The 7 best free Zendesk AI alternatives in 2025

Let's be honest, Zendesk is a beast of a help desk. But the moment you start looking into its native AI features, your wallet starts to feel a little nervous. The really good stuff is often locked away in expensive plans that demand a whole setup project just to get them switched on.

If you're sitting there thinking, "There has to be a better way," you're not wrong. We’ve spent a lot of time digging into and testing the top free and freemium tools that can bring some serious AI smarts to your support workflow, without the sticker shock. This is our straightforward breakdown of the best free Zendesk AI alternatives that can help you automate support, give your agents a hand, and keep customers happy, all without draining your budget.

Why look for Zendesk AI alternatives free?

It’s not always just about saving a buck. Teams are looking for tools that are smarter and more flexible for a few common reasons:

• Complicated pricing plans: Zendesk’s AI features, like their advanced bots or copilot, usually live in the higher-tier plans. The Suite Professional plan, for instance, kicks off at $115 per agent per month. What seems affordable on the surface can get expensive fast once you add the features you actually need.

• The setup takes forever: Getting Zendesk AI up and running isn't as simple as flipping a switch. It can take weeks of tweaking and sometimes a developer's help to get it working properly. All that time spent waiting is time you're not getting any value from it.

• You can't customize much on lower plans: If you’re not on an enterprise plan, you’re often stuck with a one-size-all AI. That means you can’t easily customize much of the bot’s personality to match your brand or create custom workflows that fit how your business actually operates.

• The "rip and replace" problem: A lot of so-called "alternatives" are really just entirely new help desks. This shoves you into a painful migration process, where you have to move all your data and retrain your entire team. The best tools should improve what you already use, not force you to ditch it.

How we picked the best Zendesk AI alternatives free

To put this list together, we focused on what truly matters for a team wanting to add AI to their Zendesk setup without a massive upfront commitment. Here’s our checklist:

• A solid free tier: The tool had to have a free plan that actually does something useful and lets you see its value before you ever think about paying.

• Real AI features: A free plan is pretty useless if the AI is an afterthought. We looked for tools that offered some form of AI, whether that was drafting responses, tagging tickets, or running a simple chatbot.

• Easy setup: How quickly can you get it working? We gave extra points to self-serve platforms that a non-technical manager could figure out in an afternoon.

• Smooth Zendesk integration: The tool has to work well with Zendesk. A simple, one-click connection that lets information flow back and forth was a must.

• Room to grow: While the focus here is "free," we also considered if the tool could scale with you once you’re ready to upgrade.

A quick look at the top 7 Zendesk AI alternatives free

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, here’s a quick rundown of our top picks. eesel AI is built to add a smart AI layer right on top of Zendesk. HubSpot Service Hub is a great choice for teams already using their CRM. Zoho Desk offers a full-featured help desk for small teams, while Help Scout is all about simple, personal support. Freshdesk is a solid all-rounder for businesses that need to scale. Hiver is for teams that live in Gmail, and Tidio is perfect for e-commerce sites focused on live chat.

Now, let's break them down one by one.

The 7 best Zendesk AI alternatives free

Every tool on this list offers something a little different. Some are great for handling common questions automatically, while others are designed to make your human agents faster. Let's dig in and see which one makes the most sense for you.

1. eesel AI

Instead of trying to replace your help desk, eesel AI works with it. Think of it as a smart AI layer that you add to your existing Zendesk account. You can connect it in a few minutes, and it immediately starts learning from your past tickets, your help center, and other company knowledge in places like Confluence or Google Docs. Once it's up to speed, it can automate responses, draft replies for agents, and sort incoming tickets for you.

What we liked:

• You can be live in minutes: It’s a genuinely self-serve platform. You can sign up and connect your Zendesk account with one click, no sales call required.

• It learns from your actual data: The AI Copilot trains on your real past support conversations. This means the replies it suggests already sound like your brand and are accurate from day one.

The eesel AI Copilot drafting a personalized response within a help desk, showcasing one of the best Zendesk AI alternatives free of charge.

• You can test it with zero risk: This is the part that really caught our attention. eesel AI has a simulation mode that runs the AI on thousands of your old tickets. It gives you a clear report on how it would have performed and how much it could automate before you ever turn it on for live customers. It takes all the guesswork out of the equation.

The eesel AI simulation feature provides a safe testing environment, a key benefit for those seeking Zendesk AI alternatives free from risk.

What to consider:

• While you can try everything for free, the part that's free forever is the AI Copilot. The AI Agent that can fully resolve tickets on its own is part of the paid plans.

• It's a newer, more focused tool, so it doesn't have the thousands of G2 reviews that some of the older, broader platforms have gathered over the years.

Pricing:

You can get started with eesel AI for free to try out the platform and its AI Copilot. Paid plans are straightforward and based on features and volume, not confusing per-resolution fees. The Team plan starts at $299/month ($239/month if billed annually) and comes with the AI Copilot, a Slack integration, and up to 1,000 AI interactions per month.

2. HubSpot Service Hub

If your company already lives and breathes HubSpot for sales or marketing, the Service Hub will feel right at home. The free plan gives you a decent starting point with a shared inbox, basic ticketing, and live chat, all tied directly into the HubSpot CRM. This gives your support team a full picture of every customer's history.

What we liked:

• It connects perfectly with the rest of the HubSpot platform, giving you one central place to see everything about a customer.

• The free plan is pretty generous and is a great way to get started with basic support tools.

What to consider:

• The AI and automation on the free plan are very limited. Any serious AI help is locked away in the much pricier Professional and Enterprise plans.

• It can feel a bit bloated if you aren't already using the whole HubSpot ecosystem.

Pricing:

HubSpot Service Hub has a free plan with free tools. Paid plans start with the Starter tier at $20 per seat per month ($15 per seat per month with an annual commitment). The Professional plan, which has the main help desk workspace and their "Breeze" customer agent, starts at $100 per seat per month.

3. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is one piece of the huge Zoho software family and has a surprisingly capable free plan for up to three agents. It's a great choice if you're looking for a full help desk experience without any upfront cost. The free tier gives you email ticketing, a knowledge base, and private notes.

What we liked:

• It offers great value, packing a lot of features into its free plan that others charge for.

• It works smoothly with other Zoho products like Zoho CRM.

What to consider:

• The interface can feel a bit dated and clunky when you compare it to more modern tools.

• Its popular AI assistant, Zia, isn't part of the free plan. You'll need to upgrade to at least the Standard plan ($14/agent/month) to connect your own OpenAI key for some AI features, and the full Zia experience is only on the Enterprise plan.

Pricing:

Zoho Desk offers a Free Edition for up to 3 agents. Paid plans are very affordable, with the Standard plan starting at $14 per agent per month and the Enterprise plan (with Zia) at $40 per agent per month when billed annually.

4. Help Scout

Help Scout is designed for teams that want their support to feel personal and human. Instead of a complicated ticketing grid, its interface looks and feels like a clean, shared email inbox. This makes it incredibly easy to pick up and use. The whole tool is built around clear communication, not clutter.

What we liked:

• A simple, clean user interface that your team will figure out in minutes.

• The free plan is nice for small teams, supporting up to 5 users with one shared inbox and one Docs (knowledge base) site.

What to consider:

• The free plan is very bare-bones and has no AI or automation at all. It’s really more of a collaborative inbox than an AI-powered tool.

• Paid plans can get expensive, especially when you add features like the AI Answers chatbot, which costs an extra $0.75 for every resolution it handles.

Pricing:

Help Scout has a Free plan for up to 5 users. The Standard plan, which adds basic AI and workflows, starts at $25 per user per month.

5. Freshdesk

As one of Zendesk's biggest competitors, Freshdesk offers a solid omnichannel help desk with a generous free plan for up to 10 agents. It's a dependable choice for businesses that expect to grow and need a tool that can handle support from all sorts of channels.

What we liked:

• The free plan covers email and social ticketing, a knowledge base, and reporting.

• The user interface is generally clean and easy to get around in.

What to consider:

• The free plan is missing a few features that teams often need right away, like automations, collision detection (so two agents don't reply at once), and SLAs.

• The Freddy AI features are only available as paid add-ons or in the higher-tier plans, which can get pricey.

Pricing:

Freshdesk has a "Free" plan for up to 10 agents. Paid plans begin with the Growth tier at $18 per agent per month ($15 per agent per month annually). To get AI, you either need the Pro + AI Copilot bundle for $78 per agent per month or buy it as a $29 per agent per month add-on.

6. Hiver

Hiver is built for one very specific type of team: the kind that runs their entire business out of Google Workspace. It turns your Gmail into a real help desk, letting you assign, track, and collaborate on support emails without ever having to leave your inbox.

What we liked:

• It works right inside Gmail, so there's almost no learning curve for your team.

• It's great for team collaboration, with features like internal notes and alerts to stop agents from replying to the same email.

What to consider:

• It only works with Google Workspace, so it's a non-starter for teams on other platforms.

• The free plan is pretty limited. All the AI features are part of a paid add-on, and you have to be on a paid plan to even buy it.

Pricing:

Hiver offers a Free plan with unlimited users that covers the basics of ticketing. Paid plans start at the Growth tier for $35 per user per month ($25 per user per month annually). The Hiver AI add-on costs an extra $20 per user per month.

7. Tidio

Tidio is a customer experience tool that's especially popular with e-commerce stores. It’s really good at live chat and AI chatbots that are designed to talk to website visitors and generate leads. Its free plan is a nice way for small businesses to start offering real-time help.

What we liked:

• It’s incredibly easy to install on a website, it only takes a few clicks.

• The free plan gives you live chat for up to 50 unique visitors and a simple AI chatbot with a one-time bucket of 50 conversations.

What to consider:

• The conversation limits on the free plan are very low. Most growing businesses will hit that ceiling in no time.

• It's more of a tool for real-time chats than a full-blown help desk for managing tickets over the long haul.

Pricing:

Tidio has a Free plan that includes 50 conversations replied to by a human. The Lyro AI chatbot is a separate paid plan starting at $32.50 per month for 50 AI conversations. The Starter plan for their customer service suite begins at $24.17 per month.

This video explores top Zendesk alternatives, highlighting AI-powered platforms that can enhance customer support.

How to choose from the best Zendesk AI alternatives free

With so many options, picking the right one can feel a bit paralyzing. Here’s a simple way to think it through:

• First, figure out your main goal. Are you trying to deflect common questions with a chatbot (like Tidio), or are you trying to make your human agents faster and more consistent (like eesel AI's Copilot)? Knowing what you want to achieve will help you focus on the features that actually matter.

• Think about the "true cost" of free. A free plan is only a good deal if it solves a real problem. If you find yourself needing to upgrade on day two just to get a basic feature like automation, then it’s better to just compare the paid plans from the start.

• Don't make your agents' lives harder. A clunky tool that makes your team jump between ten different tabs is just asking for frustration. An AI that works inside the helpdesk you already use, like eesel AI, skips the pain of learning a whole new system and keeps everything in one spot.

• Try before you commit. Don't just watch a demo. Sign up for a free trial and see how the tool handles your actual customer questions.

The verdict on Zendesk AI alternatives free: Upgrade Zendesk, don’t replace it

While there are plenty of free help desks out there, the smartest move isn't always to start from scratch, especially if your team is already settled in Zendesk. More often than not, it's about adding an intelligent layer on top of the system you already know.

Tools like HubSpot Service Hub or Zoho Desk are good, but they ask you to move your whole operation. For teams that want to keep Zendesk's reliable features but fix its AI gaps, an integrated tool is the clear winner.

This is why eesel AI stands out. It gives you the best of both worlds: you keep your helpdesk, but you add a top-notch, self-serve AI that learns from your data, shows you its value upfront, and lets you test it completely risk-free. It’s not just another tool, it’s a direct upgrade for the system you already have.

Ready to see what AI can do for your Zendesk support?

You can start training your AI copilot on your real support tickets in just a few minutes. Try eesel AI for free.

Or, book a quick 30-minute demo with our team.