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Freshdesk is a well-liked helpdesk for growing teams. Pinboard is a service desk plus the rest of your business — projects, CRM, hours, and AI — in one workspace.
A good helpdesk, honestly. The question is what happens around the ticket — the project, the hours, the client record.
The stack math
Most comparisons price tool against tool. But you're not buying a tool — you're covering a job: the projects, the requests, the hours, the clients. Itemize it.
per agent / mo — inside a product family, not a workspace.
per seat / mo — only what you switch on. Free during early access.
Freshdesk lists at roughly $19 (Growth), $55 (Pro), and $89 (Enterprise) per agent/mo on annual billing, with Freddy AI copilot around $29/agent/mo extra. Pinboard's planned support-capable seat is $20/mo (Pro $10 + Service Desk $10), AI as a separate flat add-on — free during early access. Competitor prices are public list prices for annual billing as of mid-2026 and change often — always confirm on their pricing page. Pinboard's numbers are planned pricing; the whole platform is free while in early access.
Side by side
An honest snapshot — both products ship constantly, so treat this as a map, not a contract.
| Feature | Pinboard | Freshdesk |
|---|---|---|
| Tickets, SLAs & priority queues | ||
| Knowledge base | ||
| Live chat with human takeover | Freshchat, separate/omni bundle | |
| AI agent / copilot | Planned: per-bot + platform add-on | Freddy add-ons, ~$29/agent/mo |
| Public intake forms & portal | ||
| Project & task management | Separate Freshworks product | |
| CRM | Included add-on | Freshsales, separate product |
| Time tracking & client billing | Ticket timers only | |
| Automation | ||
| Voice / phone support | Via Freshcaller | |
| Bring-your-own-AI (MCP) | 56-tool MCP server + open API | Open API |
Credit where due
No tool wins everywhere. If these are the things you need most, Freshdeskis a strong choice — and we'd rather you pick right than pick us.
The Pinboard case
Projects, support, CRM, hours — and AI that works across all of it, in one set of records.
In Pinboard, a bug ticket links to the dev task, the client's CRM record, and the time spent — one workspace, no cross-product sync.
Freshdesk's Freddy Copilot lists at ~$29/agent/mo on top of the seat. Pinboard's AI assistant spans every app as one planned add-on, and the virtual agent is priced per bot, not per agent.
Chat with AI-first response and human takeover is part of Pinboard's service desk — not a separate app with its own pricing.
Freshworks sells these as separate products. In Pinboard they're apps in one workspace, switched on per seat.
Don't take the table's word for it
Follow one support request through the desk — AI first, human when it matters, and a knowledge base that learns from the save.
They open the chat widget on your site — no account, no form maze.
Instant response, grounded in your knowledge base — with its source attached.
The link 404s for this account — the agent sees it's out of its depth and hands off. Dana claims the chat from the live queue.
One click turns the conversation into a tracked ticket — transcript attached, priority set, clock running.
Dana ships the fix and the assistant drafts a KB article from the resolution, so next time the bot handles it alone.
Questions
For the core loop — intake forms, SLAs, priorities, assignment groups, knowledge base, live chat, AI agent — yes. Freshdesk is deeper on channel breadth (phone, WhatsApp, social) via the Freshworks family; Pinboard doesn't do voice. Pinboard is deeper on everything around the ticket: the project, the client record, the billable time.
Nothing — every approved workspace gets the full platform free during early access. The planned pricing after general availability is a free plan for small teams and Pro at $10 per editor per month, with optional Service Desk, CRM, and AI add-ons. You'll get notice before anything is ever charged.
Yes — through CSV import and Pinboard's open API and MCP server (56 tools), which can create projects, tasks, tickets, contacts, and time entries programmatically. During early access we help teams move over directly. There's no one-click migrator yet, and we'd rather tell you that than promise one.
Pinboard ships an MCP server with 56 tools, so you can connect the AI assistant you already use — Claude, or any MCP-compatible assistant — and drive Pinboard from it: create tasks, log time, file tickets, query boards. Your AI subscription, Pinboard's data, no copy-pasting between tabs.
Early access
Request early access — every app, no credit card, free while in alpha.
Free plan available · No credit card · Free while in early access