A realistic guide to Freshdesk chat support in 2025

On paper, Freshdesk looks like the perfect all-in-one platform for customer service. But when you get into the weeds with its chat and AI tools, things can get... complicated. Many teams sign up expecting a smooth experience, only to find themselves wrestling with clunky features, a buggy setup, and a surprisingly high bill once all the add-ons are tallied up.

This guide is an honest look at what you can expect from Freshdesk chat support. We'll walk through its features, break down the pricing, and cover the common headaches you might run into. More importantly, we’ll show you a better way to automate your support without having to tear out the helpdesk you’re already using.

What exactly is Freshdesk chat support?

Let's clear one thing up first: "Freshdesk chat support" isn't actually one single tool. It’s a few different products from the Freshworks ecosystem that are bundled together. The setup usually involves connecting Freshdesk, the main ticketing system, with Freshchat, their separate tool for messaging and chatbots.

Most businesses end up on a plan called Freshdesk Omni, which combines these two. The goal is to give your agents a single hub to manage conversations coming from email, live chat, social media, and the phone.

The main pieces of the Freshdesk chat support puzzle

• Freshdesk: This is your home base. It's the helpdesk software where your team tracks and manages customer emails and other requests as tickets.

• Freshchat: This is what powers any real-time conversation. It adds the live chat widget to your site, connects with apps like WhatsApp, and houses the AI chatbot features.

• Freshdesk Omni: Think of this as the combo meal. It bundles Freshdesk, Freshchat, and Freshcaller (for phone support) into one package. It's the go-to for teams wanting that all-in-one, omnichannel setup.

A look at the core Freshdesk chat support features

Freshdesk's feature list looks impressive. It promises to help you scale your support, but let's see how that actually plays out for most teams.

Freshdesk chat support: One inbox for everything (in theory)

The biggest draw is the unified inbox that pulls all your customer conversations into one dashboard. This means agents aren't constantly switching tabs to reply to an email, then a chat, then a social media DM. Sounds great, right?

In reality, many users find the interface clunky and unintuitive. The mobile app gets a lot of flak for being unreliable, which pretty much kills any chance of your team offering support when they're away from their desks.

Freddy AI: The built-in Freshdesk chat support chatbot

Freddy AI is Freshworks' native AI, designed to handle self-service, answer common questions, and assist agents. Unfortunately, this is another area where the promise doesn't quite match the reality.

• A rocky start: The setup process can be a nightmare. Users frequently report running into non-clickable buttons and a confusing interface that makes it tough to even get started with a trial.

• Painful to train: Training the bot is a slow, manual process. You pour in hours of work, and the results are often inconsistent. Some users have even reported having their accounts shut down after spending days trying to get their bot trained.

• A limited worldview: Freddy AI mostly learns from the knowledge base articles you build inside Freshworks. This is a huge drawback if you have years of valuable knowledge stored in other places.

A screenshot of a user interacting with the Freddy AI Copilot to get information from the knowledge base. This illustrates a key feature of the Freshdesk chat support AI.

The tricky Freshdesk chat support pricing and plans

This is where things can get messy. Freshdesk has tiered plans, but the real cost is often hiding in the AI add-ons. It's easy to get surprised by fees that weren't obvious when you first signed up.

Here’s a quick overview of the Freshdesk Omni plans, which are the ones you'll need for chat support.

The real sting comes from the AI add-ons. The Freddy AI Agent, the bot that actually talks to your customers, is priced per "session." This makes your monthly bill completely unpredictable. A busy week or an unexpected surge in questions could easily lead to a much bigger invoice than you budgeted for.

This model is a world away from platforms like eesel AI, which has clear, predictable pricing. With eesel AI, plans are based on a set number of AI interactions, and you're never charged per resolution. It means you can automate more conversations and scale your support without worrying about surprise charges.

Common limitations of Freshdesk chat support

While Freshdesk is a well-known name, its chat and AI tools come with some significant limitations that cause real headaches for support teams. Here are the most common issues we hear about from users.

A clunky, frustrating Freshdesk chat support setup

We're two days into the trial and I can't even set up a chatbot because the website just stops working. Doesn't freeze, just nothing is clickable all of a sudden. Their own demo chatbot even has broken elements. There are demo inquiries I can't delete, can't connect it to our IG DMs for some reason, the website completely breaks on mobile, and I'm just annoyed.

Reddit

Getting started with Freshdesk often feels like a chore. Users describe the interface as buggy, sometimes with broken buttons and glitches showing up even in Freshdesk's own product demos. This awkwardness extends to the mobile app, which users say is so prone to breaking that it's nearly impossible to manage support on the go. For a tool meant to make life easier, this is a major miss.

The Freshdesk chat support AI feels half-baked

The native Freddy AI often feels like an afterthought. It takes a ton of manual effort to train, and even then, its performance is a toss-up. There’s no good way to test how the bot will behave on past tickets before you unleash it on your customers. You basically have to build it, cross your fingers, and hope for the best, which is a stressful and inefficient way to operate.

In contrast, eesel AI has a powerful simulation mode that lets you test your AI on thousands of your past tickets. You can see its exact resolution rate and spot knowledge gaps before a single customer ever interacts with it. This allows you to roll out automation with confidence, one step at a time.

A screenshot of the eesel AI simulation feature, a powerful tool for testing your Freshdesk chat support automation before it goes live.

Slow (or silent) support from Freshdesk

This might be the most ironic problem of all. When something goes wrong with the platform, getting help from Freshdesk can be incredibly difficult. Users talk about opening support tickets that sit unanswered for weeks, leaving them stranded with a broken system. For a company that sells customer service software, this is a pretty big red flag.

This video walks through the various ways you can try to get in touch with Freshdesk support when you run into issues.

A smarter way forward: Augmenting your Freshdesk chat support

So, what's the solution? It isn't necessarily to ditch Freshdesk, especially if your team has already built its workflows around the ticketing system. A much better approach is to plug in a specialized, third-party AI platform that integrates with the tools you already have.

This is what a lot of smart teams are doing now. Instead of getting stuck with a limited native AI, they add a tool like eesel AI for Freshdesk. eesel AI is designed to be completely self-serve, so you can get it up and running in minutes. It connects to your Freshdesk account and unifies all your knowledge, from past tickets and help center articles to your internal docs in Confluence or Google Docs, to give customers instant, accurate answers.

This infographic shows how eesel AI connects various knowledge sources to enhance your Freshdesk chat support.

Here’s how the two stack up:

Move beyond the built-in Freshdesk chat support limits

Look, the idea behind Freshdesk chat support is a good one: everything in one place. But in practice, the execution often leaves teams dealing with clunky tools, an unreliable AI, and a support team that’s hard to reach. Instead of settling for a solution that’s just "good enough," you can give your team a best-in-class AI layer that works with the tools you already rely on.

Ready to see what your support workflows are truly capable of? Start your free trial of eesel AI and find out how easy it is to deliver instant, accurate support.