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Is Freshdesk free? What it actually costs in 2026

The short answer

Freshdesk's pricing page lists no free plan: Growth is $19 an agent a month billed annually, Pro $55, Enterprise $89, and the way in is a 14-day trial of Enterprise.

Every listed plan is per agent, billed annually. The trial gives Enterprise for 14 days, then you pick a plan and pay by card or the account is suspended. Freddy AI Agent gets 500 free sessions once per account; after that it is $49 per 100 sessions.

What the free tier actually includes

  • No $0 plan on the pricing page
  • 14-day trial of Enterprise, card to continue
  • AI Agent: 500 free sessions once, then $49 per 100; Copilot $29 an agent a month

Where the wall is

Day fifteen, and then the add-ons. Base seats are the visible number; Freddy AI Copilot ($29 an agent), day passes ($2–12) and connector tasks ($80 per 5,000) are the bill's second half.

After that: Growth $19 per agent a month billed annually; Pro $55; Enterprise $89. Freddy AI Copilot $29 per agent a month; additional AI Agent sessions $49 per 100.

Can you self-host Freshdesk? No — cloud only

Freshdesk is hosted only. Zammad, Chatwoot and FreeScout are the self-hosted helpdesks compared here — no per-agent seat at all.

What it actually takes to run one yourself

Real RAM against the documented minimum, monthly cost, setup time, and the one thing that catches people out.

Self-hosting Zammad

needs 16 GB for a single-server install. The vendor's floor is 6 GB for Zammad plus 4 GB for Elasticsearch, and the usual VPS size above that is 16 GB. You can fit it on 8 GB by capping the Elasticsearch heap, which Zammad itself calls a less-than-ideal fix. (docs say 6 GB, plus 4 GB more if Elasticsearch runs on the same server. The Docker Compose guide asks for at least 4 GB just to start the containers.)$48–96/mo for a 10-agent instance on a 16 GB VPS with Elasticsearch on the same box; $24–48/mo on 8 GB with a capped Elasticsearch heap

Self-hosting Chatwoot

needs 4 GB plus 1 GB of swap is enough for a small team. Sidekiq alone can use more than 1 GB on a busy server, and 8 GB is the vendor's figure for 20,000 conversations a day. (docs say 4 GB (the vendor minimum, sized for up to 10,000 conversations a day), plus at least 1 GB of swap so upgrades do not run out of memory)$24–48/mo for a 10-agent instance on a 4–8 GB VPS (Chatwoot asks for 4 cores, which most hosts only sell with 8 GB), plus object storage if attachments move off the box

Self-hosting FreeScout

needs 1–2 GB. The vendor says the cheapest VPS works; 2 GB gives MySQL and the queue worker room as mailboxes and history grow. (docs say not stated by the vendor. Its wiki says there are no minimum requirements and that the cheapest $5/mo server, including an EC2 t2.nano with 512 MB, is enough. Cloudron runs it under its default 256 MB app limit, with MySQL as a separate service.)$5–12/mo for a 5-agent instance on a 1–2 GB VPS, plus one-time paid modules if you need features like workflows, tags or a knowledge base

Self-hosting UVdesk

needs 4 GB. That is the vendor's own floor, and there is no lighter documented setup. (docs say 4 GB (vendor README and system-requirements page))$12–24/mo for a 5-agent instance on a 4 GB VPS

When paying is still the right call

If your team is already relying on Freddy AI Copilot's reply-drafting and summarization inside daily workflows, needs Freshdesk Omni's unified channel routing across email/chat/phone/social, or you're a small team that genuinely fits inside the 1-2 agent free window while you evaluate options, Freshdesk remains a solid, well-supported choice — its admin UI and onboarding are still easier for a non-technical team than standing up and maintaining a self-hosted system.

What you are locked into

Tickets, contacts, and knowledge-base content live in Freshworks' cloud; CSV and API export exist but there's no one-click path to a self-hosted platform, and automations (scenario rules, dispatch'r, business rules) are Freshdesk-specific and need to be rebuilt elsewhere. Email-based systems like FreeScout tend to migrate the most directly since the underlying model (shared mailbox → conversation) is the same shape.

If you would rather not pay: Zammad

90

Zammad

A full-featured, AGPL-licensed help desk with ticketing, a knowledge base, and multi-channel inboxes.

Free to self-host with unlimited agents; optional managed cloud plans start around €19/agent/month and Zammad also sells paid support contracts for self-hosted installs.

See all 4 Freshdesk alternatives compared

Compare the free options head-to-head

Zammad vs FreeScout→Zammad vs Chatwoot→Zammad vs UVdesk→

Read from Freshworks Inc.'s own pricing and documentation on 2026-09-26 — 4 days ago. Vendors change prices without notice; confirm before you commit.

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