In short
- Freshdesk's pricing page listed no free plan on 20 October 2026, with paid plans from $19 per agent per month billed annually.
- Kommio has no tiers: SLA policies, skills-based assignment, field masking and the audit trail are on every workspace.
- Freshdesk covers more social and messaging networks; Kommio covers nine channels.
- A Freshdesk importer is planned; today contacts move by CSV and history through the API.
What Freshdesk costs, and what Kommio costs
Freshdesk is priced per agent per month: Growth $19, Pro $55 and Enterprise $89, billed annually. No free plan was listed, only a 14-day trial of Enterprise and 500 free Freddy AI Agent sessions per account. (Freshdesk's pricing page, checked 20 October 2026.)
Kommio Cloud is free: no seat pricing, no plan tiers, every feature and every channel, under the fair-use limits. The limits enforced today are request rates (600 API requests a minute per key) and file rules (25 MB per attachment); the published reference levels, such as 50,000 new conversations a month or 20 GB of files per workspace, are where Kommio would talk to you, not cut you off. Sign-up is self-serve at app.kommio.io.
Where Freshdesk is stronger
- A familiar ticket workflow that is quick to set up, with groups, SLAs and canned responses.
- Wide channel coverage, including social networks and messaging apps Kommio does not connect.
- Freddy AI across the product, and the wider Freshworks suite next to it.
Where Kommio is different
One price for every feature: free
On Freshdesk, features such as skill-based routing or advanced roles sit in higher per-agent tiers. On Kommio Cloud every workspace gets everything: SLA policies, assignment by skills and load, custom roles, field masking, the audit trail and the Reports API.
Conversation-first, with ticket states underneath
Agents work at chat speed in one list across channels, while statuses with categories, priorities, business hours with holidays and SLA clocks keep the process a ticket desk needs.
Nine channels in one inbox
Email (Microsoft 365, Google or IMAP), website chat, WhatsApp Business Cloud API, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, SMS through your Twilio account, Slack Connect channels and API inboxes.
An API contract you can build on
A committed OpenAPI 3.1 contract, idempotent writes, a generated TypeScript client, signed webhooks with replay, and data connectors that pull Stripe, Shopify or HubSpot data into the conversation.
Choose Freshdesk when
- You want a classic ticket desk with many social channels and the Freshworks suite around it.
- You need channels Kommio does not connect.
- Per-agent pricing is fine for your team size.
Choose Kommio when
- You want the higher-tier features without paying per agent for them.
- Your customers write on WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack or SMS as well as email and chat.
- You need strict control over which agent sees which customer field.
Kommio and Freshdesk, feature by feature
Checked against Freshdesk's public documentation and pricing page on 20 October 2026; Freshdesk is a trademark of its owner and Kommio is not affiliated with it. Plans change, so check their site before you decide, and tell [email protected] if a mark is out of date.
| Feature | Kommio | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| Core | ||
| Conversation model | One conversation model with data-driven statuses (chat speed plus ticket states) | Tickets |
| Channels | ||
| Shared email inboxKommio: IMAP and SMTP, or Microsoft 365 and Google sign-in | ✓ | ✓ |
| Website live chat | ✓ | ✓ |
| WhatsAppKommio: your number on the WhatsApp Business Cloud API, through your own Meta app | ✓ | ✓ |
| Messenger, Instagram, TelegramKommio: Messenger and Instagram through your own Meta app, Telegram through a bot; Slack channels shared with business customers too | ✓ | ✓ |
| Two-way SMSKommio: through your own Twilio account, with MMS and STOP opt-outs | ✓ | ◐ |
| Deployment | ||
| Self-hosted option | ✓ | — |
| Choice of data regionKommio: cloud region or your own infrastructure | ✓ | ◐ |
| Access control | ||
| Custom roles and permissions | ✓ | ◐ |
| Conversation visibility by team, inbox or assignment | ✓ | ✓ |
| Per-role field masking (show, mask or hide an email, phone or payment field)Kommio: also on custom attributes you tag as ID, payment or other personal data | ✓ | — |
| Audit trail with before and after values | ✓ | ◐ |
| Productivity | ||
| Automation rules and macros | ✓ | ✓ |
| SLA policies and business hoursKommio: first-response and resolution targets by inbox and priority, wall clock or business hours with holidays, attainment in reports and a breach trigger | ✓ | ✓ |
| Visual chatbot flow builder with hand-off to a personKommio: several bots and flows per inbox, in order, with conditions | ✓ | ◐ |
| Full-text search across every message | ✓ | ✓ |
| Knowledge | ||
| AI reply suggestions and summaries for agentsKommio: on your own Anthropic or OpenAI-compatible key | ✓ | ✓ |
| Help center and knowledge baseKommio: versioned articles in your languages, public or internal, and a Help tab in the chat | ✓ | ✓ |
| Developers | ||
| No-code data pulls from your own systems into the conversationKommio: data connectors with recipes for Stripe, Shopify and HubSpot | ✓ | ◐ |
| Public REST API and webhooks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Versioned OpenAPI contract with a generated client | ✓ | ◐ |
| Plugins or apps inside the agent screen | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reporting | ||
| Reporting with medians and p90Kommio: backlog, SLA attainment, staffing and channel mix too, with saved views, CSV and Excel exports and a Reports API for BI tools | ✓ | ✓ |
| Customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys with reportsKommio: by agent, team, inbox, tag and channel, with the responses and comments behind every number | ✓ | ✓ |
| Branding | ||
| Brand theming by tokens across the chat widget and the agent app | ✓ | ◐ |
✓ Included◐ Partial, add-on or higher plans— Not offered◷ On the Kommio roadmap
What Kommio does not do yet
- No Freshdesk importer yet: it is planned together with the Help Scout importer.
- Fewer channels than Freshdesk: no voice, no LINE, and SMS through Twilio only (Vonage and Infobip are planned).
- Meta and Slack channels are verified live as workspaces connect their own apps.
- No native mobile app; the agent app works in the phone's browser with a mobile layout.
Moving from Freshdesk to Kommio today
A Freshdesk importer is planned and not built yet. A move today:
- Contacts by CSV. Export contacts from Freshdesk and upload the CSV in Contacts › Import (comma, semicolon or tab separated, up to 100 MB). A preview of the first 1,000 rows shows new, updated, skipped and failing rows before anything is written.
- Groups to teams. Recreate Freshdesk groups as Kommio teams with auto-assignment, capacity per agent and skills, and SLA policies per inbox and priority.
- History through the API. Write past tickets as conversations through the REST API, or ask [email protected] for help planning it.
Automation, macros and assignment in the developer center
Frequently asked questions
Does Freshdesk still have a free plan?
Freshdesk's pricing page listed no free plan when we checked on 20 October 2026, only a 14-day trial; paid plans started at $19 per agent per month billed annually. Check their site for the current offer.
What are the limits of Kommio's free plan?
There is one plan and it is free. Enforced today: 25 MB per attachment and request rates (600 API requests a minute per key, 3,000 per workspace). Reference levels such as 50,000 new conversations a month are where Kommio would contact you, not caps.
Can I import from Freshdesk?
Not with a one-click importer yet; a Freshdesk importer is planned. Contacts come in by CSV and history through the API today.
Does Kommio have skill-based routing?
Yes, on every workspace: assignment per team or per inbox, round robin or balanced by load, with skills and per-agent capacity, and offline agents' waiting conversations queued or reassigned.
Facts on this page describe Kommio as it is on the date above; anything marked planned is on the roadmap, not shipped. Corrections to [email protected].