Summary
Wonderchat is the pick for AI answers from your docs and a helpdesk on one free plan, with 50 AI replies a month that refill, 2 team seats, and no credit card.
Help Scout (5 users) and Zoho Desk (3 users) give more people a free email help desk, with no AI on the free plan.
Raiseaticket covers 5 agents and 500 tickets a month for free, by email and a web portal.
Spiceworks covers an internal IT queue on 1 to 5 free seats, and osTicket costs nothing if you run your own server.
Ranked for teams adopting their first AI customer service software, on how far each free plan carries a support team with a help center. Wonderchat publishes this guide.
For a team with a help center, start with Wonderchat’s free plan. Its AI customer service agent answers the repeated questions from your docs, and the helpdesk on the same plan holds everything it hands over.
For more free seats on email alone, Help Scout or Zoho Desk go further.
Free plans differ at the first limit. Some stop at one person, some at 50 tickets a month, and some turn out to be a 14-day trial.
One real question tests every plan. Wonderchat’s own help center has no page for “Is there a status page we can subscribe to for outage alerts?”
For paid plans too, see the best help desk software overall.
What does a free help desk plan leave out?
A free plan leaves out whatever the vendor sells next. Across nine free plans, that means more people, more tickets, more channels, or AI answers.
Free seats run from 1 to 5, ticket caps from 50 to 500 a month, and Help Scout’s free plan connects a single inbox. Seven of the nine list no AI answers on the free plan, HubSpot’s lists limited bots, and Wonderchat’s includes an AI agent that answers from your docs.
The regret shows up when the bill starts. Across 1,309 complaints in reviews of 18 vendors, pricing was the biggest theme (211), then setup (197), in 837 reviews Wonderchat read on 11 September 2026.
Pricing is the most common complaint theme, ahead of setup, UI and bugs, trust, and stale knowledge.
Judge a free plan by where it ends and what the next step costs. A long feature list on day one says little about the month a third person joins.
The status-page question shows the gap. On a free plan with no AI agent, the question waits in the queue until a person is free to say there’s no page for it.
How do you compare free help desk plans?
Compare free helpdesk software on the limits each vendor prints on its own pricing page, then run one test yourself. The limits that matter are free users, channels, AI answers on the free plan, the monthly cap, what happens at the cap, and the first paid step.
The scope is customer support. An internal IT queue for employees is a different job, and choosing between a help desk or a service desk comes before choosing a tool.
The test takes three questions from your own help center. Ask one it answers in full, one it answers in part, and one no page covers.
The third question matters most. In Wonderchat’s study of 5,848,078 conversations, 58.5% of a random sample of 5,000 unresolved conversations asked for an answer never documented anywhere the agent could reach.
Luke Tan, CTO and co-founder of Wonderchat, names the same cause when an agent’s answers fall short. “Users are asking questions that are not in the knowledge base.”
Asked about a status page its docs don’t cover, the agent says so and points to a person.
Wonderchat reviewed each plan from the vendor’s pricing page and docs. On a plan with an AI agent, the third question should end in an honest miss and the offer of a person, and on a plan without one, it lands in the queue.
Where does each free plan end?
Free plans end at a user count or a ticket cap. Wonderchat’s ends at 50 AI replies a month, when the agent says it has reached its limit and shows a handover form. The visitor still reaches your team.
Tool | Free users | Channels on free | AI answers on free | Monthly cap | First paid step, as printed in November 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 team seats | Website chat widget, website search bar, email (1 address), Messenger, Instagram, Discord, Telegram | Yes, 50 AI replies a month | 50 AI replies, no ticket cap | Starter, $39 a month billed monthly, seats not billed | |
5 users | Email, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site | No | 100 contacts | Standard, $30 a user a month billed monthly | |
3 users | Listed as an upgrade | None stated | Express, $9 a user a month billed monthly | ||
2 users | Live chat (with HubSpot branding), Messenger | Limited bots | Not stated | Starter, listed at $20 a seat a month; new customers from $10 billed monthly, $7 billed annually | |
5 agents | Email, web portal | Not listed | 500 tickets | 5 more agents, $17.50 a month billed annually | |
Not stated | Not stated | Not listed | 50 tickets | Standard, $12 an agent a month billed annually | |
1 agent | Not listed | 100 tickets | Essentials, $39.99 a month for 1 user billed monthly, $19.99 billed annually | ||
1 to 5 seats | Email, end-user portal | No | None stated | Premium, $7 a seat a month billed monthly | |
None printed (self-hosted) | Not listed | None printed | Hosted, from $12 an agent a month |
Read the monthly cap before the user count. A plan with five free seats and 50 tickets a month runs out sooner than one with two seats and no ticket cap.
Which is the best free help desk software?
Wonderchat is the best free help desk software when your docs should answer first and a person should take the rest. Help Scout, Raiseaticket, and Zoho Desk give more people a free email inbox, and Spiceworks and osTicket serve IT and self-hosted teams.
1. Wonderchat
Wonderchat is an AI customer service agent and AI helpdesk in one, and its free plan carries both halves. Pick it when your help center should answer the repeated questions and a person should take the rest. The agent answers from your connected docs, shows the source on every reply, and hands everything else to the helpdesk on the same plan.
Free plan: 2 team seats, 50 AI replies a month that refill, an AI agent that reads up to 100 webpages, and tickets with the full chat, a shared inbox, and live chat, with no credit card.
At the limit: the agent says it has reached its limit and shows a handover form. Visitors still reach your team.
First paid step: Starter at $39 a month, billed monthly, with 500 AI replies, unlimited team seats, and Slack and WhatsApp.
On the status-page question, the agent says no page covers it and offers a person. Taken up, the conversation goes to your team as a ticket with the full chat attached, and the miss shows which page to write next.
The AI answers routine questions, and a $4,800 refund goes to a teammate with the full chat and the refund ready to approve.
Two seats are the real limit on Wonderchat’s free plan. Skip it if three or more people need to work in it before you pay, and read the full Wonderchat guide for every feature by plan.
2. Help Scout
Help Scout ties with Raiseaticket and Spiceworks for the most free seats, five, and it’s the one to try when up to five people share one support inbox and one help center. A simple product people like, it keeps its AI for paid plans and bills it per resolution on top of users.
Free plan: 5 users, 1 inbox, 1 Docs site, and 100 contacts a month, email only, with no payment method.
At the limit: live chat, AI answers, or more contacts mean Standard, and a 15-day trial lets you test it first.
First paid step: Standard at $30 a user a month, billed monthly, plus the Envoy add-on at $0.75 a resolution for AI.
The status-page question lands in the inbox and waits for whoever is free. Waiting works while volume is low, and it’s the first thing to change once customers expect chat on your site.
3. Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk has a Free Edition for three users that turns support email into tickets. It works for a team that wants a classic ticket queue with statuses and no AI yet, and its 15-day trial of any paid plan drops back to the free edition when it ends.
Free plan: 3 users and email ticketing, with no credit card.
At the limit: a fourth user, web forms, or the AI features the pricing FAQ lists as an upgrade mean a paid plan.
First paid step: Express at $9 a user a month, billed monthly.
Every status-page question arrives as an email ticket for a person to answer. Skip it if you want answers from your docs before a person reads the email.
4. HubSpot Service Hub
Choose HubSpot if your sales team already runs HubSpot’s CRM and support should sit in the same records. The free tier covers two users with no credit card, and its live chat carries the vendor’s branding.
Free plan: 2 users, branded live chat, and Facebook Messenger, with limited bots.
At the limit: the help desk workspace needs Service Hub Professional or Enterprise, according to HubSpot’s help desk documentation.
First paid step: Starter, listed at $20 a seat a month. New customers pay from $10 a seat a month billed monthly, or $7 billed annually.
The vendor’s own pages disagree on the free tier. The HubSpot help desk product page says the free tier includes essential ticketing, while the pricing table shows no Free value for ticketing, so check the ticket view in a free account before you move your support address.
The status-page question goes to a person in the inbox either way.
5. Raiseaticket
Raiseaticket has the largest ticket allowance of the free plans that print one, 500 tickets a month for 5 agents, with no trial period and no card. For five people answering email and portal tickets, 500 tickets a month leaves room before the first bill.
Free plan: 5 agents, 500 tickets a month, email channels, a web portal, and unlimited end users.
At the limit: new email tickets pause until the monthly count resets, and the portal stays open.
First paid step: a pack of 5 more agents for $17.50 a month, billed annually ($210 a year).
The status-page question waits as a ticket for an agent. Raiseaticket’s pricing page lists no AI answers. Skip it if you want the docs to answer before anyone reads the ticket.
6. Desk365
Desk365 starts every account on a 21-day trial and then moves it to a lifetime free plan for up to 50 tickets a month. The pricing page calls that plan ideal for solopreneurs or personal projects, and it prints a ticket cap in place of a seat count.
Free plan: up to 50 tickets a month; the pricing page doesn’t state an agent limit.
At the limit: past 50 tickets a month, a paid plan.
First paid step: Standard at $12 an agent a month, billed annually.
A founder answering a handful of questions a month stays on the free plan. A team that already gets more than 50 tickets a month starts on Standard.
7. ProProfs Help Desk
ProProfs Help Desk has a free account for a single agent, with email ticketing up to 100 tickets a month and unlimited inboxes. One person answering email support gets a real ticket view in place of a shared mailbox.
Free plan: 1 agent and 100 email tickets a month.
At the limit: a second person or more tickets means a paid plan.
First paid step: Essentials at $39.99 a month billed monthly, or $19.99 billed annually, for 1 user and 1,000 tickets; teams of two or more go to the team plan.
The status-page question waits in the inbox for that one agent. Skip it once a second person answers support.
8. Spiceworks
Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk is the free pick for an internal IT queue, where employees raise the tickets. The Core plan covers 1 to 5 tech and admin seats with unlimited end users and an end-user portal.
Free plan: 1 to 5 seats, ticketing, and an end-user portal; the paid Premium plan sells an ad-free experience.
At the limit: a sixth seat means Premium.
First paid step: Premium at $7 a seat a month billed monthly, or $6 billed annually.
Customers don’t write to an IT queue, so the status-page question never reaches it. Skip it if the queue is customer support.
9. osTicket
osTicket is free to download and run on your own server, with community support and no caps printed for agents or tickets. The price is the server and the hours someone spends on updates and backups.
Free plan: the open source software; hosting, backups, and support are yours to run.
At the limit: your server is the limit.
First paid step: the hosted version, from $12 an agent a month after a 30-day trial.
The status-page question becomes a ticket for a person. Skip it if nobody on the team wants to run a server.
What does it cost when you outgrow a free plan?
On Help Scout, Zoho Desk, HubSpot, Raiseaticket, ProProfs Help Desk, and Spiceworks, the bill starts with the next person past the free seats. On Wonderchat it starts with a third seat, more AI replies, or a Starter channel such as Slack or WhatsApp, and seats are never billed on any plan.
For example, take a team of six, one more person than the five free seats Help Scout, Raiseaticket, and Spiceworks allow. By Wonderchat’s arithmetic on the prices each vendor printed in November 2026, the first paid month costs:
Wonderchat: $39 a month on Starter, billed monthly, with no per-seat cost
Raiseaticket: $17.50, one pack of 5 more agents, billed annually
Spiceworks: $42, 6 seats at $7
Zoho Desk: $54, 6 users at $9
HubSpot: $120, 6 seats at the $20 list price, before any new-customer discount
Help Scout: $180, 6 users at $30, before AI resolutions
Per-seat plans grow with every person, and Wonderchat’s Starter price stays the same at six.
Desk365’s free plan prints a ticket cap in place of a seat count, and osTicket costs only the server. For how per-seat, per-resolution, and flat pricing work, read how AI support pricing works, and compare Wonderchat’s plans by AI replies.
Which other free help desk options did Wonderchat leave out?
Eight tools that rank for free help desk searches show a trial, a live chat focus, an IT focus, or self-hosting on their own pages. Five of them list trials only.
Freshdesk’s pricing page shows Growth, Pro, and Enterprise with a 14-day trial, Zendesk has a 14-day trial of Suite Professional, LiveAgent starts every plan with a 30-day free trial, and Hiver and Drag each have a 7-day trial.
Tidio has a free plan led by live chat, where the first 50 AI conversations are free once per account. For that side of the market, see free AI chatbots compared.
Jira Service Management is free for 3 agents and built mainly for IT service requests. FreeScout is free and self-hosted, the same setup as osTicket.
When is another free plan the better choice?
Another free plan is the better choice when more people need to work in the help desk before you pay, or when the queue belongs to IT. Wonderchat’s free plan has 2 team seats.
Help Scout and Raiseaticket let five people answer for free, and Zoho Desk three. Spiceworks handles an IT team’s queue, and osTicket costs nothing for a team that runs its own server.
Four questions point to another plan, and a help center that should answer first points to Wonderchat.
Once you’re ready to pay for a full help desk suite, Zendesk is the deeper help desk and Freshdesk the fuller one. Wonderchat syncs tickets with both from Basic, up to 50 tickets. A team that already runs either can add the agent and keep its help desk.
Should you start on Wonderchat’s free plan?
Yes, if you have a help center and the same questions arrive faster than two people can answer them.
Wonderchat answers those questions from your docs and shows the page behind each answer. When no page covers a question, such as the status page, it says so and offers a person, and the conversation reaches your team as a ticket with the full chat.
The free plan refills 50 AI replies every month, with 2 team seats and no credit card. Tickets, a shared inbox, and live chat come with it, and seats are never billed.
Try it on your own content.
Start for free, paste your help center URL, ask your hardest question, then one your docs can’t answer, and see the source and the honest miss, or book a demo to watch it run on your help center.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free version of Zendesk?
Zendesk has no free plan. Its pricing page lists a 14-day trial of Suite Professional. A team that already runs Zendesk can keep it and add Wonderchat’s agent, which syncs tickets with Zendesk from Basic, up to 50 tickets.
What is the best free customer service software?
Wonderchat, if you want an AI agent answering from your help center and tickets for what it can’t answer. For more free users on an email help desk, Help Scout (5 users) or Zoho Desk (3 users).
Is Zoho Desk free?
Zoho Desk has a Free Edition for 3 users, with email ticketing. Its 15-day trial of a paid plan drops back to the free edition when it ends.
Is a free help desk plan really free, or a trial?
It depends on the vendor’s pricing page. Wonderchat, Help Scout, Zoho Desk, HubSpot, and Raiseaticket list lasting free plans, while Freshdesk, LiveAgent, Hiver, and Zendesk list trials only. Wonderchat’s free plan refills 50 AI replies every month, with no credit card.
What are the best ticketing systems?
A ticketing system is the queue inside a help desk, where each request gets an owner and a status. The support ticketing systems comparison ranks the tools for that job.
