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10 Best Help Desk Software For Small Business

Best Help Desk Software for Small Business Shortlist

Here’s the shortlist of the best help desk software for small business that I’ll cover in this article, with detailed summaries below:

  1. 1. NinjaOne (formerly NinjaRMM) — Best small business help desk software for automated IT ticketing
  2. 2. Hiver — Best small business help desk software for Gmail integration
  3. 3. EngageBay — Best small business help desk software for scalability
  4. 4. Avochato — Best small business help desk software for mobile functionality
  5. 5. InvGate Service Desk — Best small business help desk software for alignment with ITIL best practices
  6. 6. Jira Service Management — Best small business help desk software for IT teams
  7. 7. Gorgias — Best small business help desk software for monitoring agent performance
  8. 8. LiveAgent — Best small business help desk software for in-depth customer knowledge
  9. 9. Tidio — Best small business help desk software for live visitor tracking
  10. 10. Zoho Desk — Best small business help desk software for multi-channel ticket support


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 10 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

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

Free trial is available

Customized price upon request

Pros

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

Cons

  • Reporting functions need improvement
  • No transparent pricing
2

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 $19/agent/month

Pros

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

Cons

  • Automations lack customization
  • Mobile app needs 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

Freemium plan available

From $14.99/month (750 contacts)

Pros

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

Cons

  • Landing page builder needs work
  • Steep learning curve
4

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

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

Cons

  • Scant reporting data
  • Occasionally slow load times
5

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

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

Cons

  • Report creation is complicated
  • Some difficulty onboarding
6

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

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

Cons

  • Advanced features have a learning curve
  • Ticket creation is cumbersome
7

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.

Demo available upon request

Plans start at $10/month

Pros

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

Cons

  • Workflow automations are tedious
  • Some difficulty with customization
8

LiveAgent

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

LiveAgent is a help desk software for small business that stores an impressive amount of customer data.

Why I picked LiveAgent: LiveAgent connects all customer conversations from multiple channels (including social, email, and video calling), so that agents can view history and provide more relevant and personalized support. Customer data can also be collected via forms and stored within customer profiles. This can include purchase history and customer satisfaction data, which can then be used to create targeted marketing touchpoints in the future. 

Real-time online visitor tracking allows you to see which pages customers are visiting, and where they are located. Your support team can then proactively invite these customers to chat and further support their purchasing journey. Email templates can be created with quick-to-deploy messages, and LiveAgent also allows you to offer an extensive knowledge base for self-serve support. 

LiveAgent Standout Features and Integrations

Features include ticketing system, agent collision detection, agent ranking, audit log, canned messages, online ticket history, time tracking, universal inbox, and customer insights. 

Integrations include Adiptel, Everhour, Feederloop, iPlan, Kopano, Linphone, MicroSIP, Monema, Sangoma, Telnyx, Zentyal, and Zoiper. 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.
4.5 1392

7-day free trial available

Plans start at $9/agent/month

Pros

  • Very user-friendly
  • Omnichannel capabilities
  • Integrates with multiple ecommerce platforms

Cons

  • Frequent backend changes
  • Extra incoming channels are a paid feature
9

Tidio

Best small business help desk software for live visitor tracking

Tidio is a help desk software that uses live chat + AI chatbots to help small businesses communicate with customers.

Why I picked Tidio: Tidio helps small businesses to improve time management by automating the more repetitive tasks associated with customer support. Email integration, automated message triggers, and AI chatbots can answer customer questions and even upsell related products and services. You can establish canned responses to the most common queries to make sure that customers receive a speedy response. Chatbots can also guide customers to your knowledge base to find additional information.

Tidio’s ticket management system makes it easy to create, assign, and track tickets from a central location, where you can view which tickets have been resolved, and which still need to be addressed. Reporting tools track team performance, providing insight into satisfaction ratings, average response times, and chat volume. Live visitor analytics share which pages have the highest traffic, as well as data like customer location.

Tidio Standout Features and Integrations

Features include CRM integration, chatbots, customer management, dashboards, knowledge base, live chat, real-time alerts, and social media integration.

Integrations include BigCommerce, Facebook Messanger, Google Analytics, Hubspot, Instagram, Joomla, Magento, Mailchimp, Pipedrive, PrestaShop, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, WooCommerce, WordPress, 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 1339

7-day free trial

From $19/user/month

Pros

  • Easy setup
  • Speedy customer support
  • Highly customizable

Cons

  • No WhatsApp integration
  • Chat works better on desktop than mobile
10

Zoho Desk

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

Zoho Desk is a help desk software for small business that takes an omnichannel approach to addressing customer concerns.

Why I picked Zoho Desk: Zoho Desk empowers support teams to understand the full picture when addressing customer concerns. By providing context to each ticket (and even a helpful “peek” feature that lets agents view history at a glance), support agents can stay organized and productive. 

Zoho Desk’s omnichannel ticketing system gathers all the support tickets from every channel (email, social media, live chat, telephony, and webform) into a single interface. Team members can reply faster and provide a higher service level to customers, reaching a resolution that takes customer history into account. You can also set up assignment rules to determine how tickets are routed for greater efficiency.

Zoho Desk Standout Features and Integrations

Features include API, CRM integration, analytics, call integration, batch permissions and access, calendar management, call tracking, live chat, and data visualization.

Integrations include the other tools in Zoho’s suite (Analytics, Assist, CRM, and SalesIQ), as well as third party platforms like Duocom, Google Workspace, Jira, Mailchimp, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Slack, and Twilio.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.4 3591

15-day free trial available

From $20/agent/month

Pros

  • Customizable ticketing system
  • Multichannel capabilities
  • Detailed dashboard provides context

Cons

  • Steep learning curve
  • Limited customization on some web forms

The 10 Best Help Desk Software For Small Business Summary

Tool Free Option Price
1
NinjaOne (formerly NinjaRMM)

Best small business help desk software for automated IT ticketing

Free trial is available

Customized price upon request Visit Website
2
Hiver

Best small business help desk software for Gmail integration

7-day free trial

From $19/agent/month Visit Website
3
EngageBay

Best small business help desk software for scalability

Freemium plan available

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

Best small business help desk software for mobile functionality

14-day free trial is available

From $19/user/month Visit Website
5
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
6
Jira Service Management

Best small business help desk software for IT teams

Freemium plan available

From $0/month Visit Website
7
Gorgias

Best small business help desk software for monitoring agent performance

Demo available upon request

Plans start at $10/month Visit Website
8
LiveAgent

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

7-day free trial available

Plans start at $9/agent/month Visit Website
9
Tidio

Best small business help desk software for live visitor tracking

7-day free trial

From $19/user/month Visit Website
10
Zoho Desk

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

15-day free trial available

From $20/agent/month 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. Zendesk

    Best small business help desk software for startup

  2. HaloITSM

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

  3. SysAid

    Best small business help desk software for automated features

  4. Issuetrak

    Best small business help desk software for quick ticket resolutions

  5. Freshservice

    Best small business help desk software for rapid deployment

  6. ConnectWise PSA

    Best small business help desk software for intelligent dispatching

  7. HappyFox Help Desk

    Best small business help desk software for creating community forums

  8. TOPdesk

    Best small business help desk software for enhanced customer experience

  9. GoTo Resolve

    Best small business help desk software for team collaboration

  10. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

    Best small business help desk software for codeless customizations

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. Her goal is to bring together a community of CX professionals to learn, interact, and voice their own opinions on this ever-evolving industry.

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