The Best Help Desk Software for 2023

The Top eCommerce Help Desk Tools

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The best help desk software provides businesses with an easy way to track complaints, requests, and other interactions with customers. Via your help desk, you can ensure you’re providing your clients with the kind of straightforward and convenient experience they’re looking for.

A leading help desk solution will feature a number of components, including a unified inbox for following conversations, automated workflows, and even alerts. Helpdesk solutions can even integrate with other tools you’re using, like CRM solutions, so you can develop a better understanding of your customer and their buyer journey.

What is the Best Help Desk Software in 2022?

Let’s take a closer look at some of the top-rated help desk options available today.

1. HubSpot Service Hub

hubspot service hub - best help desk software

HubSpot offers a comprehensive selection of “hubs” for your day-to-day business management. These hubs focus on different parts of business operations, like service, sales, or marketing. Within the “Service” hub, you’ll find a number of tools designed to help you look after your customers and improve their everyday journeys.

HubSpot’s solution provides access to a range of capabilities for free, including a CRM, where you can track your growing customer relationships, and use your knowledge to personalize interactions with clients. There’s a knowledgebase for helping agents to access valuable information during sales and support calls. Plus, you can also create and issue customer feedback surveys, in case you need to get a feel for your clients’ sentiment towards you.

Omnichannel customer service is available through HubSpot, so you can connect with your customers through everything from phone call to live chat and WhatsApp, without losing track of the context in the conversation. Extensive reporting tools also provide visual insights into what’s going on behind the scenes of your interactions, for better long-term results.

When you’re ready to upgrade the full functionality of your team, you can simply access one of HubSpot’s other “hub” environments, integrating sales pipelines, collaboration tools for your staff, and so much more.

Pricing

As mentioned above, some of the features available with HubSpot are free to access, such as basic service desk tracking and centralized inboxes. You can also access the HubSpot CRM without paying anything, but you won’t get full analytics or extensive chat and omnichannel service options.

To get the most out of HubSpot, you’ll need to pay for a monthly subscription to at least one of the hub environments. The pricing starts at around $45 per month when paid annually, and that’s for each agent. You can also accelerate that cost up to $360 per month for professional packages, and $1,200 per month if you need enterprise functionality.

Pros 👍

  • Integrates well with other popular tools
  • Comprehensive hubs for service, marketing, and sales in one place
  • Convenient reporting and analytics features for tracking results
  • Free features to help support beginners
  • Multiple methods of collecting customer data

Best for ✅

If you’re looking for a scalable technology hub for sales, service, and marketing in your business, HubSpot can cover everything in one package. While you’ll need to be willing to pay a little extra, the features are very comprehensive.

2. Freshdesk

freshdesk - best help desk software

If you’ve heard of help desk technology, you’ve probably heard of Freshdesk. A company committed to creating customer happiness, Freshdesk is an award-winning software solution with intuitive ticketing, seamless self-service, and advanced automations. There’s even an easy-to-use range of ticket tracking solutions.

If you’re using an entire team for customer support, Freshdesk will ensure all of your agents can collaborate, with private notes, notifications, and internal chat. According to Freshdesk, you can use the technology to improve average handle time by 25% and reduce ticket volume by 27%.

Omnichannel support components allow companies to support their customers on the channels they like most. Extensive reporting pages also provide visual insights into what’s working for your business, so you can track everything from CSAT levels, to which of your employees are driving the best results.

Thanks to self-service functionality empowered by AI, you’ll also have plenty of opportunities to take the extra strain off your team members with Freshdesk.

Pricing

Perhaps one of the most exciting things about Freshdesk, is the support desk is available for free, for unlimited agents. This free solution includes ticket dispatch, email and social ticketing, knowledge base access and team collaboration tools.

Paid packages start at £12 per month for the “Growth” option when paid annually, and this includes automation, collision detection, custom mail servers, and more. The Pro package starts at £32 per month, with support for multiple projects, extendable API limits, and custom roles. There’s also the “Enterprise” package for £60 per month with sandbox experimentation and agent shifts.

If you want to offer omnichannel support, you’ll need at least the Growth Omnichannel package starting at £25 per month/agent. Alternatively, there’s Pro Omnichannel for £45 per month/agent with access to additional chat channels, and co-browsing, or Enterprise for £75 per month/agent with voice and email bots.

Pros 👍

  • Extensive range of omnichannel platforms for customer support
  • Excellent AI integrations and bots available
  • Lots of custom reports with visual insights
  • Integrations and APIs for extendable functionality
  • Collaboration tools built-in

Best for ✅

If you’re looking for one of the most comprehensive omnichannel tools for help desk management on the market, it’s hard to beat Freshdesk. The technology is perfect for reaching your audience wherever they are.

3. LiveChat

livechat - best help desk software

LiveChat might not have the asset management features of leading solutions like Zendesk, or the ticket change management tools of other help desk system solutions, but it does provide another excellent way of serving your end-users. Rather than a full help desk system, LiveChat gives you a convenient way to connect with customers in real time.

Ready to connect with other integrated solutions like LiveAgent and HelpDesk, LiveChat can easily provide your support team with more ways of managing customer interactions. When you add live chat to your communication channels, it’s easy to handle customer queries in seconds.

LiveChat provides a single environment where your team can handle all kinds of customer conversations. There’s plenty of opportunities for IT support and small businesses to resolve issues through quick, convenient chat. You can even access routing to help send customers to the right agent.

While you might need a separate management system for your IT teams, LiveChat gives you a great way to optimize how you get in touch with your audience.

Pricing

Pricing for LiveChat is surprisingly affordable. You can access the “Team” package for $33 per month if you’re paying annually, or you build your customer support teams with a help desk platform for one agent at a time at $16 per month/agent.

There’s a more extensive package for conversation prioritization at $50 per agent per month, named the “Business” package. You’ll also be able to access a full Enterprise package with custom pricing to suit your team performance needs.

Pros 👍

  • Excellent add-on to your service desk software
  • Good for quick response time for customer queries
  • Integrates with other leading tools like Salesforce
  • Great user-friendly backend environment
  • Templates for your incident management team

Best for ✅

If you’re looking for a convenient tool for knowledge management and chat, LiveChat can easily add convenient, easy-to-use functionality into your network. The solution even works alongside chatbots for even greater chat performance.

4. Gorgias

gorgias - best help desk software

Perhaps the ultimate help desk solution for Shopify merchants, Gorgias is a well-renowned software-as-a-service solution. Popular among thousands of leading brands like RadioShack and Marine Layer, Gorgias ensure you can provide amazing support for customers.

Gorgias integrates directly with your existing Shopify website, then offers a range of tools to make your life easier, like centralized support tickets, live chat functionality, and even dynamic pre-purchase support. You can use the analytics and guidance on Gorgias to deliver an immersive shopping experience for your visitors, and unlock sales from support via live chat, social media, and even SMS text.

Although Gorgias primarily integrates with Shopify, it also has an integration for Magento and BigCommerce, as well as links to various leading tools like Instagram, Yotpo, and Klaviyo. With a straightforward backend and plenty of guidance, you’ll have no trouble getting started with this help desk tool.

Pricing

You can arrange an initial demo with Gorgias to test the service before purchasing anything. After that, the premium prices start at $60 per month for unlimited users – no matter which package you get. The initial package “Basic”, comes with Shopify, Instagram, and Facebook integrations, satisfaction surveys, live chat, and self-onboarding.

Upgrade to the $300 per month Pro package and you get Magento integrations, onboarding, and revenue statistics. The Advanced package for $750 per month includes a dedicated success manager, while the Enterprise package comes with everything you might need for a custom price.

There’s also the “Automation Add-on” available for a custom price.

Pros 👍

  • Excellent integrations with leading site builders
  • Scalable solution suits even big enterprises
  • Revenue statistics and in-depth reporting
  • Satisfaction surveys
  • Various automation features available

Best for ✅

Gorgias is an ideal help desk offering for companies running Shopify for their online store. You can access the Shopify integration on the cheapest pricing package, along with a host of tools to help with keeping track of your customers.

5. Zendesk

zendesk - best help desk software

Zendesk is ideal for small businesses and larger companies alike, offering a range of knowledge management tools and support solutions for customer issues. As one of the most popular solutions on the market, Zendesk makes incident management easy, with a comprehensive SaaS environment ready to integrate with your existing tools.

Zendesk is a surprisingly easy to use customer service software, with a range of tools like routing for your omnichannel conversations, service level agreements, and ticketing software. The technology comes with chat tools, so you can converse with your customers however you choose, and you can integrate with tools like Slack for internal collaboration.

Zendesk can even help with things like IT asset management, or creating forums and FAQs where clients can handle customer issues themselves. If you’re looking for an ITSM solution made simply, Zendesk is a great choice. This software simplifies everything from help desk ticketing, to managing conversations through your call center.

Pricing

The support software from Zendesk offers an affordable way to streamline your multi-channel service solution. You’ll find pricing for the system in the “Service” tab of the pricing page. Feature options start at around £39 per month for a suite of tools like live chat, voice, email, ticketing, and SMS support. For access to extra features like reporting and automation, you’ll need the Growth suite.

The growth suite starts at £65 per agent per month, while the “Professional” suite starts at £79 per agent per month. There’s also the “Enterprise” solution starting at £120 per month, which can give you a more comprehensive IT help desk solution.

Pros 👍

  • Excellent customer satisfaction features
  • Messaging and collaboration tools built in
  • Easy to use for ensuring excellent SLA metrics
  • Self-service portal options
  • Integrates with a range of leading tools
  • Automation and reporting features built in

Best for ✅

If you’re looking for an excellent support software with tons of integrations and an easy-to-use environment, Zendesk is a top choice. The solution is wonderfully easy to use for SLA management, and can even be implemented on-premise.

6. Richpanel

richpanel - best help desk software

Richpanel is a new player on the market. Launched in 2020, this eCommerce customer support and CRM solution have built a customer base of 1500 businesses.

Although the software is still adding features, it already covers all the bases we’ve come to expect from help desk software. In addition, there are plenty of self-service tools for customers, such as an online knowledge base, a customer portal, and you can set up to 15 chatbot scenarios. 

Agent routing also allows you to put customers in touch with the best-suited agent. Plus, the platform supports multi-channel comms, so all communications are synchronized in one shared inbox. 

In addition, the workforce management features enable you to maximize efficiency and avoid a backlog. Lastly, the platform offers in-depth performance analytics to help you identify which agents might need extra help and how you can improve your customer support.

Pricing

Richpanel offers a free plan for Shopify users, which includes 100 conversations per month. 

Beyond this, premium plans start at $300 per month, unlocking the WooCommerce integration and 1000 conversations per month. The next program is $600 per month and comes with phone support, revenue analytics reports, and the Magento integration. It also adds multi-channel support for SMS and WhatsApp into the mix. 

Finally, for $900 per month, you unlock 5,000 conversations per month and can support multiple stores and brands. 

NB: Annual billing discounts your subscription by two months each year.

Pros 👍

  • Every paid plan lets you add unlimited agents at no extra cost
  • There’s a free plan for Shopify users hosting fewer than 100 conversations per month
  • 24/7 support is available via live chat, email, and phone
  • It offers workforce management and team performance metrics
  • You can provide efficient self-help solutions for customers

Best for ✅

As a relatively new service, Richpanel is showing promise for a wide range of businesses! Its free plan makes it an excellent option for new Shopify users. Beyond this, it supports unlimited agents per plan, making it an affordable option for large teams.

Choosing the Best Helpdesk Software

There’s no shortage of helpdesk options out there, from Servicedesk plus and Microsoft helpdesks, to Jira service desk, ManageEngine, Happyfox, FreshService, and Zoho Desk. Finding the right support and ticketing system for you means looking for a solution which can simplify everything from issue escalation to ticket management.

Many of the top tools can easily integrate into your existing workflows, whether it means adding a widget to your website, or providing access to advanced features via mobile apps. We’d definitely recommend checking out as many providers as possible before making your decision.

Rebekah Carter

Rebekah Carter is an experienced content creator, news reporter, and blogger specializing in marketing, business development, and technology. Her expertise covers everything from artificial intelligence to email marketing software and extended reality devices. When she’s not writing, Rebekah spends most of her time reading, exploring the great outdoors, and gaming.

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