Side-by-side comparison · Sales & Customer Support
Freshdesk vs Gong vs Retell AI
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: Service businesses and agencies that want an AI receptionist or phone agent without hiring developers.
Overview
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Gong | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | AI phone agents that answer calls, book appointments and make outbound calls. |
| Pricing model | Paid | Paid | Paid |
| Starting price | $19/agent/mo | See website | About $0.07–$0.31/min |
| 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 | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 3.8 | 4.0 | 4.1Winner |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 3.5 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.0 | 5.0 | 4.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 3.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| 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 | 4.0 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Gong | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | No | No | No |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | – |
| Desktop app | No | – | – |
| Browser extension | – | 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 | – | Yes |
| Understands images | – | – | – |
| Makes images | No | No | No |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | No | – | – |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | – | – | – |
| Works in many languages | Yes | 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 | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | Pay as you goOur pick About $0.07–$0.31/min Most small businesses and agencies. |
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. | Enterprise Custom High call volumes and compliance needs. | |
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. | ||
| 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. | Start on pay as you go with the free credits, build one agent for your most common call and test it on your own phone. Talk to sales only once you run thousands of minutes a month. |
Key features
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Gong | Retell AI |
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Gong | Retell AI |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Gong | Retell AI |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Freshdesk, Gong or Retell AI?
Retell AI scores highest overall in our ratings (Freshdesk 3.8/5, Gong 4.0/5 and Retell AI 4.1/5). 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. Retell AI is best for AI receptionist for a small business and booking appointments by phone.
Which is cheaper, Freshdesk, Gong or Retell AI?
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. Retell AI: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at About $0.07–$0.31/min.
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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