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Freshdesk vs Hornbill Systems Supportworks comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Freshdesk
Ranking in Help Desk Software
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
Customer Experience Management (5th), Field Service Management (3rd), Knowledge Management Software (5th)
Hornbill Systems Supportworks
Ranking in Help Desk Software
37th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
IT Service Management (ITSM) (39th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Freshdesk is 3.0%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hornbill Systems Supportworks is 0.9%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Freshdesk3.0%
Hornbill Systems Supportworks0.9%
Other96.1%
Help Desk Software
 

Featured Reviews

Gauri Thakur - PeerSpot reviewer
Director, Portfolio Projects at Microland Limited
Integrated support workflows have provided a unified view but need broader enterprise flexibility
Freshdesk's scalability could be improved for larger businesses across departments. Its intuitive interface is appealing for small to medium-sized businesses. However, when you look at larger enterprise levels, ServiceNow operates more efficiently. This scalability is an area where Freshdesk could expand its offerings. Additionally, I don't have too much hands-on experience with Freshdesk ticket routing. I need to check with the service desk team if they've used it. Similarly, for analytics capability, I haven't explored much on Freshdesk, but I have done it for ServiceNow. I have seen a lot on ServiceNow and the BMC Remedy, so I can speak better for them. I haven't had the chance to look at it so much that I can do a comparison. I haven't had much experience with Freshdesk's reporting. Within its paradigm of customer service management, Freshdesk is quite scalable. But I've said that inter-department and the interoperability is better off in ServiceNow than in Freshdesk.
it_user1262703 - PeerSpot reviewer
Service Desk Team Leader at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Excels in call logging and call flows but is limited in terms of scalability
I'd advise others to map their processes out before starting with the solution. Hornbill has recently generated a new version of its product and it meets some of the requirements that we would have been looking for. It's a bit more scalable, a bit more responsive to a customer-focused model for support, and they've improved a lot of things like process flow and self-service. In terms of rating the solution, it's difficult to grade. It really depends on the size of the organization that's trying to use it as that tool. One of the reasons why we're looking to shift is because we've grown quite a bit over the years that we've had it, which makes it difficult for it to meet our demands. However, for an organization the size of what we were when we started our journey with it, I'd rate it ten out of ten. Where we are now, with our company size and needs, I'd rate it six out of ten.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Omnichannel is one of the most valuable features of the solution."
"I used Freshdesk for communication with the clients, such as real-time chats."
"Some of the best features of Freshdesk include automation, user-friendly interface, and comprehensive support options that enhance our workflow."
"We have made use of the training academy and the technical support team from Freshdesk. Both have been very good resources."
"The most valuable features of Freshdesk are the automation of tickets to assign them to different agents, and the managing of documents is easy."
"These features are easy to use, and the filtering is really good, providing a good overview of active tickets and who's working on them."
"While using Freshdesk for their ticket management solution for reaching out to the end users, we are transferring a large part of that to the central team which is operating through ServiceNow, so everything which is flowing there ultimately flows into ServiceNow to give a 360-degree view of how well the support is running."
"The ticketing system is smooth, but since we use a free version, we do not have many facilities available."
"The solution's business process flow is quite strong. Its reporting is quite good. The standard, basic ITSM functionality like call logging and call flow, for example, are areas the solution really excels in."
 

Cons

"The billing issues I have with Freshdesk are in terms of additional users getting subscribed without my intervention."
"With the advancements in AI now, I will say Freshdesk should consider integrating more AI, but so far, I am satisfied with every single feature."
"It should enhance its service and its reporting capabilities."
"I would like to see improvements in the account management aspect, having a customer portal for better visibility into my subscription, invoices, and trouble tickets."
"Freshdesk's major drawback is its limitation in integrating tools for App Store and Play Store reviews, and social channels like Twitter, which come with additional costs."
"We have many cases where a ticket comes in, and it ends up having multiple team members working on it. It would be really nice to be able to assign a single ticket to multiple people, rather than having to create the parent-child hierarchy that they have set up. It generates a proliferation of tickets that I really don't want to have. Having to jump from a parent to one child and then to another child makes it harder for me to be able to see the entire case from end to end. A simple example is our new hire process or our termination process. We have people who leave. We also have people who come on board. We have got multiple people participating and doing things related to the leaving or onboarding process. Currently, I have to go to different tickets to be able to see whether all tasks are really done or not. If I could assign lots of people to one ticket, it would be really nice."
"I would like a better integration towards Azure DevOps. The current integration is more complicated and doesn’t work as well."
"It would be helpful to pull reports or schedule them based on agents, users, ticket numbers, or responses."
"It's worked well for us for a significant period of time. However, we are kind-of outgrowing it at the moment. We're struggling a bit with making it meet our requirements."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is costly."
"It was definitely not expensive. It was two grand or maybe three grand total for a year. It has just straight and simple standard licensing fees. There is no additional fee."
"We use a licensing model only so we pay for the number of agents we have configured in the system only."
"Freshdesk was the best solution with the best price. It was cost efficient and included all the features that we needed."
"The price could be better, but it's okay. Compared to ServiceNow and JIRA, Freshworks offers a competitive price. There are also additional licensing costs because you need Microsoft Outlook. Each new email account costs around $15 to $19."
"We use a combination of Freshdesk, Freshservice, and Freshchat. We use the whole suite. Weirdly enough, we pay more for Freshdesk than we do for Freshservice. I would rate it a three out of five in terms of pricing. You can get different bundles, and you can always move to different plans that are standard. Freshservice can go anywhere from $19 up to $120 per agent, per month. There is such a wide range, and it is very customizable to your needs."
"The pricing is pretty manageable and acceptable."
"The best system plan is enterprise. It costs basically 79 Euros per agent per month when it's billed annually and 95 Euros per agent per month when it's billed monthly."
"Our organization pays about $40,000 annually. There are ongoing consultancy costs and if we want to change anything, we're charged a day rate. Other than that, there are no other extra costs involved in working with the solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise12
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Freshdesk?
Freshdesk significantly improved our customer issue resolution process. We can now easily record and track all customer requests, ensuring that no tickets are lost.
What needs improvement with Freshdesk?
Freshdesk works great, and I do not have any suggestions for improvement; however, I do expect more features to come in the near future. I wish for improvements related to the pricing point to enha...
What is your primary use case for Freshdesk?
My main use case for Freshdesk is for integration with the service desk, where I integrate it with Site24x7 to receive tickets based on notifications triggered by Site24x7. A specific example of ho...
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Also Known As

No data available
Supportworks
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Honda, 3M, Hugo Boss, Petronas, Sony Pictures, The Atlantic, goodreads, Clear Channel Radio, Penn University of Pennsylvania, unicef, Kuoni, Movember
Aylesbury Vale District Council
Find out what your peers are saying about Freshdesk vs. Hornbill Systems Supportworks and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,425 professionals have used our research since 2012.