Freshdesk HubSpot: The complete 2025 integration and comparison guide

Picking a new helpdesk or CRM is a big deal. It’s not just about buying software; it’s a decision that really shapes how you talk to your customers. If you’re reading this, you’re probably stuck between two of the biggest names out there: Freshdesk and HubSpot. On one hand, you have Freshdesk, a tool built from the ground up for customer support. On the other, there’s HubSpot, the all-in-one platform that brings sales, marketing, and service under one roof.

A lot of teams try to get the best of both worlds by using them together. The dream is a perfect flow of information from support agents to sales reps and back again. But in reality, connecting these two can bring a whole new set of problems, from data that doesn’t sync properly to clunky workflows that just leave everyone frustrated.

In this guide, we’ll walk through the real differences between Freshdesk and HubSpot, dig into what it’s actually like to integrate them, and show you a smarter way to bring all your customer knowledge together without the usual headaches.

What is Freshdesk?

Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer support platform that helps businesses manage all their customer conversations. Think of it as a dedicated, specialized helpdesk designed to make support agents’ lives easier and get tickets solved faster.

It’s got a solid ticketing system, lets you talk to customers across email, chat, phone, and social media, and includes a self-service knowledge base. Freshdesk has also built its own AI, called Freddy AI, to handle common questions automatically and give human agents a hand. It’s a go-to choice for teams that want a top-tier tool specifically for their customer service.

What is HubSpot Service Hub?

HubSpot Service Hub is the customer service piece of HubSpot’s much larger CRM platform. Unlike Freshdesk, its main selling point isn’t just being a great helpdesk, but how tightly it connects with HubSpot’s sales and marketing tools.

This setup gives you a single view of a customer’s entire journey, from the first ad they clicked to their most recent support ticket. Service Hub gives you ticketing, a shared inbox, customer surveys, a knowledge base, and its own AI features. It’s really built for businesses that are tired of disconnected data and want one smooth experience across every team that talks to customers.

Core features: A head-to-head Freshdesk HubSpot comparison

While both platforms cover the basics like ticketing and knowledge bases, they go about it in different ways. Here’s a look at how they compare in the areas that matter most.

Ticketing and agent workflow

Freshdesk is all about the ticket. Its whole interface is designed to help agents fly through their queues, with smart features for routing tickets, setting priorities, and automating tasks right out of the box. For a support team that spends all day in a ticketing system, it feels very natural.

HubSpot’s ticketing is no slouch, but it operates inside the world of its CRM. The huge plus here is that every ticket is automatically linked to a detailed customer profile. This means your agents can see a customer's entire history, from sales calls to marketing emails, right alongside their support request. Some dedicated support pros, however, might find the core ticketing tools a bit less specialized than what Freshdesk offers.

Knowledge base and self-service

Both tools let you build a knowledge base so customers can help themselves. Freshdesk gives you a simple way to create and organize help articles and FAQs. HubSpot’s knowledge base is also quite good, with the extra advantage of being tied to its reporting tools. This lets you see exactly which articles are preventing new tickets from being created and how they fit into the bigger customer picture.

The integration challenge

This is where things get tricky. It's common for a business to use HubSpot as their main CRM and then try to plug Freshdesk in for support. Integrations are available, but they often don't work as well as you'd hope.

Here are a few common complaints:

• Incomplete Data Sync: You might find that the integration only pulls over the initial ticket title and description, but not the actual back-and-forth conversation. This leaves your sales and marketing folks guessing about what really happened.

• One-Way or Limited Sync: Some connectors only push data in one direction, which means your systems aren't having a true, two-way conversation in real time.

• Hidden Costs: Be careful with paid apps. For example, the Hubspot CRM Connector app for Freshdesk is a paid add-on that uses up "tasks" for every little thing it syncs, which can lead to some surprisingly high bills.

This struggle is pretty typical for pre-built integrations. They promise to connect everything, but often end up creating more manual work. A different approach is to use a tool that works on top of your existing helpdesk. For instance, eesel AI connects directly to Freshdesk or HubSpot, so you can stick with the workflow your team prefers. It unifies knowledge from all your company's sources (like Google Docs, Confluence, and past tickets) to power a single, smart AI layer. You can get it running in minutes, no massive integration project needed.

Feature	Freshdesk	HubSpot Service Hub
Primary Focus	Dedicated Customer Support	All-in-One CRM Platform
Ticketing System	Highly specialized & agent-focused	Fully integrated with CRM records
Unified Customer View	Requires integration with a CRM	Native (across sales, marketing, service)
AI Capabilities	Freddy AI (often as a paid add-on)	Native HubSpot AI tools
Integration Approach	Large app marketplace	Deep integration within its own ecosystem
Ideal User	Teams needing a best-in-class helpdesk	Teams prioritizing a single source of truth

Comparing native AI: Freddy AI vs. HubSpot AI

Both Freshdesk and HubSpot are pouring resources into AI to help automate support. But their native AI systems are stuck within the "walled gardens" of their own platforms, and that creates some real limits.

Freshdesk's Freddy AI is good at what it does, like automating answers and suggesting replies, but it can only learn from the data inside Freshdesk. HubSpot's AI is the same; it only knows what's inside the HubSpot CRM. This means they can’t see all the useful information your team has stored in other places, like your internal wikis, Google Docs, or Confluence pages where the real answers often live.

This is why a third-party AI tool can make a huge difference. A platform like eesel AI doesn’t box you into one system. Instead, it connects to all your knowledge, wherever it is.

• Your old tickets: It reads through thousands of your past conversations to learn your brand's voice and find proven solutions from day one.

• Your internal docs: It connects to Google Docs, Confluence, Notion, and more, so the AI has the same info your most experienced agents have.

• Your help center: It also learns from your public help articles to keep answers consistent.

Better yet, eesel AI has a powerful simulation mode. This lets you test how it would have answered past tickets before you ever show it to a customer. You can see exactly how it will perform, get a solid forecast of your automation rate, and roll it out with confidence, maybe starting with just a small group of tickets. That kind of risk-free testing and control is something you just don't get with the built-in AI tools.

Pricing explained

Alright, let's talk money. Pricing for both platforms can be a bit of a maze, with different tiers and add-ons to think about. It’s important to look past the starting price and figure out what you’ll actually end up paying.

Freshdesk pricing

Freshdesk has a few plans, including a free one for small teams. Paid plans are billed per agent, per month.

• Free ($0): Basic ticketing and a knowledge base for up to 10 agents.

• Growth ($15/agent/month): Adds automation, collision detection, and custom ticket views.

• Pro ($49/agent/month): Includes custom roles, support for multiple products, and better reporting.

• Enterprise ($79/agent/month): Adds skill-based routing and a sandbox for testing.

Heads up: Many of the key AI features, like the Freddy AI Copilot, are a paid add-on. That’ll set you back another $29/agent/month on the Pro and Enterprise plans.

HubSpot Service Hub pricing

HubSpot also starts with a free tier. Its paid plans come with a set number of "paid seats," and you pay for each additional user.

• Free Tools: Basic ticketing, a shared inbox, and live chat.

• Starter (Starts at $20/month): Comes with 2 paid users, gets rid of HubSpot branding, and adds more automation.

• Professional (Starts at $800/month): Comes with 5 paid users and adds a full help desk, customer surveys, and advanced reporting.

• Enterprise (Starts at $3,200/month): Comes with 10 paid users and adds custom objects, conversation intelligence, and playbooks.

HubSpot’s prices might look steep at first, but remember you're getting an all-in-one platform. The price includes the powerful CRM, which means you won't have to pay for separate tools and deal with connecting them.

Choosing the right Freshdesk HubSpot platform for your team

So, who wins in the Freshdesk vs HubSpot battle? It really just depends on what your team needs most right now.

• Choose Freshdesk if your main goal is to get a powerful, top-of-the-line helpdesk for your support team, and you're okay with managing an integration to your CRM.

• Choose HubSpot if you want a single source of truth for the entire customer journey and value having sales, marketing, and service all in one place.

But you don’t have to settle. Instead of getting locked into one platform's AI, you can pick the helpdesk that has the best workflow for your team and then add a smarter, more flexible AI on top.

Unify your Freshdesk HubSpot support with eesel AI

eesel AI plugs into tools you already use, like Freshdesk and HubSpot, in minutes, not months. It learns from all your scattered company knowledge to handle frontline support questions, draft replies for your agents, and act as a single source of truth for your AI. With our risk-free simulation mode and straightforward pricing, you can finally build an AI support system that actually works the way you want it to.

Ready to see it in action? Try eesel AI for free.