Teams look past Front when the seat price climbs from $25 to $65 to $105 as they add channels and rules, when Copilot and Autopilot are billed on top, or when they want a ticket queue rather than a shared inbox. Most move to Help Scout or Hiver for a lighter inbox, and to Freshdesk or Zendesk for a ticketing desk.
Visibility in our rankings can be paid for. Payment moves a vendor's position within
the shortlist; it never adds a vendor, and it never changes a word of the review or of this page. The first three alternatives
go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the
established names follow in their ranked order. How it works:
placement disclosure · editorial process.
What each alternative does differently
1. Help Scout
Email-first help desk that hides the ticket machinery · United States
A free plan for five users, then tiers listed at $25, $45 and $75 per user a month. Shared inboxes, a knowledge base and a customer portal (from Plus) with seats that scale up to unlimited. Its AI assistant costs $0.75 a resolution, with a three-month trial. Seats go up to unlimited on Pro, with a minimum of ten.
Switch from Front if you want a plain shared inbox with a free entry plan and published per-user prices.
Pricing: Free plan for five users and 100 contacts a month, then per-user tiers from about $25 a month, with AI Answers billed at $0.75 per resolution. (free plan)
Full review: #3 of 14 in our ranking ·
Visit Help Scout →
2. Hiver
Help desk that runs inside Gmail · United States
Built around the shared inbox, and its Omni product adds chat, voice and a help center. Growth is $25 a user billed annually ($35 monthly), Pro $55 ($65). The pricing page puts AI agents and a Copilot in the entry plan, where Front sells Copilot as a $20 add-on.
Switch from Front if you want AI features inside the seat price and a shared-inbox feel close to Front's.
Pricing: Per user per month on published tiers, from about $25 billed annually. (free trial)
Full review: #11 of 14 in our ranking ·
Visit Hiver →
3. Freshdesk
Ticketing and automation at a moderate price, chat in Omni · United States
A ticket-first desk with Growth at $19, Pro at $55 and Enterprise at $89 per agent per month billed annually. The first 500 AI Agent sessions are included, then $49 per 100. Collaborators (5,000 included from Pro) cover outside parties, and the model is queue management more than inbox sharing.
Switch from Front if you want deeper ticket queues, SLAs and reporting than a collaborative inbox gives.
Pricing: Per agent per month on published tiers, from $19 billed annually for email-centered Freshdesk or $29 for Freshdesk Omni with chat and social channels; 500 AI agent sessions are included once, then sold in packs of 100. (free trial)
Full review: #2 of 14 in our ranking ·
Visit Freshdesk →
4. Zendesk
The most complete help desk suite, priced for scale · United States
A larger support suite, shown on its page as Support Team, Suite Team and Suite Professional, billed per agent monthly or at a lower annual rate. The Marketplace is the main draw: more than 1,800 apps are listed. Costs and setup effort run higher than a small Front team expects.
Switch from Front if you need a big app marketplace and a formal ticketing process across several channels.
Pricing: Per agent per month on published Suite tiers, with AI agent resolutions billed beyond a small monthly allowance per agent, and Copilot, workforce management and quality tools sold as add-ons. (free trial)
Full review: #5 of 14 in our ranking ·
Visit Zendesk →
5. Zammad
Open-source help desk, self-hosted or hosted in Germany · Germany
Open source under AGPL-3.0 and hosted in German data centers from €7 per agent a month (annual). Starter holds at most five agents and Professional 35. Self-hosting means your staff run updates and backups. Professional adds SLAs and a knowledge base.
Switch from Front if you want to host the desk yourself or keep tickets in a German data center.
Pricing: Free to self-host under an open-source license; hosted plans per agent per month from under €10, published. (open source)
Full review: #1 of 14 in our ranking ·
Visit Zammad →
6. HubSpot Service Hub
Ticketing that lives inside the HubSpot CRM · United States
Service software on the HubSpot platform, with free and premium plans and a 14-day trial. Tickets, contacts and deals sit on one record, which suits teams already running HubSpot. The pricing page renders its figures only in the browser, so check the current tiers with the vendor.
Switch from Front if you already run HubSpot CRM and want support tickets on the same customer record.
Pricing: Free tools, then per-seat Starter, Professional and Enterprise tiers, with a large step up at Professional. (free plan)
Full review: #6 of 14 in our ranking ·
Visit HubSpot Service Hub →
7. Intercom
AI-first support desk built around the Messenger · United States
A messenger-led support product. Seats are $19 to $132 a month depending on tier, and the Fin AI agent costs $0.99 per outcome on top. Live chat is in every seat tier, but the AI charge scales with the number of outcomes.
Switch from Front if your customers mostly arrive through chat on your website or inside your product.
Pricing: Per helpdesk seat per month on published tiers, plus $0.99 per Fin AI outcome. (free trial)
Full review: #4 of 14 in our ranking ·
Visit Intercom →
8. Deskpro
Help desk offered as cloud, private cloud or on-premises · United Kingdom
Cloud tiers at $39, $59 and $99 per agent a month with minimums of 5, 10 and 25 agents, plus a separate Private edition. Enterprise offers a choice among 22 AWS regions. A team of three cannot buy the entry tier, which starts at five agents.
Switch from Front if you must pick the data region or run the desk on private infrastructure.
Pricing: Published per-agent cloud tiers from $39 a month for Team through Enterprise, each with a minimum seat count, plus a separately quoted Private edition for on-premises or dedicated hosting and discounts for nonprofits and education. (none)
Full review: #14 of 14 in our ranking ·
Visit Deskpro →
9. HappyFox
Traditional ticketing with unlimited-agent plans · United States
Per-agent from $24 a month, with Basic limited to five agents, or flat unlimited-agent plans with a yearly ticket allowance. A 14-day trial is available. Web messaging, AI and workflows are separate products, so the final bill depends on how many you bolt on.
Switch from Front if you have many agents and want a flat annual fee instead of paying per seat.
Pricing: Per agent per month from about $24, or flat unlimited-agent plans priced on volume, both published. (free trial)
Full review: #10 of 14 in our ranking ·
Visit HappyFox →
10. Zoho Desk
Low-cost ticketing tied into the Zoho suite · India
Plans named Express, Standard and Professional, billed per user a month and priced in local currency, with a free trial. Professional adds telephony, Zia AI and Blueprints. It sits inside the Zoho suite, which matters little if your other tools are not Zoho.
Switch from Front if your company already uses Zoho and you want a low per-user ticketing price.
Pricing: Free plan for a few agents, then low per-agent tiers billed annually, well under Zendesk at every level. (free plan)
Full review: #7 of 14 in our ranking ·
Visit Zoho Desk →
11. LiveAgent
Low-cost multichannel ticketing with a built-in call center · Slovakia
Per-agent tiers: Starter $19 monthly ($15 annual) up to five agents, Team $29 to $35 up to 15 agents, Business $49 to $59 for any size. Social channels and the call center begin on Team. Enterprise includes 80 agents at $3,999 a month.
Switch from Front if you need phone, chat and social channels in one desk at low per-agent prices.
Pricing: Published per-agent tiers from about $15 a month billed annually for Small up to Enterprise, with social channels and call center depth reserved for upper tiers. (free trial)
Full review: #13 of 14 in our ranking ·
Visit LiveAgent →
12. Gorgias
Ecommerce help desk built around Shopify orders · United States
Built for online stores and priced by ticket volume, not by seat: helpdesk plans from $10 to $750 a month for 50 to 5,000 tickets, with AI Agent as an added line. Useful for retailers with many orders, and of limited use for B2B account work.
Switch from Front if you run an online store and want costs tied to ticket volume rather than seats.
Pricing: Monthly plans sized by billable tickets, from a low entry plan, with per-ticket overage and AI agent interactions billed separately. (free trial)
Full review: #9 of 14 in our ranking ·
Visit Gorgias →
13. Salesforce Service Cloud
Enterprise service platform on the Salesforce CRM · United States
A CRM-based service platform: Starter Suite at $25, Pro Suite at $100, then Core $195, Advanced $395 and Max $550 per user a month. Enhanced Messaging is an extra $75 per user. It fits Salesforce shops and overshoots a team that only shares inboxes.
Switch from Front if your customer data already lives in Salesforce and cases must link to accounts.
Pricing: Per user per month, from Starter Suite at $25 and Pro Suite at $100 on a contract to the Core, Advanced and Max service editions at $195 to $550 billed annually; AI agent use runs on Flex Credits except in Max. (free trial)
Full review: #12 of 14 in our ranking ·
Visit Salesforce Service Cloud →
