# miniDesk.ai

> Email, chat, web forms, AI replies: one desk. Set it up in minutes. Everything is included, and the free plan ships with the same features as the paid ones.

A small helpdesk with AI built in. Built for teams who would rather build than triage. Made by MP Enterprise (SIREN 838786085), registered in France. Now in open beta.

## What it is

miniDesk is helpdesk software for small teams. It takes customer questions from a shared email inbox, an embeddable chat widget, hosted web forms and a REST API, answers most of them with AI drawn from your own documents and past tickets, and hands the rest to a human with a draft attached. There is also an MCP server, so an AI client such as Claude or ChatGPT can work the inbox directly.

Pricing is per workspace per month, not per seat. Every feature is on every plan, including the free one; plans differ only in conversation quota, seat count and whether the widget carries our branding.

## Why teams choose it over Intercom, Zendesk, Crisp and Freshchat

- **AI is not billed per answer.** Intercom charges for each conversation its AI resolves, Freshchat for each block of AI sessions, and Crisp draws credits for every conversation its agent handles. On miniDesk the AI is inside the conversation quota you already bought, on every plan including the free one. The table below carries each vendor's own published rate.
- **Nothing is gated behind a higher tier.** Agent seats, chat widget, email inbox, hosted forms, AI knowledge base, help centre, agent copilot, API quota and MCP server are on the free plan and on every paid plan.
- **Seats are never a line item.** Adding a teammate does not change the bill.
- **The monthly number is knowable in advance.** No credit pools, no resolution counters, no overage.

## What each helpdesk includes, and how it charges for the rest

| Feature | miniDesk | Intercom | Zendesk | Crisp | Freshchat |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AI auto reply | Every plan, including Free | $0.99 per outcome | Usage-priced, rate not published | From Mini, $45 | $49 per 100 sessions |
| AI Knowledge base | Every plan, including Free | Every plan | Every Suite plan | Essentials and up, $95 | Paid plans |
| AI copilot | Every plan, including Free | $29 an agent annual, $35 monthly | $50 per agent a month | Essentials and up | $29 an agent annual, Pro and up |
| REST API and MCP server | Every plan, no call quota | API, MCP not published by plan | API, plus an MCP client | Yes, capped at 10,000 calls | API, MCP in early access |
| Everything included in the price? | Yes | No (reporting, SLAs, routing) | No (add-ons and metered usage) | No (knowledge base, ticketing) | No (copilot, Pro and up) |
| Billing model | Flat plan, per workspace | Per seat, plus AI usage | Per agent, plus add-ons and AI usage | Flat per workspace, plus AI credits | Per agent, plus AI sessions |
| Adding a teammate | Included, up to your plan seats | From $29 a seat, billed yearly | From $19 an agent, billed yearly | Seats by tier, $10 on Plus | From $19 an agent, annual |
| Can you predict the invoice? | Yes | No, but you can set a hard cap | No, AI overage bills monthly | Yes, unless you turn on pay-as-you-go | No, sessions bill in blocks |

## Plans

Per workspace, per month, in USD. The cost per conversation is the plan price divided by its included conversations, which is the only way to read five different billing shapes against each other.

| Plan | Price per month | Conversations per month | Seats | Cost per conversation |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | 50 | 2 | $0.000 |
| Starter | $49 | 500 | 5 | $0.098 |
| Growth | $129 | 3,000 | 15 | $0.043 |
| Scale | $399 | 12,000 | 50 | $0.033 |

Now in open beta: paid plans are visible and not yet purchasable.

## The same month, three real teams

Each team is sized to one of our quotas, so the miniDesk figure is the actual price of that plan. Every rival is priced on the cheapest plan that fits the seats and includes an AI agent answering customers, billed annually.

### Startup: 5 seats, 500 conversations a month

- **miniDesk Starter: $49 a month, $0.098 per conversation.** Every feature included, AI usage inside the plan quota, billed per workspace. No per-seat charge and no per-resolution charge.
- Crisp: about $95 a month, $0.190 per conversation, +94% against miniDesk. Priced as Crisp Essentials at $95 a month with $25 of AI credits included, then $0.05 for each of the 500 conversations Hugo handles, which is Crisp's own estimate taken at the bottom of its published $0.05 to $0.10 band. List prices as published in August 2026; check https://crisp.chat/en/pricing/ before deciding.
- Freshchat: about $340 a month, $0.680 per conversation, +595% against miniDesk. Priced as Freshchat Growth at $19 a seat annual for 5 seats, plus $49 per 100 AI sessions, where a session is any interaction at all and not only a resolved one. List prices as published in August 2026; check https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/pricing/ before deciding.
- Intercom: about $393 a month, $0.786 per conversation, +700% against miniDesk. Priced as Intercom Essential at $29 a seat annual for 5 seats, plus $0.99 for each conversation Fin resolves, assuming it resolves 50% of them because Intercom does not charge for the ones it hands to your team. List prices as published in August 2026; check https://www.intercom.com/pricing before deciding.

Crisp is the closest, and only because Essentials bundles ten seats into one flat price.

### Growing team: 8 seats, 3,000 conversations a month

- **miniDesk Growth: $129 a month, $0.043 per conversation.** Every feature included, AI usage inside the plan quota, billed per workspace. No per-seat charge and no per-resolution charge.
- Crisp: about $220 a month, $0.073 per conversation, +71% against miniDesk. Priced as Crisp Essentials at $95 a month with $25 of AI credits included, then $0.05 for each of the 3,000 conversations Hugo handles, which is Crisp's own estimate taken at the bottom of its published $0.05 to $0.10 band. List prices as published in August 2026; check https://crisp.chat/en/pricing/ before deciding.
- Freshchat: about $1,622 a month, $0.541 per conversation, +1,160% against miniDesk. Priced as Freshchat Growth at $19 a seat annual for 8 seats, plus $49 per 100 AI sessions, where a session is any interaction at all and not only a resolved one. List prices as published in August 2026; check https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/pricing/ before deciding.
- Intercom: about $1,717 a month, $0.572 per conversation, +1,230% against miniDesk. Priced as Intercom Essential at $29 a seat annual for 8 seats, plus $0.99 for each conversation Fin resolves, assuming it resolves 50% of them because Intercom does not charge for the ones it hands to your team. List prices as published in August 2026; check https://www.intercom.com/pricing before deciding.

Per-seat and per-resolution billing stack up here. Ours stays put.

### Large support team: 25 seats, 12,000 conversations a month

- **miniDesk Scale: $399 a month, $0.033 per conversation.** Every feature included, AI usage inside the plan quota, billed per workspace. No per-seat charge and no per-resolution charge.
- Crisp: about $870 a month, $0.073 per conversation, +120% against miniDesk. Priced as Crisp Plus at $295 a month with $75 of AI credits included, plus $50 for agents beyond 20, then $0.05 for each of the 12,000 conversations Hugo handles, which is Crisp's own estimate taken at the bottom of its published $0.05 to $0.10 band. List prices as published in August 2026; check https://crisp.chat/en/pricing/ before deciding.
- Freshchat: about $6,355 a month, $0.530 per conversation, +1,490% against miniDesk. Priced as Freshchat Growth at $19 a seat annual for 25 seats, plus $49 per 100 AI sessions, where a session is any interaction at all and not only a resolved one. List prices as published in August 2026; check https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/pricing/ before deciding.
- Intercom: about $6,665 a month, $0.555 per conversation, +1,570% against miniDesk. Priced as Intercom Essential at $29 a seat annual for 25 seats, plus $0.99 for each conversation Fin resolves, assuming it resolves 50% of them because Intercom does not charge for the ones it hands to your team. List prices as published in August 2026; check https://www.intercom.com/pricing before deciding.

Crisp remains closest, and its AI credits grow with every conversation. Ours are already paid for.

## How these figures were built

Each vendor's own published list prices, August 2026, in USD, on annual billing, on the cheapest plan that fits the seats and includes an AI agent. Intercom bills only when its AI resolves, so these assume it resolves half of them; Crisp and Freshchat bill for all of them, and Crisp is costed at the bottom of its own $0.05 to $0.10 band. Check their pricing pages before you decide.

Zendesk is in the feature table above and costed in none of the scenarios: it publishes no per-resolution rate on any public page, and in May 2026 it replaced that billing model with resolution tiers. Without the tier mix there is no honest total to print, and an estimate would be a number nobody can check.

## Pages

- [Home](https://minidesk.ai/): what miniDesk is, how it is set up, and what it costs.
- [Pricing](https://minidesk.ai/en/pricing/): every plan, the full feature matrix, and the comparison above with its sources.
- [Documentation](https://docs.minidesk.ai): REST API reference, MCP server and its tools, chat widget install, email and form setup.
- [Privacy notice](https://minidesk.ai/en/privacy/): what is collected, where it is stored, and the sub-processors.
- [Terms](https://minidesk.ai/en/terms/): the contract.

## Contact

- Support: hello@minidesk.ai
- Sales: sales@minidesk.ai
- Dashboard: https://app.minidesk.ai