The Freshchat alternative that does not sell AI by the block
Freshchat is free for up to ten agents, making it the most generous free tier on this site. Once you want their AI responding, the structure shifts: Growth seats plus Freddy AI Agent at $49 per 100 sessions, where a session is any interaction rather than a resolved one. miniDesk is a single fixed cost per workspace with AI already bundled.
- Free plan, no card
- AI on every plan
- One flat price per workspace
TL;DR
Begin with the element that settles it for many teams: Freshchat is free for up to ten agents, and if you want a shared inbox with no AI, accept it. We cannot beat free and will not attempt to. The comparison begins when you want the AI. Freddy AI Agent starts on Growth, $23 an agent monthly, and meters at $49 per 100 sessions, which is $0.49 a session where a session is "any unique interaction between an end-user and an AI agent" and not merely one it resolved. Sessions are sold in blocks of a hundred and expire with your billing cycle. A copilot for your own agents is absent from Growth entirely: it is $29 a seat on Pro and above. Ours is flat per workspace with AI and copilot on every plan, free one included.
Ten agents free is a superior free tier to ours, and we will not pretend otherwise
Freshchat's free plan admits up to ten agents. Ours admits one. If your requirement is a shared inbox that a whole compact team can access without a card, theirs is the straightforward answer and nothing below this point on the page alters that. What the free tier excludes is Freddy AI Agent, so nothing on it responds to a customer for you. That is the dividing line the comparison rests on: their free plan outperforms ours at equipping a team with an inbox, and ours outperforms theirs at responding to customers, because our free plan runs AI on 75 conversations monthly sourced from your own documents. Also worth noting: Freshchat is one product in a suite. If you want ticketing plus chat together, Freshworks sells Freshdesk Omni and that is a separate page with separate pricing from what this comparison is based on.
The full comparison
Arranged in four groups, following the sequence a buyer follows. Capabilities come before costs, because cheaper than what is the first question a pricing comparison must settle.
Channels
Live chat widget on your site
- miniDesk
- Included
- Freshchat
- Included
Shared email inbox
- miniDesk
- Included
- Freshchat
- Included
Web form, separate from the chat widget
- miniDesk
- Included
- Freshchat
- Not available
AI
AI that answers customers on its own
- miniDesk
- Included
- Freshchat
- Included
Answers drawn from your own documents
- miniDesk
- Included
- Freshchat
- Included
Agent-assist copilot in the inbox
- miniDesk
- Included
- Freshchat
- Included, on a higher planhigher plan
Developer
REST API
- miniDesk
- Included
- Freshchat
- Included
MCP server, published and supported
- miniDesk
- Included
- Freshchat
- Not available
What the price covers
The AI costs nothing beyond the plan price
- miniDesk
- Included
- Freshchat
- Included, then billed by usebilled by use
A free plan with the AI on it
- miniDesk
- Included
- Freshchat
- Not available
Unlimited free conversations
- miniDesk
- Included
- Freshchat
- Included
Adding a teammate costs nothing
- miniDesk
- Included
- Freshchat
- Not available
Checked against each vendor's own published documentation, September 2026.
What you actually pay at scale
Three actual teams, priced from each vendor's own published page. Freshchat is quoted on Growth, the cheapest tier carrying Freddy AI Agent, plus $49 for every 100 AI sessions at their own printed rate. Their first 500 sessions are free once per account rather than monthly, so a first month lands $245 under these figures and no month after does. Drag the sliders to plug in your own figures.
Your numbers
miniDesk Starter, one flat price per workspace, sized by the 375 AI conversations you set above. Freshchat is priced on the cheapest tier that fits these seats and has an AI agent answering customers, at their month-to-month rate wherever they publish one, because we sell no annual plan to hold an annual rate against. Freshchat is cheaper on a yearly commitment, so this is the dearer of their two rates and the only one comparable to ours.
Three real teams
Startup
5 seats, 375 AI conversations a month
- miniDesk Starter, all in
- $39
- Freshchat
- ~$299
- +665%
Growing team
8 seats, 2,250 AI conversations a month
- miniDesk Growth, all in
- $99
- Freshchat
- ~$1,287
- +1,200%
Large support team
25 seats, 12,000 AI conversations a month
- miniDesk Scale, all in
- $349
- Freshchat
- ~$6,455
- +1,750%
Each vendor's own list prices, September 2026, in USD, on the cheapest plan that fits the seats and includes an AI agent. Monthly rates where published, so no annual discount. Volumes count the conversations the AI handles. Freshchat bills every session, AI or not, so their figure is understated. Check their pricing pages before you decide.
Which one should you actually buy?
You want a shared inbox for up to ten people with no AI
Freshchat is free for ten agents and we are one. No math on this page beats that. Accept their free tier, and return if the day comes when you want something responding to customers while nobody monitors the inbox.
Pick Freshchat
You are already within the Freshworks suite
If your team runs Freshdesk, Freshsales, or Freshservice, Freshchat sits alongside them with one login and one invoice, and their AI spans the suite. We are a support inbox with AI and an API, and we do not integrate with any of that. Remaining in one suite saves real admin time, and that is a legitimate reason to pick theirs.
Pick Freshchat
The AI is handling meaningful volume
Freddy charges $0.49 a session and a session is any interaction, so a customer who poses a question the AI cannot resolve costs the same as one it does. Eight agents on 2,250 AI conversations monthly is $1,287 on Growth versus $99 on ours, and ours does not fluctuate if the AI has a busy month. That gap is not a discount, it is two distinct billing units.
Pick miniDesk
You want a copilot assisting your own agents
Freddy AI Copilot is $29 an agent monthly on top of the seat, and it begins on Pro rather than Growth, so an agent with a copilot is $59 plus $29 monthly before a single AI session is charged. Ours is on every plan including the free one, at no additional cost, and so is the MCP server that lets Claude or Cursor operate the inbox directly. Freshchat publishes an API and no MCP server.
Pick miniDesk
Questions, answered honestly
Other comparisons we have written
One price. All of customer support.
Start free, no card. When you upgrade, every feature is included, rather than a starting point with a list of add-ons to buy.