last updated: october 31, 2022.

Best Help Desk Software Comparison 2023

A woman sitting in front of a laptop.
Weronika Masternak Weronika Masternak

Weronika
Masternak


Product Content Marketer

As a support manager, you're always on the lookout for new and innovative help desk software to improve your team's productivity. But it can be challenging to know which one is right for your business when there are so many types of software products available on the market. Luckily, you've come to the right place!

Let's see the best helpdesk software list for 2023 and compare their features and prices.

Three types of help desk software

Marcin Forysiński Marcin Forysiński

Marcin
Forysiński


Product Marketing Manager

There are three main types of help desk software available on the market: web-based help desk software, cloud-based help desk, and installed help desk software. Each system category has its own unique set of features that help companies track customer interactions, assign service agents to tickets, and monitor service requests.

Web-based help desk software

Web-based help desk software

Web-based help desk software is the most popular type. It's hosted on a remote server and can be accessed from any web browser and device with an internet connection. Web-based help desks are often more affordable than installed software, are easy to set up and use, and require no installation or maintenance. This type of help desk software is becoming increasingly popular among companies of all sizes because of its accessibility and flexibility.

Cloud-based help desk software

Cloud-based help desks are similar to web-based help desks, but they're hosted on a remote server or cloud platform, such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure. Cloud-hosted service desks can be accessed from any place in the world with an internet connection. In addition, cloud-based help desk software offers businesses the flexibility to scale services up or down as needed. It’s a popular choice for small companies and startups with multiple locations or wanting to offer 24/7 customer support.

Cloud-based help desk software
Installed help desk software

Installed help desk software

Installed help desk software, or an on-premise help desk, is placed on a local server and can only be accessed from computers in the private network. Installed help desks can be more expensive than web-based or cloud-based solutions, but they offer certain benefits, such as increased security and performance. Large companies often use this type of software because it provides the most features and flexibility. However, it can be more difficult to set up and maintain.

Eight essential help desk software features

Marcin Forysiński Marcin Forysiński

Marcin
Forysiński


Product Marketing Manager

Now that you know a little bit about the different types of help desk software available, let's take a look at eight core features that all great help desk solutions should have.

  • 1. Email integration

    The foundation for any help desk ticketing software is email communication integration, which allows you to manage all your emails in one place. This includes incoming messages from customers, outgoing messages from agents, and automated messages from the ticketing system. Email integration keeps your team organized and efficient by reducing the amount of time they spend sorting through emails.

  • 2. Manageable tickets

    Help desk software helps customer support agents efficiently manage tickets. The ticket is created every time a requester contacts customer service with an issue or question. The service desk solution assigns the ticket to the customer support rep responsible for resolving the case. The ticketing tool includes many features to help support agents manage tickets effortlessly. Manageable tickets allow agents to create custom fields, set priorities, define status, add people to the loop, and include attachments.

  • 3. Support for multiple channels

    One of the essential features of a help desk ticketing system is its ability to support multiple channels. Customers can contact your team through call centers, emails, chats, website forms, chatbot conversations, or any other method they prefer. That's why a sound service desk will allow you to manage all of these communication channels in one place, making it easier for your support teams to respond to requests quickly and efficiently. Remember, if you don't want to be swamped with messages from various sources, regularly verify your help center articles and self-service tools.

  • 4. Ticket tracking and reporting

    A decent ticketing system will track all cases and provide reports on how many tickets have been opened, resolved, and closed. This information can help measure your support team's effectiveness and pinpoint areas where you may need to make improvements. You can also use these insights to identify customer trends and communication issues that must be addressed immediately.

Fancy trying ticket tracking? Sign up for a free 14-day HelpDesk trial

Free 14-day trial Automation Robust reporting

  • 5. User management

    User management allows you to add, edit, and delete users from your help desk system. In most cases, user management includes features such as creating and managing user accounts, setting permissions, and tracking activity history. These functions help ensure that only authorized users have access to help desk data. It's also a great way to keep your help desk team well organized and to see who's using the system and how.

  • 6. Integration with other systems

    Most help desk ticketing software apps offer some form of integration with other systems. This allows you to include information from these systems in your tickets and synchronize help desk data with other applications. For example, you can integrate your desk solution with your customer relationship management system. By doing so, you can incorporate customer information in tickets and update customer records in the CRM system whenever a ticket is updated. Such integrations can be beneficial in keeping all customer details in one place and up-to-date.

  • 7. Customizable workflows

    A well-rounded help desk ticketing system should allow you to customize workflows to fit your specific business needs. This includes the ability to set up various workflows for different channels and configure rules for automated assignment, routing, and escalation of tickets. Automated workflows can robotize operations, so you can focus on providing excellent customer service. For example, you can set up a workflow to assign a ticket to the right agent based on predefined criteria, handle follow-up messages, or resolve simple technical issues. You can also specify the order and priorities in which tickets should be processed so that the most urgent cases are always handled first. And if you ever need to make changes to your workflows, you can do so easily and without disrupting your help desk operations.

  • 8. SLA management

    Service level agreement management allows you to set service-level expectations and hold employees accountable for meeting or exceeding those standards. SLA management in support can help you track customer cases, incident response times, or issue resolution. As a result, you can provide a great customer service level and keep your commitments.

What are the benefits of using support desk software?

Marcin Forysiński Marcin Forysiński

Marcin
Forysiński


Product Marketing Manager

Help desk ticketing software can be a game-changer for businesses of any size. It improves customer service with innovative management features. There are many gains to using desk software, including detecting and resolving customer issues quickly and efficiently from multiple channels in one place. This ensures that customers always receive the best possible service.

In addition, help desk ticketing systems allow you to track metrics and performance indicators that can help you identify areas for improvement. As a result, you can ensure your team is always on top of its game. You can use the data and insights you collect to improve customer satisfaction and provide a better overall experience for your customers.

Beyond that, help desk software can automate some of the repetitive and labor-intensive tasks that support staff must perform daily. This improves the work efficiency of the support crew by giving them the necessary hours to help customers with cases that require a human approach. As a result, not only do you save time and money, but you're also more swift and approachable.

In general, help desk ticketing software is an extremely valuable tool for companies that want to optimize customer support operations. Not surprisingly, more and more customer service support managers are investing in desk solutions.

Compare help desk software products

Weronika Masternak Weronika Masternak

Weronika
Masternak


Product Content Marketer

There are many ticketing programs to choose from. Some are more popular than others, and all have their pros and cons. Here you can learn about some of them through customer opinions posted on the Capterra platform. After all, who better to evaluate help desk systems than their users, right?

Let's see a comparison of the top ten help desk software solutions for 2023. Look at their features, prices, and how they stack up against each other.

1

HelpDesk

Main user dashboard view in the HelpDesk ticketing system.

HelpDesk is designed to help you provide effective and effortless customer service. The tool focuses specifically on these three areas:

Swift and straightforward automation of daily tasks.

Swift and straightforward automation of daily tasks.

Management of all customer messages from different channels.

Management of all messages from different channels.

Proactive collaboration with teammates in one place.

Proactive collaboration with teammates in one place.

Browse the full help desk review.

Features

HelpDesk is a simple yet powerful ticketing solution for support teams that want to simplify interactions with customers, business partners, and other requesters from different channels. Thanks to its short learning curve, you can use it right from the get-go. HelpDesk allows you to organize your daily work into automated workflows that will perform repetitive and tedious tasks for you.

You can use advanced features to personalize communication and quickly resolve customer cases. In addition, HelpDesk provides robust reporting features that can be used to track support agents and improve performance. HelpDesk offers the highest security standards with data encryption and 24/7 customer service team assistance.

Take HelpDesk for a spin! Enjoy a free 14-day trial

Simple setup Automation Robust reporting

Pricing

HelpDesk is available in one all-inclusive subscription Team plan at $29 per month per agent billed annually or $34 month-to-month.

There's no fine print — you know what you're paying for and how much. Best of all, with the Team plan, you can take advantage of all the new (and beta) customer support features you can use on the spot!

Team plan

To keep customer service in check

$

29

/mo
$

29

/mo

per agent
billed annually

or $34 month-to-month

  • All messages in one dashboard
  • Robust customer data in tickets
  • Automations to perform tasks quicker
  • Intuitive AI text enhancements
  • Efficient team management tools
  • Private notes to detail the tickets
  • Customized canned responses
  • Mentioning teammates for guidance
  • Real-time progress reporting
  • Free and unlimited viewer roles
  • Visual builder for email templates

See all features

2. Zendesk

Pros according to customer opinions

  • "[...] you can text, email, live chat, and social media."
  • "It is a pretty good dashboard to track the support tickets as well as team performance."
  • "If you create a view correctly, you can easily understand the scope of correspondence for each department."
  • "It can connect with many different communication sources, although some need 3rd party connection tools."

Cons according to customer opinions

  • "Getting the support to understand how to best use the product was a challenge sometimes."
  • "There are issues at times with uploading data and exporting data. Sometimes data is deleted or missing for no reason."
  • "The price is high if the use you are going to give to the tool is basic."
  • "[...] they tell you are `included with your subscription,` and the training options are insane."

Pricing

Prices start at $19 per agent/month billed annually on the Support Team plan and increase to $49 per agent/month billed annually on the Support Professional plan and $99 per agent/month billed annually on the Support Enterprise plan.

Learn how to quickly and seamlessly migrate your business from Zendesk to HelpDesk.

Migrate to HelpDesk

3. Hubspot Service Hub

Pros according to customer opinions

  • "Snippets and templates make canned responses a breeze."
  • "It easily integrates with many other products."
  • "It can also be used across many teams/departments so passing leads can flow right through the business."
  • "We can create easy-to-use templates, so even when other people need to answer emails, they can do it effortlessly."

Cons according to customer opinions

  • "A little laggy at times. I wish updates could be done at times that wouldn't affect operations."
  • "The cost for what you get is discouraging to me. It becomes quite expensive once you are off a start-up plan."
  • "Set up can be really tricky. We had to hire a 3rd party team that met with our team and walked us through set up."
  • "I wish is the ease of use on the navbar as sometimes it's not self-explanatory."

Pricing

Prices start at $45 per month on the Starter plan and increase to $450 per month on the Professional plan and $1,200 per month billed annually on the Enterprise plan.

Learn how to quickly and seamlessly migrate your business from Hubspot Service Hub to HelpDesk.

Migrate to HelpDesk

4. Zoho Desk

Pros according to customer opinions

  • "Trial option available for testing it."
  • "Offers a range of tools to make sure that customer success rates are high."
  • "The ability to send branded emails."
  • "Easy to track our concern with transparency."

Cons according to customer opinions

  • "Limited reporting, can be clunky to get the required info."
  • "I think it would be helpful to provide training interfaces within the product."
  • "It lacks reminders for past tickets and support requests."
  • "When you first start using it, it is a bit confusing to set up initially and takes a long time to set up integrations with your other services."

Pricing

Prices start at €14 per user per month billed annually on the Standard plan and increase to €23 per user per month billed annually on the Professional plan and €40 per user per month billed annually on the Enterprise plan.

Learn how to quickly and seamlessly migrate your business from Zoho Desk to HelpDesk.

Migrate to HelpDesk

5. Freshdesk

Pros according to customer opinions

  • "[...] the ticket system allows us to easily manage our customer's request."
  • "It draws in our tickets from multiple sources quite quickly so we can respond to customers quickly and effectively."
  • "It's nice to be able to talk lively with customers at any time."
  • "It allows us to create and manage various tickets at various times."

Cons according to customer opinions

  • "We're having issues filtering the spam, something we will need to look at."
  • "Sometimes the dashboard does not load, it is just a gray screen."
  • "The fact you cannot amend signatures actually depends on the email address you are replying."
  • "It's geared to much larger businesses. I'm struggling to launch it."

Pricing

Prices start at $15 per user per month billed annually on the Growth plan and increase to $49 per user per month billed annually on the Pro plan and $79 per user per month billed annually on the Enterprise plan.

Learn how to quickly and seamlessly migrate your business from Freshdesk to HelpDesk.

Migrate to HelpDesk

Looking for an affordable and proven tool? Try HelpDesk for free

Free 14-day trial Automation Simple setup

6. Intercom

Pros according to customer opinions

  • "[...] once you get past the setting up and figure out everything on your own, it's great and meets our needs."
  • "[...] part of the saved replies are really good."
  • "[...] it makes it easy to communicate between team members."
  • "It also has a great way to keep track of conversations and be able to reference back to them later on."

Cons according to customer opinions

  • "Constantly introducing new features but not actually fixing the main feature that someone would need."
  • "The customer support would be a little faster, the support received is satisfactory, but takes a little longer to receive a reply via email than I'd like."
  • "[...] it can be expensive to maintain and keep updated."
  • "Maybe having more customization for emails and custom messages to make it look more like your own brand."

Pricing

They don't have a clearly distinguishable price list but indicate that you may be charged for the number of Seats or People Reached.

Learn how to quickly and seamlessly migrate your business from Intercom to HelpDesk.

Migrate to HelpDesk

7. Gorgias

Pros according to customer opinions

  • "I love having all the tickets inside one spot where they are easy to manage."
  • "I like that the company is open to suggestions."
  • "Ease of use across multiple channels from social media to your own websites."
  • "[...] it allows us to respond to our customers and keep track of the conversations across multiple platforms."

Cons according to customer opinions

  • "Difficult to figure out how to forward a ticket."
  • "I'm still getting used to it and still get confused."
  • "There are a lot of updates, and it tends to interrupt the workflow sometimes. Onboarding was slower than what we had been told also."
  • "Closing tickets is more complicated than other providers."

Pricing

Prices start at $50 for 300 tickets per month billed annually on the Basic plan and increase to $300 for 2,000 tickets per month billed annually on the Pro plan and $750 for 5,000 tickets per month billed annually on the Advanced plan.

Learn how to quickly and seamlessly migrate your business from Gorgias to HelpDesk.

Migrate to HelpDesk

8. Front

Pros according to customer opinions

  • "[...] we can all be in the know without having to forward emails, possibly missing crucial details."
  • "It's great as a multipurpose tool for a lot of different scenarios."
  • "The best feature is email tracking, through which you can get the read receipt of the email."
  • "You can assign the email to relevant team members. So no ball drops between two players."

Cons according to customer opinions

  • "Because of the way we work, we copy and paste the text of the sent email in our other systems. This delay, especially when one sends many emails, is particularly annoying."
  • "There is a couple of niches, specific limitations that we have that we have to build workarounds for."
  • "When multiple emails come in on the same day with the same title (e.g., two customers respond to the same automated email they got), Front will nest them together as if they are one thread."
  • "You can only search by subject or person, not by the body text."

Pricing

Prices start at $19 per user per month billed annually on the Starter plan (with minimum 2 users) and increase to $49 per user per month billed annually on the Growth plan (with minimum 5 users) and $99 per user per month billed annually on the Scale plan (with minimum 10 users).

Learn how to quickly and seamlessly migrate your business from Front to HelpDesk.

Migrate to HelpDesk

9. Help Scout

Pros according to customer opinions

  • "[...] Might sound cheesy, but somehow lets you connect better with the person on the other side of the screen."
  • "Tracked tickets extremely well. Also, the canned responses worked well."
  • "It gives you a lot of options on how to handle incoming emails."
  • "This software allows extremely easy and efficient collaboration between administrators."

Cons according to customer opinions

  • "I think the reporting feature could really be improved, and we would appreciate a few more features to improve the daily management of support tickets."
  • "[...] the thing I like least about the software is the pricing. It's a tad steep."
  • "There are quite a few features with Help Scout that we have not yet explored."
  • "The thing I like the least is that filters are not the friendliest, sometimes besides the filter, you need to look further yourself for specific info."

Pricing

Prices start at $20 per user per month billed annually on the Standard plan and increase to $40 per user per month billed annually on the Plus plan and $65 per user per month billed annually on the Pro plan.

Learn how to quickly and seamlessly migrate your business from Help Scout to HelpDesk.

Migrate to HelpDesk

10. LiveAgent

Pros according to customer opinions

  • "LiveAgent provides so many great benefits and features of letting me know when people are trying to contact my business."
  • "The product has a lot of features, but not always terribly clear how to implement them."
  • "[...] you are able to integrate numerous email inboxes to it and assign each agent emails."
  • "It makes the communication process easier for both parties."

Cons according to customer opinions

  • "Sometimes loading times are too long from a UX perspective and closed emails are displayed which should not appear."
  • "It can be a bit challenging to use at first and may require some training for a day or two."
  • "At certain times, I found it difficult to keep up with the volume of data coming in."
  • "I am not sure about the different status-types and how to change them individually."

Pricing

Prices start at $15 per user per month billed annually on the Ticket plan, which provides the ticketing solution.

Learn how to quickly and seamlessly migrate your business from LiveAgent to HelpDesk.

Migrate to HelpDesk

The help desk system is the backbone of support

Weronika Masternak Weronika Masternak

Weronika
Masternak


Product Content Marketer

So, there you have it — the best help desk software for 2023. The systems presented here will give your company a much-needed boost and provide excellent customer support. However, if you're looking for a system with all the essential features for handling customer communications that won't give you a headache, then you should definitely try HelpDesk.

Sign up for a free HelpDesk 14-day trial and see how this powerful system can transform your customer support operations.

Become a real champion of customer support

Free 14-day trial Automation Robust reporting

About the authors

Weronika Masternak Weronika Masternak

Weronika
Masternak


Product Content Marketer

Weronika is a Product Content Marketer at HelpDesk. She handles the research, knowledge gathering, and content writing for the product, and she does her best to make using this ticketing software as enjoyable as possible.

Marcin Forysiński Marcin Forysiński

Marcin
Forysiński


Product Marketing Manager

Marcin is a Product Marketing Manager at HelpDesk. He's present at every stage of the sales funnel and really focuses on acquiring, retaining, and monetizing our product.

Discover our text| products