In the ever-evolving landscape of customer support software, two formidable contenders stand at the forefront: Freshdesk vs Gorgias.
As businesses across industries strive to deliver impeccable customer experiences, the selection of the right help desk solution becomes paramount. But in a marketplace flooded with options, navigating the nuances between Freshdesk and Gorgias can feel akin to a high-stakes chess match.
Centralizing support interactions is critical for businesses dealing with customer queries daily. A unified ticketing solution will provide visibility into everything happening in your customer service workflow, preventing requests from slipping through the cracks. It will also automate redundant processes, freeing your agents’ focus for complex requests and speeding up response times.
However, selecting the right help desk solution amidst numerous options can be daunting. Fortunately, our series of comparison articles aims to simplify this decision-making process.
But before we dive deeper into the Freshdesk vs Gorgias comparison, let’s get started with a brief introduction.
What is Freshdesk?
Freshdesk is a help desk developed by Freshworks — a provider of many other customer management products, including Freshservice, Freshcaller, Freshchat, Freshsales, Freshmarketer, and beyond.
Freshdesk is a comprehensive solution designed to streamline customer support workflows. It comes with omnichannel ticket management, a knowledge base, AI chatbots, extensive reporting and analytics, and an extensive library of integrations.
With over 60,000 business clients, Freshdesk stands as one of the most widely adopted help desk systems in the market.
What is Gorgias?
Gorgias is a help desk platform designed specifically for eCommerce businesses. Centered around Shopify, it seamlessly integrates with various shopping platforms catering to the needs of online retailers globally.
Like Freshdesk, Gorgias is packed with help desk management essentials, like ticketing, self-service, analytics, and more. However, it distinguishes itself by placing a stronger emphasis on driving sales and enhancing customer engagement.
Since its inception, Gorgias has grown rapidly and gained popularity among eCommerce businesses. As of 2024, around 12,000 business clients rely on this versatile customer service tool.
Now that you have a basic understanding of both customer service systems, let’s proceed to a more detailed Gorgias and Freshdesk comparison.
Ticket management smackdown: Freshdesk vs Gorgias
Freshdesk and Gorgias create a ticket once a customer reaches out to your support team through any available channel. There’s also an option to create a ticket manually. Both customer service solutions enable you to assign, forward, merge, prioritize, snooze, and collaborate on tickets. There are also collision detection features and canned responses on each of the help desk platforms.
Source: Freshdesk
At the same time, Gorgias doesn’t offer automated follow-up messages and emails, unlike Freshdesk. The number of ticket status options (Open and Closed) in Gorgias is also more limited than in Freshdesk, which offers custom ticket statuses. While Freshdesk comes with round-robin and skilled-based automated ticket routing, Gorgias limits itself to auto-assignment of tickets based on agent availability.
Source: Gorgias
Gorgias vs Freshdesk: Decoding multichannel communication
These help desk platforms offer omnichannel customer support.
Aside from inbound and outbound calls that can be unlocked with Freshcaller, Freshdesk supports email, live chat, WhatsApp, Facebook, X, Apple Business Chat, and Line. Meanwhile, Gorgias handles customer queries coming from email, live chat, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp, as well as Voice and SMS, unlocked with Voice and SMS add-ons respectively.
Source: Freshdesk
Gorgias can also combine the entire history of messages from a single customer across channels into a single ticket. Freshdesk doesn’t have this feature so far.
Source: Gorgias
Freshdesk vs Gorgias: Automation capabilities
These customer service systems offer diverse automation capabilities.
Aside from rule-based automation for ticket routing, Freshdesk can send follow-up messages, escalate tickets, and perform many other actions using triggering events. Canned responses and AI chatbot capabilities are available as well. On top of that, Freddy Copilot — Freshdesk’s AI assistant for agents — can summarize ticket details, analyze a customer request, help agents formulate replies, and generate solution articles based on resolved requests.
Source: Freshdesk
Gorgias’ automation capabilities, too, go beyond ticket routing. The support service platform can assist agents with pre-made responses and actions on tickets or integrated eCommerce platforms (macros). Besides, the help desk tools can also use rule-based automation to perform actions on tickets and assist customers with answers, guides, and article recommendations across channels.
Source: Gorgias
In addition, the help desk software uses machine learning to detect customer intent and sentiment in requests, thus streamlining the ticket management process.
Freshdesk vs Gorgias: Integration options
These help desk systems connect with third-party apps. Still, the integration options are different. While Freshdesk Marketplace unlocks over 1000 integration options, Gorgias’ app store avails of about 100 offerings only, many of which require custom APIs. The latter doesn’t also list user ratings, making it more difficult to make an informed decision.
Source: Freshdesk
At the same time, the focuses of Freshdesk and Gorgias’ integrations are different, too, While Gorgias prioritizes integrations with eCommerce apps (like Klaviyo, Recharge, Bold BI, Recart, and Attentive), Freshdesk offers more universal solutions like Salesforce and Jira.
Source: Gorgias
Gorgias vs Freshdesk: Reporting and analytics
Those two customer service platforms allow you to gain insights into ticket volume, query resolution times and other agent performance metrics, self-service statistics, and customer satisfaction levels. However, there are some differences.
Freshdesk boasts a broader array of report types, including the option to create custom reports—an advantage not found on Gorgias. Additionally, its cutting-edge add-on, Freddy Insights, currently in beta, employs AI to discern insights, patterns, outliers, and anomalies within your data, elevating your help desk decision-making to new heights.
Source: Freshdesk
On the other hand, Gorgias Analytics prioritizes sales-centric data. For instance, it provides valuable insights into which customer conversations lead to sales and your customer support team's contribution to the company’s ROI. Furthermore, it offers detailed automation statistics, empowering you to optimize your workflows for enhanced efficiency.
Source: Gorgias
Freshdesk vs Gorgias: Knowledge base
Freshdesk empowers customers to discover solutions through community forums and an extensive knowledge base of informative articles. Creating and managing the knowledge base is streamlined with Freshdesk, offering features like bulk article actions, version tracking, efficient article approval workflows, and the option to convert agent replies into articles.
Source: Source: Freshdesk
While Gorgias also facilitates the creation of a help center featuring answers to common questions from customers, its knowledge management capability lags behind that of Freshdesk. At the same time, Gorgias’ version of a knowledge base feature shines in combination with the Gorgias Automate add-on, enabling customers to track and make changes in their orders, update their shipping address, and beyond. On the other hand, Gorgias lacks community forums.
Source: Gorgias
Gorgias vs Freshdesk: Customer support and training
Those two help desk systems prioritize customer success by offering comprehensive support and onboarding services.
Freshdesk provides four onboarding plans for an additional fee, along with opportunities for training through Freshworks Academy. Additionally, users can access round-the-clock support via phone and chat on weekdays, and via email 24/7.
Source: Freshworks
Gorgias integrates onboarding services into its subscription plans, with the top two tiers offering access to a dedicated success manager. Users can also enhance their skills through Gorgias Academy and reach out to customer support via email or live chat. Furthermore, custom onboarding services are available at the highest pricing tier.
Source: Gorgias
Freshdesk vs Gorgias: What about pricing plans?
Freshdesk charges on an agent basis and offers four subscription plans:
- Free ($0 agent/month with ten agent seats)
- Growth ($15 agent/month billed annually)
- Pro ($49 agent/month billed annually)
- Enterprise ($79 agent/month billed annually)
For an extra charge, you can also enhance the built-in capabilities of the help desk platform with add-ons, including Freshbots (AI chatbots), Freddy Copilot (an AI agent assistant), Freddy Insights (AI analytics), Day Passes (one-day user seats), and Freshcaller (call center software).
Source: Freshdesk
Gorgias’ pricing model relies more on the number of tickets than seats, setting it apart from Freshdesk and many other customer support tools that ground their prices on the number of agent seats only. The customer service software doesn’t offer a free plan and is available in five paid editions:
- Starter ($10 monthly for 50 tickets and three user seats)
- Basic ($60 monthly for 300 tickets and 500 user seats)
- Pro ($360 monthly for 2,000 tickets and 500 user seats)
- Advanced ($900 monthly for 5,000 tickets and 500 user seats)
- Enterprise (custom)
In addition, to unlock automation, onsite marketing, voice, or SMS capabilities, you need to purchase the Automate, Convert, Voice, or SMS add-on respectively along with the chosen pricing plan.
Source: Gorgias
When it comes to deciding which help desk platform offers more value for its cost, there’s no single answer. At first glance, while Freshdesk seems to be more suitable for small customer service teams handling large amounts of tickets, Gorgias seems to work better in the opposite situation. But on the other hand, in most cases, you don’t need an extensive support department to handle a small bunch of requests.
So, we recommend you to consider your business type, current stack, and feature needs. To help you out, we’ve rounded up some of the top differences between Gorgias and Freshdesk to guide your choice.
The top differences between Freshdesk and Gorgias
The Gorgias vs Freshdesk dilemma can feel akin to choosing between peaches and nectarines. They both offer help desk management essentials like storing customer information and the history of customer interactions, ticket management, self-service capabilities, and more.
Still, there are capabilities found on one support service system and lacking on the other. Here are the key ones.
eCommerce viability
Unlike Freshdesk which is targeted at all kinds of businesses, Gorgias is specifically tailored to eCommerce business needs—this is one of the key differences between Gorgias and Freshdesk.
Built atop Shopify, Gorgias is deeply integrated with eCommerce platforms. For example, reps can effortlessly manage orders directly from the ticket interface. Besides this, the Gorgias Convert add-on allows you to launch targeted onsite campaigns, effectively converting website visitors into active shoppers: for example, you can interact with your online store visitors based on their browsing behavior.
Automated follow-ups
While Gorgias offers an array of automation capabilities for customer interactions, it’s currently unable to automate follow-up messages or emails.
In contrast, Freshdesk includes this feature, allowing users to effortlessly schedule automatic follow-up emails. With Freshdesk, you can customize them to suit your specific requirements beyond the exact timeframe for sending the message.
AI assistance
While Gorgias can identify sentiment and intent in customer requests, Freshdesk is head and shoulders above it in terms of AI capabilities.
The help desk software offers AI-backed chatbots to handle customer conversations (Freshbots), an AI-powered assistant for agents (Freddy Copilot), and an AI-based analytics tool (Freddy Insights).
Smart autoresponders
The absence of chatbot capabilities in Gorgias is partially compensated for with the smart autoresponders. The feature identifies intent and sentiment in a customer request to return the most appropriate response.
Based on the customer’s intent, smart autoresponders can reply with relevant knowledge base article recommendations, an order tracking link, or a link to the return portal. They can also close tickets that don’t require a reply.
Gamified dashboard
When it comes to keeping agents engaged, Freshdesk shines. The customer service platform turns your customer support workflow into a game.
Agents earn points, level up, and win prizes for good performance. You can allocate points to reps for a certain number of resolved tickets within a specified timeframe, publishing solutions on your knowledge base, and actively assisting customers on your forums.
SLA management
While you can set automated flows to cater to customer expectations in Gorgias, the support service system doesn’t have a feature dedicated to SLA management.
But Freshdesk does. The help desk tool enables users to configure SLA policies based on various parameters like priority levels, channels, agent groups, products, and problem types, providing comprehensive flexibility in service level management. It also sends automated reminders to agents whose SLAs are close to expiration and triggers escalation rules upon an SLA breach.
The top similarities between Freshdesk and Gorgias
Aside from similarities in ticket management, self-service, and so on, Gorgias and Freshdesk also share other features. Here are a few important ones.
Team collaboration features
Both support service platforms boast robust collaboration capabilities.
In each solution, reps can forward customer conversations, add private notes in tickets, share reports, and communicate with each other in Slack. While Gorgias allows for an unlimited number of agents, Freshdesk allows you to add up to 5000 external collaborators atop billable agent seats.
Automated ticket categorization
Freshdesk and Gorgias can automatically bring order into your tickets.
Freshdesk allows you to tag, prioritize, and assign tickets based on the request type, the customer’s account tier, health score, and beyond. Gorgias essentially does the same. The only difference is some of its ticket categorization criteria concern customer shopping behavior, such as past orders and the likelihood of making a purchase.
Follow-up reminders
In customer support, there are instances when you need to reach out to the customer again. For example, you might need to follow up with customers to ensure an issue has been successfully resolved. Or a customer might request a callback or specify a preferred time for contact when they're available.
In these and other instances, Either Freshdesk or Gorgias will cater to your reps’ needs with the ability to set reminders.
Mobile application
These support service tools offer mobile apps, allowing reps to access the help desk functionality on the go.
Available for iOS and Android users, the apps unlock some of the most essential features of respective platforms, such as viewing all tickets, creating email tickets, receiving push notifications, and beyond.
Canned responses
Frequently, customers contact support teams with recurring requests, leading to repetitive interactions. One of the ways to spare agents from redundant typing is having pre-made response templates in place.
Freshdesk and Gorgias offer their versions of such templates: 'canned responses' in Freshdesk and 'macros' in Gorgias.
Agent collision detection
To prevent two or more agents from handling the same ticket, Gorgias and Freshdesk have an agent collision detection feature.
In Gorgias, tickets taken by other agents are marked with an orange indicator. Freshdesk employs similar capabilities, which seamlessly integrate with features like Auto-refresh, providing real-time updates on ticket activity by other agents or customers, and Traffic Cop, ensuring that changes to a ticket are halted until an agent reviews all updates.
Key Differences Between Gorgias and Freshdesk
While Gorgias and Freshdesk share numerous similarities in their functionality and features, there are several key differences that set them apart:
eCommerce focus
Gorgias is specifically tailored for eCommerce businesses, deeply integrating with platforms like Shopify. On the other hand, Freshdesk caters to a broader range of businesses, offering solutions suitable for various industries beyond eCommerce.
Automated follow-ups
Freshdesk provides automated follow-up messages and emails, allowing users to schedule and customize communications based on specific requirements. This feature is currently unavailable in Gorgias, limiting its ability to automate post-interaction communications.
AI capabilities
Freshdesk boasts advanced AI capabilities, including AI chatbots (Freshbots), an AI-powered assistant for agents (Freddy Copilot), and AI-based analytics (Freddy Insights). While Gorgias can identify sentiment and intent in customer requests, its AI functionality does not reach the same level of sophistication as Freshdesk.
Smart autoresponders
Gorgias offers smart autoresponders that analyze customer requests to deliver appropriate responses, such as knowledge base article recommendations or order tracking links. This feature compensates for the absence of chatbot capabilities in Gorgias but is not as comprehensive as Freshdesk's AI-powered chatbots.
Gamified dashboard
Freshdesk gamifies the customer support workflow, incentivizing agents with points, levels, and prizes for performance. This feature aims to keep agents engaged and motivated, enhancing productivity and job satisfaction. Gorgias lacks a similar gamification feature.
SLA management
Freshdesk includes a dedicated feature for Service Level Agreement (SLA) management, allowing users to configure policies based on various parameters and receive automated reminders for SLA deadlines. Gorgias does not offer a built-in SLA management feature, potentially limiting its suitability for businesses with stringent service level requirements.
These differences highlight the unique strengths and capabilities of each platform, enabling businesses to choose the solution that best aligns with their specific needs and priorities.
TLDR; A brief comparison of Gorgias vs Freshdesk
| Feature | Gorgias | Freshdesk |
| Target Audience | Specifically tailored for eCommerce businesses, deeply integrated with Shopify, allows reps to manage orders directly from the ticket interface | Suitable for various industries and business types, including eCommerce, offers solutions for customer support, IT service management, and sales |
| Ticket Management | Offers basic ticket management features, limited ticket status options (Open and Closed), auto-assignment of tickets based on agent availability | Customizable ticket statuses, automated follow-up emails, collision detection, round-robin and skilled-based ticket routing, custom ticket fields, SLA management |
| Multichannel Communication | Supports email, live chat, social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok), SMS, Voice, handles customer queries from multiple channels, combines history of messages from a single customer into a single ticket | Offers email, live chat, social media (WhatsApp, Facebook, X, Apple Business Chat, Line), SMS, Voice, in addition to integration with Freshcaller for inbound and outbound calls |
| Automation Capabilities | Rule-based automation, AI for customer intent detection, macros for automated actions on tickets or integrated eCommerce platforms | Rule-based automation, AI chatbots (Freshbots), AI analytics (Freddy Insights), automated follow-up emails, AI-powered assistant for agents (Freddy Copilot), rule-based escalation and triggers |
| Integration Options | Provides around 100 integrations, primarily focused on eCommerce apps (Klaviyo, Recharge, Bold BI, Recart, Attentive), customizable through custom APIs | Offers over 1000 integrations including universal solutions (Salesforce, Jira) and integration with other Freshworks products (Freshchat, Freshsales, Freshcaller), extensive marketplace with user ratings |
| Reporting and Analytics | Focuses on sales-centric data, provides automation statistics, detailed automation statistics, insights into customer conversations leading to sales, analytics on customer support team's contribution to ROI | Offers a broad array of reports, including AI-powered insights, anomaly detection, customizable reports, beta AI analytics tool (Freddy Insights), real-time dashboard |
| Knowledge Base | Basic functionality, enhanced with the Automate add-on, limited knowledge management capability | Comprehensive knowledge base management, community forums, bulk article actions, version tracking, efficient article approval workflows, conversion of agent replies into articles |
| Customer Support and Training | Onboarding services integrated into subscription plans, access to Gorgias Academy, custom onboarding services at higher pricing tiers | Onboarding plans available for an additional fee, Freshworks Academy for training, round-the-clock support via phone and chat, dedicated success manager for top-tier plans |
| Pricing Plans | Based on the number of tickets, no free plan available, add-ons required for additional features like automation, onsite marketing, voice, or SMS capabilities | Based on the number of agents, free plan available with limited features, additional add-ons available for enhanced functionality (Freshbots, Freddy Copilot, Freddy Insights), day passes for temporary user seats |
| Top Differences | Specifically tailored for eCommerce, limited automation capabilities compared to Freshdesk | Advanced AI capabilities, gamified dashboard, extensive integration options, broader range of functionalities for ticket management and reporting |
| Top Similarities | Offer robust team collaboration features, automated ticket categorization, follow-up reminders, mobile applications for on-the-go access | Provide follow-up reminders, mobile applications for on-the-go access, canned responses/macro functionality, agent collision detection |
Conclusion: Which is your next help desk?
eCommerce viability is one of the key differences between Gorgias and Freshdesk. This means that there’s no point in using Gorgias if you aren’t running an eCommerce business. Still, you can use Freshdesk if you are—and this is where you need to look at other differences between the help desk systems. Hopefully, our comparison between Freshdesk vs Gorgias has brought the needed clarity.
FAQs
For small stores, Freshdesk is typically the better choice. It provides an intuitive interface, customizable ticketing system, and cost-effective pricing plans designed for smaller businesses. While Gorgias may offer more advanced features, its pricing and complexity could be excessive for small-scale operations.
Setting up Gorgias or Freshdesk for your business isn't overly difficult. Both support service tools offer intuitive setup processes with step-by-step guides and customer support to assist you along the way. However, Gorgias might require a bit more configuration due to its advanced features, whereas Freshdesk tends to be more straightforward, especially for small businesses. Overall, with some time and attention, either help desk platform can be successfully implemented for your business's needs.
Gorgias offers tiered pricing based on the number of support tickets processed per month and additional features required. Pricing starts at around $60 per month for smaller businesses with basic needs and scales up for larger enterprises with more extensive requirements. Custom pricing options are also available for businesses with specific needs beyond the standard plans. It's best to check their website or contact their sales team for the most accurate pricing details tailored to your business.
Freshdesk offers various pricing plans to cater to different business needs. Their plans start with a free version, which is suitable for small businesses with basic requirements. Paid plans, such as the Blossom, Garden, and Estate plans, offer more features and support options, with prices ranging from approximately $15 to $99 per agent per month when billed annually. There's also a Forest plan for larger enterprises with customizable pricing.
Gorgias is tailored for eCommerce, focusing on advanced automation and integration. It offers features like AI-powered responses and deep eCommerce platform integrations. Freshdesk, on the other hand, caters to a broader audience with a comprehensive feature set including ticketing, live chat, and phone support. Its pricing is more flexible, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes and industries.
Gorgias and Freshdesk offer integrations with social media platforms. They allow businesses to manage customer inquiries and interactions from channels like Facebook, X, Instagram, and more directly within their helpdesk interface. These integrations streamline communication and help businesses provide efficient support across multiple channels.
Freshdesk is generally more suitable for small businesses due to its user-friendly interface, customizable ticketing system, and affordable pricing plans tailored for smaller operations. Gorgias, while offering advanced features, might be overkill in terms of pricing and complexity for small-scale businesses.
When comparing Freshdesk and Gorgias, there are a few limitations and drawbacks to consider:
- Cost: Gorgias can be more expensive, especially for small businesses, due to its pricing structure based on the number of support tickets processed and additional features required.
- Complexity: Gorgias, with its advanced automation and integration capabilities, may have a steeper learning curve compared to Freshdesk, which offers a more straightforward setup and interface.
- Target audience: Freshdesk caters to a broader range of businesses and industries, while Gorgias is primarily designed for e-commerce businesses, potentially limiting its applicability to businesses outside this niche.
- Feature set: While Gorgias offers advanced automation and integration features, Freshdesk provides a comprehensive set of tools, including ticketing, live chat, phone support, and community forums. Depending on your business needs, one platform may offer more relevant features than the other.
