Best support software, compared honestly
Roundups of the best customer support software and the main help desk categories. Each page names real tools and who they are genuinely for, including where AcornReply is the wrong pick and a heavyweight is the right one.
Best-of guides
- Best customer support softwareThe best customer support software depends on your team size: Zendesk and Intercom for large support orgs, Freshdesk and Zoho Desk for growing teams, and a shared inbox like Help Scout or AcornReply for a team under 10 that still hits send itself.
- Best customer support software for small businessFor a small business, the best customer support software is usually a shared inbox rather than a full help desk: AcornReply or Help Scout for a general small team, Freshdesk or Zoho Desk if you want a free ticketing tier to grow into, and Gorgias for a busy online store.
Help desk categories
- Cloud help desk softwareCloud help desk software is a support ticketing platform hosted by the vendor and used in a browser, with no on-premise servers to run: you subscribe per month, updates are automatic, and your team works from anywhere.
- IT help desk softwareIT help desk software manages internal technology support and IT service requests, with features like asset tracking, incident and change management, and SLA enforcement. The main options are Jira Service Management, ServiceNow, Freshservice, and Spiceworks.
- HR help desk softwareHR help desk software gives employees one place to raise HR questions and requests (payroll, benefits, leave, onboarding) and tracks each as a confidential case with an owner and status. Common options are Freshservice, Zoho Desk, and Jira Service Management.
- Jira help desk softwareJira help desk software refers to Jira Service Management, Atlassian's IT service desk built on the Jira platform. It is a strong fit for dev-heavy orgs already using Jira, and heavier than a small customer-support team needs.
- Spiceworks help desk softwareSpiceworks is a free, ad-supported IT help desk and network inventory tool aimed at small internal IT teams. It is genuinely free because it is funded by advertising, which is also its main trade-off.