Help Desk software are used to provide customers with information and support regarding a company’s products and services. They provide an easy way for customers to interact with service providers to solve their product related problems.
Help Desk management software are also called Service Desk software and provide support to clients through the phone, websites, instant messaging and email.
There are a lot of good help desk software available which can make it quite confusing to pick, here are the top 10 best help desk software in 2023 based on aggregated user reviews, the list is arranged in no particular order.
- Zendesk
- ServiceDesk Plus
- LiveChat
- Freshdesk
- Bomgar
- Clickdesk
- HEAT Help Desk
- Jira Service Desk
- Kayako
- Web Help Desk
1. Freshdesk
Freshdesk is an online helpdesk service which provides top of the line business support. It offers a free service desk for the first three agents for an unlimited time and also has affordable pricing for its premium plans.
Freshdesk offers very good features capable of competing with bigger players such as Zendesk, it is very easy to use.
Freshdesk offers a free trial and is deployed on Cloud, SaaS and Web platforms. It provides 24/7 live support to its customers.
Freshdesk free help desk service is called SPROUT and offers basic features such as Email Channel, Standard Phone Channel, Basic Social Channel, Knowledgebase and App Gallery access.
FreshDesk pricing for premium plans ranges from $19 per agent per month to $89 per agent per month billed yearly.
Freshdesk Features
- Alerts & Escalation
- Automated Routing
- Community Forums
- Contract &SLA Management System
- Incident Management
- Knowledge Base
- Known Issue Management System
- Live Chat
- Multiple Brands & Products
- Self Service Portal
- Surveys & Feedback System
- Support Ticket Management System
2. Zendesk
Zendesk is by far the most popular helpdesk software worldwide, it was founded in 2007 and has over 200,000 customers. Zendesk’s services are used by the biggest corporations in the world as well as small and medium businesses.
Zendesk provides easy to use, reliable, scalable and flexible customer service products, some of Zendesk’s top clients include Uber, Airbnb and Disney.
Zendesk pricing ranges from $5 per agent per month to $199 per agent per month depending on your needs.
Zendesk offers Free Trial and provides support through Cloud apps, SaaS apps, Web apps, Android and iOS apps.
Zendesk Helpdesk Features
- Alerts & Escalation
- Automated Routing System
- Community Forums
- Helpdesk Ticketing System
- Incident Management System
- Knowledge Base
- Known Issue Management System
- Live Chat
- Multiple Brands & Products Support
- Self Service Portal
- Surveys & Feedback
- Support Ticket System
3. LiveChat
LiveChat is a premium help desk software for businesses and has been consistently ranked one of the topmost help desk software by users. LiveChat was founded in 2002 and is used by over 20,000 companies worldwide.
Livechat provides a single platform to manage customer service and sales from multiple channels such as Chat, Email, Social Media and Websites. promises superb customer service delivery.
LiveChat has Web, Windows OS, Mac OS X, Android and iOS apps, it also supports 41 international languages. LiveChat provides support for custom integration with many apps such as Google Analytics, Talkdesk, WordPress, Salesforce, Magento and many more.
LiveChat Features
- Agents’ efficiency analytics
- Alerts & Escalation
- Automated Routing System
- Incident Management System
- Knowledge Base
- Live Chat
- Multiple Brands & Products
- Real-time website traffic monitoring
- Self Service Portal
- Surveys & Feedback
- Ticketing system
LiveChat pricing starts at $16 per month per agent for the Starter plan and goes for as high as $149 per agent per month for the Enterprise Plus plan.
4. ServiceDesk Plus
ServiceDesk Plus is an IT help desk and asset management software which helps IT support staff provide excellent customer service to clients. It is trusted by top companies worldwide and can be deployed on cloud or on premises.
ServiceDesk Plus has features to enable companies reduce outages, meet SLA’s and increase productivity.
ServiceDesk Plus Features
- Codeless customizations
- Extensive reporting capabilities
- Help desk reports
- Incident management
- Integration with IT management applications
- Knowledge base
- Multi-site support
- Self-service portal
- SLA management
- Smart automation
- ITIL-based features
- Real-time and customizable dashboards
5. Clickdesk
Clickdesk is a good service desk software for small and medium businesses. It is relatively cheaper than the bigger more established names in the industry and still offers very good features. It provides live chat, help desk , browser phone and social media services.
Clickdesk was established in 2011 and provides support on Cloud, SaaS and Web platforms. It offers Live Chat and Ticket Management features. Clickdesk pricing starts at $9.99 monthly per user.
6. Bomgar
Bomgar is a leading remote access software founded in 2003 which also offers a superb helpdesk software. It is a used by over 10,000 organizations worldwide for customer support.
Bomgar offers Cloud, SaaS, Web, Mac, Windows, Android & iOS apps.
Bomgar Helpdesk Software Features include:
- Alerts & Escalation
- Knowledge Base
- Live Chat
- Multiple Brands & Products
- Helpdesk Ticketing System
7. Jira Service Desk
Jira Service Desk is an Australian based IT help desk service founded in 2002, it is owned by Atlassian and offers support with Cloud, SaaS, Web, Mac & Windows apps.
Jira Service Desk offers a free trial period and its pricing starts at $10 monthly per agent. Jira offers training materials, webinars and live support for users to enable them use the platform seamlessly.
Jira Service Desk Features
- Automated Routing
- Incident Management
- Knowledge Base
- Known Issue Management
- Live Chat
- Self Service Portal
- Surveys & Feedback
- Support Ticket System
8. Web Help Desk
This is an IT help desk software suitable for IT Administrators and Technicians to provide IT support to customers. Web Help Desk Software has a simple to use interface and provides an automated system for your customer support needs.
Web Help Desk was founded in 2000 and is available as a Cloud app, an SaaS app and a Web App. Web Help Desk offers free trial and pricing starts at $695 which is a one-time fee per user. Its features include
Web Help Desk software delivers simplicity and automation to streamline help desk ticketing and IT asset management. Benefit from built-in knowledge base, IT change control, SLA alerting, performance reporting, customer surveys, and more.
- Alerts / Escalation
- Automated Routing Service
- Customer Surveys
- Community Forums
- Contract & SLA Management
- Incident Management
- Intuitive web interface
- IT change control service
- Knowledge Base
- Known Issue Management Service
- Live Chat
- Multiple Brands & Products
- Performance reporting
- Self Service Portal
- Service desk portal
- SLA Alerting
- Surveys & Feedback System
- Helpdesk Ticketing System
9. HEAT Help Desk
HEAT Help Desk Software Is a pretty popular help desk software used by thousands of IT companies across the world. It was founded in 1989 and helps IT companies manage their clients effectively with highly efficient solutions tailored for IT service management. HEAT Helpdesk provides native support for telephone systems
HEAT help desk software offers free trial and is available as Cloud, Saas, Web and Windows Apps. The company offers in person training and documentation to enable users understand and use the software effectively. The features of HEAT Help Desk software are:
- Alerts & Escalation
- Automated Routing System
- Community Forums
- Contract & SLA Management System
- Incident Management System
- Knowledge Base
- Known Issue Management System
- Live Chat
- Multiple Brands & Products
- Self Service Portal
- Surveys & Feedback
- Support Ticket System
10. Kayako
Kayako is a UK based help desk software company founded in 2001 which provides customer service desk systems for small, medium and large scale enterprises.
Kayako has over 130,000 users and is used by several big corporations worldwide such as Fedex, Peugeot and NASA.
Kayako help desk software pricing starts at $9.00 monthly per user. Kayako has a free version and offers a free trial for its premium products. Kayako offers Cloud, SaaS and Web apps and provides round the clock live support.
Kayako Help Desk Software features include:
- Alerts & Escalation
- Automated Routing
- Contract & SLA Management
- Knowledge Base
- Known Issue Management
- Live Chat
- Multiple Brands & Products
- Self Service Portal
- Support Ticket System
Here a couple of excellent free and open source helpdesk software:
Freshdesk: This software was listed above as one of the best paid helpdesk software and is also one of the best free helpdesk software. It is free for up to three users and has fewer features than the premium version, its features include: Customer Prioritization, Conversion of emails & tickets to knowledge base articles, 33 languages support, mobile app support as well as 24/7 support.
Spiceworks: The free version of Spiceworks is self-hosted and has features such as an unlimited number of agents, mobile integration, server monitoring services and more. It is quite tricky to use due to hosting and skilled personnel requirements but is great if you can solve both issues.
C-Desk: This helpdesk app is completely free and has features such as manual asset management, log book, cross-team service request management, unlimited users and more.
ngDesk: This is a free service desk software with no paid version, it allows for unlimited agents, canned responses, agent to agent chat, automatic ticket escalation and more. It also shows workload, busiest days, biggest customers’ and other information real time. It has mobile apps
osTicket: This is an open source helpdesk software with features such as SLA linking with help topics, overdue alerts and notifications, unlimited SLA agreements and more. Other open source helpdesk apps include OTRS Free, Mantis Bug Tracker & Bugzilla.