FreshdeskRocket.ChatFreshdesk vs Rocket.Chat

Freshdesk vs Rocket.Chat: $275 against $0 a month

A help desk against an open-source team chat with omnichannel: Rocket.Chat is $275 a month cheaper for five people. The six differences, what five people pay on each, and a third option.

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 Rocket.Chat if you need on-premise or sovereign hosting for both team chat and customer chat. For five people, Rocket.Chat is $275 a month cheaper than Freshdesk ($275 a month on Freshdesk against $0 on Rocket.Chat), before AI. Sellio Mini is $45, which only Rocket.Chat's figure comes under. Freshdesk and Rocket.Chat both include email in the price; only Rocket.Chat has website chat. Neither Freshdesk nor Rocket.Chat includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. Below, a third option for a team of two to ten that wants what Freshdesk and Rocket.Chat sell here at one price.

At a glanceFreshdeskFreshdeskRocket.ChatRocket.Chat
Built aroundEmail tickets · chat is the separate FreshchatTeam chat you can self-host · customer channels bolted on
Entry plan$19/agent/mo · Growth: email and ticketsFree · Starter, self-managed
Chat in the price$55/agent/mo · Pro, with Freshchat on topQuote · Pro and Enterprise
AI agent$49 per 100 sessions · 500 trial sessions once per accountAdd-on · quoted
Copilot for agents$29/agent/mo · Freddy CopilotAdd-on
Free planNone · 14-day trialYes · Starter for small teams

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. Rocket.Chat has no ticket queue behind its conversations.

    Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat

    As a livechat room inside the same server your team chats on, routed to an agent department. Freshdesk raises a ticket where Rocket.Chat keeps a conversation.

  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 $0 on Rocket.Chat.

    Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat

    Starter is free and self-managed for small teams; Pro and Enterprise are quoted per user. $0 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. Rocket.Chat meters AI (add-on) above the seats as well.

    Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat

    AI is an add-on priced in the quote; self-hosters can wire their own models. 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. Rocket.Chat adds website chat, which Freshdesk lacks.

    Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat

    Livechat widget, email inbox, WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and Messenger through apps. 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. Rocket.Chat is an open-source team chat with omnichannel instead.

    Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat

    The team chat itself, with federation, sovereignty options and on-premise deployment. 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. Rocket.Chat is a day or more to deploy the server.

    Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat

    A day or more to deploy the server; hours for the livechat widget once it runs. Freshdesk is a day or two.

Sources: Freshdesk pricing · Rocket.Chat 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 Rocket.Chat omnichannel view: a livechat room beside the team's channels
Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat. The Rocket.Chat omnichannel view: a livechat room beside the team's channels

Pricing references: Freshdesk pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06); Rocket.Chat pricing page (recorded 2026-09-13; needs verification). Prices change; confirm current terms with each vendor.

Freshdesk, Rocket.Chat 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.

FeatureFreshdeskFreshdeskRocket.ChatRocket.ChatSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Per agent; AI per agent and per session
Free Starter; quote above
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
Not on the pricing page; 14-day trial
Starter, self-managed
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

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

AI

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

Support operations

Tickets
Ticket-first
Rooms, not tickets
On Plus: raise from any chat; customer, back-office and tracker
Visual workflow automation
Automations, form-based
Routing and triggers
From Mini: 11 triggers, 18 actions, no code
Analytics and CSAT
Reports and CSAT
Omnichannel reports
From Essentials: response times, resolution, CSAT; topics and email reports on Plus

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Browser and mobile only
Desktop apps
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.
  • You need a ticket queue, which Rocket.Chat does not have.
  • Time to the first reply is a day or two here and a day or more to deploy the server on Rocket.Chat.

Pick Rocket.Chat if

  • You need on-premise or sovereign hosting for both team chat and customer chat.
  • Your team already chats on Rocket.Chat and support should live there.
  • Five people cost $275 a month less than on Freshdesk ($0 against $275), before AI.
  • You need website chat in the price, which Freshdesk does not include outright.

The third option: Sellio

  • You are two to ten people on Freshdesk or Rocket.Chat who answer chat, messaging and email, and want to compare workspace pricing with $275 a month on Freshdesk against $0 on Rocket.Chat for five people.
  • You want the AI bill known before the month starts: Freshdesk meters AI ($49 per 100 sessions) above the seats, Rocket.Chat meters AI (add-on) above the seats; Sellio includes a credit and lets you cap it.
  • You need Telegram and WhatsApp in the base price, which neither Freshdesk nor Rocket.Chat 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. Rocket.Chat: $0 a month for five (free, self-managed); it does not print a per-seat rate to extend to two or ten. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $230 less than Freshdesk and more than Rocket.Chat's $0 for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $455 under Freshdesk.

Where the two agree, and where they split

Freshdesk is a help desk built around email tickets; Rocket.Chat is an open-source team chat with omnichannel built around team chat you can self-host. Only Rocket.Chat has a free plan (Starter for small teams); Freshdesk offers 14 days of Enterprise. Freshdesk and Rocket.Chat both include email in the price; only Rocket.Chat has website chat. Neither Freshdesk nor Rocket.Chat includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. Freshdesk ($49 per 100 sessions) and Rocket.Chat (add-on) both meter AI above the seats. Freshdesk has tickets and Rocket.Chat does not, and only Rocket.Chat ships desktop apps. Freshdesk is a day or two; Rocket.Chat is a day or more to deploy the server.

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. Rocket.Chat: AI add-on, quoted. Beside Freshdesk's $49 per 100 sessions and Rocket.Chat's add-on, 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 these figures were read

Rocket.Chat does not print the figures above in a form a fetch can read (Starter is free; Pro and Enterprise are quoted. Older summaries put Pro near $4 per user.), so they are marked unverified here beside Freshdesk's, and Rocket.Chat's pricing page should be checked before you decide.

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
    Rocket.ChatRocket.ChatSee vendorNot quoted
    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
    Rocket.ChatRocket.Chat · Starter is free; trials on request
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

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

Continue your research

FAQ

Freshdesk vs Rocket.Chat: the questions people ask

Freshdesk is a help desk built around email tickets; Rocket.Chat is an open-source team chat with omnichannel built around team chat you can self-host. Freshdesk has tickets and Rocket.Chat does not, and only Rocket.Chat ships desktop apps.

  • Entry plan: Freshdesk $19/agent/mo (Growth: email and tickets); Rocket.Chat Free (Starter, self-managed).
  • Chat in the price: Freshdesk $55/agent/mo (Pro, with Freshchat on top); Rocket.Chat Quote (Pro and Enterprise).
  • Sellio: WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, which neither Freshdesk nor Rocket.Chat has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the Freshdesk and Rocket.Chat 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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