10 Best Help Desk Software for Small Businesses 2024 (Compared)

We deal with hundreds of help queries day-after-day throughout all of our companies, and we’ve used a bunch of various assist desk software program to do it. Though we are actually utilizing Groove and are pleased with our expertise, we additionally know that there are many different choices appropriate for small companies.

That’s why we’re right here to assist. We’ve examined plenty of assist desk software program to search out the perfect choices for you. Whereas doing so, we paid consideration to ease of use, workflow automation, and value.

On this article, we’ll present you among the greatest assist desk software program in the marketplace.

An Overview of the Finest Assist Desk Software program

	Software program	Beginning Value	Finest For	Free Trial/Model?
????	Groove	$4.08/consumer/mo	All-in-one assist desk	✅
????	Heroic Inbox	$199.50/12 months	Shared help inbox in WP	❌
????	Help Scout	$20/consumer/mo	Superior assist desk	✅
4	HelpDesk	$29/consumer/mo	Superior ticket project	✅
5	HubSpot	$15/mo	Assist desk + CRM	✅
6	Freshdesk	$15/consumer/mo	Omnichannel help	✅
7	Nextiva	$23.95/consumer/mo	Cellphone help	❌
8	LiveChat	$20/consumer/mo	Dwell chat help	✅
9	ChatBot	$52/mo	AI chatbot help	✅
10	WPForms	$49/50/yr	Contact type help	✅

How Do We Take a look at and Evaluation Assist Desk Software program?

Right here’s what we did to advocate the perfect assist desk software program on your small enterprise:

• Discovering out what’s necessary – First, we regarded into the important thing components that small businesses prioritize when deciding on assist desk software program (like ease of use and workflow automation). This ensured we might give attention to the necessities fairly than simply fancy options.
• Attempting them out – We truly use some choices on the checklist ourselves for various tasks, so we’re assured in recommending them. Others are in style choices that we examined ourselves. We’d not advocate a product that we wouldn’t use.
• Studying consumer suggestions – We have in mind actual tales and evaluations from individuals who use the software program. This makes certain our recommendations are based mostly on actual experiences and conditions that folks truly encounter.
• Being trustworthy – If there are any downsides, we’ll inform you. We need to be straight up about what we discover.

1. Groove

Out of all the assistance desk platforms we now have tried, Groove is without doubt one of the most reasonably priced and best to make use of. At a small business-friendly value, it gives all the important thing options it’s good to present quick customized help to your clients.

In truth, we use Groove at WPBeginner to handle our electronic mail help wants.

First off, Groove’s intuitive shared inbox means that you can simply handle buyer conversations by way of electronic mail, dwell chat, and even social channels like Fb Messenger and Instagram. This fashion, you could be current wherever your customers are most lively.

Plus, you’ll be able to simply create a self-service information base that your clients can use 24/7, which helps to cut back help requests.

Groove additionally consists of easy-to-read experiences that may make it easier to monitor the success of your buyer help crew. It consists of necessary metrics like common first response time, common decision price, complete resolutions, happiness price, and way more.

Professionals of Groove:

• Shared electronic mail inbox that may connect to Gmail, Outlook, Workplace 365, dwell chat, and social channels.
• Options to make dialog assignments extra environment friendly, like collision detection to keep away from double replies, @point out notifications, and personal inside notes for crew collaboration.
• 50+ automation templates and guidelines to streamline your buyer request processes, equivalent to auto-replies, dialog routing, dialog classification, SLA administration, and extra.
• AI features to save lots of you extra time, equivalent to reply help, immediate reply creation, dialog summaries, and dialog explanations.
• Simple-to-use and customizable dwell chat widget that allows you to work together with clients from any web page in your website in actual time.
• Integrations with in style apps and instruments like Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce, and GitHub, simply to call a couple of.

Cons of Groove:

• WordPress customers can solely combine Groove with their web sites utilizing code.
• In case you use the Customary plan, then you definately can not customise your information base utilizing your individual branding.

Pricing: The Customary plan begins at $4.08 per consumer monthly and consists of 2 channels, 2 electronic mail inboxes, dwell chat, and extra. There’s additionally a free 7-day trial with no bank card required.

Why we selected Groove: All in all, Groove gives a superb end-to-end buyer expertise for help. You need to use it for electronic mail help, dwell chat, and information base multi function user-friendly and reasonably priced platform.

For extra particulars, see our complete Groove review.

2. Heroic Inbox

When reviewing software program for this text, we additionally thought-about how some WordPress customers want to handle their buyer help processes proper of their WordPress admin dashboard. This fashion, you don’t must travel between two completely different platforms.

If that sounds such as you, then try Heroic Inbox. It’s the greatest help desk plugin for WordPress as a result of it allows you to handle all of your emails and help tickets proper out of your WordPress admin space.

The very best half is which you can add limitless tickets and limitless customers in a single central place. Different choices within the checklist could include limits, making Heroic Inbox less expensive compared.

Since all the pieces is completed in WordPress, you’ll be able to merely add present WordPress customers to your inbox in order that they will work on their tickets instantly. You may also add notes to conversations which might be solely seen to your crew, excellent for coordinating responses.

Professionals of Heroic Inbox:

• Limitless tickets and customers with no month-to-month charges.
• Ticket historical past accessible. You may learn earlier conversations with the shopper so that you’ve all the important thing data you want whereas offering help.
• Options to save lots of time on repetitive duties, like saved replies and auto-responders.
• Learn receipts to see when clients have learn your messages.
• WooCommerce integration that means that you can see the shopper’s purchases whereas serving to them out.

Cons of Heroic Inbox:

• Throughout our testing, we discovered its Gmail setup not as user-friendly as different choices as a result of it’s good to create a Google Workspace app first.
• Solely consists of two sorts of consumer roles: Mailbox Consumer and Administrator.

Pricing: Heroic Inbox’s plans begin from $199.50 per 12 months to make use of on 1 web site. Not like many different assist desk options on this checklist, there are not any per-user limits or pricing.

Or you may get the Heroic Bundle Important for $299.50 per 12 months. It additionally consists of Heroic KB, which helps you to create a information base to cut back the variety of help tickets you obtain.

Why we selected Heroic Inbox: In case you’d fairly handle your tickets inside WordPress, then Heroic Inbox is the perfect assist desk software program for you.

To get essentially the most worth for cash, we advocate getting the Heroic Bundle as a way to provide buyer help by way of tickets and information base. You may be taught extra about Heroic Inbox in our HeroThemes review.

3. Help Scout

Help Scout is without doubt one of the hottest all-in-one assist desk software program in the marketplace and for a very good motive. It has almost each characteristic it’s good to streamline your buyer help course of after which some.

Like Groove, Assist Scout may help handle your whole chat and electronic mail help requests from one place. That approach, your clients can attain out utilizing the strategy they like, and your help crew can handle requests from a single queue.

You may also velocity up help requests by creating saved replies so your crew can reply to frequent questions immediately.

One characteristic that stood out for us throughout testing was the SEO choices for the information base. Included in all plans, you’ll be able to create articles in your assist heart which might be optimized for engines like google utilizing Assist Scout’s mechanically generated sitemap.

Professionals of Assist Scout:

• Time monitoring report back to see the place your help crew is spending essentially the most time so you’ll be able to enhance your buyer interplay workflows.
• The Beacon dwell chat can advocate information base articles for customers to unravel issues. If they will’t discover a resolution, then they will chat together with your crew.
• Survey and score options to collect user feedback on how effectively your buyer help crew did.

• Workplace hours to allow automated replies based mostly on what you are promoting hours.
• SMS and telephone help can be found by way of integrations.

Cons of Assist Scout:

• With a beginning value of $20 per consumer monthly, the worth might be a bit costly for small companies which might be simply beginning out.

Pricing: The Customary plan begins at $20 per consumer monthly (with a restrict of 25 customers) and consists of 2 shared mailboxes, dwell chat, 1 information base, and 100+ integrations. A free 15-day trial is on the market.

Why we selected Assist Scout: As a top-rated assist desk software program, Assist Scout gives nice important options and a few further ones that may scale your help crew. If in case you have the finances for it, then we advocate utilizing Assist Scout.

4. HelpDesk

Do you need to make help ticket assignments simpler on your crew? If that’s the case, then take into account HelpDesk.

This device boasts a clear and user-friendly interface, however we discovered that its options transcend the floor. Moreover assigning tickets to brokers, you can too add ‘followers’ to tickets to make sure non-agent customers related to the problem keep within the loop.

Plus, you’ll be able to merge a number of help tickets right into a single one. This is useful when coping with duplicate submissions from the identical buyer or managing associated points beneath a single ticket.

Moreover, HelpDesk allows you to create a number of groups to separate conversations associated to gross sales, buyer help, advertising, finance, IT help, and so forth. This implies every crew can think about their very own work, however they will additionally ahead tickets simply if they should.

Professionals of HelpDesk:

• Ticket merging to make dealing with duplicate tickets and associated tickets simpler.
• Skill to create a number of groups, helpful for separating conversations based mostly on which crew is most related to them.
• Crew collaboration instruments to deal with buyer points like ticket following, collision detection, and agent mentioning.
• Workflow enchancment options like first response time and backbone time to determine the typical velocity of responding to a ticket.
• Easy pricing in comparison with different choices on the checklist. There is just one starter plan that features the entire options (besides white labeling), after which it’s good to improve to a customized plan.

Cons of HelpDesk:

• Like Assist Scout, HelpDesk’s beginning value could appear too costly for brand spanking new companies.

Pricing: For groups, pricing begins at $29 per agent monthly and features a ticketing system, a 60-day chat historical past, and extra. A free 14-day trial is on the market.

Why we selected HelpDesk: We had been impressed by the truth that HelpDesk consists of a lot of the options within the beginning plan, together with its AI ticket abstract and AI text enhancement. Some software program makes you improve for these, however HelpDesk consists of them from the beginning.

Although it may appear expensive at first, as what you are promoting grows, the fee might really feel extra affordable. It additionally integrates with LiveChat and ChatBot, which we’ll discuss extra about later within the article.

5. HubSpot

HubSpot is a well known all-in-one platform for assist desk, advertising, gross sales, and buyer relationship administration (CRM). Throughout our testing, we discovered that HubSpot is a good possibility for individuals who need an all-inclusive resolution for managing their buyer interactions.

With HubSpot’s Buyer Platform, a help agent can escalate a help subject to a gross sales consultant, who can then comply with up with the shopper. This seamless escalation and collaboration can result in increased sales alternatives and improved buyer satisfaction.

HubSpot’s service desk options are additionally fairly sturdy. Moreover the usual shared inbox and ticketing system, you additionally get a dwell chat bundled with a chatbot perform to answer buyer questions when your brokers are unavailable.

Professionals of HubSpot:

• Connects with different HubSpot merchandise like advertising, gross sales, and CRM so you’ll be able to create a seamless buyer expertise with only one platform.
• Trackers for necessary help metrics like ticket quantity, agent response time, and extra. This helps you see in case you are hitting your targets and assembly your customer support degree agreements (SLAs).
• Dialog routing to mechanically assign tickets to particular customers, such because the least busy brokers.
• Free plan accessible.

Cons of HubSpot:

• HubSpot is a flexible platform. Nevertheless, as a result of it covers a lot floor, its assist desk options may not be as detailed as among the different choices on the checklist.

Pricing: A free plan is on the market for all customers. The Buyer Platform plans begin from $15 monthly. You may also get a Starter plan for the service desk solely at $15 monthly for one seat.

Why we selected HubSpot: HubSpot’s assist desk does extra than simply buyer help. It’s additionally your CRM, advertising, and gross sales hub. It’s a one-stop resolution for managing all the pieces, best for many who need simplicity throughout the board.

Be taught extra about this platform in our HubSpot review.

6. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is one other in style, cloud-based assist desk software program possibility for companies. It’s very user-friendly, whereas nonetheless providing loads of superior options.

First off, the assistance desk system consists of AI automation guidelines to mechanically assign tickets based mostly on sure guidelines. For instance, if the ticket’s topic consists of refund-related key phrases, then you’ll be able to mechanically route it to the agent specializing in that discipline.

What stood out to us about Freshdesk is its ticket conversion options. They help you convert telephone calls, social media direct messages, and even model mentions into tickets and have your crew deal with these points. This lets you create an omnichannel buyer expertise.

Professionals of Freshdesk:

• AI automation to enhance your buyer help workflow and run processes on autopilot.
• Ticket integration options for changing exterior messages from numerous communication channels into tickets.
• Skill to create a self-service portal by forum support, FAQs, and a assist widget.
• Highly effective name heart options, like automated AI voice responses.

Cons of Freshdesk:

• There was once an official Freshdesk plugin for WordPress, but it surely’s not accessible.

Pricing: The fundamental model of the software program begins at $15 monthly per agent. There’s a free model of the help software program that helps as much as 10 brokers, but it surely solely consists of ticketing and information base options. A 14-day free trial is on the market.

Why we selected Freshdesk: Freshdesk generally is a nice assist desk software program for individuals searching for a user-friendly but highly effective device to help their clients. Whereas not as low-cost as Groove, it’s nonetheless way more reasonably priced than extra well-known choices like Assist Scout.

7. Nextiva

Nextiva is the best business phone service for small companies. Past telephone help, they provide a whole multichannel help resolution that works nice for small enterprise homeowners and huge name facilities.

In truth, we use Nextiva at WPBeginner for all of our telephone help wants. It helps our groups reply to incoming buyer calls from wherever on the earth with out utilizing their very own private cellphone numbers.

The built-in assist desk resolution can be wonderful. It allows you to talk throughout many various channels from a single app together with, telephone, electronic mail, and team messaging.

The ticket administration system is easy to make use of, and you’ll set priorities, ship reminders, message your crew, and extra.

Professionals of Nextiva:

• Options to boost your buyer help processes, equivalent to canned responses, self-service information base, and immediate insights about your clients.
• Like HubSpot, Nextiva gives nice integration throughout completely different providers. In case you use their assist desk device, then you need to use it along with their business VoIP and gross sales CRM.
• Cell app accessible for brokers to answer tickets on the go.
• Highly effective telephone help options like name forwarding, customized greetings, virtual business phone numbers, analytics, and extra.

Cons of Nextiva:

• Nextiva’s limitless calling is just accessible for customers within the US and Canada.
• In case you are not all for telephone help, then utilizing Nextiva on your assist desk can appear to be overkill.

Pricing: Nextiva’s plans begin from $23.95 monthly per consumer. You may also use our Nextiva coupon to get a 21% low cost.

Why we selected Nextiva: Whereas ticket, chat, and information base help could be useful, some people want speaking over the telephone to get direct help. We discover Nextiva to be excellent for reaching these clients.

For extra data, you’ll be able to learn our full Nextiva review.

8. LiveChat

Do you need to use live chat help as your main assist desk service? Then look no additional than LiveChat. That is what we use throughout all of our eCommerce tasks to help our pre-sales employees, and it integrates with HelpDesk.

The setup is actually fast and simple. Once we went by the setup course of, all we needed to do was create a LiveChat account, set up the LiveChat plugin on WordPress, and sign up by the plugin web page. Then, we might see the LiveChat widget instantly on our web site.

LiveChat additionally comes with cellular, desktop, and pill apps throughout Android and iOS. This fashion, your help crew can reply requests with out logging into the WordPress dashboard.

We additionally like LiveChat’s work hours characteristic. Brokers’ statuses can mechanically swap to accepting chats throughout business hours and never accepting them when offline. This ensures brokers can end ongoing conversations or switch them to colleagues earlier than going offline.

Professionals of LiveChat:

• Simple to arrange on WordPress websites.
• Work hours settings to switch chat requests from offline brokers to on-line ones.
• Customizable LiveChat window to match your web site’s branding.
• Speedy and responsive chat window. It masses quicker than many different dwell chat suppliers and works throughout each machine.
• In case you use their KnowledgeBase app, you’ll be able to combine it with LiveChat to browse and ship articles within the chat window.

Cons of LiveChat:

• Some fundamental options that you could be discover in different options, like chat tagging, canned responses, and metrics dashboard, are solely accessible for those who get a higher-tier plan.

Pricing: The plans begin from $20 monthly per particular person. A 14-day free trial is on the market. You may also use our LiveChat coupon to get an unique 30% low cost.

Why we selected LiveChat: We’ve been utilizing LiveChat for our personal tasks, so we’re assured it is going to be a very good match for many who need to use chat help for his or her assist desk. It’s straightforward to arrange in WordPress and gained’t slow down your website.

Be taught extra about this assist desk software program in our full LiveChat review.

9. ChatBot

Dwell chat and ticket help are nice, however they require human brokers to function and preserve. At instances, chances are you’ll not have the assets to rent customers or the time to truly reply to buyer questions.

That is the place ChatBot can turn out to be useful. This AI chatbot software makes it straightforward for small companies and startups to create chatbots that reply questions always. This course of could make your customer support more practical, and unlock time on your help employees.

We use ChatBot in a number of of our SaaS companies to deal with pre-sales questions and ahead customers to our dwell help crew if essential.

ChatBot additionally integrates simply with WordPress, WooCommerce, LiveChat, HelpDesk, and/or your customer support software program of selection.

Professionals of ChatBot:

• Drag-and-drop builder to create a buyer help chatbot rapidly.
• Business-specific chat templates that will help you develop a singular chatbot based mostly on consumer questions and eventualities.
• Standalone AI (no relations to OpenAI, Bard, or Bing AI), so your information shall be safe.
• Options to enhance your chatbot’s accuracy, like coaching them utilizing unmatched queries and monitoring modifications you’ve made to your chatbot.

Cons of ChatBot:

• Any further chat that isn’t included in your plan will price $0.03 per chat.

Pricing: It begins at $52 monthly billed yearly for as much as 1,000 month-to-month chats, and goes up from there. There’s a 14-day free trial included in each plan, so you’ll be able to see if chatbots work for what you are promoting.

Why we selected ChatBot: This assist desk software program is a wonderful possibility for those who don’t have the assets to hire assistants however nonetheless need to provide chat help. You may also use it to enhance your present help choices so that you’re all the time accessible 24/7.

10. WPForms

If you wish to create a contact type to submit tickets, then try WPForms. It’s the best contact form plugin for WordPress and is used on over 6 million web sites. We use WPForms right here on WPBeginner and throughout all of our different web sites.

You need to use the drag-and-drop builder and the customizable help ticket template to create a contact form rapidly.

The free version of the plugin allows you to construct a fundamental contact type and consists of spam safety, electronic mail notifications, and extra.

The professional model of the plugin takes these options even additional and turns th plugin right into a helpful service desk device. It allows you to create extra superior kinds with conditional logic, type abandonment performance, geo-location, and extra.

Professionals of WPForms:

• Consumer-friendly type submission administration dashboard, so you’ll be able to rapidly reply to buyer queries in WordPress.
• Prompt type notifications that mechanically ship you an electronic mail when a consumer submits a type. You may notify your self or your crew members in control of buyer help.
• Consumer journey addon that allows you to see what your customer did in your web site earlier than submitting a type. This makes it straightforward to see the place your consumer acquired caught so you’ll be able to resolve their subject quicker.
• Tons of software program integrations, together with service desk, HR software program, mission administration instruments, marketing automation tools, and extra.

Cons of WPForms:

• Since WPForms is principally a contact type plugin, its built-in options aren’t as complete as different assist desk options.

Pricing: The Primary plan begins at $49.50 per 12 months and has options for easy type creation. However to get entry to consumer journey experiences, superior integrations, and extra, the Professional plan is $199.50 per 12 months.

You may also use our WPForms coupon code to get 50% off.

Why we selected WPForms: If in case you have a small enterprise web site and simply want a easy ticket submission resolution, then WPForms generally is a nice begin. It additionally integrates with in style service desk software program like Freshdesk.

You may be taught extra about this plugin in our WPForms review.

What Is the Finest Assist Desk Software program for a Small Enterprise?

In case you are searching for the general greatest assist desk software program resolution, then Groove is our prime suggestion. It gives an reasonably priced and easy-to-use buyer help platform with a shared inbox, automation options AI help, and customizable dwell chat.

Alternatively, if you need a assist desk plugin to handle your whole help tickets proper from the WordPress dashboard, then we advocate Heroic Inbox. With options like saved replies, WooCommerce integration, and no per-user limits, it’s a cheap resolution for managing buyer help.

For a extra in style selection, Help Scout might be the suitable assist desk software program for you. It comes at the next price ticket than Groove, but it surely has the important and superior options to enhance your buyer help.

Assist Desk Software program: Incessantly Requested Questions

Now that we’ve mentioned the perfect assist desk software program for a small enterprise, let’s reply some ceaselessly requested questions:

What’s assist desk software program?

Assist desk software program is a device that helps companies handle their help crew and reply to clients’ requests for assist. It consists of options like creating tickets for issues, sending automated solutions, and connecting with different instruments to make help simpler.

Is a assist desk a CRM?

No, a assist desk isn’t a CRM system. Whereas each are instruments utilized in customer support, they serve completely different functions and have distinct functionalities. A assist desk is targeted on offering technical help to customers, whereas CRM helps companies handle their interactions with present and potential clients.

Which is the perfect ticketing system for small companies?

The very best ticketing system for small companies is Groove. The value is reasonably priced in comparison with most choices in the marketplace. Nonetheless, it has all of the options you want, equivalent to a shared inbox and environment friendly ticket project with collision detection and personal inside notes.

Final Guides for Your Enterprise Assist Desk

We hope this text helped you discover the perfect assist desk software program for what you are promoting. You might also need to see our picks of the best email marketing services for small companies and our information on how to choose the best WordPress hosting.

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