Comparison
Coasting vs Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a large, long-established helpdesk. Its forever-free plan ended, and its current free program runs for six months with two agents. Coasting is a much smaller product with a flat price and AI answers included.
The short answer
- Choose Freshdesk when you need phone and social channels, a big integration list, or the depth a large vendor gives you.
- Choose Coasting when you are a handful of people answering email and website chat, and you would rather not pay per agent or per AI answer.
Pricing
| Freshdesk | Coasting | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Not permanent: the Free Program gives up to 2 agents for 6 months | Yes, no time limit: 3 agents, 50 AI answers a month |
| Cheapest paid plan | Growth, $19 per agent a month billed yearly | $29 a month flat, up to 5 agents |
| A team of five costs | About $95 a month on Growth | $29 a month |
| AI answers | Freddy AI Agent: 500 sessions included, then $49 per 100 | 500 a month included at $29; 5,000 at $79 |
| AI help for agents | Copilot, $29 per agent a month on Pro and above | AI drafts and summaries included |
| Can you pay today? | Yes | Not yet - paid plans are opening soon; the free plan works now |
Freshdesk prices checked 14 September 2026 from freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing, and the free program terms from their own support article. Check both before deciding - prices change.
What Coasting does today
- Customer email and website chat in one shared inbox, with assignment, tags, private notes and collision detection.
- AI that answers from your own help articles and hands the rest to your team.
- A public help centre, saved replies, CSAT surveys, automations and analytics.
- CSV import, so you can bring your existing contacts and tickets across.
What Coasting does not do yet
- Phone and social channels - no calls, Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp. Freshdesk has all of them.
- Mobile apps - Coasting runs in a browser.
- A large integration marketplace - Coasting has a REST API and webhooks, and that is it.
- Paid plans are not open yet - the free plan works today, but you cannot buy Growth or Scale until checkout opens.
If any of these is a must-have today, Freshdesk is the better fit right now.
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