Side-by-side comparison · Sales & Customer Support
Freshdesk vs Hiver 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: Small and mid-sized teams who answer customers or suppliers from a shared Gmail address and want structure without leaving Gmail.
Pick it if: Service businesses and agencies that want an AI receptionist or phone agent without hiring developers.
Overview
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Hiver | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | AI phone agents that answer calls, book appointments and make outbound calls. |
| Pricing model | Paid | Paid | Paid |
| Starting price | $19/agent/mo | $25/user/mo | 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 | Hiver | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 3.8 | 3.9 | 4.1Winner |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.0 | 4.5 | 3.5 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| 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 | 4.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Hiver | 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 | No | – |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | – | – | – |
| Works in many languages | Yes | – | Yes |
| Capabilities score | 8/ 17 | 7/ 17 | 7/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Hiver | Retell AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | 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. | ProOur pick $55/user/mo billed yearly, or $65 monthly Support teams that need targets and connected tools. | Enterprise Custom High call volumes and compliance needs. | |
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. | ||
| 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 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 | Hiver | Retell AI |
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Pros and cons
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Freshdesk | Hiver | Retell AI |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Freshdesk, Hiver or Retell AI?
Retell AI scores highest overall in our ratings (Freshdesk 3.8/5, Hiver 3.9/5 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. Hiver is best for running support@ or info@ as a team and assigning and tracking customer emails. Retell AI is best for AI receptionist for a small business and booking appointments by phone.
Which is cheaper, Freshdesk, Hiver or Retell AI?
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. Retell AI: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at About $0.07–$0.31/min.
Which is easier to use, Freshdesk, Hiver or Retell AI?
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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