Customers and employees are the heart and soul of every business and keeping them happy is one of the key priorities of every business. Resolving customer/employee queries, providing them technical support, providing complete information on how to use a product/service, etc., ensure that your customers and employees are satisfied, and you enjoy their loyalty. The best way to ensure that you are providing the right support to them is by ensuring that you have a dedicated customer support team and the right help desk software.
Read on to find out what help desk software is, its benefits, and which are the top 10 help desk software of 2021.
Table of Contents
What is help desk software?
A help desk software is a software that contains a suite of tools that can help IT teams and customer service teams to better serve their employees and customers. The primary function of a help desk software is to provide a centralized location for customer support agents to manage a wide range of functions, such as managing and maintaining support tickets, tracking and reporting performances, offering self-service options, collaborating with other team members to quickly resolve tickets, and more.
In a nutshell, a help desk software facilitates faster and efficient resolution of customer/employee grievances. You can choose from different types of help desk software such as web, on-premise, enterprise, and open-source.
Benefits of help desk software
Some of the key benefits of help desk software include –
- Eliminates manual intervention and provides automated services to route tickets.
- Provides a centralized location for handling and monitoring tickets.
- View real-time action on tickets so that everybody is aware of what is happening.
- Set-up workflows to ensure the tickets are automatically routed to the right agent.
- Offers reports and analytics and customer feedback which helps agents to learn and grow.
10 top help desk software to use in 2021
We have listed down the 10 top help desk software that you can use in 2021 from the cheapest help desk software to open-source help desk software.
1. Zendesk Support
Zendesk Support is one of the top help desk software that offers a wide range of features, enabling customer support teams to work more efficiently and increase their productivity. With this help desk software, teams can access all their customer data in a single interface, improve their response and resolution time, allow customers to raise a ticket through different channels, etc. This software also comes equipped with various reporting and analytics tools which provides deep insights on your team’s performance, customer satisfaction, etc.
Features
- Live chat and messaging
- Custom views
- Collaboration tools
- Automated routing
- Multi-language support
- Custom branding
- Omnichannel support
- Analytics and reporting
- Self-service options
- Integrated voice software
- Ticket management
- Incident management
- Alerts (Escalation)
- Surveys & Feedback
- Social media integration
Pricing plan
- Suite team – $49/user/monthly/billed annually
- Suite Growth – $79/user/monthly/billed annually
- Suite Professional – $99/user/monthly/billed annually
- Suite Enterprise – $150/ser/monthly/billed annually
Alternatives
- Zoho Desk
- Freshdesk
- LiveAgent
2. HappyFox
HappyFox is a robust, cloud-based help desk software which is suitable for businesses of all types and sizes. You will find all the required features of a help desk software in this tool, such as ticketing, knowledge management, asset management, etc. It also offers real-time reporting functionality which enables the customer support teams to pull up the required reports instantly. This is an easy to setup help desk software which is also one of the most sought-after software because of its amazing customer support solutions.
Features
- Smart rules-based automation
- Workflow macros
- Unlimited shared inboxes
- Knowledge management
- Multi-channel communications
- Live chat
- Advanced reporting & analytics
- Tagging and ticket routing
- Dashboard
- Case management
- Customizable branding
- Customer complaint tracking
Pricing plan
- Quotation-based pricing plans
- Starter
- Growth
- Scale
- Scale Plus
Alternatives
- LiveAgent
- Zendesk Support
- SysAid
3. Zoho Desk
If you are in the market for a free help desk software, we recommend you opt for Zoho Desk. This software is one of the best when it comes to providing top-notch omnichannel experience. With top-of-the-line features, such as an advanced ticketing system that allows customers to raise tickets via email, chat, phone, web, social media, etc., it is not surprising to see businesses of various sizes opting for Zoho Desk.
Features
- Activity dashboard
- Activity tracking
- Call logging
- Call recording
- Call scripting
- Canned responses
- Case management
- Assignment management
- Automated routing
- Alerts / Escalations
- Live chat
- Self-service portals
- Document storage
- Surveys & feedback
- Multi-channel communication
- Social media integration
Pricing plan
- Freemium
- Standard – $14/agent/monthly/billed annually
- Professional – $23/agent/monthly/billed annually
- Enterprise – $40/agent/monthly/billed annually
Alternatives
- Zendesk Support
- Freshdesk
- SysAid
4. SysAid
In this help desk software list, you will find that most of these software offer the same features and functionalities apart from some unique ones. SysAid’s uniqueness lies in the fact that it uses a modular platform. This means that users can start off with one tool/feature and keep adding more as per their requirements. This ensures that the users can access the exact tools they require without getting confused with all the unwanted tools. With SysAid, agents can easily manage tickets from desktops as well as mobile devices. This is an all-round help desk software that will enable your agents to work smarter.
Features
- Access controls
- Asset tracking
- Alerts/Escalations
- Change management
- CMDB
- Email management
- Incident management
- Customizable branding
- Document storage
- Automated routing
- Live chat
- Ticket management
- Multi-channel communication
- Social media integration
- Surveys & feedback
- SLA management
Pricing plan
- Quotation-based pricing
Alternatives
- LiveAgent
- Freshdesk
- Zendesk Support
5. LiveAgent
LiveAgent is an amazing help desk software best suited for small and medium-sized businesses. This software’s USP lies in the fact that it is fairly easy to set up, learn, and use software. It has an intuitive interface which allows users to easily and quickly access all the required fields and elements. This all-in-platform is a feature-rich software that includes all the essential help desk software features as well as some additional ones that allow agents to provide exceptional customer support.
Features
- Universal inbox
- SLA
- Activity dashboard
- Activity tracking
- Alerts/Escalations
- Blended call center
- Call logging
- Call recording
- Call monitoring
- Automated routing
- Assignment management
- Live chat
- Customizable branding
- Ticket management
- Multi-channel communications
- Social media integration
- Document storage
Pricing plan
- Freemium
- Ticket – $15/agent/month
- Ticket+Chat – $29/agent/month
- All-inclusive – $39/agent/month
Alternatives
- SysAid
- Zoho Desk
- Freshdesk
6. Freshdesk
Freshdesk is one of the best free help desk software that is suitable for all types and sizes of business. It enables customer support teams to provide exceptional customer service. This software facilitates maximum collaboration which ensures faster and timely resolution of customer queries. Another key feature of this top help desk software is that the users will have access to deep insights to reports and analytics within minutes. In fact, users can even use keywords in the reports page to find their desired reports! The software is also accessible on mobile devices, thus, ensuring that it is accessible at all times.
Features
- Automated routing
- Assignment management
- Case management
- Customizable branding
- Content management
- Collaboration tools
- Intelligent ticket management
- Ticket splitting
- Real-time email notification
- Live chat
- Customized reports
- Social media integration
- Customizable branding
- Multi-channel communication
- Alerts/Escalations
- Surveys & feedback
Pricing plan
- Freemium
- Growth – $15/agent/monthly/billed annually
- Pro – $49/agent/monthly/billed annually
- Enterprise – $70/agent/monthly/billed annually
- Growth Omnichannel – $29/agent/monthly/billed annually
- Pro Omnichannel – $59/agent/monthly/billed annually
- Enterprise Omnichannel – $99/agent/monthly/billed annually
Alternatives
- Zoho Desk
- LiveAgent
- Zendesk Support
7. Help Scout
Help Scout is another top help desk software, especially suited for small businesses, startups, and on-profit organizations. From offering live chat sessions to posting articles for customers to self-resolve to providing a shared customer space to offering robust reports, this help desk software ensures that you find all your required help desk features on one intuitive platform. Help Scout is also known for its security features that include SAML authentication, SSO, HIPAA compliance, and IP address restriction. With the option to use filters, users can easily search, access, and export their required information.
Features
- Automated routing
- Archiving & retention
- Alerts/Escalations
- Document storage
- Customizable branding
- Full text search
- Collaboration tools
- Canned responses
- SLA management
- Social media integration
- Multi-channel communications
- Ticket management
- Surveys & feedback
Pricing plan
- Standard – $20/agent/monthly/billed annually
- Plus – $35/agent/monthly/billed annually
- Company – Custom pricing
Alternatives
- SysAid
- Freshdesk
- Zoho Desk
8. HESK
The next software in our top help desk software list is HESK – a lightweight help desk software, which is useful, especially for beginners. It is a user-friendly software which is best suited for small-sized businesses. HESK offers a reliable and robust ticketing system that allows users to customize their ticket fields and modify how it displays. It is a great tool that enables users to track, organize, and resolve all their customer queries efficiently and successfully.
Features
- Live chat
- Ticket management
- Self-service portal
- Knowledge base management
- Surveys & feedback
- Incident management
- Known issue management
Pricing plan
- HESK website license – $39.95 (one-time fee)
- HESK advanced license – $199.95 (one-time fee)
Alternatives
- SysAid
- Freshdesk
- LiveAgent
9. Agiloft
Agiloft is a scalable help desk software equipped with all the required features to help agents resolve customer issues as quickly and efficiently as possible. It offers a user-friendly interface which displays all the required information in a clear and concise manner. Agiloft provides several features, such as one-click contract creation, automatic audit trail, single click approvals, etc., which makes it a preferred choice when businesses search for help desk software.
Features
- Full text search
- Live chat
- Workflow management
- Self-service portal
- Single Sign On
- Customizable branding
- Multi-channel communication
- Social media integration
- Document storage
- SLA management
- Ticket management
- Automated routing
- Alerts/Escalations
Pricing plan
- Freemium
- Professional – Custom pricing
- Professional Unlimited – Custom pricing
- Enterprise Extended – Custom pricing
Alternatives
- Salesforce Service Cloud
- Zoho Desk
- SysAid
10. Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud is a great option if you are searching for enterprise-level technical support software. It offers a wide range of advanced features, such as advanced service analytics, AI-powered automation, 360-degree customer views, etc., which makes it a robust and efficient help desk software. The software comes equipped with an AI-powered tool – Einstein Discovery which provides actionable recommendations when users use their analytics tools. Compared to most of the help desk software currently available in the market, Salesforce Service Cloud provides the most complete customer service platform.
Features
- Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
- Automated routing
- Alerts/Escalations
- Customizable branding
- Geotargeting
- Inbound call center
- Document storage
- Canned responses
- Call logging
- Call recording
- Call scripting
- Live chat
- Ticket management
- SLA management
- Self-service portal
- Multi-channel communication
- Surveys & feedback
- Knowledge base
- Customizable reports and dashboards
- Workflow automation
Pricing plan
- Essentials – $25/agent/monthly
- Professional – $75/agent/monthly
- Enterprise – $150/agent/monthly
- Unlimited – $300/agent/monthly
Alternatives
- LiveAgent
- Zendesk Support
- Freshdesk
Conclusion
We hope this top help desk software list comes handy for you and helps you in choosing the right help desk software based on your business requirements. Ensure that you carefully go through the feature list, pros and cons, and pricing plans of your desired software before investing in it. You can also try the free trials of various help desk software and choose the best one among them.
To know about other such useful software, their features, pricing plans, etc., check out SaaSworthy where you can access more than 40,000 software across 300 categories.
Also read:
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• 5 Best Free Website Builder Software That You Can Use in 2021
