Freshdesk and Jira both sit in the software teams reach for when work piles up, but they bill the pile differently: Freshdesk charges for each support agent, Jira charges for each user, and Jira gives ten of those users away.
TL;DR
Freshdesk bills support in agents and dollars: Growth at $19 per agent per month billed annually, Pro at $55 and Enterprise at $89, with Freddy AI sessions at $49 per 100 after the first 500. Jira bills work in users and dollars: free forever for 10 users, then Standard at $7.91 and Premium at $14.54 per user per month billed annually, with Enterprise quoted. One prices the person answering tickets, the other prices the person filing them.
Freshdesk is Freshworks' customer service helpdesk, and its pricing page quotes three editions per agent per month billed annually: Growth at $19, Pro at $55 and Enterprise at $89. Growth covers ticketing, a shared inbox, a customer portal and a knowledge base; Pro adds a multilingual helpdesk, custom dashboards and multiple SLA policies; Enterprise brings Freddy AI Insights, skill-based routing, a sandbox and audit logs. The Freddy AI Agent carries the first 500 sessions before $49 per 100, Copilot is $29 per agent per month billed annually, day passes run $2 to $12, and MCP actions are metered at $15 per 1,000.
Jira is Atlassian's work management platform, sold in users per month with an annual price shown: free forever for up to 10 users, Standard at $7.91 per user per month and Premium at $14.54, with Enterprise quoted. The free plan caps file storage at 2 GB and gives 150 automation steps per subscription a month; Standard lifts storage to 250 GB and automation to 400 steps per user, and Premium reaches unlimited storage, cross-project dependency management and a 99.9% uptime SLA. Customer service runs through Jira Service Management, a separate Atlassian product named on atlassian.com whose price does not appear on the Jira pricing page we read.
| Feature | Freshdesk | Jira |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid price | Growth $19 per agent per month billed annually | Standard $7.91 per user per month billed annually |
| Free option | Free trial before paying; no permanent free plan shown | Free forever for up to 10 users at $0 |
| Mid tier | Pro $55 per agent per month billed annually | Premium $14.54 per user per month billed annually |
| Top published tier | Enterprise $89 per agent per month billed annually | Enterprise quoted, billed annually by contacting sales |
| Billing unit | Per support agent, US dollars, 20% saved annually | Per user, US dollars, up to 17% saved annually |
| What it does | Customer service helpdesk: ticketing, portal, knowledge base, SLAs | Work and project management: boards, backlogs, timelines, reports |
| Free tier limits | Trial only; no permanent free tier shown | 10 users, 2 GB storage, 150 automation steps per subscription monthly |
| AI | Freddy AI Agent first 500 sessions then $49 per 100; Copilot $29 per agent monthly | Rovo credits at 25, 70 or 150 per user monthly; Rovo Search, Chat and Agents |
| Usage metering | Day passes $2 to $12, connector tasks $80 per 5,000, MCP actions $15 per 1,000 | Automation 150/400/750/1,000 steps and storage 2 GB/250 GB/unlimited/unlimited |
| Support and SLA | Support tiers not quantified on the Freshdesk pricing page | Community, 9/5 regional, 24/7; 99.9% Premium and 99.95% Enterprise uptime SLA |
Pick Freshdesk if
Freshdesk prices the person who answers: $19 per agent for ticketing, a shared inbox, a portal and a knowledge base, $55 for routing and SLA policies, $89 for audit logs and skill-based routing. The first 500 AI agent sessions are included. If your measure is tickets closed, per agent is the unit that matches.
Pick Jira if
Jira starts free for 10 users and then asks $7.91 per user per month billed annually, $14.54 for cross-project planning and a 99.9% uptime SLA. Every person you license adds to that, but so does every workstream they track, which is the trade a support-only tool cannot make.
All prices and limits here are vendor-published: Freshdesk figures were read from freshdesk.com/pricing and Jira figures from the Jira pricing page on atlassian.com. We collected no independent reviews, ratings or user quotations for either product in this run. Freshdesk prices are per agent and Jira prices per user, both in US dollars, and Jira's Enterprise tier is quoted rather than published.
On published entry prices, yes: Jira is free for up to 10 users and then $7.91 per user per month billed annually, against Freshdesk Growth at $19 per agent per month. The units differ, though; Jira counts every licensed user while Freshdesk counts support agents.
For customer support, Freshdesk covers ticketing, a shared inbox, a portal, a knowledge base and SLA policies from $19 per agent. It does not plan sprints, cross-project dependencies or software releases, so a product or engineering team would keep Jira and run the two side by side.
Not on the pricing page we read, which covers Jira for project and work management. Atlassian's service offering is Jira Service Management, named on atlassian.com within its Service Collection, and its own price did not appear on that Jira pricing page.
Jira is free forever for up to 10 users, with 2 GB of storage and 150 automation steps a month. Freshdesk's page shows a free trial and a start-for-free route but no permanent free tier before its $19 per agent Growth plan.
Freshdesk includes the first 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions, then charges $49 per 100 sessions, with Copilot at $29 per agent per month billed annually. Jira meters Rovo at 25, 70 or 150 credits per user per month across Standard, Premium and Enterprise.
Jira gives 150 automation steps per subscription each month on Free, 400 per user on Standard, 750 per user on Premium and 1,000 per user on Enterprise. Freshdesk meters AI sessions, connector tasks and MCP actions rather than counting automation steps in the same way.
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