10 Web-Based Help Desks for 2024

For customer support teams, using a web-based helpdesk is not just about keeping pace with technology. It’s about leveraging the web’s power to offer seamless and accessible support across multiple channels.

Beyond helping support teams provide real-time support, web-based helpdesks streamline internal support operations and automate several tasks – all of which contribute to higher team efficiency.

In fact, an added advantage with using such a help desk is that they help you deliver seamless support irrespective of whether your agents work remotely or out of the same office.

In this article, we discuss some of the popular web-based help desk tools in the market. We focus on their standout features and pricing.

What is A Web-Based Help Desk Software?

A web-based help desk is a software that helps businesses manage and resolve customer queries over the internet. It offers features such as ticket management, multi-channel support, automations, and more.

Since a web-based help desk is cloud-based, it does away with the complexities of legacy help desk systems and are relatively more scalable and flexible.

For instance, say you’re running an ecommerce business and experience a surge in customer queries during the holiday season.

Seeing as it is the holidays, it is likely that a good chunk of your team members are working remotely. In such a scenario, a web-based help desk can help your team manage this influx of inquiries without having to be tied to their desks. It can even be used to understand your teammates’ availability and assign customer tickets based on when your agents are online.

The self-service features that web-based help desks offer are key to helping customers troubleshoot issues on their own. This limits ticket volume and also reduces burnout amongst your agents.

How Are Web-Based Help Desks Different from On-Premise Help Desks?

Let’s take a look at some key differences between web-based help desks and on-premise help desks

Deployment

• Web-based help desks are hosted on the vendor’s services and are accessed via the internet. You can use the help desk from your browser or mobile app without having to worry about infrastructure.
• On-premise help desks are installed in the organization’s physical location. They need separate infrastructure and maintenance – including security, updates, and backups.

Accessibility

• Web-based help desks can be accessed from anywhere. All you need is an internet connection. This makes it easier for teams working remotely to offer seamless customer support.
• On-premise help desks can only be accessed from the organization’s internal network. Remote access is limited and may require additional permissions and configurations.

Cost

• Web-based help desks do not require any infrastructure which means lower upfront costs. They work on a subscription model where users can pay for the features they need on a recurring basis.
• On-premise help desks have higher upfront costs for setting up the infrastructure, purchasing software licenses, maintenance, etc. 

Scalability

• Web-based help desks can be easily scaled as the business grows. You can simply upgrade to a higher plan as the number of users increases. 
• On-premise help desks are hard to scale since the infrastructure is already set up for a specific number of users. Scaling up may mean additional infrastructure and licensing costs. This can prove to be expensive.

Features to Look for in A Web-Based Help Desk

Choosing the right web-based help desk is crucial for efficient customer support. Here are the things you should look for.

• Ticket management: Support agents can create, assign, and track customer tickets from a centralized dashboard with a web-based help desk.
• Multi-channel support: Engage with customers across channels such as email, live chat, phone, and social media.
• Knowledge base: Direct customers to help articles, how-to-guides, tutorials, and videos to help them find answers to their queries and troubleshoot issues using a knowledge base or help center.
• Automation: Streamline repetitive tasks such as ticket routing and tagging. Reduce the burden on your agents and enable them to focus on more complex tasks.
• Reporting and analytics: Gauge actionable insights and track key metrics such as CSAT, first response time, ticket volume, etc. to understand what’s working and what’s not in your support process.
• Integrations: Ensure that your web-based help desk integrates seamlessly with the different systems in your tech stack such as CRMs, sales intelligence tools, and others.

You Might Also Like: 12 Best Email Ticketing Systems for Customer Support

10 Best Web-Based Help Desks for Your Customer Support Team

Here is a quick comparison of the top 10 web-based help desk systems in the market.

Below is a comprehensive overview of some of the best web-based help desk solutions.

1. Hiver

If you’re someone looking for a web-based help desk that is easy to use and is not much of a hassle, then Hiver is the answer.

Hiver is a web-based helpdesk that allows you to centralize customer queries, collaborate internally with your team members, and automate repetitive tasks such as ticket assignment.

This streamlines your customer support process and improves agent efficiency. 

Aside from this, one of the best things about Hiver is its 24/7 vendor support. Hiver’s customer support agents ensure that any queries or issues are addressed promptly, ensuring minimal downtime. This is particularly important with help desks since any downtime can have a direct impact on your customer service processes.

Key Features

• Multi-channel Support: Engage with customers across email, live chat, phone, WhatsApp, and knowledge base. This makes it convenient for teams to offer seamless support across your customer’s preferred channels.
• Ticket Management: Turn all your incoming business queries into tickets and then assign them to the right agents. This way every customer query has a dedicated owner and nothing is missed out on.
• Collaboration: Hiver’s Notes is present alongside every email. This makes it easy for team members to work together on customer queries. All you have to do is @mention the relevant teammate and write a message – they get notified in real-time.
• Automations: Your agents no longer need to spend time doing repetitive tasks such as assigning queries or tagging emails. Hiver’s Automations can be used to route tickets based on specific conditions or skill-sets of your agents. You can also use automations to take care of tasks like closing unimportant emails and categorizing incoming queries.
• Hiver’s powerful help desk can be used by healthcare, education, finance, and logistics teams to deliver faster support and improve efficiency.

Pricing:

Hiver has a three tiered pricing model with affordable options for small and medium businesses. The pricing starts at $10 per user per month and goes up to $40 per user per month. You can also sign up for a free 7 day trial.

2. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk’s web-based help desk is an affordable solution for small and medium businesses.

The platform offers several features such as ticket management, instant messaging, web forms, and sentiment analysis. This makes it easy for your agents to provide 24/7 consistent and quality support to your customers.

Zoho Desk is commonly used by businesses in the real estate, education, healthcare, and finance industries. The platform’s forever free plan is a good option for businesses that have minimal support needs.

Key Features

• Zia: Zoho Desk’s AI – called Zia – can be used to deliver contextual and on-time support to customers. Zia can share relevant information from your knowledge base with your customers. It can also analyze a customer’s need or intent using sentiment analysis to better understand the context of every ticket. 
• Work Modes: A great feature for improving agent productivity. With Work Modes, open tickets are automatically organized according to priority, ticket type, customer type, etc. This way the most important customer queries are addressed first.
• Reports and Dashboards: Actionable insights and detailed reporting to track your team’s performance. Measure key customer service metrics such as average handling time, first response time, resolution time, etc.
• Zoho Desk is popularly used by teams across industries such as manufacturing, finance, healthcare, and energy.

Pricing:

Zoho Desk’s pricing starts at $14 per user per month and goes up to $ 40 per user per month. There is also the Zoho Desk Express plan at $7 per user per month which is an affordable option for individuals and smaller teams. You can also test out the platform with their free 15 day trial

3. BoldDesk

BoldDesk offers all the features of a customer service solution but at SMB friendly pricing.

BoldDesk is a simple to use solution that employs AI to help support teams streamline customer experience. It also provides customizable features and a number of integrations, making it an excellent choice for any platform that is looking to centralize and optimize customer support. The platform is quite affordable with just $10 for 3 agents.

Key Features

• Ticketing system: An end-to-end system that helps support agents create, track, and manage customer queries and tickets.
• Task management: This is a great feature to improve agent productivity and decrease workload. It breaks down every ticket into smaller sub-tasks and then assigns them to different agents. This way every ticket is resolved faster without overwhelming your support teams.
• Collaboration: BoldDesk offers private notes that allow you to collaborate with your teammates. This is especially useful when you need inputs or information from your colleagues in order to resolve a customer ticket.
• Automation: The platform’s automation features help you create custom workflows to automate repetitive manual tasks. This includes updating ticket properties, assigning queries to agents, and adding tags to tickets.

Pricing:

BoldDesk has two pricing plans each with three tiers. The agent-based plan starts at just $10 and goes up till $40 per agent per month. They also have a plan for unlimited agents that starts at $499 per month and goes up to $1999 per month.

BoldDesk offers a 15 day free trial and even a 30 day money-back policy in case you’re not happy with the platform.

4. HelpDesk

If you’re looking for a web-based help desk that doesn’t come with complexities of multiple pricing plans, then HelpDesk is the right choice for you.

HelpDesk has a single pricing plan that comes with most of the features you would need in a customer service platform.

Its affordable pricing makes it suitable for individuals as well as small and medium sized businesses.

Key Features

• Ticket summary: HelpDesk’s AI picks up the most relevant information from a customer ticket and then summarizes them for your ease. Your agents get a brief overview of the customer query, allowing them to come up with faster responses.
• Analytics and reporting: You can choose from 6 different report types to track ticket satisfaction, first response time, resolution time, solved and closed queries, etc. This way your agents can keep track of the metrics that matter and identify any gaps in the support process.
• Ticketing personalization: You can add a touch of personalization to your communication by leveraging HelpDesk’s personalization features. Using this, you can create custom signatures, set up a custom domain and reply address, and even tailor the visual appearance of your emails.
• HelpDesk is a great solution for businesses in telecom, energy, and retail.

Pricing:

HelpDesk offers a team plan priced at $29 per user per month and includes most of the features that your business would need from a web-based help desk solution. The platform has a custom pricing plan for Enterprises that includes a few additional advantages when it comes to product support.

HelpDesk offers a free 14 day trial.

5. Zendesk

Zendesk for service is a cloud-based help desk that can be a good option for large businesses with complex support needs.

Zendesk’s pricing plans can be slightly complicated and the set-up does take some work but it offers some pretty standout features that can streamline your support operations.

Key features

• Agent workspace: This feature allows your agents to easily manage customer tickets, collaborate internally, and get complete context into queries. All from a single dashboard.
• Routing and intelligence: Route tickets based on agent availability, workload, and their expertise.
• Workforce management: Zendesk offers AI capabilities to automate agent scheduling by predicting staffing needs. It also offers complete visibility into agent activity and attendance.
• Zendesk AI: Zendesk’s bots are trained on common issues with the help of past conversations. Any time a customer raises a query, the bots can detect the intent of the conversation and offer relevant responses. In case the bot cannot answer the query, it immediately hands it off to the right agent.
• Zendesk is widely used by businesses in finance, technology, healthcare, non-profits, retail, and media.

Pricing:

Zendesk has two types of pricing plans – Support and Suite.

The Support plan starts at $19 per agent per month and goes up till $115 per agent per month. The Suite plan starts at $55 per agent per month and goes up till $115 per agent per month.

Zendesk has a free 14 day trial.

You Might Also Like: Hiver vs Zendesk: A Comparison Guide

6. Freshdesk

Freshdesk’s intuitive ticketing system makes it easy for your agents to deliver personalized support at scale.

The best part about Freshdesk’s web-based help desk is that there is an affordable option for businesses of all sizes. For example, there is a forever free plan for a team of 10 agents that includes basic features such as ticketing, knowledge base, internal collaboration features, and 24/7 email support.

Freshdesk offers some standout features that make it easy for your teams to effectively engage with customers.

Key features

• Parent-child ticketing: Break down a complex customer query (parent ticket) into several smaller sub-tasks (child ticket). Each ticket can then be assigned to a different agent – this speeds up resolution time. 
• Freddy AI: Freshdesk’s AI, Freddy, can be used to deliver contextual and accurate answers to customer queries. The bot can fetch relevant information from your knowledge base and then instantly display them to customers. Freddy can also analyze past tickets and automatically suggest ticket fields any time a new query is raised. This saves agents from having to manually categorize and prioritize tickets. Aside from this, Freddy can scan tweets for mentions of your business or customer complaints. 
• Collaborators: Effortlessly collaborate with both internal and external stakeholders to resolve queries more quickly and efficiently
• Freshdesk is used by retail, fintech, finance, and manufacturing businesses to meet their ticketing and support requirements.

Pricing:

Freshdesk’s pricing starts at $15 per agent per month and goes up till $69 per agent per month. The platform also offers a free 21 day trial.

You Might Also Like: Why You Should Choose Hiver Over Freshdesk: A Detailed Comparison

7. Help Scout

Help Scout brings together shared inboxes (email support),help center, and live chat to help you engage with customers and resolve queries efficiently.

It is a relatively easy-to-use platform where agents can collaborate on customer queries, assign conversations, and leave internal notes.

Help Scout’s features make it easy for you to stay on top of your emails and personalize your customer communications.

Key Features

• Beacon: Help Scout’s Beacon feature allows businesses to embed a help widget directly on their website, enabling customers to search for answers, start conversations, and submit inquiries without leaving the site. This provides a seamless support experience and reduces friction for customers.
• Automation: Streamline repetitive tasks and workflows. Setup rules and triggers to automate ticket routing, assignment, and follow-ups, saving time and effort for your agents.
• Reporting and analytics: Help Scout provides robust reporting and analytics tools that allow businesses to track key support metrics, measure team performance, and gain insights into customer satisfaction. This data-driven approach enables businesses to make informed decisions and continuously improve their support operations.
• Help Scout’s shared inbox solution may be a good fit for you if you are in education, real estate, software, or finance. The platform can help you reduce support volume and improve customer satisfaction.

Pricing:

Help Scout’s pricing plan starts from $20 per user per month and goes up to $65 per user per month. There is also a 15-day free trial.

8. Kayako

Kayako is a versatile web-based help desk software that enables businesses to manage customer inquiries and support tickets efficiently.

Kayako’s pricing and key features makes it an affordable option for SMBs. Features such as live chat and self-service are useful as they help customers get solutions quickly – they aren’t kept waiting for a response as in the case of email support.

Aside from these, Kayako has several other features which makes it a great choice for businesses looking to streamline customer support and improve agent productivity.

Key Features

• Ticketing System: Kayako’s ticketing system allows support teams to create, assign, prioritize, and track support tickets, ensuring timely resolution and effective communication with customers. Agents can collaborate on tickets, add internal notes, and track the status of each ticket throughout its lifecycle.
• Customer journey: Map out your customer’s journey and get the complete overview of every interaction a user has with your brand. This allows you to identify areas of friction for the customer – be it during a purchase or while navigating your website – and offer proactive support.
• Social: Communicate with your customers across social media platforms. Support teams can monitor and respond to customer comments on apps like Twitter and Facebook. Get a holistic view of all social media platforms in one dashboard.
• Kayako is commonly used by small and medium businesses such as lead generation platforms, wallet providers, internet security, and more.

Pricing:

Kayako’s cloud offering includes all the features you would require in a web-based help desk. This is perfect for small and growing teams since the pricing is customized according to your support requirements.

Kayako offers a free 14 day trial

You Might Also Like: 10 Kayako Alternatives for 2024

9. HubSpot Service Hub

In case you’re already using HubSpot’s CRM, then opting for Service hub – their helpdesk software – is a good decision.

Service Hub makes it easy for support teams to manage customer tickets and respond to customer inquiries on time. It brings multiple features – shared inbox, live chat, and feedback surveys amongst others – into one single dashboard.

Key features

• Customer portal: The customer portal serves as a dedicated space where customers can access knowledge base articles, FAQs, and other helpful resources to troubleshoot common issues on their own.
• Omnichannel messaging: Communicate with your customers across popular channels such as phone, live chat, email, and social media.
• Shared inbox: A free shared inbox that unifies conversations from live chat, Facebook Messenger, team emails, and chatbots. Teams can view and reply to conversations assigned to them via intelligent routing. This way every customer query receives a response and nothing slips through the cracks.
• HubSpot Service Hub is best suited for you if your business is in healthcare, consumer goods, media, advertising, education, or non-profit.

Pricing:

HubSpot Service Hub’s pricing starts at $450 per month and goes up to $1200 per month. You can also sign up for a free 14 day trial.

10. HappyFox

HappyFox is an affordable web-based help desk that offers features such as task management, canned actions, and SLAs that make offering customer support a breeze.

With HappyFox, you can segregate customer tickets into categories such as ‘High Priority’, ‘Pending’, and more. This way support agents always have complete visibility into their workload.

HappyFox has a relatively simple interface and its standout features are useful for teams across industries such as travel, retail, education, non-profits, and others. Its users say that HappyFox is much easier to use than other ticketing systems such as Salesforce or Zendesk

Key features

• Ticket Management: A comprehensive ticketing system that allows businesses to efficiently manage customer inquiries from a centralized dashboard. Agents can create, assign, prioritize, and track tickets, ensuring timely resolution and effective communication with customers.
• Multi-channel Support: Equip your agents to engage with customers across multiple communication channels, including email, live chat, social media, phone, and self-service portals.
• Knowledge Base: Create and manage help articles using HappyFox’s knowledge base feature. This helps customers find answers to their questions and troubleshoot common issues on their own. This reduces the workload on support teams and empowers customers to find solutions independently.
• Automation: HappyFox offers powerful automation capabilities to streamline repetitive tasks and workflows. Businesses can set up rules, triggers, and workflows to automate ticket routing, assignment, escalation, and follow-up, saving time and improving efficiency.
• HappyFox is a pretty affordable help desk solution that is popularly used by teams in electronics, finance, IT, and airlines.

Pricing:

HappyFox has two different types of pricing – one is an agent-based pricing while the other is meant for unlimited agents.

The agent based pricing starts at $26 per user per month and goes up till $64 per user per month. The plans for unlimited agents start at $1149 and go up to $3999 per month.

HappyFox also offers a free 14 day trial.

You Might Also Like: Top 10 HappyFox Alternatives

Benefits of Web-Based Help Desk Software

Implementing a web-based help desk can have several benefits for your business. Here is how they impact the end customer experience and internal support processes.

• Accessibility: Web-based help desks can be accessed from anywhere since they are cloud-based. This means it is easier for remote teams to access tickets and respond to queries promptly.
• Scalability: Your help desk can easily scale as your business grows without the need to invest extensively in hardware or physical infrastructure.
• Cost-effectiveness: One of the benefits of using a web-based help desk is that they operate on subscription-based models. This means that you can invest in features that are most important to you without any upfront capital expenditure.
• Efficient team collaboration: Web-based help desk tools offer collaboration capabilities that make it easier for teams to work together on customer queries and come up with accurate resolutions.

Wrapping Up

We’ve outlined some of the popular web-based help desks in the market and how they can benefit your business. However, choosing the right web-based help desk solution can be overwhelming, which is why it is important to have a clear understanding of what you need in your help desk.

Some of the things you need to consider are:

• Features and functionality
• Ease of use
• Scalability
• Budget
• Integration capabilities

Keeping these factors in mind, you can narrow down a help desk solution that not only aligns with your business objectives but also helps you elevate your customer service.