Freshdesk Contact Center is a cloud private branch exchange (PBX) system for voice-based customer service. Key features combine call management, advanced routing, and queue management. In this Freshdesk Contact Center review, it scored high on pricing, general features, and ease of use. With its free version and low-cost monthly plans starting at only $18 per user, this provider is worth considering if you manage a small call center operation on a budget.
Freshdesk Contact Center Review: At a Glance
What We Liked
- Free incoming call minutes
- Free basic call center plan
- Extensive call management system
- Low-cost paid plans
What’s Missing
- Lacks unlimited calls in the U.S. and Canada
- Limited integrations
- Contact center plan is simply a PBX system; its omnichannel offering is a separate package
- After free minutes are used, incoming calls will incur extra fees
- Low-cost call center solution: Freshdesk is one of our best call center systems due to its free-forever plan and a low-cost monthly starting fee of $18 per user. The Enterprise monthly plan is $83 per user, which is still considerably cheaper as most competitors charge over $100 per user for their highest-level tiers.
- Voice-based contact center: Freshdesk is a telephony-first customer support platform for call center operations that mainly handle phone interactions. Purchase virtual phone numbers, set up call handling, monitor live calls, and automate outbound calls. This puts Freshdesk as our top call center monitoring software.
- Customer relationship management (CRM) call center: Most contact center providers unlock CRM integrations in higher-plan tiers. With Freshdesk, all paid plans come with Freshsales CRM software and other popular CRM platforms like Pipedrive, HubSpot, and Salesforce.
- Omnichannel contact center solution: While Freshdesk offers omnichannel support, users will need to upgrade to the Omnichannel Suite. However, the number of digital channels supported is not as extensive. Consider RingCentral Contact Center, which supports voice, email, chat, and over 30 digital channels.
- Boost agent efficiency and productivity: If you’re managing large agent teams, Genesys Cloud CX has workforce engagement management (WEM) software for elevating agent experiences. Features include employee performance management, workforce forecasting, and gamification.
- Strict security measures for protecting confidential data: If your customers frequently involve sensitive data, 8×8 Contact Center is a good alternative. It conforms to various security protocols and compliance certifications for securing networks, client privacy, and financial data.
Visit Freshdesk Contact Center
Freshdesk Contact Center Deciding Factors
Freshdesk Contact Center is a virtual PBX with call center features and CRM integrations. With its low-cost plans, this provider offers a balance between affordability and functionality. It works like a business phone system but is designed for large call volumes through features like call management, queue management, agent productivity, advanced routing, and call monitoring.
Best For | Call centers on a budget handling high call volumes |
Standout Features |
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Pricing Plans |
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Annual or Volume Discounts Available | Annual discounts are available |
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Freshdesk Contact Center Alternatives
Freshdesk Contact Center has a few missing features that make it less ideal for companies with complex customer support requirements. These include omnichannel capabilities, workforce management, and knowledge base. Below we listed our recommended Freshdesk Contact Center alternatives based on different business needs.
Best For | Omnichannel contact center | Handling confidential customer data | Advanced call routing options |
Monthly Starting Price (per User) | Contact the sales team for a quote | $85 | |
Learn More |
Looking for other options? Check out our list of the best cloud phone systems for small businesses to determine which products are worth considering and align with your needs.
Freshdesk Contact Center pricing nearly earned a perfect score given its several cost-saving opportunities. It’s one of the few providers offering a free trial of up to 21 days and a free plan with basic call center features. The monthly starting price can be as low as $15 per user if subscribed annually. Each plan comes fully packed with voice calling and reporting features, giving you excellent value for your money.
Freshdesk Contact Center Plans | Free | Growth | Pro | Enterprise |
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Best For | Solopreneurs with basic call center needs | Startups with low call volumes | Small to midsize businesses with high call volumes | Companies needing advanced routing and automation tools |
Monthly Pricing ($/User/Month) | Free | $18 | $47 | $83 |
Annual Pricing ($/User/Month) | Free | $15 | $39 | $69 |
Free Incoming Minutes (Mins/Month) | ✕ | 2,000 | 3,000 | 5,000 |
Unlimited Concurrent Calls | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Call Queues | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Phone Trees | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Call Monitoring | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Custom Reports | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
CRM Integrations | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Freshdesk Omnichannel Pricing
Besides its contact center plans, Freshdesk has an omnichannel offering. Added features include ticketing, digital channel support, agent collaboration, community forums, customer portal, and help widget. Prices range from $29 to $99 per agent, monthly, when billed annually.
Despite its cheap pricing, Freshdesk doesn’t disappoint, as it includes up to 70 features for managing inbound calls to your business. Virtual phone number options include local (up to 50 countries), toll-free, and vanity. Paid plans include free incoming minutes, and a flat rate of 1.3 cents applies once you consume the free minutes in a month. All paid users have access to complete call management, business hours, basic call queues, voicemail, and call recording.
Here are other features included on all paid plans from Freshdesk Contact Center:
- Number porting
- Voicemail transcription
- Wait queues
- Hold music
- Call masking
- Queue transfer
- Team routing
- Call summary report
- Forward to phone
- Click-to-call extension
Freshdesk call center received a fairly low score for this category because it doesn’t have the high-level features offered by an omnichannel contact center. These include workforce management, workflow automation, self-service, and agent collaboration tools. However, we gave extra points for its advanced routing options and a virtual assistant called Voicebot, which answers the most frequently asked questions.
Click on each feature below for more advanced Freshdesk Contact Center capabilities:
Freshdesk Contact Center has advanced routing capabilities to ensure calls are directed to the right agents or departments in the shortest possible time. Routing automation redirects callers based on inputs from third-party systems like CRM or help desk. For example, when a caller enters their mobile number, the system will check it against your CRM database to identify if they’re a new caller or an existing customer.
Queue-based routing is for creating specialized queues to ensure callers are routed to the right department within your company. Set up fallback options for every scenario and direct callers from one call queue to another. While in the queue, you can announce updates to make the waiting time worthwhile. If there’s a long wait queue, you can enable queue callback to provide callers the option to skip the call queue and request a callback.
Freshdesk’s real-time call center dashboard offers complete visibility into various call statistics, agent statuses, and the number of callers in the queue. Its very own call lifecycle feature captures up to 50 events related to inbound and outbound calls, giving you a deep dive into the caller journey. For tracking the quality of calls, Freshdesk has different methods to monitor agent calls, whether through live call monitoring, call recording, or call barging.
Freshdesk got a near-perfect score as it provides phone, email, and chat for its support channels. Helpful resources include a knowledge base, video library, and community forum. Enroll your agents at the Freshdesk Academy to take training courses and complete certifications to become a Freshdesk product expert. However, we reduced a few points since 24/7 coverage is only available for email, while 24/5 support applies to chat and phone.
Despite the feature-rich functionalities of the Freshdesk call center platform, users won’t get easily overwhelmed navigating its software. We gave it a perfect score because of its user-friendliness on web browsers and mobile apps. It maintains a clean, minimalist interface featuring easy-to-understand buttons and a very organized user dashboard. Apart from its quick setup process, it offers onboarding resources to help you get started immediately.
Based on our expert evaluation, we gave Freshdesk Contact Center a rating of 4.38 because of its intuitive interface, rich call management capabilities, and low-cost plans. It was short of a few points because it mainly functions as a virtual PBX and lacks the advanced tools most competing contact center providers offer, such as omnichannel support, workforce management, and artificial intelligence (AI) features.
At the time of publication, Freshdesk Contact Center earned the following scores on these review sites:
- G2: 4.1 out of 5 based on 134 reviews
- GetApp: 4 out of 5 based on 34 reviews
- TrustRadius: 7.9 out of 10 based on 25 reviews
How We Evaluated Freshdesk Contact Center
For our Freshdesk Contact Center review, we used product information, expert analysis, and a structured approach to help you decide if it’s the best contact center platform for your business. We explored the entire Freshdesk platform and checked the personal experiences of its users from legitimate review websites. Click on the tabs below to see how we came up with our unbiased ratings:
15% of Overall Score
For the Freshdesk pricing, we checked if it has a free version, a lengthy free trial, and discounts for pre-annual billing and volume purchases. We gave extra points if the entry-level plan costs $70 or less and there are more than three pricing options.
25% of Overall Score
We checked the most in-demand features users look for in a contact center solution, such as automatic call distribution, call monitoring, and call activity analytics. For omnichannel support, we considered the number of channels available.
20% of Overall Score
We looked for high-level features to see the additional value users get by purchasing any Freshdesk Contact Center plan. These features include a virtual assistant, workforce management, and outbound dialers. We gave extra points for integrations with popular CRM systems.
10% of Overall Score
We evaluated the provider’s quality of customer service performance by checking the hours and days it is available. 24/7 coverage is equivalent to extra points. We checked the availability of support channels, including phone, live chat, email, community forum, and help desk.
10% of Overall Score
We evaluated Freshdesk’s user experience based on its usability and the time and technical skill required to set up and navigate its software. We used its desktop and mobile app and investigated the firsthand experience of recent users.
20% of Overall Score
To arrive at our unbiased scoring, we analyzed how this provider stacks up against leading contact center providers. We also examined the most recent Freshdesk Contact Center reviews to see what customers say about its performance, feature set, and customer service.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes. Freshdesk Contact Center follows various data security and privacy practices and works with Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its secure hosting partner. It has a robust data security system, including a virtual private cloud, encryption, malware protection, role-based access controls, and perimeter security.
Freshdesk Contact Center qualifies as a cloud-based PBX with voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) capabilities. However, it supports a handful of call center features for handling call volumes, including queue callback, interactive voice response (IVR), agent extensions, and call barging.
The difference between Freshdesk’s Contact Center and omnichannel plans lies in the type of channel supported and additional features. Freshdesk Contact Center is used for managing large call volumes, while Freshdesk Omnichannel Suite supports a wide range of channels like live chat and social media messaging. In addition, the omnichannel plan has more high-level contact center features, such as AI, workflow automation, and global support.
Bottom Line
In this Freshdesk Contact Center review, it earned an overall rating of 4.22 out of 5 because of its budget-friendly pricing, excellent usability, and extensive call management features. It’s ideal for businesses managing a small call center operation on a budget and needing standard voice features for handling incoming and outgoing calls. Take advantage of its 21-day free trial to see if it suits your call center requirements.