Freshdesk vs Intercom

Pick Freshdesk if email carries most of your queue and you want automation and SLA policies without paying for a top plan. Pick Intercom if chat carries it and your agents settle orders with gift cards, replacement orders and discount codes from the inbox. Where chat lives settles most cases. Intercom includes live chat on every plan, while Freshdesk sells chat only in Freshdesk Omni, a separate price list that starts at $29 an agent a month billed annually on Omni Growth, against $19 on core Growth.

Freshdesk review Intercom review

Freshdesk and Intercom at a glance
Fact	Freshdesk	Intercom
Starting price	$23/agent/mo	$39/agent/mo
Plans	Growth, Pro, Enterprise, Omni Growth, Omni Pro, Omni Enterprise	Essential, Advanced, Expert
Best for	SMB support teams, Budget-conscious buyers, Multi-channel ticketing	SaaS products, Self-serve onboarding, In-app support
Deployment	Cloud	Cloud
Headquarters	San Mateo, US	San Francisco, CA, USA
Founded	2010	2011
Facts checked	Sep 13, 2026	Sep 13, 2026

Which one fits your team?

Tick what's true for you.

Pick Freshdesk if

Your queue is mostly email. Freshdesk Growth is $19 an agent a month billed annually ($23 billed monthly), and Intercom's Essential seat is $29 billed annually ($39 billed monthly)
You want automation rules on the entry plan. Freshdesk Growth includes automations and rule-based ticket dispatch. Omni Pro ($79 an agent billed annually) lists round robin and load-balanced assignment. Core Freshdesk lists intelligent routing on Pro ($55 an agent billed annually) and doesn't name round robin. On Intercom, the Workflows builder, round robin assignment and more than one team inbox start on Advanced, at $85 a seat billed annually
You need SLA policies before you need a top plan. Freshdesk lists multiple SLA policies on Pro, at $55 an agent billed annually. Intercom puts SLAs on Expert only, at $132 a seat
You want to choose your data region yourself. The Freshdesk Omni pricing FAQ says you choose your data centre from the start. Intercom offers EU or Australian hosting only to new workspaces on Advanced or Expert, under a contract

Pick Intercom if

Chat is your busiest channel. Live chat, in-app chat and support email are free and unlimited on every Intercom plan, so one $29 Essential seat covers both channels
Your agents send replacements and goodwill credit all day. From the Shopify sidebar in the Intercom inbox an agent can issue a gift card, create a $0 replacement order and manage discount codes, as well as refund individual line items. Freshdesk's Shopify app refunds and cancels orders but lists none of the other three. Cancelling an order on Intercom still happens in Shopify
You want the AI agent to handle post-purchase requests from day one. Fin for Ecommerce runs order status, returns, refunds, exchanges and cancellations as Procedures through Shopify's APIs, on Essential, Advanced and Expert
You want an agent assistant on a cheap plan. Intercom Copilot is $29 a teammate a month billed annually ($35 billed monthly) on any plan. Freddy AI Copilot is also $29 an agent a month billed annually, but Freshworks sells it only on Pro, Enterprise, Omni Pro and Omni Enterprise

Tick what describes your team. We'll tell you which way it leans.

What each costs

The team: 10 agents, email and website chat, a Shopify store, new conversations assigned round robin, and an AI agent that handles 1,000 conversations a month. Both are priced billed annually. Billed monthly, the same seats cost $95 an agent on Omni Pro and $99 a seat on Intercom Advanced.

Freshdesk. Chat means Omni, and round robin assignment starts on Omni Pro: 10 × $79 = $790 a month. Freddy AI Agent includes 500 sessions once per account, then charges $49 per 100. At 1,000 sessions a month that is 10 × $49 = $490 once the free 500 are used. Total: $1,280 a month, or $15,360 a year
Intercom. Round robin starts on Advanced: 10 × $85 = $850 a month. Fin is $0.99 per outcome, so 1,000 outcomes is $990. Total: up to $1,840 a month, or $22,080 a year
Both without round robin. Freshdesk Omni Growth is 10 × $29 = $290, so $780 a month with the same AI volume. Intercom Essential is 10 × $29 = $290, so up to $1,280 a month with the same Fin volume. Freshdesk loses round robin and load-balanced assignment; Intercom loses Workflows, round robin and a second team inbox
Intercom's new-customer offer. On 2026-10-29 the pricing page also showed Essential at $19 a seat next to the $29 figure, with the line "New customers save 35%". The page doesn't say how long that lasts, so we priced at $29
The two AI meters count different things. Freshdesk bills by session, a time window: a chat session is 24 hours, an email session 72 hours from the customer's first email. Its pricing page doesn't tie a session to a resolution. Intercom bills an outcome, at most once per conversation, when the customer confirms the issue is resolved, doesn't ask for more help after Fin replies, or Fin completes a Procedure, handoffs included. Fewer of your 1,000 conversations may count on Intercom, so treat $990 as a ceiling
Copilot for every agent. Freshdesk on Omni Pro: 10 × ($79 + $29) = $1,080 a month before AI sessions. Intercom on Advanced: 10 × ($85 + $29) = $1,140 a month before Fin
If you drop chat. An email-only team on core Freshdesk Growth pays 10 × $19 = $190 a month, against $290 on Intercom Essential

Fees the headline leaves out:

Freshdesk Omni's Voice add-on is $15 an agent a month on Omni Growth, $39 on Omni Pro and $69 on Omni Enterprise, billed annually, plus call charges
Intercom's phone, SMS and WhatsApp are pay-as-you-go, and the rates are not on the pricing page. Fin Voice is priced through Intercom's sales team
Freshdesk charges $80 per 5,000 connector app tasks and $15 per 1,000 MCP actions on every plan, and Omni day passes for occasional users start at $5

Freshdesk plans

Freshdesk plans and prices
Plan	Billed monthly	Billed annually	What you get
Growth	$23	$19	No free plan.
Pro	$66	$55	Marked Most popular by Freshworks.
Enterprise	$107	$89	Adds the governance controls: sandbox, audit logs, allowed domains and IP whitelisting.
Omni Growth	$35	$29	Freshdesk Omni is sold separately from core Freshdesk and adds chat and messaging channels.
Omni Pro	$95	$79	Marked Most popular by Freshworks.
Omni Enterprise	$143	$119	Adds Freddy AI Insights, skill-based routing, custom objects, sandbox and audit logs.

Prices are an agent a month, in US dollars. Source: freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing, checked Oct 23, 2026; freshworks.com/freshdesk/omni/pricing, checked Oct 30, 2026.

Full Freshdesk pricing

Intercom plans

Intercom plans and prices
Plan	Billed monthly	Billed annually	What you get
Essential	$39	$29	Fin AI Agent at $0.99 per outcome on top of seats
Advanced	$99	$85	Fin AI Agent at $0.99 per outcome.
Expert	$139	$132	Fin AI Agent at $0.99 per outcome.

Prices are an agent a month, in US dollars. Source: intercom.com/pricing, checked Oct 20, 2026.

Full Intercom pricing

Where the features differ

29 of the 31 features we checked on both differ in availability or the plan you need. The other 2 are the same on both. Each answer links to the page on the vendor’s own site that says so.

Features where Freshdesk and Intercom differ
Feature	Freshdesk	Intercom
Channels
Contact form and widget	Every plansource	Every plansource
Email	Every plansource	Every plansource
Live chat	Some plansfrom Omni Growthsource	Every plansource
Phone	Some plansfrom Omni Growthsource	Paid add-onfrom Essentialsource
Social DMs	Some planssource	Some plansfrom Advancedsource
WhatsApp	Some planssource	Paid add-onfrom Essentialsource
AI and automation
Agent copilot	Paid add-onfrom Prosource	Paid add-onfrom Essentialsource
AI agent (customer-facing)	Every plansource	Every plansource
AI agent takes actions	Some plansfrom Omni Growthsource	Every plansource
AI pricing published	Every plansource	Every plansource
Automation rules	Every plansource	Some plansfrom Advancedsource
Intent detection and routing	Every plansource	Some plansfrom Advancedsource
Self-service
Customer portal	Every plansource	Some plansfrom Advancedsource
Customer-facing help centre	Every plansource	Every plansource
Multilingual support	Some plansfrom Prosource	Some plansfrom Advancedsource
Workflow and admin
Audit log	Some plansfrom Enterprisesource	Every plansource
Collision detection	Every plansource	Every plansource
Custom fields	Some plansfrom Prosource	Every plansource
Public API	Every plansource	Every plansource
Roles and permissions	Every plansource	Some plansfrom Expertsource
Sandbox	Some plansfrom Enterprisesource	Some plansfrom Advancedsource
Side conversations	Every plansource	Every plansource
Single sign-on	Every plansource	Some plansfrom Expertsource
SLA management	Every plansource	Some plansfrom Expertsource
Reporting and quality
Custom reports and export	Some plansfrom Prosource	Some plansfrom Advancedsource
QA and agent scoring	Paid add-onfrom Prosource	Paid add-onsource
Reporting dashboards	Every plansource	Every plansource
Ecommerce
Order actions in the ticket	Every plansource	Every plansource
Security and reliability
EU data residency	Every plansource	Some plansfrom Advancedsource

AI agents and how they are billed

Per unit, Freshdesk's meter is cheaper. $49 per 100 sessions is $0.49 a session, against $0.99 per Fin outcome. The units differ, so compare them on your own resolution rate and on how long your email threads stay open
Freshdesk's 500 included sessions are a one-time allowance, and session packs expire at the end of your payment cycle
Freshworks describes its AI agent's order handling on the Freshdesk Omni pages, with Agentic Workflows such as "cancel order" and "check stock availability" and named integrations including Shopify, Stripe and PayPal
Fin for Ecommerce is available on all three Intercom plans, and a completed Procedure counts as an outcome
Our view: both put the AI agent, chat and Shopify order actions on their cheapest chat plan, so test each on your own returns and refunds. Freshdesk wins on cost when most AI work is email and you'd rather pay per session than per outcome

Chat and messaging channels

Intercom includes live chat, in-app chat, banners and tooltips on every plan
Instagram is a free Intercom app, on Advanced or Expert only
Intercom bills WhatsApp per message, varying by market and message type
The core Freshdesk pricing page lists no chat. Chat and messaging come with Freshdesk Omni, whose page shows WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and LINE but states no plan gate for them
Freshdesk prices phone as a per-agent Voice add-on plus call charges from its call-rates page. Intercom meters phone by usage at rates its pricing page doesn't print
Our view: Intercom for chat and social DMs, Freshdesk for a team that wants the phone seat cost known up front

Shopify order work

Intercom documents what an agent can do from its Shopify sidebar: line-item and partial refunds, shipping refunds, gift cards capped by default at 150% of the order total, $0 replacement orders and discount codes. Order edits go through a replacement or draft order
Freshworks says Freddy AI Agent "can process refunds, update orders", tracks shipping status and takes exchange requests, through integrations it names, Shopify among them
Freshdesk's own Shopify app shows a customer's orders, status and shipping in the ticket, and lets an agent give a full or partial refund or cancel an order that hasn't shipped, once an admin turns those actions on. It's on every paid plan, core and Omni. It doesn't list gift cards, replacement orders or discount codes
Our view: Intercom for a team that makes things right with gift cards, replacement orders and discount codes. Freshdesk covers refunds and cancelling an unshipped order without leaving the ticket, and Intercom agents have to cancel in Shopify

Admin controls as the team grows

Freshdesk includes roles and permissions on Growth and Omni Growth, multiple SLA policies from Pro, and sandbox and audit logs only on Enterprise ($89 an agent billed annually) and Omni Enterprise ($119)
Intercom keeps teammate activity logs on every plan for a year in the app, and gives Advanced and Expert a free test workspace, though Fin's AI Answers don't work in it
Intercom puts SLAs, SSO and custom roles on Expert only, at $132 a seat billed annually
Our view: Freshdesk is the cheaper route to SLAs and roles, which a 10-agent ecommerce team asks for sooner than a sandbox. Intercom is the cheaper route to an audit trail

How we checked this

Checked 2026-10-29

Sources

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