15 Best IT Help Desk Ticketing Systems (2024)
The best help desk ticketing systems reviewed & compared by HR tech experts. See features, pricing info guidelines, recommendations and more below.
Top IT Help Desk Ticketing Systems
As your business and customer base expand, having a help desk ticketing system becomes increasingly necessary for your customer support operation to run successfully. Without one, your team simply cannot swiftly and efficiently handle customer queries, requests, and incident reports that continue to pile up on different channels.
While help desk software is not in the HR space, we find that many of our readers are asking us about these solutions and so wanted to provide some research so they can find and buy the right ticketing system :)
To choose the best IT help desk ticketing systems, we’ve attended demos with several vendors, interviewed industry experts, listened to what end users had to say, and leveraged the experience of our in-house team. As for the features and capabilities of IT help desks, we think the key ones to look out for are automation, knowledge base, reporting and analytics, and mobile accessibility:
- Automation: Efficiency is paramount in managing support requests, and automation is how you can achieve it. We’ve selected help desks that support automated ticket routing, categorization, and canned responses, all of which boost the productivity of your support agents and ultimately lead to faster resolution and improved customer satisfaction.
- Knowledge base: Do you want customers to find solutions to common issues on their own? We’ve made sure the help desks on this list are equipped with robust knowledge bases, promoting customer self-service and reducing the number of support tickets your agent would otherwise have to resolve.
- Reporting and analytics: The best IT help desks pack powerful reporting and analytics capabilities. Through them, you can track and get valuable insights on several metrics, including response times, resolution rates, and customer satisfaction, so you can pinpoint problems early on and solve them in time.
- Mobile accessibility: This isn't exactly a dealbreaker, but we were on the lookout for mobile-optimized IT help desk ticketing systems, or better yet, ones that come with dedicated mobile apps as they enable your support agents to stay connected, respond to customers on time, and reach resolution faster.
For an in-depth understanding of our selection process and guiding principles, check out our editorial guidelines.
Hiver
Freshdesk
Freshservice
Zendesk
ServiceDesk Plus
Zoho Desk
LiveAgent
Monday.com
Vision Helpdesk
JitBit
Jira Service Management
HappyFox
Kayako
SolarWinds Service Desk
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Hiver
Hiver seamlessly integrates multiple support channels into Gmail for efficient query management, team collaboration, and data-driven insights to deliver exceptional customer service.
PROS
- Hiver works right within Gmail, an interface almost everyone is familiar with.
- You can easily assign emails, share drafts, leave notes, and tag team members, ensuring efficiency and driving collaboration.
- Automation features like auto-tagging and auto-assignment save a considerable amount of time and decrease manual labor.
- Users praise Hiver’s customer support for being highly responsive. The platform is also well-documented, with tutorials and help articles that provide clear guidance on how to use features.
- Hiver works right within Gmail, an interface almost everyone is familiar with.
- You can easily assign emails, share drafts, leave notes, and tag team members, ensuring efficiency and driving collaboration.
- Automation features like auto-tagging and auto-assignment save a considerable amount of time and decrease manual labor.
- Users praise Hiver’s customer support for being highly responsive. The platform is also well-documented, with tutorials and help articles that provide clear guidance on how to use features.
CONS
- There are occasional glitches and loading speed issues.
- Users reported that it is difficult to find closed tickets, especially ones closed long ago.
- Hiver exclusively works on Gmail. If your company uses a different provider, Hiver won’t work for you.
- The mobile app is lacking in functionality and can be buggy at times.
- There are occasional glitches and slowness, and tickets at times get assigned to the incorrect team.
- Users reported that at times, new emails come in closed status, which can cause confusion and delays in support delivery.
- Hiver exclusively works on Gmail. If your company uses a different provider, Hiver won’t work for you.
Hiver makes customer support seamless by bringing all communication channels together directly inside Gmail. Agents can manage email, live chat, and voice support without switching between platforms, allowing them to handle queries faster. The familiar Gmail interface means no complex training is required to get started.
One of Hiver's standout features is its ability to drive collaboration. Agents can loop in colleagues on customer emails just by @mentioning them, enabling smooth handovers and continuity of context. Hiver also helps teams work smarter through automation. Repetitive tasks like assigning certain query types to the appropriate agents can be automated based on keywords and rules. This saves agents time they would otherwise spend on routing tickets. For instance, all tickets related to technical bugs could automatically be assigned to the engineering team.
The platform provides extensive analytics on performance indicators like first response time, resolution time, and customer satisfaction. Bottlenecks can be identified and processes optimized using built-in reports. Managers get insight into individual agent productivity to inform coaching and training needs. Custom reports can also be created to track KPIs specific to the business.
By centralizing multiple channels into Gmail and providing collaboration tools, automation, and actionable analytics, Hiver empowers agents to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Its thoughtful integration and intuitive interface make it easy for teams of all sizes to streamline support operations.
Clutter, Epic Games, Oxford Business Group, NYU, Funding Circle
Hiver has three plans. When billed annually, they cost:
- Lite: $15 per user per month.
- Pro: $39 per user per month.
- Elite: $59 per user per month.
Best For
Hiver is best suited for SMBs looking to efficiently run customer support ops without the learning curve.
We used Hiver to organize our customer emails for accurate departmental responses. We monitored the progress of each case to ensure customers received the best possible service. Collaboration among team members was facilitated through the chat system, where we could tag colleagues for assistance with specific cases.
The tool’s key workflows involved ensuring a great customer experience and improving customer satisfaction. Additionally, we reduced customer complaints and minimized mistakes caused by multiple responses to the same emails.
Hiver integrates seamlessly with Gmail, making it easier to organize emails by department and tag the person best equipped to address an issue.
Hiver includes a built-in chat system that facilitates simple and effective communication among colleagues.
It allows for easy tracking of each email or case by marking its status as "in progress" or "closed," and it displays details of the steps taken to resolve the issue.
As an organization, we frequently encountered repeated responses to the same customer emails, or emails were being missed without any response. We were overwhelmed with unorganized emails, leading to confusion about which department should respond.
The owner began researching systems or platforms that could help improve email response times and ensure emails were directed to the appropriate departments. Hiver allows us to tag the appropriate person to respond to an email, preventing multiple responses to the same case. It is integrated with Gmail, giving it access to all emails for organizational purposes.
Additionally, it includes a chat feature that simplifies communication among employees. I have used Hiver for about six months, and it has been an effective solution that I would gladly use again.
I don't have any cons at this time.
Hiver is better than Zendesk. Hiver can be automated to organize emails, or users can manually organize them. I prefer Hiver because it is easy to use, simple to understand, and capable of performing multiple tasks to improve work quality and efficiency.
When buying this type of tool, consider the email platform you are using and ensure the tool is compatible.
Pricing is another important criterion, as it is essential to choose a tool that provides value and benefits to the company.
Look for a tool that can streamline workloads and improve the work environment to enhance customer satisfaction.
Hiver has become more efficient with enhanced automation, improved organizational features, and a built-in chat system for better collaboration among colleagues.
Hiver is ideal for customer experience-focused and customer-based organizations.
Hiver may not be suitable for organizations without a large customer base, such as certain government roles like politicians.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a scalable solution for companies of any size. It packs strong features, including one for gamification to encourage agents to improve their output.
PROS
- Freshdesk enables your customer service team to offer proactive support across multiple channels, including Facebook, Twitter, email, and website, to engage your customers.
- Freshdesk is incredibly user-friendly. Your agents don’t need any specialized coding or technical knowledge to use it. Plus, it offers diverse templates with formatting components to simplify ticketing.
- Freshdesk's free plan is comprehensive, offering you all the features you would need as a small business and then some.
- With Freshdesk, your team can collaborate with each other and resolve issues faster.
- The platform comes with a mobile app that enables agents to provide support on the go. It’s available for both iOS and Android devices.
- In addition to a generous free plan, Freshdesk's paid plans provide great value for money. It gives you several advanced features like gamification at affordable rates.
CONS
- Freshdesk’s marketing is slightly confusing. Most of its advanced features require an upgrade to the highest pricing tears, which users don’t realize until after signing up. Here’s a free vs. paid plan breakdown, so you don’t find yourself making wrong decisions.
- You cannot provide temporary access to seasonal hires, part-time workers, or other team members in the Free plan. While this feature is available, you’ll have to upgrade to the premium plans.
- Freshdesk doesn’t offer dedicated technical support. As a result, complicated issues take longer to resolve.
Freshdesk is a highly scalable, cloud-based help desk system for businesses of all sizes. It features a shared inbox where all customer support tickets from several channels are collated, customizable workflows, automated pop-ups that help deflect common customer queries, and comprehensive dashboards to monitor quality metrics. Freshdesk also offers a team huddle feature that allows you to bring in experts to resolve complex tickets, as well as a gamification feature to motivate agents and improve their performance.
Fiverr, HP, Decathlon, Panasonic, NYU, Henkel, Pearson, Thai Union, American Express.
Freshdesk offers four pricing plans:
- Free: Includes integrated ticketing, knowledge bases, analytics, and email support for up to two agents.
- Growth: Costs $15 per agent per month and includes everything in the Free plan, plus automation, SLA management, in-depth reporting, and custom email servers.
- Pro: Costs $49 per agent per month and includes everything in the Growth plan, plus up to 5000 collaborators, round-robin routing, custom reports and dashboards, and CSAT surveys.
- Enterprise: Costs $79 per agent per month and includes everything in the Pro plan, plus sandbox functionality, bot assistance, and canned response suggestions.
Best For
Companies of all sizes looking for a comprehensive customer support solution.
I use the software every day to communicate with clients of our software, when they land on our website or when they send us an inquiry on our email and social media, we receive the ticket in our inbox and then respond to the email through the tool which this helps me to stay organized and monitoring communication amongst team to avoid disorganizations.
I like the knowledge base integration, it is easy to set the knowledge base that clients can use to find solution articles to their problems, as the pricing of the software is cheaper compared to other software tools providing the same services and products
I have used Freshdesk for two years to chat with clients through live chat on social media platforms about their issues with our services and products. Our company bought Freshdesk because it supports integration with more tools than other software and is easy to adapt to and understand. Lastly, managing agents becomes much easier with this tool.
It does not provide instant notification in my browser which makes it hard for me to stay on track with communication and at times makes us miss live chats from clients or delayed in getting back to our clients. Besides that, there are no other issues.
They provide enough support that makes you feel easy with the tool and their Whatsapp integration is direct and does not require technical skills. This reduces the time you use to deploy the Whatsapp channel in the tool.
They should consider the pricing of the software and the use case, this tool might be suitable for bigger businesses considering using the knowledgebase and would not suit smaller businesses therefore, pricing should be considered and the use case
They have improved the user interface for tickets, it is now easy to create tickets, find tickets, and solve them from the dashboard, and you can easily filter the tickets that are solved by other agents. Also, they introduced chat history which helps other agents catch up with communication of other agents with clients to avoid confusion in case a ticket is being transferred.
Organizations providing online services like software purchase
Smaller businesses with low-volume messages
Freshservice
Like most products within the Freshworks Inc. family, Freshservice is a robust, comprehensive, and easy-to-use product with a very intuitive interface.
PROS
CONS
Freshservice is a cloud-based IT service management (ITSM) solution with a modern and user-friendly interface. Made specifically with enterprises in mind, Freshservice is ideal for companies looking for an ITIL-compliant solution with features for change management, incident management, release management, and much more.
NHS, M&C Saatchi, TeamViewer, Honda, Judson University
- Starter: This plan costs $19 per agent per month and is billed annually.
- Growth: This plan costs $49 per agent per month and is billed annually.
- Pro: This plan costs $95 per agent per month and is billed annually.
- Enterprise: This plan costs $119 per agent per month and is billed annually.
Best For
Freshservice can be used by companies of all sizes due to their tiered pricing but it is mainly geared towards enterprises. Small and medium-sized companies with less complex needs are recommended to use Freshdesk, Freshworks’ help desk solution.
We use Freshservice to request services from IT support personnel. I am in recruiting, and when I hire someone I also launch a new ticket which goes to both my onboarding team and the IT team, asking them to do their respective parts to get the employee started. This is a way to keep us all informed and on time with regards to critical requests like these.
It keeps us organized, accountable on timelines, records every submission or edit, which helps us continue to look at our operational processes and make sure they work for everyone involved. When they don't, we're able to use the data of our own activity to make changes and pivot.
We were using Slack messages as a ticketing system for IT requests, and to plan for new employees that would be onboarded. We were also only using email tickets (we would email [email protected], for example, to request personal help with IT related issues). Communication requests/tickets would get lost chronically and we all had enough. Since we started using Freshservice last year, it allowed us to request service (from IT or Onboarding) and even report issues for our own IT needs.
There are other solutions out there that do a better job at organizing tickets, Jira for example.
Freshservice has been good in helping us stay more organized, respond in a way that gives many people simultaneous visibility. That said, Jira is more comprehensive; it has a knowledge base, ticketing, and project planning tools. It's literally everything we need and it turned out to be cheaper than the multiple other systems we have so as a company, we're talking about phasing out Freshservice.
Cost, labor to get it up and running and then continuously running correctly - that takes time! Also, people should think about who they want to have visibility and actions in Freshservice for various scenarios. FS is really good at that.
I would say small startup type companies like ours was/is where the environment is very scrappy and everyone likes to have insight and visibility so we can continue to discuss operational efficiencies.
Very large, non-technical companies.
Zendesk
Zendesk is arguably the most well-known customer support software available today. Among its features are integrated surveys to measure customer satisfaction and analytics dashboards to monitor your team’s performance.
PROS
CONS
Zendesk is a cloud-based customer support solution that allows you to receive, prioritize, and handle customer support requests from different channels including email, chat, and social media, all in one centralized and shared location.
With the help of triggers, you’re able to automatically assign and escalate tickets to specific groups, send automated responses and follow-ups, notify customers and agents of certain updates and tag certain tickets for easy reporting and information retrieval. Among Zendesk’s features are also integrated surveys to measure customer satisfaction and analytics dashboards to monitor your team’s performance.
Mailchimp, Uber, Khan Academy
Zendesk offers three paid plans: Team, Professional, and Enterprise. These plans cater to different business sizes and range from $19 to $115 per agent per month, billed annually.
To find out which plan suits your business, visit Zendesk's pricing page. You can sign up for a free 14-day trial or contact Zendesk's team for a demo.
Best For
I use Zendesk to communicate with clients through various media like email, social media, and on a live chat widget on our website. The Zendesk talk for making and receiving calls online from our toll-free integrated number in the system of Zendesk tool, It also has the Zendesk sell that we use to measure our leads and sales from our clients, generally, Zendesk is useful in both customer care and user engagement through responding to their chats while you collect feedback from them
I like the macros that make me solve tickets faster and easier. I also like the chatbots where we condition them with trigger rules that detect the keywords of users in their questions and respond to their questions. Secondly, the software has a bot management feature that we use to develop FAQs, the FAQs has more related questions from our user which the bot can extract depending on the intent of the user and responds as soon as possible, this saves us on time and on the number of tickets we would receive each day
I use Zendesk to solve clients' tickets. The organization bought Zendesk to have the best user ticket experience where all tickets are solved and arranged in one place for agents to interact with. I have used Zendesk for the third year and have benefited a lot from it in my daily work.
The software is expensive and requires one with Zendesk knowledge to set up and use, the tool gets disconnected when the internet connection is intermittent which makes the chat conversation lost from the clients, another issue, the software email part is missing placeholders after the recent update which limits the editing of the email notifications to meet our needs
They provide Zendesk Academy which teaches you how to use the solution well which other providers do not provide, smaller qualifying businesses can use the software for free for a period of six months, as this gives smaller businesses room to develop without worrying about the subscriptions
They should think of pricing and skills needed to deploy the tool
Support operator needs to respond to chat inquiries on time as in most cases they delay responding to questions therefore one interested in the tool must be sure if the response time from the internal support team would favor them.
They introduced a knowledge base which we used to create help articles that our users read and get solutions to their questions before opening a ticket
Support agents, technical team
Sales team
ServiceDesk Plus
ServiceDesk Plus is a very comprehensive ITSM solution that’s trusted by some of the thousands of businesses, including 9/10 of Fortune 100 companies.
PROS
CONS
ServiceDesk Plus is a full-stack service management platform with both cloud and on-premise deployment options. With features for incident management, problem management, change management, and much more, ServiceDesk Plus provides midsize and large companies with great visibility and control over their IT issues to ensure that they suffer no downtime.
Disney, Honda, ABC, Etihad Airways, RBS, Dell, Siemens
ServiceDesk Plus has 3 plans: Standard, Professional, and Enterprise. The pricing of those plans isn’t disclosed upfront. Contact ServiceDesk Plus’ sales team to get a custom quote.
Best For
ServiceDesk Plus is best for midsize and large companies.
They use it to manage IT incidents and requests efficiently through a centralized system. It helps organizations streamline their incident management, ensuring quick response times and problem resolution, while also supporting change management to handle system updates and modifications with minimal risk. Asset management is used to track IT assets and software licenses. They leverage the service catalog, which allows employees to request predefined IT services, reducing manual interventions.
The client also utilizes SLA management to assist their IT teams in meeting service delivery deadlines through automated escalation of unresolved tickets. Additionally, they use the platform's reporting and analytics to gain insights into IT performance, as well as automation tools to handle repetitive tasks. The self-service portals allow team members to resolve common issues independently.
It is a cost-effective yet comprehensive IT management platform with a user-friendly interface and ease of implementation. The platform offers a wide range of tools, including incident management, problem management, change management, and asset tracking, all integrated into a single solution. This increases efficiency when managing multiple processes from one platform, enhancing overall productivity.
The interface is intuitive and easy to use, even for teams without extensive technical expertise. Lastly, it provides great value for money, offering critical features that rival more expensive platforms.
Our client has used ServiceDesk Plus for over two years. They chose ServiceDesk Plus because they needed a robust and scalable IT service management (ITSM) solution to streamline their help desk operations and improve overall service delivery.
The client required a comprehensive IT Service Management Platform that provided incident, problem, change, and asset management, all integrated into one tool. This helped centralize their IT processes, ensuring better tracking and resolution of IT-related issues. ServiceDesk Plus allowed them to automate repetitive tasks and customize workflows, improving the team's efficiency and reducing manual work.
Also, a user-friendly interface was vital for the client, along with scalability as they were in a hyper-growth phase. They also needed advanced analytics features to track IT service performance, spot trends, and make data-driven improvements to existing processes.
Some key dislikes the client mentioned primarily revolve around customization limitations and the complexity of setting up advanced features. Some technical team users noted that while the platform is feature-rich, customizing certain areas, such as workflows and reporting, to meet the unique needs of their organization can be difficult. This lack of flexibility can hinder the optimization of IT workflows.
While the basic features are easy to navigate, setting up advanced modules like change management or automation workflows can be complex and time-consuming, requiring more technical expertise than expected. There was also feedback that integrating ServiceDesk Plus with third-party tools or systems can be challenging, especially when synchronizing data across different platforms.
Compared to competitors like Zendesk or Freshservice, ServiceDesk Plus is more cost-effective and offers a wide range of IT management features at a lower price point. While platforms like Zendesk excel in customer support ticketing, they lack the extensive IT asset management or change management capabilities that ServiceDesk Plus provides.
ServiceDesk Plus’s ease of use and quick deployment are ideal compared to other systems like BMC Helix or ServiceNow, which can take longer to implement and require more technical expertise. It ultimately depends on the company's needs, the size of the organization, and the rate of growth.
When purchasing an IT service management tool like ServiceDesk Plus, key criteria include the feature set, scalability, ease of use, integration capabilities, and pricing. First, assess the specific IT management needs of your organization, such as incident management, change management, or asset tracking, and ensure the tool covers all of these in one platform.
Next, consider scalability—can the tool grow with your organization as you expand? Ease of use is critical, especially if your IT team is small or lacks extensive technical expertise, so the tool should be user-friendly. Check integration capabilities with other software in your tech stack to avoid silos.
Lastly, make sure the pricing aligns with your budget, especially if you have a large team or anticipate growing needs. Balancing functionality with cost efficiency is essential when choosing the right tool.
Originally focused on basic help desk functions, the platform now offers integrated ITIL-based processes, including incident, problem, change, and asset management, allowing organizations to manage their entire IT infrastructure from a single platform. This drives more streamlined IT operations and improves efficiency across departments. To further address user demands, automation features have been added to simplify repetitive tasks such as ticket assignment and workflow management, reducing manual workloads and improving response times.
ServiceDesk Plus has also increased its focus on customization, enabling businesses to tailor workflows, reports, and dashboards to suit their specific needs. By introducing both cloud and on-premise deployment options, ServiceDesk Plus has catered to a broader client base with different security and compliance requirements.
With the rise of remote work, the platform has adapted by enhancing its self-service portal and mobile capabilities, enabling employees to raise and track issues from anywhere.
ServiceDesk Plus is ideal for medium to large organizations with dedicated IT departments that need a comprehensive IT service management (ITSM) tool. It is well-suited for companies that require a robust solution for managing help desk operations, incident management, change management, and asset tracking.
ServiceDesk Plus may not be the best fit for small organizations or startups with minimal IT needs, as it offers a comprehensive IT service management solution that can be more complex and feature-rich than necessary for smaller teams. Additionally, companies that do not follow ITIL practices or place minimal emphasis on structured IT processes may not fully benefit from the platform’s extensive ITSM capabilities.
Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is a budget-friendly option that has one of the most extensive feature sets of any help desk and ticketing system in the market. Plus, this solution comes with a scalable pricing structure plus a free version with pretty decent offerings.
PROS
- Among the most extensive feature-rich tools in the space.
- Flexible pricing that can accommodate various business sizes and requirements.
- Supports 22 different languages.
- Lets users provide support across multiple channels.
- With Zoho Desk, you get one of the most extensive feature lists of any help desk and ticketing system in the market.
- Zoho Desk is very flexible when it comes to pricing, as you can switch plans as you go if your team member count or necessities grow.
- It’s available in 22 languages.
- Lets you provide support across multiple channels.
CONS
- Some customizations aren’t very user-friendly.
- Some users find the UX/UI dated.
- Integrating the tool with several apps can be cumbersome.
- Some of the product customizations can be hard to figure out, according to some users.
- The UX/UI can seem dated at times.
- Several users have reported that integrating the tool with several apps can be problematic.
Zoho Desk offers multi-channel support. At an affordable price, the solution can offer customer care via email, live chat, phone, and several social media platforms. Having all client inquiries in one location has made tracking and cooperation easier, some users noted.
Another great feature of Zoho Desk is the knowledge base. There are many articles and FAQs there, which are often used by agents for faster customer service. Based on the keywords in the tickets that customers submit, Zoho Desk's auto-suggest can suggest agents relevant articles from the knowledge base in a matter of seconds.
We also like the scalable pricing model of the tool. Besides providing transparent pricing, Zoho Desk offers a free version with some decent features, like email ticketing, a private knowledge base, a multi-language help desk, mobile apps, and 24x5 email support. Plus, the Enterprise plan's features are comparable to top-tier plans from other competing providers but relatively more affordable.
When we tested Zoho Desk, we uncovered a few possible downsides. While the software has a number of adjustable capabilities, they are not always user-friendly. A few customers stated that tailoring the program to their needs was challenging. The abundance of built-in functions also means it could take a while for users to get familiar with all the tools. Lastly, integrating Zoho Desk with some well-known sales and marketing platforms can be challenging.
McAfee, Daimler, LycaMobile, Rogers, Siemens Energy.
Zoho Desk offers four pricing plans:
- The Free version is available for three agents and includes features like email ticketing, customer management, a help center, a private knowledge base, predefined SLAs, macros, a multi-language help desk, mobile apps, and 24x5 email support.
- The Standard bundle costs $14 per user per month and includes everything on the Free bundle, plus social and community channels, product-based ticket management, and 24x5 phone support.
- The Professional bundle costs $23 per user per month and has everything on the Standard bundle and features like multi-department ticketing, team management, telephony, and automatic time tracking.
- The Enterprise bundle costs $40 per user per month and includes everything on the Professional bundle, plus a live chat, an AI-powered assistant, and multi-brand help center, and more.
Best For
Zoho Desk is a great fit for businesses that need an all-inclusive yet inexpensive customer support solution. It is also a good addition for teams that are already using other Zoho products.
Zoho Desk is used daily within our organization. It has helped create a tracking system for each individual. Zoho Desk tracks customer issues and ensures they do not fall between the cracks. The main workflow revolves around the creation of helpdesk tickets and monitoring them through closure.
- Zoho Desk can auto-assign tickets to individuals.
- It allows tracking of helpdesk tickets.
- It also tracks common issues and trends.
My company used Zoho Desk for all of last year. The main reason they bought Zoho Desk was to give customers a chance to create help desk tickets. We found that prior to this, we were losing track of customer requests and issue reports. Through zoho desk, the creation of tickets ensured we did not lose track.
- The price is a bit expensive.
- It would be nice not to have to pay for each individual that we want to have access to.
- If you accidentally close a ticket, it can be a pain to recreate it.
The big criteria that should be considered is how large your business is and how many users you will need. The other is which package would best fit your needs, we used the professional package.
I do see Zoho Desk frequently releasing updates to the system and, over the years we have had it, they have made it more user friendly and easier to track ticket trends.
I would suggest Zoho Desk for any organization that solves problems for customers. Either IT related product issues to product returns.
I would not see the need if you do not need tracking of customer issues or help tickets.
LiveAgent
LiveAgent is a simple customer support solution. Their native live chat is easily accessible via a widget that integrates smoothly with your websites and apps, allowing you to connect with customers instantaneously.
PROS
- LiveAgent’s modern user interface looks aesthetically pleasing while being easy to navigate.
- LiveAgent is super easy to implement and use. Even if your team isn’t tech-savvy, the time to productivity is quick.
- LiveAgent empowers small support teams to easily handle large volumes of queries. Critical features like a universal inbox, a live chat widget, and a knowledge base enable you to address all tickets with greater efficiency.
- For LiveAgent, every user is a valuable client. Expect 24/7 customer support via phone, live chat, or email. The support agents are also in-house and not outsourced, which further ensures you’re given accurate answers to all your queries.
- LiveAgent takes feedback seriously and is constantly trying to improve the software, so you’re assured of a reliable tool.
CONS
- LiveAgent needs to work on its mobile app interface. While convenient to work with, it isn’t as at par with the competitors.
- LiveAgent offers limited integrations, which may be a hindrance for companies wanting to significantly boost support effectiveness and visibility.
- LiveAgent’s Free plan doesn’t allow for integrations with social networks like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Viber — you’ll have to upgrade to the paid plans to get access. Therefore, you can’t offer customers omnichannel support and have to stay limited to email, live chat, and call center support.
LiveAgent is a customer service solution with a clean and user-friendly interface. It features a unified inbox where all customer support tickets are collected from different channels then assigned and prioritized according to your predefined workflows. Its native live chat is easily accessible via a widget that integrates smoothly with your websites and apps, allowing you to connect with customers instantaneously. LiveAgent also offers a knowledge base that empowers customers to self-serve, a built-in call center with IVR and unlimited call recording storage, and over 40 third-party integrations with popular solutions.
Huawei, BMW, Yamaha, O2, Slido, Forbes, AirBus.
LiveAgent offers a free plan with some limitations on the features that can be accessed and three paid plans with feature increases, competitively priced as follows:
- Ticket: $15 per agent per month for LiveAgent’s ticketing solution.
- Ticket+Chat: $29 per agent per month for access to LiveAgent’s ticketing solution and live chat.
- All-inclusive: $39 per agent per month for all of LiveAgent’s features without any limits.
Best For
Companies of all sizes looking for an affordable and easy to use customer support solution.
I use the solution to chat with clients about their issues - it helps us to resolve issues faster.
I like the canned responses that make it easy for me to respond to a client's question by just pasting the canned responses from frequently asked questions.
We bought LiveAgent to offer live chat communication to users on our website and respond to clients’ messages. I have used the software for about two years
The pricing of the software is expensive.
They have a good web application with a good user interface which makes it easier for me to access the chat.
They should think of the pricing and scalability of the software.
They have improved the mobile application and the web application
Support teams.
Software developers.
Monday.com
Monday Service is the recently launched ticket management system from Monday.com, one of the key names in modern business and productivity software. Their product integrates service management features with advanced automation, AI-driven ticket classification, and customizable workflows.
PROS
- AI-driven ticket classification is one of their stand-out features. This essentially leverages artificial intelligence to pre-classify tickets as they come in, and you can even set automatic outcomes based on this, such as setting a priority and assigning to an agent without any human involvement.
- We also love how it integrates with existing email systems, letting users create tickets simply by emailing a designated address, for example.
- Like all Monday products, the workflows are remarkably customizable. For example, you can set whichever stages you need in a ticket's processing and decide which information gets inputted and visualized for each type of incoming piece.
- Free plan available, and affordable, scalable plans for small to midsize businesses
- Easy to learn and use
- Customizable dashboard
- Collaborative document creation with the ability to turn content in docs into tasks in projects with a few clicks
- Gamified progress tracking with visual celebrations for users
- Workflow automation for repetitive tasks
- Built-in communication tools reduce reliance on email
- Customized forms for in-house or client use that can be easily turned into projects
CONS
- Naturally, Monday Service is limited to Monday.com’s ecosystem. Also, even if you are already a Monday.com user, there are no price discounts if you also use the Service product.
- There is no free version of the product yet, only a fortnight-long free trial. The free-forever 2-person plan that lots of teams use for Monday Work Management is not available for this product.
- Monday Service is still in the beta stage, so it’s probable that some features might change in the future, potentially altering the workflows you set up if you start using it now.
- 3+ users are required to get on any of the paid plans
- Limited storage on the Basic plan
- Could be too complex for simple project management needs
- No phone customer support
- Tracking different conversations can be difficult because of all the clutter
We have reviewed Monday’s products for Human Resources and Project Management in the past, so we weren’t all that surprised when they released an ITSM. Although, as of this writing, it’s still in Beta mode, we’ve had a demo of the product and did the 14-day free trial. While tinkering with the tool, we couldn’t help but think, why didn’t they release something like this years ago? It seems very logical because the Monday ecosystem adapts beautifully to the ticketing system landscape.
Any users of Monday.com’s work management and HRIS products will know that the tools are remarkable for their customization options and intuitive interface. Monday Service brings all that into the ticketing sphere. Although it primarily targets IT service teams, it’s made to adapt to all kinds of service operations.
In our view, what really sets Monday Service apart from modern ticketing systems are their AI capabilities. As previously mentioned, the system has the ability to automatically classify incoming tickets. We were able to set a priority level to each incoming task, which would assign the ticket to a specific person in the team without requiring any manual intervention.
We also like that you get a high-level view of the whole operation with reports and dashboards that you can customize to your liking. Its analytics dashboard stands out for providing insights into operational performance, identifying trends, and spotting opportunities for service improvements.
While Monday Service is still in Beta, it’s a fully functional product in terms of stability and one that’s likely to improve over time. While this is a potential drawback in terms of possibly changing workflows and having to get used to new features as you use the tool, we were told by their team that the full product rollout is happening by the end of the year or early next.
Service teams have already adopted Monday Service at places like Vimeo, Fiverr, KPMG, Sodastream, and Superhuman.
Monday Service is currently offered on a per seat / per month basis through the following plans:
- Standard: $29 per seat per month when billed monthly, though you can save 18% if paying yearly. This includes an unlimited amount of tickets, 2-way email integration, 1 email server, and 100 AI actions per month.
- Pro: At $44 per seat per month, this raises the automated actions to 5,000 per month and offers premium features like dynamic auto-responses, more ticket boards, service analytics, and more.
- Enterprise: Monday offers a custom-priced plan for larger operations with even more capabilities and features like advanced analytics, unlimited ticket boards, and enterprise support.
Best For
Monday Service is ideal for mid to large-sized companies looking for a versatile, AI-driven ITSM solution. It suits organizations that require robust ticket management, extensive customization, and seamless integration within the Monday.com ecosystem.
I use Monday.com almost every day. The main thing we use it for is our People Operations ticketing system but we also use it for personal projects. It is very useful for creating a survey where people can submit their choices and it will automatically sort their results into different categories. You can assign people to an item and it will notify them. It can also keep track of how long an item has been opened/unanswered which is a useful metric.
- It makes it easy to create a survey/form and sort results by category.
- It can integrate with popular apps including Slack, which is very valuable for our organization.
- You can set up integrations so that if x happens, it will trigger y to happen.
Our organization has used Monday.com for 3 years. I have personally used it for 2 years. Our organization bought the tool because we did not have a project management tool and we were lacking one. We use this tool for our People Operations ticketing system, so if employees have a question for HR, they can submit a ticket and we can respond. It provides metrics on how many tickets we get, how long it takes for us to respond, and the end result. It also integrates into Slack which is very useful for our team.
- It can be hard to understand integrations and some of the other important functions.
- It can be easy to "lose" a board and there is no easy way to search for it.
- You cannot share content (even just to view) with someone who is not a paid Monday.com user.
I have never used a competitor of Monday.com
I think the key buying criteria for this tool is what your desired outcome is. We use the product for our ticketing system and it is great for that. Each project management tool is slightly different so I suggest taking demos/utilizing free trials to see what fits your needs best.
Monday.com has not made any noticeable changes since I started using it.
It is great for an organization that is looking for a ticketing system that can provide metrics. It is also good for those looking to implement project management tools as it provides templates for different types of projects.
I think this tool would be good for anyone looking for a project management tool. It just depends on what type of project management tool you prefer.
Vision Helpdesk
Vision Helpdesk’s support solutions are offered over several pricing tiers and different deployment option, covering the diverse needs of companies large and small.
PROS
CONS
Vision Helpdesk is an affordable ticketing solution that companies of all sizes can derive value from. It collects customer queries and incident reports from multiple sources and pools them - in the form of tickets - into a shared inbox that your support agents can respond to and solve. Among Vision Helpdesk’s features are task management, gamification, workflow automation, SLA and escalation rules, knowledge base creation, community forums, and surveys. It also features a collaboration tool called Blabby, for agents to communicate, share knowledge, files, presentations, and collaborate on ticket issues.
Vision Helpdesk has been used by over 20,000 companies, including Thomas Cook, Invest India, Baroda Mutual Fund, Quick Heal, AxisRooms, and more.
Vision Helpdesk has four products: Help Desk Software (a multi-channel help desk), Satellite Help Desk (a multi-brand help desk), Service Desk (an IT service management solution), and Live Chat Software (an online chat solution). The pricing of those products depends on how you choose to deploy them. For the cloud-based version, the 4 products are priced as follows:
1- Help Desk Software:
- Starter: $12 per agent per month billed annually / $15 per agent billed month to month
- Pro: $ 20 per agent per month billed annually / $25 per agent billed month to month
2- Satellite Help Desk Software:
- $24 per agent per month billed annually / $30 per agent billed month to month
3- Service Desk Software:
- Pro: $32 per agent per month billed annually / $40 per agent billed month to month
- Ent: $48 per agent per month billed annually / $60 per agent billed month to month
4- Live Chat Software:
Visit Vision Helpdesk’s pricing page to learn how much the above products cost if you opt for the self-hosted (on-premise) version, available on a per-agent per month bases or single license per agent (one-time purchase).
Best For
Vision Helpdesk can be used by companies of all sizes.
JitBit
JitBit is a provider of both self-hosted and cloud-based help desk ticketing solutions that are feature-rich, easy to use and very friendly to third-party integrations.
PROS
CONS
JitBit is a customer service software with a clean user-interface that’s very easy to navigate; it has an inbox for all incoming tickets, a knowledge base for customers and agents to self-serve, and a reporting section with detailed dashboards, providing insights into all of your activities. Amongst JitBit’s features are automation rules and categories that allow you to stay organized and optimize a good number of tedious processes.
Microsoft, VMware, Adobe, Xerox, General Electric, HP, ESPN, Dell, Vodafone.
When billed annually, JitBit’s cloud-based software plans cost as follows:
- Freelancer: costs $24.92 and is capped at 1 agent only.
- Startup: costs $58.25 for up to 4 agents.
- Company: costs $108.25 for up to 7 agents.
- Enterprise: costs $208.25 for up to 9 agents, with $29 per extra agent.
JitBit’s self-hosted version is a single-time purchase starting at $1699 for small companies, $3499 for medium-sized businesses (up to 20 agents), and $4999 for enterprises with an unlimited number of agent accounts. This on-premise solution can be trialed with a 30-day moneyback guarantee.
Best For
Medium to large sized companies looking for a self-hosted customer service solution.
When I used Jitbit, I typically logged in a few times a week to manage support tickets for our team. It was mainly used for tracking and resolving internal IT requests and occasional customer support inquiries.
The main workflow I followed was creating or responding to tickets, assigning them to the right team members, and updating their status as issues progressed. I also used Jitbit’s search and reporting features to quickly find older tickets or review patterns in requests.
Although I didn’t use it daily, it was a helpful tool for keeping support tasks organized and ensuring nothing slipped through the cracks. It was a positive experience for me at Siemens.
Jitbit is easy to use, with a simple interface that makes managing support tickets straightforward. The automation features save time by automatically assigning tickets and sending notifications. It integrates seamlessly with email, allowing tickets to be created and updated directly from users’ inboxes. Overall, it’s a good system.
I partnered with Siemens, which chose Jitbit to streamline its internal IT and customer support processes. Before using Jitbit, managing support requests was inefficient and led to delays.
Jitbit helped by centralizing all tickets, automating tasks, and integrating seamlessly with email systems. Its reporting features also provided valuable insights to improve performance.
Overall, Jitbit has been an effective tool for enhancing response times and boosting productivity across teams. My experience with Jitbit has been positive overall, and I recommend it for others to use; I personally used it for two years.
The reporting features, while useful, could be more customizable for deeper insights. It lacks some functionality found in the desktop version, making it harder to manage tickets on the go. It can get expensive for larger teams, especially if many agents are added.
Jitbit stands out from competitors with its ease of use and quick setup, making it ideal for teams that want a simple, intuitive helpdesk solution. Compared to other tools I’ve used, like Zendesk or Freshdesk, Jitbit offers a more streamlined interface with fewer unnecessary features, which helps reduce clutter and confusion for users.
Additionally, its email integration is especially smooth, allowing tickets to be created and managed directly through email with minimal effort. While other tools may offer more advanced features, Jitbit’s strength lies in its simplicity and efficiency for small to mid-sized teams looking for a straightforward helpdesk solution.
When buying a helpdesk tool like Jitbit, consider its ease of use to provide a smooth experience for both support agents and users.
Check for integration capabilities with your existing systems, as this will streamline workflows. Make sure the tool is scalable so it can grow with your organization.
Look for customization options and robust reporting features to track performance effectively. Finally, evaluate the cost to ensure it offers good value for the features you need.
Jitbit has evolved by enhancing its user interface for easier navigation, introducing advanced automation features, and expanding integration capabilities with popular software.
It also improved mobile access for managing tickets on the go and added robust reporting and analytics tools. These updates show Jitbit’s commitment to adapting to user needs and staying relevant in a changing market.
Jitbit is ideal for small to mid-sized organizations seeking a straightforward helpdesk solution. Its user-friendly interface requires minimal setup and training, making it suitable for teams without extensive IT resources.
Jitbit is particularly beneficial for companies needing strong email integration, automation capabilities, and customizable workflows, making it a great fit for industries like technology, healthcare, education, and professional services.
Jitbit may not be suitable for large enterprises with complex support needs or those requiring extensive customization. Organizations that need robust multi-channel support, like live chat or social media integration, might find it lacking compared to solutions like Zendesk.
Companies seeking in-depth reporting and analytics or those with a high volume of support requests may benefit from more feature-rich platforms.
Jira Service Management
Created by Atlassian, Jira Service Management is a fantastic customer service solution with thousands of integrations, ensuring it can fit well in any tech stack.
PROS
- Effortless issue tracking and great collaboration are what Jira is known for. It helps teams provide faster, more efficient customer service.
- Jira has an intuitive and easy-to-use interface. You can also customize elements of the UI to reflect your company’s brand.
- Features like sprint planning, backlogs, and scrum/kanban boards are purpose-built to support agile frameworks.
- Users appreciate the ability to customize workflows, particularly around ticket assignment and escalation to suit their team’s needs.
- Jira can integrate seamlessly with third-party apps and services like GitHub, Slack, and more.
- A free plan as well as free trials of paid plans are available.
- Easy issue tracking and great collaboration are the core features of Jira Service Management to provide customers faster, more efficient customer service.
- Jira Service Management allows customers to rate the quality of a knowledge base article, helping you identify improvement areas and update accordingly.
- Jira Service Management has a customizable user interface. You can also change the feel and look of the help desk center and portal to reflect your company’s branding.
- Incident and problem management is prompt and easy, thanks to Jira Service Management‘s alerts and email notifications.
- Jira Service Management’s mobile app support ensures you’re notified instantly about breached SLAs and all assigned, reported, watched, and mentioned requests.
- In addition to Jira Service Management's internal features, you can use its diverse range of integrations to further maximize functionality.
CONS
- While Jira’s UI is intuitive, there is still a learning curve just because of the sheer number of features it offers.
- Jira’s email notifications cannot be customized; your email can easily get flooded. Modifying notifications per user or having them sent in batches isn’t an option either.
- With its current pricing model, the platform can get expensive for larger teams and multiple projects.
- Users felt that reports aren’t as customizable as they should be.
- Jira Service Management’s Free plan doesn’t offer customizable charts and dashboards.
- Jira Service Management has a rigid email notification system, so you cannot customize it, and your notification system may get easily cluttered. Modifying notifications per user or sending by batch isn’t an option either.
Created by Atlassian, Jira Service Management is a collaborative IT service management (ITSM) solution that enables your support team to create multiple projects to track and handle customer support requests and incidents.
Dominos, Square, Puppet, Twitter, Airbnb, Square, Sotheby’s, The Telegraph.
Jira Service Management offers a three-tiered pricing structure with its Free, Standard, and Premium plans. The Free plan offers access to a good number of the platform’s features and is capped at three agent accounts. The Standard and Premium plans start at $10 and $40 per agent per month and can be trialed for up to 7 days for free. Visiting Jira Service Management’s pricing page for more information.
Best For
Companies of all sizes looking for a robust customer service and project management system.
We use Jira for project management across teams, departments and geographies. Different users require different levels of permissions. Jira provides transparency in workflows and communications. We leverage customization option regularly. Configuration and integration is definitely a value add that we use regularly.
- Integrates all portfolios and information in one place.
- Mobile access
- Excellent ability to track project progress
- Comprehensive ticket/task management
We were in need of project management software and were already utilizing Atlassian suite. We were specifically seeking a solution for teams working in different parts of the project. We also needed a solution that is easily accessible across remote geographies. Ease of collaboration was a "must have" for our selection. Transparency across the project was also a mandatory need to be met.
- Reports are difficult to configure.
- Jira is difficult for non-tech savvy users.
- This is not a good stand-alone product - it needs to be integrated.
Jira is about average; we have found it is best utilized by out software/dev ops teams.
There should be non onsite "Jira guru" that is able to train and direct people--it can be very complicated and difficult to work with for non-tech teams. There is a high "learning curve" with this tool.
Jira has not evolved much since we've been using it. Issues have remained issues for many months.
Software/Dev Ops/Data Science
Jira is not a good fit for any non-tech organizations.
HappyFox
Geared mostly towards medium and large companies, HappyFox is a customer support solution that's highly customizable, easy to use and quick to set.
PROS
CONS
HappyFox is a web-based help desk that’s most notable for its easy and quick set-up. It integrates with several points of contact to collect tickets and organize them neatly on its Ticket List page. Tickets can be automatically assigned to available agents or specific groups and escalated to experts as needed.
HappyFox offers users customizability options to create workflows, views, canned actions, tasks, reports, and more. It also offers a self-service portal that’s connected to your knowledge base and an AI-powered Chatbot that helps customers with common questions, taking a considerable weight off your support agents’ workload.
Lowe’s, Whirlpool, LeapFrog, Harbour Air Seaplanes, Planned Parenthood.
HappyFox offers four pricing plans, Mighty, Fantastic, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus. Mighty and Fantastic target small and medium-sized businesses and start at $29 and $49 per agent per month, while Enterprise and Enterprise plus are more geared toward larger operations.
Best For
Medium to large sized companies looking for an easy to use customer service solution.
We use HappyFox daily for help desk ticket management across IT, Facilities, and Operations departments. As our organization grew, we needed a streamlined ticketing system because the existing process was disorganized, inefficient, and slow. The team has found HappyFox extremely beneficial. Staff submit requests (e.g., my computer isn't working, a toilet is broken, etc.), and the team is notified. On the backend, you can track when a ticket is submitted, assign it to an individual, add notes, update the status, and communicate with the submitter.
The ticketing system format and organization are excellent. The dashboard is user-friendly and provides a clear overview. The notification features help keep the team informed and responsive.
We purchased HappyFox to manage tickets for both IT and Facilities departments. We struggled to keep up with tickets submitted by staff and needed a centralized ticketing system. Before HappyFox, staff submitted their "tickets" (i.e., issues and needs) via email, IM, in-person requests, etc., which became unmanageable as our organization grew. Our team took about four months to work out the kinks and has been using it for almost three years now. I used it during my one year on staff and found it extremely beneficial, as you can track ticket submissions, assign them to individuals, add notes, and communicate with the ticket submitter regarding updates.
The interface can be a bit cluttered. It was somewhat clunky to train on. Staff initially struggled to grasp all its features.
I'm not entirely sure, as we didn't have a ticketing system before. However, from the options we considered, HappyFox seemed to offer more capabilities. I prefer this system because of its features, ease of use (once familiarized), and the ability to collaborate with other departments and team members.
Consider the specific problem you're trying to solve. Review all of HappyFox's features to determine if it addresses your needs. Think about how you want to collaborate across departments. Will HappyFox fit your requirements? Lastly, provide multiple training sessions and resources to ensure staff are comfortable using the system.
It added new statuses and allowed us to create custom statuses for our organization.
It is well-suited for IT, Facilities, Operations, and other task-oriented services or departments.
It may not be ideal for Communications or Graphic Design/Creative departments.
Kayako
With standout features such as customer journeys and collaboration, Kayako is a great choice for companies of all sizes to gain better context about customers.
PROS
CONS
Kayako is a user-friendly customer support solution with cloud-based and on-premise deployment options. It packs many of the common features of ticketing systems such as omnichannel support for incident logging, live chat, a help center for self-service, an analytics dashboard, integrations with social media channels, and popular third-party tools, customizable business logic rules for workflow creation, process automations and more.
Kayako also offers some standout features such as customer journeys, a detailed record of everything the customer has been up to before logging a support ticket, which allows you to provide context-driven customer service. Another notable feature is the ability to add collaborators, i.e. other employees besides your customer support agents and managers that can access customer data.
GeneralElectric, Warner Bros, Toshiba, FedEx, Sega, Peugeut, MTV.
Kayako offers three plans: Inbox, Growth, and Scale. The Inbox plan starts at $15 per agent per month, while the Growth and Scale plans cost $30 and $60 respectively per agent per month.
Kayako also offers free 14-day trials for all of its plans as well as demos upon request. Check out Kayako’s pricing page for more information on their available plans and features.
Best For
Companies of all sizes looking for an easy to use customer support solution.
We used Kayako every day, as it made our typical 9-to-5, Monday through Friday tasks easier to manage. We worked on tickets in the queue, and Kayako’s AI functionality ensured that clients received accurate answers based on research findings. Most importantly, it helped us meet response time requirements, avoiding negative impacts on our SLAs and KPIs.
Kayako was cost-effective compared to its competitors. It offered detailed behind-the-scenes metrics that helped us improve the client experience.
Their support team provided strong assistance throughout our entire partnership.
My company bought Kayako because it was the best platform that fit our requirements for communicating with clients. Our focus was to provide a one-stop shop for clients' legal questions. In addition to the multiple functions the platform offers, it was competitively priced compared to its competitors. My company had approximately 100 people working directly with clients, and Kayako made this easy to manage. The platform had a great reputation for enabling seamless, intuitive, and quick client support.
I don't have anything negative to say. I would give it a solid 9 out of 10, as there are always things that could improve over time.
Kayako differs from its competitors because the platform gives you ownership over various aspects, such as tickets, metrics, and help articles. Other companies often require you to contact them to manage things you should have access to or charge high fees for basic add-ons.
With a tool like this, people should be clear about the service they want to offer. It's important to schedule recurring meetings to discuss platform limitations so they don’t hinder the user experience.
Kayako has remained largely the same since I last used it at my previous company.
Kayako is ideal for learning environments and mid-sized legal institutions.
Kayako would not be a good fit for organizations that don’t provide daily customer service to clients.
SolarWinds Service Desk
SolarWinds Service Desk has one of the widest feature sets in IT service management, complete with a 30 day free trial to ensure you like it before you buy.
PROS
CONS
SolarWinds Service Desk is an IT service management (ITSM) solution that goes beyond just ticketing and incident management. Besides allowing you to assign, prioritize and escalate tickets collected from different sources, it offers features for self-service, live chat, scheduled reporting, asset management, change management, network discovery, API access, and more.
Adler Planetarium, The Bloc, DPR Construction, Betfred.
SolarWinds Service Desk offers a tiered pricing model of four plans that can be tested for free for up to 30 days. When billed annually, SolarWinds Service Desk’s plans cost as follows:
- Team: $19 per agent per month with an additional $0.10 per device per month
- Business: $39 per agent per month with an additional $0.30 per device per month
- Professional: $69 per agent per month with an additional $0.50 per device per month
- Enterprise: $89 per agent per month with an additional $0.70 per device per month
Best For
Medium to large companies looking for an ITSM solution with asset management capabilities.
We primarily use SolarWinds across all our programs with clients to ensure there are no threats to our network, as privacy is crucial. We rely on SolarWinds daily to keep our network secure, to monitor potential threats, and to ensure that workflows run smoothly and stay under control.
I appreciate SolarWinds for its simplicity. I value the ability to monitor our network and quickly address any emerging or existing issues. I also like the customizable alerts, which make it easy to pinpoint potential problems.
Our team decided to invest in SolarWinds because we needed a reliable solution to improve data security. Many programs and clients require high levels of privacy when exchanging data, so we chose SolarWinds to strengthen our network security by identifying and monitoring potential threats. One of the key advantages of using SolarWinds is having a system that enables us to effectively monitor and track security threats. I've been using SolarWinds for about five years, and I'm very satisfied with the partnership and the growth we've achieved.
I dislike the pricing structure, as I believe long-term users should receive discounts or rewards. Sometimes, finding support can be challenging, and a simpler search process for troubleshooting information would help. Additionally, the initial setup can be time-consuming, which can disrupt the workday.
I appreciate SolarWinds’ flexibility and customization options, which make it easy to spot and understand issues as they arise. The tool offers a level of adaptability that stands out from other similar solutions.
It's essential to define the specific needs and intended uses for the tool, as this will impact both setup and training. The user-friendly interface is an advantage, as it simplifies onboarding and reduces the need for extensive training.
SolarWinds has adapted to meet market demands by improving the interface and enhancing cloud integration, which has become a significant feature.
SolarWinds is ideal for IT departments and organizations focused on network monitoring.
SolarWinds may not be suitable for non-IT users or basic businesses without complex monitoring needs.
Spiceworks
Spiceworks is perhaps the only vendor in this space to offer both cloud-based and on-premise versions of their help desk ticketing system, completely free of charge.
PROS
- With Spiceworks, you can offer your customers omnichannel query collection to submit queries and share concerns across channels. You don't have to worry about how much it costs, thanks to the free service.
- Spiceworks offers both cloud-based and on-premise versions of its free helpdesk ticketing system, which is quite rare in the customer support niche.
- Spiceworks’ help desk isn’t only limited to your desk — it’s also available as an app for Android and iOS users. Thanks to this, you can manage support tickets on the go.
- Spiceworks provides an unlimited number of service tickets for each user. You can create as many decades as a situation needs, eliminating the need to delete tickets and allowing you to retain chat history. This also gives your team a reference point that they can go back to whenever similar issues or topics resurface.
- Spiceworks‘ large community is backed by dedicated IT professionals, specialized tech vendors, and other kinds of individuals willing to share their expertise when it comes to IT-related issues and help each other out. This ensures every member receives accurate and prompt responses to all their queries.
CONS
- Due to Spiceworks’ limited feature set, it isn’t very flexible. It lacks some of the more desirable features, such as knowledge base management, interaction tracking, and prioritization.
- Spiceworks doesn’t offer advanced reporting options, which restrict your view into agent productivity and the kind of support your customers are receiving. Additionally, you have to streamline reports to remove redundancy.
- To enjoy Spiceworks’ free help desk, be ready to view forceful ads and receive promotional emails — lots of them.
- Spiceworks' direct customer support is limited to email. So you don't get chat, phone, and social media assistance options.
Spiceworks is a free of charge ticketing system with cloud-based and on-premise deployment options and mobile apps for Android and iOS devices. Spiceworks packs all the features you’d expect from a help desk ticketing system, like omnichannel support, automatic ticket assignment and management, a self-service portal, and more - all without any limitations on the number of agent accounts, customers tickets, data storage, etc.
As far as pricing goes, Spiceworks stands out from competitors by offering all of its products for free. The company makes its profit from ads that appear in the backend and are sponsored by numerous IT vendors.
Best For
Small and medium sized companies looking for a FREE customer support solution with cloud-based and on-premise versions.
Benefits of Using a Help Desk Ticketing System
Investing in a good ticketing system allows you to:
- Improve your team’s productivity: Help desk ticketing systems offer a host of features to save you time and enhance your team’s performance. They integrate with all of your customer contact channels to collect tickets then route them to a centralized location for your agents to pick up and resolve right away without needing to constantly monitor several channels and devices. Help desk solutions also allow you to customize workflows and automate many of your team’s manual tasks such as assigning, escalating, prioritizing, and categorizing tickets.
- Increase customer satisfaction, retention, and ROI: It’s a well-known fact in business that great customer service retains customers, and bad customer service drives them away. You might have a fantastic range of products, but it won’t mean much to your bottom line when your customers are unhappy because you’ve been taking too long to respond to their queries and incident reports or worse, missing their messages completely due to your overwhelming ticket influx from several contact points.
Using a help desk allows you to stay on top of all your customer interactions and deliver speedy support, which not only enhances customer experience and retention rate, but also turns your customers into your promoters, spreading the word about your reliability as a provider and eventually earning you more leads and successful signups. - Continuously fine-tune your support operations through accurate data: Manually monitoring your customer support KPIs is an impossible job and luckily, you don't have to do it. The majority of ticketing systems available today offer powerful analytics dashboards that provide you with detailed insights into what your team is doing well and what needs to be improved for you to continue observing your service level agreements (SLAs), drive customer satisfaction and deliver world-class service.
Common Mistakes Made When Buying a Help Desk Ticketing System
It’s very easy to make mistakes when choosing a help desk solution if you don’t thoroughly research what's available on the market and carefully consider the needs and budget of your business. Here are some of the most common mistakes businesses make:
- Spending money on features you don’t need: ‘Premium’ doesn’t always mean ‘better’. Many small and medium-sized businesses select a premium, enterprise-grade plan because of all the feature additions they usually come with, but in reality, only half of the features end up being used. We advise that you always invest selectively and wisely.
- Not accounting for future circumstances: Your business may see exponential growth within just a matter of months. It may also experience financial hardships, requiring you to downsize your operation. No matter what the future holds for your business, you’ll definitely need your help desk plan to grow or shrink accordingly. Buying a help-desk solution that isn’t very scalable can be a costly mistake in the long run.
- Buying an all-in-one suite when all you need is just one or two specific solutions: This one is quite self-explanatory; if you only need a ticketing solution, opt for a provider that offers just that or selectively purchase a ticketing solution from an all-in-one suite vendor; never buy the whole suite.
- Making long-term commitments before thoroughly testing a solution: Some help desk vendors offer perpetual licenses that are purchased once only. While this cuts down on recurring costs and can save you a significant amount of money over time, you should only do this after thoroughly testing the help desk solution and verifying that it’s the one for you. Otherwise, you will end up going back and forth with the vendor on their cancellation and refund policy.
Pricing Models
Just as the cost varies from help desk vendor to another, pricing models can vary too. Here are some of the most common help desk pricing models you can expect:
- Per agent: The most common pricing model for help desk ticketing systems is a ‘per agent account per month’ fee, billed either on a monthly basis, or annually for a decent price reduction. Some help desks charge fixed fees in scales, e.g. ‘$$ for up to 5 agents’, “$$$ for 15-20 agents’ and so on. The per agent pricing model is the most cost-effective option for small businesses that are new to using a help desk system.
- Per device: This pricing model is most ideal for businesses that don’t require all employees to have access to their help desk software. Before opting for a help desk with a per-device pricing model, make sure you have an accurate estimate of the number of devices your customer support team uses.
- Per ticket: Though very few, some help desk vendors use a ‘per ticket per month’ pricing model. Before selecting a provider that charges per ticket, ensure you have an accurate estimate of your ticket volume and that you select a scalable help desk vendor that can provide you with more ticket coverage should you need it in the future.
- Per license: Some on-premise help desks offer perpetual licenses that are purchased once only, without limits on agent accounts or customer tickets. While this cuts down on recurring costs, it’s long term commitment that needs to be thought through before making a decision. It’s also important to note that while you only have to pay once for the license, you may have to pay additional fees down the line for product maintenance and upgrades.
Features of a Help Desk Ticketing System
Help desk ticketing solutions on the market today come with different selling features and price points. Though the exact number of features may vary from one solution to another, here are the main ones you can expect:
- Multi-Channel Support: Customers should be able to easily reach you through different channels including email, live chat, phone, social media, and more. A good ticketing system integrates seamlessly with all of your contact points to collect tickets and pool them into a single shared inbox. This way, your agents are able to instantly receive and work on tickets on one platform, without needing to frequently monitor several channels and devices.
- Customizable Workflows and Process Automation Options: The majority of ticketing systems offer features for you to create an efficient workflow and automate processes, eliminating a considerable chunk of your tedious tasks. Often with the help of triggers, you’re able to automatically set a ticket’s status and priority, assign and escalate tickets to specific groups within your organization, send automated responses and follow-ups, and notify customers and agents of certain updates. Some ticketing systems also allow you to create tags for tickets, which comes in handy with search optimization and enables you to instantly retrieve specific data for report creation.
- Knowledge Base: A knowledge base functions as an extensive library of information on your products and/or services that customers can access 24/7. It integrates with your website and ticketing system for customers to find answers to their questions as well as information on particular features and processes.
Studies conducted on the efficacy of help centers have shown that over half of all customers prefer self-service options for convenience and speedy resolution. This is also great because the more customers self-serve, the more you’re able to deflect tickets, which frees your agents to focus on other tasks that are more urgent or of higher importance. Additionally, a knowledge base is also a valuable resource for your in-house staff too to access product documentation, FAQs, internal guides, and playbooks at any time. - 3rd Party Integrations: Not only should a good ticketing system integrate with several contact channels, i.e. email, social media, phone support tools, live chat, etc, but it should also offer integration options with popular customer relationship management (CRM), asset management and team collaboration tools such as Salesforce, Slack and more to further enhance your operations. You can usually find out if a help desk integrates with your favorite products by checking their pre-built integration modules, usually listed on their websites.
- Scalability: Scalability entails whether or not a software product can grow with you as your business does. Your company’s size may double within a short period of time and it's crucial for all of your daily-used tools to still accommodate you. Besides being mindful of a help desk’s cost for bigger teams, it’s important to consider its ability to store large data records, the maximum number of user accounts that can be created on it as well as the maximum number of teams and customers it can handle.
- Reporting: Reporting is a crucial function of a help desk software. Through accurate, real-time data, a good help desk software allows you to monitor how your team is performing against your predefined service level agreements (SLAs) as well as the average time it takes them to respond to customers and resolve their tickets.
Furthermore, a good help desk solution should offer some methodologies for you to collect feedback from customers and measure their satisfaction. The good news is, several solutions offer net promoter score (NPS) and customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys that can be automatically sent to customers upon ticket closure.
Demo Questions
Before deciding on a help desk for your business, it’s recommended that you schedule demos with different vendors to make sure their solution has all the needs of your business covered. Here are a few questions you can ask during your demo sessions:
- What communication channels does your solution integrate with?
- What customer support processes can I automate through your software?
- How does your software facilitate self-service?
- How does your solution measure customer satisfaction?
- How can I track my team’s performance through your software?
- Can I charge my customers for support given per ticket through your software?
- How much does the software cost for my team size?
Implementing a Help Desk Ticketing System
The majority of help desk ticketing systems are cloud-based, delivered through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) infrastructure. Getting started with a cloud-based solution is very quick and easy as they all allow you to create an account and start configuring your instance right away once you’ve purchased a plan. On the other hand, on-premise help desks take longer to set up, and depending on your chosen vendor, you may need to consult them regarding their solutions’ compatibility with your current hardware and installation process or better yet, have them do the installation on your behalf.
Help Desk Ticketing Systems FAQ
What is a help desk ticketing system?
A help desk ticketing system is a software solution that gathers customer questions, requests, and incident reports from different channels and pools them into a single inbox for customer support agents to respond to in a swift and efficient manner.
Who needs a help desk ticketing system?
Any company that wants to streamline their customer service operations and offer speedy support to their customers needs a help desk ticketing system.
What are the benefits of using a helpdesk ticketing system?
Using a helpdesk ticketing systems allows you to:
- boost your team’s productivity by automating manual tasks such as ticket routing and assignment,
- resolve tickets faster which in turn, increases customer satisfaction and retention, and
- continuously fine-tune your support operations through accurate performance metrics data.
What are the features of a help desk ticketing system?
The most common features of a helpdesk ticketing system are:
- Multi-channel support (email, live chat, phone, social media integration)
- Automatic ticket routing and assignment
- Canned responses
- Knowledge base
- Performance analytics
- SLA management
- CSAT surveys
What is the best help desk ticketing system for small businesses?
Zoho Desk and Freshdesk are two robust ticketing systems with free tiers as well as affordable plans that startups can use without breaking the bank. Both Freshdesk and Zoho desk are also quite scalable, meaning that you can upgrade to more extensive plans as your business grows.
How much does a help desk ticketing system cost?
The majority of help desk ticketing systems use a ‘per agent per month’ pricing model. Depending on which help desk you use and the features you require, the ‘per agent per month’ fee can range anywhere from $5 to $199.
Final Advice
Choosing a help desk ticketing system can be a long process, but we’re confident you’ll make a good selection if you:
- Carefully consider your needs and budget and make purchases accordingly.
- Sign up for a trial period to experience the help desk first-hand and see if it’s the right fit for you.
- Schedule demos with different help desk vendors to get all of your questions answered
About Us
- Our goal at SSR is to help HR and recruiting teams to find and buy the right software for their needs.
- Our site is free to use as some vendors will pay us for web traffic.
- SSR lists all companies we feel are top vendors - not just those who pay us - in our comprehensive directories full of the advice needed to make the right purchase decision for your HR team.
