Freshdesk vs. Sparkcentral (discontinued)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Freshdesk
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer service software that helps businesses of all sizes to deliver customer support. Freshdesk converts requests coming in via email, web, phone, chat, and social into tickets, and unifies ticket resolution across channels. Additionally, Freshdesk lets the user automate workflows, provide self-service, manage SLAs, and measure metrics, to stay on top of customer support. Freshdesk also offers out-of-the-box features like an AI-powered support chatbot,…
$0
Up to 2 agents
Sparkcentral (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Sparkcentral was a social customer care solution and cloud-based customer engagement platform that catered specifically to customer care teams within large enterprises, enabling them to deliver real-time social customer service. Sparkcentral was acquired by Hootsuite in January 2021. The product has since been discontinued.N/A
Pricing
FreshdeskSparkcentral (discontinued)
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
Up to 2 agents
Growth
$15
per month (billed annually) per agent
Pro
$49
per month (billed annually) per agent
Enterprise
$79
per month (billed annually) per agent
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FreshdeskSparkcentral (discontinued)
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
FreshdeskSparkcentral (discontinued)
Considered Both Products
Freshdesk
Chose Freshdesk
We wanted to move our entire support on a single channel and manage all the support via a single channel so this is where omni channel helped us.

Additionally, knowledge bases and the AI agents are also on the same platforms, so these things help us to improve the quality of …
Chose Freshdesk
I use Freshdesk over other similar products I've tested because the price difference and ease of use for the end user seem to me to be the most suitable for achieving a better return on investment within my company. I also found the various AI-powered automation tools to be …
Chose Freshdesk
Freshdesk is way beyond these tool. The solution and technology provided is more more step ahead with the shared product.
Chose Freshdesk
We felt that Freshdesk offered better value in terms of pricing and offered a matching feature set. It was also highly recommended by a member of a team that had used Freshdesk in their previous organisation. Lastly the fact that it could integrate into Hubspot (that we use as …
Chose Freshdesk
We use all Freshdesk, Freshchat, and other Freshworks tools—they’re all great. Freshchat is awesome for real-time support, while Freshdesk handles tickets, automation, and multi-channel queries really well. Using them together gives us a complete, seamless customer service …
Chose Freshdesk
its better in terms of pricing for sure as others are completely to high costly.
Chose Freshdesk
Freshdesk was the easiest to set up and was the most straightforward product of all the products we evaluated. It had a better user interface for agents, and provided a great solution to meet our needs at a lower cost than the other products that we evaluated. Freshdesk offers …
Chose Freshdesk
Ultimately we ended up switching from Freshdesk to Zendesk, and then from zendesk to devrev. We're still trying to find the right fit for us - Freshdesk covers the same options as Zendesk, if you use the whole suite it's probably a good option.
Chose Freshdesk
Freshworks desk is very easy to use and understand.
The biggest strengths if Freshdesk as it's usability, Affordability and the vast number of features it provides for its clients.
Chose Freshdesk
Freshdesk lacks some of the functionality of costlier IT tool suites but makes up for it in value. Yes, that means you may have to use two tools to do the job of one complete suite, but for the price and the functionality, Freshdesk does what it does at the best value point.
Chose Freshdesk
Freshdesk has the edge, because of the easy user interface, data download, implementation options, One access for chats, calls, WhatsApp Business and emails. Segregation of tickets as per the respective department. Dashboard availability for each department, checking the …
Chose Freshdesk
As saied before, Freshdesk is very simple to use. It is very agile to our needs and uses, based on the requests are made from our employees only. So, everything they demand, is a well know task or activity in our duties. Zammad does it very well, but needs an on premises …
Chose Freshdesk
Superior in every aspect—it is that simple! It offers a more flexible product, smoother UI, and, importantly, a more patient and supportive account team.
Chose Freshdesk
Compared to Crisp, Freshdesk offers much more organization and is just much more helpful when it comes to having more than one region/team. Not that Crisp is bad, but with Freshdesk, internal communication and collaboration are much easier, which was quite important for our …
Chose Freshdesk
Freshdesk has a more modern and intuitive user interface, while Help Scout's interface is simpler and more minimalist.In case of features, Freshdesk offers a wider range of features, includes omnichannel support, AI powered automations, and advanced analytics. Help Scout is …
Chose Freshdesk
My company originally selected Freshdesk due to price, but as we grew, we found it lacking compared to its more expensive counterparts. I briefly compared Zendesk to resolve our main issues with Freshdesk, but I'd spent so much time and effort customizing Freshdesk that we …
Chose Freshdesk
Freshdesk is aimed more for direct customer support tasks.
Chose Freshdesk
Track it was too complicated to maintain.
Chose Freshdesk
Good platform for organizing the tickets from different sources and making sure no single communication is missed in the cracks. Automations bring productivity. Customization is not easy unless you learn the SDKs/ APIs. but has a great deal to offer. Integrations with other …
Chose Freshdesk
We tried Freshchat, but since our app did not have advanced technology, we were not able to use it. However, the Freshdesk team supported us in exploring this option.
Chose Freshdesk
We have an omnichannel, so we use Freshdesk, Freshchat, and Freshcaller.
Sparkcentral (discontinued)
Chose Sparkcentral (discontinued)
Comparing Sparkcentral with other platforms might be a bit unfair! the platform stands out in so many areas, to be honest.
Chose Sparkcentral (discontinued)
I like how more focused Sparkcentral is around customer care specifically, whereas Spredfast does a lot of things well but no one thing greatly.
Chose Sparkcentral (discontinued)
Pros:
1. Layout is more user-friendly than the previous platforms.
2. Real-time data on system issues where each user is able to see it and respond accordingly.
Chose Sparkcentral (discontinued)
Sparkcentral does what it has offered to do, where other software made empty promises, Sparkcentral delivers. They also inform us, anytime they are undergoing maintenance or when Twitter or Facebook has an API change, where in previous cases we would have to discover this …
Chose Sparkcentral (discontinued)
I have used Lithium and Spredfast platforms in the past for social care.
Chose Sparkcentral (discontinued)
I selected Sparkcentral because I am a social media engagement director, so engagement is top priority for me and Sparkcentral does exactly that. It's not focused on marketing, word clouds, etc. It's focused on the incoming social media volume of your brand.
Chose Sparkcentral (discontinued)
Sparkcentral is an innovative tool and it just works. It works better than other tools we've attempted to use. It's simple and intuitive.
Chose Sparkcentral (discontinued)
Sparkcentral is very organized and robust in terms of using it for customer service/tech support. It allows you to record detailed information about your customers, and provides thorough customer support histories which are very helpful as well.
Chose Sparkcentral (discontinued)
Sparkcentral is in an excellent place - they are the only true stand-alone social media customer care platform. We also provide support through Oracle RightNow (Chat/email), but the social add-on for that appeared to be weak. Hootsuite works fine for small teams of low volume …
Chose Sparkcentral (discontinued)
Engagor,Radian6,HootSuite Pro,RightNow,autonomy explore
Chose Sparkcentral (discontinued)
While it was more expensive, Sparkcentral blows other competitors away with their comprehensive tools and ease of use.
Chose Sparkcentral (discontinued)
A few months ago we decided it would be smart to look into back up options in case Sparkcentral ever had technical issues (it never has, but we like to have redundancies in place) and I could not find a company or product that offered all the features I love and have become …
Features
FreshdeskSparkcentral (discontinued)
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
8.6
Ratings
7% above category average
Sparkcentral (discontinued)
-
Ratings
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Expert directory8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket response9.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
8.0
Ratings
2% above category average
Sparkcentral (discontinued)
-
Ratings
External knowledge base8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Internal knowledge base8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
8.3
Ratings
7% above category average
Sparkcentral (discontinued)
-
Ratings
Customer portal7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
IVR8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Social integration8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Email support9.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
FreshdeskSparkcentral (discontinued)
Small Businesses
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Simplify360
Simplify360
Score 7.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Front
Front
Score 7.1 out of 10
Enterprises
SysAid
SysAid
Score 9.1 out of 10
Front
Front
Score 7.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
FreshdeskSparkcentral (discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.9
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
4.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
5.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.6
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
5.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
5.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
6.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
FreshdeskSparkcentral (discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
Freshdesk is really good for start-up companies that want to update their current system or buy a new one. It is the best option possible when it comes to having a structure, following up, and making a better strategy because you can always see what your team is doing, and you have some great reports to help you.
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Sparkcentral has an extremely dedicated customer service team The platform UX is brilliant Reports are very detailed & easy to export The system is stable more than 98% of the time Queue management is extremely easy They need to work on a mobile app / making the website mobile friendly The ability to add more social media channels is essential
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Pros
  • Follow up on all conversations that enter and are easy to use by the employee and save responses ready for use.
  • Find out the average rate of the number of conversations that occur in the company and conduct the analysis.
  • There is a feature it allows one to take a permit in the name of the employee who responds to the conversation and to know the problem faced by the customer and the solution.
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  • It's an excellent tool for collaboration. The UX is friendly and intuitive and our team loves the internal chat.
  • The workflow is seamless and provides easy-to-use features for the team and leaders to do what they need to do.
  • The integrated knowledge base is easy to manage, search and use.
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Cons
  • Data Security.
  • SLA Policies where it is not customer / contract driven but agents / groups driven.
  • Audit Trail is not available in Pro version makes the tool adoption difficult from compliance perspective.
  • Chat Bot and Fresh Chat Services has greater potential to explode, but the pricing model tagged to chat bot sessions .are illogical as it limits the ability to use the fresh chat feature
  • Agent Logon Screen use earlier version of Captcha as it is annoying for the agents to login. Very frustrating experience.
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  • Bringing back the option to see not only who is responding to a customers post, but actually seeing the response as they are typing it out. That was a neat feature to have.
  • It will timeout, which is a bit annoying sometimes but not a huge deal.
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Likelihood to Renew
My company that used Freshdesk was acquired by another company that uses Salesforce, so our only reason to keep Freshdesk would be records, but migrating the tickets, notes, and company details from Freshdesk to Salesforce was straightforward enough. Had the acquisition not occurred, we would have renewed Freshdesk because the cost of switching would've been too great in terms of price, time, and sunk cost (our Freshdesk customizations would not port over well).
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Sparkcentral has never given us a good reason to consider any other option. Aside from all the positive points I mentioned in previous areas of this review, something else that has really impressed us is their customer service (makes sense, they're a customer service company after all!). Any time we have a question or concern, we send them an email and we get a response almost instantly.
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Usability
I gave it a rating of 9 out of 10 because they delivered on everything we asked them to do. Easy to setup, easy to deploy to end users, easy to customize, easy to enter tickets and so much more. Our experience with their support is top notch! After opening a ticket for support they call use back within 10 minutes every time!
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The system meets all my expectations.
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Reliability and Availability
I have encountered a lot of errors in the Freshdesk, however, they tend to resolve it on priority or at least they will share the timeline by when this can be resolved. Most of the time the issue has been from the other partner's end. They take time to resolve their vendor issues and they don't have any timelines in case of developed app errors.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
The reports take a lot of time to download if the time period is large. Also, the tickets take their sweet time to open and load. It is not fast as Zendesk. Only 30 tickets are visible in a single go and there isn't any option to select all. If we need to change the pages and dashboards it takes a lot of time to open.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
The main thing about Freshdesk user service is that once a request has been made for information about a feature of the platform, the support team responds to tickets quickly, within a day of writing and submitting them, with information that is concise enough so that there is no need to ask for help on the same topic again.
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Incredible customer service team that replies back very quickly, follows up on the reported issue till it's resolved in a very timely manner.
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In-Person Training
Support Team's knowledge and understood the company's requirement, and always shared the insight of the usage of the tool to it s full potential, moreover the team checks periodically to check if we using the tool right and if we are facing any kind of challenges. Also they would update us on new features that can make the work easy.
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
Video tutorials, questions answers round before and after testing and Fresh desk team would always share best practices on the needs. Furthermore would periodically check if we are able to work smoothly. Would send alerts to known any issues, send recommendation on new features. Freshdesk team always available when we need certain advise.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Most important, Freshdesk is a user- friendly platform which directly supports interfaces and navigates user to start. Helps to provide multiple and complex documentation and troubleshooting. It provides build templates for different workflows and processes also refuces effort and time to implement and perform corporate tasks and complete the execution.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
I use Freshdesk over other similar products I've tested because the price difference and ease of use for the end user seem to me to be the most suitable for achieving a better return on investment within my company. I also found the various AI-powered automation tools to be more optimal and automated, without having to go through long learning curves.
Read full review
Sparkcentral is in an excellent place - they are the only true stand-alone social media customer care platform. We also provide support through Oracle RightNow (Chat/email), but the social add-on for that appeared to be weak. Hootsuite works fine for small teams of low volume customer care, but for a dedicated social care platform, we could not find anything else worth considering
Read full review
Scalability
My company had Freshdesk agents from support and success. It's generally difficult to customize permissions for different agent "roles." We were a fully distributed company, so "multiple sites" doesn't apply to us. We found Freshdesk features lacking as we grew our customer base, and adding agents wasn't easy because price steeply increases with number of agents.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Increased response times - Client Success maintains at 98% SLA for resolution
  • Categorization of feedback and issues - custom ticket fields make it easier for us to review why clients contact us on a high level
  • Standardization of internal procedures via templates, canned responses and automations
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  • Providing customers the option to contact us via social media cuts costs for the company by lowering call in numbers and creating a more efficient way of assisting customers where they are.
  • Currently there is not an option to separate outside of business hours reporting for response time and within business hours. This can cause a pain point when reporting to other departments as it calculates a higher response time than the accurate one due to outside business hours.
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ScreenShots