Freshservice vs LiveAgent vs Jitbit

Freshservice

Freshservice is a dedicated IT service management platform. Its core is what internal IT teams do all day: incidents and service requests, an asset database fed by discovery, approval workflows built in a visual editor, and on the Pro plan, problem, change and release management. Integration with Slack, Microsoft Teams and Entra ID makes it a good fit for companies already on Microsoft 365.

That focus comes at a price. Freshservice Pro is $99 per agent per month, about $17,800 over 3 years for 5 agents, with asset packs and the Freddy AI Copilot ($29 per agent) on top. It's cloud only.

LiveAgent

LiveAgent is a multichannel support suite built in Slovakia. It combines email ticketing, a fast live chat widget, a call center and social media in one universal inbox, and it adds a knowledge base and customer forum on all plans. It's one of the few tools in this category still available as an on-premise installation.

At about $5,200 over 3 years for 5 agents, it costs less than a third of Freshservice Pro. LiveAgent claims ITIL support, but it has no asset management, CMDB or change management, so it's really a customer service tool. Choose LiveAgent for customer-facing chat and phone support, especially if you need self-hosting. Choose Freshservice for running internal IT.

Detailed feature comparison

	Freshservice	LiveAgent	Jitbit
	Modern ITSM service desk from Freshworks	Powerful support suite with ticketing and chat	Help Desk Software built for email. Trusted by thousands of companies across 50+ countries.
Pricing: 3 years / 5 agents	$17820	$5220	$3897
Pricing: 3 years / 10 agents	$35640	$10440	$8367
Active Directory	✅ SAML SSO with Entra ID / ADFS, plus user sync from AD and Entra ID	✅ AD catalog integration, but no Windows-integrated authentication	✅ Integration via a script for your server or ADFS and SAML
Activity Dashboard	✅ Customizable dashboards with real-time widgets	✅ There's a dashboard report, but it's not live-updated	✅ Live overview dashboard
Asset Management	✅ CMDB with agent-based and cloud discovery; 100 asset units included, more sold in packs	❌	✅ A complete asset management module tightly integrated into the rest of the app
Canned Responses	✅ Canned responses and scenario automations that update several fields at once	✅ 'Canned answers' are available on the $15/mo/user plan	✅ You can also assign canned responses to specific ticket categories if you need to
Community Forums	❌	✅ Customer forum is included with all plans	✅ Ideas Forum comes out of the box
Custom Fields	✅ Custom and dependent fields for tickets, assets and the service catalog	✅ Multiple custom field types available	✅ Many custom field types, including dependant fields. Various privacy options.
Custom Statuses	✅ Custom ticket statuses with SLA timer control	✅ Custom statuses are available, but no permission control	✅ Add custom statuses, customize how your customers see them and assign different colors to them
Customer satisfaction survey	✅ Built-in CSAT surveys with reports	✅ For chats only	✅ Optional CSATs in email notifications and a report
Design Customization	✅ Self-service portal branding and theming; the agent interface is fixed	✅ You can customize customer portal and knowledge base but not the ticketing system	✅ Unlimited customization options. Change colors with a live preview, add custom CSS and JS
Email Notification Templates	✅ Editable templates for every notification	✅ Editing email templates available on paid plans only	✅ You are able to completely change a template for any notification type
Escalation	✅ SLA-based escalations and multi-level reminders	✅ Escalating manually or via routing rules	✅ Possible to set up various escalation scenarios via automation
Exchange Integration	✅ Microsoft 365 mailboxes connected via OAuth	✅ IMAP only	✅ Native EWS support instead of IMAP. oAuth support for Office 365
Import and Export	✅ CSV import for assets and users, ticket export to CSV or Excel	✅ Tickets CSV export, users CSV import	✅ Import and Export tickets via CSV files
Internationalization	✅ Multilingual UI, portal and knowledge base	✅ Yes, with the ability to add custom languages	✅ Available in 16 different languages
ITIL Compliance	✅ PinkVERIFY-certified ITIL processes; problem, change and release management start at Pro	✅ Yes	✅ Support for most ITIL processes
Knowledge Base	✅ Solution articles in the self-service portal, with approval workflows	✅ Knowledge Base and customer portal	✅ Customizable Knowledge Base optimized for search engines
Live Chat	❌	✅ Live chat button is included	✅ A free live chat component in the web widget
Mobile Apps	✅ iOS and Android apps for agents and requesters	✅ Both iOS and Android	✅ iOS and Android
Multi-channel support	✅ Email, portal, phone, Slack and Microsoft Teams	✅ Email, chat, social networks	✅ Possible to add unlimited channels via integrations and API
On-premise Version	❌	✅ Downloadable license available	✅ A full on-premises version that runs on Windows Server
Reports and Analytics	✅ Curated reports and a custom report builder; advanced analytics on higher plans	✅ Multiple reports and analytics included	✅ 13 reports with an ability to build your own and to export everything to Excel
REST API	✅ REST API v2 covering tickets, assets, changes and more	✅ API covers all the app features	✅ API covers all the app features
Single-Sign-On	✅ SAML 2.0 via the Freshworks organization account, plus Google and Microsoft login	✅ Custom-built PHP solution	✅ SAML, Google login, Windows-integrated etc.
SLA Management	✅ Multiple SLA policies with business hours per group	✅ Full SLA management	✅ Full SLA automation via actions/triggers
Support Widget	✅ Embeddable help widget for raising tickets and searching solutions	✅ Chat widget for websites	✅ Two different versions of a web widget
Third-party Integrations	✅ Freshworks Marketplace with hundreds of apps	✅ API and Integrations on $15/mo/user plan and higher	✅ 30 native integrations and 500 more via Zapier
Ticket Collaboration	✅ Agent collision detection, private notes, child tickets and @mentions	✅ Reply-history, CC	✅ See when other techs are viewing tickets in real-time, assign multiple people to a ticket
Workflow Automation	✅ Visual Workflow Automator with approvals, conditions and web requests	❌	✅ Automation Rules are very powerful and can go beyond simple if-this-then-that logic

Looking for help desk software? Check out Jitbit. We offer a fully-featured app at a very affordable price. It comes with all the must have features like knowledge base, two-way email integration (including native Exchange and Office 365 support), automation, hundreds of integrations with third-party apps and much more. Available both as a hosted "SaaS" version and an on-premises version you can install on your own server.