Helpdesk and support inbox
Open-source alternatives to Freshdesk, priced
3 open-source tools that can replace Freshdesk, each shown with what it would actually cost to run for a team of 10 people. Freshdesk on the Growth tier costs $190 a month at that size.
The cheapest way to replace Freshdesk here is FreeScout, at $45.54 a month against $190, with your own time already counted.
| Tool | Server only | With your time | vs Freshdesk | Operational weight | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreeScout | $8.04 | $45.54 | +$5,051 | easy | AGPL-3.0 |
| Chatwoot | $12.07 | $237 | -$2,895 | hard | source-available |
| Zammad | $12.07 | $237 | -$2,895 | hard | AGPL-3.0 |
The final column is the 36-month difference: positive means self-hosting is cheaper.
Which one to pick
FreeScout 4,532 stars
Laravel and MySQL. A shared mailbox rather than a full support suite, which is exactly what most small teams are overpaying Zendesk for.
At 10 people it needs 1.4 GB of memory and 13 GB of disk, which fits the CX23 (cost-optimized) at Hetzner Cloud for $6.70 a month. Setting it up is roughly 2 hours of work, then 0.5 hours a month to keep it healthy.
Full Freshdesk versus FreeScout breakdown · FreeScout at every team size
Chatwoot 36,724 stars
Rails web process plus a Sidekiq worker, PostgreSQL and Redis. The worker is not optional; skipping it silently breaks outbound email and webhooks.
At 10 people it needs 5.4 GB of memory and 28 GB of disk, which fits the CX33 (cost-optimized) at Hetzner Cloud for $10.06 a month. Setting it up is roughly 16 hours of work, then 3 hours a month to keep it healthy.
Full Freshdesk versus Chatwoot breakdown · Chatwoot at every team size
Zammad 5,905 stars
Rails with PostgreSQL, Redis and Elasticsearch. Elasticsearch is what makes this the heaviest helpdesk here, and it is effectively required for usable search.
At 10 people it needs 5.4 GB of memory and 33 GB of disk, which fits the CX33 (cost-optimized) at Hetzner Cloud for $10.06 a month. Setting it up is roughly 16 hours of work, then 3 hours a month to keep it healthy.
Full Freshdesk versus Zammad breakdown · Zammad at every team size
How the pricing was established
Freshdesk pricing was read from its own pricing page on 2026-09-14. Server prices come from the providers listed on the hosting page. The sizing model and the cost of your time are set out in full on the methodology page.
Related
- All helpdesk and support inbox compared
- Alternatives to Zendesk
- Alternatives to Intercom
- Alternatives to Help Scout
- Where to host it
What you would be running
| Tool | Licence | Written in | Setup | Upkeep | GitHub stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreeScout | GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 | PHP | 2 h | 0.5 h a month | 4,532 |
| Chatwoot | Other | Ruby | 16 h | 3 h a month | 36,724 |
| Zammad | GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 | Ruby | 16 h | 3 h a month | 5,905 |
Questions people actually ask
Is there a free open-source alternative to Freshdesk?
There are 3 on this page. 2 of them are open source, published under AGPL-3.0, with no licence to buy. Chatwoot ships its source under its own licence rather than a standard open-source one, so check its terms before commercial use. None of them is free to run: the cheapest, FreeScout, costs $45.54 a month at 10 people once the server, backups and the time to look after it are counted.
How much does Freshdesk cost?
Freshdesk Growth costs $190 a month at 10 people: USD 19.00 per seat per month. That figure was read from the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-09-14.
What does it cost to self-host FreeScout?
$45.54 a month at 10 people. That is $6.70 for the CX23 (cost-optimized) at Hetzner Cloud, plus backups, plus 0.5 hours a month of your own time priced at the published hourly rate.
How long before FreeScout is cheaper than Freshdesk?
About a month, counting $150 of first-time setup. Over 36 months the difference is $5,051.
Which Freshdesk alternative is the easiest to run?
FreeScout, rated easy: about 2 hours to set up and 0.5 hours afterwards.