Crisp vs Freshdesk
A side-by-side comparison of Crisp and Freshdesk on what each one charges, what it meters, and which plan every capability actually sits on.
The short answer
14 of the 42 capabilities tracked on both differ, mostly in AI assist and Self-service. Crisp starts at Free, then $45/mo, Freshdesk at $19/seat/mo.
| Measure | Crisp | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | Free, then $45/mo | $19/seat/mo |
| Charged per | The workspace | Each agent seat |
| AI billed at | Hugo credit allowance, no rate published | $0.49 per AI session |
| Included, where the other says no | 3 capabilities | 6 capabilities |
Capability by capability
14 of the 42 capabilities tracked on both products differ.
Channels
| Capability | Crisp | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| IncludedMini $45 and above. The shared email inbox and a custom email domain are the headline Mini upgrade; Free has no email channel. | Included | |
| Live chat | IncludedAll plans including Free. The chat widget and contact form are the only two channels on Free. | Not published |
| In-app messenger | IncludedAll plans. Chat SDKs, live typing preview and typing indicators are on every tier; widget customization and proactive chat messages start at Mini; the help widget starts at Essentials; removing the "We run on Crisp" watermark needs Plus. | Not published |
| Voice | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. "Answer phone calls and trigger outbound calls right from Crisp." | Not published |
| SMS | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, alongside Viber and Line. | Not published |
| IncludedEssentials $95 and above, as WhatsApp Business. One WhatsApp connection per workspace: "One and only one of each, except emails, can be centralized in one workspace. You can connect more by subscribing to higher limits." | Not published | |
| Instagram / Facebook | IncludedSplit across two tiers. Facebook Messenger arrives at Mini $45, Instagram Direct at Essentials $95. | Not published |
| X / Twitter | IncludedMini $45 and above. | Not published |
| Microsoft Teams | NoNot a channel. The Channels block enumerates chat widget, contact form, email, Telegram, Messenger, X, Instagram, SMS, Viber, phone, Line and WhatsApp Business. Microsoft Teams is absent from that list, and Slack appears only under Integrations rather than as an inbox channel. | Not published |
| Community forum | NoNo community product. The Help Center section covers articles, categories, search, feedback, a custom domain and SEO metadata, and offers no forum, member profiles or moderation. | IncludedPro and above. Forums are also included in the account XML export. |
| Video | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, as video and audio chat inside the widget. | Not published |
| Co-browsing | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, published as MagicBrowse. Crisp documents it as passive, scoped to your own site and covered by privacy controls. | Not published |
Ticketing
| Capability | Crisp | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| Shared inbox | IncludedAll plans. Sub-inboxes are the part that is gated: 0 on Free and Mini, 2 on Essentials, 5 on Plus. | Not published |
| Ticket queues | IncludedTwo separate things. Sub-inboxes start at Essentials $95 (2, rising to 5 on Plus). The ticketing system with a customer portal, where customers open and follow requests, is Plus $295 only. | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. |
| SLA policies | IncludedEnterprise only, listed on the plan card as "Personalized SLA" alongside custom onboarding. No SLA policy engine appears on Free, Mini, Essentials or Plus. | IncludedMultiple SLA policies require Pro. |
| Business hours | IncludedAll plans including Free. | IncludedPro $55 an agent and above. Not on Growth. |
| Macros / saved replies | IncludedMini $45 and above, published as canned responses and managed as message shortcuts. Import and export both run on CSV. | Not published |
| Side conversations | Not published | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. |
| Custom fields | IncludedAll plans, as custom attributes on customer profiles. Customer segmentation, smart filters and profile notes start at Mini; lifecycle tracking and timeline activity at Essentials. | IncludedPro $55 an agent and above. Not on Growth. |
| Custom objects | Not published | IncludedEnterprise $89 an agent only. |
| Ticket forms | Not published | IncludedPro $55 an agent and above. Not on Growth. |
Routing & automation
| Capability | Crisp | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| Skills-based routing | Not published | IncludedEnterprise. Intelligent routing arrives on Pro. |
| Round-robin assignment | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. "Assign conversations automatically to available agents in a fair, rotating manner." | IncludedPro $55 an agent and above. Not on Growth. |
| Load balancing | Not published | IncludedPro $55 an agent and above. Not on Growth. |
| Triggers | IncludedMini $45 and above for chat triggers on visitor behaviour. Keyword, CRM-based and AI-based triggers belong to the workflow builder at Essentials and Plus. | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. |
| Workflow builder | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. Conditional flows, custom input fields, webhook actions, iframes and API automation are all on this tier; unlimited chatbot templates and AI-based triggers need Plus. | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. |
| Escalation rules | Not publishedNot published as a row. The Workflow section carries keyword, CRM and AI-based triggers plus conditional flows, which could implement an escalation, but no escalation rule is named as a capability. | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. |
AI resolution
| Capability | Crisp | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous resolution agent | IncludedHugo, the AI agent, from Mini $45 upward. Metered against the plan's USD credit allowance rather than sold per resolution, and it stops rather than overspending unless Pay-As-You-Go is enabled. | IncludedAll plans. 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions included, then $49 per 100. Billed per session, not per resolution. |
| Resolution over knowledge base | Not published | IncludedAll three plans, first 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions included, then $49 per 100 sessions. |
| Action-taking (API calls) | IncludedHugo integrations and the MCP server start at Essentials $95; unlimited task automations, which connect the agent to third-party tools, are Plus $295. Crisp describes order and account lookup and refunds as in-scope actions. | Not published |
| Handoff to human | IncludedBuilt into the billing model as well as the product: when credits run out, "New conversations are escalated to human operators until credits reset or additional usage is enabled." Hugo routing also escalates by situation. | Not published |
| Multilingual AI | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. LiveTranslate covers over 50 languages on any channel. | Paid add-onFreddy AI Copilot add-on ($29/agent/mo annual), Pro and Enterprise only. Live translation in 60+ languages. |
AI assist
| Capability | Crisp | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| Reply drafting | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, as the AI writing assistant and the internal Hugo Copilot. Copilot output consumes Hugo credits. | Paid add-onFreddy AI Copilot add-on at $29 an agent a month billed annually, and only on Pro $55 and Enterprise $89. Not sold on Growth at any price. |
| Tone rewrite | Not published | Paid add-onFreddy AI Copilot add-on at $29 an agent a month billed annually, and only on Pro $55 and Enterprise $89. Not sold on Growth at any price. |
| Summarization | IncludedConversation summary is a Plus $295 row in the compare table, though Copilot-generated summaries are documented from Essentials and consume credits. | Paid add-onFreddy AI Copilot add-on at $29 an agent a month billed annually, and only on Pro $55 and Enterprise $89. Not sold on Growth at any price. |
| Translation | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, as LiveTranslate. | Paid add-onFreddy AI Copilot add-on at $29 an agent a month billed annually, and only on Pro $55 and Enterprise $89. Not sold on Growth at any price. |
| Next-best-action | Not published | Paid add-onFreddy AI Copilot add-on at $29 an agent a month billed annually, and only on Pro $55 and Enterprise $89. Not sold on Growth at any price. |
| Auto-tagging | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. Hugo Topics classify conversations by intent and a single conversation can match several. | Not published |
| Sentiment analysis | Not published | Paid add-onFreddy AI Copilot add-on at $29 an agent a month billed annually, and only on Pro $55 and Enterprise $89. Not sold on Growth at any price. |
AI voice
| Capability | Crisp | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| Voice agent | Not publishedNot established. The AI Agent resolves conversations end-to-end and phone is a supported channel, but nothing states that the agent answers calls, and Crisp does not publish a voice-specific AI surface. | NoNot on any plan. The three Freddy sections cover an email agent, a copilot and insights. Voice is Freshcaller, a separate product with its own bill. |
| IVR replacement | NoNo IVR. Phone is a channel on every plan and the voice feature set stops at answering calls, triggering outbound ones and transcribing recordings. No phone tree, queue or routing menu appears anywhere in the comparison. | NoNot on any plan. The three Freddy sections cover an email agent, a copilot and insights. Voice is Freshcaller, a separate product with its own bill. |
| Real-time transcription | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. "Get immediate voice-to-text transcription for every audio message or recorded phone calls." | NoNot on any plan. The three Freddy sections cover an email agent, a copilot and insights. Voice is Freshcaller, a separate product with its own bill. |
| Call summarization | Not published | NoNot on any plan. The three Freddy sections cover an email agent, a copilot and insights. Voice is Freshcaller, a separate product with its own bill. |
Knowledge base
| Capability | Crisp | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| Public help center | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. "The Knowledge Base feature is available on Crisp Essentials and Crisp Plus plans." Articles are written in Markdown. | IncludedAll plans. Portal customisation and article versioning require Pro. |
| Custom domain | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. Defaults to a Crisp-hosted domain such as acme.crisp.help; a custom help.acme.com can be configured. | Not published |
| Versioning | NoNo versioning. The Help Center section enumerates articles and categories, customisation, multilingual content, the SDK, search, article feedback, a custom domain and sitemap metadata. Revision history, drafts and rollback are not among them. | IncludedPro and above. Approval workflow and flexible KB hierarchy are Enterprise. |
| Localization | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. Languages are added per knowledge base and "Articles are not translated automatically, so each language should be reviewed and localized manually." | IncludedPro and above (multilingual helpdesk and knowledge base translation). |
| In-product widget | IncludedAll plans, twice over: a help widget that surfaces answers inside the site, and a help centre SDK for embedding it anywhere. | Not published |
| SEO controls | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, published as sitemap and SEO meta data. | Not published |
| AI answers over KB | IncludedEssentials $95 and above for AI-generated answers and AI knowledge training. Customer-facing AI-powered site search is Plus $295. | IncludedAll three plans, first 500 sessions included, then $49 per 100 sessions. |
Self-service
| Capability | Crisp | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| Chatbot flows | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, as the no-code AI chatbot builder. Scenario drafts let flows be tested before going live. | NoNot on any plan. The AI Agent answers email from the knowledge base; the plan matrix describes no bot builder and no transactional actions. |
| Order lookup | IncludedThe Shopify, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce and PrestaShop integrations are checked on all four plans including Free. Letting Hugo perform the lookup needs the integrations and MCP server at Essentials $95. | NoNot on any plan. The AI Agent answers email from the knowledge base; the plan matrix describes no bot builder and no transactional actions. |
| Returns / RMA | Not published | NoNot on any plan. The AI Agent answers email from the knowledge base; the plan matrix describes no bot builder and no transactional actions. |
| Account actions | Not published | NoNot on any plan. The AI Agent answers email from the knowledge base; the plan matrix describes no bot builder and no transactional actions. |
QA & workforce
| Capability | Crisp | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| Conversation QA scoring | NoNo quality management of any kind. Crisp's plan comparison enumerates twelve feature sections and none covers scoring, reviewing or grading conversations. It is an inbox, and measuring the work done in it is somebody else's product. | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix enumerates nine sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. |
| Automated QA coverage | NoNo automated scoring. The Artificial intelligence section is substantial (AI agent, knowledge training, copilot, multilingual, auto-tagging, spam filter, conversation summary) and every entry in it faces the customer or assists the agent. None of it evaluates the agent. | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix enumerates nine sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. |
| Calibration | NoNo calibration. Follows from there being no scorecard to calibrate against. | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix enumerates nine sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. |
| Agent scorecards | NoNo agent scorecards. The Analytics section covers prebuilt analytics, data export, custom dashboards and API access, and reports on conversations and operator activity rather than scoring individuals against a rubric. | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix enumerates nine sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. |
| Forecasting | NoNo workforce management. Nothing in the feature comparison forecasts contact volume, and the only capacity-shaped control is the agent count bundled into each plan. | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix enumerates nine sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. |
| Scheduling | NoNo shift scheduling. "Working hours settings" defines when the business is open so responses can be automated outside them, which sets expectations rather than rostering anyone. | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix enumerates nine sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. |
| Adherence tracking | NoNo adherence tracking, which follows from there being no schedule to measure against. | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix enumerates nine sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. |
Reporting
| Capability | Crisp | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| Prebuilt dashboards | IncludedEssentials $95 and above. Custom dashboards and API analytics are on the same tier; advanced analytics is a separate Plus row. | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. |
| Custom reports | IncludedEssentials $95 and above for custom dashboards, which export and re-import as .json. | IncludedPro $55 an agent and above. Not on Growth. |
| Raw data export | API onlyContacts are the exception with a real CSV export, and it starts at Essentials $95. Everything else is the API: "Conversation data cannot be exported as a native CSV from the Crisp dashboard at the moment." Analytics CSV covers report data, not messages. | IncludedNot plan-gated. The account export is self-serve on every plan. |
| Data warehouse sync | Not publishedNo first-party warehouse destination is listed. Analytics offers data export and programmatic access through the API, and Segment appears under integrations, which is a route to a warehouse rather than a sync Crisp documents. | NoNot on any plan. The analytics section lists six capabilities and none of them moves data out. |
| CSAT / NPS | IncludedEssentials $95 and above, as conversation ratings. Free and Mini cannot collect them. | Not published |
| Real-time reporting | NoNo live dashboard. Analytics covers prebuilt reports, data export, custom dashboards and API access. The only real-time surface in the product is the live geolocation map of current site visitors, which is a visitor view rather than an operations one. | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. |
Collaboration
| Capability | Crisp | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| Internal notes | IncludedMini $45 and above. Private notes and mentions are absent from Free. | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. |
| Assignment | IncludedRound-robin routing and routing rules start at Essentials $95. Free and Mini have no automatic assignment. | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. |
| Approvals | NoNo approval workflow. Nothing in the comparison routes a reply or a change through a reviewer before it goes out. | IncludedEnterprise $89 an agent only. |
Enterprise
| Capability | Crisp | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| SAML SSO | NoNot offered as far as Crisp publishes. The pricing page's Data & Security section enumerates five items, two-factor authentication, EU hosting, a data processing agreement, TLS encryption and data replication, and SSO is not among them. Neither the help center nor the developer hub documents SAML, OIDC or an identity provider connection anywhere, and 2FA is the only authentication article. Third-party pages claiming Crisp SSO refer either to a different company (gocrisp.com) or to external broker services. | IncludedAll three plans including Growth. JWT authentication is Enterprise. |
| Role-based access control | IncludedTwo fixed roles. The terms name "the relevant Workspace role of 'Workspace Member' or 'Workspace Owner'", and operators and teams are managed under Workspace Settings. No plan gate is published. | Not published |
| Custom roles | NoCrisp publishes a two-role model, Workspace Member and Workspace Owner, and no mechanism for defining additional roles or per-permission grants on any plan, including Plus and the sales-gated Enterprise tier. | IncludedRole-based access control on all three plans. Field-level access control is Enterprise. |
| Audit logs | Not publishedNo audit log feature appears in the compare table, the help center or the REST API reference. Crisp publishes internal access logging for its own staff ("different permission levels, access logs, TOTP, rate-limits and safety checks") but nothing customer-facing. | IncludedEnterprise only. Unavailable on Growth and Pro. |
| IP allowlist | Not published | IncludedEnterprise only (allowed domains and IP whitelisting). |
| Sandbox environment | Not publishedNo test workspace is listed. The Workflow section offers "Scenario drafts" for rehearsing chatbot flows before going live, which covers the automation rather than the workspace. | IncludedEnterprise only. |
| Multi-brand | IncludedGated by count, as sub-inboxes: 0 on Free, 0 on Mini, 2 on Essentials and 5 on Plus. A second brand is the reason to leave the $45 plan. | Not published |
| SOC 2 | NoExplicitly denied by the vendor rather than merely unclaimed: "Please note that Crisp hasn't been over any SOC2 audit but we wish to show we are fully compliant with these specific needs." The article walks the five trust service principles as a self-assessment. No auditor, report or bridge letter is published. | Not publishedThe security page describes controls but names no certification, pointing to a separate Trust Center for attestations that is not publicly reachable. |
| GDPR | IncludedAll plans including Free. A data processing agreement is a checked row on every tier. Crisp is the customer's processor, names a DPO at dpo@crisp.chat, answers data subject requests within a week against the GDPR's one-month limit, and its supervisory authority is the French CNIL. | Not publishedA sub-processor list and regional data instances are published, but no explicit GDPR compliance statement was found on the security page. |
| Data residency | IncludedEU on every plan, Free included, and fixed rather than selectable. "All Crisp data is held on servers hosted in the European Union. Our Messaging data is stored in The Netherlands and our Plugin data is stored in Germany." Servers are DigitalOcean's EU subsidiary. Relay servers in the US, UK and Singapore reduce latency and "do not store any data except connection logs (IP address, date of connection, user-agent and source website)". No non-EU region is offered and none is planned. Sub-processors are Cloudflare, DigitalOcean and Stripe, with AI running on Mirage, Crisp's own service. | IncludedNot plan-gated. US, EEA, UAE, India and Australia, chosen at signup. Moving regions later requires contacting support. |
| Data retention policy | IncludedUnlimited data retention and full conversation history start at Mini $45; Free has neither. Crisp's own backups are GPG-encrypted and "retained for a maximum of 1 week". | Not published |
| Right-to-erasure tooling | IncludedNot plan-gated, and offered free to paid and free workspaces alike. "Crisp has set out to reply to all access requests (positively or negatively or when we must forward the request) under 1 week." End-user requests are referred back to the customer as controller. | Not published |
Developer
| Capability | Crisp | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | IncludedDeveloper APIs are checked on all four plans including Free. Tokens come in user, website and plugin tiers with per-scope permissions. | Included |
| GraphQL API | Not published | NoNot on any plan. The published interface is REST, with per-tier rate limits. |
| Webhooks | IncludedWebhook actions inside workflows start at Essentials $95. The developer platform also carries its own webhook and plugin event system. | Not published |
| SDKs | IncludedAll plans. JavaScript web SDK plus published iOS, Android, React Native and Flutter chat SDKs, and a help center SDK from Essentials. | Not published |
| App framework | IncludedA plugin marketplace with plugin tokens, scoped permissions and per-plugin daily quotas. Third-party plugins include Jira Service Management, Briskport, IsDown and ChargeDesk. The 100+ integrations row is a Plus line item. | IncludedAll three plans. Connector app tasks are metered at $80 per 5,000 regardless of tier. |
| Published rate limits | IncludedPublished in structure, thin on numbers. Four limiters are named with their classifiers and tiers, and one figure is given: website tokens are "Limited to 10,000 requests per day". The load balancer, API Global and API Route limits carry no published values, and plugin quota increases are requested through the Marketplace, so an API-only conversation export cannot be planned against a fully known ceiling. | IncludedGrowth 100 req/min, Pro 400, Enterprise 700, trials 50. Per-endpoint sub-limits are lower and extra capacity is purchasable. |
Both entries last checked Sep 9, 2026.
What Crisp costs
$45/month
4 published plans, billed monthly- Billing unit
$45 a month for the workspace - Free tier
Yes - AI pricing
Not published - Vendor calls it
Hugo credit - Human handoff
Still billed - Reopened chat
Not published - AI billing window
Not published - Data export
Self-serve - Automation export
Partial
3 of 9 not published by Crisp, checked
What Freshdesk costs
$19/seat/month
3 published plans, billed annually- Billing unit
Seat (agent) + usage hybrid - Free tier
No, 14-day trial - AI pricing
$0.49 per AI session - Vendor calls it
Freddy AI Agent session - Human handoff
Not published - Reopened chat
Billed again - AI billing window
3d of inactivity - Data export
Self-serve - Automation export
Not offered
1 of 9 not published by Freshdesk, checked