Help Desk Software Solutions in 2024 - Top 15
Jairo Guerrero
| 14 min
Top 15 Help Desk Software in 2024
First, Let's Clarify What Help Desk Means
The help desk department of your organization supports employees or customers with any questions they might have about your service or systems. The term “help desk” is often related with IT support and with internal use (employee support), within large organizations.
For example, if your business or organization has +2000 employees, certainly you will need to manage all their enquiries. To do that effectively and at scale you need help desk software.
The term help desk has evolved, and many businesses and organizations take it as general customer care.
In short, when it comes to helping people, internally (employees) or externally (customers), we will be using both terms help desk or service desk.
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How To Choose the Best Help Desk Software - How we did it
In this article, we have analyzed the most relevant help desk software solutions for both customers (external use) and for (internal use) employees within your business.
The list:
Watermelon- Best Helpdesk Software With Integrated Ai Chatbots
Gorgias - The Best Option For Shopify Customer Automation
HappyFox - The Best For Global Customer Service
Helpdesk - The Best For It Service
Help Scout - Best For Self Service Helpdesk
Hiver - Best It Help Desk To Use With Gmail
Jira Service Management [Atlassian] - Best Internal (It) Help Desk Software
Zendesk - The 360 Customer Support Solution
Hubspot - Best For Small Businesses
Salesforce Help Desk - The All-In-One Solution For Small Organizations
Kayako - The Best Help Desk Software For Teams
Solarwinds Help Desk - Best Help Desk Larger It Teams
Vision Help Desk - With Gamification Features
Manageengine Servicedesk - Best For Enterprise On-Premise
Freshworks - Best Unified Service Management
Coming back to that organization with +2000 employees, you certainly need automation capabilities to manage such amount of daily employee questions and concerns. But not all companies have so many employees. But you certainly have a certain amount of customers and you want to automate as much as possible your customer support. Even once you pass +20, +50 customers you already need automation within your customer experience (also called service desk).
We took in consideration the following points to choose the best software for your help desk and ticketing needs:
Essential Help Desk Features
The best help desk software should definitely check most of these features so we included solutions with:
AI Chatbots to facilitate the initial touch point with users or customers using automated conversational bots.
Ticketing system to facilitate an effective and fast management, assignation and resolution of customer enquiries
Live chat to enhance the support experience with human agents for complex cases.
Reporting & analytics: which allows an in-depth strategic overview of the help desk performance.
Self-service help center which allows all the knowledge of the help desk team to go in one large library that can help customers without any intervention of your service team.
Types of Help Desk Software
We have looked at who the help desk is serving, employees and customers
Help desk software for IT service management
Service desk software for customer support
We included in this article both types of help desk software solutions.
Based on their infrastructure we also listed
Web/Cloud Help Desks: help desk no-code solutions that have a web portal or an app where agents can manage all customer service.
Open Source Help Desks: help desk solutions that have an open source code so you can import it to your own servers and modify it as you wish to fit your organization (you might need software developers to customize it).
Customization and Scalability
Usually, a help desk software and a CRM are the initial tool every organization sets up early on. We looked at the capabilities of each help desk solution to connect to other systems as well as increase its features to follow your organization's growth so you do not have to switch customer support tools after a few months.
We included in this article help desk solutions with a wide range of integrations so you can easily connect it with 3rd party platforms such as your sales or operations software.
Help Desk Software Price
We analyzed help desk solutions for smaller organizations up to enterprise solutions. Prices go from totally free help desk software up to 350 USD per agent per month. Most of the help desk directed to external support (customer support) starts at prices from 10-20 USD per agent per month. Help desk software for IT service management is more common to find free solutions.
In our analysis of help desk solutions, we discovered a wide range of options for smaller organizations all the way up to enterprise-level. The pricing varies significantly, with some help desk software being available for free, while others can cost up to 350 USD per agent per month.
The majority of help desk solutions for external support, such as customer support, typically start at around 10-20 USD per agent per month. Free options are more prevalent for IT service management help desk software. So there are solutions for every company size.
The Best 15 Help Desk Software Compared
Watermelon - Best Helpdesk Software with Integrated AI Chatbots
Watermelon helps you to simplify customer communication with a centralized platform in the cloud for all your conversations with customers. Looking to automate your helpdesk? Then you should use Watermelon's AI Chatbot which is a GPT-4 assisted conversational bot that talks to your customers and prospects. The AI capabilities of Watermelon allows you to achieve helpdesk automation without increasing your service team workload.
Best use case: customer service automation
Key Features of Watermelon AI Chatbot for Helpdesk Automation:
In-depth analytics: Watermelon's statistics feature provides you with valuable insights into customers' interactions. For example, data on the number of conversations, response times, customer satisfaction ratings and more.
Human-like Conversations: Get answers for your customers right away with Watermelon's advanced conversational features. Its AI Chatbots will handle most of your customer conversations with human-like conversations so your team workload will reduce substantially.
Smooth Chatbot-Human Transitions: Watermelon AI bot facilitates smooth transitions between the AI chatbot to your customer experience team for more complex enquiries.
Simple Setup Process: Easily set up your website bot or social media bot with the ready-to-use chatbot integration of Watermelon. No-code and smooth process. Plug in into any channel or platform.
Wide range of integrations: Don't stop your helpdesk automation on your website only. Your audience might be also active in WhatsApp or Instagram or will reach out via email too. You can easily have a chatbot implemented for any channel with Watermelon's powerful integrations.
Reviews:
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars on:
Pricing:
Free trial: Yes, 15 days.
Watermelon's pricing plan starts at just €99 per month.
Link: GPT-4 Powered AI Facebook Chatbot
Watermelon AI Chatbot Software Alternatives:
Gorgias: The best option for Shopify customer automation
Price: 50,- USD/month.
Reviews: Capterra 4.7 / 5
💡 Check the Best AI Chatbots For eCommerce
Price: 27,- USD/month per agent.
Reviews: G2 4.5 / 5
Price: 29,- USD/month per agent.
Reviews: G2 4.6/5
💡 Check the best help desk for eCommerce
Help Scout - Best For Self Service Helpdesk
Help Scout provides a unified platform for helpdesk and customer service. It contains the most relevant tools you will need for communication with clients and internally in your company. Help Scout allows you to create your own cloud-self service portal: a knowledge portal for customers and team members to help themselves.
Best use case: self service customer portal
Key Features of Help Scout:
Centralized customer data: every conversation is unified in the same dashboard. Each client profile is created automatically and with the assistance of AI you will quickly know the full history of your customer.
Strong integrations: you can plug in Help Scout with any channel, 3rd party platform: Shopify, WordPress, Facebook, Slack, etc. Any business platform can be connected with a few clicks with Help Scout dashboard.
AI Assisted Dashboard: the full helpdesk automation is achieved in Help Scout with AI. For example, ticket assignment, conversations summary, automatic labeling, etc.
💡 Check: All Integrations of Watermelon AI Chatbot
Disadvantages of Help Scout:
Low customizations available: the help center will have a rather simple look unless you know how to modify the CSS on your own, which requires technical knowledge and quite some hours of work.
No assisted AI chatbot: despite Help Scout having an AI assisted dashboard, the bot's capabilities are limited to manual flows or internal AI assistance but in practice Hel Scout does not provide an AI chatbot that can autonomously talk and solve customer questions.
Reviews:
Help Scout is rated 4.4 out of 5 stars on G2.
Pricing:
Free trial: yes, HelpScout has a 15-day free trial.
Help Scout starts at 20,- USD per user per month.
Alternatives to Help Scout
Spiceworks - The Always-Free IT help desk Software (in the Cloud)
Yes, you read it right. Spiceworks developed a free cloud-based IT help desk. Spiceworks is a large network of IT businesses and professionals and their business model is based mostly on advertising. Despite being a free software, you get everything you could ask for in an IT help desk solution: tickets management, customer reports, centralized data, agents assignations, etc.
Best use case: completely free IT help desk solution
Top Advantages of Spiceworks IT help desk:
Free Helpdesk Solution: There is no barrier of entry for any company as there are no costs involved with this IT helpdesk software. Anybody can start using it, with customer service support included.
Automatic Ticket Assignation: as you can build your own IT request portal the ticket assignment becomes easier and automated, which allows efficiently to assign the right admins to the right IT requests.
Automated Workflows: with automated replies to tickets and in-depth custom dashboards to monitor support progress and success.
Self-service IT Helpdesk center: with all IT ticketing knowledge in one place to allow users easily find their own answers to their IT requests.
Disadvantages of Spiceworks:
Ads In Platform: as this IT help desk platform is free, you will have to cope with ads while using it.
Limited integrations: to integrate Spiceworks IT help desk with other CRMs or business platforms you might run into implementation issues as there is not a wide range of native integrations.
No AI functionalities: despite the customizations available in Spiceworks helpdesk, the platform lacks AI assistance of any kind, even though you can set up automated workflows that can compensate for its low AI capabilities.
Reviews:
Spiceworks is rated 4.4 out of 5 in Capterra
Pricing:
Spiceworks help desk is completely Free
Jira Service Management [Atlassian] - Best Internal (IT) help desk Software
Jira (from Atlassian) is one of the most complete cloud-based helpdesk software solutions for IT support or technical support or overall internal organizational support. It is widely known for being the best match for technical or corporate projects having a wide range of tools for technical integrations such as the Github integration for software development projects.
Best use case: enterprise IT help desk
Key Features of Jira Service Management:
Strong technical integrations: You can connect directly with its other platforms such as Trello and Confluence as well as with Google Drive or PowerBI as well as more technical integrations such as Git, Microsoft 365 or Jenkins.
Self-service portal: Jira allows you to build knowledge help centers for all your team to have the organization data and playbooks all in one place.
Advanced team workflows: for each help desk ticket you can change the information, report an incident, modify the assigned agent, or change the ticket configuration. You can build custom workflows and set up quite efficient processes with the AI assisted tools of Jira.
Disadvantages of Help Scout (based on real customer reviews):
Corporate pricing: Jira suits most large organizations as the capabilities are so many that for small companies it will be quite pricey.
Low customization: with all data available in the Jira dashboard
Best for internal IT service management: Jira is mostly used for internal organizational use, so it does not suit companies that want to leverage great customer experiences with the outside world. Most basic features such as a live chat, a chatbot or a simple ticketing system are not what you will find in Jira.
Reviews:
Rated 4.2 out of 5 stars on G2.
Pricing:
Free trial: yes, Jira has a 7-day free trial available.
Price info: It is free upto 10 agents. Then pro plans start at $8.15 per user.
Zendesk
Zendesk is an all-in-one help desk platform in the cloud. You can combine your help desk software with a customized help center, a knowledge base, an online community or a customer portal to provide customers with a great self-service. Live chat sits in its core solution and it is backed up with powerful AI chatbots.
Best use case: all-in-one customer service
Top 3 Advantages of Zendesk help desk:
Instant Support: With Zendesk, you can chat with your customers in real-time, whether they're on your website, using your mobile app, or even sliding into your DMs on social media.
Strong Integrations: You won't have to switch constantly between different platforms. Zendesk keeps all your customer conversations in one neat workspace, so you're always on top of things.
Personalized Service: Use customer data to tailor your chats and make your customers feel like VIPs. It's all about giving them that extra special personalized touch such as product recommendations of the right steps to solve a problem.
Real-time insights: Zendesk shows in real time who is managing or checking the support tickets.
Other nice features: Custom views, Integrated voice software, Live chat and messaging, AI Chatbots and API, SDKs and app integrations.
📚 Learn About The Best AI Chatbots for Customer Service
Disadvantages of Zendesk:
Data Handling Limitations: Zendesk has issues migrating conversations or customer data to other business tools you are already using, which can slow things down when you're trying to get a better customer support system.
Learning Curve: Zendesk live chat environment takes a bit of time to master. New users often get overwhelmed with the chat dashboard.
Enterprise costs: as Zendesk is a full help desk solution it comes with a price that many companies might not find appealing. If you are a smaller business, it would be better for you to find simpler tools at a lower price range.
Pricing
Free-trial: yes, Zendesk has a 14-day free trial.
Zendesk live chat starts at 55 EUR per agent per month.
Zendesk Alternatives
HubSpot - Best for small businesses
Kayako - The Best help desk Software for Teams
Kayako offers a solid cloud help desk solution for automatic conversation routing, meaning you can address the right agent with the right customer at the right time. Your workload will be reduced due to its great efficiency for teams. Kayako helps not only with the regular customer experience towards customers but offer a unique option for internal corporate help desk to boost employee efficiency.
Benefits of Kayako help desk
Efficient Team Collaboration: With Kayako you can split tasks easily. Group conversations, assign tickets, collaborate on the same case, etc. All your agents will be aligned and will offer the best support to your customers.
Single-View Customer Experiences: Kayako developed an interesting and helpful approach to help desk: the SingleView. With the customer's single view, the help desk agent can easily know within a few seconds everything about the person they are talking to: order history, viewed pages, previous conversations, etc. You will be able to treat each customer as an individual with personalized support.
Kayako's disadvantages
Performance Issues: Kayako's system might have some issues from time to time, which could end up affecting your customer service team unable to respond to customer inquiries promptly and efficiently.
Integrations Limitations: You might experience some technical blocks when integrating your social channels or other CRM system with Kayako.
Reviews:
Kayako is rated 4.0 out of 5 in G2.
Price:
Free trial: yes, Kayako has a 14-day free trial.
Kayako pro features start at 15,- USD per agent per month.
SolarWinds Help Desk - Best help desk larger IT teams
SolarWids is a strong help desk solution in the cloud for larger teams. It is focused on growing companies as there are multiple departments that can be opened within SolarWinds. This solution has automated ticketing, a self-service knowledge base feature.
Benefits of SolarWinds help desk software:
Centralized knowledge base: both internal for your team and external for your customers and users. Everybody involved in the company will be able to access all the documentation you build to encourage self-service when it comes to service support.
Automated ticketing: you can automate most ticketing management tasks such as assignment to the right agent, categorization based on topic and priority as well as escalating the tickets easily to the right agent. For example, it can convert automatically emails into IT support tickets and store all the ticket history for insightful reports.
Email and SMS notifications to agents: to ensure there are not forgotten tickets and the customers and users get a prompt response.
SolarWinds disadvantages
Difficult to learn: due to its customer support features and complexity SolarWinds requires a long learning curve to get the best out of the tool.
No AI functionalities: despite a wide range of features in SolarWinds help desk, the platform lacks AI assistance.
Limited integrations: with enterprise solutions, 3rd party platforms or custom platforms.
Reviews
SolarWinds help desk is rated 4.5 out of 5 in G2
Price
Free trial: yes, With SolarWinds you can use each feature for free for 30 days.
SolarWinds web help desk pro features start at 349 €.
Alternatives to SolarWinds IT help desk
Vision help desk - With gamification features
ManageEngine ServiceDesk - Best for enterprise on-premise
Freshworks - Best unified service management
Freshdesk is the help desk solution of Freshworks which includes in its core AI automation both for customer interactions as well as AI assistance for support agents. The Freshdesk live chat, assisted by AI chatbots, is a key component in this help desk solution as it allows faster ticket resolution. Freshdesk has also a self-service help desk portal that can be integrated in your current domain.
Best use case: all in one customer service
Top 3 Advantages of Freshdesk:
AI assistance: Starting from AI chatbots to intake the initial customer inquiries, up to AI-driven reports and automated workflows. The AI capabilities of Freshdesk facilitates help desk support and reduces the workload of your team. Before you get a customer service colleague busy, you will be able to help your online store visitors effectively with AI chatbots to provide quick and easy self-service responses.
Full Channel Integrations: Freshdesk has a marketplace of integrations. Any company can build custom integration apps, they get verified by Freshdesk and ready for you to use with your current business systems. Having so many integrations available makes it easier to be in contact with your customers on their favorite channels (WhatsApp, Facebook, etc) and also allows you to seamlessly integrate Freshdesk with your current CRM or sales & marketing software.
AI Chatbot Capabilities: Freshdesk unifies all customer data with the conversations from live chats and chatbots. All in one place: the full power of data from your online store visitors in one dashboard.
💡Check Our Guide: The Best AI Chatbot Builders
3 Disadvantages of Freshdesk:
Integration with challenges: Integrations with applications like Instagram and Shopify could be problematic, leading to issues on the customer support team.
Lack of customization: for example with custom integrations to other platforms might lead to technical bugs, and limitations in adapting the live chat to specific needs.
Technical issues and bugs: some bugs and technical issues might arise while working with the Freshdesk live chat, impacting directly your customer service performance. Some live chat features might have issues, and the functionality overall might suffer sudden changes.
Reviews
Freshdesk is 4.4 out of 5 in G2.
Pricing
Free trial: yes, Freshdesk has a 14-day free tiral.
Pro features for IT help desk start at 19,- USD per month per agent.
Pro features for Customer help desk start at 29,- USD per month per agent.
Top 3 Freshworks Alternatives
LiveAgent - Best feature-rich IT help desk platform
Benefits of Help Desk Software
Help desk software is a game-changer for any business looking to boost their support experience, both for the team behind the scenes and the customers they serve. Here's why it's such a big deal:
Fast Customer Support: Imagine all your customer support needs funneled into one easy-to-manage spot. That's what help desk software does. It means your team can jump on requests across any channel faster than ever, making for some very happy customers.
Empowering Teams: When your support crew has the right tools, they're unstoppable and as efficient as it gets. Help desk software doesn't just make their jobs easier by streamlining tasks and organizing queues; it gives them the superpower of information, so they are always ready to deliver top-notch service.
Keeping Everyone on the Same Page: Nothing beats having all the info you need at your fingertips. With everything from customer histories to ticket statuses in one place, your team can provide seamless support that feels personalized and proactive, making every customer interaction feel like a win.
Driving Satisfaction Sky-High: Quick, effective solutions are what keep customers coming back for more. A robust help desk setup means you can tackle problems head-on and turn potential frustrations into high fives, keeping customers loyal and spreading positive vibes about your brand.
Boosting Customer Team Morale: Let's not forget about the backbone of your business - your employees. A smooth support experience on their end translates to less stress and more success across the board, contributing to a positive work environment where everyone feels supported.
Scalable Solutions for Growing Businesses: As your business evolves, so do your support needs. Help desk software grows with you, ensuring that you're always equipped to deliver exceptional service, no matter how big your customer base gets.
In short, help desk software is more than just a tool—it's your ticket to providing standout support that keeps both customers and employees smiling, ensuring your business thrives in the competitive landscape.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Does my company need help desk software?
Yes, if your company deals with customer inquiries or internal support requests, help desk software can speed up your operations. It's essential for managing a large volume of requests efficiently, providing fast support, and keeping your support team organized, especially as your customer base or team grows.
Is there any free help desk software?
Yes, there are free options available, such as Spiceworks, which offers a completely free IT help desk solution. These free versions are great for small businesses or startups looking to manage their support without a significant investment.
What's the difference between CRM and help desk software?
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software focuses on managing all aspects of a company's interactions with current and potential customers, emphasizing sales, marketing, and maintaining relationships. In contrast, help desk software is specifically designed to manage customer support requests, including ticketing, issue tracking, and customer service workflows.
What actions can I automate with help desk software?
You can automate various actions with help desk software, including ticket routing, priority setting, responses to common inquiries through AI chatbots, ticket categorization, and follow-up scheduling. These automations enhance efficiency and ensure consistent service quality.
Is help desk software scalable?
Absolutely. Help desk software is designed to grow with your business. Many help desk software solutions are modular, and you can start with simple features yet when the growth comes, they also offer scalability options, allowing you to add more users, integrate additional services, and expand your support capabilities as your company expands.
How much does help desk software cost?
Costs vary significantly depending on the solution's scale and features. They can range from free versions for basic needs to around 10-20 USD per agent per month for external customer support-focused software, and up to 350 USD per agent per month for enterprise-level solutions. Pricing structures are typically scalable to fit the size and needs of your business.
What are some common features of help desk software?
Common features include AI chatbots for automated customer interaction, ticketing systems for managing support requests, live chat for real-time communication, self-service help centers for customer independence, and reporting & analytics for insights into support performance.
Ready to automate your help desk with AI Chatbot technology?
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