# Freshservice — IT Service Management

Freshservice by Freshworks Inc. holds a panel rating of 1.5/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 3/5), as of 2026-11-02. Provenance: Rest of world; sovereignty: not determined.

- Vendor: Freshworks Inc. (https://www.freshworks.com/freshservice/)
- Category: [IT Service Management](https://whats-best.ai/software/itsm.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): Rest of world
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/itsm/freshservice
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/itsm/freshservice/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/itsm/freshservice/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-11-06 · evaluated 2026-11-02 · oldest source captured 2026-11-01

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: Freshworks Inc.
- Headquarters: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
- Data hosting: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
- Free plan: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026

## The panel's verdict

Freshservice is a cloud IT service management product from Freshworks Inc of San Mateo, California. The bench found it strongest on deployment and integration, with scores from 4 to 6, clustering at 5: the captured pages document a version 2.0 REST API with OAuth and per-plan rate limits (100 to 500 requests a minute from Starter to Enterprise), and single sign-on over SAML 2.0 and OpenID Connect with in-product guides for Okta, ADFS, Azure AD and OneLogin. Service desk sits at 4 with no spread and the self-service portal at 3 to 4, resting on broad intake and a branded portal; we found no public information on SLAs, assignment queues or a service catalog. Change and problem and assets and CMDB both score 0 with no spread: no public information on change types, problem records, a CMDB or asset inventory. Sovereignty runs 0 to 2 — we found no public information on data residency, subprocessors or a data processing agreement. The judges' scores show no material divergence; the low marks reflect absent public information rather than differing readings.

**Speaks for it:**
- Documented REST API version 2.0 with OAuth, HTTPS-only requests, per-plan rate limits and a 60-day notice for breaking changes.
- Single sign-on via SAML 2.0 and OpenID Connect, with in-product guides for Okta, ADFS, Azure AD and OneLogin.
- Wide ticket intake — email, portal, phone, chat, Slack, MS Teams, chatbot, plus PagerDuty and AWS CloudWatch alerts — with attachments up to 40 MB.
- Branded portals with custom SSL certificates, domain-restricted signup and per-portal login policies, managed from one admin centre.
- An unresolved-tickets report in analytics, with reporting-duration limits that differ by plan.

**Held against it:**
- We found no public information on change management, problem records, a change calendar or release management.
- We found no public information on an asset inventory, discovery, licence tracking or a configuration management database.
- We found no public information on SLAs with escalation, assignment queues, business hours or an agent knowledge base.
- We found no public information on data residency, subprocessors or a data processing agreement for a vendor-run cloud service from Freshworks Inc of San Mateo, California.
- We found no public prices, with the Starter, Growth, Pro and Enterprise plan names appearing only in the API rate-limit table.

**Best for:**
- You need a cloud service desk with wide intake — email, portal, phone, chat, Slack, MS Teams, chatbot and monitoring alerts — for your IT team's ticket handling.
- You want a documented REST API (version 2.0, OAuth, published rate limits) to connect the service desk to your own tooling.
- You use Azure AD, Okta, OneLogin or ADFS for identity and need SSO with per-portal login policies across multiple portals.

**Avoid if:**
- You must evidence change management, problem records or a configuration management database to auditors or regulators.
- Your data protection officer needs published hosting locations, subprocessors and a data processing agreement before staff and device data can be signed off.
- You run a managed service provider and need documented client-data separation, time and contract billing or RMM connectors.

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price, or the judge found no public information on that criterion.

| Criterion | The Service Desk Lead | The MSP Owner | The Change & Configuration Manager | The Municipal IT Lead | The Solo IT Admin | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Service desk, incidents & requests | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Change, problem & release management | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r |
| Assets, CMDB & discovery | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r |
| Self-service portal & service catalog | 2/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 2/5 | 1.5/5 |
| Deployment, integrations & multi-client operation | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 2/5 | 3/5 | 2.5/5 |
| European sovereignty | 1/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 |
| Pricing transparency | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r |
| **Weighted verdict** | **2/5** | **2/5** | **1.5/5** | **1.5/5** | **2/5** | **1.5/5** |

### The judges

- **The Service Desk Lead** (v1.0): Leads a team of eight agents at a machine builder with 1,400 employees across three plants in Germany and one in Poland. Most tickets still arrive by email, and the same printer and VPN questions come in every Monday. Wants incidents and requests told apart, SLAs that escalate on their own, a portal with a catalog people actually use, answers that deflect the Monday tickets, and reports the IT director reads without a spreadsheet.
- **The MSP Owner** (v1.0): Owns a managed service provider with twenty-two technicians and sixty client companies, from dental practices to a logistics firm with nine sites. Every client has its own contract, its own SLA and its own devices, and every hour has to end up on an invoice. Wants one desk with client data kept apart, the RMM and remote support tool connected, time and contracts billed, a portal per client, and a price per technician that still works when the team doubles.
- **The Change & Configuration Manager** (v1.0): Change and configuration manager at a regional bank that answers to BaFin and, since January 2025, to DORA. Chairs the weekly change advisory board and has to show an auditor who approved which change, which services it touched and which incident it caused. Wants change types with real approvals, risk read from a CMDB that knows how systems depend on each other, problem records tied to incidents, and an audit trail that can be exported.
- **The Municipal IT Lead** (v1.0): Runs IT for a district administration with 900 staff, schools included, on servers in the municipal data centre. Follows BSI IT-Grundschutz and buys through public tenders, and the data protection officer will not sign off staff and device data on a US cloud. Wants an on-premise or open-source edition that is documented and maintained, a portal for teachers and clerks, assets linked to tickets, and a contract and price list the procurement office can put into a tender.
- **The Solo IT Admin** (v1.0): The whole IT department of a 160-person engineering firm, with a part-time trainee on Thursdays. Requests come in by email, Teams and in the corridor, and the asset list is a spreadsheet nobody trusts. Has no time for an ITIL project: wants email and Teams turned into tickets, a simple portal with answers to the common questions, laptops and licences found automatically, a setup that takes days rather than months, and a price they can read off the website.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Has seen "ITIL-certified" on a tool whose change management is a status field, a "CMDB" that is a list of devices without a single relationship, and an "AI agent" that searches the knowledge base. Reads that a product runs on premise and asks whether that edition gets the same features, which of the asset packs are extra, where the tickets and attachments are stored — and how ten years of ticket history would leave.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: not determined.

| Dimension | Finding | Points | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Not determined | — | — |
| Hosting location | Not determined | — | — |
| Hosting options | Not determined | — | — |
| Open source | Not determined | — | — |
| Data processing agreement | Not determined | — | — |
| Transfer impact assessment | Not determined | — | — |

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Compliance**
- No password storage: no [S7]

**Hosting**
- Cloudflare migration: customers configured a proxy for their domain to access the Freshservice portal · advanced security · reliability · yes [S4]

**Integrations**
- API version: 2.0 [S1]
- Attachments: create_ticket · update_ticket · reply_ticket [S1]
- Authentication: yes [S1]
- Custom cname: no [S1]
- Embedding: 3 · 1 [S1]
- Http verbs: POST · GET · PUT · DELETE · JSON over HTTP [S1]
- Https only: yes [S1]
- Oauth: yes [S1]
- Pagination: 100 · 30 [S1]
- Rate limit headers: X-RateLimit-Total · X-RateLimit-Remaining · X-RateLimit-Used-CurrentRequest · Retry-After [S1]
- Rest API: yes · yes · yes [S1]
- SSO redirect URL: Freshworks [S7]

**Legal**
- Copyright holder: Freshworks Inc [S4]
- Copyright holder: Freshworks Inc [S6]
- Entity: Freshworks Inc [S3]

**Pricing**
- Rate limit by plan: 400 · 200 · 100 · 500 [S1]

**Product**
- Accounts portals count preview: Accounts and Portals panel shows a count of accounts and portals in the organization [S5]
- Accounts portals view: Neo Admin Center provides a read-only overview of all accounts and portals in the organization, with login policy links [S5]
- Analytics usage limits: Analytics usage limits on reporting duration exist in Freshservice and differ by plan type [S2]
- Beta APIs: yes · no [S1]
- Cname failure impact: yes · yes [S4]
- Cname repoint required: re-point CName configuration to match DNS configuration [S4]
- Custom ssl certificate article: step-by-step CName configuration process is documented in an article about configuring a custom SSL certificate for the service desk portal [S4]
- Deep pagination warning: 500 [S1]
- Deprecation policy: 60 [S1]
- Domain whitelisting: restrict helpdesk login/signup and ticket creation to whitelisted domains · yes [S3]
- Idp guides UI: Okta · ADFS · Azure AD · OneLogin [S6]
- Last modified: 2024-06-25 [S3]
- Login methods config: Admins can enable/disable and configure login methods per login policy [S5]
- Login policy edit: Admins can edit login policies to unmap or map accounts/portals [S5]
- Login policy mapping: Portals on the default login policy can be reassigned to a custom policy via checkbox selection [S5]
- Migration window: disable Zone Hold in Cloudflare during the window · January 23rd, 2025 1 PM - 5 PM IST · January 27th, 2025 1 PM - 5 PM IST [S4]
- Oidc logo requirements: PNG · SVG · 36x36 [S7]
- Oidc logout redirect: yes [S7]
- Oidc required fields: Logout Redirect URL · Logo URL · User Info Endpoint · Claim First Name · Claim Middle Name · Claim Last Name · Claim Phone · Claim Mobile · Claim Locale · Claim Job Title · Claim Company · Client Id · Client Secret · Login display title ·… [S7]
- Oidc scopes: openid · email · profile · phone · address [S7]
- Oidc SSO supported: OpenID Connect · yes [S7]
- Oidc supported idps: Azure Active Directory · Google G-Suite · Okta · OneLogin [S7]
- Oidc token timeout: 10 [S7]
- Policy customization: Login policies can be customized with name, redirect URL and logo [S5]
- Rate limit minute based: minute-level for accounts created on/after 2020-09-01 [S1]
- Rate limit scope: account-wide [S1]
- SAML certificate validation: SAML responses are digitally signed and validated via IdP certificate [S6]
- SAML profile claims: SAML claims map to profile attributes such as givenname, surname, phone, mobile, company, title, preferredLanguage, timezone [S6]
- SAML protocol: xml_authentication_framework · SAML 2.0 [S6]
- SAML SSO support: yes [S6]
- Schema timestamps utc: UTC YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ [S1]
- Session management: Security settings include authentication/login policy configuration and session management controls [S5]
- SSO admin permission: Organization Admins only [S7]
- SSO admin permission: Only Organization Admins can configure SSO [S6]
- SSO config location: Security > Agents & Employees > Default Login Methods [S7]
- SSO custom policies: Custom SSO policies per account/portal; contacts under Security > Contacts [S6]
- SSO default login methods: all users in the organization, including admins/agents · Security > Agents & Employees > Default Login Methods [S6]
- SSO profile sync: first name · last name · email [S7]
- SSO sign in button: Login page shows "Sign in with SSO" option after configuration [S6]
- Ticket attachment size limit: 40 [S1]
- Ticket sources: email · portal · phone · chat · feedback_widget · yammer · aws_cloudwatch · pagerduty · walkup · slack · chatbot · workplace · employee_onboarding · alerts · ms_teams · employee_offboarding [S1]
- Unresolved tickets grouping: Grouping by week or month applies only at widget level; underlying data shows unique unresolved tickets [S2]
- Unresolved tickets metric: Unresolved Tickets metric shows tickets still unresolved as of the end date of the chosen date range [S2]
- Unresolved tickets time required: Selecting a time period is mandatory for the Unresolved Tickets metric [S2]
- V2 json only: yes [S1]
- Whitelisting configuration path: Admin > Account > Helpdesk Settings, 'Helpdesk Restriction' section [S3]
- Whitelisting default: any domain [S3]
- Whitelisting exceptions: agent-created tickets · chat channel · phone channel [S3]
- Zone hold check: check if Zone Hold configuration is enabled in customer's Cloudflare account [S4]
- Zone hold failure impact: yes · yes [S4]

**Support**
- General contact email: support@freshworks.com [S4]
- Related articles: How can I buy more licenses? · Configure IP restrictions to allow or block access · NAT IP address whitelisting for SSO · Enabling TLS 1.2 Strong Cipher Suites [S4]

## Questions

### Is Freshservice European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies Freshservice as Rest of world.

### Where does Freshservice store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026.

### Does Freshservice have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026.

### What are the best alternatives to Freshservice?

As of 2 Nov 2026, the panel rates [ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus (3.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/itsm/manageengine-servicedesk-plus), [Xurrent ITSM (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/itsm/xurrent) and [GLPI (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/itsm/glpi) highest among the other 14 IT Service Management products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [GLPI](https://whats-best.ai/software/itsm/glpi) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [Freshservice alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/itsm/freshservice/alternatives).

## Head-to-head

- [Freshservice vs TOPdesk](https://whats-best.ai/compare/freshservice-vs-topdesk.md)

## What this page leaves out

- 2 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 integrations fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 pricing fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.

## Sources

- [S1] API documentation: https://api.freshservice.com/ (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S2] Service desk, incidents & requests — found from sitemap: https://support.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000011587-how-to-use-the-unresolved-tickets-metric- (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S3] Service desk, incidents & requests — found from sitemap: https://support.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/218385-restricting-helpdesk-access-to-certain-domains-domain-whitelisting- (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S4] Self-service portal & service catalog — found from sitemap: https://support.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000010453-necessary-configuration-changes-to-ensure-uninterrupted-portal-access- (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S5] Self-service portal & service catalog — found from sitemap: https://support.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/50000011149-viewing-and-configuring-accounts-portals-and-their-security-policies-in-neo-admin-center (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S6] Deployment, integrations & multi-client operation — found from sitemap: https://support.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/237923-how-to-configure-sso-with-a-saml-2-0-identity-provider- (checked 2026-11-01)
- [S7] Deployment, integrations & multi-client operation — found from sitemap: https://support.freshworks.com/support/solutions/articles/238307-how-to-configure-sso-with-openid-connect- (checked 2026-11-01)

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Cite as: whats-best.ai, "Freshservice — IT Service Management", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-11-06. https://whats-best.ai/software/itsm/freshservice

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/1338?target=page