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20 Best Help Desk Software For Small Business

Best Help Desk Software for Small Business Shortlist

Here are the top 10 help desk software for small business I’d like to highlight out of the 20 I cover in this article:

  1. 1. SysAid — Best for its self-serve portal
  2. 2. NinjaOne (formerly NinjaRMM) — Best small business help desk software for automated IT ticketing
  3. 3. EngageBay — Best small business help desk software for scalability
  4. 4. Zendesk — Best small business help desk software for startup
  5. 5. Avochato — Best small business help desk software for mobile functionality
  6. 6. InvGate Service Desk — Best small business help desk software for alignment with ITIL best practices
  7. 7. Creabl — Best small business help desk software for user tracking and analytics
  8. 8. Jira Service Management — Best small business help desk software for IT teams
  9. 9. Gorgias — Best small business help desk software for monitoring agent performance
  10. 10. Hiver — Best small business help desk software for Gmail integration


Help desk software for small business can streamline your customer service tasks, making it easier for your team to clearly communicate with customers and efficiently resolve their concerns.

When a customer encounters a problem and is quickly and kindly offered a solution, their trust in your brand grows. Sure, at first blush, helping someone navigate a 404 error may seem like no big deal. But it’s actually planting the seeds of brand loyalty, which is a critical factor in revenue growth for small businesses.

In this sense, help desk software for small business doesn’t just offer the practical elements of communication and analytics. It also offers the more intangible but immensely beneficial opportunity to nurture customer relationships.

If your small business is looking for a help desk software platform, look no farther. I’ve rounded up the best tools on the market today, and I’m excited to share them with you.

If you’re curious how I developed this list, see How I Selected the Best Help Desk Software for Small Business below. Or, pop down to my Frequently Asked Questions section if you have general questions about help desk software.

The CX Lead is reader-supported. We may earn a commission when you click through links on our site — learn more about how we aim to stay transparent.

Overviews of the 20 Best Help Desk Software for Small Business

Here’s a brief description of each help desk software for small business, showcasing each tool’s best use case, their noteworthy features, and some pros and cons. I’ve also included screenshots to give you a snapshot of their user interface. 

1

SysAid

Best for its self-serve portal

SysAid is an IT service automation platform that is designed to automate several tasks a help desk team is responsible for, such as ticketing, service requests, and personalized support services.

Why I picked SysAid: It offers multi-channel support, enabling businesses to efficiently manage customer queries across various platforms. The ticketing system helps organize and prioritize support requests, ensuring no issues are overlooked, while automation streamlines routine tasks for small teams with limited resources.

SysAid's customization options allow small businesses to tailor the software to their unique needs and branding, and its mobile accessibility ensures support agents can work remotely. The software prioritizes security, safeguarding sensitive customer data and ensuring compliance.

SysAid Standout Features & Integrations

Features that stand out are its knowledge base and routing rules. SysAid's knowledge base feature empowers customers to find answers independently, reducing the workload on support staff. Routing rules, on the other hand, help users define how incoming requests from users should be routed within the team to reduce turn around times.

Integrations can be accessed through SysAid's marketplace and include pre-built integrations with Jira, Teamviewer, Solarwinds, Azure, Openam, Slack, Okta, and Google Apps. You can also connect to thousands of additional apps using a paid subscription with Zapier.

30-day free trial

Pricing upon request

Pros

  • Ability to create a self-learning org
  • Customers can reset their own passwords

Cons

  • Steep learning curve for first-time users
  • Interface looks outdated
2

NinjaOne (formerly NinjaRMM)

Best small business help desk software for automated IT ticketing

NinjaOne is a help desk software for small business that’s designed to meet the needs of IT teams.

Why I picked NinjaOne: NinjaOne helps small businesses improve service delivery outcomes and ticket resolution times by automating the process. Essential actions like scripting, installing apps, and remote access are available directly from the service ticket, and unified endpoint management and ticketing makes it easy for IT teams to provide efficient support.

Users can automate ticketing workflows by creating things like customized response templates, time and event-based routing rules, and condition-based ticket creation. The shared activity feed makes it easy to communicate with other agents about a ticket, using public and private messaging, as well as @ mentions. Their in-depth process documentation aligns well with knowledge recording best practices, and creates a context-rich query history. 

NinjaOne Standout Features and Integrations

Features include ticket tracking, query prioritization, context-rich ticket automation, single click tasks, live device inventory, endpoint security, one click remote access, stealth remediation tools, and integrated documentation.

Integrations are not mentioned on the NinjaOne website.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.8 249

30-day free trial

Customized price upon request

Pros

  • Excellent customer support
  • User-friendly UI
  • New features added frequently

Cons

  • No transparent pricing
  • Reporting functions need improvement
3

EngageBay

Best small business help desk software for scalability

EngageBay is a help desk software for small business that can grow with you.

Why I picked EngageBay: EngageBay provides small businesses with unlimited support tickets and unlimited personalization right out of the gate. Rather than being locked into a plan that you could quickly outgrow, EngageBay gives you space to scale. The tool offers features like ticket routing, automated resolutions, and SLA tracking to enhance efficiency. You can customize workflows to ensure that team members can easily respond to incoming tickets.

EngageBay’s user-friendly interface pulls conversations from multiple channels like social media and email to gather omnichannel customer profiles. The tool integrates marketing, sales, and CRM capacities to truly offer a one-stop-shop for customer management and revenue growth. 

EngageBay Standout Features and Integrations

Features include live chat, SLA, ticket management, help desk reports, service automations, canned responses, customer ticket views, and support groups.

Integrations include A/B testing, API, CRM integration, live chat, click-to-dial, contact management, conversion tracking, data export, data visualization, email integration, landing pages, lead management, marketing automation, project management, and social media integration.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.7 132

Free plan available

From $14.99/month (750 contacts)

Pros

  • Great for internal team communication
  • Extensive automation capabilities
  • Excellent CRM integrations

Cons

  • Steep learning curve
  • Landing page builder needs work
4

Zendesk

Best small business help desk software for startup

ZenDesk is a help desk software for small business with a modern, well organized interface.

Why I picked ZenDesk: ZenDesk’s design-forward branding is visibly skewed to a younger audience. Their offering speaks to startups that are eager to add a human element to their customer service, placing a conversational approach at the heart of their features. The platform boasts a self-service portal and knowledge base, satisfaction trend reporting, and workflow automations for IT and HR.

The ZenDesk help desk solution is scalable, and can grow with you as your organization expands into new markets. With offices in Melbourne, Dublin, London, and Copenhagen, ZenDesk team members will be available to help as you extend your global reach.

ZenDesk Standout Features and Integrations

Features include API access, CRM integration, call integration, chat, contact management, customer management, email integration, instant chat integration, knowledge base, real-time alerts, self-service portal, social media integration, support forum, ticket management, and workflow management.

Integrations include Asana, Box, Clubhouse, Dropbox, Harvestr, JIRA, Mailchimp, Nicereply, Salesforce, Shopify, Slack, Trello, and Zoom. 

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.3 5815

14-day free trial

From $19/user/month (billed annually)

Pros

  • Easy to use
  • Excellent query management
  • Centralized customer service operations

Cons

  • Chat service only available in higher tiers
  • Steep learning curve to customize
5

Avochato

Best small business help desk software for mobile functionality

Avochato is a help desk software for small business that prioritizes SMS communications.

Why I picked Avochato: Avochato’s help desk software solution empowers users to support customers across SMS, live chat, Slack, and WhatsApp from a single interface. You can create reusable templates to automate answers to frequently asked questions, and auto-responses based on keywords in the live chat function.

Teams can create one or more shared inboxes, and can set rules around how customer support queries are routed. When customer issues need to be reassigned, the escalation process allows customer support agents to add private notes for context. Additionally, every text can be personalized with custom fields to ensure that service requests receive the exact resolution to suit the issue.

Avochato Standout Features and Integrations

Features include keyword auto-responses, SMS campaigns, pre-saved templates, auto assignment, custom fields, photos + emojis, tags, shared inboxes, analytics, and a mobile app.

Integrations include Google Sheets, HubSpot, Salesforce, Shopify, and Slack. Further integrations are available by connecting a paid Zapier account.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.4 195

14-day free trial is available

From $19/user/month

Pros

  • User friendly
  • All conversations synced with Salesforce
  • Excellent customer service

Cons

  • Occasionally slow load times
  • Scant reporting data
6

InvGate Service Desk

Best small business help desk software for alignment with ITIL best practices

InvGate is a help desk software for small business that has been designed to align with Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practices.

Why I picked InvGate: InvGate’s intuitive ticketing solution organizes work based on priority, SLA, and urgency. By highlighting the actions that can be solved easily in just one click, their platform helps IT companies avoid bottlenecks when responding to customer requests. The system has been designed with industry best practices in mind, so it prioritizes factors like security, response time, and collaboration.

The platform is built for collaboration and provides agents with full visibility on configuration items, linked requests, and ticket changes. Customized dashboards can be adjusted to adapt to your company’s needs, and reports can be pulled on over 150 metrics. You can also track agent performance via response time and customer ratings.

InvGate Standout Features and Integrations

Features include ticket management, problem management, gamification, AI, analytics, SLAs, knowledge base, self-service, and workflow automation. 

Integrations are not mentioned on the InvGate website.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.6 11

30-day free trial available

Pricing upon request

Pros

  • Excellent workflow automation
  • Customers can access search bar in tickets
  • Gamification features

Cons

  • Some difficulty onboarding
  • Report creation is complicated
7

Creabl

Best small business help desk software for user tracking and analytics

Creabl is a product success software that helps businesses track user behavious, analyze their audience, and provide customer support.

Why I picked Creabl: Customer support teams can create their self-serve help center in the software using its content editor that supports video, image, and interactive content and the creation of call-to-action (CTA) buttons. Users can customize the look and feel of their support content hub by adding their logo and selecting their brand colors. Additionally, the software can be used to create automated email sequences with customer behavior triggers to provide relevant customer support content along various stages of the customer journey.

For small businesses looking to do more with less, self-serve customer support can alleviate the workload of your CX team. The software can also be used for tracking website visitors and analyzing audience insights, helping to inform your product development and go-to-market strategy. It has session recording, visitor data tracking, and page heatmaps to understand how users navigate your site. You can also track how new customers move through your sales funnel and generate customer retention reports in the system.

Creabl Standout Features and Integrations

Features include self-serve content hub, multimedia content editor, chatbot, email campaigns, customizable lead magnets, session recording, visitor tracking, user segmentation, custom sales funnels, and retention tracking and reporting.

Integration information is not currently available.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.5 1

Creabl offers a 30-day free trial upon sign-up.

When paid annually, Creabl’s Pro plan starts at $36 per month.

Pros

  • Friendly user interface, easy to learn
  • Provide self-serve support content
  • 30-day free trial available

Cons

  • Self-serve help center only (no ticketing)
  • Analytics are limited in the pro and business plans
8

Jira Service Management

Best small business help desk software for IT teams

Jira Service Management is a help desk software for small business that helps IT teams manage complex customer issues.

Why I picked Jira Service Management: IT teams have notoriously complicated customer queries within a helpdesk setting. Unlike returning a pair of shoes in the wrong size, these requests can sometimes involve enterprise-level errors, and thus require an added layer of security and data storage. Jira speaks to this specialty but has still managed to keep their ITSM platform simple and straightforward.

You can track work across an enterprise, link issues, and take into consideration insight from other dev tools, which provides in-depth context for each ticket. Changes, incidents, and requests benefit from an audit trail that also assists in mitigating risk.

Jira Service Management Standout Features and Integrations

Features include request management, incident management, change management, asset management, mobile app, open API, self-service knowledge base, and smart forms.

Integrations include Draw.io, LucidChart Diagrams Connector, Planner by Tempo, Poll Marker, ScriptRunner, Xporter, and Zephyr Scale. Further integrations are available by connecting a paid Zapier account.

Freemium plan available

From $0/month

Pros

  • Fantastic user interface
  • Gantt chart flow
  • Extensive workflow customization

Cons

  • Ticket creation is cumbersome
  • Advanced features have a learning curve
9

Gorgias

Best small business help desk software for monitoring agent performance

Gorgias is a help desk software for small business that allows you to pull reports on individual agent performance.

Why I picked Gorgias: Gorgias has a suite of easy-to-use tools that help small businesses create tickets, assign agents, and track the progress of support queries. You can automate processes by establishing things like routing rules and canned responses, helping to ensure that customers receive speedy replies. Integrations with CRM platforms enhance the data you can collect, and analytics go beyond customers to also provide insight on agent performance.

It’s easy to edit orders, make subscription updates, and refund payments from within the Gorgias intuitive helpdesk. You can respond to customers even before they reach your website via a variety of social media integrations, instantly expanding your marketing reach.

Gorgias Standout Features and Integrations

Features include SMS chat, automation views, customer surveys, email integration, live chat, multi-store management, order management, reporting, revenue tracking, routing rules, self-service knowledge base, sentiment detection, social media integration, and voice chat.

Integrations include Attentive, Bigblue, Facebook, Flatlay, Instagram, Klavyio, Office 365, Pipedream, Recharge, ShipMonk, Stonley, and Yotpo.

7-day free trial

From $10/month

Pros

  • Easy onboarding
  • Great for tracking internal records
  • Pulls customer information from Shopify

Cons

  • Some difficulty with customization
  • Workflow automations are tedious
10

Hiver

Best small business help desk software for Gmail integration

Hiver is a help desk software for small business that is integrated within the Gmail platform.

Why I picked Hiver: For small businesses with little time to waste, Hiver presents an easy way to increase the efficiency of customer support. Rather than learning an entirely new interface, Hiver is brought to you from within Gmail; their solution sits overtop of the existing Gmail interface, making it super easy to learn and onboard new team members.

Help desk ticketing can be managed via custom workflows, and live agents can assign tasks, create automated responses, prioritize requests, and pull data for reports. Customer relationships will benefit from Hiver’s ability to send out updates as their ticket is moved through queues and towards a resolution.

Hiver Standout Features and Integrations

Features include Google apps integration, batch permissions & access, live chat, contact management, customer management, dashboards, data export, data visualization, email integration, notifications, and workflow automation.

Integrations include Gmail, Slack, and Zendesk. Further integrations are available by connecting a paid Zapier account.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.7 711

7-day free trial

From $15/user/month (billed annually)

Pros

  • Completely within Gmail interface
  • Super easy to learn
  • Shared mailbox enhances team communication

Cons

  • Mobile app needs improvement
  • Automations lack customization

The Best Help Desk Software For Small Business Summary

Tool Free Option Price
1
SysAid

Best for its self-serve portal

30-day free trial

Pricing upon request Visit Website
2
NinjaOne (formerly NinjaRMM)

Best small business help desk software for automated IT ticketing

30-day free trial

Customized price upon request Visit Website
3
EngageBay

Best small business help desk software for scalability

Free plan available

From $14.99/month (750 contacts) Visit Website
4
Zendesk

Best small business help desk software for startup

14-day free trial

From $19/user/month (billed annually) Visit Website
5
Avochato

Best small business help desk software for mobile functionality

14-day free trial is available

From $19/user/month Visit Website
6
InvGate Service Desk

Best small business help desk software for alignment with ITIL best practices

30-day free trial available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
7
Creabl

Best small business help desk software for user tracking and analytics

Creabl offers a 30-day free trial upon sign-up.

When paid annually, Creabl’s Pro plan starts at $36 per month. Visit Website
8
Jira Service Management

Best small business help desk software for IT teams

Freemium plan available

From $0/month Visit Website
9
Gorgias

Best small business help desk software for monitoring agent performance

7-day free trial

From $10/month Visit Website
10
Hiver

Best small business help desk software for Gmail integration

7-day free trial

From $15/user/month (billed annually) Visit Website

Other Options

Here are a few more worthwhile options that didn’t make the list of best help desk software for small business:

  1. Tidio

    Best small business help desk software for live visitor tracking

  2. LiveAgent

    Best small business help desk software for in-depth customer knowledge

  3. Zoho Desk

    Best small business help desk software for multi-channel ticket support

  4. HaloITSM

    Best small business help desk software for customer self-service portals

  5. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

    Best small business help desk software for codeless customizations

  6. Issuetrak

    Best small business help desk software for quick ticket resolutions

  7. SysAid

    Best small business help desk software for automated features

  8. Freshservice

    Best small business help desk software for rapid deployment

  9. TOPdesk

    Best small business help desk software for enhanced customer experience

  10. ServiceWise

    Best small business help desk software for syncing historical customer data

How I Selected the Best Help Desk Software for Small Business

Curious about how I curated this list? I began my search by evaluating and comparing a wide range of help desk software for small business with positive user ratings. After gathering my long list, I trimmed it down by investigating how each platform stacked up against the next using the below selection criteria.

Were the tools user friendly? Were they visually appealing and well-organized? Did they cover a variety of price points and offer great value for the money? The best of the bunch made it onto this list.

Selection Criteria

Let’s take a closer look at the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best help desk software for small business for this article:

User Interface:

When a customer takes a first step towards contacting your small business, they should feel supported from minute one. They shouldn’t have to sort through layers of confusion in order to complete the action they desire to complete. All the tools on this list have a modern, visually appealing user interface for both customers and internal users. They’re well organized and easy to navigate. 

Usability:

All the help desk software for small business on this list are easy to learn and easy to customize. You shouldn’t have to spend weeks onboarding your team before you can dive in and start helping customers on your new platform. I chose help desk software that are straightforward and don’t require any specific subject matter expertise before use.

Features:

The best help desk software offer a variety of features to meet the full spectrum of customer needs, via multi-channel support. The tools on this list help you centralize communications from email, SMS, social media, and more into a single dashboard. They also contain in-depth analytics, collaboration tools, and automation options.

Software Integrations: 

Not only do the help desk software on this list offer the regular customer support functionality, they take it a step farther by integrating with many of the other platforms you’re currently using. For example, many of these tools integrate with CRM platforms like Salesforce to help you gather client data that can be used later on for targeted marketing campaigns. Many also integrate with ecommerce platforms, creating a seamless flow between your online store and customer service help desk.  

Pricing:

The help desk software on this list represent a range of price points, and some of the tools even offer a freemium option. In most cases, the tools have multiple monthly plans – some with a higher price point and a lengthy list of features, and others at a lower price point with a pared down features menu. Whatever your budget, I’ve made sure that there’s a tool on this list to suit your needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

If your small business is just beginning the search for a customer support solution, you probably have a number of questions about help desk software in general. I’ve gathered some of the most common FAQs here for clarity.

Happy Customers = Return Customers

Statistically speaking, 65% of your revenue is likely to come from existing customers. When you nurture your customer relationships, you naturally increase their loyalty to your small business, and in turn create more sales.

Ensuring that your customer touchpoints are characterized by helpful, clear, kind, and efficient interactions will let your customers know how deeply you value them. An investment in help desk software for small business can dramatically improve the quality of your interactions within each touchpoint. So what are you waiting for?

Looking for more awesome help desk tools? Check out this additional article from our subject matter experts:

Best Help Desk Software for Customer Service

And to stay up to date on all the latest trends and insight in the customer experience industry, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter!

By Hannah Clark

Hannah Clark is the Editor of The CX Lead. After serving over 12 years working in front-line customer experience for major brands, Hannah pivoted to a career in digital publishing and media production. Having gained a holistic view of the challenges and intricacies of delivering exceptional experiences, Hannah aims to help CX practitioners 'level up' their skills by amplifying the voices of today's thought leaders in the space.

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