A help desk turns customer emails and messages into tracked tickets, so nothing is missed and every answer is consistent. Compare help desk tools by channels, automation, self-service options and per-agent pricing.
Open-source customer engagement platform you can self-host
Best for: Technical teams that want an open-source, self-hosted support tool
Chatwoot is an open-source customer support platform that unifies live chat, email, social channels and messaging apps in one inbox. Because the Community Edition…
Affordable live chat and unified inbox for small businesses
Best for: Startups and small ecommerce teams wanting affordable live chat
Crisp provides live chat, a shared inbox, a chatbot, a knowledge base and a basic CRM in one product aimed at small businesses and…
Value-priced help desk with automation, a free starter program and Freddy AI
Best for: Small and mid-sized teams that want strong capability at a lower price
Freshdesk is the help desk product from Freshworks. It collects email, chat, phone and social conversations into one ticket queue and gives agents canned…
Collaborative shared inbox for teams that live in email
Best for: Customer-facing teams that prefer a collaborative inbox over rigid tickets
Front combines email, SMS, chat and social channels into a shared inbox that feels familiar but adds assignment, internal comments, rules and analytics. Teams…
Person-centered customer service platform built around the customer, not the ticket
Best for: Established consumer brands that want a single, continuous conversation per customer
Customer-centric service platform with one continuous conversation per customer across every channel. Quote-based, enterprise-oriented pricing.
Help desk built for ecommerce stores with deep Shopify integration
Best for: Ecommerce brands with high order-related ticket volume
Gorgias is a help desk designed for online stores. It pulls order, customer and shipping data from platforms such as Shopify into each ticket,…
Simple shared inbox and help desk for small support teams
Best for: Small teams that want a simple, email-first help desk
Simple shared inbox and help desk for small teams, with knowledge base, reporting and a 30-day free trial.
Human-feeling shared inbox and help desk for small support teams
Best for: Small teams that want a human-feeling shared inbox
Help Scout is a help desk designed to feel like email rather than a ticket queue. Teams share inboxes, add internal notes, assign conversations…
Ticketing system with AI agents for small teams, from the makers of LiveChat
Best for: Small teams that want an affordable ticketing system with built-in AI assistance
Affordable ticketing system with built-in AI agents, from the LiveChat team. Plans from $19 per user per month billed yearly.
Gmail-based help desk that turns shared inboxes into tickets
Best for: Google Workspace teams handling support by email
Hiver is a customer service tool that works inside Gmail. Teams share inboxes such as support@ or sales@, assign emails, add notes and track…
Help desk built on the HubSpot CRM so support sees the whole customer
Best for: Teams already using HubSpot CRM, sales or marketing
HubSpot Service Hub adds ticketing, a knowledge base, customer feedback surveys and a customer portal on top of the HubSpot CRM. Because tickets live…
Conversational support platform built around its Fin AI agent
Best for: SaaS and product-led teams that want support and messaging together
Intercom started as a website messenger and has grown into a customer service platform centred on conversations. Agents work a shared inbox, customers reach…
Listings marked Sponsored are paid placements. Ratings come from user reviews, or from our editorial rating where no reviews exist yet.
Start with where customers write to you. Email only? A shared inbox tool like Help Scout, Front or Hiver handles it without ticket-system overhead. Email, chat, social and phone? You want a proper ticketing platform such as Zendesk, Freshdesk or Zoho Desk, where every channel lands in one queue. Selling on Shopify or a similar platform? Gorgias pulls order data straight into each ticket.
Count your agents, then count the people who need a look. Almost every help desk charges per agent. Developers, account managers and finance staff who need to read tickets but never reply shouldn't take a full seat. Ask each vendor about light-agent or collaborator seats before you add up the bill.
Look hard at automation. Routing tickets by topic, setting priorities by customer tier and closing resolved threads automatically save more time than most features on a list. Test one real rule in a trial. Then look at self-service. A help centre and knowledge base cut ticket volume, so check what each plan includes.
Ask what the AI costs. Several vendors now sell AI replies, and the price models differ a lot. Help Scout charges $0.75 per resolution on top of its seat price. HelpDesk's Essential plan includes just 10 AI resolutions a month. Freshdesk sells its Freddy Copilot as an add-on to the Pro plan. Model your expected volume before you rely on any of it.
Check reporting and integrations last, but check them. You'll want first-response time, resolution time and satisfaction scores out of the box, plus a connection to your CRM, chat tool and billing system.
Across the 20 help desks in our directory, 18 publish a starting price. Those run from free to $45 a month, with a median of $19. Gladly and Kustomer sell by quote only. We checked figures on vendor pages in November 2026. Prices change, so confirm before you buy.
Zoho Desk starts lowest at $7 per agent a month on annual billing, then Zendesk and Freshdesk at $19, Help Scout at $25 and Intercom at $29 per seat. Jumps between tiers are steep. Zendesk goes from $19 on Support Team to $55 on Suite Team and $115 on Suite Professional. Freshdesk goes from $19 to $55 to $89. Intercom goes from $29 to $85 to $132. Monthly billing costs more: Zendesk's $19 plan is $25 when billed monthly, and Intercom's $29 plan is $39.
Take a team of eight agents on annual billing. Zoho Desk Express costs about $56 a month, Zendesk Support Team and Freshdesk Growth about $152, Help Scout about $200 and Intercom Essential about $232. Move that team to a mid-tier plan and the bill nearly triples.
Gorgias works differently. It charges by ticket volume, not by agent: $10 a month covers about 50 billable tickets, $60 covers about 300 and $360 covers about 2,000. Busy shops should watch that curve.
Free options exist. Help Scout's free plan covers up to five users and 100 contacts a month. Zoho Desk and Jira Service Management are free for up to three agents. Chatwoot and osTicket are open source and free to self-host, though you pay for servers, upkeep and the person who runs them.
Buying the suite when you need the inbox is the classic. A five-person team that answers email doesn't need a phone, chat and social platform on day one.
Underestimating migration comes next. Moving old tickets, macros and customer records takes real effort, and not every tool imports all of it. Ask what carries over before you commit.
People also forget the exit. Check that you can export tickets and customer data in a standard format, and read the contract for minimum terms and renewal prices.
Finally, don't judge by the demo. Send yourself ten real support emails during a trial. Watch how fast agents can find an answer, assign a ticket and see a customer's history.
A shared inbox lets a team read and reply to email together. A help desk adds ticket numbers, assignments, SLAs, automation and reporting across channels. Small teams often start with a shared inbox and move up later.
Freshdesk, Zoho Desk and Help Scout all suit small teams, each in a different way. Our guide to the best help desk software for small business compares them side by side.
Yes. Several tools have free plans or free self-hosted editions. The limits are agents, contacts or channels. Check which one you'll hit first.
A simple tool runs in a day. Plan a few weeks if you need custom workflows, a help centre and a migration from another system.
Not always, but chat suits fast-moving questions. Many help desks include it, and some chat tools work as a lightweight help desk. Browse our live chat category to compare.
Ready to narrow it down? Compare two or three help desks side by side and price them at your real agent count.
