Freshchat vs. Kustomer

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Freshchat
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
A solution to engage customers with smarter conversations on any channel, designed so support, marketing, sales, and even bots to have conversations at scale with customers.
$19
per month (billed annually) per agent
Kustomer
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Kustomer is a customer service CRM platform built for managing high support volume by optimizing experiences throughout the customer service journey. Kustomer was acquired by Facebook in late 2020, but spun out in 2023 and re-launched as an independent entity, Kustomer, LLC.
$89
per month, per user
Pricing
FreshchatKustomer
Editions & Modules
Growth
$19
per month (billed annually) per agent
Pro
$49
per month (billed annually) per agent
Enterprise
$79
per month (billed annually) per agent
Enterprise
$89
per month, per user
Ultimate
$139
per month, per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FreshchatKustomer
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAll plans require an annual subscription and 8 users minimum.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
FreshchatKustomer
Considered Both Products
Freshchat
Chose Freshchat
I've used the above as an agent and to be fair I inherited Freshdesk when I took my role over. I stuck with it as it does what it says on the tin, it has some good functionality and a good price for what you can get all in if you include Freshdesk too.
Chose Freshchat
Freshchat is way above it’s competitor in features and printing all inclusive support 24/7 ready for our business all this at all lower cost what can you ask for more this helped up be more efficient and allowed us to take our business to the next level all client and user were …
Chose Freshchat
Freshchat provided best possible tool at best possible price.
Chose Freshchat
Freshchat has better integration because of the Fresh suite where the crm is connected t freschhat making information centralized. Also, there is the ticketing system for fresh that helps understand user communication history. Plus WhatsApp is now possible and easier to setup …
Chose Freshchat
The advance feature of the product
The usability and feasibility of the tool
Customer experience point of view is really good.
Chose Freshchat
selected to tie in with our main ITSM tool, and as such we did not on this occasion survey the market place
Chose Freshchat
We have used a self-developed solution for the same purpose with full in-house development however the features vs the value that freshchat provided were worth the selection, freshchat achieved overall better performance and received gemerally more praise, some key advantages …
Chose Freshchat
Freschat has all the basics we need to offer this channel to our customers.
Chose Freshchat
Most of our customers prefer to use the slack app. They also prefer to use it to communicate directly with our Client Success Team for strategic questions/consulting rather than using it to escalate support related issues. Freshchat is great because having it directly in the UI …
Chose Freshchat
Freshchat stands out as a strong live chat and messaging solution, especially for live customer support. Compared to Zendesk explore, which is a tool specifically designed for analytics and reporting. Freshchat is designed for instant communication with customers, making it a …
Chose Freshchat
Honestly, Freshchat was the first choice from the beginning since we were already using Freshdesk ticketing system and we wanted a smooth integration between the products. While we explored a few products, we quickly tested Freschat and sticked to it.
Chose Freshchat
Only did a preliminary investigation as were a Freshdesk user prior, so was an extension of the great offering from Freshdesk
Chose Freshchat
Freshdesk messaging is a chat world whereas Freshdesk is a ticketing world.
Chose Freshchat
We reviewed Zendesk with Freshdesk, but decided to stick with Freshdesk as it works better with our platform.
Chose Freshchat
I have not used other messaging apps like Freshchat messaging. I did look at other options when evaluating if I would use Freshchat and it was apparent that Freshchat was the most cost-effective option with the highest potential for customization and the most features that …
Chose Freshchat
because i found freshdesk is very easy in using , have a usability way , and can show me the priority of the chats easily , i can see all the information and details i need through it , freshdest is the best chat contact i use , its really amazing and its features make it very …
Chose Freshchat
Messaging across mediums - Freshchat integrates with majority of mainstream instant messaging apps. Like Facebook messenger, Telegram and WhatsApp . This makes it convenient for us to have a presence on the above-mentioned platforms and respond to messages from these platforms …
Chose Freshchat
Freshdesk is better it has faster actions and no much options must be filed to solve the issue // what we need to solve the issue is filling 2 blocks and submit the issue to solve it /// having the abilty of contact with more than 3 clients on the same time.
Chose Freshchat
Its easy to use and its very friendly. It requires very less time to train staff on it. Easy to track work and manage work on it. It is integrated with other tools which we can use use to chats done by the agents for their audit purposes. Loved working on it.
Chose Freshchat
The interface of Freschat is quite well designed and structured which is not sluggish to use at all. Also, it has a very easy-to-use interface which makes it easy for the users to operate it. Other than that, Freshchat encompasses all the amazing features of contacting the …
Chose Freshchat
Freshchat has thoroughly helped my business to maximize every action of a user on our platform by enabling us to engage visitors in the right manner by email and chatbots.
Chose Freshchat
I have a lot of software already in my organization which we are using to handle different processes in the organization, Freshchat easily gets integrated with them and gives me all in one platform to manage all of my activities on one platform which is great help for me. It is …
Kustomer
Chose Kustomer
I think that Kustomer is the most user friendly BUT I think the other platforms are built to do a lot more and can be much more customized
Chose Kustomer
I find it baffling how little data can be stored or associated with a customer in many other systems, and how difficult that can be to set up. It is fine if you already have a robust CDP that you can hook up and use to power your CRM, but it is rare that an organization has the …
Chose Kustomer
It has improved a lot of the training time needed for our new hires to understand the Kustomer interface and how to handle communications fully. The time invested went significantly down, and the learning curve improved a lot as well.
Chose Kustomer
Apps like Intercom, Zendesk, and Gorgios all treat customer inquiries as tickets, just tracking that one issue or interaction with a customer. Kustomer treats each customer as an individual, which allows us to provide top-notch customer service. Customers love that we're able …
Chose Kustomer
Kustomer is more modern and capable of so much more any of my other systems have compared to in technical support customer interfaces.
Chose Kustomer
Kustomer is a great fit for our organization because we can cut down on multiple contacts from the same customer and see all their information in one place. It's also infinitely customizable, so if we need changes made we can make them while still using the same platform. This …
Chose Kustomer
Kustomer is different from slack since Slack is just for communicating with the whole team while Kustomer is more on communicating with our customers.
Chose Kustomer
I have never used anything besides Kustomer and I don't know if I ever will because Kustomer is just so helpful!!
Chose Kustomer
The UI of Kustomer is a lot cooler than what we are using before. There are a lot of features that Kustomer has that make things easier and more convenient than Desk.com.
Chose Kustomer
I use both in my role with the company. Our social media channels are managed through Khoros, but we use Kustomer to notate and contact customers outside of social media. I'd much rather bring our social media channels into Kustomer, to help with efficiency.
Chose Kustomer
I have not had any experience with other programs like Kustomer.
Chose Kustomer
Kustomer has a great team that is easy to work with. They are always there to support and are pleasant, as well.
Chose Kustomer
Zendesk: In my opinion, Kustomer is more powerful when used to its full potential due to its workflows/automations.
Chose Kustomer
Kustomer is far more intuitive, personal, and holistic than Zendesk. As a company who has a lot of interaction with a single customer, it is such an advantage to take the customer approach rather than a single ticket approach. Zendesk was very limited in a lot of the actions …
Chose Kustomer
All other systems I have used have been internally-made programs that were a lot more basic order-taking systems, no notes or call functions outside of when order was placed. Doesn't really compare here.
Chose Kustomer
Kustomer simply does more than any other platform I've been able to work with. Sure some others will give you a handful of neat tricks built in for managing a channel or two but those rarely offer any external integrative capacity or limit what you can do in connections. …
Chose Kustomer
Intercom, Kayako, Zendesk, Freshdesk have all been used by myself in the past, and were evaluated before we chose to go with Kustomer.
Chose Kustomer
I was not personally involved in the decision-making process when selecting a new CRM and ultimately settling on Kustomer. That said, I'm happy with the decision to partner with them. Compared to our previous CRMs, it is much easier to work with everything in one place and we …
Chose Kustomer
Kustomer was better suited to the personalized nature of the service that we're trying to provide.
Chose Kustomer
Glovo was using Zendesk before. Kustomer is much more flexible in terms of integration capabilities and customisation.
Chose Kustomer
Moving from Zendesk to Kustomer was driven by the clarity that the customer timeline brings for advocate engagement alongside the custom workflow abilities.
Chose Kustomer
Zendesk did not give a big picture of the customer. It was more of a ticketing platform, and only gave statistics of those conversations. We were unable to track customer sentiment, or other attributes of the customer.
Chose Kustomer
Kustomer is far more scalable and flexible than Zendesk, and it provides a real omni-channel experience far from the "Zendesk for mails, Zendesk chat for chats" we were used to. On the automation and customisation features, it gets even clearer how Kustomer can deal with a lot …
Chose Kustomer
I've used Desk and other platforms in the past and none of them are as interactive or user friendly as Kustomer.
Features
FreshchatKustomer
Chat Analytics and Reports
Comparison of Chat Analytics and Reports features of Product A and Product B
Freshchat
6.5
Ratings
28% below category average
Kustomer
-
Ratings
Chat history and transcripts7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Chat reporting6.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Chat and web analytics6.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Freshchat
-
Ratings
Kustomer
8.1
Ratings
1% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Freshchat
-
Ratings
Kustomer
8.5
Ratings
8% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Freshchat
-
Ratings
Kustomer
8.0
Ratings
3% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
FreshchatKustomer
Small Businesses
Gist
Gist
Score 9.5 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
FreshchatKustomer
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.2
(0 ratings)
7.9
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.1
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
7.3
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(0 ratings)
6.4
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.3
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.6
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.3
(0 ratings)
7.9
(0 ratings)
Configurability
4.5
(0 ratings)
7.9
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.3
(0 ratings)
7.2
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
4.5
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
FreshchatKustomer
Likelihood to Recommend
its good app Freshdesk Messaging help me to contact the customer and contact the customer to inform my problem to solve it and is a good app and help full app and its easy to use uncomplicated and Freshdesk Helps me provide good quality to the customer and make customer feedback good for a company
Read full review
It works really well for you to ask a teammate to review a case/email/message and provide some input since you can all review the same conversations and client accounts. They can also cover your inbox using your email handle in case you are out of the office suing some well deserved PTO.
Read full review
Pros
  • Freshchat has been offering best-in-class chatbots that primarily focus on intent and engagement.
  • It is quite proactive and has rich media campaigns to segment and target audiences.
  • Freshchat is also one of my favorite software because it offers seamless integration with apps.
Read full review
  • All customer data (past orders, communication with customer service, rewards account data) is in one place. This helps agents avoid confusion and reduces the number of tabs they need to open.
  • The Knowledge Base (or K Base) is very helpful. Any time we roll out a new policy or have a limited-time promotion, we can add all the relevant information and worksheets there for the convenience of the agents. That way they can stay in a chat while looking up the answer to a question.
  • We can seamlessly move from chat into email if the customer leaves or the queue times are too long. All the interactions will stay on the customer profile page, so they are kept up to date.
Read full review
Cons
  • Bot communications used to take time to appear, but this was fixed recently and we are now more than satisfied to use it.
  • The initial process of setting up a Freshchat account is a long one.
  • The billing is per member/month which can get expensive fast.
Read full review
  • For our team, the feature that defaults all notes to begin in "done" status is difficult. Throughout each day we need to have notes open and assigned back and forth to different teams, and we have to remember to manually "open" each note. There is too much room for human error with this setting, and it is easy for important notes to be missed if a user forgets to open the note.
  • Similarly, it can be hard to remember to assign emails/notes to a particular team in addition to a user. We almost exclusively work out of team inboxes, and if someone on Care writes an email to a customer, the email will automatically be "done" when it is created, and it will be assigned to the user who wrote it, but not also to the user's team. There are instances where an email needs to be snoozed for several days/hours with further action needed, and unless the user remembers to assign the email to their team it may "awake" from the snooze and not be visible to anyone except the user who created it. Similarly to my first comment, this leaves a lot of room for human error and is not very intuitive.
  • Personally, I do not love that all tickets/emails/notes are jumbled together in the same inbox. While this gives visibility to everything on the "to do" list at the same time, it can be visually overwhelming. We have created unique folders for certain types of projects or categories of work, but have experienced tech glitches or just the awkwardness of another step to manually read the note, determine what type of category it is, and then manually assign it to another folder. Would love to have things auto-sort and take out this manual lift.
  • I love the idea of the autopilot setting, but we have not been able to use this for our work because it sorts items based on time, and not based on priority. In our line of work, we may have an urgent situation arise that needs attention before an email that was sent in 60 minutes ago. The autopilot feature would push the email to my associates sooner than it would the urgent situation from 5 minutes ago. Due to this, we manually monitor inboxes and assign work to ourselves and others.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Freshchat has been a reliable and user friendly platform for the past 5 plus years for engaging with customers in real time. It has helped us streamline support, reduce response time and improve customer satisfaction. The advanced automation feature and chatbot functionality have also saved our teams a lot of manual effort and increased efficiency. I didn't rate 10 because there is still room for improvement in reporting and deeper integration.
Read full review
Because there's no other tool like Kustomer
Read full review
Usability
I give it an 8 due to its usability. Yes, I had a few issues to begin with and needed some assistance from Freshchat agents, but considering this is something that is completely new to me, to set up what feels like a professional chat handling system complete with autobot within a day is really saying something I feel.
Read full review
There is a learning curve, but it is more than worth it, especially to have a dedicated resource pointed at Kustomer and any other software it interacts with. The basic implementation is useful, and powerful - certainly a MASSIVE upgrade over taking care of your customers in an email inbox or shuffling between multiple windows and applications! It is also set up really well to grow and reconfigure with your business. I'm a big fan.
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Reliability and Availability
Freshchat has always been available when I needed to use it.
Read full review
Because Kustomer is available when you need it
Read full review
Performance
Freshchat always loads quickly and communication is quickly sent and received.
Read full review
Because ages load quickly, reports complete in a reasonable time frame, given their complexity
Read full review
Support Rating
The experience we had in past for lets say 4-5 months with the support team and our TAM was really helpful. The changes in the bot flow has helped our bot to ensure we connect with customer easily.
Read full review
It’s a great tool that has helped our company and overall customer service. I believe if we were able to edit certain setting for our specific company that would be hopeful. We have been told before that certain desires of ours would make a change throughout all of Kustomer. Which is not something we would want, we would just want that to change for our business.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
Because they are very hands-on in training us and very approachable
Read full review
Online Training
No answers on this topic
It was very easy to understand.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
I hope to show new users data because this can save a lot of time
Read full review
Nothing really because it is easy to use. After an hour of using it, we're already getting the hang of it.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
We have used a self-developed solution for the same purpose with full in-house development however the features vs the value that freshchat provided were worth the selection, freshchat achieved overall better performance and received gemerally more praise, some key advantages were related to user experience and performance of the system
Read full review
I find it baffling how little data can be stored or associated with a customer in many other systems, and how difficult that can be to set up. It is fine if you already have a robust CDP that you can hook up and use to power your CRM, but it is rare that an organization has the resources or the customer-focus to rally behind setting up their customer service/experience team up for success. With a platform like Kustomer, you can actually evolve the relationship over time, or use the past experiences (number of contacts, purchases, previous issues, etc.) to power your next steps with a customer, making for a much more nuanced relationship with a human, not just a ticket.
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Scalability
We only implemented the product in 1 way so I cant speak to this.
Read full review
Because customer is flexible and scalable
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Return on Investment
  • From the positive effect of working on it, it helps employees to speed up their thinking and writing.
  • One of the positive effects of our clients is that their problems are solved easily and quickly.
  • Each employee knows how many of his chats have been resolved.
  • There is no negative effect in general.
Read full review
  • We’re getting so much positive feedback — which is not something you traditionally associate with a customer care team — because we’re making it effortless for customers to deliver both positive and negative feedback, and we can now resolve the bad feedback really really quickly.
  • Primarily from our increased efficiency with Kustomer, we’ve seen a significant reduction of $3 to $4 for every cost per contact.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Freshchat Screenshots

Screenshot of Channel Freedom: The interface to engage customers on the channel of their choiceScreenshot of Unified Agent Workspace: Equips agents to deliver personalization at scaleScreenshot of Admin and Analytics: These drive informed decisions to help business scale

Kustomer Screenshots

Screenshot of Example of a customer profile within Kustomer.Screenshot of Example of how Kustomer’s automated chats can save agents time by handling less complex requests automatically.