Freshdesk vs Zammad
A side-by-side comparison of Freshdesk and Zammad on what each one charges, what it meters, and which plan every capability actually sits on.
The short answer
3 of the 18 capabilities tracked on both differ, mostly in AI assist. Freshdesk starts at $19/seat/mo, Zammad at Free, then $7/seat/mo.
| Measure | Freshdesk | Zammad |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $19/seat/mo | Free, then $7/seat/mo |
| Charged per | Each agent seat | Each agent seat |
| AI billed at | $0.49 per AI session | $0.03 per AI interaction |
| Included, where the other says no | 1 capability | 0 capabilities |
Capability by capability
3 of the 18 capabilities tracked on both products differ.
Channels
| Capability | Freshdesk | Zammad |
|---|---|---|
| Included | IncludedStarter v2 EUR 7. In the free self-hosted build. | |
| Live chat | Not published | IncludedProfessional v2 EUR 16. In the free self-hosted build. |
| Voice | Not published | IncludedVia CTI integrations: a generic CTI connector, Placetel and sipgate.io, on all editions. Zammad is not itself a telephony provider and publishes no per-minute price. |
| SMS | Not published | IncludedStarter v2 EUR 7. In the free self-hosted build. |
| Not published | IncludedPlus v2 EUR 25. In the free self-hosted build. | |
| Instagram / Facebook | Not published | IncludedFacebook only, from Plus v2 EUR 25. Instagram is not listed as a channel. In the free self-hosted build. |
| Microsoft Teams | Not published | IncludedIntegration shipped in 6.0. All editions. |
| Community forum | IncludedPro and above. Forums are also included in the account XML export. | Not published |
Ticketing
| Capability | Freshdesk | Zammad |
|---|---|---|
| Ticket queues | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. | Not published |
| SLA policies | IncludedMultiple SLA policies require Pro. | IncludedTicket SLAs from Professional v2 EUR 16. In the free self-hosted build. |
| Business hours | IncludedPro $55 an agent and above. Not on Growth. | IncludedStarter v2 EUR 7. In the free self-hosted build. |
| Macros / saved replies | Not published | IncludedStarter v2 EUR 7. In the free self-hosted build. |
| Side conversations | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. | Not published |
| Custom fields | IncludedPro $55 an agent and above. Not on Growth. | IncludedPublished as individual ticket objects, from Professional v2 EUR 16. In the free self-hosted build. |
| Custom objects | IncludedEnterprise $89 an agent only. | Not published |
| Ticket forms | IncludedPro $55 an agent and above. Not on Growth. | IncludedPublished as Web Form. Starter v2 EUR 7. In the free self-hosted build. |
Routing & automation
| Capability | Freshdesk | Zammad |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | IncludedTriggers and schedulers from Starter v2 EUR 7. In the free self-hosted build. |
| Workflow builder | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. | IncludedCore Workflows from Plus v2 EUR 25. In the free self-hosted build. |
| Escalation rules | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. | Not published |
AI resolution
| Capability | Freshdesk | Zammad |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous resolution agent | IncludedAll plans. 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions included, then $49 per 100. Billed per session, not per resolution. | NoZammad's AI is agent-facing throughout: summaries, writing assistance, attribute detection, routing, text extraction and tagging. No customer-facing agent that closes a conversation without a human is published, and nothing in the pricing is denominated in resolutions. |
| 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 | Zammad |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | IncludedAI Writing Assistant. Same gate and the same EUR 0.03 per AI call. |
| 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. | IncludedAI Ticket Summary. Professional v2 EUR 16, then EUR 0.03 per AI call. Free self-hosted against your own LLM. |
| 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 |
| Auto-tagging | Not published | IncludedAI Ticket Tagger, alongside AI Agents for attribute detection and routing and an AI Text Extractor for order, invoice and customer IDs. |
| 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 | Zammad |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Zammad |
|---|---|---|
| Public help center | IncludedAll plans. Portal customisation and article versioning require Pro. | IncludedKnowledge Base, monolingual from Professional v2 EUR 16 and multilingual from Plus v2 EUR 25. Both in the free self-hosted build. |
| Versioning | IncludedPro and above. Approval workflow and flexible KB hierarchy are Enterprise. | Not published |
| Localization | IncludedPro and above (multilingual helpdesk and knowledge base translation). | IncludedMultilingual Knowledge Base from Plus v2 EUR 25. In the free self-hosted build. |
| AI answers over KB | IncludedAll three plans, first 500 sessions included, then $49 per 100 sessions. | Not published |
Self-service
| Capability | Freshdesk | Zammad |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Zammad |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Zammad |
|---|---|---|
| Prebuilt dashboards | IncludedAll three plans, from Growth at $19 an agent. | IncludedStandard Reporting from Plus v2 EUR 25, with Grafana and Elasticsearch access at the same tier. In the free self-hosted build. |
| 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 | Zammad |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Zammad |
|---|---|---|
| SAML SSO | IncludedAll three plans including Growth. JWT authentication is Enterprise. | IncludedThird-party authentication has shipped since 3.0, so it is in the free self-hosted build. The hosted pricing page does not itemise SSO per tier, so the hosted gate is Unknown. |
| Custom roles | IncludedRole-based access control on all three plans. Field-level access control is Enterprise. | IncludedIndividual roles from Professional v2 EUR 16. Role management shipped in Zammad 2.0, so the free self-hosted build has it at no cost. |
| Audit logs | IncludedEnterprise only. Unavailable on Growth and Pro. | IncludedTicket history sits in Starter v2's standard features at EUR 7, and in the free self-hosted build. It is not an enterprise upsell here. |
| IP allowlist | IncludedEnterprise only (allowed domains and IP whitelisting). | Not published |
| Sandbox environment | IncludedEnterprise only. | Not published |
| ISO 27001 | Not publishedNot named on the security page. | IncludedISO/IEC 27001:2022, certified 2026, covering the ISMS and infrastructure including the APIs and data pathways used for AI integration. Hosted plans additionally run in an ISO27001-certified data centre. |
| Data residency | IncludedNot plan-gated. US, EEA, UAE, India and Australia, chosen at signup. Moving regions later requires contacting support. | IncludedGermany, listed on every hosted tier including Starter v2 at EUR 7. Not customer-selectable, because Germany is the only region offered. Self-hosted instances sit wherever you put them. |
Developer
| Capability | Freshdesk | Zammad |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | Included | IncludedDocumented REST API on all editions including the free self-hosted build, with SLAs exposed as a resource. |
| 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 rate limit is stated in the REST API documentation. |
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 Zammad costs
$7/seat/month
7 published plans, billed annually- Billing unit
Per agent - Free tier
Yes - AI pricing
$0.03 per AI interaction - Vendor calls it
AI call - Human handoff
Not published - Reopened chat
Not published - AI billing window
Not published - Data export
Self-serve - Automation export
Partial
3 of 9 not published by Zammad, checked