HiverFreshdeskHiver vs Freshdesk

Hiver vs Freshdesk: five seats for $125 or $275

A Gmail-based shared inbox against a help desk: Hiver is $150 a month cheaper for five people. Where Hiver and Freshdesk split, 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 Hiver if your agents live in Gmail or Outlook and you do not want them to learn a new tool. Pick Freshdesk if your support is email tickets first and you want SLAs, time tracking and field service in one help desk. For five people, Hiver is $150 a month cheaper than Freshdesk ($125 a month on Hiver against $275 on Freshdesk), before AI. Sellio Mini, at $45, comes in $80 below Hiver. Hiver and Freshdesk both include email in the price. Neither Hiver nor Freshdesk includes website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. For a team of two to ten weighing Hiver against Freshdesk, the third option below puts chat and tickets at one workspace price.

At a glanceHiverHiverFreshdeskFreshdesk
Built aroundGmail and Outlook · nothing new to learnEmail tickets · chat is the separate Freshchat
Entry plan$25/user/mo · Growth, yearly$19/agent/mo · Growth: email and tickets
Chat in the price$45/user/mo · Pro adds live chat$55/agent/mo · Pro, with Freshchat on top
AI agentHarvey AI · features by plan, no per-use price$49 per 100 sessions · 500 trial sessions once per account
Copilot for agentsBy plan · Harvey$29/agent/mo · Freddy Copilot
Free planYes · core shared inboxNone · 14-day trial

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    HiverHiver

    As an email in a Gmail or Outlook inbox with Hiver's assignment, status and notes layered on it. Freshdesk raises a ticket where Hiver keeps a conversation.

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

    As a ticket in an email queue. Chat conversations live in Freshchat and become tickets when escalated. Hiver has no ticket queue behind its conversations.

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    HiverHiver

    $25 buys the shared inbox on Growth; seats come in packs of 2, 5 and 10, so a sixth user means buying ten. $125 for five people, against $275 on Freshdesk.

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

    $19 buys email tickets on Growth. Chat and messaging mean adding Freshchat or an Omni bundle. $275 for five people, against $125 on Hiver.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    HiverHiver

    Harvey AI features are tied to the plan you are on rather than metered per conversation. Freshdesk meters AI ($49 per 100 sessions) above the seats instead.

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

    Freddy AI Agent: 500 trial sessions once per account, then $49 per 100. Freddy Copilot is $29 per agent on top. Hiver folds AI (Harvey AI) into the plan instead.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    HiverHiver

    Email first; live chat and WhatsApp on the higher plans, no Instagram or Telegram. The same set as Freshdesk.

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

    Email and web forms on every plan; chat, WhatsApp and Instagram arrive with Freshchat. The same set as Hiver.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    HiverHiver

    SLAs, CSAT and analytics on top of the mailbox; strong for finance and operations teams. Freshdesk is a help desk instead.

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

    Field service, time tracking, SLAs and a marketplace; the wider Freshworks suite for IT and sales. Hiver is a Gmail-based shared inbox instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    HiverHiver

    An hour: install the Gmail extension and share the inbox. Freshdesk is a day or two.

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

    A day or two: connect the support address, set groups and SLAs, then add Freshchat for the widget. Hiver is an hour.

Sources: Hiver pricing · Freshdesk 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 Hiver sidebar inside Gmail: assignment, status and notes beside the email
HiverHiver. The Hiver sidebar inside Gmail: assignment, status and notes beside the email
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

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 conversations on Hiver, AI agent sessions on Freshdesk

3000+
HiverHiver

$125/mo

Shared inbox, assignment, notes.

5 × $25 seats
$125
300 AI conversations × $0
$0

Yearly billing; monthly costs more. Hiver ties Harvey AI to the plan rather than metering it; no per-conversation rate is printed. Rates recorded on 2026-09-06.

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.

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: Hiver pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06; needs verification); Freshdesk pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06). 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

Hiver, Freshdesk 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.

FeatureHiverHiverFreshdeskFreshdeskSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Per user, sold in seat packs.
Per agent; AI per agent and per session
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
Core shared inbox features.
Not on the pricing page; 14-day trial
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

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

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
Harvey AI assists agents; limited autonomous answering.
Freddy, trained on the knowledge base
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
By plan.
500 one-time trial sessions, then $49 per 100
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Not applicable to an assist model.
Escalates to agents
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

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

Apps

Desktop app (Windows, macOS)
Runs inside Gmail and Outlook.
Browser and mobile only
Native Windows and macOS apps

Which one, for whom

Pick Hiver if

  • Your agents live in Gmail or Outlook and you do not want them to learn a new tool.
  • Email is nearly the whole job and you need SLAs and analytics on it.
  • Five people cost $150 a month less than on Freshdesk ($125 against $275), before AI.
  • You want a free plan to start on; Freshdesk offers 14 days of Enterprise.

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 Hiver does not have.
  • Time to the first reply is a day or two here and an hour on Hiver.

The third option: Sellio

  • Your team is two to ten people on chat, messaging and email. Weigh workspace pricing against $125 a month on Hiver against $275 on Freshdesk for five people; the billing units and included features differ.
  • You want a ceiling on AI spend: Hiver folds AI (Harvey AI) into the plan, Freshdesk meters AI ($49 per 100 sessions) above the seats, and Sellio stops at the cap you set.
  • You need Telegram and native Windows and macOS apps, which neither Hiver nor Freshdesk includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

Hiver on Growth: $50, $125 and $250 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. Freshdesk on Pro: $110, $275 and $550 a month for two, five and ten people, before AI. Sellio: Free for two seats; Mini at $45 for five, $80 less than Hiver and $230 less than Freshdesk for five people; Essentials at $95 for ten, the AI credit included. At ten people, Essentials at $95 is $155 under Hiver and $455 under Freshdesk.

Where the two agree, and where they split

Hiver is a Gmail-based shared inbox built around Gmail and Outlook; Freshdesk is a help desk built around email tickets. Only Hiver has a free plan (core shared inbox); Freshdesk offers 14 days of Enterprise. Hiver and Freshdesk both include email in the price. Neither Hiver nor Freshdesk includes website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. Hiver folds AI (Harvey AI) into the plan; Freshdesk meters AI ($49 per 100 sessions) above the seats. Freshdesk has tickets and Hiver does not, and neither Hiver nor Freshdesk ships a desktop app. Hiver is an hour; Freshdesk is a day or two.

What each price leaves out

Hiver: Harvey AI features by plan. Freshdesk: Freddy AI Copilot $29 per agent per month yearly; 500 AI agent trial sessions once per account, then $49 per 100 sessions. Beside Hiver's Harvey AI and Freshdesk's $49 per 100 sessions, 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

Hiver does not print the figures above in a form a fetch can read (Per user per month with yearly and monthly rates and seat packs (2, 5, 10 and so on). Hiver renders its table in the browser; figures confirmed from published summaries.), so they are marked unverified here beside Freshdesk's, and Hiver'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
    HiverHiverAssumed $0$0
    FreshdeskFreshdesk$0.49$245
    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.

    HiverHiver · Free trial offered
    FreshdeskFreshdesk · 14 days of Enterprise
    Sellio · Free plan, no card

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

Continue your research

FAQ

Hiver vs Freshdesk: the questions people ask

Hiver is a Gmail-based shared inbox built around Gmail and Outlook; Freshdesk is a help desk built around email tickets. Freshdesk has tickets and Hiver does not, and neither Hiver nor Freshdesk ships a desktop app.

  • Entry plan: Hiver $25/user/mo (Growth, yearly); Freshdesk $19/agent/mo (Growth: email and tickets).
  • Chat in the price: Hiver $45/user/mo (Pro adds live chat); Freshdesk $55/agent/mo (Pro, with Freshchat on top).
  • Sellio's inbox: website chat, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, which neither Hiver nor Freshdesk has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

The shared inbox page puts Sellio beside Hiver and Freshdesk on the same rows.

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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