Freshdesk vs HubSpot: Which service software is right for you in 2025?

Picking a new customer service tool can feel a little overwhelming. You need something that your team can actually use, that doesn’t blow up the budget, and that has the features to keep up with customer expectations. Two names that always come up are Freshdesk and HubSpot Service Hub. Both are heavy hitters in the support world, promising to streamline how you talk to customers and help your agents work smarter.

But the real differences are in the details. It’s not just about managing tickets anymore; a platform’s built-in AI is now a huge piece of the puzzle. This guide is a straightforward, head-to-head look at Freshdesk vs HubSpot. We’ll get into their features, AI tools, and pricing so you can figure out which one makes the most sense for your team.

A quick look at what they are

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, it helps to understand where each platform is coming from. They were built with different goals in mind, which explains why they feel so different to use.

What is Freshdesk?

Freshdesk is, first and foremost, a dedicated customer support tool. It’s part of the Freshworks family of products, but its main job is to be a top-notch helpdesk. It’s loaded with features for ticketing, managing conversations across different channels, and boosting agent productivity. Think of it as a specialized tool, built from the ground up for support teams who need a focused system to handle customer issues, fast.

What is HubSpot Service Hub?

HubSpot Service Hub is a single piece of a much larger puzzle: the HubSpot CRM platform. Its biggest selling point is how tightly it works with HubSpot’s other tools for marketing, sales, and content. It’s built for businesses that want a single view of every customer interaction, from the first time they saw an ad to their most recent support ticket. It connects all the dots across the entire customer journey.

Core features showdown: Freshdesk vs HubSpot

Both platforms have the essential tools you’d expect, but they each have their own strengths. Here’s a quick breakdown of how they compare on the basics.

Feature	Freshdesk	HubSpot Service Hub
Primary Focus	Dedicated Customer Support	Unified CRM & Customer Journey
Ticketing	Advanced, support-centric workflows	Strong, CRM-integrated ticketing
Knowledge Base	Included on all plans (even free)	Available on Pro plans and above
Reporting	Deep support & agent metrics	Full-funnel customer journey analytics
Integrations	1,000+ apps in its marketplace	1,500+ apps, deep native suite integration

Ticketing and workflow automation

When it comes to handling tickets, both are pretty solid, but they approach automation differently.

Freshdesk is known for its really powerful automation that’s built specifically for support teams. It has clever features like load-balanced ticket assignment, which automatically spreads new tickets out so no single agent gets buried. You can also set up detailed routing rules based on an agent’s skills, language, or current workload. It’s a great fit for busy teams that need fine-tuned control over their ticket queue.

HubSpot Service Hub’s automation strength comes from being plugged into the main CRM. Its workflows can kick off actions in totally different departments. For instance, a support chat about an upgrade could automatically create a task for a salesperson, or a great customer satisfaction score could add that customer to a special marketing campaign. It’s really good at getting different teams on the same page.

The catch with both is that while they’re great at automating tasks with tickets, their ability to generate helpful answers is limited to the information you’ve saved inside their own system.

Knowledge base and self-service

Freshdesk gives every user a knowledge base, even on its free plan, which is a big plus. It has handy features like the ability to track article changes, set up approval workflows, and even a tool that helps turn an agent’s reply on a ticket into a new knowledge base article.

HubSpot Service Hub also has a great-looking knowledge base, but you have to pay for it. It’s only available on their Professional plan and up, which might be a dealbreaker for smaller teams just dipping their toes into self-service.

While both platforms give you a place to put your help articles, they don’t really help you figure out what you’re missing. This is a common headache. A tool like eesel AI can help by connecting to your helpdesk and scanning all your past support tickets. It then spots the most common questions your team has already answered and suggests new draft articles, helping you fill in the gaps with proven solutions.

eesel AI scans your support tickets to identify knowledge gaps and suggest new help articles.

Reporting and analytics

Freshdesk is your go-to for nitty-gritty support metrics. You can easily create detailed reports on things like ticket volume, first response times, whether you’re meeting your SLAs, and how individual agents are doing. If you’re focused on making your support team as efficient as possible, Freshdesk has the data you need.

HubSpot Service Hub, on the other hand, is all about the big picture. Since it’s tied into the full CRM, you can build reports that show how support conversations affect business goals like customer lifetime value and retention. It’s perfect for showing how your service team contributes to the company’s revenue.

A look at the AI assistants

Let’s talk AI, because you can’t really ignore it anymore. It’s a standard part of any modern support setup. Both Freshdesk and HubSpot have put a lot of work into their own AI tools, but they both run into the same big problem.

The "walled garden" problem with native AI

Freshdesk has Freddy AI, and HubSpot has its suite of HubSpot AI tools. They’re both useful, but they’re stuck inside their own little worlds.

This means they can only learn from information that lives inside Freshdesk or HubSpot, like old tickets and knowledge base articles. The reality for most companies is that knowledge is messy and spread out. You might have internal guides in Confluence, project specs in Notion, technical docs in Google Docs, and quick answers shared in Slack. The native AI tools can’t see any of that, which means they often give incomplete answers, leaving both customers and agents frustrated.

A more flexible approach

There’s a better way to do this: use an AI layer that can connect to whatever helpdesk you choose. This frees you up to pick the platform with the best ticket management for your team without settling for a less-than-brilliant AI.

This is exactly what eesel AI does. It’s an AI platform that plugs into helpdesks like Freshdesk and HubSpot, but it also connects to the 100+ other apps your company uses to store information.

eesel AI connects to over 100 apps, including Freshdesk and HubSpot, to provide complete answers.

This approach gives you a few big advantages. Your AI can finally give complete, accurate answers because it’s reading from the same documents your team is. You can also get it up and running on your own time, in just a few minutes, without needing to sit through a sales demo.

You get full control through a simple prompt editor, where you can define your AI’s tone of voice and even teach it to perform custom actions, like looking up order info in Shopify or tagging tickets for you. Best of all, you can test it safely on thousands of your past tickets in a simulation mode before it ever talks to a real customer. This way, you know exactly how it will perform and can roll it out with confidence.

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

Comparing pricing and plans: Freshdesk vs HubSpot

Let’s be real, price is usually the dealbreaker. Both platforms have free plans to start, but their paid tiers and hidden costs are pretty different.

Freshdesk pricing

Freshdesk is usually the more budget-friendly option, especially if you just need a great support tool without all the CRM extras. Just keep in mind that many of its best AI features, like the Freddy AI Copilot, are paid add-ons that will bump up your monthly bill.

Plan	Price (per agent/month, billed annually)	Key Features
Free	$0	Up to 10 agents, ticketing, knowledge base
Growth	$15	Automation, custom ticket views, 1000+ marketplace apps
Pro	$49	Advanced routing, CSAT surveys, 5,000 collaborators
Enterprise	$79	Skill-based assignment, audit logs, Freddy AI Agent sessions

HubSpot Service Hub pricing

HubSpot’s pricing reflects that it’s an all-in-one platform. The cost per agent is often higher, and important features like the knowledge base are locked behind the more expensive plans.

The biggest thing to watch out for are the mandatory, one-time onboarding fees on their higher plans. This is a big upfront cost that’s easy to miss: $1,500 for the Professional plan and a whopping $3,500 for the Enterprise plan.

Plan	Price (per seat/month, billed annually)	Key Features
Free Tools	$0	Ticketing, team email, live chat
Starter	Starts at $15	Simple automation, multiple ticket pipelines
Professional	Starts at $100	Help desk & customer success workspace, knowledge base
Enterprise	Starts at $150	Skill-based routing, conditional SLAs, journey analytics

A note on predictable AI costs

It’s also worth thinking about how AI costs are structured. Some tools charge you for every ticket the AI resolves, which can lead to surprisingly high bills when you’re busy. In contrast, platforms like eesel AI offer clear, interaction-based plans. Your costs stay predictable, and you aren’t penalized for successfully helping more customers.

The final verdict: Which one is right for you?

Okay, so after all that, which one should you pick? It really boils down to how your company is set up and what you care about most.

Go with Freshdesk if… your main goal is to get a powerful, focused customer support tool. You need advanced ticketing and reporting for your support team, and you want it at a reasonable price. You’re not worried about tying it deeply into a specific sales or marketing platform.

Go with HubSpot Service Hub if… you’re already in the HubSpot ecosystem or you’re ready to go all-in on a single platform for sales, marketing, and service. Your goal is to get a complete view of the customer journey and show how support impacts the bottom line.

But remember, you don’t have to settle. Your choice of helpdesk doesn’t have to lock you into a limited AI. You can pick the platform with the best workflow for your agents and then add a smarter, more connected AI on top. Since eesel AI works with both Freshdesk and HubSpot, you can get the best of both worlds.

This video offers a detailed comparison to help you decide which tool may be best for your specific business needs.