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Good morning,

I’m curious if anyone has any insight...  I work for a small school district and about 11 years ago I signed up to Freshdesk’s Sprout plan.  It was, at the time, 3 agents free “for life.”  Which, thanks to the Wayback machine…

Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20130811230239/http://freshdesk.com/pricing/free-support-software

 

Turns out, that fit the bill for me and my two colleagues and, 11 years later, we remain three and continue to use and love Freshdesk to support our teachers.

 

I received an email yesterday stating that “Effective November 15, 2024, we will reduce the number of agent licenses included in the Freshdesk Free Plan from ten to two.”  I’m assuming I’m getting this email because I’m technically on the free plan, but when I check my dashboard, it still shows that I’m on a “classic” plan with only three seats available to me, not ten.

 

My question is, does this apply to us?    We never had 10 available agents, it’s always been three “forever.”  I know companies everywhere are changing the definition of “forever” and “for life” and, while I get it, I’d still be disappointed if the promise is broken after 11 years.

Not to mention the fact that, I actually won’t be able to continue using Freshdesk.  We have a very tight budget and I’m not permitted to add new subscriptions after the budget is finalized over the summer.  We did not plan for this kind of a change to occur, especially with only a month and a half notice.

Any thoughts or advice?  I’m all ears.  Thank you.

~ Kyle

Hi.

Sadly, it seems it does apply to you.

You may check this:

What is the difference between the old Sprout and new Sprout plans? : Freshdesk Support

Explore Freshdesk Free Plan - Key Features, Setup, and Upgrades : Freshdesk Support

However, as it said, Free Forever for 3, you might to get that working for you, as they can change instance-based changes and exceptions.

 

Regards,

We are in a similar position. Been using FreshDesk on the free Sprout plan for a few years with 6 agents. It’s been really good although with some limitations but then when it’s free you can’t complain. We also got the notification last month to inform us that the plans are changing with the free version dropping to 2 agents. We had a good run but I can understand why it’s a bit unfair on FreshDesk for us to be using the system for so long without paying a penny. I did always expect this would happen one day and when we first started using FreshDesk I don’t remember any promise of free forever (presumably the marketing changed at some point when FreshDesk realised free forever wasn’t a good business model).

We have now upgraded to the growth plan and I have to say it has so far been a worthwhile upgrade. Most of the limitations we were working around have been solved now and our Helpdesk performance has noticeably improved.

I realise this may not be very helpful with a tight school budget and I don’t know if the additional features on the paid plan are useful to you. Other than using a shared log in for your two colleagues I’m not sure what you can do I’m afraid.

lol I know I can’t really complain for something we’ve been using for free for the last 11 years...

When we signed up, they had a lot of features available on the free plan, the only catch was we were limited to 3 free agents.  It wasn’t until a few years after we signed up that they started moving features behind higher paid tiers, but nothing changed for us because we’ve been grandfathered in our previous plan.

I’m actually worried “upgrading” will cause us to lose features because of this.  I’m going to have to reach out to them directly and see what we can figure out.

lol I know I can’t really complain for something we’ve been using for free for the last 11 years...

When we signed up, they had a lot of features available on the free plan, the only catch was we were limited to 3 free agents.  It wasn’t until a few years after we signed up that they started moving features behind higher paid tiers, but nothing changed for us because we’ve been grandfathered in our previous plan.

I’m actually worried “upgrading” will cause us to lose features because of this.  I’m going to have to reach out to them directly and see what we can figure out.

I feel for you. I was worried too about the upgrade but we’re so invested in the system now we had no real choice. In particular the growth plan includes WhatsApp integration which sounded interesting but I was worried if we implement that and then they move it to a higher tier at some point we would be forced into upgrading again to keep it. Losing some agent features you might be able to sacrifice, but if we start allowing our customers to contact us via WhatsApp then it’s harder to lose customer facing functionality in the future. Thankfully in some says, the WhatsApp integration is a non-starter once we read the limitations so we wouldn’t be going ahead with that.

Good luck anyway, hopefully FreshDesk have a heart and perhaps allow you to continue as you are even if just to get you to the next school budget.

 

lol I know I can’t really complain for something we’ve been using for free for the last 11 years...

When we signed up, they had a lot of features available on the free plan, the only catch was we were limited to 3 free agents.  It wasn’t until a few years after we signed up that they started moving features behind higher paid tiers, but nothing changed for us because we’ve been grandfathered in our previous plan.

I’m actually worried “upgrading” will cause us to lose features because of this.  I’m going to have to reach out to them directly and see what we can figure out.

That’s exactly what I was suggesting; To contact them directly, hoping to consider your scenario.

Best luck,

 

Regards,

Hi @kbisignani,

 

Greetings from Freshworks community. Let me create a support ticket on your behalf and get back to you regarding this. I wish you a nice day ahead!

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