Freshdesk vs Gorgias: Which helpdesk is right for you in 2025?

Picking a helpdesk can feel like a massive decision. If you get it wrong, your team is stuck trying to piece together customer conversations with clunky tools. But when you get it right, everything just flows better for your team and your customers. In this showdown, we’ve got two major players: Freshdesk and Gorgias.

Freshdesk is the well-known, do-it-all platform that works for pretty much any industry. On the other hand, Gorgias is the go-to choice for e-commerce brands, especially if you’re running on Shopify.

So, let’s break down the real differences between Freshdesk vs Gorgias. We’ll look at their features, how they use AI, what their pricing actually looks like, and how easy they are to get started with. By the end, you’ll have a much clearer picture of which one fits your team, and we’ll even throw in a third option that might mean you don’t have to switch at all.

What is Freshdesk?

Freshdesk is a big name in the customer support world. It’s a cloud-based tool from Freshworks that aims to be the one-stop shop for businesses of all stripes. The whole idea is to pull all your customer chats from email, phone, social media, and live chat into one organized ticketing system. It’s known for having a ton of automation options, a huge library of integrations, and tools for building out a self-service help center.

What is Gorgias?

Gorgias is a helpdesk built from the ground up for e-commerce. Its main claim to fame is how deeply it connects with platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento. This connection is a huge deal for support agents, they can see a customer’s order history, give a refund, or change an order without ever having to leave their dashboard. Gorgias brings in messages from email, chat, social media, and SMS, all with the goal of helping you turn support tickets into sales.

Feature deep dive: Comparing core capabilities

Both platforms handle support tickets, but how they handle the details shows you exactly who they were built for.

E-commerce specialization: A purpose-built tool vs. a generalist

Let’s be real: Gorgias was made for e-commerce. Its link with Shopify is incredibly smooth. An agent can pull up a customer’s entire order history, check on shipping, and even process a refund or cancellation right from the ticket view. Having all that information in one place helps them solve problems in minutes.

Freshdesk can connect to Shopify, but it doesn’t feel as natural. The Shopify info usually shows up in a little sidebar app, and doing something like issuing a refund takes a few extra clicks. It gets the job done, but it’s not the seamless experience you get with Gorgias.

AI and automation: Resolutions vs. suggestions

Both platforms talk a big game about AI, but they use it in different ways.

• Freshdesk’s Freddy AI acts like a general-purpose assistant for your team. It can give you a summary of a long conversation, suggest help articles, and help agents write replies. It also has some powerful automation tools for routing tickets, but figuring out how to set up the more complicated rules can be a bit of a headache.

• Gorgias’s AI is laser-focused on e-commerce tasks. It’s great at spotting common questions like "Where is my order?" and can fire back an automated reply with the tracking link instantly.

The thing is, the AI inside these helpdesks can only do so much. They’re usually stuck using the information within their own system and can be pretty inflexible. If you want an AI that can learn from your team’s past tickets and pull in knowledge from your Google Docs or Confluence, you’re going to hit a wall.

Pro tip: You don’t have to be stuck with the AI that comes with your helpdesk. A tool like eesel AI plugs right into Freshdesk or Gorgias to give you smarter, more flexible automation. It learns from your old tickets and all your company knowledge, wherever it lives. This gives you full control over what gets automated and exactly how the AI responds.

Self-service and knowledge base

Freshdesk has a big advantage here. It comes with a built-in knowledge base that’s packed with features. You can build out a full help center with articles, FAQs, and even a community forum, which helps customers find answers on their own.

Gorgias, on the other hand, doesn’t have its own knowledge base. If you want to offer a self-service option, you have to plug in a separate tool. That means another subscription to manage and another piece of software to learn.

A smarter approach: Instead of having your team spend weeks writing help articles from scratch, what if your AI could give you a head start? eesel AI can look at your resolved tickets and automatically draft new articles based on the solutions that worked. It’s a quick way to build out your knowledge base with content you already know is helpful.

Integrations and ecosystem

Freshdesk plugs into just about everything. Its marketplace has over 1,000 apps, connecting to CRMs like Salesforce and project management tools like Jira. It’s designed to fit into almost any company’s set of tools.

Gorgias has a much smaller list of integrations, but each one is picked for e-commerce. Think tools like Klaviyo, Yotpo, and Loop Returns. It may not have as many options, but the ones it has are deeply connected and super relevant for online stores.

Pricing models: Freshdesk vs Gorgias

Okay, let’s talk money. This is where Freshdesk and Gorgias really go their separate ways, and it can make a big difference to your monthly bill.

Freshdesk’s per-agent pricing

Freshdesk sticks to the classic "per agent, per month" model](https://freshdesk.com/pricing). This makes your costs easy to predict. You pay a set fee for each person on your support team, and you can handle as many tickets as you want. If you get a lot of tickets, this is great because your bill won’t jump up during busy months. The only downside is that it can get pricey if you have a big team, even if some people only log in once in a while.

Gorgias’s ticket-based pricing

Gorgias charges you based on how many "billable tickets"](https://www.gorgias.com/pricing) you handle each month. A ticket counts as billable as soon as an agent or an automation sends a reply. For small shops with just a few tickets, this can be pretty cheap. The catch? It’s unpredictable. When a big sale like Black Friday hits, your ticket count can explode, and you might get a bill that’s much higher than you expected. This model can also make teams hesitant to reach out to customers proactively, since every chat could add to the cost.

Hidden costs of native AI

With both platforms, the really good AI features usually cost extra. They’re either locked away in the most expensive plans or sold as add-ons. For example, Freshdesk’s Freddy AI Copilot is an extra $29 per agent each month on top of their Pro plan. Gorgias includes its automation in its plans, but if you need to handle more tickets, you have to jump to a much more expensive tier.

This is where a third-party AI tool can save you money. For instance, eesel AI’s pricing is straightforward and based on usage, not how many tickets you resolve. This means your costs stay predictable, and you’re not punished for being efficient and helping more customers.

Ease of use and implementation

Most people find Gorgias pretty easy to pick up. The interface is clean and modern, and since it’s all about e-commerce, everything is laid out for that specific workflow. You can usually get new agents trained up and running fast.

Freshdesk has so many features that it can take a bit more time to get the hang of. The interface can feel a little busy at first, and digging through all the settings to get your workflows just right can be a project in itself.

But getting set up isn’t just about the helpdesk. People often assume that adding a smart AI on top is a huge project that takes months and requires developers. It really doesn’t have to be like that. Modern AI platforms like eesel AI are built so you can get started all on your own. You can connect your helpdesk with a single click and be up and running in minutes, not months.

Full pricing breakdown

Here’s a quick look at the plans for Freshdesk and Gorgias as of late 2024. Keep in mind that prices can change, and you can usually get a discount for paying annually.

Freshdesk Pricing (Billed Annually)

Plan	Price per Agent/Month	Key Features
Free	$0 (up to 2 agents)	Ticketing, Knowledge Base, Pre-built reports
Growth	$15	Automation, Collision Detection, Custom Ticket Views, Customer Portal
Pro	$49	Custom Objects, Advanced Reporting, SLA Management, 5,000 collaborators
Enterprise	$79	Skill-based assignments, Audit Log, Approval Workflows

Freddy AI Copilot is an add-on for Pro and Enterprise plans for an additional $29/agent/month.

Gorgias Pricing (Based on Monthly Tickets, Billed Annually)

Plan	Monthly Price	Included Billable Tickets
Starter	$10	50
Basic	$50	300
Pro	$300	2,000
Advanced	$750	5,000

If you go over your ticket limit, you’ll pay extra. On the Basic plan, it’s typically around +$40 for every 100 extra tickets.

A summary of the key differences

For a quick side-by-side, here’s a table that sums up how the two platforms stack up.

Feature	Freshdesk	Gorgias
Ideal User	Businesses of all sizes, any industry	E-commerce stores (especially Shopify)
Pricing Model	Per agent, per month	Per billable ticket, per month
E-commerce Focus	General, through integrations	Deep, built-in integrations
AI & Automation	Broad, workflow-focused (Freddy AI)	E-commerce focused (intent detection)
Knowledge Base	Built-in and powerful	Needs a third-party tool
Integrations	1,000+ general business apps	~100+ e-commerce focused apps

The verdict: Which one should you choose?

So, after all that, which one is it?

• Choose Gorgias if: You run an e-commerce store on a platform like Shopify. Your number one need should be having order information baked directly into your support tool. It’s built for teams that need to solve e-commerce problems quickly and are okay with a pricing model that can change from month to month.

• Choose Freshdesk if: You need a solid, all-around helpdesk that can grow with you. It’s the better pick for businesses that aren’t in e-commerce or for larger companies that need detailed reporting, support for multiple brands, and predictable monthly costs.

This video provides a detailed visual comparison to help you decide whether Freshdesk or Gorgias is the better fit for your business in 2025.

But often, this feels like you have to make a trade-off. Do you give up a great knowledge base for better e-commerce tools? Or sacrifice predictable pricing for a smoother workflow? What if you didn’t have to make that choice?

A smarter choice: Upgrade your helpdesk without switching

Instead of going through the hassle of moving your entire support operation to a new platform, you can just make the one you already have better. eesel AI is an AI platform that plugs directly into the tools you’re already using, including both Freshdesk and Gorgias.

It works by connecting all of your company knowledge, from old tickets and macros to your Confluence pages, Google Docs, and even your Shopify product catalog, to power a much smarter AI agent.

• Go live in minutes, not months: eesel AI is designed for you to set up yourself. You can connect your helpdesk and other tools with one click and launch whenever you’re ready.

• Test with confidence: You can use its simulation mode to see how the AI would have handled thousands of your past tickets. This shows you exactly how it will perform and what your automation rate will look like before it ever talks to a real customer.

eesel AI's simulation mode lets you test its performance on past tickets before going live.

• Pay predictably: With clear, tiered pricing and no fees per resolution, you won’t get any nasty surprises on your bill after a busy month.

You don’t have to settle for the built-in limits of your helpdesk. You can stick with the platform your team already knows and add a powerful AI that can automate repetitive questions, help your agents with tough tickets, and give your customers a better experience.

Try eesel AI for free or book a demo to see what it can do for your current helpdesk.