Freshchat Review 2024 — CRM, Marketing & Sales Messaging in a Single App

With mobile and social media usage on the rise, chat is now an important channel for customer engagement and support. Freshchat, from SaaS company Freshworks, is a conversational experience management platform that makes it simple to resolve text-based customer queries from any channel.

In our Freshchat review, we test the platform’s core features and AI capabilities. We also compare it with LiveChat, one of its closest competitors. Through our tests, we tell you the pros and cons of Freshchat and how to start using it for your organization.

At a starting price of $15/month, it is among the most affordable messaging platforms in 2024. We were also impressed by its generative AI assistant, Freddy, but slightly disappointed by the absence of a large integration marketplace.

Read on to learn more about Freshchat messaging.

Freshchat Pros and Cons

Freshchat offers plenty of unique advantages, like its proprietary AI algorithm and calling integration. But it’s not without a few cons – here are the top highlights from our Freshchat review:

Overall, our Freshchat review found many more pros than cons. The flexibility of integration is particularly impressive. So, if you don’t find a built-in connector for an app, you can use the Application Programming Interface (API) to build it yourself.

However, with the 500 chatbot sessions and outbound contact limit, you’re likely to exceed the predicted monthly costs while using Freshchat. Furthermore, its support options are also not at par with some of its competitors like LiveChat.

What Does Freshchat Do and What Is It?

Freshchat is a cloud-based messaging service that allows companies to reach their customers on channels like social media messaging, instant messaging apps, and email.

The Freshchat app acts as a single, centralized interface where companies can manage customer interactions across different messaging channels. Some of the most popular channels supported are Facebook Messenger, Instagram DM, WhatsApp, Telegram, and email.

The solution has three main use cases:

1. First, you can use it for marketing campaigns and send out outbound messages, including large-scale SMS campaigns that target hundreds and thousands of customers.
2. Second, you can use Freshchat for conversational commerce. That’s where customers interact with a brand via chat and use it to directly make a purchase.
3. Finally, Freshchat can be implemented for chat-based customer support and post-sales services.

One of the solution’s biggest USPs is that it’s part of the Freshworks software ecosystem.

Freshworks is a customer service suite spanning help desk, IT service management, sales, multichannel marketing, and chat tools. These can be used as standalone solutions or as a suite.

Freshchat is Freshworks’ messaging service that natively integrates with the rest of the company’s offerings. The company launched the software in September 2017 as a way to harness messaging as a key touchpoint on the customer journey.

Since then, the solution has evolved significantly, recently incorporating generative artificial intelligence (genAI) to bring ChatGPT-like features to its users.

How Does Freshchat Work?

When you install the software, it’ll prompt you to choose the channels where you want to reach customers. Once you set up the integration, all the messages you receive on that channel will pour into a centralized space called the Team Inbox.

From the Team Inbox, agents can assign conversations to each other and respond to customer queries.

Or, you can set up Freshchat to automatically respond to incoming queries using a bot. The company provides you with different templates for configuring the bot and its conversation flow. In our tests, we found that 500 Freddy chatbot sessions are included with every paid Freshchat plan.

As we mentioned, Freshchat is a cloud service billed on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. You pay a fixed amount for the core software plus an additional fee for add-ons like outbound SMS campaign contacts and VoIP calling.

The company stores your data and hosts all the chat processes on the cloud. Its data centers for this service are in the US, India, Australia, and the European Economic Area. It is fully GDPR-compliant and makes it easier for users to comply with GDPR as well.

Simply navigate to Settings > Security and Compliance > GDPR Settings > General Settings on the app (as an admin) to configure different options like IP data storage and analytics opt-in/opt-out. Further, when you sign up for Freshchat, you can choose where to host your data.

Who Is Freshchat Messaging For?

Freshchat messaging is suitable for companies of all sizes looking to use messaging as a key touchpoint for marketing, sales, and customer support.

Freschat has a limited free forever plan that supports up to 10 agents. This is suitable for solopreneurs and small businesses that want to consolidate their messaging-based customer communications in one place.

Using Freshchat, you could effectively set up a contact center for your messaging channels entirely for free.

The software also has plenty of features for medium-sized and large businesses. For example, canned responses help you respond faster when customer chat volumes are high. Further, analytics give managers visibility into how agents are performing.

Large enterprises can also benefit from the Freshchat messaging service, team performance reports, advanced automations, live translations, business hours for different groups, and skill-based routing are some of the enterprise-facing features we tested.

The only prerequisite for Freshchat messaging is that you should have a substantial number of customers already on chat platforms. If you have a major social media presence or want to provide 24/7 availability to customers, Freshchat is a good option.

How Much Is Freshchat? Full Pricing Details

There’s also a free version that supports up to 10 agents. However, this plan doesn’t include any bot sessions, and you can only manage live chat with the free-forever Freshchat plan.

In addition to the core software, the company offers a number of paid add-ons.

These include additional bot-based self-service sessions ($100 for 1000 bot sessions), telephony add-ons (approximately $15/agent/month), outbound contacts (approximately $100 for 5000 contacts), and day passes to temporarily add an extra agent (approximately $5/pass).

In our Freshchat review, we also found that the pricing may differ slightly depending on where you are. For example, the starting price in India is INR 1,499/agent/month, which comes to approximately $17.99, and in the EU the entry-level plan costs €19, which comes to $20.73.

Note that Freshchat prices don’t include taxes unless explicitly stated.

To calculate your exact pricing, visit the Freshchat page.

Freshchat offers four plans for solo, small, medium-sized, and enterprise businesses, each at a different price point and with a distinct feature set.

1. Free

The base plan is great for business owners just starting out with chat-based customer interactions and are yet to fully monetize these channels. The plan includes configurable chat conversations, intent detection, website chat widgets, bot analytics, and 24×5 support.

However, it only supports three channels – websites, email, and mobile app messaging via Software Development Kits (SDKs). You can only add up to 10 agents.

2. Growth

This plan integrates with social media messaging channels, SMS, WhatsApp, and Google Business Messages. Also, you get 500 free bot sessions with the company’s proprietary AI software, Freshbot. Task management for ongoing conversations is an added feature in the Growth plan.

Further, it includes a slightly basic dashboard and more integrations than the Free plan, like WordPress.

3. Pro

This plan is meant for medium-sized to large businesses and has all the features included in the previous two plans, as well as custom agent roles and permissions. You also get the option to schedule emails, target users based on segments, and download chat transcripts.

Another useful feature is advanced automations, where you can automate your first response, escalation, and other actions from a dedicated app.

The Pro plan includes auro-resolution and auto-assignment based on activity and workloads.

With Pro, you can design a custom app marketplace for your team. However, it’s missing JSON Web Token (JWT) authentication, which is a lightweight mechanism for information exchange and security.

4. Enterprise

This is the most expensive Freshchat plan available and is almost identical to Pro, with a few added advantages. You can now set your own API rate limit, which means that data interchange between two integrated apps becomes simpler. You get JWT authentication as well.

In our Freshhat review, we found that both the Pro and Enterprise plans have the same dashboard capabilities. Companies looking to analyze agent performance in detail don’t necessarily need to purchase the more expensive plan.

Should You Buy the Freshchat App or the Customer Service Suite?

Freshchat is a standalone app from Freshworks, but you can get several of its functionalities in the Customer Service Suite, which is an end-to-end collection of tools for omnichannel engagement. Pricing starts at $29/agent/month, which includes basic chat, contact management, ticketing, and self-service.

Detailed analytics, advanced automations, custom roles, and several other features are missing from the Customer Service Suite. On the other hand, it is a more affordable and comprehensive solution for businesses that aren’t focused only on chat.

Freshchat Features – What’s Included?

Freshchat offers 20+ features to simplify your messaging and CRM needs, and many of them are AI-assisted. Here is a brief rundown:

1. Support for Multiple Messaging Channels

Freshchat is compatible with social media and other asynchronous messaging channels like email. You can use Freshchat bots or live agents on WhatsApp, Instagram, Google Business Messages, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram.

Besides this, you can connect your support mailbox with the platform to respond to them from Freshchat. This is applicable for SMS, as well as Apple Messages for business. The API lets you integrate Freshchat with any channel, such as an in-house app.

2. Widgets for Your Websites

You can embed a Freschat widget in your website. Whenever a customer enters a query, you can answer it via Freshchat. There’s also a team widget that inserts the Freshchat interface into your team’s existing CRM and helpdesk tools so they can answer queries without switching platforms.

3. Customer Journey Design

Freshchat includes a Journeys feature, which is essentially a way to design the customer’s conversational experience. You can set up intricate flows, segment chat visitors, trigger messages based on intent, and much more.

Using Journeys, you can even send images, GIFs, and videos to your customer to enhance their experience. The whole process is GUI-based and doesn’t require any coding skills. It also gives you data on your ongoing campaigns to analyze the efficacy of customer journeys.

4. AI Chatbots Powered by Freddy

The bots in Freshchat automate how you respond to customer queries and help resolve tickets faster. Freshchat’s proprietary AI assistant, Freddy, can handle the end-to-end conversation. Or, you can automatically collect contextual information from customers to direct them to the best-fit agent.

The company has trained the AI to handle several common use cases, such as e-commerce, mutual fund investments, flight issues, education, healthcare, and logistics. These act as a great starting point for personalizing the conversation, either with your own flow or with Freshchat’s templates.

Keep in mind that AI-enabled sessions aren’t included in the free Freshchat app, and that paid plans only have 500 sessions included.

5. The Freshchat SDK

The solution’s Software Development Kit (SDK) is a mobile-first set of programming tools that lets you integrate Freshchat into any app you’re building. It’s compatible with native Android, native iOS, React Native, PhoneGap, and Xamarin apps.

Once integrated, your app will have all of Freshchat’s features, like FAQs, color-themed chat experiences, push notifications, embedded links, and so on. Also, you can incorporate CSAT surveys into chat conversations using the SDK.

6. Team Inbox

Team Inbox is the unified workspace where agents can work together. It brings together all the messages you receive from WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, Facebook, LINE, websites, mobile apps, etc. It extracts customer information to provide agents with more context.

The inbox has several capabilities built in to improve agent productivity. For example, users can prioritize incoming messages and choose which one to respond to first. They can exchange private notes with their teams and forward customer messages to each other.

7. Quick Actions for Agents

When contact center agents use Freshchat, they can take advantage of various tools and shortcuts to get the job done faster. This includes canned responses, which are predefined replies for common queries. You can also act on multiple conversations in bulk ( resolve, assign, edit, delete, etc.).

Freshchat can translate your text in real-time using the live translate feature, which supports 30+ languages. Every conversation comes with a customer intelligence snapshot that informs the agent about the customer’s journey so far, website behavior, and demographic details.

8. Agent Assignment Rules

Freshchat helps you assign the right agents to a customer conversation. It has an AI-powered IntelliAssign feature that routes messages to team members based on their skill levels and workload.

You can also create custom rules based on customer segments, the query topic, the time of day, or even the exact textual content of a message. Different team members can be assigned different roles based on which the app will route messages.

9. Dashboards and Insights

Freshchat gives you insights into the various aspects of conversational experiences, from agent performance to customer satisfaction.

This includes both real-time dashboards as well as historical data reports on how the team is handling chat volumes, customer satisfaction issues, and query resolution challenges.

You can download reports for later access. Further, Freshchat integrates with all popular business intelligence tools, like PowerBI, so you can incorporate chat data into your overall business analyses.

10. Freddy Copilot and Insights

Copilot is a generative AI capability that’s currently in the beta stage. Freddy Copilot uses AI to summarize conversations, rephrase your responses, enhance the tone, draft emails, summarize transcripts, and even create end-to-end solution articles.

Like Copilot, Freshchat has another generative AI feature called Freddy Insights. Using this tool, you can enter a prompt or a query in natural language and receive analytics data in response. Freddy Insights also gives you proactive recommendations after every interaction.

11. Optional Add-ons

You can enhance Freshchat by installing optional add-ons such as Freshcaller, day passes, and campaign contacts.

Freshcaller is a VoIP phone service from Freshworks that lets agents make calls and send messages via Freshchat. Day passes allow a single agent to join the team for a day, and campaign contacts let you expand the reach of your messaging content to 100,000 customers or more.

Freshchat Interface and Ease of Use

Since it’s a cloud-based service, Freshchat is primarily available through its web portal, .freshchat.com.

When you sign up, it’ll ask you for your company’s name, which automatically becomes the unique domain name for the portal – if your company is CatsAreAmazing, then your web address will be catsareamazing.freshchat.com.

The user interface is simple and easy to use. You have the navigation pane on your left-hand side and your most commonly accessed tools and shortcuts (calendar, settings, recent apps, etc.) on the right. Most of the activity happens in the middle of the window, which shows your current conversation.

The design is extremely intuitive, and everything is precisely where you’d expect. For instance, when you start a conversation, Freshchat will automatically fetch and show important contact details like the customer segment, their location, lifetime value, and any other details you configure.

The solution’s artificial intelligence capabilities also add to its ease of use. You can easily create automated conversational experiences that take care of common tasks like cancellations, refund management, and providing information in case of delayed orders.

We appreciated how neatly everything was arranged when we tested multiple ongoing conversations on Freshchat. The software stacks the conversations on top of each other, with a minimized view of concurrent activities and an expanded view of the one you’re handling right now.

The analytics aspect of Freshchat is easy to explore and understand. We spent a lot of time pouring over the visual dashboard and interactive filters. The company’s gen AI capabilities (Beta) lets you analyze data using commands and prompts that you type in a natural language.

The company primarily intends Freshchat to be used as a web app, and not as a downloadable software on your desktop, laptop, or phone. However, you do have a downloadable option via WebCatalog, a third-party service that develops installable files from web-based software.

Freshchat Mobile App and API

You can also install Freschat on your Android or iOS phone. The mobile version gives agents a handy way to respond to customer queries on the move. That said, Freshchat’s mobile interface is relatively basic and does not have value-adding features like analytics, dashboards, and automations.

Freshchat’s API documentation also deserves mention. The company has set up a detailed API documentation page for developers’ benefit. This includes resources that make integrating Freshchat a simple and straightforward process.

What Can You Use It With? Freshchat Integrations

Interestingly, we found in our Freshchat review that the messaging service doesn’t have a vast integration marketplace. Instead, it offers pre-built connections with a selection of business applications.

You don’t need to download or install anything; when you select an app, Freshchat guides you through the integration process. You can use it with social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.

It also supports Google Business Messages, Apple Business Chats, LINE, and Slack.

For e-commerce, you can connect Freshchat with your Shopify page so you can provide chat support to your Shopify customers. You can also connect Stripe for in-chat payment support.

Apart from this, the solution integrates with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software like Salesforce, Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Freshsales.

The Clearbit integration surfaces customer intelligence about B2B queries, while the Calendly integration enables bookings within Freshchat. And you can use the WordPress integration to insert the Freshchat widget into any WordPress website.

Freshchat Comparison Against Other CRM Services

Chat-based customer relationships are a critical focus area for businesses in 2024. Research shows that 83% of customers browse or buy products through messaging conversations. It is also a popular channel for self-service and live support.

That is why solutions like Freshchat, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Salesforce, Pipedrive, and Zoho CRM are gaining popularity. All of them offer chat management and customer engagement, among other features. Here’s a detailed comparison:

Each of these top CRM products addresses a different use case, ranging from chat-first experiences to sales pipeline management and contact center ticketing. You can conduct your own research to select the ideal tool for your company and even use 2 or more of these apps together, depending on your needs.

Freshchat vs LiveChat – Side-by-Side Comparison

As part of our Freshchat review, we also looked at one of the company’s closest competitors in this segment, LiveChat. The solution was launched in 2002, and offers a centralized platform to manage multichannel messaging conversations with your customers.

Freshchat and LiveChat have several things in common, which is why you may want to evaluate both for your CX needs. LiveChat also has a native help desk integration (called HelpDesk). Like Freshchat, it too offers AI-powered conversations and a generative AI tool called ChatBot AI Assist.

In addition, both solutions offer embedded chat widgets in your websites, real-time and historical analytics, e-commerce integrations, and APIs. Team management features for the two apps are also similar.

However, Freshchat is also different from LiveChat in several important ways. Here is a breakdown:

Overall, LiveChat is a powerful solution for managing conversational customer support, sales, and marketing. However, it lags behind Freshchat in terms of artificial intelligence capabilities. It is also more expensive.

Freshchat Reviews – What Are People Saying?

On G2, Freshchat is rated 4.4 on a scale of 1-5 based on more than 400 customer reviews. Customers appreciate its ease of use and Whatsapp integration, but some have noted occasional glitches during communication.

On GetApp, it’s rated 4.1 out of 5, based on 100+ reviews. Here, too, the user interface earns special mention. Customers are also happy about small, value-adding features like custom tags for your contacts. However, some reviewers have mentioned occasional glitches, like sound notifications not working.

Freshchat is rated 4.1 on 5 on Capterra as well, based on data from 100+ reviews. Its feature set and value for money stand out as the biggest selling points. Integrations with some social platforms like TikTok are missing, as customers have pointed out.

Our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Guides

If you aren’t sure how to go about adopting Freshchat and what to expect from CRM tools, we’ve got you covered. Check out our in-depth CRM guides and reviews right here:

Why You Can Trust Our Review of Freshchat

The TechReport team has been at the forefront of technology journalism since 1999. Over the years, our team has reviewed hundreds of products in diverse categories, from VoIP to CRM. For this Freshchat review, we tested the messaging service’s core features, integrations, and end-user experience.

We signed up for the free-forever version for our tests and explored the essential functionalities of the software, such as the inbox, analytics dashboards, team collaboration, and the ease of managing customer contacts. We also tested the quality of Freshchat’s support.

Our insights are bolstered by our experiences of testing other CRM software and Freshchat’s close competitors, like LiveChat. This allows us to bring an objective perspective to the review and provide you with detailed comparative analysis and insights.

We have also referred to real-world user reviews of Freshchat from trusted forums like G2, Capterra, and GetApp. The insights gathered from customer opinions on these platforms have also informed our conclusions, in addition to hands-on tests.

How to Use Freshchat? A Step-By-Step Guide

Freshchat has a free-forever version, which we used for our tests. Here are the steps you need to follow to get started with this messaging service:

1. Sign Up for Your Account

Visit the pricing page on the Freshchat website and choose your preferred plan. You can always start for free with 10 agents and then scale up to Growth, Pro, or Enterprise as needed. We were happy to see that you don’t need your credit card details for a trial, which makes it easier to get started.

Enter your name, business email, company details, and phone number. This will automatically create your Freshchat account and redirect you to your Freshchat portal, with the company name as the unique domain name.

2. Set Up Freshchat

Next, Freshchat guides you through the account setup process and personalization options. You can upload your company logo, customize the site name, and choose your brand color so that Freshchat is consistent with all the other business apps you use.

The platform lets you choose a background texture as well. Check how it all looks on the preview pane on the right-hand side and click on Next.

You’re now ready to complete your profile. Upload a profile picture, enter your name and designation, and describe yourself. Click on Next once done.

Here, you’ll be prompted to select which integrations you want. Popular integrations like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Line, and Apple Business Chat will appear right at the setup stage. You can choose additional ones later from the integration marketplace.

In the last step of the setup process, you will be prompted to install the Freshchat widget code on your website so that customers can chat with your agents directly from a web page.

Choose the code type you want to install (Javascript, WordPress, or Shopify) and click Next for instructions on exactly where to copy-paste the code snippet.

You can also skip the step if you’re not using the widget feature and go directly into the team inbox.

3. Explore the Portal

Once the account setup and integrations are done, you’re redirected to the Freshchat web portal. This has several important modules, such as the dashboard, where you’ll see insights about your website/app and agents, and the team inbox, where you can respond to customers and collaborate with other agents.

The web portal also lets you monitor ongoing messaging campaigns and start new ones. You can set up FAQs for your website and create customer segments. To use these features, navigate to the left side of the portal and select the module you need by clicking on the relevant icon.

4. Generate Reports

In addition to real-time analytics on your dashboard, you can also generate historical reports that reveal how a particular trend or KPI has evolved over time. Click on any one of the five reporting options from the portal to assemble the data you need.

Freshchat Review Takeaways – Is It Worth It?

Freshchat is ideal for companies scaling their customer-facing chat services, whether it’s marketing or post-sales support. It offers advanced features like AI and automations at an affordable price with optional add-ons as you grow your business.

The solution’s most significant USP is Freddy, the newly launched generative AI assistant that will help you in daily tasks and during data analysis. We were also impressed by its ease of use, and Frehchat’s free-forever option is definitely a plus.

Bear in mind that it doesn’t integrate with all your messaging channels, such as TikTok and LinkedIn. Limits on chatbot sessions and outbound SMS campaigns also mean that you risk exceeding your monthly cost estimations.

Overall, Freshchat is a great place to start your messaging-based CRM journey and a must-have for any retail business already subscribed to the Freshworks ecosystem.

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