Two products that are easy to confuse! Freshdesk and Freshservice are two distinct products offered by Freshworks, a company known for revolutionising business software with user-friendly, affordable solutions. Founded in 2010 in Chennai, India, Freshworks began its journey with Freshdesk, a customer support platform designed to simplify the way businesses manage customer inquiries. As the company grew and recognized the evolving needs of its customers, Freshservice was introduced in 2014 as an IT service management (ITSM) solution to cater to the internal IT needs of organisations. While both products come from the same parent company, they serve different purposes—Freshdesk is tailored for external customer support, whereas Freshservice is focused on managing internal IT services. In short, they’re two offerings of the one company that do wildly different things (or at least within the context of B2B software).

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Here’s a more detailed overview of each -

What is Freshdesk?

Freshdesk is a customer support software developed by Freshworks. It’s designed to help businesses manage and resolve customer inquiries efficiently. It's a comprehensive helpdesk solution that brings together multiple communication channels—like email, phone, chat, social media, and more—into a single platform.

Some of the key features of Freshdesk include:

Ticket Management: Automatically converts emails, chats, and other communications into tickets, making it easier to track and manage customer queries.
Automation: Streamlines repetitive tasks such as ticket assignment, follow-ups, and prioritisation.
Self-Service Portal: Allows customers to find answers themselves via a knowledge base, reducing the number of tickets raised.
Reporting and Analytics: Provides insights into customer support performance, helping teams improve their service.

What is Freshservice?

Freshservice, on the other hand, is an IT service management (ITSM) tool, also developed by Freshworks. It’s tailored specifically for managing internal IT services within an organisation. If Freshdesk is about helping your customers, Freshservice is about helping your employees by ensuring that your IT infrastructure is running smoothly.

Key features of Freshservice include:

Incident Management: Helps IT teams manage and resolve internal issues (or “incidents”) efficiently, ensuring minimal downtime.
Asset Management: Tracks and manages IT assets across your organization, giving you visibility into what’s being used, where, and by whom.
Change Management: Assists in planning and executing changes to your IT environment, minimising risk and disruption.
Service Catalog: Offers a self-service portal for employees to request IT services or solutions, similar to how customers might use a self-service portal in Freshdesk.

Freshservice is an excellent choice for businesses that need to manage their IT operations effectively, ensuring that internal systems, hardware, and software are all functioning optimally. It’s particularly valuable for larger companies with complex IT needs, but it’s also scalable for smaller organisations.

Freshdesk vs. Freshservice: Key Differences

While both Freshdesk and Freshservice are part of the Freshworks suite, they cater to different audiences and serve different purposes - the differences are stark! Here’s a breakdown:

Target Audience:
- Freshdesk is aimed at customer-facing teams who need to manage and resolve external customer queries.
- Freshservice is designed for internal IT teams to manage and maintain an organisation’s IT infrastructure.
Core Functionality:
- Freshdesk focuses on customer support, offering features like multi-channel support, ticket management, and customer satisfaction tracking.
- Freshservice focuses on IT service management, offering features like incident management, change management, and asset tracking.
Use Cases:
- Freshdesk is ideal for businesses that deal directly with customers and need a robust helpdesk solution.
- Freshservice is best for organisations looking to streamline their internal IT processes and improve service delivery to employees.
Integration and Automation:
- Both tools offer integration capabilities with other Freshworks products and third-party applications, but the integrations are tailored to their respective functions (customer support vs. IT service management).
Pricing:
- Pricing for both platforms is tiered based on features and the number of users. Generally, Freshdesk is priced to be accessible for small to medium-sized businesses, while Freshservice’s pricing reflects its more specialised IT management features.

For more tailored, independent advice on what software best meets your needs, check our Archways Guide.