Freshdesk alternative
The Freshdesk alternative priced per mailbox.
Freshdesk is a classic ticketing help desk, priced per agent. Parly keeps your support@ as a shared inbox, priced per mailbox with unlimited teammates, and lets the team answer customer email right in a Slack or Teams thread.
What a team of 5 pays
Parly
€19/ month
One mailbox, the whole team. Replying to customers from Slack and Teams is included: no add-on, no per-agent seats. Helpdesk mode (€39 in total) only if you want assignment, customer companies and categories.
Freshdesk Growth
$95/ month, billed annually
5 agents × $19. Billed monthly: $115 a month. Freshdesk's page also lists €17 annual / €20 monthly per agent.
Prices as of October 2026, excluding tax, from Freshdesk’s pricing page, in the currency it shows. Every sixth, seventh or tenth teammate costs the same on Parly: nothing.
Parly and Freshdesk, side by side
| Parly | Freshdesk | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per mailbox, unlimited teammates | Per agent, $19 (annual) or $23 (monthly) on Growth |
| Reply from Slack | Customer email arrives as a thread; Reply there sends real email from your address. Every plan. | Public reply from the Slack app's Home tab; replies in the channel thread become private notes. |
| Reply from Microsoft Teams | Customer email arrives as a card in a channel; Reply sends real email from your address. Every plan. | Public reply from the Freshdesk Teams app. |
| Reply to customers from Slack or Teams, team of 5 | €19 a month for the whole team, included in the mailbox: no add-on, no per-agent seats. | Teams public replies and Slack replies (from the app's Home tab) on Growth: 5 × $19 = $95 a month (annual). Replies in a Slack thread become private notes. |
| Existing Microsoft 365 mailbox | Microsoft sign-in, or any mailbox over IMAP. No forwarding, no DNS changes. | Microsoft 365 sign-in for your own mail server on Growth and up. |
| EU hosting | EU hosted, every plan. | EEA data centre, chosen at signup. |
| AI | AI assist (drafts, summaries, translation) included while in preview. | Freddy AI Agent: 500 sessions included, then $49 per 100; Copilot $29 per agent (annual). |
| Getting started | First month free, no card needed. | 14-day free trial. |
Freshdesk details from its own pricing and help pages, October 2026.
Why teams switch
- Per-agent pricing: five agents on Growth is five seats; in Parly the whole team shares one mailbox price.
- In Parly the reply is written in the Slack thread itself and goes out as email; in Freshdesk a reply in the channel thread becomes a private note.
- You want to keep working the mailbox you have, not run a ticket system with portal and forms.
When Freshdesk is the better choice
Teams that want a classic ticketing help desk: a customer portal, a knowledge base, SLA management and an AI agent quota on the entry plan, five data-centre regions, and the wider Freshworks suite (phone, CRM) around it.
Questions
- Is Parly cheaper than Freshdesk?
- For a team, yes. Freshdesk Growth is $19 per agent per month billed annually ($23 monthly), so 5 agents pay $95 to $115 a month. Parly is €19 per mailbox per month for the whole team, replies from Slack and Teams included. Helpdesk mode (€39 in total) is only needed if you want assignment, customer companies and categories. Prices as of October 2026, excluding tax.
- Can I reply from Slack and Teams like in Freshdesk?
- Partly. Freshdesk lets agents send a public reply from its Slack app's Home tab, but a reply typed in the channel thread becomes a private note. In Parly the email is the thread: Reply in the thread sends real email from your address. Both Freshdesk and Parly support replies from Microsoft Teams; in Parly every email arrives in the channel as a card with a Reply button.
- Can I move my support@ from Freshdesk to Parly?
- Yes. Parly connects to the mailbox itself: sign in with Microsoft for Microsoft 365, or connect any other mailbox over IMAP. Stop forwarding it to Freshdesk, and new mail flows into Parly from the moment you connect. Your past Freshdesk tickets stay in Freshdesk; Parly does not import them.
- Is my data hosted in the EU?
- Yes, on every plan. Freshdesk also offers an EEA data centre, which you choose when you sign up.
- Does Parly do everything Freshdesk does?
- No, and it does not try to. Parly is a shared inbox for email, website chat, Slack and Teams, with assignment, SLAs, automation, reports and AI assist. Teams that want a classic ticketing help desk: a customer portal, a knowledge base, SLA management and an AI agent quota on the entry plan, five data-centre regions, and the wider Freshworks suite (phone, CRM) around it.
Try Parly instead of Freshdesk.
Connect the mailbox you already have and invite the whole team. €19 per mailbox per month, unlimited teammates, first month free.