Side-by-side comparison · Sales & Customer Support
Freshdesk vs Gong vs Hiver
Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.
Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.
At a glance
Pick it if: Small and mid-size businesses that handle customer questions by email, chat and phone and need a proper ticket system.
Pick it if: Sales leaders running a team of reps who want to coach from real calls and forecast deals more accurately.
Pick it if: Small and mid-sized teams who answer customers or suppliers from a shared Gmail address and want structure without leaving Gmail.
Gong scores highest overall, but Hiver gives you more for your money. Which one is right comes down to what you value most.
Overview
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Gong | Hiver |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Helpdesk for email, chat and phone support, with Freddy AI to answer and assist. | Records and analyses sales calls and emails to coach reps and forecast deals. | Shared inbox and helpdesk that runs inside Gmail, with AI that drafts and answers replies. |
| Pricing model | Paid | Paid | Paid |
| Starting price | $19/agent/mo | See website | $25/user/mo |
| Free plan | No | No | No |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Gong | Hiver |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 3.8 | 4.0Winner | 3.9 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.0 | 5.0 | 4.0 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 3.5 | 4.5 | 3.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 3.5 | 2.5 | 4.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Gong | Hiver |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | No | No | No |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop app | No | – | – |
| Browser extension | – | Yes | Yes |
| API access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Enterprise plan or SSO | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Connects to other apps | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Open source or self-hosted | No | No | No |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | Yes | – | – |
| Understands images | – | – | – |
| Makes images | No | No | No |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | No | – | No |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | – | – | – |
| Works in many languages | Yes | Yes | – |
| Capabilities score | 8/ 17 | 8/ 17 | 7/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Gong | Hiver |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Growth $19/agent/mo billed yearly Small teams moving off a shared inbox. | Platform fee Custom (billed yearly) Every Gong customer pays this, scaled to team size. | Growth $25/user/mo billed yearly, or $35 monthly Small teams running one or two shared inboxes. |
ProOur pick $55/agent/mo billed yearly Growing teams that need routing and deadlines. | Per-user licenceOur pick Custom per user (billed yearly) Each rep or manager who records and reviews calls. | ProOur pick $55/user/mo billed yearly, or $65 monthly Support teams that need targets and connected tools. | |
Enterprise $89/agent/mo billed yearly Larger support teams with admin and security needs. | Add-ons (Engage, Forecast, Enable) Custom Teams that want outreach, forecasting or coaching in Gong too. | Elite $85/user/mo billed yearly, or $95 monthly Larger teams wanting AI quality checks and tighter security. | |
| Which plan to pick | Growth is fine for a few agents answering email. Most growing teams end up on Pro for routing, SLAs and the option to add Copilot. Budget for extra AI Agent sessions once the first 500 are used. | Start with the core licence for reps who run customer calls and add Forecast or Engage only once the team uses Gong daily. Push back on bundles and multi-year terms during negotiation. | Growth is enough for a small team that just needs a tidy shared inbox with AI help. Choose Pro if you need response-time targets, CRM or Shopify data next to each email, or the API. Voice is an add-on at $30 per seat. |
Key features
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Gong | Hiver |
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Pros and cons
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Gong | Hiver |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Freshdesk, Gong or Hiver?
Gong scores highest overall in our ratings (Freshdesk 3.8/5, Gong 4.0/5 and Hiver 3.9/5). Freshdesk is best for turning a support inbox into tracked tickets and building a help centre and customer portal. Gong is best for coaching reps from real call recordings and spotting at-risk deals early. Hiver is best for running support@ or info@ as a team and assigning and tracking customer emails.
Which is cheaper, Freshdesk, Gong or Hiver?
Freshdesk: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at $19/agent/mo. Gong: Pricing isn't published; check the vendor's site for a quote. Hiver: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at $25/user/mo.
Which is easier to use, Freshdesk, Gong or Hiver?
Hiver rates highest for ease of use in our scores. Small and mid-sized teams who answer customers or suppliers from a shared Gmail address and want structure without leaving Gmail.
How we compare
Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability.
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