The Best Customer Support Software List
Here are the top 10 customer support software I’d like to highlight out of the 30 I cover in this article:
Our one-on-one guidance will help you find the perfect fit.
Customer support software can help you make sure that your customers are cared for throughout their purchasing journey. A help desk solution with robust ticket management ensures no one falls through the cracks.
This review of the best customer support software can be handy for small and medium-sized businesses as well as larger enterprises that are looking for a good CRM tool to make better marketing and sales decisions and to monitor trends in customer needs.
Below, I provide an overview of each customer support software, including brief descriptions to better understand the main use case for these support solution tools. Also included is a list of comparison criteria, customer support software key features, a list of customer service software other options that did not make the top list.
What is Customer Support Software?
Customer support software are cloud-based SaaS platforms that help customer support teams automate and optimize their processes. These tools offer features like chat widgets, Slack integration for your support agents, email templates, custom reports, as well as multi-level SLA.
The goal of customer support software is to improve customer service by routing customer requests to the best possible avenue to resolve the concern. More basic issues might be routed to a chat bot or self-serve knowledge base, while more complex issues would be routed to a live agent, and efficiently escalated in order to be resolved.
Overviews of the 30 Best Customer Service Software
Below you will find brief descriptions of each of the customer support software and help desk software on my list showing what each does best, including screenshots to showcase some of the features.
Zoho Assist
Best for providing remote access support
Zoho Assist is a customer support software that allows your CX team members to provide support via remote device access. In other words, support reps can help diagnose issues and implement solutions by accessing customer devices from their own device.
The software allows for either on-demand and unattended remote access, so you can make updates and solve issues regardless of whether the customer is with their device. Unattended remote access feature can be used to push bulk updates, reboot devices, troubleshooting, and more. In addition to its remote access capabilities, live chat, video, and voice calls are also supported to facilitate communication between agents and customers.
A high level of security is built into the software, ensuring protection for support reps and customers alike. It's GDPR, HIPAA, PCI, and CJIR compliant and has SSL 256-bit AES encryption. Access permissions management is also included so the right people have the right access to various data and parts of the platform.
The software integrates with other tools, most notably the Zoho product suite. Other integrations include Zendesk, ServiceNow, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Freshdesk, Spiceworks, and the Google Suite, among others.
Pricing starts from $12 per month, and a 15-day free trial is available.
Document360
Best for simple knowledge base management
Document360 is a knowledge base software that helps businesses create, collaborate on, and publish self-service content to support customers. Its built-in content editor has markdown keyboard shortcuts, so you can add internal links, tables of documents, and get inline previews of content quickly and easily. You can also maintain multiple versions of an article, create or draw from existing article templates, and leave comments for your coworkers so you can work together on content.
The software's category manager helps you keep your product documentation organized and structured. You can create new sub-categories, update existing ones, and archive ones that are no longer relevant easily. You can also apply various tags to your content for advanced search.
Integrations include Intercom, Segment, Google Analytics, Disqus, HTML 5, Olark, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Hotjar, Freshmarketer, and Drift. Paid plans start from $119 per user per month, and a 14-day free trial is available.
Zoho SalesIQ
Best for its easy-to-use, customizable interface
Zoho SalesIQ is customer engagement and support software that enables businesses to communicate with their customers in real-time. It's a great tool for businesses that want to increase their customer engagement and provide quick and efficient support to their website visitors.
The user interface is straightforward, making it easy to navigate and use all its features without hassle. The live chat feature allows you to communicate with website visitors in real-time, which is helpful when dealing with urgent customer queries or complaints. You can also track visitors' behavior on your website, which provides valuable insights into their interests and preferences, and customize chat widgets, allowing you to match your website's branding and design.
Integrations include the Zoho suite of software, Google Analytics, and Salesforce. .
Plans start at $7/operator/month, and they offer a 15-day free trial.
Custify
Best for SaaS companies
Custify is a customer success software designed specifically for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies that need to focus on product adoption and upsell opportunities. When leaving your ecosystem is as easy as hitting “unsubscribe,” Custify positions itself to identify churn risk long before your customers find themselves in that position.
Custify provides customer 360 reports, customer health analysis, renewal and upsells suggestions, workflow automation, and a task management system with customizable alerts.
Custify costs from $99.50/user/month.
Groove
Best for integrations
Groove is an easy-to-use help desk for growing businesses who need to connect with their customers across a variety of communication channels like social, email, and live chat. Groove offers a GraphQL API to automate, manage, and extend all the functionality of the platform with a bit of IT know-how and elbow grease.
Groove integrates natively with Hubspot, Salesforce, JIRA, GitHub, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Trello, Constant Contact, Slack, Zoho, Capsule, Delighted, JustCall, Nimble, PieSync, Nicereply, ChargeBee, Influx, MailChimp, Stripe, Campaign Monitor, Ask Nicely, and thousands more with a paid plan through Zapier.
Groove costs from $15/user/month and comes with a 15-day free trial.
Freshdesk
Best for collaborating with external stakeholders
Freshdesk is a natively omnichannel customer service software that allows businesses to receive requests via email, web, phone, chat, and social media.
Freshdesk software combines a ticketing system, workflow automation, and real-time reporting for a complete customer service solution. Freshdesk keeps simplicity in mind, letting you change a ticket status without entering the card.
Freshdesk is a team collaboration superstar, providing paths to loop in external stakeholders and subject matter experts into any customer interaction—even if they don’t directly work for your company.
This ensures the customer gets the best advice and assistance every time.
Freshdesk is free to use with some feature limitations.
Paid plans cost from $15/agent/month and come with a 21-day free trial.
Zendesk
Best inter-company help desk
Zendesk is an intuitive, fully-featured customer support software used by MailChimp, SIEMENS, Tesco, and Uber. Zendesk offers pre-built software or fully customized packages.
Standout Zendesk features include omnichannel support, customer self-service tools, automation, and AI-powered bots, a unified agent workspace, collaboration solutions, and built-in routing and intelligence.
Zendesk offers an internal help desk solution for companies looking to elevate the level of care and support they provide their own employees. Zendesk offers a self-service knowledge base, centralized business information, IT and HR workflow automation, and satisfaction trend reporting.
Zendesk costs from $19/agent/month and offers a 30-day free trial.
CometChat
Best customer-to-customer chat solution
CometChat allows you to add video + voice call center services and text chat to your websites and apps. This lets you talk with your clients directly or facilitate conversations between customers. This makes it a great choice if part of your service is connecting consumers and producers to one another, like with an online marketplace or community hub.
Push, email, and SMS notifications ensure the recipient doesn’t miss a message. Your own company service agents can take advantage of the streamlined phone and video services, too.
CometChat’s easy drag-and-drop chat plugin connects with whatever web service you use, like WordPress, Bubble, or Composr CMS.
CometChat Go Lite costs from $49/month with a 7-day free trial.
Pro plans cost from $149/month + per-minute video and call charges.
Forethought
Best AI automated chatbot
Forethought is the maker of Agatha, an AI automation chatbot tool for customer support agents to manage any customer request quickly. Agatha pulls information from your knowledge base and Salesforce Service Cloud to automatically assist basic customer queries without live agent intervention.
The AI will intervene with easy answers or quickly ping an agent for concerns it is not equipped to handle independently. Forethought also offers automatic triage and routing and customer support operations analysis. You can pick between multiple feature packages so that you are only paying for the stuff you need.
Forethought offers customized pricing upon request and has a free demo.
You can ask their contact center for details. They do not offer a free trial.
JivoChat
Best live chat software for websites
JivoChat is a business communications tool that features an integrated messaging solution that allows your clients to talk to you using Apple Business Chat, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Instagram. Your customer service agents receive all chats, emails, and calls in the Jivo app, no matter where or how the customer is reaching out.
This saves the time and confusion of jumping between different windows or platforms. JivoChat integrates with the software you already use in your day-to-day workflow, like CRM tools, WordPress, Shopify, Weebly, Slack, BigCommerce, Wix.com, and hundreds of others with a paid Zapier plan.
JivoChat Basic is free for your first five agents. Paid plans cost from $189/user/month and come with a 14-day free trial.
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The Best Customer Support Software Summary Table
Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Zoho Assist Best for providing remote access support | 15-day free trial available | From $12/month | Visit Website |
2 | Document360 Best for simple knowledge base management | 14-day free trial | From $119/user/month | Visit Website |
3 | Zoho SalesIQ Best for its easy-to-use, customizable interface | 15-day free trial available | From $7/operator/month | Visit Website |
4 | Custify Best for SaaS companies | Free trial + free demo | From $199/month | Visit Website |
5 | Groove Best for integrations | 15 Days Free Trial | From $15/user/month | Visit Website |
6 | Freshdesk Best for collaborating with external stakeholders | 21-day free trial + free plan available | From $18/user/month | Visit Website |
7 | Zendesk Best inter-company help desk | 14-day free trial | From $19/user/month (billed annually) | Visit Website |
8 | CometChat Best customer-to-customer chat solution | 7 Days Free Trial | From $49/month | Visit Website |
9 | Forethought Best AI automated chatbot | Free Trial | Pricing Upon Request | Visit Website |
10 | JivoChat Best live chat software for websites | 14 Days Free Trial | From $189/user/month | Visit Website |
Other Customer Support Tool Options
Here are a few more customer service management software that did not make the top list:
- Helpscout
Best for small businesses
- Tidio
Best for its automated customer conversion strategies
- LiveAgent
Best to manage your help desk and knowledge base
- Zoho Desk
Best customer support software for enterprises
- Hive
Best customer support software with project management
- Jitbit Helpdesk
Best for small business
- UseResponse
Best customer feedback software
- ProProfs Help Desk
Best for customer satisfaction surveys & NPS
- HappyFox
Best multi-brand help desk system
- OneDesk
Best email capturing and record automation
- Salesforce Service Cloud
Best for ease of use & community support
- Kustomer
Best for subscription-based services
- HaloITSM
Best all-inclusive ITSM software solution
- SysAid
Best IT service desk automations
- Front
Best for Shopify users
- ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus
Best customer self-service portal
- LiveAgent
Best free customer support software
- FAQ Bot
Best targeted messaging marketing
- HubSpot Service Hub
Best for inbound calling + VoIP calling
- Vivantio
Best for global service teams
How I Selected the Best Customer Support Software
Are you wondering how I choose the best customer support software for this list? Allow me to explain my methodology.
I started out by creating a long list of the most popular customer support software out there based on user rankings. Next, I assessed each platform's website to make sure that their software covered all the basic features that a customer support team would need to manage their processes from beginning to end.
Lastly, I used my below selection criteria to help me finalize my selections. Using these criteria as a framework, I compared each customer support software to see how it stacked up to the rest of the tools, and name the best of the bunch.
Selection Criteria
What do I look for when I select the best customer support software? Here is a summary of my selection criteria:
- User Interface (UI): Customer service software needs to have a clean, intuitive UI for both the agent and the end user. Customers who can’t figure out your system navigation aren't going to wait around to learn it.
- Usability: The last thing you need is customer service software that doesn;t work. That kind of defeats the purpose. I’m looking for something with high uptime, easy troubleshooting, straightforward onboarding your team, a responsive helpdesk function, and maybe even a self-serve knowledge base.
- Integrations: Customer service software should connect with whatever tools you are using to reach and serve your customers. This might be messaging tools like Slack, relationship management databases, ecommerce apps, and/or social media. Flexible connectivity is a must.
- Value for Cost: Obviously, it won’t do you well to skimp on your customer support software budget; however, I do take into consideration how competitive a price is compared to other tools on the list and what advanced features they offer at what price point.
People Also Ask
What are the Key Features of Customer Support Software?
Are there any free customer support software?
Other Types of Support Software
This article features general, all-purpose customer support software options, each with its different strengths and weaknesses. However, we also have articles across the site that deep-dive into a particular type of customer service software. If you’re looking for something more specific, these might help.
- Customer experience management software
- Customer service automation
- Customer service chat software for small businesses
- Customer service email management software
- Customer service ticketing software
- Customer database software
What Do You Think About These Customer Service Tools?
Microsoft reports that 90% of customers decide whether or not to do business with a company based on that company’s customer service reputation. When it comes to custom churn, 93% of customers confirm that excellent customer service will compel them to give a company repeat business. It's easy to see how customer service can have a huge impact on sales.
I hope that my review has made you more aware of the exciting and wide array of customer support platforms out there. There’s no single best tool as it really depends on your customer support team members and your business model. But I hope I’ve shed light on the different software support software you can choose from to make the most informed decision for your business.
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Related Read: Customer Support Automation: Benefits, Challenges And How-to