Side-by-side comparison · Sales & Customer Support
Freshdesk vs Hiver vs Intercom
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: Small and mid-sized teams who answer customers or suppliers from a shared Gmail address and want structure without leaving Gmail.
Pick it if: Online businesses and software companies with a support team that wants an AI agent to take the first pass at every question.
Intercom 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 | Hiver | Intercom |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Helpdesk for email, chat and phone support, with Freddy AI to answer and assist. | Shared inbox and helpdesk that runs inside Gmail, with AI that drafts and answers replies. | Customer support inbox, help centre and chat, with the Fin AI agent answering first. |
| Pricing model | Paid | Paid | Paid |
| Starting price | $19/agent/mo | $25/user/mo | $0.99 per outcome |
| 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 | Hiver | Intercom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 3.8 | 3.9 | 4.2Winner |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.0 | 4.5 | 4.0 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 3.5 | 3.5 | 4.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 3.5 | 4.0 | 3.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 3.5 | 4.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Hiver | Intercom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | No | No | No |
| Mobile app | Yes | 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 | – | – | Yes |
| Makes images | No | No | No |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | No | No | No |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | – | – | Yes |
| Works in many languages | Yes | – | Yes |
| Capabilities score | 8/ 17 | 7/ 17 | 10/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Hiver | Intercom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Growth $19/agent/mo billed yearly Small teams moving off a shared inbox. | Growth $25/user/mo billed yearly, or $35 monthly Small teams running one or two shared inboxes. | Fin on its own $0.99 per outcome, monthly minimum Teams happy with their current helpdesk who want the AI agent only. |
ProOur pick $55/agent/mo billed yearly Growing teams that need routing and deadlines. | ProOur pick $55/user/mo billed yearly, or $65 monthly Support teams that need targets and connected tools. | Essential $29/seat/mo, plus $0.99 per Fin outcome Small teams starting out with live chat and an AI agent. | |
Enterprise $89/agent/mo billed yearly Larger support teams with admin and security needs. | Elite $85/user/mo billed yearly, or $95 monthly Larger teams wanting AI quality checks and tighter security. | AdvancedOur pick $85/seat/mo, plus $0.99 per Fin outcome Growing support teams that need automation and several inboxes. | |
Expert $132/seat/mo, plus $0.99 per Fin outcome Larger teams with security and multi-brand needs. | |||
| 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. | 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. | Start the 14-day trial and see how many conversations Fin handles, because that number drives the bill more than seats do. Most teams with more than a couple of agents end up on Advanced for the workflows. If you already run Zendesk or Salesforce and like it, try Fin on its own first. |
Key features
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Hiver | Intercom |
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Pros and cons
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Hiver | Intercom |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Freshdesk, Hiver or Intercom?
Intercom scores highest overall in our ratings (Freshdesk 3.8/5, Hiver 3.9/5 and Intercom 4.2/5). Freshdesk is best for turning a support inbox into tracked tickets and building a help centre and customer portal. Hiver is best for running support@ or info@ as a team and assigning and tracking customer emails. Intercom is best for answering common customer questions automatically and website and in-app live chat.
Which is cheaper, Freshdesk, Hiver or Intercom?
Freshdesk: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at $19/agent/mo. Hiver: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at $25/user/mo. Intercom: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at $0.99 per outcome.
Which is easier to use, Freshdesk, Hiver or Intercom?
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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