# Navbatly vs Freshdesk for agencies with retainers

> Navbatly and Freshdesk compared for agencies selling support hours: retainer allowances and rollover, client reports, client sign-in, response targets and pricing.

- Canonical page: https://navbatly.com/compare/freshdesk
- Language: en-GB
- Also in: [Русский](https://navbatly.com/ru/compare/freshdesk.md), [Oʻzbekcha](https://navbatly.com/uz/compare/freshdesk.md)
- Last reviewed: 29 October 2026
- Maintained by: Karve Digital (hello@karvedigital.com)

Freshdesk is a customer service help desk for any business. Navbatly is a support desk for agencies that sell hours to their clients. Here is how they differ for that job, from Freshworks' own pages, read on 28 October 2026.

## Side by side

|  | Navbatly | Freshdesk |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Talk to us about plans. | Growth $19, Pro $55, Enterprise $89 per agent a month billed annually ($23, $66, $107 monthly); 14-day trial ([pricing](https://www.freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/)). |
| Client sign-in | None. One private request link per client for requests, deliveries and their report. | Portal requests without a login by default; public ticket links show status without one, on Growth and above ([docs](https://support.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/52265-providing-public-ticket-links-for-easy-access)). |
| Email | A ticket inbox per team, and every email about one ticket replies to that ticket's own address, so the client's answer lands on it. Emails about several tickets, the report and the pause notice reply to the team. | Emails become tickets in a shared inbox, on every plan ([pricing](https://www.freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/)). |
| Monthly support hours | Support contracts with a monthly allowance, rollover up to a cap, and an overage policy. | No native prepaid hours, rollover or overage found. A third-party Marketplace app tracks time against contracts ([app](https://www.freshworks.com/apps/freshdesk/contract_management/)). |
| Time | Logged as client contact or delivery; each entry included, billable or no charge. | Time logs with a billable checkbox on Growth and above; the timesheet report by customer needs Pro ([docs](https://support.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/37583-keeping-track-of-time-spent)). |
| Client report | A plain-English monthly report of work and hours, by email or the client's link. | Scheduled analytics PDFs by email on Pro and Enterprise ([docs](https://support.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/240703-scheduling-reports-in-analytics)). |
| Response targets | A first-response target per priority, on the clock, with a warning and an overdue notice. | First-response, every-response and resolution targets per priority on business or calendar hours; reminders before a breach need Pro ([docs](https://support.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/37626-understanding-sla-policies)). |
| What the client owes | Client actions on the ticket, each with its days waited, reminders and a project target date that moves. | A Pending status that pauses SLA timers. No itemised list of what the customer owes found. |
| AI assistant | An MCP server with sign-in, included. | An MCP server with an API key and a yearly action allowance per plan, then $15 per 1,000 actions ([pricing](https://www.freshworks.com/freshdesk/pricing/)). |

Facts about Freshdesk come from Freshworks' own pricing page and help centre, read on 28 October 2026 (the email row on 29 October). Prices are in US dollars (the page also lists GBP and EUR) and change; check the linked pages. Spotted something out of date? Email hello@karvedigital.com.

## Where Freshdesk is ahead

It takes requests from email, chat, phone and social channels, has an AI agent and an AI copilot, a knowledge base and forums, multilingual support, skill-based routing and a large app marketplace. Its SLAs cover every response and resolution as well as the first reply, on business hours.

## Which to choose

Choose Freshdesk if you run customer service for your own product, across many channels, with a large team.

Choose Navbatly if you sell support hours to clients: you want each client's monthly allowance, rollover and overage handled, a report they can read, and what they owe you tracked with its own clock. See [retainer hours](https://navbatly.com/features/retainer-hours) and [Client Clock](https://navbatly.com/features/client-clock).

## Try Navbatly with one client

Create a team, add a client and their support plan, and send your first report. Create a team at https://navbatly.com/register, or email hello@karvedigital.com.