Best Help Desk Alternatives

Zendesk is a popular customer service tool that offers live chat, ticketing, and automation features. However, it can be expensive for smaller businesses and doesn’t offer as many features as some of the other tools listed here.

Most Zendesk alternatives offer similar features. So you’ll be able to install them quickly and start using them right away. And keep in mind, some of these alternatives are free or offer a free version! 

All of the providers listed here also offer great-looking customer support software for users with multiple locations around the world.

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So I’ll go into further detail about the various features these tools provide, as well as compare some of them to Zendesk. I have organized them by whether they’re designed for individuals that just need technical assistance or those who require help desk software, live chat, and/or just automated ticketing system features.

What are some of the best help desk alternatives to Zendesk?

There are a few:

1. Zendesk Alternative – Freshdesk

The Freshdesk customer support platform comes with a broad selection of features. It integrates with a number of different applications and channels, including phone, email, chat, social media, and more. It also offers built-in reporting and case management tools.

It is known as one of the most popular customer service software providers. Freshdesk is a suitable alternative to Zendesk.

It’s affordable for small businesses, offers many features, and has a beautiful user interface. In fact, it was rated “Best Customer Service Software” by PC Magazine

Freshdesk is a good mix of IT support and customer service. However, if you are looking for something that focuses exclusively on IT support or customer service, there may be a better fit.

In terms of pricing, Freshdesk supports some paid plans but also offers free versions. 

The entry-level plan costs $19 per agent per month with a minimum of 5 agents. The most expensive plan costs $49 per agent per month with a minimum of 5 agents.

User and chat statistics: Freshdesk provides users with a detailed customer and chat data, including the number of chats, first response time, and resolution time.

Chat and email support (virtual agents) tools: Freshdesk’s virtual assistant tool allows businesses to offer live chat and email support. It also includes features like canned responses and customer profiles.

Ticket management and automation: Freshdesk’s ticketing system offers powerful features like triggers, auto-responders, and routing rules. It also integrates with a number of third-party applications.

Customer feedback and communication tools: Freshdesk offers customer feedback tools that allow businesses to gather inputs about products and services. It also lets users send email newsletters.

2. HappyFox

HappyFox is an outstanding help desk solution like Zendesk. This cloud-based system has automation tools, detailed reporting, and analysis, website/email integration, knowledge base integration with other online channels, multichannel ticketing, and other features. It is designed to assist small and medium-sized enterprises.

The cost of HappyFox plans is determined by the number of employees. The following are the three most affordable options: Mighty ($29/staff/month), Fantastic ($49/staff/month), and Enterprise ($69/staff/month).

User and chat statistics: HappyFox provides users with a detailed customer and chat data, including the number of chats, first response time, and resolution time.

Chat and email support (virtual agents) tools: HappyFox’s virtual assistant tool allows businesses to offer live chat and email support. It also includes features like canned responses and customer profiles.

Ticket management and automation: HappyFox’s ticketing system offers powerful features like triggers, auto-responders, and routing rules. It also integrates with a number of third-party applications.

Customer feedback and communication tools: HappyFox offers customer feedback tools that allow businesses to gather inputs about products and services. It also lets users send email newsletters.

3. Zammad

Zammad is a opensource service desk software that helps you manage customer support tickets. It offers an intuitive interface, powerful features and a variety of integrations to make it the perfect choice for your business.

With Zammad, you can easily create and manage customer support tickets, collaborate with your team, track customer satisfaction and get insights to improve your customer service.

The most popular opensource ticketing system used by more than 1200 companies worldwide, Zammad is the premier opensource ticketing solution for companies of all sizes who need an affordable and easy-to-use support desk.

In terms of pricing, Zammad offers both a free trial and paid version. The free version is great for small businesses, while the paid version offers more features and support.

Overall, Zammad is a great choice for businesses who need an affordable and easy-to-use service desk solution. With its intuitive interface, powerful features and variety of integrations, Zammad can be the perfect choice for your business.

In terms of pricing, Zammad offers 3 tiers: starter ($7 per agent per month), professional ($17 per agent per month), and Plus($26per agent per month).

It provides a 30-day free trial for all plans.

Customer feedback and communication tools: Zammad has customer feedback and communication tools to help you provide better support and generate more sales. With Zammad, you can carry on conversations with your customers via Live Chat directly from the ticket view.

Zammad comes with an in-built Mail integration that lets you send bulk email customizable templates for faster responses, all from within the Zammad interface. You can also manage follow-ups, unsubscribes and bounces.

Ticket management: Zammad offers a powerful yet easy-to-use ticket management system that helps you keep your support process organized and under control.

You can easily create, view and update tickets, attach files, add tags and notes, and set priorities. The ticket management system also includes a powerful search tool that lets you quickly find the information you need.

Reporting and analytics: Zammad offers detailed reporting and analytics so you can track your support process and see how you’re doing.

You can see what tickets are open, closed, solved or overdue, as well as get insights into customer satisfaction and response times. The reporting and analytics also include a range of customizable charts and graphs.

Integrations: Zammad integrates with a variety of third-party applications to make it easy for you to connect with the tools you already use.

Zammad integrates with Salesforce, Desk, Mailchimp, and a host of other applications. You can also create your own integrations using the Zammad API.

If you’re looking for an affordable, easy-to-use and powerful service desk software, then Zammad may be the solution for you.

4. LiveAgent

LiveAgent is a help desk and live-chat software that’s popular among small businesses. It integrates with a number of third-party applications, including WordPress, Shopify, and Magento.

Custom domain parking, e-mail support, ticketing, contact forms, forum, knowledge base, Android/iPhone app, 24/7 customer care, and free integration are all included in every package. In addition to that, the more expensive plans include additional features such as live chat, social media integration, call center assistance

LiveAgent pricing starts at $15 per agent per month for the basic plan, which includes support for up to five channels. The most expensive plan costs $75 per agent per month and includes support for up to 25 channels.

LiveAgent Pricing Plan: There are four pricing categories for LiveAgent – Ticket ($15 per agent per month), Ticket + Chat ($29 per agent per month), and The most expensive plan is All-Inclusive ($39 per agent per month). which includes support for A powerful omnichannel helpdesk with 180+ features

User and chat statistics: LiveAgent provides users with detailed customer and chat data, including the number of chats, first response time, and resolution time.

Chat and email support (virtual agents) tools: LiveAgent’s virtual assistant tool allows businesses to offer live chat and email support. It also includes features like canned responses and customer profiles.

Ticket management and automation: LiveAgent’s ticketing system offers powerful features like triggers, auto-responders, and routing rules. It also integrates with a number of third-party applications.

Customer feedback and communication tools: LiveAgent offers customer feedback tools that allow businesses to gather inputs about products and services. It also lets users send email newsletters.

Live Agent offers a free forever acount.

5. Kayako

Kayako is a help desk and customer support software that comes in both on-premise and cloud versions. It’s popular among businesses of all sizes, including multinationals like GameStop, KFC, Harvard University, and Nationwide.

In addition, to support for phone, email, chat, social media channels, Kayako also includes features like case management and reporting.

User and chat statistics: Kayak provides users with detailed customer and chat data, including the number of chats received or resolved per month.

Chat and email support (virtual agents) tools: Kayako’s virtual assistant tool allows businesses to offer live chat support. It also includes features like canned responses and customer profiles.

Ticket management and automation: Kayako offers powerful ticketing system features

like triggers, auto-responders, and routing rules. It also integrates with a number of third-party applications.

Customer feedback and communication tools: Kayako offers customer feedback tools that allow businesses to gather inputs about products and services. It also lets users send email newsletters.

6. OS Ticket

Another great open-source ticket system alternative for Zendesk is OS Ticket. OS Ticket is completely free, and it’s very easy to install on your own server.

OS Ticket has most of what you need in a ticketing system, including email support with full-text search, file attachments, schedules for agents and managers, canned responses, and event triggers.

OS Ticket is written in PHP and uses MySQL or PostgreSQL for data storage. It has a web-based interface that allows agents to manage tickets, create replies with embedded file attachments, set ticket priority levels, and more.

Developers can extend the ticketing system using plugins written in PHP (plus many community plugins are available). You can download OS Ticket source code here: https://osticket.com/downloads/ Or just click on this link below to take you there.

The pricing plan of OS Ticket is very simple and easy to understand. There are only three plans : Free, Standard(Cloud-hosted), and Premium. (Virtual Appliance)

Free plan is for small businesses or individual professionals who want to use the software for personal use. It offers limited features and support.

Standard plan is for businesses who need more features and support. It offers everything that is available in the Free plan, plus some additional features and support.

Premium plan is for larger businesses who need even more features and support. It offers all the features and support that are available in the Standard plan, plus some additional features and support.

The pricing is very reasonable, especially compared to other software like zendesk. And, the best part is that there is no contract and you can cancel your subscription at any time.

If you are looking for a good ticketing system that is simple to use and affordable, then OS Ticket is a great choice.

OSticket.com is a free open source help desk ticketing system software.

7. UVdesk

UVdesk is a cloud-based customer support software with features like phone, email, chat, and social media support. It also offers features like case management and reporting.

UVdesk is an open-source platform, meaning it is free to download, install, and use. It’s seen as a good option for small businesses that want to avoid paying licensing fees or support contracts.

In terms of pricing, UVdesk offer three basic Plans. FREE, PRO and ENTERPRISE

User and chat statistics: UVdesk provides users with detailed customer and chat data, including the number of chats, first response time, and resolution time.

Chat and email support (virtual agents) tools: UVdesk’s virtual assistant tool allows businesses to offer live chat and email support. It also includes features like canned responses and customer profiles.

Some of the key features are:

Uvdesk.com is a free open source help desk ticketing system software.

8. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is a cloud-based customer support software with features like phone, email, chat, social media support, and a knowledge base.

Zoho Desk is part of the Zoho suite of applications, which offers a range of business software solutions. As such, it’s seen as a good option for businesses that want to move away from using multiple software providers and instead use one provider for all their needs.

In terms of pricing, Zoho Desk has three subscription plans: Standard ($12 per agent per month), Professional ($24 per agent per month), and Enterprise (custom priced).

It offers a 30-day money-back guarantee with all plans.

User and chat statistics: Zoho Desk provides users with detailed customer and chat data, including the number of chats, first response time, and resolution time.

Chat and email support (virtual agents) tools: Zoho Desk’s virtual assistant tool allows businesses to offer live chat and email support. It also includes features like canned responses and customer profiles.

Ticket management and automation: Zoho Desk’s ticketing system offers powerful features like triggers, auto-responders, and routing rules. It also integrates with a number of third-party applications.

Customer feedback and communication tools: Zoho Desk offers customer feedback tools that allow businesses to gather inputs about products and services. It also lets users send email newsletters.

9. Help Scout

Help Scout is a cloud-based help desk software that offers a range of solutions, from simple ticket management to advanced customer relationship management (CRM). Its features include email support, forum-style knowledge bases, and a help desk that supports social media.

This is one of the lightest on the list of help desk solutions. Businesses may evaluate client satisfaction using their Happiness Ratings, which is a popular feature among fans.

In terms of pricing, Help Scout offers four plans: Standard ($25 per agent per month), Plus ($40 per agent per month), and Enterprise (custom quote). The Pro plan includes unlimited email support and a private knowledge base.

A free 15-day trial is available and there’s no requirement to add a payment information.

User and chat statistics: Help Scout provides users with specific customer and chat data, including the number of chats, first response time, and resolution time.

Chat and email support (virtual agents) tools: The virtual assistant feature in Help Scout lets businesses provide live chat or email support via a set Its help desk solution provides chat and email support for agents.

Ticket management and automation: Help Scout’s ticketing system offers powerful features like triggers, auto-responders, workflows, and routing rules. It also integrates with a number of third-party applications.

Customer feedback and communication tools: Help Scout provides customer feedback tools that allow businesses to gather inputs about products and services. It also lets users send email newsletters.

10. Cayzu

Cayzu is a startup company that has deeply disrupted the traditional helpdesk industry by offering an amazing Customer Relationship Management System integrated with many kinds of social media sites. Although the Cayzu team is still very young, they’ve already launched an amazing product that will change the way you use social media in your company.

For example, Cayzu allows companies to ask employees or customers for feedback directly on Facebook’s interface using just a simple click. The request goes straight to the person’s newsfeed so they’ll know exactly what their manager or company wants them to do without wasting time with email chains or other messages.

Cayzu also offers a simple and efficient way to manage customer support tickets. With Cayzu, you can easily see all of your customer’s interactions with your company in one place. This makes it easy to track the progress of each ticket and make sure that you’re providing the best customer service possible.

Cayzu Pricing: Basic plan starts at $7/per agent/per month. And it goes up to $469/month for up to 70 agents only if you pay annually.

Offers a 14 day trial.

Basic Features:

Cayzu helps you manage your customer interactions and support tickets. You can create and manage support tickets, track customer interactions, and collaborate with your team. You can also use Cayzu’s wide range of features such as automated ticket routing, SLA management, social media integration reports and analytics, and customizable dashboards.

HIPAA Compliance: Cayzu offers a HIPAA compliant help desk for companies that need to manage sensitive information.

The team at Cayzu is very passionate about making help desks simple, efficient, and secure. They are also strong believers in open source.

Zendesk vs Freshdesk: Which Is the Better Ticketing System?

If you’re looking for a ticketing system, you have a lot of different options to choose from. Two of the most popular systems are Zendesk and Freshdesk.

Both systems have their pros and cons, so it can be difficult to decide which one is the best for your business.

Let’s quickly compare Zendesk and Freshdesk and help you decide which one is the better option for you.

Zendesk is a well-known ticketing system that has been around for a while. It offers a lot of features, such as custom fields, macros, and triggers.

However, it can be somewhat complicated to use and can be expensive for small businesses.

Freshdesk is a different ticketing system that has become more popular. It is much simpler to use than Zendesk and is much more affordable for small businesses.

So, which is the better option? Zendesk or Freshdesk? In our opinion, Freshdesk is the better option. It is simpler to use and is more affordable for small businesses.

It may not have as many features as Zendesk, but it does offer some great features that are useful for all businesses. If you’re looking for a great software ticketing system, we recommend you give Freshdesk a try.