Price posture · September 2026

Best customer support software for free

AI's answer · live, with web access

Zoho Desk

Contested

88/100 slot score

100% of answers name it

#2 avg. position

+4 ahead of Freshdesk

Zoho Desk leads the free-plan question most consistently, but no single brand has locked it down.

Zoho Desk appears in every one of the 12 answers and averages the second position, giving it the strongest foothold of any brand here. Freshdesk matches its 100% mention rate but trails by four slot-score points and sits a position lower on average, making it the closest challenger rather than a co-leader. HubSpot shows up in 8 of 12 answers yet is almost entirely absent from ChatGPT, which instead pushed FyneDesk to the top spot in all four of its responses, a divergence that reflects ChatGPT leaning on a fynedesk.io source that the other two models largely ignored. The core reason cited across answers is permanence: reviewers distinguish tools with a genuinely unlimited free tier from those hiding behind trial windows.

AI-generated analysis of the September 2026 measurements.

The full field

Every brand recommended for this question, from 12 answers across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.

#	Brand	Slot score	Appears in	Avg. position
1	Zoho Desk	88	100%	#2
2	Freshdesk	84	100%	#3
3	HubSpot	56	67%	#3
4	Tawk.to	38	58%	#5
5	FyneDesk	33	33%	1st
6	ProProfs Help Desk	30	42%	#4
7	Spiceworks	29	42%	#5
8	SparrowDesk	28	33%	#3

Slot score is position-weighted, 0 to 100: being recommended first counts far more than a trailing mention. "Appears in" is the share of answers naming the brand at all.

Other surfaces

Model memory (same assistants, no web access) Freshdesk (differs: without the web, the models say Freshdesk)

Google AI Mode (the real surface, scraped) Freshdesk then HubSpot, LiveAgent

Google AI Overviews (the real surface, scraped) Google shows no AI Overview for this question

The main measurement above is the assistants' real answers with live web access. These rows show the same question on other surfaces: the models' bare memory, and Google's own AI search experiences.

How this was measured

ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini each answered this question in two phrasings, several times each, with live web access and citations: the closest API-reachable version of the real assistant experience (no personalization or account memory, which no vendor can provide). Model-memory answers (no web) are measured separately and shown above as a comparison surface. A brand counts once per answer that recommends it. The exact questions:

"What's the best customer support software for someone who needs a genuinely free plan?"
"We're not able to spend anything yet, so we need a real free plan, not a trial. Which customer support software should we use?"

Part of the Customer Support ranking. Method details on the methodology page. Rankings reflect measured AI answers, not paid placement.

Best customer support software for free

The full field

Other surfaces

How this was measured

More customer support software buying questions

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