Best Help Desk Software in 2022

Written by

Branko Krstic

Some or all of the products/services listed on this page are from our affiliate partners from which we receive commissions. This, however, does not influence the evaluations in our reviews. Learn more by reading our Advertiser Disclosure.

Boost your customer engagement with the top tools for the purpose!

We reviewed and ranked the best help desk software in 2022.

Our thorough evaluation process included:

  1. Research and compare the features and functionality of each platform.
  2. Check its reporting and analytics tools, but also extensions and integrations.
  3. Go through the terms of service and pricing to understand the value of the offer.

Ready to step up your game? Find below the best service desk software for your organization!

 

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Best Help Desk Software

Freshdesk is considered the gold standard of help desk tools. It has affordable pricing—including a free plan—a slick interface, and outstanding features that cater to small-to-medium businesses and large enterprises alike. Full Review

  • Automation capacity
  • Omnichannel capabilities
  • Convenient Integration

Free Version
Yes
ITIL/ITSM Compliance
Yes
Reporting
Fair
Analytics
Fair
Integrations
2,000+ including Slack, WhatsApp, and Zapier
Support
4.6

Zendesk is support, sales, and customer engagement software that is quick to implement, easy to use, and scalable to fit the needs of businesses large and small. The omnichannel Zendesk Suite goes above and beyond to provide sophisticated solutions to complex needs but is simple enough to set up in no time. Full Review

  • Flexible pricing
  • Omnichannel support
  • Multilingual capabilities

Free Version
No
ITIL/ITSM Compliance
No
Reporting
Advanced
Analytics
Advanced
Integrations
1,000+ including Zapier, LiveChat, and Mailchimp
Support
4.5

Zoho Desk utilizes the power of customer context to improve agent productivity, promote self-service, manage cross-functional service processes, and increase customer satisfaction. Zoho Desk will help you stay on top of every aspect of your customer service efforts with excellent features and a platform priced well below the competition. Full Review

  • Affordable
  • Scalable
  • Amazing workflow tools

Free Version
Yes
ITIL/ITSM Compliance
No
Reporting
Advanced
Analytics
Advanced
Integrations
500+ with Zoho Flow including HubSpot, Asana, and Zapier
Support
4.8

Simply put, ProProfs Help Desk is a help desk platform designed for customer delight. It brings all interactions together into a single interface and helps you offer support that is seamless, fast, and personal. ProProfs Help Desk has a long list of features that ultimately speed up ticket resolution and create a delightful customer experience. Full Review

  • Familiar interface
  • Centralized shared Inbox
  • Very scalable

Free Version
Yes
ITIL/ITSM Compliance
No
Reporting
Fair
Analytics
Fair
Integrations
50+ including Salesforce, Wufoo, and Tidio Chat
Support
4.7

Jitbit HelpDesk is a fast, affordable, and professional helpdesk ticketing solution with an interactive user interface for quick and easy ticket resolution. JitBit offers powerful features like automated routing, incident management, and self-service portal functionalities within a comprehensive suite. Full Review

  • SaaS and self-hosted options
  • Free support and version upgrades
  • Customizable design

Free Version
No
ITIL/ITSM Compliance
Yes
Reporting
Advanced
Analytics
Fair
Integrations
17, including GitHub, Asana, and Zapier
Support
4.8

EngageBay is an all-in-one marketing, sales, CRM, and support solution that is affordably priced and comes with free help desk software. EngageBay offers a rich set of features that allows you to capture leads, nurture and engage them, convert them into customers, and provide unparalleled support—all in one platform. Full Review

  • Free help desk, CRM, and live chat
  • SMB-friendly pricing
  • Advanced automation

Free Version
Yes
ITIL/ITSM Compliance
No
Reporting
Basic
Analytics
Fair
Integrations
28, including Zapier
Support
4.4

Combining live chat with email ticketing, LiveAgent is a multichannel platform that makes sure you can stay on top of support no matter how customers connect with you. It is reasonably priced and offers standout features like automated ticket routing and internal coordination tools. Full Review

  • Automated ticketing
  • Agent Gamification
  • Rich customization

Free Version
Yes
ITIL/ITSM Compliance
No
Reporting
Fair
Analytics
Fair
Integrations
195, including Zoho Flow and Zapier
Support
4.6

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus delivers an all-in-one ITSM platform, including comprehensive IT help desk solutions, service desk ticketing system, account and asset management, remote controls, and advanced reporting. It provides excellent visibility and central control in dealing with IT issues to ensure businesses suffer no downtime. Full Review

  • 360° ITSM capacity
  • Automatic ticket assignment
  • Native mobile apps

Free Version
Yes
ITIL/ITSM Compliance
Yes
Reporting
Fair
Analytics
Advanced
Integrations
2,000+, including Zapier
Support
4.4

Jira Service Desk brings you the most comprehensive IT service desk software with a powerful ticketing system, a valuable self-service knowledge base, and real-time reporting. Full Review

  • Configurable workflows
  • Intuitive customer portals
  • Customizable live queues

Free Version
Yes
ITIL/ITSM Compliance
Yes
Reporting
Fair
Analytics
Fair
Integrations
1,000+ including Slack, Confluence, and Salesforce
Support
4.5

Help Desk Software - Reviews & Comparison

Customer service support has come a long way since the days of switchboard operators. Nowadays, help desk software enables organizations to provide faster and more effective support than ever — it aids in answering technical and functional questions and facilitates the flow of information to and from users. 

In this article, we at HostingTribunal have evaluated the best help desk software, relying on our comprehensive methodology. Read on to find your perfect support partner.

Best for: SMALL BUSINESS CUSTOMER SERVICE

1. Freshdesk

Starts from $15/month
Open Account
Free Version

Yes

ITIL/ITSM Compliance

Yes

Reporting

Fair

Analytics

Fair

Integrations

2,000+ including Slack, WhatsApp, and Zapier

Support

Good

Strengths
  • Free plan
  • Automation capacity
  • Omnichannel capabilities
  • Convenient Integration
  • Mobile app
  • Gamification for agents
Weaknesses
  • Key features only at the highest price point
  • Insufficient social integration
  • Limited automation

What Is Freshdesk?

Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer service software that provides online help desk support with omnichannel capabilities, smart automations, and self-service solutions to get things done faster. 

Freshdesk Ease of Use

Freshdesk has a sleek looking interface that is easy to navigate; the intuitive inbox and robust filtering options make staying on top of tickets a breeze. 

Freshdesk Integrations

The Freshdesk platform integrates with popular autoresponders like Mailchimp, Office 365, and tools like Asana, and Shopify in multiple categories like Agent Productivity, CRM, Sales, and Marketing to provide a complete customer relationship management suite. 

Freshdesk Best Features

  • Ticketing allows you to prioritize, categorize, and assign tickets, so you never lose track of them. 
  • Collaboration includes team huddles to discuss specific parts of the ticket, shared ownership of tickets with other teams, linked related tickets to keep track of widespread issues, and the ability to split tickets. 
  • Automations leverage the software’s built-in capabilities to automate repetitive helpdesk tasks. 
  • Help widget lets you embed answers and show a contact form to help customers wherever they are.
  • Reporting and analytics allows you to capture and analyze customer support data effortlessly to make data-driven decisions.
  • Security ensures enterprise-grade safety and comprehensive audits of networks, systems, and regulatory compliances to protect the product and the platform. 
  • Customization tailor workflows, customer portal, agent roles, and more, to make the helpdesk truly yours. 

What We Disliked About Freshdesk

  • Key features like team dashboards and chatbots are only available with the highest price plan.
  • Once archived, tickets cannot be reopened.

Freshdesk Pricing

In addition to the Sprout Free Plan, which features email and social ticketing, ticket dispatch, ticket trend report, and data center location, Freshdesk has four paid plans:

  • Blossom — $15/agent/month billed annually (or $19 billed monthly) — ups the free plan with access to standard support tools, best-in-class ticketing, self-service, and reporting.
  • Garden — $35/agent/month billed annually (or $45 billed monthly) — adds time tracking, performance reports, and custom apps. 
  • Estate — $49/agent/month billed annually (or $69 billed monthly) — also features custom dashboards, dynamic ticket forms, and personalized support. 
  • Forest — $99/agent/month billed annually (or $125 billed monthly) — ups the ante with skill-based routing, audit log, HIPAA compliance, among others. 

Freshdesk also has an add-on called Freddy, a premium AI offering that automates mundane tasks for agents to improve productivity. 

  • Field Service Management — $29/field employee/month — adds field employees, manages appointments and schedules, and delivers stellar support in person too.
  • Freddy Self-Service — $100 for 1,000 sessions a month — automates the resolution of issues using highly-customizable chatbots and superior API connectors.
  • Freddy Ultimate — $75/agent/month (or $500 for 5,000 sessions a month) — improves customer experience and agent productivity with a canned response suggester and assist bot.

Freshdesk User Reviews

Freshdesk has a relatively good reputation with customers. It has high ratings on most user review sites, including Reddit. Users praise its efficiency and ease of use, but they mostly mention the free plan. There aren’t many complaints; the ones we did find cited minor things like the lack of filtering emails/communication by date. 

We Recommend Freshdesk For

Freshdesk is the best help desk software for small business owners. The free plan is a great way to get a feel of the platform before committing financial resources to it.

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Best for: CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT

2. Zendesk

Starts from $5/month
Open Account
Free Version

No

ITIL/ITSM Compliance

No

Reporting

Advanced

Analytics

Advanced

Integrations

1,000+ including Zapier, LiveChat, and Mailchimp

Support

Good

Strengths
  • Flexible pricing
  • Omnichannel support
  • Multilingual capabilities
  • Robust integrations
  • Mobile app
Weaknesses
  • Lacks enterprise features
  • Expensive add-ons
  • Somewhat confusing UI

What Is Zendesk?

Zendesk is an award-winning customer service platform with ticketing system software, a well-stocked knowledge base, and a unified workspace with remote access for agents.

Zendesk Ease of Use

Zendesk is designed for speed and efficiency, allowing businesses to be more reliable, flexible, and scalable. Overall, the software connects every support channel (i.e., email, web, chat, social media, etc.) and turns every customer interaction into support tickets. The intuitive help desk interface and automated workflows make it a crowd favorite among modern support organizations.

Zendesk Integrations

Like the best SaaS platforms, Zendesk offers plenty of integrations to make sure the software quickly and easily fits your workflow and needs. The integrations include marketing and lead generation apps like Mailchimp, automation tools like Solvemate, and CRM platforms like Zoho to provide a holistic customer relations-focused approach. 

Zendesk Best Features

  • Seamless channel integration gives your customers the luxury of choices and allows them to connect with you through multiple channels, including web, mobile, email, Facebook, or Twitter.
  • Automated ticketing system utilizes mighty AI and machine learning to provide quick answers to the most common support queries, speeding up ticket resolution times.
  • Multilingual local interface is available in over 40 languages, allowing agents to work in their preferred language. 
  • Guided mode helps agents focus by lining up tickets for them to work through, driving them from one ticket to another, and speeding up response times. 
  • Skills-based ticket routing assigns the right tickets to the most suitable agents. 
  • Pre-defined actions allow you to respond quickly to standard requests and generate other actions like changing a ticket’s status or altering specific fields. 
  • Chat lets you proactively engage customers in real-time, putting support directly into your website or help desk app. 
  • Configuration & customization allows you to tailor your Zendesk Suite to meet the needs of your team. 

What We Disliked About Zendesk

  • Advanced reporting is only available with the higher price tiers. 
  • It lacks enterprise features like change and asset management.
  • Some of the essential add-ons are expensive.

Zendesk Pricing

Zendesk has different products, each with its price plans and tiers — Support, Guide, Chat, and Talk. The SupportOnly product has five paid price plans:

  • Essential — $9/agent/month billed monthly (or $5 billed annually) — a bare-bones plan with basic support elements like email and social media. 
  • Team — $25/agent/month billed monthly (or $19 billed annually) — gives you access to performance dashboards, public apps, and integrations for more flexibility and control.
  • Professional — $59/agent/month billed monthly (or $49 billed annually) — this plan kicks it up a notch with multilingual content, dashboards, and Zendesk Explore-powered reporting.
  • Enterprise — $125/agent/month billed monthly (or $99 billed annually) — designed for companies with large support teams and provides complete control over the system with advanced tools like multi-brand support, skills-based routing, and contextual workspaces. 
  • Elite — $199/agent/month billed annually — made for large corporations, with unlimited access for light agents (non-agent staff who can review and comment on tickets). 

Zendesk also offers a Support Suite that combines Support, Guide, Chat, and Talk:

  • Professional — from $89/agent/month billed annually — unified omnichannel support wherever customers need it. 
  • Enterprise — from $149/agent/month billed annually — lets you boost team productivity with better collaborations and workflows. 

All support plans feature the lite versions of Chat, Talk, and Guide

Zendesk further offers a Custom-Built à la carte plan so you can choose the features that work best for your business.

Zendesk User Reviews

Zendesk has a fairly good reputation, boasting excellent ratings on most user review sites. However, the platform has mostly negative reviews on Trustpilot — most of the complaints refer to the platform’s customer service and its auto-renewal policy. Users meanwhile praise the platform’s scalability, ease of use, and excellent features and integrations.

We Recommend Zendesk For

Zendesk is designed for small-to-medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, but its real draw is its excellent customer relationship management tools. We recommend Zendesk for companies of any size looking to improve their customer relationships.

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Best for: GROWING COMPANIES

3. Zoho Desk

Starts from $12/month
Open Account
Free Version

Yes

ITIL/ITSM Compliance

No

Reporting

Advanced

Analytics

Advanced

Integrations

500+ with Zoho Flow including HubSpot, Asana, and Zapier

Support

Great

Strengths
  • Affordably priced
  • Superb scalability
  • Multilingual support
  • Amazing workflow tools
  • Extremely customizable
Weaknesses
  • Customer support isn’t free
  • Manual input for forms
  • No individual email tracking

What Is Zoho Desk?

Zoho Desk is cloud-based help desk software that is the first “context-aware” platform of its kind. That means it uses the information it knows about a customer to help agents solve queries quicker. Zoho Desk helps with every aspect of customer service with features like multichannel communication, automation, conversational AI, and more. 

Zoho Desk Ease of Use

Zoho Desk has a pretty straightforward UI that is intuitive and user friendly; the interface is designed for ease of use and is customizable to fit your company’s processes. 

Zoho Desk Integrations

Zoho Desk offers several add-ons and integrations to help you expand the capabilities of your help desk. You can set up telephony with Zoho’s telephony partners like Twilio Cloud Communication, instantly convert tickets raised in Zoho Desk to engineering issues with Jira and understand customer information to prioritize and manage tickets with Hubspot.

Zoho Desk Best Features

  • Ticket management allows you to manage multichannel tickets and everything else all in one place. 
  • Zia is a thoughtfully built-out AI that can help you supercharge your support team.
  • Self-service enables self-sufficient customers to find quick answers by themselves wherever they are.  
  • Agent productivity tools provide everything agents need to collaborate, communicate, and secure customer relationships. 
  • Automation allows you to manage processes and automate repetitive activities to save time and effort.
  • Extensibility lets you get more out of Zoho Desk by connecting it with all the other softwarе your team uses. 
  • Insights and impacts give you actionable information about your team’s performance through reports and dashboards. 
  • Customization lets you determine not just how the help desk looks and feels but also how it behaves. 

What We Disliked About Zoho Desk

  • The vendor charges 20-25% of your license fee for customer support. 
  • It is not available as a standalone, on-premise app but only as a managed cloud service.
  • Lacks inside sales tools for automation. 

Zoho Desk Pricing

Zoho Desk has a Free plan for up to three agents with basics such as email ticketing, predefined SLAs, and multi-language help desk. The vendor further offers three paid packages: 

  • Standard — $18/agent/month billed monthly (or $12 billed annually) — this entry-level plan includes semi-advanced features like customer happiness ratings, SLAs & escalations, and product-based ticket management.
  • Professional — $30/agent/month billed monthly (or $20 billed annually) — the pro plan adds multichannel support, automations, integration with other Zoho products, and advanced reporting.
  • Enterprise — $45/agent/month billed monthly (or $35 billed annually) — this plan is designed for large enterprises with multiple agents. It adds advanced features like live chat, the Zia AI platform, and role-based access control.

Zoho Desk User Reviews

Zoho Desk has a good reputation with customers online. It has mostly positive feedback on most user review sites, including Reddit, with most customers praising how highly capable, easy-to-use, and reasonably priced the help desk program is. 

We Recommend Zoho Desk For

Zoho Desk would be most beneficial to customer-focused companies with considerably-sized service teams and a large customer interaction volume.

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Best for: CUSTOMER SERVICE & SUPPORT

4. ProProfs Help Desk

Starts from $15/month
Open Account
Free Version

Yes

ITIL/ITSM Compliance

No

Reporting

Fair

Analytics

Fair

Integrations

50+ including Salesforce, Wufoo, and Tidio Chat

Support

Great

Strengths
  • Familiar interface
  • Centralized shared Inbox
  • Robust scalability
  • Training for agents and customers
  • Optimized for mobile
Weaknesses
  • Lack of social media integrations
  • Random ticket assignments

What Is ProProfs Help Desk?

ProProfs Help Desk is a cloud-based help desk and customer service software listed as one of the top help desk softwaretoday. This feature-rich platform offers a shared space for all your customer-facing inboxes. It has a built-in issue tracking system that enables organizations to track customer requests and bugs and allows customer support teams to resolve them effectively in no time. 

ProProfs Help Desk Ease of Use

ProProfs Help Desk has a simple, Gmail-esque interface that will feel familiar enough to most users to make collaborations and ticket resolution easier. Agents can effectively manage all customer-facing inboxes, see all customer tickets at once and learn who is working on what. 

ProProfs Help Desk Integrations

One of the biggest criticisms of ProProfs Help Desk from users is that it doesn’t have enough integrations, especially for social media. They currently have integrations with Salesforce, Live Chat (one of our favorite chat platforms), and Knowledge Base. 

ProProfs Help Desk Best Features

  • Shared inbox is a conjunct space for all your customer-facing inboxes, allowing your team to join forces and reach Inbox Zero quicker. 
  • Canned responses enable you to send predetermined messages to common customer issues to free up agents to focus on more complex issues. 
  • Advanced ticket assignment ensures that tickets are evenly distributed and never pile up to improve agent performance and increase ticket resolution. 
  • Smart reports allow you to improve performance by tracking agents’ performance (individually and as a group) and tickets. 
  • Instant support lets customers get in touch with real customer representatives via chat immediately to solve queries quickly. 
  • Knowledge base reduces tickets by up to 80% with 24/7 self-service support material like FAQ, user manuals, and tooltips. 

What We Disliked About ProProfs Help Desk

  • The system randomly assigns tickets to any available agent over-allocating them to agents with the correct expertise. 
  • Not enough integrations with social media platforms.

ProProfs Help Desk Pricing

ProProfs Help Desk has three subscription packages, Help Desk, Live Chat, and Help Desk & Live Chat, each with two price plans: 

Essentials — $15/user/month billed monthly (or $10 billed annually) — offers delightful support with shared inboxes and basic help desk features. 

Premium — $20/user/month billed monthly (or $15 billed annually — a complete help desk solution with unlimited inboxes and advanced features like ticket routing, child tickets, API, white label & more.

ProProfs Help Desk User Reviews

User review sites suggest that ProProfs Help Desk has a fair to good reputation with customers. Most of the positive reviews praise the platform’s features and functionality; the most common complaint is that the software doesn’t have enough integrations. 

We Recommend ProProfs Help Desk For

ProProfs Help Desk would be most beneficial for businesses looking to maximize customer support. The familiar interface and universal inbox for all customer interactions make ticket resolution a cinch.

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Best for: IT-FOCUSED COMPANIES

5. JitBit HelpDesk

Starts from $29/month
Open Account
Free Version

No

ITIL/ITSM Compliance

Yes

Reporting

Advanced

Analytics

Fair

Integrations

500+ including GitHub, Asana, and Zapier

Support

Great

Strengths
  • Multilingual support
  • SaaS and self-hosted options
  • Free support and version upgrades
  • 10-day money-back guarantee
  • Customizable design
Weaknesses
  • Requires technical knowledge
  • Lack of report customization
  • Lacks social integrations

What Is Jitbit HelpDesk?

Jitbit HelpDesk is an IT help desk ticketing software solution that optimizes customer service support with its comprehensive automated functions. The software is fast and affordable and is designed for deployment via SaaS cloud-hosting or self-hosting on private servers. 

Jitbit HelpDesk Ease of Use

JitBit HelpDesk’s interface is clean, uncluttered, and easy-to-use. It is dead simple, extremely powerful, and takes seconds to set up. The IT ticketing system is email-focused, and the grid gives you instant access to all on-going customer requests and any files or docs related to them. 

Jitbit HelpDesk Integrations

JitBit is a powerful IT help desk system on its own, but it’s also capable of supporting integration with apps like Slack, Asana, GitHub, Visual Studio Online, and more. It also connects with Zapier, which facilitates more than 500 integrations, making an all-encompassing platform. 

Jitbit HelpDesk Best Features

  • Categorizing and tagging tickets assign tickets to different categories and assigns default agents to those categories. 
  • Asset management tracks assets and allows you to assign them to your users. It also lets you track incident history and quickly find the asset owner. 
  • Email Integration monitors your support mailbox, converts emails to tickets, and sends out email replies and notifications. 
  • Automations/пacros еngine allows you to set up complicated workflows using a simple and easy to use trigger engine. 
  • Canned responses let you send quick answers to frequently asked questions and issues. 
  • Multilingual support helps agents provide customer service in their native language.

What We Disliked About Jitbit HelpDesk

  • The on-premise option requires technical knowledge like administering a server, setting up an MS SQL database, etc. 
  • Users who are not part of a group cannot see tickets from another group. 
  • It has an option for freelancers that is a little pricey given that there are free help desk software options.

Jitbit HelpDesk Pricing

JitBit has two versions of its help desk and IT support software. The first is a cloud-based SaaS hosted version accessed via subscription, and the second is an on-premise with a perpetual license (meaning you can use it forever) with a one-time payment that you can download to your company’s servers: 

Hosted

Freelancer — $29/month — made for a single user and includes all the core features like canned responses, multi-assignments, and SLA automation. 

Startup — $69/month — suited for startups with up to four users and includes mobile apps for ticket resolutions on the go. 

Company — $129/month — designed for companies with a support team of up to seven users and adds a customizable support domain and downloadable backups.

Enterprise — $249/month — supports up to nine agents ($29 per extra agent) and adds additional benefits like access to content delivery networks for speed and reliability and expedited support.

Each plan has 24/7 unlimited technical support, free software upgrades, everyday backups, encrypted storage, and GDPR compliance. 

On-Premise

Small — $1,699 one-off payment — supports up to 10 agents and includes all the essential features plus free upgrades within one year. 

Company — $3,400 one-off payment — this plan can accommodate up to 20 users and adds mobile access for Android and iOS apps.

Enterprise — $4,999 one-off payment — this plan is made for large organizations; it supports unlimited users and adds exceptional, expedited support.

Jitbit HelpDesk User Reviews

JitBit HelpDesk is another customer favorite; they have mostly positive reviews and high ratings on user reviews sites. Users praise the platform for being affordable, easy to use, and extremely efficient. We found some negative reviews where users mostly complain about the mobile app. Topline complaints include how many of the features on the desktop version aren’t on the app.

We Recommend Jitbit HelpDesk For

JitBit HelpDesk is an excellent choice for companies with a more comprehensive IT focus, with a substantial IT service agent team. 

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Best for: SMALL & MEDIUM BUSINESSES

6. EngageBay

Starts from $14.99/month
Open Account
Free Version

Yes

ITIL/ITSM Compliance

No

Reporting

Basic

Analytics

Fair

Integrations

1,000+ including Zapier, Exotel, and JotForm

Support

Good

Strengths
  • Free help desk, CRM, and live chat
  • Integrated solutions
  • SMB-friendly pricing
  • Advanced automation
  • Free onboarding
Weaknesses
  • Inessential features
  • Not scalable

What Is EngageBay?

EngageBay is an integrated, all-in-one marketing, sales, support, and CRM solution designed to help businesses acquire, engage, and convert website visitors into customers while providing undeniably robust help desk support. 

EngageBay Ease of Use

Despite being an all-in-one solution, EngageBay has separated each function (Marketing, Sales, Service) into separate dropdown menus, each with its interface, making navigation super easy.

EngageBay Integrations

EngageBay seamlessly integrates with several powerful apps and web services for a more holistic CRM experience. Integrations with platforms like Zapier, Exotel, and Integromat allow you to streamline your business workflows, synchronize customer data, and generate more revenue to grow your business. 

EngageBay Best Features

  • Canned responses save hours every day by creating ready-made responses for commonly-asked questions. 
  • Service automations allow you to automate your routine customer service processes in minutes using advanced tools like support macros.
  • Support groups ensure world-class customer support by segmenting customers and agents and directing tickets to corresponding groups.
  • Ticket views create a personalized ticket view to meet your needs, allowing you to view only the information you want.   

What We Disliked About EngageBay

  • The abundance of features might become redundant if you’re only looking for a help desk solution. 
  • Not the best option for businesses looking to scale up. 

EngageBay Pricing

EngageBay is a multipurpose platform with many possibilities for seamless customer experiences all in one software. It is separated into four packages; Marketing, CRM & Sales Bay, Service Bay, and All-in-One:

The Service Bay package offers completely FREE Help Desk and Live Chat for support teams.

The All-in-One package, on top of a free plan, has three paid plans: 

  • Basic — $14.99/user/month billed monthly (or $11.99 billed yearly and $8.99 billed biennially) — this entry-level plan includes rudimentary features like email and chat support, ticketing management, and ticket macros.
  • Growth — $49.99/user/month billed monthly (or $39.99 billed yearly and $29.99 billed biennially) — this plan adds automations plus free onboarding sessions and a dedicated Account Manager. 
  • Pro — $79.99/user/month billed monthly (or $63.99 billed yearly and $47.99 billed biennially) — This is the ultimate plan and includes elite features like a conversational inbox, role management, and phone support. 

EngageBay User Reviews

EngageBay enjoys mostly favorable reviews by users on all the major review sites. It is lauded by customers for its vast range of essential features, especially for providing CRM, help desk, and live chat tools for free. Negative reviews are in short supply, confirming this is among the best help desk software for 2021. 

We Recommend EngageBay Desk For

The affordable pricing of this all-in-one solution and multiple freebies make EngageBay the ideal help desk software for SMBs, startups, and even NGOs to deal with a large volume of user requests.

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Best for: ECOMMERCE BUSINESSES

7. LiveAgent

Starts from $15/month
Open Account
Free Version

Yes

ITIL/ITSM Compliance

No

Reporting

Fair

Analytics

Fair

Integrations

500+ including Zoho Flow and Zapier

Support

Good

Strengths
  • Automated ticketing
  • Agent Gamification
  • Support in 45+ languages
  • Rich customization
  • Intuitive design
Weaknesses
  • Social integration is pricey
  • Mobile lacks some functionality

What Is LiveAgent?

LiveAgent is a feature-rich help desk software that helps bring personalization to your interactions with an all-in-one customer solution. LiveAgent harnesses the power of an omnichannel universal inbox, real-time live chat, built-in call center, and a robust customer service portal to provide unbeatable value. 

LiveAgent Ease of Use

In terms of functionality and ease of use, LiveAgent is a leader in the game. The user interface is adaptable, intuitive, and easy to navigate. 

LiveAgent Integrations

LiveAgent offers a range of integrations, plugins, and apps like Zapier and Drupal. It provides integrations for email marketing like GetResponse and MailChimp, collaboration tools like Slack, and CRM tools like Highrise and Nicereply.

LiveAgent Best Features

  • Universal inbox combines all your communications channels into a single, smarter version of regular email accessible from a centralized place. 
  • Hybrid ticket streams ensure that no matter where the communication starts, the tickets always look the same.
  • Canned messages speed up the process of replying to customers by creating answers to common demands and questions.
  • Internal tickets and notes allow you to create tickets only visible to you and your team to assign to specific agents, use them as reminders, or make notes. 
  • Intuitive UI automatically tracks and converts all your customer issues into tickets for better convenience and management. 
  • Knowledge base lets customers help themselves by providing a fully adaptable customer portal with FAQ and forums for efficient self-service.   

What We Disliked About LiveAgent

  • Integrations with social platforms carry an additional cost. 
  • The mobile version lacks some of the web version’s functionality. 

LiveAgent Pricing

In addition to a Free Forever plan that includes 7-day ticket history, one email address chat button, and phone number, Live Agent has three paid price plans:

  • Ticket — $15/agent/month — a full-sized help desk ticketing system along with a bevy of high-end features.
  • Ticket+Chat — $29/agent/month — this plan adds live chat to the ticketing solution plus chat invitations and chat satisfaction surveys. 
  • All-Inclusive — $39/agent/month — all features under one roof, including call center support and video call. 

LiveAgent User Reviews

LiveAgent has almost universal acclaim from customers on user review sites; the most common feedback is how simple, quick, and efficient LiveAgent is. There aren’t many complaints or negative criticism besides the fact that social integrations cost extra. 

We Recommend LiveAgent Desk For

In addition to the core ticket management, online service portals, and change and license management, LiveAgent has a range of CRM applications that prove beneficial to e-commerce businesses. It is a customizable solution that can scale as small companies grow, and their online customers and services expand.

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Best for: BUSINESS IT MANAGEMENT

8. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

Starts from $12/month
Open Account
Free Version

Yes

ITIL/ITSM Compliance

Yes

Reporting

Fair

Analytics

Advanced

Integrations

2,000+, including Zapier

Support

Good

Strengths
  • 360° ITSM capacity
  • Automatic ticket assignment
  • Native mobile apps
  • Unrestricted programmability
Weaknesses
  • Limited customization
  • No automated responses
  • Cluttered ticket management interface

What Is ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is a comprehensive help desk and asset management software with full ITIL and ITSMcapabilities. It features an integrated console to monitor and maintain IT resources’ users’ assets, and IT requests. 

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus Ease of Use

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus’ most notable functionalities include incident, change, problem, and asset management. These, along with the adaptive user interface and the robust productivity solutions, will allow you to facilitate the different processes of handling IT help desk responsibilities like managing and reporting on ticket statuses. 

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus Integrations

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus connects with 2000+ third-party apps through Zapier including Salesforce, Slack, and Xero. This is over and above integrations with other ManageEngine tools like Desktop Central, ADManager Plus, OPManager, and Application manager Plus. 

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus Best Features

  • The self-service portal facilitates easy request creation and keeps end-users informed on ticket progress and approvals. 
  • Automation boosts productivity and relieves your service team from repetitive service desk chores by setting up efficient canned response messages. 
  • Customizations allow you to tailor-make your service desk software attributes and processes to meet your business objectives. 
  • Asset management optimizes asset utilization to ensure maximum ROI. 
  • Native IT integrations control and manage all things IT through 360° ITSM.
  • Business integrations complement your existing business processes to reduce the gap between your business and service management. 
  • Reports and dashboards monitor your service desk’s health and provide insight into your service management processes by mining valuable data. 

What We Disliked About ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

  • The ticket management dashboard looks a little cluttered. 
  • It costs extra to have a multilingual support option. 
  • Limited customization and automations. 

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus Pricing

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has a cloud-based and self-hosted version. The cloud-based version has three price plans: 

  • Standard — starts from $12/technician/month, billed monthly (or $10 billed annually) ($14/month for the multilingual version, $12 billed annually) — the standard edition is essentially a help desk plan and includes automations like email-to-ticket conversion and case routing and ticket dispatch.  
  • Professional — starts from $23/technician/month billed monthly (or $21 billed annually) ($28/month for the multilingual version, $25 billed annually) — this plan adds asset management to the mix plus additional features like remote desktop sharing and auto device discovery. 
  • Enterprise — starts from $58/technician, per month billed monthly (or $50 billed annually) ($68/month for the multilingual version, $60 billed annually) — this package ups the ante with a service catalog, computer telephony integration, and ITSM disciplines like change and problem management. 

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus also has some additional add-ons: 

  • Configuration management database — $105/month — CMDB is only available for the Professional plan. 
  • Service catalog — $105/month — available for the Standard and Professional plans.
  • Project management — $105/month — available for the Standard and Professional plans.
  • Change and release management — $225/month — available for the Standard and Professional plans.
  • Live Chat — $6/technician/month — available for all price plans. 

The Self-Hosted version also has three price plans that are all billed annually:

  • Standard — starts from $120/technician/month — offers the same help desk products and functions as the cloud version with the exception of key integrations like Zapier and the AI Zia. 
  • Professional — starts from $248/technician/month — this plan includes the added benefit of asset management.
  • Enterprise — starts from $598/technician/month — the enterprise plan adds ITIL services.

Available add-ons at an annual subscription include:

  • Service catalog — $1,195 — available for the Standard and Professional plans. 
  • Problem management — $1,195 — available for the Professional plan.
  • Project management — $1,195 — available for the Standard and Professional plans. 

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus User Reviews

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has a fine reputation with its customers; it generally has fair-to-good reviews on most third-party sites and high ratings on expert user sites. 

We Recommend ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus For

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is designed for organizations requiring a more in-depth ticketing system and project and contract management. It is a great all-in-one solution for IT management to establish processes and provide unwavering support to end-users.

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Best for: MID-TO-LARGE BUSINESSES

9. Jira Service Desk

Starts from $20/month
Open Account
Free Version

Yes

ITIL/ITSM Compliance

Yes

Reporting

Fair

Analytics

Fair

Integrations

1,000+ including Slack, Confluence, and Salesforce

Support

Good

Strengths
  • Configurable workflows
  • Intuitive customer portals
  • Customizable live queues
  • Powerful SLAs
  • Real-time reporting
Weaknesses
  • Lack of portal customization
  • No integrated knowledge base

What Is Jira Service Desk?

Jira Service Desk is a modern and sophisticated service desk software that delivers an intuitive interface, a revolutionary take on SLAs, customizable team queues, real-time reporting, and much more. 

Jira Service Desk Ease of Use

In terms of ease of use, Jira Service Desk is top-of-the-line. The platform has an easy and intuitive interface with a service portal that makes it easy for customers to get help quickly and for your team to streamline incoming work. 

Jira Service Desk Integrations

With the help of Zapier, Jira Service Desk integrates with over 1,000 third-party apps, including Slack, Salesforce, and Zapier, to make sure you can use the apps of your choice for a more efficient workflow. This is on top of Jira’s integration with native Atlassian products like Atlas CRM, ScriptRunner, and Confluence.

Jira Service Desk Best Features

  • Request management helps your IT team provide a world-class service experience and, with a self-help center and knowledge base, ensures employees can find the info they need to get help quickly.
  • Incident management quickly responds to, resolves, and continuously learns from incidents while keeping all your stakeholders in the loop.
  • Problem management keeps the impact of incidents to a minimum, records information about problems and workarounds, and helps agents get to the root cause.
  • Change management improves the flow of changes to infrastructure and services while minimizing your organization’s risks and speeding up service delivery. 
  • Asset management uses IT asset tracking and other tools to reference, track directly, and tie requests with assets. This gives your team added context to reduce investigation and resolution time. 
  • Knowledge management utilizes an integrated knowledge base that uses machine learning to recommend the right service intelligently and learns from every interaction.  

What We Disliked About Jira Service Desk

  • It does not have an integrated knowledge base. 
  • Even if you apply your company theme, branding, and logo, it is impossible to change how the portal looks. 

Jira Service Desk Pricing

This service desk software has two options — cloud-based and self-managed:

On top of a free option—which is great for small teams just starting out with a service desk and includes some prerequisite ITSM and ITOM features like automatic incident notifications and service request management—the cloud-based option has two price plans:

  • Standard — $20/agent/month billed monthly (or $600 a year) — This plan is great For teams looking to standardize their IT service management with configurable workflows, multi-language support, and email and embeddable widget support.
  • Premium — $40/agent/month billed monthly (or $1,200 a year) — The premium plan is great for organizations looking to scale high-velocity ITSM and adds global and multi-project automation as well as additional IT operations management tools like incident investigation.  
  • Enterprise — Custom Pricing — This plan is for large-scale organizations and comes with every ITSM and ITOM features plus a team of dedicated support managers. 

The self-managed solution also has two price plan options; the Server option has a one-time fee, and the Data Centeroption has a yearly fee:

  • Server — $10 (3 agents) to $65,400 (251+ agents) — This plan provides complete control of your environment, single-server deployment, and a perpetual license (plus a free year of maintenance).
  • Data Center — $13,200 per year (50 agents) to $495,000 per year (14,001 agents) — The granddaddy of them all, this plan has active-active clustering for high availability, an annual license (plus maintenance), and Atlassian-supported disaster recovery - fantastic for companies using a robust cloud hosting platform or maintaining their own servers.

Jira Service Desk User Reviews

Jira Service Desk is one of the top-rated IT help desk software thanks to its association with Atlassian. It currently enjoys mostly positive reviews online and has high ratings on user review sites like TrustRadius and Capterra. Most users praise its ample customizability and powerful reporting but have, however, lamented its lack of an integrated knowledge base. 

We Recommend Jira Service Desk For

Jira Service Desk is a reliable solution for midsized and even large organizations. It has excellent integration with its enterprise vendor Atlassian’s other products, and ample customization and automation make a platform worth considering.

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Great Help Desk Software that Didn't Make the Cut

  • HelpDesk — HelpDesk is part of the LiveChat and ChatBot family; it allows you to convert all emails into support tickets and 
  • HappyfoxHappyfox reduces chaos and brings order to your customer support process with a robust support ticket system, self-service knowledge base, and supportive community forums. 
  • Vivantio — Based on ITLM core principles, Vivantio provides an intuitive, flexible, and easy-to-use service management platform. 
  • Cayzu — Cayzu offers a good set of features and robust third-party integrations at an affordable price, built to improve customer support. 
  • Bitrix24 — Bitrix24 is the number one FREE omnichannel help desk and contact center software that includes real-time chat and CRM.
  • Vision Helpdesk — Vision Helpdesk is an all-in-one customer support help desk that allows you to manage customer support on email, web forms, Twitter, Facebook, and calls. 

How We Ranked the Best Help Desk Software

Our review process and help desk software comparisons follow the thoroughness and depth of all our reviews:

  1. Research — We spent a long time researching the top help desk software. We focused on how it works, what it's best for, and its best features, which formed the basis of our help desk ticketing system comparison.
  2. Analysis —  We visited each software’s website and read through its most important aspects; pricing, features, and tools.
  3. Demonstrations — Because we couldn’t test the products on our help desk ticketing software list, we went through a demo of each one instead to evaluate functionality and ease of use.
  4. User feedback — We also read through dozens of help desk ticketing system reviews to get a sense of how customers felt about each software. This helped us with our final help desk software ranking.

Top 5 Help Desk Software

  1. FreshDesk - Best small business customer service
  2. Zendesk - Best for customer experience management
  3. Zoho Desk - Best for growing companies
  4. ProProfs Help Desk - Best for customer service and support
  5. JitBit HelpDesk - Best for IT-focused companies

What Is Help Desk Software?

This is a one-stop point of contact used to tackle a company’s internal and external customer service needs.

What Does Help Desk Software Do?

Help desk systems are handy tools for customer support; they make it easy for customers to reach you by collecting every customer interaction — email, chat, social media, and web forms—and turning them into a single support ticket. 

Is Help Desk Software Necessary for Small-to-Medium Businesses?

Help desk software for small business owners might sound counterintuitive, but in reality it can offer a wealth of benefits, ranging from improved personal productivity to better team collaborations and best-practice capabilities.

Good help desk management software can help manage customer interactions across channels, saving precious time, and most importantly, money. 

Wrap Up

Help desk software has become an essential cog in the modern-day business machine, with properly implemented help desk software significantly improving operations and offering better customer service.

Help desk solutions vary in functionality, pricing, and underlying technology making it difficult to determine the best but we hope these help desk software reviews will make the decision of choosing a platform a little easier.

FAQ
What is the best help desk ticketing software?

Zendesk and Freshdesk are industry leaders in help desk ticketing software.

How can I improve help desk customer service?

Develop canned responses and have a comprehensive self-service portal on the website. Beyond that, respond to requests promptly and politely, be transparent in your course of action, and ask for feedback. 

What is the best help desk software?

Deciding on the best help desk software is ultimately a matter of preference, however, Zendesk and Freshdesk are the top-rated web-based help desks. They’re sort of the Marvel and DC Comics of help desk software.

How does help desk software work?

A user submits a ticket to the help desk software via the web interface or emails to the help desk-monitored mailbox. The help desk team is notified of a new ticket, and an agent takes over the ticket and interacts with the user to resolve the issue.

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Branko Krstic
Branko Krstic

Branko is a round-the-clock tech geek and loving it. His ideal vacation destination is the Akihabara District (or really any place he can take his computer). If there’s a server out there, count on him to find out what it’s made of… and tell you all about it.