Zoho Desk alternatives, with free plans and prices

The Zoho Desk alternatives worth a look for a small team are Freshdesk, Zendesk, Help Scout, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom and Crisp, and Deacon if what you really want is an AI answering customers on your website. We read every price in US dollars on the vendor’s own pricing page on 9 October 2026, and each one links to where we read it.

Most people looking past Zoho Desk run into the same wall. Its free edition is email ticketing for 3 users. Chat on your website starts on Standard, at $14 a user a month billed yearly or $20 monthly, and Zoho’s pricing page describes it as chat with logged-in customers. The Answer bot, which replies from your help articles, also starts on Standard, but putting it inside the ASAP widget on your own site takes Enterprise, at $40 a user a month billed yearly or $50 monthly. Enterprise is also where Zoho SalesIQ’s live chat comes in.

Deacon is ours, and it’s no helpdesk. It’s an AI customer support agent that answers your customers on your website from your own docs, in seconds, and shows you what they keep asking. Its free plan includes the AI and needs no card.

Zoho Desk and six alternatives side by side

Zoho Desk is the first row, so each tool below reads against it. The price is for the cheapest paid plan, per user or seat unless the row says otherwise.

Where Zoho Desk’s editions hold a small team back

Zoho Desk is cheap to start, and it stays cheap while your customers write in by email. The free edition never expires, and a lapsed trial of a paid edition falls back to it rather than locking you out. The trouble starts when you want people answered on your website, because each piece of that sits on a different edition. This is how Zoho’s pricing page and its edition comparison lay it out.

• Express, $7 or $9 a user, adds AI agents on Zoho’s models or your own key, with up to 30 million free tokens a month.
• Standard, $14 or $20, adds live chat with logged-in customers, WhatsApp, a public knowledge base and the Answer bot, which works from the knowledge base articles you write.
• Professional, $23 or $35, adds telephony and Zia’s built-in AI.
• Enterprise, $40 or $50, adds Zoho SalesIQ’s live chat and the Answer bot inside ASAP, the widget you embed on your own pages.

So a bot that answers visitors on your own pages means Enterprise. Most of the tools below put chat or AI on a lower plan than that, and each one changes something else in return. Zoho Desk pricing works through all five editions and the token meter behind Zia Agents, and Zendesk vs Zoho Desk sets Zoho Desk head to head with Zendesk.

Freshdesk, the nearest like-for-like helpdesk

Freshdesk is built the way Zoho Desk is, a per-agent helpdesk that turns customer email into tickets. Growth is $19 an agent a month billed yearly, or $23 monthly. Pro is $55 or $66, and Enterprise $89 or $107.

The free offer is where it falls short of Zoho. Freshdesk’s Free Program is free for 6 months and supports up to 2 agents, and past either limit you move to a paid plan. Zoho’s free edition has 3 users and no end date.

The AI is priced by the conversation rather than the token. Freddy AI Agent comes with 500 free sessions on Growth, Pro and Enterprise, once per account, and more cost $49 per 100. On Freshdesk it’s an Email AI Agent, and a session is the 72 hours from a customer’s first email, however many replies it sends. Session packs expire with your billing cycle, so the bill follows how many customers it talks to, where Zoho’s standard models are free up to 30 million tokens a month.

It suits a team that wants to keep working tickets from email and would rather count AI sessions than tokens. Freshdesk vs Zoho Desk puts the two side by side, from the free offers to getting an AI onto your website’s chat. Freshdesk alternatives turns the question round, and Freshdesk pricing adds up the whole bill.

Zendesk, with chat and AI agents together on Suite Team

Zendesk sells email ticketing on its own and brings the channels together in its Suite plans. Support Team is $19 an agent a month billed yearly, or $25 monthly, for email and ticketing, routing, pre-written responses, and automations and triggers. Suite Team, at $55 or $69, adds AI agents, a knowledge base, messaging and live chat, and telephony. The page showed us pounds, so these dollar figures come from the US prices in its own page data.

Where Zoho Desk spreads chat, phone and the website bot across Standard, Professional and Enterprise, Zendesk puts all three on its second plan. Its AI agents are billed by the automated resolution, a customer request settled without a person stepping in. Each plan includes a set number, and the page prices more at $2.00 each pay as you go. The trial runs 14 days on Suite Professional, and the Zendesk for Startups programme gives early-stage startups a 6-month trial of the Suite for up to 50 agents.

It suits a team that expects to grow into a real support desk and wants chat and AI without paying for a top edition to get them. Zendesk alternatives prices the helpdesks people weigh against it.

Help Scout, more free users and AI paid by the resolution

Help Scout’s free plan is roomier than Zoho’s. It gives 5 users, 1 inbox and 1 Docs site for your help articles. Standard is $25 a user a month on yearly billing, for up to 25 users, and adds live chat and SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, and more than one knowledge base.

Its AI is AI Answers, an add-on at $0.75 a resolution. You’re charged once per conversation however many questions it answers, you can set a monthly cap that switches it off when reached, and a new account gets 3 months of unlimited resolutions free. Help Scout sets it up from your website or other sources, where Zoho’s Answer bot draws on the knowledge base articles you’ve written in Zoho Desk.

It suits a small team that answers from a shared inbox and wants live chat on the first paid plan. Help Scout pricing works out what a team pays, and Help Scout alternatives looks at it from the other side.

HubSpot Service Hub, the same $7 start with a CRM attached

Service Hub Starter opens at the same figure as Zoho’s Express, $7 a seat a month billed yearly, shown against a struck-through $20. Paid monthly it’s $10, where Express is $9. The free tools cover up to 2 users with no credit card, and they include live chat for your site, with HubSpot’s branding on it until you pay. Zoho’s free edition has no chat at all.

The AI comes later. HubSpot’s customer agent starts on Professional, at $90 a seat a month billed yearly, plus a required one-time onboarding fee of $1,500. It uses 50 HubSpot Credits, or $0.50, each time it resolves a conversation without a person, and Professional includes 3,000 credits.

It suits a company whose sales and marketing already run on HubSpot, so support sits in the same CRM. HubSpot’s AI chatbot explains its bots and its agent, and HubSpot vs Intercom sets the customer agent against Fin.

Intercom, with its AI agent on the first plan

Intercom is built around chat, and Fin, its AI agent, is on every plan. On Zoho Desk, a bot in the website widget waits for Enterprise. Essential is $19 or $29 a seat a month billed yearly, depending on which side of a price test you land on, and we were shown both on 9 October. It includes Messenger live chat, a shared inbox and ticketing, and a public help centre.

Each Fin outcome is $0.99, charged no more than once in a conversation. Intercom says you pay nothing if Fin can’t answer or the customer asks for a person. There’s a 14-day trial with no card, and startups under $10M raised with 15 employees or fewer can apply to save 93%.

It suits a team whose customers already reach it by chat and who want the AI answering from day one. Fin AI pricing explains how outcomes are counted, and Intercom alternatives for startups prices nine other tools with their startup offers.

Crisp, chat on the free plan and one price for the team

Crisp gives you the thing Zoho’s free edition lacks, a chat widget on your website, free forever, with 2 seats and no AI credits. Its paid plans are priced per workspace rather than per user. Mini is $45 a month with 4 seats, a shared email inbox and $5 of AI credits, which Crisp puts at around 90 automated conversations. Essentials is $95, with 10 seats, $25 of credits for around 450, and WhatsApp, Instagram and SMS in the inbox. Any plan has a free 14-day trial.

By our sums, four people on Mini pay $45 a month between them, and four users on Zoho’s Standard pay $56 a month billed yearly.

It suits a small team that wants live chat now and fits inside a plan’s seats. Crisp alternatives weighs Crisp against its own rivals.

Deacon, if the website was the part you wanted

If the edition you had your eye on was Enterprise, for a bot in the widget, Deacon gets you there on its free plan. You add one script tag and it reads your website’s main pages, or the whole site on a paid plan, along with any PDFs, Word files and text you give it. Its website chat widget then answers visitors from that content in seconds, at any hour, in whatever language they write in. There are no help articles to write before it starts and no flows to build.

When your content doesn’t cover a question, Deacon tells the visitor it doesn’t know rather than making something up, and offers a box for their email. If they leave an address or ask for a person, the conversation shows up in your dashboard straight away, and the owners get an email about three minutes later if nobody on the team is looking. Reply from the dashboard and it lands in the visitor’s chat while it’s still open.

The questions it couldn’t answer become your list of what to add. Each waits in Conversations with an Answer this button. Write the answer once and Deacon uses it for the next person who asks, and Save & check shows you the reply it now gives. Topics group what people ask, count how many asked, and mark a topic as a feature ask, a bug report or a how-to when one kind leads, so you can see what to fix or build next.

Nothing waits for a higher tier, because every feature is on every plan. The plans change only the answers, knowledge, pages read from your website each month and seats you get. Free has 50 answers a month and 1 seat, with no card and no end date. Starter gives 1,000 answers and 3 seats for $50 a month, or $40 a month on yearly billing. Growth gives 4,000 answers and 10 seats for $150 a month, or $120 a month on yearly billing. Nothing is billed past your answers, and no plan upgrades itself.

What Zoho Desk does that Deacon doesn’t

Deacon takes the place of the website bot in Zoho Desk, not the helpdesk around it. Zoho Desk turns email from several addresses into tickets, assigns them by your rules, and on the editions that include them takes WhatsApp, social channels and phone calls. Deacon has no tickets, no support inbox for email, no routing or assignment, no phone, WhatsApp, Instagram or SMS channel, and no integrations, so nothing connects it to Zoho CRM. It also always declines questions about a visitor’s own account, invoice or data.

If several people share the support load, keep a helpdesk, Zoho’s or one of the six above. If it’s you answering support between everything else, Deacon handles the questions your docs already cover and shows you the rest.

Which Zoho Desk alternative to pick

It comes down to which of Zoho Desk’s limits you hit.

If you want another email helpdesk, Freshdesk is the nearest match, though its free offer ends after 6 months. If you want chat, phone and AI agents without climbing to a top edition, Zendesk’s Suite Team has all three. If you need more people on a free plan, Help Scout’s takes 5. If HubSpot already holds your customers, Service Hub starts at the same $7 as Express. If your customers chat with you and you want AI from the first plan, Intercom includes Fin on every plan. If you want free live chat and one price for the whole team, Crisp charges by the workspace. Free ticketing systems compares the free helpdesks, Zoho Desk’s free edition among them.

And if what you wanted from Zoho was an AI answering on your website, Deacon does that on its free plan, with no helpdesk to run.

Zoho Desk alternatives, answered

Is there a free alternative to Zoho Desk?

Yes, several. Help Scout’s free plan takes 5 users with 1 inbox, HubSpot’s free tools take 2 users and include branded live chat, and Crisp’s free plan gives 2 seats and a chat widget. Freshdesk’s Free Program is free too, but only for 6 months and 2 agents. Deacon’s free plan includes its AI, with 50 answers a month and no card, though it isn’t a helpdesk.

Which Zoho Desk alternative has AI on its cheapest plan?

Intercom puts Fin on Essential at $0.99 an outcome. Freshdesk’s Growth comes with 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions for email, once per account. Crisp’s Mini includes $5 of AI credits. Zoho’s Express has AI agents with free tokens too, but its Answer bot only reaches the ASAP widget on Enterprise. Deacon’s AI answers on every plan, the free one included.

Can Deacon work alongside Zoho Desk?

Yes, as a separate tool. Deacon goes on your site with its own script tag and answers visitors there, while Zoho Desk keeps handling email and tickets. Nothing connects the two, so a visitor Deacon can’t help doesn’t become a Zoho ticket. When they leave an address or ask for a person, you see it in Deacon’s dashboard and reply from there.