tawk.toFreshdesktawk.to vs Freshdesk

tawk.to vs Freshdesk: free live chat or help desk

A free live chat against a help desk: tawk.to is $217 a month cheaper for five people. Where tawk.to 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 tawk.to if budget is zero and you can live with the tawk.to branding or pay $29 to remove it. 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, tawk.to is $217 a month cheaper than Freshdesk ($58 or more a month on tawk.to against $275 on Freshdesk), before AI. Sellio Mini, at $45, comes in $13 below tawk.to. tawk.to and Freshdesk share no channel in the base price; only tawk.to has website chat; only Freshdesk has email. Neither tawk.to nor Freshdesk includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. For a team of two to ten weighing tawk.to against Freshdesk, the third option below puts chat and tickets at one workspace price.

At a glancetawk.totawk.toFreshdeskFreshdesk
Built aroundFree chat for unlimited agents · paid add-ons per featureEmail tickets · chat is the separate Freshchat
Entry plan$0 · unlimited agents$19/agent/mo · Growth: email and tickets
Chat in the price$0 · $29/mo to remove branding$55/agent/mo · Pro, with Freshchat on top
AI agentAI Assist from $29/mo · small free tier$49 per 100 sessions · 500 trial sessions once per account
Copilot for agentsIn AI Assist$29/agent/mo · Freddy Copilot
Free planYes · the core product is freeNone · 14-day trial

The six differences that decide it

Everything else on this page follows from these.

  1. 01

    Where a conversation starts

    tawk.totawk.to

    As a chat in the free dashboard; tickets are emails converted into a simple queue. Freshdesk raises a ticket where tawk.to keeps a conversation.

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

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

  2. 02

    What the seat buys

    tawk.totawk.to

    Seats are free and unlimited. The money goes on add-ons: branding removal, AI Assist, video, hired agents. $58 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 $58 on tawk.to.

  3. 03

    How the AI is billed

    tawk.totawk.to

    AI Assist from $29 a month with a small free tier; it drafts and answers from your knowledge base. Freshdesk meters AI ($49 per 100 sessions) above the seats as well.

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

    Freddy AI Agent: 500 trial sessions once per account, then $49 per 100. Freddy Copilot is $29 per agent on top. tawk.to meters AI (AI Assist from $29/mo) above the seats as well.

  4. 04

    Channels in the price

    tawk.totawk.to

    Website chat and email tickets; no native WhatsApp, Instagram or Telegram. website chat is here and not on Freshdesk.

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

    Email and web forms on every plan; chat, WhatsApp and Instagram arrive with Freshchat. email is here and not on tawk.to.

  5. 05

    Beyond the inbox

    tawk.totawk.to

    A knowledge base, a CRM, and human agents for hire at $1 an hour. Freshdesk is a help desk instead.

    FreshdeskFreshdesk

    Field service, time tracking, SLAs and a marketplace; the wider Freshworks suite for IT and sales. tawk.to is a free live chat instead.

  6. 06

    Time to the first reply

    tawk.totawk.to

    Minutes: paste the widget and start chatting. 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. tawk.to is minutes.

Sources: tawk.to 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 tawk.to dashboard: the visitor list, the chat and the ticket queue
tawk.totawk.to. The tawk.to dashboard: the visitor list, the chat and the ticket queue
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

Pricing references: tawk.to pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06); Freshdesk pricing page (recorded 2026-09-06). Prices change; confirm current terms with each vendor.

tawk.to, 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.

Featuretawk.totawk.toFreshdeskFreshdeskSellio

Pricing

Pricing model
Free chat; add-ons per feature.
Per agent; AI per agent and per session
Per workspace; seats and channels are plan limits
Free plan
Unlimited agents.
Not on the pricing page; 14-day trial
2 seats, 1 channel, 1 AI agent, no trial clock

Channels

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

AI

AI agent trained on your docs
AI Assist from $29/mo, trained on the knowledge base.
Freddy, trained on the knowledge base
Crawl your site, upload PDFs and FAQs; answers only from those
How AI is billed
Add-on subscription.
500 one-time trial sessions, then $49 per 100
Metered from an included credit, with caps you set
AI hands off to a person
Hands to agents.
Escalates to agents
On low confidence, a keyword, or a teammate taking over

Support operations

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

Apps

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

Which one, for whom

Pick tawk.to if

  • Budget is zero and you can live with the tawk.to branding or pay $29 to remove it.
  • You want to hire human chat agents by the hour.
  • Five people cost $217 a month less than on Freshdesk ($58 against $275), before AI.
  • You need website chat in the price, which Freshdesk does not include outright.

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 email in the price, which tawk.to does not include outright.
  • You need a ticket queue, which tawk.to does not have.

The third option: Sellio

  • Your team is two to ten people on chat, messaging and email. Weigh workspace pricing against $58 or more a month on tawk.to against $275 on Freshdesk for five people; the billing units and included features differ.
  • You want a ceiling on AI spend: tawk.to meters AI (AI Assist from $29/mo) above the seats, Freshdesk meters AI ($49 per 100 sessions) above the seats, and Sellio stops at the cap you set.
  • You need Telegram and WhatsApp in the base price, which neither tawk.to nor Freshdesk includes.

What two, five and ten people pay

tawk.to: $58+ a month for five ($0 for chat, $29 to remove branding, $29+ for AI Assist); it does not print a per-seat rate to extend to two or ten. 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, $13 less than tawk.to and $230 less than Freshdesk 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

tawk.to is a free live chat built around free chat for unlimited agents; Freshdesk is a help desk built around email tickets. Only tawk.to has a free plan (the core product is free); Freshdesk offers 14 days of Enterprise. tawk.to and Freshdesk share no channel in the base price; only tawk.to has website chat; only Freshdesk has email. Neither tawk.to nor Freshdesk includes WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram outright. tawk.to (AI Assist from $29/mo) and Freshdesk ($49 per 100 sessions) both meter AI above the seats. Freshdesk has tickets and tawk.to does not, and only tawk.to ships desktop apps. tawk.to is minutes; Freshdesk is a day or two.

What each price leaves out

tawk.to: AI Assist from $29 a month, with a small free tier. Freshdesk: Freddy AI Copilot $29 per agent per month yearly; 500 AI agent trial sessions once per account, then $49 per 100 sessions. Beside tawk.to's AI Assist from $29/mo 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 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
    tawk.totawk.toSee vendorNot quoted
    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.

    tawk.totawk.to · Not applicable; the core is free
    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

tawk.to vs Freshdesk: the questions people ask

tawk.to is a free live chat built around free chat for unlimited agents; Freshdesk is a help desk built around email tickets. Freshdesk has tickets and tawk.to does not, and only tawk.to ships desktop apps.

  • Entry plan: tawk.to $0 (unlimited agents); Freshdesk $19/agent/mo (Growth: email and tickets).
  • Chat in the price: tawk.to $0 ($29/mo to remove branding); Freshdesk $55/agent/mo (Pro, with Freshchat on top).
  • Sellio puts every channel in one inbox: WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, which neither tawk.to nor Freshdesk has outright, plus the rest of the five, on every paid plan.

Sellio's side of the tawk.to and Freshdesk 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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