Chatvia vs Freshchat: no fee per session#

Freshchat's Freddy AI is sold by the session, about $49 per 100, and a session costs the same whether the AI solved the problem or not. Chatvia is the free, self-hosted AI agent platform I built, and it charges nothing per chat. I put the two side by side on price, seats, data, models, channels and tools, and I say when Freshchat is the better buy.

My short answer#

Chatvia, if you want to own your agent: data on your server, any model, and no fee for each chat.

Freshchat, if your support team already lives in Freshworks and the per-session bill fits your budget.

What Freshchat is#

Freshchat is the chat product from Freshworks. Your team gets a shared inbox for web chat, mobile apps and messaging apps. Freddy AI is its AI agent. Everything runs on Freshworks' servers.

You pay twice. Every team member needs a seat, from about $19 a month. Then Freddy AI comes in sessions, at about $49 for 100 AI sessions.

What Chatvia is#

Chatvia is a free platform for AI chat agents. You install it on your own server with one command. An agent answers from your files, your websites and your Q&A pairs, and it works on your website, in Slack, in Teams, on WhatsApp and in more places.

You get the full source code. You can read it, change it and run it.

Solved or not, you pay#

This is the part of Freshchat's pricing I would push back on. A Freddy AI session costs the same whether the visitor got an answer or left unhappy. At about $49 per 100 sessions, 1,000 AI sessions a month is about $490. At 10,000 sessions, about $4,900 a month, before seats. A bad week, where the AI solves fewer chats, costs exactly as much as a good one.

Chatvia's software is free. You pay your AI provider for what the model uses, at the provider's price, with nothing added on top. A typical answer from a fast model costs a fraction of a cent. Run an open-weight model on your own hardware and the AI cost can be zero.

You still see how well the agent does. Chatvia's conversation pulse shows whether each chat ended better than it started, and whether it was resolved. You just do not pay extra for that.

Agents, teams and replies have no limit, with or without a key. A Pro license key adds more workspaces, the API, capabilities and forms and hides the "Powered by Chatvia" line, for $199 a year.

Seats#

Freshchat charges for every person who answers chats.

Chatvia has no fee per user. Invite the whole team, then use roles and permissions to decide who sees which agent. There are 41 permissions, so a new teammate gets exactly the access they need and nothing more.

Where your data sits#

Freshworks keeps your chats, contacts and documents on its own servers. For many companies that is fine. For health care, finance or government, it is often a hard no.

Chatvia runs on a server you choose: your cloud account, your data center, or a machine in your office. Chats and documents never leave it, unless you send them to an AI provider you picked.

The model#

Freshworks picks the model behind Freddy AI. You cannot switch it.

In Chatvia you choose any model: OpenAI, Gemini, Mistral, Groq, OpenRouter, or your own server with Ollama or vLLM. Each agent can run a different model, and you can switch at any time.

Channels#

Freshchat covers web, mobile apps, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and Apple Messages.

Chatvia covers a chat widget, a hosted chat page, voice chats, Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Telegram and a REST API. One agent works the same way in every place.

So Freshchat has Apple Messages and chat inside your mobile app. Chatvia has Slack, Teams, Telegram and voice, which means the same agent can help your own staff, not only your customers.

Tools and guardrails#

Freddy AI takes actions inside Freshworks.

A Chatvia agent can use 24 ready-made connectors, such as GitHub, HubSpot, Salesforce, Notion and Zendesk, or any MCP server. It can also call your own HTTP endpoints as custom functions. For each tool you decide: it runs, it waits for a person's OK, or it never runs. Every call is logged with its input and its result.

Both products have guardrails. Freshworks sets them for you. In Chatvia you see them and set them yourself: they catch prompt injection, mask personal data like card numbers, keep the agent on topic, and stop abusive language.

Handing over to a person#

Both do this, and both do it well. Freshchat does it inside its inbox. In Chatvia, your team takes over a widget chat live from the dashboard.

When I would pick Freshchat#

• Your support team already runs on Freshworks.
• You need Apple Messages, or chat inside your mobile app.
• The per-session fee is small next to your support budget.

Verdict#

Freshchat is a solid inbox. Freddy AI charges for every session it touches, including the ones it fails. Chatvia gives you an agent that answers from your knowledge, uses your tools and hands over to a person, with no meter at all. You keep your data, you pick the model, and the cost stays flat as the chats grow.

Try it on your own server: install Chatvia in a few minutes and build your first agent today.

Prices are from Freshworks' pages and public reviews in October 2026. They change often, so check them before you choose.