Kayako vs Freshdesk

LiveAgent

Zendesk Suite

Tidio

Award-winning live chat, help desk, ticketing and call center software with powerful AI features. Start for free with a 30-day trial.

Zendesk offers an AI-powered service platform that unifies conversations from multiple channels. It features AI agents for resolving inquiries, ticketing for support requests, and analytics for tracking service quality. Its Resolution Learning Loop technology enhances automation by integrating AI, human agents, and knowledge resources on one platform.

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Senior Director of Advertising and eCommerce

Kayako has streamlined our customer service operations by providing a scalable and customizable solution.

VP of Growth

Three weeks or so before the team stopped hovering.

Kayako - Customer Support Software made personal and simple with a unified customer service platform that helps you build closer relationships.

Access Controls/Permissions

Activity Tracking

AI Copilot

Alerts/Escalation

Alerts/Notifications

Application Management

Asset Tracking

Automated Routing

Autoresponders

Availability Management

Call Center Management

Capacity Management

Change Management

Chat/Messaging

Collaboration Tools

Communication Management

Configurable Workflow

Configuration Management

Contract/License Management

Customer Database

Customizable Branding

Customizable Fields

Customizable Forms

Customizable Reports

Dashboard

Data Visualization

Email Management

Email Templates

Event Triggered Actions

Feedback Management

Help Desk Management

Incident Management

Interaction Tracking

Issue Auditing

Issue Management

Knowledge Base Management

Live Chat

Mobile Access

Monitoring

Multi-Channel Communication

Multi-Language

Offline Form

Performance Metrics

Problem Management

Project Management

Queue Management

Real-Time Chat

Real-time Consumer-facing Chat

Real-Time Data

Real-Time Monitoring

Recurring Issues

Release Management

Reporting/Analytics

Reporting & Statistics

Role-Based Permissions

Rules-Based Workflow

Search/Filter

Self Service Portal

Service Catalog

Service Level Agreement (SLA) Management

Single Sign On

Social Media Integration

Support Ticket Management

Surveys & Feedback

Tagging

Third-Party Integrations

Ticket Management

Website Integration

Workflow Management

Some users say Kayako offers reasonable pricing and appreciate the included features, while reviewers indicate the per-user cost is value-friendly. However, many users report price increases, unexpected billing issues, and dissatisfaction with subscription fees and extra charges.

Value for money

By industry, Kayako reviewers are most commonly professionals in computer software (23%). The most frequent use case for Kayako cited by reviewers is customer support (68% of reviewers).

Kayako

Web-based

Windows

iPad

Android

Linux

iPhone

Olark

Freshdesk

ESSENTIAL

ENTERPRISE

Admin

You approve or tweak the draft, publish it, and Kay handles that ticket type unassisted from then on.

What surprised me was how much of it happens quietly in the background: ticket routing, KB drafting, first-pass resolutions.

Staff Software Engineer

I was able to resolve a customer issue quickly by tracking their ticket and providing a solution, all in one platform.

This enables efficient organization and tracking, while facilitating multi-channel customer engagement.

Senior Field Technician

The main interface is clunky, sometimes tickets are slow to load in and notifications were easy to miss.

That's when we started turning on autonomous handling, category by category.

Then you start noticing the drafts need less and less adjustment.

Director of Operations

Setting up the automations can be a bit difficult when you are first learning the program.

At some point your agents are just clicking send.

Automation of messaging with the customers.

Software engineer

For example, navigating through all the features and setting up.

Engineer

I like how quickly my issues have been resolved using this platform.

Manager Operations

The thing I liked the most is its on going monitoring of tickets, once a ticket cross a specified time defined, that ticket has got highlighted which means an overdue ticket requires you immediate attention.

Adding notes to the users and on current tickets is one of the great features of this software which allows the other users to understand the user and help them accordingly.

It allows to make different sections and sub section which helps for better management of your tickets.

Systems administrator 

Renewals are fraught with misleading comments and empty promises.  

Sometime the keyboard stops responding and despite the typing nothing has been going to write on the answer section of the ticket which sometimes is very annoying.

It keep the track of all tickets, open, in progress and closed ones.

I can managed unassigned tickets easily by assigning it to relevant persons.

Software Trainee

The Database management and queue management is the thing I lile best about this software.

Partner Relations Manager

I found Kayako to be an easy-to-use product.

Freelance Web Developer

The support for a JWT-based sign in for customers into the help centre means that people have a single account to sign in to everything, rather than creating separate accounts like you'd have to do with Zendesk or similar, and it just makes life a whole lot easier overall.

Naturopathic Doctor

Very helpful to start-up business as it provides total help desk and customer support in a more efficient manner.

I also find the notifications it provides are very iffy, sometimes not being delivered - and for some infuriating reason, there's no option to deliver emails for replies only when you're not already online!

Owner

A few days ago I received an email from kayako requesting that I contact them about my renewal. When I did, they informed me they would be increasing their pricing by 600% for this year, and an additional 25% each year thereafter.

IT Dept. Manager

I'm trying out the software, the documentations does not cover all possible scenarios.

many features do not work as in the documentation.

running and maintain requires a software development background.

I have used kayako as a knowledge base for my software.

Really easy and streamlined customer experience.

Customer Support

Knowledge Base

Communication

Features

Customer Tracking

Agent Support

Bugs and Issues

Pricing

Options

Freelancers

Small Business

Large Enterprises

Mid-size Business

Some users report that Kayako offers reasonable pricing compared to alternatives and appreciate the value-friendly per-user cost, especially when discounts or legacy licenses apply. Some reviewers find the included features at certain price points beneficial and say the app’s functionality matches or exceeds its cost. However, many reviewers feel the pricing is high, especially after recent increases and the shift from perpetual to subscription-based fees. Users indicate frustration with unexpected charges, auto-renewals, and separate support fees, and some say the cost outweighs the benefits, particularly for long-term or self-hosted customers.

Aurea

Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is a web and mobile-based customer service software that enables businesses of all sizes and types to deliver customer support, empower agents, and maintain operations.

Account Manager

Freshdesk sometimes feels not to offer enough collaboration features between customer support and Sales teams who both work on the platform.

Software Engineer

In short, it has helped us to provide personalized, real-time customer service and support to our clientele, thus boosting customer satisfaction and efficiently streamlining problem resolution.

Software Engineer-II

Firstly, it has vastly improved our customer service; with Freshdesk, we can centralize the management of all customer requests, which speeds up our responses and helps us solve issues more quickly.

Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer service software that offers powerful solutions that businesses of all sizes use to strengthen customer relationships across channels.

Kayako vs Freshdesk Comparison (2026)

Kayako

Freshdesk

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives