FreshdeskHubSpot Service HubFreshdesk vs HubSpot Service Hub

Freshdesk vs HubSpot Service Hub: $200 apart for five people

A help desk against a CRM-based help desk: HubSpot Service Hub is $200 a month cheaper for five people. What decides between Freshdesk and HubSpot Service Hub, and a third option for small teams.

By Khalid Nouri, founder of SellioPricing check dates are listed with each vendor below

Try the third optionSellio pricing

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The short answer

Pick Freshdesk if your support is email tickets first and you want SLAs, time tracking and field service in one help desk. Pick HubSpot Service Hub if your sales and marketing already live in HubSpot and support should share the CRM. For five people, HubSpot Service Hub is $200 a month cheaper than Freshdesk ($275 a month on Freshdesk against $75 on HubSpot Service Hub), before AI. Sellio Mini is $45, $30 under HubSpot Service Hub. Freshdesk and HubSpot Service Hub both include email in the price; only HubSpot Service Hub has website chat. Neither Freshdesk nor HubSpot Service Hub includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. A team of two to ten choosing between Freshdesk and HubSpot Service Hub for chat and tickets at one price has a third option below.

At a glanceFreshdeskFreshdeskHubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub
Built aroundEmail tickets · chat is the separate FreshchatThe CRM record · help desk on top of HubSpot
Entry plan$19/agent/mo · Growth: email and tickets$15/seat/mo · Starter, yearly
Chat in the price$55/agent/mo · Pro, with Freshchat on top$0 · Free tools: chat with HubSpot branding
AI agent$49 per 100 sessions · 500 trial sessions once per account$9 per 1,000 credits · 50 credits per resolution
Copilot for agents$29/agent/mo · Freddy CopilotBreeze · in the plans
Free planNone · 14-day trialYes · 2 users, branded chat

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

    As a ticket in an email queue. Chat conversations live in Freshchat and become tickets when escalated. HubSpot Service Hub raises tickets too, from the CRM record.

    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub

    As a ticket on the CRM contact, with every marketing and sales touch beside it. Freshdesk raises tickets too, from email tickets.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

    $19 buys email tickets on Growth. Chat and messaging mean adding Freshchat or an Omni bundle. $275 for five people, against $75 on HubSpot Service Hub.

    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub

    Starter is $15 a seat; Professional is $90 with a $1,500 onboarding fee, and that is where routing and SLAs start. $75 for five people, against $275 on Freshdesk.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

    Freddy AI Agent: 500 trial sessions once per account, then $49 per 100. Freddy Copilot is $29 per agent on top. HubSpot Service Hub meters AI ($9 per 1,000 credits) above the seats as well.

    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub

    Customer Agent costs 50 credits per resolved conversation, and credits are $9 per 1,000, so about $0.45 a resolution. Freshdesk meters AI ($49 per 100 sessions) above the seats as well.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

    Email and web forms on every plan; chat, WhatsApp and Instagram arrive with Freshchat. HubSpot Service Hub adds website chat, which Freshdesk lacks.

    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub

    Chat, email and Messenger on the lower plans; WhatsApp and calling on Professional; no Telegram. website chat is here and not on Freshdesk.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

    Field service, time tracking, SLAs and a marketplace; the wider Freshworks suite for IT and sales. HubSpot Service Hub is a CRM-based help desk instead.

    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub

    The rest of HubSpot: marketing, sales, CMS and the shared CRM. Freshdesk is a help desk instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

    A day or two: connect the support address, set groups and SLAs, then add Freshchat for the widget. HubSpot Service Hub is an afternoon on Starter.

    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub

    An afternoon on Starter; Professional comes with a paid onboarding. Freshdesk is a day or two.

Sources: Freshdesk pricing · HubSpot Service Hub pricing. Each vendor’s own comparison of the other is linked so you can weigh both sides against ours.

What each one looks like

A look at the agent workspace. Interfaces can vary by plan and product version.

The Freshdesk ticket view: the queue on the left, the ticket thread and the properties panel
FreshdeskFreshdesk. The Freshdesk ticket view: the queue on the left, the ticket thread and the properties panel
The HubSpot help desk workspace: the ticket with the CRM contact and its timeline
HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub. The HubSpot help desk workspace: the ticket with the CRM contact and its timeline

What your team would pay

Move the sliders. Yearly-billing rates from each vendor’s pricing page, next to Sellio’s plan for the same number of seats.

5 people who answer customers

50

300 AI agent sessions on Freshdesk, resolved conversations on HubSpot Service Hub

3000+
FreshdeskFreshdesk

$422/mo

Custom roles, round robin, more automations and reporting.

5 × $55 seats
$275
300 AI agent sessions × $0.49 (rounded to 100-session packs)
$147
Copilot, 5 × $29
$0

Yearly billing; monthly costs more. 500 trial sessions are available once per account, not every month. Recurring estimates exclude that trial and charge $49 per 100-session pack. Rates recorded on 2026-09-06.

HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub

$206/mo

Shared inbox, chat, 500 credits.

5 × $15 seats
$75
290 resolved conversations × $0.45
$131

Yearly billing; monthly costs more. 50 credits per resolution at $9 per 1,000 credits; Starter's 500 credits cover about ten. Rates recorded on 2026-09-13.

Sellio · Mini

$55/mo

One price for the workspace: 3 channels, 2 AI agents, $5 AI credit a month.

Workspace, 5 of 5 seats
$45
AI past 100 included conversations
$10
Copilot for agents
Included

About $0.05 per AI conversation past the credit, with a daily and monthly cap you set. Yearly billing takes 20% off. See every plan.

Pricing references: Freshdesk pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06); HubSpot Service Hub pricing page (recorded 2026-09-13). Calculator uses yearly-billing rates. Prices change; confirm current terms with each vendor.

5 people, website chat plus 2 more channels, 2 AI agents: $45 a month. Start free, no card.

Start freeSee every plan

Freshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub and Sellio, side by side

Fifteen things a support team checks. A dash means the product does part of it or charges extra for it.

FeatureFreshdeskFreshdeskHubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service HubSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Per agent; AI per agent and per session
Per seat; onboarding fees; AI by credits
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
Not on the pricing page; 14-day trial
2 users, HubSpot branding
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

Website live chat
Via Freshchat or Omni
All plans
One script tag; guides for HTML, React, Next.js and more
Email in the inbox
Core of the product
All plans
From Mini: forward your support address; reply from the thread
WhatsApp
Via Freshchat or Omni
Professional and up
From Mini: WhatsApp Business API, several agents on one number
Instagram DMs
Via Freshchat or Omni
Messenger only
From Mini: Instagram DMs beside web chat
Telegram
Not native
Not offered
From Mini: paste a bot token; the webhook is set for you
Slack, Discord, Teams (two-way)
Slack and Teams notifications
Slack and Teams notifications
From Mini: two-way threads; a reply there reaches the customer

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
Freddy, trained on the knowledge base
Customer Agent
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
500 one-time trial sessions, then $49 per 100
50 credits per resolution, $9 per 1,000
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Escalates to agents
Creates a ticket
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

Tickets
Ticket-first
On the CRM record
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Automations, form-based
Professional and up
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Reports and CSAT
Reports; advanced on Professional
From Essentials: response times, resolution, CSAT; topics and email reports on Plus

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Browser and mobile only
Browser and mobile
Native Windows and macOS apps

Which one, for whom

Pick Freshdesk if

  • Your support is email tickets first and you want SLAs, time tracking and field service in one help desk.
  • You are already on Freshworks products and want the same admin and billing.
  • Time to the first reply is a day or two here and an afternoon on Starter on HubSpot Service Hub.
  • Its pricing model suits you better than HubSpot Service Hub's: per agent per month, billed yearly. Day passes for occasional agents.

Pick HubSpot Service Hub if

  • Your sales and marketing already live in HubSpot and support should share the CRM.
  • You want an AI agent priced per resolution at under a dollar.
  • Five people cost $200 a month less than on Freshdesk ($75 against $275), before AI.
  • You need website chat in the price, which Freshdesk does not include outright.

The third option: Sellio

  • Two to ten of you answer chat, messaging and email. Compare Sellio's workspace plans with $275 a month on Freshdesk against $75 on HubSpot Service Hub for five people, including each product's limits.
  • The AI invoice should be known in advance: Freshdesk meters AI ($49 per 100 sessions) above the seats and HubSpot Service Hub meters AI ($9 per 1,000 credits) above the seats, where Sellio's credit is included and capped by you.
  • You need Telegram and native Windows and macOS apps, which neither Freshdesk nor HubSpot Service Hub includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

Freshdesk on Pro: $110, $275 and $550 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. HubSpot Service Hub on Starter: $30, $75 and $150 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $230 less than Freshdesk and $30 less than HubSpot Service Hub for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $455 under Freshdesk and $55 under HubSpot Service Hub.

Where the two agree, and where they split

Freshdesk is a help desk built around email tickets; HubSpot Service Hub is a CRM-based help desk built around the CRM record. Only HubSpot Service Hub has a free plan (2 users, branded chat); Freshdesk offers 14 days of Enterprise. Freshdesk and HubSpot Service Hub both include email in the price; only HubSpot Service Hub has website chat. Neither Freshdesk nor HubSpot Service Hub includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. Freshdesk ($49 per 100 sessions) and HubSpot Service Hub ($9 per 1,000 credits) both meter AI above the seats. Freshdesk and HubSpot Service Hub both raise tickets, and neither Freshdesk nor HubSpot Service Hub ships a desktop app. Freshdesk is a day or two; HubSpot Service Hub is an afternoon on Starter.

What each price leaves out

Freshdesk: Freddy AI Copilot $29 per agent per month yearly; 500 AI agent trial sessions once per account, then $49 per 100 sessions. HubSpot Service Hub: HubSpot Credits at $9 per 1,000; Customer Agent uses 50 credits per resolved conversation. Beside Freshdesk's $49 per 100 sessions and HubSpot Service Hub's $9 per 1,000 credits, Sellio includes an AI credit with each paid plan. Usage consumes that credit; additional credits cost extra, and you can set a spending cap.

How to decide in an afternoon

  1. Step 1

    Count agents and channels

    Anyone who replies is a seat. List the channels customers actually use.

    5 people reply5 seats
    Website chat61%
    WhatsApp27%
    Email12%
  2. Step 2

    Price the AI you would use

    Estimate monthly conversations the AI could close, then apply each vendor's per-resolution or per-session rate.

    1,200 conversations × 40% AI closes480
    FreshdeskFreshdesk$0.49$245
    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub$0.45$212
    Sellio$0.05$19

    Illustrative AI-only estimate; vendor units differ. Pack billing is rounded up. Sellio assumes Mini’s $5 credit and $0.05 per conversation.

  3. Step 3

    Trial the shortlist

    Check each vendor’s trial, free plan or demo terms. Where access is available, test one real channel before committing.

    FreshdeskFreshdesk · 14 days of Enterprise
    HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub · Free tools, no trial clock
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

    Confirm trial access and limits, then evaluate one real channel on each.

Continue your research

FAQ

Freshdesk vs HubSpot Service Hub: the questions people ask

Freshdesk is a help desk built around email tickets; HubSpot Service Hub is a CRM-based help desk built around the CRM record. Freshdesk and HubSpot Service Hub both raise tickets, and neither Freshdesk nor HubSpot Service Hub ships a desktop app.

  • Entry plan: Freshdesk $19/agent/mo (Growth: email and tickets); HubSpot Service Hub $15/seat/mo (Starter, yearly).
  • Chat in the price: Freshdesk $55/agent/mo (Pro, with Freshchat on top); HubSpot Service Hub $0 (Free tools: chat with HubSpot branding).
  • Sellio puts every channel in one inbox: WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, which neither Freshdesk nor HubSpot Service Hub has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the Freshdesk and HubSpot Service Hub rows is on the shared inbox page.

Still have a question? Contact us or browse the docs.

Or the third option: one price, every channel.

Sellio puts website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and email in one inbox with tickets and an AI agent, for $45 to $295 a month per workspace.

Get startedRead the docs

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