Freshchat

Overview

Freshchat is customer messaging software for businesses that need to manage service conversations across digital channels. It is best suited to teams that want a shared inbox alongside chatbots and integrations; its free plan makes it approachable for small teams, while higher tiers add routing and administrative controls.

Made by Freshworks, founded in 2010 and based in San Mateo, California, Freshchat serves organizations from small businesses to enterprises, including e-commerce, travel and hospitality, and healthcare. For a broader comparison, see our Live chat software list.

Key features

One workspace for customer conversations

Freshchat brings website and mobile-app chat together with email, social messaging, SMS, WhatsApp, LINE, and Google Business Messages. Its unified workspace also supports conversations from Facebook, Instagram, Apple Business Chat, and Slack. That breadth can reduce channel-hopping for teams serving customers in several places; organizations with a less common channel can connect it through APIs.

The Team Inbox lets agents assign conversations individually or in bulk, use saved replies, and assign, respond to, and resolve a conversation in one action. These tools suit a team sharing a queue, though the practical value depends on having enough agent capacity for its volume. Website and mobile chat widgets, a shared inbox, email connection, and roles and permissions are included even on Free.

Automation, language, and integrations

Businesses can build no-code Freddy AI chatbots to answer common questions before an agent is needed. Freshworks says Freddy AI Agent can deflect up to 86% of customer requests, but Growth, Pro, and Enterprise include only 500 AI sessions once per account; additional Growth sessions cost $49 per 100 sessions. That makes the included allowance useful to try automation, not an unlimited operating budget.

Pro adds multilingual conversations that translate incoming and outgoing messages in over 45 languages, plus intelligent routing, custom dashboards, and multiple SLA policies. Those features are more relevant to international or process-heavy teams than to a small support desk with straightforward queues.

Freshchat offers more than 1,000 ready-to-install marketplace integrations, including Shopify, Salesforce, Slack, Jira, and Five9. Connectors, templates, APIs, and a low-code interface support custom integrations and workflow automation. Connector app tasks cost $80/5000 tasks on Growth, Pro, and Enterprise, so automation at scale can add to the subscription price.

Mobile work and security

iOS and Android apps let agents respond, assign, add private notes, resolve chats, and receive push notifications, making mobile coverage more than a read-only option. Security includes encryption in transit and at rest, SAML single sign-on, and JWT authentication. Enterprise adds audit logs and domain or IP allowlisting; those controls matter most to organizations with stricter access requirements.

Pricing

Freshchat has a free tier and three paid plans, with paid prices shown per month when billed annually. The 14-day Enterprise trial requires no credit card. No cancellation fee applies, but cancellation takes effect only after the current term.

Free is a credible starting point for up to 10 agents, but its campaign allowance is 100 contacts per account monthly and the plan lacks the paid tiers' listed social messaging, text messaging, and reporting. Growth is the lowest-cost paid route to those capabilities, but the annual billing term and separate AI and connector charges deserve attention. Pro is aimed at teams that need language translation and more deliberate routing; Enterprise is the clearest fit when access controls and skill-based routing justify the higher annual commitment. Connector app tasks cost $80/5000 tasks on each paid plan.

Platforms

Freshchat supports websites, mobile apps, and messaging channels, with agent apps for iOS and Android and API access for custom channel connections. This suits teams that need both web-based service and mobile response coverage.

Who it's for

Freshchat makes sense for organizations that handle customer conversations across several digital channels and want agents, automation, and integrations in one workflow. Small teams can begin with the 10-agent free plan; larger or more regulated operations have a path to multilingual features, routing, audit logs, and allowlisting. It is less compelling for a team that needs only a basic chat widget or cannot use annual billing for paid plans.

Pros and cons

• Broad channel coverage: Web and mobile chat, email, social messaging, SMS, WhatsApp, LINE, and Google Business Messages reduce the need to split service across separate inboxes.
• Useful free entry point: Up to 10 agents get a shared inbox, chat widgets, email, and permissions without a subscription.
• Clear growth path: Paid tiers add reporting, translation, routing, and enterprise access controls as team needs become more complex.
• Usage costs can accumulate: AI sessions beyond the one-time included allowance, connector tasks, day passes, and Copilot are priced separately.
• Paid plans require annual billing: The monthly figures are tied to annual billing, and cancellation takes effect after the current term.

Alternatives

Zoho SalesIQ is worth considering for a team that can work within its Free plan's 3 operator licenses, 100 chats per month, and 10,000 visitors per month.

Crisp is an option for teams prioritizing unlimited conversations on a free plan, provided two seats and no AI credits are enough.

tawk.to offers a free Hobby plan with 100 monthly message credits, one AI chat agent, and 100 crawled web pages.

JivoChat is an alternative with a free plan for five agents.

Chatwoot is an open-source alternative with a free Hacker plan capped at two agents and 500 conversations per month.

Smartsupp offers a free plan for one operator and 25 conversations per month.

MyLiveChat is another free option, with one agent and three years of chat history on its Free plan.

Verdict

Choose Freshchat if your team needs a shared workspace for customer conversations across multiple channels, with a free 10-agent starting point and room to add routing, translation, and access controls. Look elsewhere if you need paid pricing without an annual term or want to avoid usage-based AI and connector charges.