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IT help desk software is a powerful tool for organizations looking to track and resolve IT-related issues in an organized manner. I’ve covered my top 12 options in this article, drawing from experience and extensive research. I’ve evaluated each tool’s features, pricing, and other benefits to help you choose the right tool for your organization. I’ll also share the reasons behind my choices so you get a clear understanding of what each tool offers.

What Is IT Helpdesk Software?

IT help desk software is a comprehensive solution to manage IT service requests, incidents, and problems. It provides a centralized platform that helps track, prioritize, escalate, and resolve issues based on their urgency and impact. Features include ticket management, knowledge base management, improved collaboration between staff and employees, and enhanced visibility into IT issues.

The 10 Best IT Helpdesk Software Reviews

Here’s a brief description of each IT help desk software solution, its best use case, noteworthy features, and screenshots to give a snapshot of the dashboard.

Best for creating personalized experiences with AI

  • 14-day free trial
  • From $25/user/month (billed annually)
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Rating: 4.3/5

Salesforce Service Cloud is an advanced multi-channel helpdesk that can be used in both internal and client-facing settings. It has AI features that allow for more personalized, contextual support.

Why I picked Salesforce Service Cloud: The software leverages AI and automation to handle routine tasks, enabling IT staff to concentrate on delivering exceptional support. Features like AI-driven chatbots and automatic triaging streamline processes, improving efficiency by routing issues to the appropriate IT personnel with the necessary skills.

This platform is suitable for IT departments of all sizes. It enhances support by analyzing interactions, offering proactive service suggestions, and anticipating needs. The drag-and-drop editor allows for creating a self-service center, empowering employees to find solutions independently, which enhances support effectiveness.

Salesforce Service Cloud Standout Features and Integrations:

Features include omni-channel routing, which directs IT issues to the appropriate personnel based on their skills and availability, ensuring quick and accurate responses. The platform also includes a comprehensive knowledge base, providing IT staff with easy access to information and solutions, thereby speeding up problem resolution.

Integrations include Freshdesk, CloudTalk, Twilio, Brandwatch, Paligo, Mailchimp, HubSpot CRM, Trello, TeamViewer, Smartsheet, Klaviyo, Aircall, Gainsight, and Conversocial.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Adaptable to users’ needs
  • Effectively simplifies support procedures
  • Provides a unified view of interactions

Cons:

  • Comes with a learning curve
  • Can be cumbersome to implement

Best for omnichannel inbox management

  • 7-day free trial
  • From $19/user/month (billed annually)
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Rating: 5/5

Front is a customer operations platform that aims to provide a familiar email-like interface with the power of a helpdesk and the efficiency of AI to help businesses deliver exceptional customer service at scale.

Why I picked Front: Front offers helpdesk software to a wide variety of users, including IT teams. It offers omnichannel inbox management, live chat, collaboration tools, AI chatbots and agent assistance, knowledge bases, workflow automation, and analytics tools. It is designed to improve response times and provide insights to optimize workflows and boost customer satisfaction. Overall, the tool centralizes messages across channels, routes them to the right person, and unlocks visibility and insights across all customer operations.

Front Standout Features and Integrations:

Features that stand out to me include Front's omnichannel inbox feature, which allows businesses to centralize all customer communication from various channels such as email, social media, SMS, and voice into a single inbox. This helps in managing and responding to customer inquiries efficiently by eliminating the need to juggle between different tabs and platforms. Front also offers a collaboration feature that allows team members to work together on responses. 

Integrations include Aircall, Zoom, Asana, ClickUp, HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, Trello, Shopify, and Jira.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Automated workflows
  • Responsive customer support services
  • Seamless internal and external communication

Cons:

  • Some users find the plugin confusing
  • No calendar functionality

Best IT help desk to use with Gmail

  • 7-day free trial
  • From $15/user/month (billed annually)
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Rating: 4.7/5

Hiver is an IT help desk designed for support teams that primarily work out of their Gmail inbox to provide resolutions.

Why I picked Hiver: I picked Hiver because of its simplicity. Hiver sits on top of your existing Gmail account and adds shared inbox management functionality to it. Every incoming email has a status — open, pending, or closed. This ensures that your team doesn’t miss any emails. Plus, agents can exchange notes right on the ticket asking for clarification, and these notes stay hidden from the end user.

Hiver Standout Features and Integrations:

Features that I loved are collision detection which prevents multiple agents from replying to the same ticket. You can automate ticket assignments with the round-robin method and save email templates so that agents don’t have to type the same emails repeatedly.

Integrations are available natively for QuickBooks, Slack, Okta, Asana, Jira, Slack, and Salesforce. Zapier connectors are available.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Can use Hiver’s AI bot Harvey to automate certain conversations
  • Android and iOS apps
  • Easy to use

Cons:

  • Limited customizations
  • Need Gmail accounts to use Hiver

Best for gamification features

  • 30-day free trial available
  • From $10/agent/month
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Rating: 4.6/5

Vision Helpdesk is a robust ticketing platform designed to streamline IT support activities. Its user-friendly help desk software solution lets you easily create, track, and resolve tickets.

Why I picked Vision Helpdesk: Though Vision Helpdesk has all the standard features of a help desk platform, what stands out for me is its gamification features. You can encourage healthy competition by setting achievement levels, adding goals, and creating quests. Leaderboard and quest reports let you monitor staff performances. Agents can also put up achievement badges on their profiles.

Vision Helpdesk Standout Features and Integrations:

Features that I feel you may like apart from the gamification features are its omnichannel ticket management, ticket merging and splitting, and time-based automation. You can also create a multi-brand help desk and incorporate live chats.

Integrations are natively available for Active Directory, Google Hosted Emails, Live Chat Inc, GoToMeeting, Twilio, and Facebook.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • iOS and Android mobile apps
  • Real-time reports
  • Built-in agent collaboration tool called Blabby

Cons:

  • Steep learning curve
  • Limited integrations with other software

Best for startups

  • 15-day free trial
  • From $20/user/month
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Rating: 4.4/5

Help Scout’s service desk software offers helpful features like a shared inbox, automation workflows, and reporting and analytics to keep track of IT queries.

Why I picked Help Scout: I picked HelpScout because it offers a 6-month free support program for startups without any feature limits. You get a shared inbox to manage IT request emails, chat messages, and social media conversations in one place. You can even add custom fields to capture additional user data.

Help Scout Standout Features and Integrations:

Features that I have loved are its customizable email templates that allow startups to create pre-written responses to common customer inquiries. It lets you connect multiple mailboxes (like info@, support@, and request@) into one dashboard. You can also custom-brand your help desk.

Integrations include native ones like Slack, Freshbooks, Mailchimp, Messenger, Google Apps, Highrise, Constant Contact, Jira, Salesforce, and Trello. Zapier and APIs are also available.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Mobile apps available
  • Help widget called Beacon that you can put up on your application or website
  • Can classify and tag tickets

Cons:

  • Needs more in-depth reporting
  • Limited customization options for the knowledge base

Best for integrations

  • Free demo available
  • From $39/agent/month (min 5 agents)
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Rating: 4.4/5

HappyFox is a cloud-based IT help desk tool that offers advanced features like automation rules, social media add-ons, and asset management solutions.

Why I picked HappyFox: What impresses me about HappyFox is that it offers plenty of integrations across categories like accounting, business intelligence, CRM, ecommerce, and project management. This helps to automate and streamline support operations. In addition, it also boasts a powerful ticketing system that has multi-channel capabilities. You can add categories and filter tickets for better organization.

HappyFox Standout Features and Integrations:

Features, in my opinion, are quite similar to other IT help desks, like canned responses, performance metric reports, and knowledge base. Where it shines is its task management features, where you can put a due date and time for every task and set deadlines. Help desk agents can view their pending tasks and get notifications on overdue issues.

Integrations are available natively for Slack, Jira, Microsoft Teams, Okta, Wrike, WhatsApp, Asana, PagerDuty, Facebook, and Zapier triggers.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Can view tickets in Kanban format
  • Multilingual agent portal
  • Track and report SLAs

Cons:

  • Steep learning curve for advanced features
  • Pricey compared to other solutions

Best free IT helpdesk software

  • Free To Use

Spiceworks IT help desk is a free, cloud-based help desk system designed to help IT professionals manage their tickets and assets.

Why I picked Spiceworks: I picked Spiceworks for this list because though it’s free, it has powerful features that teams of any size can benefit from. It’s easy to set up and doesn’t require any technical expertise. Tickets come into the dashboard via phone, user portal, emails, and mobile app. The dashboard is neatly organized with attributes like assignee, priority, and categories, so no ticket is missed.

Spiceworks Standout Features and Integrations:

Features that impressed me during my evaluation are that you can accept tickets, respond to them, write private notes, and add custom fields — all from a central place. You can auto-assign tickets and use role-based views so each team member can see what they have to resolve. You can also create multiple sites for clients with multiple locations so you can manage their IT issues in the same place.

Integrations are pre-built and include Inventory and IP Scanner, which lets you monitor devices and store your actions related to those devices, as well as Power BI and Active Directory for end-user authentication.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Can auto-set due dates and priorities of tickets
  • Filters to get at-a-glance insights into various details
  • Support portal so that users can troubleshoot their own issues

Cons:

  • Limited customization options
  • Not HIPAA compliant

Best for small businesses

  • 14-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $45/user/month (billed annually)

HubSpot’s ticketing system keeps track of all IT tickets in a centralized dashboard and helps provide personalized services to end-users.

Why I picked HubSpot: Though HubSpot is primarily a sales CRM, its powerful ticketing system is why I have put this tool on the list. It helps you store, manage, and monitor support tickets from multiple communication channels in an intuitive interface. If you use the HubSpot CRM, it’s easier to get information on customer or employee history, service issues, and other details.

HubSpot Standout Features and Integrations:

Features I would recommend for small businesses are its ability to reduce manual data entry with automated ticket routing and a live chat widget. Teams with only one or two agents can find these features valuable. You can also track support metrics like response times and ticket volumes to optimize support operations.

Integrations include native ones like Gmail, Google Calendar, Outlook, Zoom, Mailchimp, WhatsApp, and Salesforce. Zapier connections are also possible.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Simple interface
  • Integrated knowledge base
  • Built-in feedback surveys

Cons:

  • Paid plans pricey compared to other providers
  • Free plan doesn’t offer technical support

Best for growing teams

  • 30-day free trial available
  • From $19/user/month

SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD) provides comprehensive IT support with features like network and system monitoring, asset management, and IT service desk management.

Why I picked SolarWinds: I chose SolarWinds WHD because it offers scalability options for growing businesses. SolarWinds can support multiple departments, projects, and even companies while maintaining the same efficiency. With customizable workflows and automation, you can adapt to the changing needs to match your support goals.

SolarWinds Standout Features and Integrations:

Features that I found useful during my evaluation are that SolarWinds converts all the alerts and service requests into tickets automatically. Plus, since it’s already connected to SolarWinds network and server monitoring tools, you can convert all performance issues into tickets and reduce dependencies on multiple platforms. It can also auto-assign and escalate tickets to relevant agents, ensuring timely resolution.

Integrations include native options like Dameware Remote Everywhere, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Active Directory, GoToAssist, Harvest, Jira, and Zendesk. Zapier and APIs are also available.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Service Level Agreement (SLA) management
  • In-depth performance reporting
  • Built-in knowledge base with the free plan

Cons:

  • Occasional glitches in the software
  • Difficult to learn

Best cloud IT help desk softwarec

  • 7-day free trial + Always free plan for 3 agents
  • From $7.75/user/month

Atlassian’s IT help desk offers a range of features like intelligent routing and escalation, customizable service desk workflows, and powerful analytics tools to resolve requests and improve agent performance.

Why I picked Atlassian: I chose Atlassian because it offers a complete solution for IT teams, with integrated tools for issue tracking, project management, and collaboration. Atlassian’s IT help desk is called Jira Service Management, which is a cloud-based platform that is easy to set up and use, with a user-friendly interface and intuitive workflows. You can use Jira Service Management to set up help desks not only for IT but also for HR, finance, and infrastructure.

Atlassian Standout Features and Integrations:

Features that I find valuable are the ability to label various support requests, prioritize them so that you don’t miss any requests, and manage issues across verticals and geography. With their reporting, you can see whether teams are fulfilling deadlines, how many P0 incidents you had, and the average time it took to solve an incident.

Integrations include pre-built options with other Atlassian products like Trello and Confluence and native ones with Todoist, Google Drive, PowerBI, Git, Microsoft 365, and Jenkins.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Post-incident reviews
  • Alert notifications via email and SMS
  • Multi-language support

Cons:

  • Cost can be prohibitive for some teams
  • Can be hard for first-time users

The 10 Best IT Helpdesk Software Summary

Tools Price
Salesforce Service Cloud From $25/user/month (billed annually)
Front From $19/user/month (billed annually)
Hiver From $15/user/month (billed annually)
Vision Helpdesk From $10/agent/month
Help Scout From $20/user/month
HappyFox From $39/agent/month (min 5 agents)
Spiceworks Free To Use
HubSpot From $45/user/month (billed annually)
Solarwinds From $19/user/month
Atlassian From $7.75/user/month
Preview Image - <h2 class="c-block__title b-summary-table__title c-listicle__title h3" > Compare Software Specs Side by Side</h2>

Compare Software Specs Side by Side

Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.

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Other IT Helpdesk Software To Consider

Here are some additional options to pick from. They didn’t make it to the top 10 list, but you can consider them as your next helpdesk tool:

Selection Criteria For IT Helpdesk Software

To pick the best IT helpdesk software, I first researched the most popular software by its reviews and user interface. Then, I used my own personal experience with help desk software to inform my reviews. Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:

Core Functionalities

I believe these are the core functionalities an IT helpdesk must have:

  • Incident management, asset management, and problem management
  • Reporting and analytics
  • Intelligent routing and escalation to eliminate manual work and save time
  • Integration with other IT management tools for improved efficiency and visibility into IT operations

Key Features

I evaluated IT helpdesk tools for features like:

  • Centralized ticketing dashboard
  • Automation and rules
  • Customizable workflows
  • Multi-channel abilities
  • Self-service and integrated knowledge base
  • SLA management

Usability

For tools on this list, I checked if the interface is user-friendly. For those tools that have a steep learning curve, I ensured that they have proper documentation and video tutorials.

People Also Ask

Find answers to the most frequently asked common questions about IT help desk software here:

Conclusion

Whether you prioritize customization options, user-friendly interfaces, or comprehensive reporting systems, an IT help desk software option on this list will work for you and your business.

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Paulo Gardini Miguel
By Paulo Gardini Miguel

Paulo is the Director of Technology at the rapidly growing media tech company BWZ. Prior to that, he worked as a Software Engineering Manager and then Head Of Technology at Navegg, Latin America’s largest data marketplace, and as Full Stack Engineer at MapLink, which provides geolocation APIs as a service. Paulo draws insight from years of experience serving as an infrastructure architect, team leader, and product developer in rapidly scaling web environments. He’s driven to share his expertise with other technology leaders to help them build great teams, improve performance, optimize resources, and create foundations for scalability.