Top-25 Help Desk Platforms for Small Business

Discover the most popular and effective ticketing systems.

Over the past decade, customer support has come a long way from relying solely on phone and email to providing customers with an omnichannel communication experience. Today, it has become a new norm for brands to be available via chats in WhatsApp or Telegram, as well as on Facebook and Instagram pages.

Managing any substantial volume of customer inquiries across numerous channels is hardly possible without a dedicated help desk platform. In the article, we explore the benefits of adopting such a software solution and the top 25 choices of them.

Table of content

What is a helpdesk

The role of the helpdesk is to provide customers with the knowledge and support they need at the moment. An effective help desk solution can significantly improve user satisfaction, minimize downtime, and help employees be more productive.

Help desk vs. helpdesk

While both terms refer to the concept of assisting customers and responding to their inquiries, the term ‘help desk’ usually means a team of people providing support to customers and the term ‘helpdesk’ refers to a ticketing system and other customer support software.

Benefits of using a help desk platform

Help desk software offers numerous benefits that can transform the way a brand interacts with its customers.

Shorter response time

With a help desk platform, all customer support agents can process customer inquiries from all channels in a single system, making it easier to respond quickly and efficiently. This results in faster resolution times, reduced customer frustration, and increased satisfaction and loyalty.

Personalized customer experience

With a help desk platform, it is easier to provide personalized support to each customer and tailor responses to their specific needs and preferences. By viewing previous customer interactions and preferences, support agents can offer customers solutions suited to their tastes, budget, etc., anticipate future problems, and build trust with them. This leads to increased customer loyalty, retention, and positive brand sentiment.

Increased efficiency and productivity

Help desk software is capable of automating many tasks, such as ticket assignment, routing and escalation, allowing the support team to focus on more complex issues. As a result, the employees get increased productivity, reduced workload, and improved work-life balance.

Insightful and comprehensive analytics

Along with making it easier to work with inquiries, help desk platforms can analyze incoming inquiries and how they are processed by agents. Then they can provide a detailed overview of what types of inquiries are prevalent and how each employee works (response time, average number of tickets, CSAT score, and so on).

Scalability and flexibility

A help desk platform provides flexibility to how incoming customer inquiries are processed, regardless of their original channel. This allows a brand to tailor the whole customer communication workflow to suit its needs. Additionally, a proper help desk platform can make the process more scalable, as the company grows and expands to other regions.

Top 25 help desk platforms for small business

Let's take a look at some of the most popular help desk solutions, their features, and pricing.

Umnico

Umnico helpdesk is a ticketing system designed to assist businesses in maximizing the effectiveness of their omnichannel customer communication. The solution enables customer service representatives to respond to comments on posts efficiently and direct messages in social media and inquiries in messengers and a free live chat widget — all from a single interface. The platform offers customizable welcome messages and template responses to common inquiries, as well as an easy-to-master chatbot builder powered by GPT-4 technology.

Price: Umnico offers a customizable pricing plan, which depends on the connected channels and starts from $7 per month.

Freshdesk

The Freshdesk ticketing system stands out with its user-friendly interface and powerful automation capabilities. It supports multi-channel communication, allowing businesses to manage customer interactions across email, phone, chat, and social media. Its Customer Service Suite is an AI-powered omnichannel solution that offers self-service options to customers.

Price: Freshdesk offers three pricing plans, starting from a free plan with limited features, to Growth Plan that starts at $15 per agent/month, and Enterprise Plan that starts at $79 per agent/month if billed annually.

Zendesk

Zendesk is a versatile help desk platform known for its robust features and scalability. It offers a comprehensive ticketing system, live chat, and a knowledge base. This makes it an excellent choice for businesses of all sizes looking to streamline their customer support operations.

Price: Zendesk offers a range of pricing plans tailored to different business needs, starting from $19 per agent per month for the Essential plan, which provides basic helpdesk functionality.

Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is a popular helpdesk choice for small businesses due to its affordability and integration with other Zoho products. It offers advanced ticket management, automation, and analytics to help businesses improve their customer support efficiency.

Price: Zoho Desk offers several pricing plans, starting with a Free plan that supports up to three agents. The platform's paid plans start with Standard (€14/agent/month), followed by Professional (€23/agent/month), and Enterprise (€40/agent/month), each offering progressively more advanced features for customer support and help desk management.

Help Scout

Help Scout is designed for businesses that prioritize personalized customer support. Its Shared Inbox's intuitive interface and collaboration features make it easy for teams to manage customer inquiries and provide timely responses. A built-in AI is capable of condensing the context of long threads with a click of a button.

Price: Help Scout offers a tiered pricing structure based on the number of users and features required. Their plans range from $22 to $65 per user per month, with discounts available for annual billing.

Jira Service Management

Jira Service Management is an easy-to-use help desk solution that connects operations managers, developers, and engineers, and offers robust incident management and issue tracking features, making it a powerful tool for IT support teams.

Price: the platform offers three pricing plans: Standard ($7/agent/month) for small teams and growing businesses, Premium ($14/agent/month) for medium to large enterprises with advanced features, and Enterprise (custom quote) for large organizations with complex requirements.

HubSpot Service Hub

HubSpot Service Hub integrates seamlessly with HubSpot’s CRM, providing a unified platform for managing customer interactions. It offers ticketing, live chat, and a knowledge base, helping businesses deliver exceptional customer service.

Price: the Service Hub Starter plan begins at $15 per month per agent with monthly or annual commitments. For more advanced needs, the Professional plan starts at $90 per month per seat with an annual commitment, focusing on scaling self-service and automation.

HappyFox

HappyFox is known for its clean interface and powerful automation features. It supports multi-channel ticketing, self-service portals, and detailed reporting, making it a great choice for small businesses looking to enhance their customer support.

Price: the platform offers a tiered pricing structure for its help desk software, which varies based on the features and the number of agents. The plans start from $9 per agent per month for the basic plan.

Hiver

Hiver transforms Gmail into a powerful help desk platform, allowing small businesses to manage customer support directly from email. It offers features like email delegation, shared inboxes, and automation to streamline support operations.

Price: the helpdesk pricing starts at $19 per user/month (billed annually) for the Lite plan, which offers basic features such as email ticketing, automated workflows, and reporting.

Front

Front is a collaborative help desk platform that centralizes customer communication across various channels. It offers shared inboxes, automation, and analytics, helping small businesses improve their response times and customer satisfaction.

Price: the platform's pricing is based on the number of team members, the level of support required, and the features needed, with plans starting at $19 per user per month for the basic set of features.

Spiceworks Cloud helpdesk

Spiceworks Cloud helpdesk is a free help desk tool for small businesses that offers essential ticketing and reporting features. It’s a great option for companies with limited budgets looking for a reliable support solution.

Price: Spiceworks solution is entirely free. However, large businesses are likely to find its feature set too limited for their needs.

Freshservice

Freshservice is designed for IT service management, offering features like incident and asset management. It’s a powerful tool for businesses with technical support needs.

Price: the platform offers a tiered pricing model, with plans starting at €15 per agent/month (billed annually) for the basic plan.

Kayako

Kayako helpdesk provides a unified customer support platform across such channels as live chat, email, and a knowledge base. It’s ideal for small businesses looking to offer seamless support across multiple channels.

Price: Kayako offers pricing plans that start at $30 per agent per month, with more advanced features available in higher-tier plans. They also provide custom pricing for enterprises requiring tailored solutions.

LiveAgent

LiveAgent offers a comprehensive help desk solution with features like ticketing, live chat, and social media integration. It’s a versatile platform that can help small businesses manage customer interactions effectively.

Price: the solution offers a range of pricing plans, including a free plan, as well as several paid plans starting at $9 per agent per month (billed annually), with features such as unlimited tickets, email integration, and reporting.

SysAid

SysAid is an IT service management platform that offers features like ticketing, asset management, and automation. It’s a great choice for small businesses with IT support needs.

Price: SysAid helpdesk provides a free trial to new users, while the exact pricing is available to companies upon request.

Vision Helpdesk

Vision Helpdesk provides a multi-channel support platform with features like ticketing system, live chat, and a knowledge base. It’s designed to help small businesses manage customer interactions efficiently.

Price: the helpdesk's pricing ranges from $12 to $60 per agent per month, depending on the plan and billing cycle (annual or monthly).

TeamSupport

TeamSupport is a B2B customer support platform that offers features like ticket routing, team collaboration, and reporting. It’s ideal for small businesses that need to manage complex customer interactions.

Price: TeamSupport offers four pricing plans: Chat at $29, Essential at $35, Professional at $49, and Enterprise with a custom quote.

ProProfs helpdesk

ProProfs helpdesk offers a simple and intuitive platform for managing customer support. It includes automation, making it a great choice for companies that aim to improve the quality of their customer support without increasing the staffing.

Price: the platform offers a free plan for up to 2 users with limited features. Paid plans start at $19/user/month (billed annually) and scale up in features and price depending on the size and needs of the team.

Groove

Groove is a user-friendly help desk platform that offers features like ticketing, live chat, and a knowledge base. It’s designed to help growing businesses provide personalized customer support.

Price: Groove’s Enterprise Plan offers complete access to all features with no restrictions, normally priced at $299/month. However, there is a limited-time offer of $42/month (or $497/year) when paid annually.

Deskero

Deskero provides a multi-channel support platform that allows companies to set up a live chat widget on their website and integrate social media to process all inquiries in a single view features like ticketing, live chat, and social media integration.

Price: the platform has a flexible pricing model based on the number of agents and features needed. The ‘Grow’ plan costs $9 per agent per month, with a maximum of 5 agents, and includes features such as social network ticketing, automatic assignment, live chat, desktop notifications, and full APIs.

osTicket

osTicket is an open-source help desk platform that offers essential ticketing features. It’s a cost-effective solution for small businesses with limited budgets.

Price: the platform offers an open-source client-hosted edition for free and a cloud-based one starting at $12/agent/month after a 30-day free trial.

SupportBee

SupportBee offers a simple and collaborative help desk platform with features like ticketing, automation, and reporting. It’s designed to help small businesses manage customer interactions efficiently.

Price: the platform has two pricing plans, with "Startup" being the more affordable one and starting at $15 per month.

Cayzu

Cayzu provides a cloud-based help desk platform with features like ticketing, live chat, and a knowledge base. It’s a great choice for companies looking to streamline their customer support.

Price: Cayzu offers five pricing plans with the option to pay monthly or annually. The plans start from $4 per month. Each plan offers a single monthly price with no additional fees, and a free trial is available to try before choosing a plan.

Mojo Helpdesk

Mojo Helpdesk offers a simple and affordable platform for managing customer support. It includes features like ticketing, automation, and reporting.

Price: the platform's plans include: Team ($14/month/agent), Business) ($24/month/agent), and Enterprise ($34/month/agent), each offering additional features and scalability. The plans support up to 25, 100, and unlimited agents, respectively, with varying levels of storage, automation, and support.

Re:amaze

Re:amaze provides a multi-channel support platform with features like ticketing, live chat, and social media integration. It’s designed to help businesses manage customer interactions effectively.

Price: there are three pricing plans, with the Basic plan starting at $29 per month per agent. There is also a $59 flat rate per month for those who want to get access to all features but have a limited amount of conversations (500 or less per month). A free trial is available to all new users.

Key help desk software features to look for

What aspects are important when making a decision?

• Functionality. First and foremost, the software must be able to organize, prioritize, and track customer requests with ease, and it should include automated ticket routing and escalation.
• Omnichannel support. It is also essential to consider what channels the platform supports, which can be email, chat, social media, and phone. For example, Umnico Inbox omnichannel helpdesk has 25+ integrations with popular messaging apps, along with free live chat widget, and VoIP telephony.
• Self-service portal is a significant enhancement, enabling customers to find solutions independently while freeing up the members of a support team to address more complex issues.
• Automation and AI can save a significant amount of time and resources, handling time-consuming repetitive tasks and other similar processes. For example, Umnico provides an intuitive drag-and-drop chatbot constructor that allows any user without prior programming experience to create chatbots based on GPT-4 to interact with customers.
• Integration capabilities are also a crucial factor to address. For example, Umnico provides ready-made integrations with popular CRM systems, which allows sales representatives and support agents to communicate with customers directly from the interface of a familiar CRM system.

Summing things up

All in all, help desk platforms can be considered one of the staples among customer support software, required by any business that is serious about its client communication and customer satisfaction. When choosing a platform for your company, always compare several options in terms of functionality, price, and capabilities. And remember, with the Umnico help desk platform, you can try all of its features for free during a trial. Start utilizing the most effective help desk practices for your business and delight your customers with a remarkable service today.