Solves vs Freshdesk, the honest version.
Freshdesk is a broad, multi-channel helpdesk with phone, chat, social and a routing-rules engine, priced per agent in US dollars. Solves is email-first and multi-brand, priced in GBP team bands with first-response and resolution SLA timers. This page lays out where each one fits, including where Freshdesk is the better choice, so you can decide without the sales spin.
Comparison verified on 13 June 2026. Freshdesk figures are a dated snapshot; re-check the Freshdesk pricing page before you rely on them.
The short answer
Who each one is for
Freshdesk and Solves solve overlapping problems from opposite ends. Freshdesk is a wide platform built to cover many channels for many kinds of team. Solves is a narrow tool built to do support email extremely well for small UK teams, including teams running more than one brand.
Freshdesk is the better fit when support arrives across phone, live chat, social and email at once, when you want an automation engine to route and triage tickets by rule, and when paying per agent in US dollars is acceptable because the channel breadth earns its keep. It is a mature contact-centre style platform, and for that brief it is a strong choice.
Solves is the better fit when your support genuinely lives in shared inboxes like support@, info@ and accounts@, when you want owned tickets, ownership, private notes and SLAs without standing up a contact centre, and when you would rather pay a GBP team band than a per-seat fee that punishes the helper who picks up overflow on a busy Monday. If you run several brands from one team, Solves treats that as the main job rather than a top-tier extra.
Solves is at pilot stage, so this page only compares what is actually shipped. Where Freshdesk does something Solves does not, we say so plainly rather than implying parity.
Honest comparison
Solves vs Freshdesk at a glance
A like-for-like look at the things teams actually choose on. Where Freshdesk is broader, the table says so.
| Solves | Freshdesk | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | GBP team bands, ex VAT (Starter 29, Team 79, Growth 149, Agency/MSP 299), annual gives twelve months for ten | Per agent, per month, in US dollars; annual Growth USD 19, Pro USD 55, Enterprise USD 89 |
| Free entry | Starter at GBP 29, paid from the start, plus an early-adopter pilot | Free programme is USD 0 for 1 to 2 agents for 6 months only, not forever-free |
| Multi-brand | Core to the product: brands, per-brand mailboxes, brand-scoped saved replies, one unified queue, wrong-brand send guard | Multiple products and portals available, typically on higher tiers |
| SLA timers | First-response and resolution timers, per-brand or organisation targets, breaching view | Configurable business hours and SLA policies across plans |
| Channels | Email-first only: no phone, live chat, WhatsApp or social, by design | Broad: email, phone, live chat and social channels |
| Automation and routing | No routing-rules engine; saved views, filters and saved replies instead | Routing-rules and automation engine included on paid tiers |
| Migration from Freshdesk | Guided import in pilot, assisted move with saved-reply migration; not a live one-click transfer yet | Not applicable |
| Best suited to | Small UK teams running focused, multi-brand support email | Teams wanting one platform across many channels with rule-based automation |
Competitor facts last verified 13 June 2026. Re-check the vendor's current plans before deciding.
Solves does not claim feature parity with Freshdesk and does not win for enterprises or multi-channel teams. If you need phone, live chat, social or a routing-rules engine, Freshdesk is the better fit. Competitor figures are a dated snapshot; re-verify on the Freshdesk pricing page before relying on them.
Where Freshdesk wins
Freshdesk is broader, and that matters for some teams
It is easy to write a comparison that pretends the home product wins everything. This one does not. Freshdesk is the stronger choice in several real situations.
More channels in one place
Freshdesk covers email, phone, live chat and social. If your customers reach you across several of those at once, or you want a single platform for a contact-centre style operation, Freshdesk gives you that breadth out of the box. Solves does none of it: it is email-first on purpose, so a multi-channel team should choose Freshdesk.
A real automation and routing engine
Freshdesk includes a routing-rules and automation engine on its paid tiers: assign by rule, trigger actions on conditions, and triage at volume without a person touching every ticket. Solves has no automations engine. It gives you saved queue views, rich filters and saved replies, which suit a small team, but if you need rule-based routing at scale, Freshdesk wins here.
Depth for larger and more complex teams
As an established platform, Freshdesk carries the wider feature surface that bigger or more complex operations tend to want over time. Solves is at pilot stage and deliberately narrow. For a large team, or one that needs a deep configurable platform today, Freshdesk is the safer pick.
Where Solves wins
Solves is focused, multi-brand and built for UK SMEs
Within its scope, support email for small UK teams, Solves is the calmer, fairer-priced choice. Here is where it pulls ahead.
Email-first, with nothing to configure that you will not use
Because Solves only does support email, there is no channel sprawl, no chat widget, no phone routing and no omnichannel console to learn. Shared inboxes become owned tickets with states, priority, tags, assignment, public replies and private notes, and that is the whole job. For a team whose support really lives in support@ and info@, that focus is a feature, not a gap.
Multi-brand as a first-class job, not an enterprise add-on
Solves runs several customer-facing brands from one login and one unified queue. Each brand keeps its own mailbox, sender name, signature and brand-scoped saved replies, tickets carry brand badges, and a composer guard locks each reply to the ticket brand so nobody answers one brand wearing another brand's identity. On many platforms multiple brands or products are a higher-tier feature; on Solves it is the centre of the product.
GBP team bands instead of per-seat pricing
Freshdesk charges per agent per month in US dollars. Solves charges GBP team bands ex VAT, so the occasional helper who clears overflow does not cost a full seat. You size a band to the team and let people help. Invoices show VAT, and annual billing is priced as twelve months for ten.
UK-first billing and pricing
Solves is built for UK SMEs. First-response and resolution SLA timers carry per-brand or organisation targets and surface a breaching view so nothing ages out of sight. Pricing and invoicing are UK-shaped, in GBP with VAT visible, rather than retrofitted from a US default.
Encrypted at rest, metadata-only logs
Customer support content is encrypted at rest with per-organisation keys, access is limited to authorised people, and logs are metadata-only, so message bodies and email addresses are never written to them. Solves is designed for UK SMEs and targets WCAG 2.2 AA. We describe what is actually built rather than claiming compliance badges or guaranteed delivery.
On migrating from Freshdesk
A guided Freshdesk import is in pilot, not a finished, live data transfer that reads a real Freshdesk account today. If you join the early-adopter pilot we help you move across and migrate your saved replies by hand where needed. Treat migration as assisted and coming, not as a one-click switch that is live right now.
FAQ
Solves vs Freshdesk questions
Is Solves or Freshdesk better?
Neither is better in the abstract; they are built for different jobs. Freshdesk is a broad, multi-channel helpdesk with phone, chat, social and a routing-rules automation engine, sold per agent in US dollars, and it suits teams that want one platform across many channels. Solves is email-first and multi-brand, sold in GBP team bands with first-response and resolution SLA timers, and it suits a small UK team running support email for one or more brands without per-seat pricing or a contact-centre to configure. Pick Freshdesk if channels and automation are the point; pick Solves if focused, multi-brand support email is.
Is Freshdesk free?
Not on a forever-free basis. Freshdesk advertises a Free programme worded as USD 0 for 1 to 2 agents for 6 months, which is a time-limited complimentary window rather than the open-ended free tier it historically offered. After that you move to a paid plan: billed annually, Growth is USD 19, Pro USD 55 and Enterprise USD 89 per agent per month (verified 13 June 2026; re-check the Freshdesk pricing page before relying on these). Solves has a Starter at GBP 29 that is also paid from the start, plus an early-adopter pilot, so neither product is genuinely free forever.
Can I import my data from Freshdesk into Solves?
A guided Freshdesk import is on the roadmap, not a finished, self-serve data transfer you can run against a live Freshdesk account today. We would rather say that plainly than overstate it. If you join the early-adopter pilot we help you move across by hand where needed and migrate your saved replies, and the guided importer is being built to make that smoother. Treat migration as assisted and coming, not as a one-click button that is live right now.
Does Solves do phone, live chat or social like Freshdesk?
No. Solves is email-first by design: it handles support email as owned tickets with ownership, notes, SLAs, reports and multi-brand. It does not run phone lines, live chat, WhatsApp or social inboxes, all of which Freshdesk does offer. If multi-channel or omnichannel cover is a requirement, Freshdesk is the better fit; if your support genuinely lives in shared inboxes, Solves keeps it focused.
How does pricing compare between Solves and Freshdesk?
Freshdesk charges per agent per month in US dollars (Growth USD 19, Pro USD 55, Enterprise USD 89 billed annually). Solves charges in GBP team bands, ex VAT: Starter GBP 29, Team GBP 79, Growth GBP 149 and Agency/MSP GBP 299, with annual billing priced as twelve months for ten. The practical difference is that an occasional helper does not cost a full seat on Solves, because you size a band to the team rather than paying per agent.
Can Solves run several brands the way Freshdesk does?
Yes, and multi-brand is core to Solves rather than a top-tier add-on. You create one brand per customer-facing identity, give each its own mailbox, signature and brand-scoped saved replies, and work every brand in one unified queue with brand badges and filters. A composer guard stops a reply going out as the wrong brand. Freshdesk supports multiple products and portals on higher tiers; the difference is that Solves treats running brands side by side as the main job, not an enterprise extra.
Email-first support, priced in GBP
If your support lives in shared inboxes and you run one or more brands, try Solves. If you need many channels and an automation engine, Freshdesk is the better fit, and that is fine.