up with the forward. That is the one they have to rework. The other is when we forward the ticket, it doesn't go all, or certain things don't go with it. We have told them about it, and they are working on it. It would be better if they gave us a more standard reporting template. Although they already have some, many aren't usable. It would be easier if we had more templates to work with."

More Freshdesk cons

"Zoho Desk should provide more integrations and improve the Zoho project integration."

"There is room for improvement in terms of integration."

"The solution urgently needs improvement in the display's night mode. When we use the system for a long time, it's very stressful for our eyes. I also need to see improvements that can help to find the assets under a previous owner."

"Could have slightly better integration between additional functionalities in the Zoho desk."

"Sometimes, the solution has some email issues in a new data center."

"The solution could improve its stability and scalability."

"There is room for improvement with the pricing."

"Sometimes support is available according to their time slots and they can't fulfill everything I need them to. They give us a time slot but it's not always enough."

More Zoho Desk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is pretty manageable and acceptable."

"It is costly."

"The price could be better, but it's okay. Compared to ServiceNow and JIRA, Freshworks offers a competitive price. There are also additional licensing costs because you need Microsoft Outlook. Each new email account costs around $15 to $19."

"Freshdesk was the best solution with the best price. It was cost efficient and included all the features that we needed."

"The best system plan is enterprise. It costs basically 79 Euros per agent per month when it's billed annually and 95 Euros per agent per month when it's billed monthly."

"We use a licensing model only so we pay for the number of agents we have configured in the system only."

"It was definitely not expensive. It was two grand or maybe three grand total for a year. It has just straight and simple standard licensing fees. There is no additional fee."

"We use a combination of Freshdesk, Freshservice, and Freshchat. We use the whole suite. Weirdly enough, we pay more for Freshdesk than we do for Freshservice. I would rate it a three out of five in terms of pricing. You can get different bundles, and you can always move to different plans that are standard. Freshservice can go anywhere from $19 up to $120 per agent, per month. There is such a wide range, and it is very customizable to your needs."

More Freshdesk pricing and cost advice

"Price-wise, Zoho Desk is about 35 USD a month per user."

"For what it does, it's quite cheap."

"Regarding pricing, it's 35 USD per user a year and 45 USD per user a month. Under the price, I have access to all Zoho products since it all falls under Zoho One's package."

"Zoho Desk's cost is pretty much okay."

"The solution costs INR 8400 per user."

"The solution is relatively cheap. However, there are additional licensing fees involved."

"The pricing is better than Zendesk. Zendesk charges in USD per user per month, whereas Zoho let us pay in Naira (Nigerian currency)."

"The product costs $10 to $25 per user per month."

More Zoho Desk pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

23%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Educational Organization

60%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Freshdesk?

Freshdesk significantly improved our customer issue resolution process. We can now easily record and track all customer requests, ensuring that no tickets are lost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Freshdesk?

Freshdesk's major drawback is its limitation in integrating tools for App Store and Play Store reviews, and social channels like Twitter, which come with additional costs. Despite having third-part...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Freshdesk?

The customer's primary use case for Freshdesk is handling emails and social media queries. It is mostly used for managing transactional queries such as deposits and withdrawals. Our support team is...

See all answers

What do you like most about Zoho Desk?

The most valuable features of Zoho Desk are archiving queries and analytics.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zoho Desk?

Zoho Desk is a cost-effective solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zoho Desk?

Sometimes, the solution has some email issues in a new data center.

See all answers

Comparisons

ServiceNow vs Freshdesk

Compared 23% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs Freshdesk

Compared 22% of the time

Spiceworks vs Freshdesk

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs Freshdesk

Compared 8% of the time

Sprinklr vs Freshdesk

Compared 4% of the time

More Freshdesk Competitors

ServiceNow vs Zoho Desk

Compared 58% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs Zoho Desk

Compared 14% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs Zoho Desk

Compared 10% of the time

ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus vs Zoho Desk

Compared 10% of the time

More Zoho Desk Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Freshdesk

February 2025

Download Freshdesk product report

Buyer's Guide

Zoho Desk

January 2025

Download Zoho Desk product report

Overview

Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer support solution that provides organizations with the features necessary to effectively streamline their support processes. This includes powerful multichannel capability, integrated game mechanics, smart automations, and more.

The solution is designed to automate agent workflows and resolve routine questions using AI and bots. Freshdesk allows managers to prioritize, categorize, and assign tickets to their agents, making it easy for them to collaborate and quickly respond to customers.

Freshdesk Features and Benefits

Some of the solution's top features and benefits include:

Simplified ticketing: With Freshdesk, you can easily prioritize, manage, and assign trackable tickets. The management system ensures that multiple agents don’t work on the same ticket by accident. You can easily set deadlines for ticket resolution based on specific categories and create custom statuses that suit your workflow to identify what stage a ticket is in.

Automation: Automatically assign tickets to agents and groups based on keywords and requests and set up automated repeated actions and provide quick, consistent responses to common questions using pre-formatted replies. In addition, you can choose to prevent the reopening of tickets when customers reply with a thank you.

Improved collaboration: Share tickets with other teams while retaining full visibility into the progress being made on the issue. Related tickets can be linked together to better keep track of the big picture. Tickets can also be split into smaller child tickets and assigned to multiple agents to help resolve complex, multi-stage issues.

Build up your knowledge base: Create effective support documentation by enabling agents to convert their ticket replies into knowledge base articles, while they reply.

Metrics and reporting: See how different agents and groups are performing by viewing various help desk metrics and improve performance by identifying problems based on insights.

With Freshdesk’s reporting tools, you can schedule the periodic delivery of out-of-the-box and custom reports to your inbox. The solution’s customer satisfaction reports provide you with feedback on how your customers rate your support.

Forum moderation: Set up moderation workflows to ensure that forum posts that violate your guidelines are not immediately published. Critical issues raised in the community are automatically converted into tickets to ensure they get the required response.
Integration: Freshdesk’s open API can be used to integrate the solution with multiple third-party systems.

Comprehensive security: Freshdesk’s security features allow you to:
- Set custom access permissions for agents.
- Perform comprehensive audits of networks and systems.
- Secure your own support domain or vanity URL with custom SSL certificates.
- Whitelist IP ranges and restrict login access outside of work, or link IP whitelisting to a VPN.
- Set up SSO scripts for credential authentication.

Reviews from Real Users

Freshdesk stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its effective ticketing system and its intuitive interface.

Deepak B., an application manager, writes, “Freshdesk has allowed us to measure and track the response and resolution time of tickets which has been reduced from seven to eight hours down to 30 minutes to one hour. This information is valuable for board meetings.”

Freshworks

With Zoho Desk, agents become more productive, managers become more impactful, and customers become more empowered. It's customizable, convenient to use, and it doesn't cost you a fortune. Part of Zoho's 30-strong suite of business software, Zoho Desk brings you the power to put customer service at the heart of your company.

Zoho

Sample Customers

Honda, 3M, Hugo Boss, Petronas, Sony Pictures, The Atlantic, goodreads, Clear Channel Radio, Penn University of Pennsylvania, unicef, Kuoni, Movember

Intel, Sears, Daimler, Essilor, Aon Hewitt, Shop Your Way, CoffeeRocket

Buyer's Guide

Freshdesk vs. Zoho Desk

January 2025

Free Report: Freshdesk vs. Zoho Desk

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