6 Best Free Help Desk Software for Small Businesses in 2025
These help desk ticketing systems are great for improving your customer experience. And the best part? They're totally free!
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A help desk software collects customer interactions, be it requests, questions, or issue reports, and converts them into tickets that your customer support agents can track, prioritize, and respond to promptly.
Regardless of your company size and industry niche, help desk ticketing systems help your customer support team provide effective service and manage their workload. The best part is, that you don’t have to pay anything to acquire one.
That said, not every free help desk software is worth your money. Not to worry though; we worked hard to weed out the bad options and identify providers who deliver on their promises. Read on to find out our top picks for the best free help desk software.
To select the best free help desk software, we’ve had several demos with vendors, interviewed industry experts, tested the products first-hand, and gathered user feedback. We’ve also analyzed the features of these tools, and we think the ones that matter most in free help desks are ease of use, multichannel support, knowledge base, and reporting.
- Ease of use: An intuitive and user-friendly help desk system is essential for optimizing the customer support experience. We sought platforms that empower support agents to navigate effortlessly through the system, access customer information, and respond to queries promptly.
- Multichannel support: Customers expect support across various channels, including email, live chat, social media, and phone. We’ve made sure to select help desks that are capable of integrating with these communication channels to enable seamless interactions with customers.
- Knowledge base: When customers are able to self-serve, you deflect a considerable number of tickets and enable your support agents to focus on the highest-priority problems and queries. The help desks on this list offer a way for you to curate and publish helpful support content your customers can browse through before logging a ticket.
- Reporting and analytics: The ability to track and analyze support performance is critical for continuous improvement, which is why we looked for help desks that allow you to measure various support metrics, including response times, resolution rates, and customer satisfaction.
For more information on our software research and vetting process, check out our editorial guidelines.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk allows you to categorize, prioritize, and assign tickets. The tool is also super easy to use and is scalable to grow as your small business grows. It has a generous free plan that includes several desirable features, including team huddle that lets agents bring in experts to resolve complex tickets and dynamic placeholder to auto-fill details like customer name, ticket status, or even ticket URL.
PROS
- Freshdesk enables your customer service team to offer proactive support across multiple channels, including Facebook, Twitter, email, and website, to engage your customers.
- Freshdesk is incredibly user-friendly. Your agents don’t need any specialized coding or technical knowledge to use it. Plus, it offers diverse templates with formatting components to simplify ticketing.
- Freshdesk's free plan is comprehensive, offering you all the features you would need as a small business and then some.
- With Freshdesk, your team can collaborate with each other and resolve issues faster.
- The platform comes with a mobile app that enables agents to provide support on the go. It’s available for both iOS and Android devices.
- In addition to a generous free plan, Freshdesk's paid plans provide great value for money. It gives you several advanced features like gamification at affordable rates.
CONS
- Freshdesk’s marketing is slightly confusing. Most of its advanced features require an upgrade to the highest pricing tears, which users don’t realize until after signing up. Here’s a free vs. paid plan breakdown, so you don’t find yourself making wrong decisions.
- You cannot provide temporary access to seasonal hires, part-time workers, or other team members in the Free plan. While this feature is available, you’ll have to upgrade to the premium plans.
- Freshdesk doesn’t offer dedicated technical support. As a result, complicated issues take longer to resolve.
Freshdesk makes managing customer conversations significantly easier, thanks to its omnichannel view. The multi-channel support with smart automation allows you to help customers through their preferred communication method at a much faster pace.
Additionally, you don’t have to look at every single ticket, preventing support ticket pile-ups. The tool lets you create custom rules using the ticket creation feature to prioritize tickets based on the keywords used by customers and forward them to the right team member automatically.
Your agents can also add to-do items directly to the tickets to avoid missing out on anything, which helps boost their overall productivity.
HP, Henkel, Decathlon, Panasonic, American Express, Fiverr, Thai Union
Freshdesk offers a free plan with email and social ticketing, knowledge bases, analytics, and 24/7 email support. As of August 20, 2024, it allows a maximum of two agents instead of ten. Paid plans (Growth, Pro, Enterprise) cost $15, $49, and $79 per agent per month respectively.
Best For
While companies of all sizes can find value in Freshdesk's paid plan, its Free plan is best suited for small businesses with up to ten agents.
We use Freshdesk as our main customer support platform, handling all incoming inquiries from our customers through email, phone, and live chat. Freshdesk is used daily by our customer support team to manage and respond to customer requests.
One of our main workflows in Freshdesk is the ticketing system. When a customer reaches out, a support agent creates a ticket in Freshdesk and works to resolve the issue. Our agents also use Freshdesk's collaboration tools to communicate with each other and escalate tickets if necessary.
We also use Freshdesk's knowledge base and self-service portal to provide our customers with resources and information they need to resolve issues on their own. The ability to create custom macros and automations helps us respond to common inquiries quickly and efficiently.
In addition, Freshdesk's reporting and analytics capabilities give us valuable insights into our support operations, such as response time and resolution time, which allows us to continuously improve our processes.
Overall, Freshdesk is a crucial tool for our customer support operations and we rely on it heavily to provide excellent service to our customers.
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- Its user-friendly interface makes it easy for our agents to manage customer inquiries efficiently.
- The robust feature set, including the ticketing system, knowledge base, and automation tools, provides us with everything we need to provide excellent customer support.
- The analytics and reporting capabilities allow us to track our performance and continuously improve our processes.
- The ability to customize Freshdesk to fit our specific needs and branding has been a huge plus for us.
- The frequent updates and new features added by Freshdesk helps us stay ahead of the curve in terms of customer support technology.
Our organization decided to purchase Freshdesk as a way to modernize and streamline our customer support processes. We had a growing number of customer inquiries and needed a system that could handle a high volume of requests while providing a positive experience for both our agents and customers. After evaluating various options, Freshdesk stood out for its user-friendly interface, robust feature set, and high ratings from other users.
We have now been using Freshdesk for over 2 years and it has made a significant impact on our customer support operations. Our agents can now handle a greater number of inquiries in less time and our customers are more satisfied with the support they receive. We also appreciate the constant updates and new features that Freshdesk rolls out, which helps us stay ahead of the curve in terms of customer support technology.
- The load time for some pages can be slow, which can slow down our agents and reduce their efficiency.
- The mobile app could use some improvements, such as better ticket management and faster notifications.
- The integration with some third-party tools can be a bit tricky, causing some workflow disruptions.
- The pricing for some advanced features can be a bit high, making it difficult for smaller organizations to afford.
- The user interface could use some simplification to make it easier for new agents to learn and use.
Freshdesk stands out from its competitors by offering a comprehensive suite of customer support tools and features, including a ticketing system, knowledge base, and automation capabilities. Compared to similar tools, Freshdesk has a user-friendly interface and a wider range of integrations, which sets it apart.
I prefer Freshdesk over its competitors because of its robust feature set and customization options. Freshdesk also offers excellent reporting and analytics capabilities, which helps us track our performance and make informed decisions about our support operations.
Additionally, Freshdesk's constant updates and improvements, such as new features and improved user experience, show their commitment to helping customers succeed. This sets Freshdesk apart from competitors who may not be as focused on innovation and improvement.
Overall, Freshdesk's combination of features, performance, and commitment to customer success make it the clear choice for us over its competitors.
When buying a customer support tool like Freshdesk, there are several key criteria to consider:
- Features: Make sure the tool you choose offers the features you need to effectively manage customer inquiries, such as a ticketing system, knowledge base, and automation capabilities.
- User experience: Look for a tool with a user-friendly interface that will make it easy for your team to use and improve their efficiency.
- Integrations: Consider how the tool integrates with your existing tools and systems, and whether the integrations will meet your needs.
- Price: Determine your budget and look for a tool that offers value for the price, taking into account both the cost and the features included.
- Customer support: Look for a vendor that offers excellent customer support, as you will likely need assistance at some point during your use of the tool.
My advice would be to clearly define your needs and priorities, and then use these criteria to compare different tools and choose the one that best fits your requirements.
Freshdesk has evolved significantly over time to better meet the needs of its users. In the past, Freshdesk was primarily a ticketing system, but over the years they've added a wide range of features and integrations to become a comprehensive customer support platform.
Freshdesk has also made significant improvements to the user experience, with a focus on making the platform more intuitive and efficient for its users. They've also added new features such as a knowledge base, automation capabilities, and advanced analytics, making it easier for organizations to manage their customer support operations.
In addition, Freshdesk has also made efforts to improve the performance and stability of the platform, ensuring that it can handle the needs of even the busiest customer support teams.
Overall, Freshdesk has been consistently improving and evolving to meet the changing needs of its users, and this commitment to innovation and improvement is one of the reasons it has become a popular choice for organizations of all sizes.
Freshdesk is a versatile customer support platform that is well suited for a wide range of organizations, including small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large enterprises.
However, Freshdesk is especially well suited for organizations that have high volume customer support operations and need a comprehensive platform to manage customer inquiries effectively. Freshdesk's robust feature set, including a ticketing system, knowledge base, automation capabilities, and advanced analytics, make it ideal for organizations that require a comprehensive solution to manage their customer support operations.
Freshdesk's ease of use and customization options make it a good choice for organizations that need a flexible solution that can be tailored to their specific needs. It's is an excellent choice for organizations that need a comprehensive customer support platform that is both feature-rich and user-friendly.
Freshdesk is a versatile customer support platform that is suitable for a wide range of organizations, but it may not be the best fit for every organization.
Organizations with very simple customer support needs, such as those that only receive a small number of customer inquiries, may find Freshdesk to be too complex or over-featured for their needs. In these cases, a more basic customer support tool may be a better fit.
And organizations with very specific customer support requirements, such as those in highly regulated industries, may also find Freshdesk to be too generic for their needs. In these cases, a more specialized customer support platform may be a better fit.
Jira Service Management
Jira Service Management is essentially a collaborative IT service management (ITSM) solution that helps teams receive, manage, track, and resolve requests — all from a central location. You can build multiple projects and track and manage customer support requests and incidents with the software. Compared to other free help desks, Jira Service Management offers you several useful in-built features to resolve your customers' technical issues faster, reducing the need to rely on third-party tools.
PROS
- Jira excels at issue tracking and collaboration to enable efficient customer service.
- Its interface is intuitive and customizable to match your company’s branding.
- Purpose-built features like scrum/kanban boards and agile planning support agile teams.
- The platform can integrate seamlessly with hundreds of third-party tools.
- Free plans and free trials are available.
- Easy issue tracking and great collaboration are the core features of Jira Service Management to provide customers faster, more efficient customer service.
- Jira Service Management allows customers to rate the quality of a knowledge base article, helping you identify improvement areas and update accordingly.
- Jira Service Management has a customizable user interface. You can also change the feel and look of the help desk center and portal to reflect your company’s branding.
- Incident and problem management is prompt and easy, thanks to Jira Service Management‘s alerts and email notifications.
- Jira Service Management’s mobile app support ensures you’re notified instantly about breached SLAs and all assigned, reported, watched, and mentioned requests.
- In addition to Jira Service Management's internal features, you can use its diverse range of integrations to further maximize functionality.
CONS
- While the UI is user-friendly, users do need some time to fully grasp its large feature set.
- Email notifications can't be customized, flooding the inboxes of users.
- Can get pricey for larger teams.
- Reporting customization is limited.
- Jira Service Management’s Free plan doesn’t offer customizable charts and dashboards.
- Jira Service Management has a rigid email notification system, so you cannot customize it, and your notification system may get easily cluttered. Modifying notifications per user or sending by batch isn’t an option either.
Regardless of whether you want to announce changes in your interface, manage incidents, or identify a bug, Jira Service Management has service desk features to simplify the process.
You get access to a wide range of help desk services. Prioritize tickets to ensure urgent ones are tackled first; create a single repository of planned changes and releases; set up custom automation rules to automate manual and time-consuming tasks.
It also offers you a single platform to handle all internal requests and issues, allowing you to empower your team, as well as track company-wide IT assets.
Jira is used by companies of all sizes, including Twitter, The Telegraph, Puppet, Sotheby's, and Engie.
Jira Service Management has four main subscription plans:
- Free: Up to 3 agents and unlimited customers, always free.
- Standard: $21 per agent per month. Scales to 5,000 agents with 250GB storage and unlimited email notifications.
- Premium: $47 per agent per month. Adds advanced incident management, unlimited storage, and more.
- Enterprise: Custom quote required. Includes enhanced data and analytics, security, 24/7 senior support, and more.
Best For
Jira Service Management works well for teams needing to track and resolve a large number of customer requests. However, even smaller teams can benefit from its free plan to help streamline work planning and tracking.
I use Jira Service Management everyday to check my task list and to announce any service downtime (for updates). The key workflows I use are the email notification and the web portal to allow all my users to access the knowledge base directly
- Easy to use
- Very intuitive UI
- Out-of-box workflows for IT service desk is wonderful
I just moved to Atomic and I wanted a proper IT ticketing system and directly Jira Service Management was my first choice since it is very rigid as tool and very developed to handle my IT requests (tasks and problems)
- Pricing model is a bit expensive once we are more than 3 agents
- The opsgenie email integration is a bit misleading when you get the first couple of emails
- The user options are a bit too much detailed and their layout is a bit old, a sprinkle of UI redesign here is very much appreciated
It is cheaper than competition and their integration with other Atlassian services is great to have. Plus, having to set up Jira Service Management for a SME is an easy and great experience for all users.
First and foremost, if you already have Atlassian (Jira or Confluence) adding the Jira Service Management is a must since your user base is already integrated. The web portal is great once you define what your main pain points are and the fluidity of the emails is something not to miss.
Mostly SME since it can be started with 0 cost to get used to all the feature before investing more on other Jira/Atlassian products
Business users such as sales, csm and marketing
Zoho Desk
Zoho is a provider of all sorts of business solutions that are affordable yet on par with the market’s leading offerings. Zoho Desk exemplifies this, being a feature-rich customer service software that’s robust, intuitive, and budget-friendly.
PROS
- With Zoho Desk, you get one of the most extensive feature lists of any help desk and ticketing system in the market.
- Zoho Desk is very flexible when it comes to pricing, as you can switch plans as you go if your team member count or necessities grow.
- It’s available in 22 languages.
- Lets you provide support across multiple channels.
- With Zoho Desk, you get one of the most extensive feature lists of any help desk and ticketing system in the market.
- Zoho Desk is very flexible when it comes to pricing, as you can switch plans as you go if your team member count or necessities grow.
- It’s available in 22 languages.
- Lets you provide support across multiple channels.
CONS
- Some users found the initial setup and configuration of Zoho Desk difficult and time-consuming.
- Despite some customization options, some users felt Zoho Desk's ability to customize certain aspects like UI color coding was limited compared to other tools.
- A couple of users faced challenges with integrating Zoho Desk with specific other software/platforms.
- A few users experienced slowness and lagging at times while using Zoho Desk, especially when loading pages.
- Some of the product customizations can be hard to figure out, according to some users.
- The UX/UI can seem dated at times.
- Several users have reported that integrating the tool with several apps can be problematic.
One of the most significant advantages of Zoho Desk is its multi-channel support. It provides customer service through email, live chat, phone, and multiple social media at a very affordable price, which can be handy for tracking and collaboration as all types of customer queries are housed in one place.
Knowledge management is also another good feature of the platform. When customers submit tickets, Zoho Desk’s auto-suggest feature can pull up relevant articles promptly from the built-in knowledge base based on tickets’ keywords, reducing the wait time significantly.
Zoho Desk has a scalable pricing model with four plans, including a free one with some decent tools. We talked to some Zoho users and found they typically started with the free plan and ungraded it as their teams scale up. Additionally, the Enterprise plan is pretty much on par with most top-tier plans of other providers in terms of features and goes for a reasonable price. The platform also has a 15-day trial anyone can signup and try it for free.
However, we received some comments regarding the learning curve of the tool. As there are lots of features built-in, some users felt a bit overwhelmed to be able to use them to the fullest. Lastly, integrating Zoho Desk with some popular Sales and marketing tools doesn’t seem very intuitive. The system has relied heavily on Zapier and — some users stated — provides limited support for complex integration requirements.
McAfee, Daimler, LycaMobile, Rogers, Siemens Energy.
Zoho Desk has four pricing tiers:
- Free - For 3 agents with email ticketing, help center, knowledge base, SLAs, and 24x5 email support.
- Standard ($14/user/month) - Adds social channels, community forums, product-based tickets, public knowledge base, customer satisfaction ratings, and 24x5 phone support.
- Professional ($23/user/month) - Includes multi-department ticketing, team management, time tracking, ticket templates and sharing. Most popular plan.
- Enterprise ($40/user/month) - Adds live chat, AI assistant, advanced help center customization, process management, global reporting, and more.
Best For
Zoho Desk is a good fit for companies looking for a comprehensive yet affordable customer support solution. If your organization uses other Zoho products, this should be an easy addition.
I use Zoho Desk to solve customer tickets and respond to questions they ask through support email. I use the software each day to create tickets, and articles in the knowledgebase to review and approve help articles from the team.
I like the software pricing which is favorable for us. I also like the deployment method, the tool is web cloud-based which means you do not need to install the tool on the premises but rather use the software as a web version in browsers, the software provides instant notifications to the agent or operators upon any ticket from the user for quicker response and resolutions towards their case
Our Organization bought Zoho Desk to solve tickets and to help clients reach us through our support email any time. Initially, we were using other software tools that had limited features like custom email which was affecting our email delivery to clients. I have personally used the software for three years.
The tool comes with limited integrations and does not have a good user interface, you cannot integrate the software with social media platforms like Whatsapp which leads us to use multiple tools. It is also expensive for smaller enterprises to use the paid version since it can affect the ROI. Hot mapping a domain to use it in the knowledgebase is so hard since it does not explain well how to.
They are cheap and reliable with a good customer care team. There is enough documentation in both video and in text form which has helped us gain more skills on how to use the product.
They should think of pricing and user care where most times they take longer time to respond hence making the user inconvenienced
They have added more features like improving the text editor which makes it easy to use to compose a ticket response while customizing the fonts, the tool has a mobile application to use to chat with clients.
Support operators
HR
LiveAgent
LiveAgent offers some unique features, such as geotargeting and website visitor targeting, that help to improve and hyper-personalize customer support. Service level optimization is another handy feature that makes LiveAgent a great choice over its competitors. LiveAgent's phone app isn't at par with other help desks, though. The company needs to work on improving its interface so that support agents can help customers while on the go.
PROS
- LiveAgent’s modern user interface looks aesthetically pleasing while being easy to navigate.
- LiveAgent is super easy to implement and use. Even if your team isn’t tech-savvy, the time to productivity is quick.
- LiveAgent empowers small support teams to easily handle large volumes of queries. Critical features like a universal inbox, a live chat widget, and a knowledge base enable you to address all tickets with greater efficiency.
- For LiveAgent, every user is a valuable client. Expect 24/7 customer support via phone, live chat, or email. The support agents are also in-house and not outsourced, which further ensures you’re given accurate answers to all your queries.
- LiveAgent takes feedback seriously and is constantly trying to improve the software, so you’re assured of a reliable tool.
CONS
- LiveAgent needs to work on its mobile app interface. While convenient to work with, it isn’t as at par with the competitors.
- LiveAgent offers limited integrations, which may be a hindrance for companies wanting to significantly boost support effectiveness and visibility.
- LiveAgent’s Free plan doesn’t allow for integrations with social networks like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Viber — you’ll have to upgrade to the paid plans to get access. Therefore, you can’t offer customers omnichannel support and have to stay limited to email, live chat, and call center support.
LiveAgent allows you to enhance customer engagement through its customizable live chat widget. Based on the time spent on any specific web page, you can invite your customers to chat, answering their basic questions and helping them make the right purchase decisions.
The ticketing system is also commendable. Each ticket contains the full history of customer conversations, including emails, chat messages, and phone calls.
Huawei, BMW, Yamaha, O2, Slido, Forbes, AirBus.
LiveAgent offers the following plans:
- Free – This plan offers 7-day ticket history, one chat button, phone number, and email address to streamline support, and a customer portal and forum.
- Ticket – This costs $15 per agent, per month. Features include unlimited ticket history and email addresses, advanced reporting, and the ability to create custom rules and time rules.
- Ticket + Chat – This costs $29 per agent, per month. In addition to everything in the Ticket plan, you get unlimited chat buttons, feedback management, chat satisfaction surveys, and real-time visitor monitoring.
- All-inclusive – This costs $49 per agent, per month. In addition to everything in the Ticket + Chat plan, you get call center support, IVR, call routing and transfers, and unlimited call recordings.
Best For
LiveAgent is a great choice for companies of all sizes looking for a user-friendly and reliable customer support solution.
I use the solution to chat with clients about their issues - it helps us to resolve issues faster.
I like the canned responses that make it easy for me to respond to a client's question by just pasting the canned responses from frequently asked questions.
We bought LiveAgent to offer live chat communication to users on our website and respond to clients’ messages. I have used the software for about two years
The pricing of the software is expensive.
They have a good web application with a good user interface which makes it easier for me to access the chat.
They should think of the pricing and scalability of the software.
They have improved the mobile application and the web application
Support teams.
Software developers.
Spiceworks
Spiceworks give you access to all the features you would expect from a top-notch help desk ticketing system. This includes omnichannel support, automatic ticket assignment and management, and a self-service portal. What's more, there are no limitations on standard factors like the number of agent accounts, customers tickets and data storage, which is an issue with other free help desk solutions.
PROS
- Free helpdesk system with cloud and on-premise versions.
- Supports omnichannel query collection across channels.
- Mobile app enables managing support tickets on the go.
- Unlimited tickets with history retention.
- Supported by a large community of users giving one another prompt, expert responses.
- With Spiceworks, you can offer your customers omnichannel query collection to submit queries and share concerns across channels. You don't have to worry about how much it costs, thanks to the free service.
- Spiceworks offers both cloud-based and on-premise versions of its free helpdesk ticketing system, which is quite rare in the customer support niche.
- Spiceworks’ help desk isn’t only limited to your desk — it’s also available as an app for Android and iOS users. Thanks to this, you can manage support tickets on the go.
- Spiceworks provides an unlimited number of service tickets for each user. You can create as many decades as a situation needs, eliminating the need to delete tickets and allowing you to retain chat history. This also gives your team a reference point that they can go back to whenever similar issues or topics resurface.
- Spiceworks‘ large community is backed by dedicated IT professionals, specialized tech vendors, and other kinds of individuals willing to share their expertise when it comes to IT-related issues and help each other out. This ensures every member receives accurate and prompt responses to all their queries.
CONS
- Lacks a knowledge base, as well as ticket tracking and prioritization features.
- Limited reporting hinders productivity and customer support insight.
- Expect abundant forceful ads and promotional emails.
- Customer support is restricted to just email without other options.
- Due to Spiceworks’ limited feature set, it isn’t very flexible. It lacks some of the more desirable features, such as knowledge base management, interaction tracking, and prioritization.
- Spiceworks doesn’t offer advanced reporting options, which restrict your view into agent productivity and the kind of support your customers are receiving. Additionally, you have to streamline reports to remove redundancy.
- To enjoy Spiceworks’ free help desk, be ready to view forceful ads and receive promotional emails — lots of them.
- Spiceworks' direct customer support is limited to email. So you don't get chat, phone, and social media assistance options.
Spiceworks is deployable on the cloud for an online help desk or on-premise for a self-hosted platform. Use it to automate several manual tasks to free up your executives’ time. You can also create individual sites and user portals for each client your company manages to streamline efforts.
The help desk is designed to assist you in many ways, including getting answers to technical questions, learning from instructional resources, and troubleshooting IT issues. You can also launch Spiceworks within minutes to get started right away.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Untangle Inc., Arhaus, Sonic Corporation, Howard Brown, J2 Global, Inc.
Spiceworks differentiates itself from its rivals by providing all its products without any cost. If you're curious about how the company finances its operations, it does so through advertisements displayed in the background, which are financially supported by various IT vendors.
Best For
Spiceworks makes a great choice for any business looking for a no-frills help desk software. While its functionality is limited, the fact that the tool is free of cost with ample features makes it a boon for small and medium-sized businesses. Companies looking for free cloud-based and on-premise versions help desk will also find Spiceworks a good match.
- I use Spiceworks daily to manage IT assets and streamline helpdesk operations. It serves as a central hub for tracking software and hardware inventories, ensuring all systems are up to date.
- I rely on it to efficiently log, assign, and resolve IT tickets while maintaining clear communication between end users and the IT team.
- Its reporting features help identify recurring issues and allocate resources more effectively.
- The monitoring capabilities allow me to proactively address potential problems and keep systems running smoothly across the organization.
- Spiceworks is intuitive and easy to use for both IT professionals and non-technical employees.
- Its comprehensive asset management system provides a centralized platform for tracking software and hardware inventories.
- The platform offers excellent value by meeting essential IT management needs without costly licensing fees.
- The active Spiceworks user community provides valuable peer support, troubleshooting assistance, and helpful resources.
My company implemented Spiceworks to enhance helpdesk productivity and simplify IT asset management. We needed a centralized solution to track hardware and software inventories, improve collaboration, and efficiently manage IT issues.
Spiceworks addressed these challenges by offering a cost-effective platform with strong reporting features, a user-friendly interface, and real-time monitoring. The tool's ability to integrate with other platforms helped streamline workflows and boost productivity.
I have personally been using Spiceworks for more than three years, leveraging its features to ensure smooth IT operations and high-quality service delivery.
- Spiceworks can become sluggish when handling large datasets or multiple users simultaneously.
- More advanced customization options for ticketing and reporting functionalities would be beneficial.
- Reliable internet access is crucial for cloud-based components, making outages particularly challenging.
- The mobile app lacks some features and usability compared to the desktop version.
Spiceworks stands out because it offers free IT management tools without licensing fees, making it cost-effective for businesses of all sizes. Additionally, its active user community enhances its value by providing peer-driven support and resources beyond what traditional software solutions offer.
Scalability is a key factor to ensure the tool can grow with the organization’s needs. Usability is also crucial, as a user-friendly interface reduces training time and increases productivity. Integration capabilities should be assessed to confirm compatibility with existing systems.
Additionally, evaluating cost-effectiveness—including both initial costs and long-term savings—is important. Lastly, strong vendor support and community resources should be prioritized for reliable assistance when needed.
Spiceworks has evolved by adding more advanced features, such as network monitoring, cloud-based solutions, and improved IT asset management. Its community-driven support system has also strengthened collaboration by enabling users to share insights and solutions more effectively.
Spiceworks is an excellent choice for IT teams and small to mid-sized businesses looking for an affordable, user-friendly solution for network monitoring, helpdesk support, and asset management.
Spiceworks may not be ideal for large enterprises with complex IT infrastructures requiring advanced customization or stringent security controls.
Tidio
Tidio’s user-friendly help desk can seamlessly consolidate multiple communication channels, offers efficient ticket management, fosters teamwork, provides valuable performance insights, and enables mobile support. It also has a free plan with a decent feature coverage, making it a great fit for SMBs.
PROS
- Tidio’s interface is modern and user-friendly, taking very little time to figure out.
- Its chatbot is quite powerful and can handle common customer queries efficiently.
- The life chat feature enables real-time customer engagement, leading to improved resolution time and satisfaction.
- Users highly rate Tidio’s customer support team for being responsive and knowledgeable.
- Tidio’s pricing is fully transparent, includes a free plan and all its features can be tested for free for up to 7 days.
- Tidio allows users to build a single multichannel communicator by connecting different channels like website live chat, email inbox, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger to their platform. This means that you can always respond to your customers' queries irrespective of which platform they reach out to you on.
- Building a chatbot using Tidio is a fairly simple process. You can either use their existing templates or build one using their visual flow builder and drag-and-drop templates.
- If you’re a small business that just wants to keep track of your chatbot performance, then Tidio’s analytics dashboard outlines that information very well. You can view the number of conversations, leads, and messages easily without having to dig too deep.
CONS
- You cannot fully customize the chat widget and make it match your company’s branding and style.
- Occasional login issues with the mobile app and desktop application may be experienced.
- There is currently no integration with Twitter or LinkedIn which are major platforms most companies use for their customer interactions.
- While the platform is generally easy to use, it can be tricky to perform certain advanced processes like configuring the chatbot so you may need to have Tidio’s team guide you through it.
- According to some users, chat notifications can sometimes be unreliable. This means that you may not always get notified when you get a message.
- While you can create a chatbot in a different language, translating messages based on a user’s input is extremely difficult and requires manual effort.
Tidio packs a host of tools to streamline customer support delivery. For starters, it features a user-friendly help desk that consolidates messages from various communication channels - including emails, live chat, Instagram, and WhatsApp - into a single, organized dashboard. We’ve found the ticketing portion to be fairly straightforward too. From the same dashboard, you can view the status of each ticket, check which agents are assigned to them, and define an appropriate priority level. To make tickets easier to find in case you want to revisit them later, you can also add notes and create any number of custom tags.
We’ve tested Tidio’s automatic ticket assignment and it can be done in a few ways; the first being by defining different departments in the system and customers can choose which department they’d like their request to reach (which isn’t exactly automatic, but rather a customer-initiated process). You can also make it so requests coming from particular sources are routed to specific departments. E.g. all requests coming from the [email protected] email can be automatically routed to the Sales department, if you’ve previously created it in the system. The system can also automatically assign tickets to available agents who aren’t handling open tickets. While we wished to see more options here like trigger-based assignment, the existing methods are good enough for most SMBs.
The live chat widget is well-thought-out, though; it makes it easy for support agents to engage with customers in real-time, supports video calls too for better and more personalized communication, and allows you to define canned responses, which come in handy when addressing common customer inquiries. We’d also like to briefly highlight Tidio’s analytics, with good insights on how your customer interactions are going, as well as Tidio’s dedicated mobile apps for iOS and Android, enabling you to talk to customers on the go and monitor your work from anywhere.
Lastly, we always appreciate a platform that includes a free plan with a decent feature coverage. Many of the features of Tidio Help Desk, such as the live chat, ticketing, video calls, and the multichannel shared inbox, are included in the free plan, meaning that it can support smaller companies with basic customer service needs without needing to upgrade.
Tidio’s solutions are used by over 300,000 companies, including Glovo, Praktiker and Jaguar.
Tidio has four plans:
- Free: This plan is free forever, no credit card required, and is good for 50 conversations.
- Starter: Costs $29 per month for an unlimited number of users and 100 conversations.
- Growth: Costs $59 per month for an unlimited number of users and up to 1000 conversations.
- Tidio+: Starts at $499 per month for businesses needing unlimited conversations, additional integrations, advanced features, and premium support.
Best For
Tidio is a great fit SMBs looking for a scalable platform that has a free plan and a good feature coverage.
Hubspot
If you’re a small to mid-sized business, especially one already using HubSpot’s CRM, the free help desk ticketing system is a no-brainer. It’s fast to deploy, easy to use, and offers meaningful AI and integration capabilities that help your team work more efficiently and deliver better support.
PROS
- Free to use for up to 2 users with no credit card required.
- Easy setup with intuitive, user-friendly interface.
- Strong integrations, including CRM connection that provides full customer context.
- Multiple automation tools available for ticket tagging, routing, reply suggestions, and ticket summarization.
- Fast and easy setup with no credit card.
- User-friendly interface that requires little to no training.
- Kanban-style board for clear ticket tracking and workload visibility.
- Effective automation for tagging, task assignment, and escalation.
- Shared inbox consolidates email, chat, and social media tickets
- CRM integration provides full context on customer history.
- Predefined replies/snippets save time on repetitive responses.
- Built-in reporting tracks key support metrics (e.g. resolution time, volume).
CONS
- Customization options and customer support are minimal in free tier.
- Mobile app lacks full functionality.
- Not ideal for complex SLA or multi-channel workflows.
- Limited email customization for branding or advanced triggers.
- Free edition is up to 2 users and is too lightweight for complex or SLA-heavy environments.
- Client portal setup can be tricky for teams with multiple domains.
- Minimal setup support for free-tier users.
Most Sales and Marketing professionals may already be familiar with Hubspot and its CRM tool. Though the free help desk ticketing system (part of Service Hub) is not as well-known as the CRM, it’s still quite popular as a solid, user-friendly solution that gives SMBs just enough capability to manage support workflows without overwhelming them with complexity or cost.
For small teams or non-technical users who want to start managing support tickets quickly, Hubspot’s helpdesk system is a strong choice. Within minutes of creating an account, we were able to set up a support inbox, create ticket pipelines, and start fielding test requests—all without needing formal onboarding. The UI is clean, with just enough features visible to get you moving while reserving more advanced tools for paid plans.
In terms of integrations, the fact that the CRM and the helpdesk tool pair really well is a big plus. Every ticket we opened gave us access to a 360-degree view of customer data (previous conversations, contact info, deal history, etc.), making it much easier to handle tickets with the right context and ensuring continuity across agents.
There’s also support for integrations with tools like Jira and Slack to ensure smoother internal handoffs. For example, we could link tickets to Jira issues and still track progress within HubSpot.
Even in the free plan, HubSpot includes AI-assisted tools that provide reply suggestions and sentence rewrites when users draft responses, and we can see how these features would be even more useful for teams with higher volumes.
However, the free plan does hit a wall with the client portal. Setup was difficult for teams with multiple domains, and there wasn’t much support for free users beyond community forums.
It’s also worth noting that certain features, such as advanced email customization, service SLAs, or more granular automation, are restricted to higher-tier plans. So, if you’re looking to build intricate routing workflows or SLA policies, for example, you’ll quickly hit the limits of the free version.
Lastly, while the web interface is great, the mobile app experience feels like an afterthought. Not all features carry over, and navigation is less intuitive on smaller screens.
248,000+ organizations, including The Motley Fool, Eventbrite, Reddit, and WWF.
HubSpot's free help desk ticketing system accommodates up to two users. Paid plans with a 14-day free trial start at $15 per user per month.
Best For
HubSpot's free helpdesk ticketing system is a top choice for growing customer support teams, especially those already embedded in the HubSpot ecosystem.
FAQs
Why should businesses invest in help desk software?
Help desk software can help businesses streamline their customer support process by automating repetitive tasks, routing support requests to the appropriate team or agent, and providing a centralized repository for customer information and support history. This can save time and improve the overall efficiency of the customer support process, which in turn results in a better customer experience.
How to select the best help desk software?
- Define what "great customer service" means for your company and targeted audience
- Establish customer and employee customer support expectations
- Consider the key help desk features you truly need
- Cross-check with software vendors about the availability of the said features
- Look for affordable and scalable options
- Narrow down to options offering a free trial
- Choose the help desk software that’s most easy for you to navigate and configure
What is the difference between a service desk and a help desk?
A service desk and a help desk are both customer support solutions that handle customer inquiries, complaints, and requests. However, a service desk typically has a broader scope of responsibilities than a help desk.
While a help desk is focused on providing technical support, a service desk may also handle non-technical inquiries and requests, such as HR or payroll issues. Service desks may also have more advanced tools and resources at their disposal, such as knowledge management systems and self-service portals, to help them provide more comprehensive support.
Final Advice
Choosing the right help desk software for your customer support team doesn’t need to be based on assumptions or involve tedious long research processes. You can eliminate much of the confusion and hard work by identifying your company’s needs and scheduling demos with vendors that can best cater to them.
If you’re open to upgrading to a paid help desk software down the line, make sure to pick a solution that offers trial periods. This way, instead of relying on others' opinions and viewpoints, you can get a first-hand experience of how the help desk fits within your tech stack and performs. If you aren’t sure where to start, you can browse our guide on the best IT help desk ticketing systems for businesses of all sizes.
About the Author
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