Freshdesk

Freshdesk is the classic helpdesk: email ticketing, a knowledge base, canned responses, and SLA tracking. It has been around since 2010 and now serves over 60,000 companies. The free plan covers 2 agents and includes email ticketing, a knowledge base, and pre-built reports. Paid plans start at $15/agent/month (Growth) and go up to $79/agent/month (Enterprise), all billed annually.

For a solo founder, the free tier is the draw. You get a real ticketing system and knowledge base without paying anything, and 2 agent seats means you can add a VA or co-founder later without upgrading. The downside is that Freshdesk was built for support teams, not individuals — the interface has a lot of menus, settings, and features you will never touch. If you want something lighter, Help Scout or Crisp will feel less like you are driving a bus to the grocery store. But if you need ticket tracking, SLA rules, and a proper knowledge base at zero cost, Freshdesk’s free plan is hard to beat.