Freshdesk vs LiveAgent
A side-by-side comparison of Freshdesk and LiveAgent on what each one charges, what it meters, and which plan every capability actually sits on.
The short answer
Freshdesk starts at $19/seat/mo, LiveAgent at Free, then $15/seat/mo.
| Measure | Freshdesk | LiveAgent |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $19/seat/mo | Free, then $15/seat/mo |
| Charged per | Each agent seat | Each agent seat |
| AI billed at | $0.49 per AI session | Not published |
| Included, where the other says no | 0 capabilities | 0 capabilities |
Capability by capability
Nothing we track differs between them.
Channels
| Capability | Freshdesk | LiveAgent |
|---|---|---|
| Included | Included1 email channel on Free. 3 in/outbound email accounts on Small business, 10 on Medium business, 150 on Large business, 500 on Enterprise. | |
| Live chat | Not published | Included2 chat buttons on Small business, 5 on Medium business, 50 on Large business, 100 on Enterprise. Not on the Free plan. |
| Voice | Not published | IncludedUnknown as a plan gate. The call centre is built into the product rather than sold as a separate SKU, but the per-plan values in the matrix are icons that did not survive text extraction. The FAQ places the call centre among the features that higher tiers add. |
| Not published | Paid add-on$39/mo per account on Small business and Medium business. 5 numbers included on Large business, 20 on Enterprise. | |
| Instagram / Facebook | Not published | Paid add-onFacebook $39/mo per account. Instagram is a further $19/mo and requires the Facebook channel. Both included on Large business and Enterprise. |
| X / Twitter | Not published | Paid add-on$39/mo per account on Small business and Medium business; included on Large business and Enterprise. |
| Community forum | IncludedPro and above. Forums are also included in the account XML export. | Not published |
Ticketing
| Capability | Freshdesk | LiveAgent |
|---|---|---|
| Ticket queues | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. | Not published |
| SLA policies | IncludedMultiple SLA policies require Pro. | IncludedMedium business and above. 5 SLA rules and 5 SLA levels on Medium business, 50 rules on Large business, 100 on Enterprise. Absent from Small business. |
| Business hours | IncludedPro $55 an agent and above. Not on Growth. | Not published |
| Macros / saved replies | Not published | IncludedCanned messages: 20 on Small business, 100 on Medium business, 500 on Large business, 1000 on Enterprise. |
| Side conversations | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. | Not published |
| Custom fields | IncludedPro $55 an agent and above. Not on Growth. | Not published |
| Custom objects | IncludedEnterprise $89 an agent only. | Not published |
| Ticket forms | IncludedPro $55 an agent and above. Not on Growth. | Not published |
Routing & automation
| Capability | Freshdesk | LiveAgent |
|---|---|---|
| Skills-based routing | IncludedEnterprise. Intelligent routing arrives on Pro. | Not published |
| Round-robin assignment | IncludedPro $55 an agent and above. Not on Growth. | Not published |
| Load balancing | IncludedPro $55 an agent and above. Not on Growth. | Not published |
| Triggers | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. | IncludedEvent rules: 50 on Small business, 150 on Medium business, 500 on Large business, 1000 on Enterprise. Time rules start at Medium business (30), rising to 200 on Enterprise. |
| Workflow builder | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. | Not published |
| Escalation rules | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. | Not published |
AI resolution
| Capability | Freshdesk | LiveAgent |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous resolution agent | IncludedAll plans. 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions included, then $49 per 100. Billed per session, not per resolution. | Not published |
| Resolution over knowledge base | IncludedAll three plans, first 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions included, then $49 per 100 sessions. | Not published |
| Multilingual AI | Paid add-onFreddy AI Copilot add-on ($29/agent/mo annual), Pro and Enterprise only. Live translation in 60+ languages. | Not published |
AI assist
| Capability | Freshdesk | LiveAgent |
|---|---|---|
| Reply drafting | 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. | Not published |
| Tone rewrite | 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. | Not published |
| Summarization | 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. | Not published |
| Translation | 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. | Not published |
| Next-best-action | 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. | Not published |
| Sentiment analysis | 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. | Not published |
AI voice
| Capability | Freshdesk | LiveAgent |
|---|---|---|
| Voice agent | 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. | Not published |
| IVR replacement | 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. | Not published |
| Real-time transcription | 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. | Not published |
| Call summarization | 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. | Not published |
Knowledge base
| Capability | Freshdesk | LiveAgent |
|---|---|---|
| Public help center | IncludedAll plans. Portal customisation and article versioning require Pro. | Included1 knowledge base on Small business and Medium business, 2 on Large business, 10 on Enterprise. Extra knowledge bases are $19/mo each on every plan. |
| Versioning | IncludedPro and above. Approval workflow and flexible KB hierarchy are Enterprise. | Not published |
| Localization | IncludedPro and above (multilingual helpdesk and knowledge base translation). | Not published |
| AI answers over KB | IncludedAll three plans, first 500 sessions included, then $49 per 100 sessions. | Not published |
Self-service
| Capability | Freshdesk | LiveAgent |
|---|---|---|
| Chatbot flows | NoNot on any plan. The AI Agent answers email from the knowledge base; the plan matrix describes no bot builder and no transactional actions. | Not published |
| Order lookup | NoNot on any plan. The AI Agent answers email from the knowledge base; the plan matrix describes no bot builder and no transactional actions. | Not published |
| Returns / RMA | NoNot on any plan. The AI Agent answers email from the knowledge base; the plan matrix describes no bot builder and no transactional actions. | Not published |
| Account actions | NoNot on any plan. The AI Agent answers email from the knowledge base; the plan matrix describes no bot builder and no transactional actions. | Not published |
QA & workforce
| Capability | Freshdesk | LiveAgent |
|---|---|---|
| Conversation QA scoring | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix enumerates nine sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. | Not published |
| Automated QA coverage | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix enumerates nine sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. | Not published |
| Calibration | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix enumerates nine sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. | Not published |
| Agent scorecards | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix enumerates nine sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. | Not published |
| Forecasting | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix enumerates nine sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. | Not published |
| Scheduling | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix enumerates nine sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. | Not published |
| Adherence tracking | NoNot on any plan. The plan matrix enumerates nine sections and none of them is quality assurance or workforce management. | Not published |
Reporting
| Capability | Freshdesk | LiveAgent |
|---|---|---|
| Prebuilt dashboards | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. | Not published |
| Custom reports | IncludedPro $55 an agent and above. Not on Growth. | Not published |
| Raw data export | IncludedNot plan-gated. The account export is self-serve on every plan. | Not published |
| Data warehouse sync | NoNot on any plan. The analytics section lists six capabilities and none of them moves data out. | Not published |
| Real-time reporting | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. | Not published |
Collaboration
| Capability | Freshdesk | LiveAgent |
|---|---|---|
| Internal notes | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. | Not published |
| Assignment | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. | Not published |
| Approvals | IncludedEnterprise $89 an agent only. | Not published |
Enterprise
| Capability | Freshdesk | LiveAgent |
|---|---|---|
| SAML SSO | IncludedAll three plans including Growth. JWT authentication is Enterprise. | Not publishedSSO exists as a plan-matrix row ('Use single sign-on (SSO) to make logins easier for your agents') but the per-plan values are icons that did not survive text extraction, so the minimum plan is Unknown. |
| Custom roles | IncludedRole-based access control on all three plans. Field-level access control is Enterprise. | IncludedMedium business (2), Large business (5), Enterprise (40). Blank on Small business. |
| Audit logs | IncludedEnterprise only. Unavailable on Growth and Pro. | IncludedUnknown. The audit log is a plan-matrix row but its per-plan values are icons that did not survive text extraction. |
| IP allowlist | IncludedEnterprise only (allowed domains and IP whitelisting). | Not published |
| Sandbox environment | IncludedEnterprise only. | Not published |
| GDPR | Not publishedA sub-processor list and regional data instances are published, but no explicit GDPR compliance statement was found on the security page. | IncludedNot plan-gated. A dedicated GDPR page is linked in the site footer, the legal entity is Slovak (Quality Unit, s.r.o., Bratislava) and an EU data centre is selectable. |
| Data residency | IncludedNot plan-gated. US, EEA, UAE, India and Australia, chosen at signup. Moving regions later requires contacting support. | IncludedNot an add-on and not plan-gated. Americas (US), Europe & Africa (EU) or Asia & Pacific (SG), chosen at account creation. |
Developer
| Capability | Freshdesk | LiveAgent |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | Included | IncludedAPI keys are capped per plan: 1 on Small business, 5 on Medium business, 10 on Large business, 100 on Enterprise. The Free plan has no integrations at all. |
| GraphQL API | NoNot on any plan. The published interface is REST, with per-tier rate limits. | Not published |
| App framework | IncludedAll three plans. Connector app tasks are metered at $80 per 5,000 regardless of tier. | Not published |
| Published rate limits | IncludedGrowth 100 req/min, Pro 400, Enterprise 700, trials 50. Per-endpoint sub-limits are lower and extra capacity is purchasable. | Not publishedNo req/min or req/hour figure was found. LiveAgent publishes a per-plan cap on the number of API keys instead, which is a different control. |
Both entries last checked Sep 9, 2026.
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
What LiveAgent costs
$15/seat/month
5 published plans, billed annually- Billing unit
Seat (agent) per month - Free tier
Yes - AI pricing
Not published - Vendor calls it
Not published - Human handoff
Not published - Reopened chat
Not published - AI billing window
Not published - Data export
Self-serve - Automation export
Not published
6 of 9 not published by LiveAgent, checked