The 11 best help desk platforms,
compared.
We reviewed every major help desk platform so you don't have to. Feature tables, real pricing, and honest takes on where each tool falls short.
Our recommendation
HelpSpot. The help desk that does everything you need, nothing you don't.
Most teams don't need a platform with 200 features and a pricing page that requires a sales call to decode. HelpSpot gives you professional-grade help desk software at a price that makes sense.
No tiered plans or feature paywalls. Every team gets everything.
$29/agent/month. No contact-volume surcharges or AI upcharges.
The only help desk that lets you choose where your data lives.
Profitable since 2005. No VC runway to worry about.
All 11 help desk platforms, at a glance
A quick take on each platform, plus links to our full comparison guides.
Zendesk
The market leader with an enormous feature set. But that comes with enormous complexity and cost. Most teams use less than 20% of what they pay for.
Freshdesk
A solid Zendesk alternative with a free tier. Good for teams just getting started, but costs escalate quickly as you need more features.
Help Scout
Positions itself as the "simple" help desk. Clean interface, but limited reporting and automation hold back growing teams.
Intercom
Built for live chat and messaging. If your support is primarily email-based, Intercom adds unnecessary complexity and cost.
Zoho Desk
Affordable and feature-rich if you already use Zoho CRM and other Zoho products. Less compelling as a standalone tool.
Salesforce Service Cloud
The enterprise heavyweight. Incredibly powerful but requires dedicated administrators and significant investment to configure properly.
ServiceNow
Built for large IT departments managing internal service requests. Overkill for customer-facing support or teams under 50 agents.
Jira Service Management
Excellent if your support team works closely with developers already using Jira. Otherwise, the Jira-centric workflow creates friction.
Spiceworks
A free help desk funded by advertising. Good for IT teams on zero budget, but the ad-supported model and limited features hold it back.
osTicket
Free and open-source, but requires significant technical effort to set up and maintain. No AI, limited automation, aging interface.
ManageEngine
A self-hosted IT service desk with ITIL workflows. Capable but complex, with a dated interface that requires training.
Feature comparison
How HelpSpot stacks up against the five most popular help desk platforms.
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HelpSpot
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feature | Recommended | Compare | Compare | Compare | Compare | Compare |
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Core Ticketing
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| Email-to-ticket | ||||||
| Collision detection | $55+ plan | |||||
| Single assignment model | ||||||
| Unlimited mailboxes | Paid add-on | $49+ plan | 3 max | 1 | $23+ plan | |
| Custom fields | ||||||
| Merge tickets | ||||||
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AI & Automation
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| AI writing assistant | Included | $50+/mo add-on | $29+ plan | $50+ plan | Included | $40+ plan |
| Trigger rules | ||||||
| Auto-assignment | ||||||
| Escalation rules | ||||||
| SLA management | $55+ plan | $49+ plan | $23+ plan | |||
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Self-Service
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| Knowledge base | ||||||
| Customer portal | ||||||
| Contact forms | ||||||
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Deployment & Pricing
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| Self-hosted option | ||||||
| Cloud option | ||||||
| All features included | ||||||
| Starting price | $29/agent | $19/agent | $15/agent | $25/user | $29/seat | $14/agent |
| Price for full features | $29/agent | $115/agent | $79/agent | $50/user | $132/seat | $40/agent |
How to find the right help desk
There are dozens of capable platforms. The best one is the one that matches how your team actually works.
Start with your workflow
How does support reach you today? If it is mostly email, you need a tool built for email. If it is live chat, look elsewhere. Most teams overweight features they will never use and underweight how the tool handles their actual daily flow.
Price the full picture
Starter prices are marketing. Look at what the plan costs when you need the features you actually require: collision detection, SLA tracking, decent reporting. The gap between entry price and real price is often 3-4x.
Test with real tickets
Every help desk looks good in a demo. Connect your actual mailbox, run real tickets through it for a week, and see how it feels. The tool that disappears into your workflow is the right one.
What kind of support team are you?
Different teams have different breaking points. Find yours.
Drowning in email
Your team uses a shared Gmail or Outlook inbox. Requests get lost, duplicated, or answered twice. You need structure, not another app to learn.
Start with Shared Inbox
HelpSpot turns your existing email into an organized help desk. No new interface to learn. Connect your mailbox and start assigning tickets in minutes. See how Shared Inbox works.
Outgrowing your current tool
Your help desk works, but the price keeps climbing. Every feature you actually need is locked behind the next tier. You are paying enterprise prices for mid-market needs.
Get everything for one price
HelpSpot includes every feature in a single plan. No tier gating, no add-on charges for AI or automation. The price you see is the price you pay. See pricing.
Compliance requires control
Your data cannot live on someone else's servers. You need to self-host, or at minimum choose your data region. Most modern help desks are cloud-only.
Deploy your way
HelpSpot offers US Cloud, EU Cloud, or full self-hosted deployment on your own infrastructure. Same features, same price, your choice. Explore hosting options.
"Of the number of helpdesk systems we looked into, ranging from the off-the-shelf expensive systems to completely 'free', your product was the best looking, simplest for both the customer and the staff, the quickest to set-up and configure and reasonably priced."
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about choosing help desk software.
It depends on your team size, budget, and how support reaches you. For email-centric teams that want every feature without tier gating, HelpSpot offers the best balance of capability and value at $29/agent/month. Take the tour to see if it fits, or compare pricing against your current tool.
Sticker prices range from free (Spiceworks, osTicket) to over $100/agent/month (Zendesk, Intercom, Salesforce). The real question is what you pay once you need the features you actually use. Many platforms advertise $15-20/agent but lock collision detection, SLA tracking, and AI behind higher tiers. HelpSpot is a flat $29/agent/month with everything included.
A ticketing system converts requests into trackable tickets. A help desk goes further: ticketing, knowledge bases, automation, reporting, and customer portals all working together. HelpSpot is a full help desk platform with all of these built in.
Most modern help desks are cloud-only. HelpSpot is one of the few that offers US Cloud, EU Cloud (for GDPR compliance), or full self-hosted deployment on your own servers. Same features and price regardless of hosting option.
Small teams need a tool that is easy to set up, affordable, and does not require a dedicated administrator. HelpSpot includes every feature from day one, starting at $699/year, so your team will not outgrow it as you scale.
HelpSpot provides free onboarding and migration help for every customer, including data transfer, mailbox configuration, and team training. Most migrations take 1-2 days. See our switching guides for platform-specific details.
Yes. AI Composer is included in every plan at no extra cost. It helps agents draft responses, rephrase for tone, translate messages, and summarize long ticket threads. HelpSpot also uses AI for automatic categorization and suggested responses.
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