Discover the power of the best free help desk software, empowering businesses to provide exceptional customer support and improve overall efficiency.
If you started a company and need a bespoke solution to all your customer requests, chances are you’ve heard about a tool called a help desk ticketing system. These ethereal but amazing tools have proven to be very practical and helpful in handling complex and simple tasks. And with so many paid support service software options out there, you must be thinking, which one should you go for? We say, give the free help desk software market a try.
Yes, you’ve heard that right, there is a whole ecosystem of free, open-source help desk systems that are waiting to be explored. And what’s more, there are those that have free tiers. Thus, we decided that it is high time we take a look at freemium apps and see if they are worth your time and effort.
This article will cover the basics of each ticketing system, as well as focus on their reliability and flexibility. For this analysis, we’ve picked a few free options for you to consider. Thus, without any delays, let’s get started!
What is help desk software? What are the key features?
What exactly is help desk software, you may ask? Well, think of it as the hub where incoming service requests are skillfully distributed among team members. Its primary purpose is to empower them to efficiently handle follow-ups, particularly on those tricky, long-term cases.
Now, when we talk about Help Desk Software, we're talking about a toolkit with some nifty features. Picture this:
- Knowledge Base: A treasure trove of self-help resources about a product, service, or any topic. Customers can dive in, troubleshoot issues, and find answers without needing to contact a customer service rep.
- Ticket Management: A streamlined system for handling customer support requests. It's like a control center where you can receive, assign, track progress, and escalate issues when needed. Priority, status, and severity – you can organize tickets based on these factors.
- Ticket Automation: Ever wish certain tasks could just handle themselves? Ticket automation lets you set up triggers and rules for automatic ticket assignments, notifications, and other actions. It's all about efficiency and creating a better customer experience.
- Ticket Escalation: Sometimes, an issue needs a superhero. Ticket escalation is the process of moving a support ticket from a regular rep to a higher-level pro or manager. The goal? Ensure high-priority issues get the attention they deserve.
- Ticket Distribution: Streamline ticket distribution by automatically sending them to the right rep based on skills, availability, or workload. Managers can monitor this process, reallocate tickets when needed, and keep their team's workload balanced.
- Multiple Contact Options: Communication is key, and help desk software knows that. It offers customers various ways to get in touch – from the classic phone and email to live chat and conversational bots. It's all about meeting customer needs and boosting satisfaction.
- Customer Support Analytics: Ever wondered how well your customer service is doing? Analytics can give you the lowdown. Track metrics like knowledge base usage, ticket volumes, response times, and customer feedback. It's not just data; it's your roadmap to improvement.
So, in a nutshell, help desk software is like the conductor orchestrating a seamless symphony of customer support. It's not just about solving issues; it's about doing it in style and with a touch of finesse.
What are the benefits of free help desk software?
At some point, companies require strategies to enhance customer service and streamline workflows. Indeed, help desk software is the core of customer service operations in businesses of all sizes.
There are plenty of premium options out there, but free help desk ticket software also offers many opportunities without the extra cost. Let's explore why you should use it as soon as possible by reviewing the free help desk software benefits:
- Cost-effectiveness: The most obvious benefit of a free help desk ticketing system is the cost savings. Especially for small companies or startups that are on a tight budget or in the early stages of evolving expensive help desk software may be unreasonable. Free help desk ticket software is a cost-effective alternative and usually includes the main features.
- Scaling capabilities: As companies grow, so do their customer service needs. A free help desk ticketing system often offers scalability, allowing businesses to easily scale up their customer support operations with no additional cost. It can adapt to your specific requirements, ensuring that customer service remains efficient and responsive.
- Basic feature set: If you're looking for your first help desk software, you'll feel the difference in workflow management even with a free customer support software. Many free help desk solutions offer a comprehensive set of features designed to optimize your workflow. This includes ticket management, automated workflows, integration with knowledge bases, reporting tools, and more. At the same time, it will be a good starting point for further upgrading to more advanced functionality in paid options.
- Increased customer satisfaction: Every business strives to deliver an exceptional customer experience. With free customer service software, you can prioritize customer queries, automate repetitive tasks, and provide support agents with the right tools. This ensures fast response times, personalized interactions, and efficient problem resolution, which, as a result, increases customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Accessibility: Many free help desk solutions are cloud-based, allowing remote access from anywhere with an internet connection. This means your support agents can respond to customer queries on-the-go, increasing productivity and response times.
- Regulatory compliance and data security: Even with free help desk software, you'll get a solution that complies with industry-standard security protocols and regulatory requirements, ensuring the confidentiality and safety of your customer data.
6 best free help desk software
Note on Shrinking Free Tiers: Generous, permanently free help desk plans are rapidly disappearing as software vendors face rising infrastructure costs and prioritize profitability. Today, most free tiers are heavily restricted sandboxes with tight agent caps, stripped-down automation, and zero custom branding. When choosing a platform, always look at the cost of the first paid tier, as even minor business growth will quickly force an upgrade.
After discovering what help desk software is and how businesses can benefit from it (even from free ones), the decision is clear—it's time to look at the free help desk platforms to find the right solution that meets your business requirements. Here's a list of what we consider to be the seven best free help desk software.
Zoho Desk as your next help desk
The first one on our list is Zoho Desk and some of you might be wondering, isn’t this a paid solution? Some of you might be wondering: isn’t this a paid-only solution? It is, but it also features a permanently free tier. The company offers a freemium option that you can connect with their other products (an ecosystem of over 45 apps) to build a deeply integrated workspace.
What do you actually get with Zoho’s Free plan?A pretty solid feature package:
- Up to 3 free agents.
- Email ticketing, ticket tags, and customer management to track and prioritize basic inquiries.
- Basic productivity rules: Access to two automated macros and standard notification rules to simplify repetitive tasks.
- A private knowledge base and help center so you can organize internal training documents and provide basic self-service.
- A simple feedback widget to let customers submit tickets via forms on your website.
- An agent dashboard to track all agent performance parameters and agent availability.
Zoho Desk’s home screen shows all the available ticket views as well as stages of their resolution. Source: Zoho
Generally, Zoho Desk is straightforward in terms of design, but its interface takes a bit of time to get used to. Not everything is immediately obvious, but after a week of setup, your team will feel right at home. Because every feature works exactly as intended and hooks directly into other Zoho products, it remains a highly compelling, budget-friendly option.
You can choose from Express($7/agent/month, billed annually), Standard($14/agent/month, billed annually), Professional($23/agent/month, billed annually), or Enterprise($40/agent/month, billed annually) options to upgrade your plan for more advanced features.
Additionally, Zoho Desk offers a 15-day free trial of any plan you want to try to set up, configure, and explore all the features.
Check out Spiceworks Cloud as a new help desk system
Next is Spiceworks, perhaps the most popular free ticketing software option. It not only delivers on its promises but is also continuously improved. It was designed and built by IT professionals specifically for tech teams. Those who opted to use Spiceworks will gain access to:
- A top-tier network monitoring system that can discover and follow connected devices automatically.
- Unlimited ticket system for tracking issues, assigning tickets, managing IT support requests, and monitoring progress.
- The social media tracking tool to keep an eye on your client's preferences.
- Customization of workflows, ticket forms, reports, and alerts, as well as automation of repetitive tasks.
- Generated reports on inventory summaries, ticket analytics, and network performance metrics.
- Dashboards and knowledge base access.
- An inventory management tool.
- The ability to use it via the cloud or on-premise.
- The Spiceworks Community platform to ask questions, exchange ideas, and discuss IT-related subjects.
The Spiceworks Interface. Source: Spiceworks
Overall, the tool works both as free ticketing software and as a service desk. This is a highly capable system that can outperform even some paid solutions in terms of function quality. You benefit from all its features right out of the box, and you're not limited to the number of agents, tickets, or support options.
The only downside (more of a nitpick) is that the UI/UX could be improved. You can tell it was made by tech-savvy people, but some things aren’t as obvious as they might seem. In terms of speed, it is fast and works well under load.
Choose LiveAgent for quick support service
LiveAgent stands out as the #1 rated and most reviewed freemium help desk solution on the market. The free plan comprises a powerful version of LiveAgent featuring:
- Unlimited agent seats.
- Advanced ticket management features (merge tickets, split tickets, ticket mass actions, internal tickets, custom mail templates, etc.)
- Custom ticket filters and a 7-day ticket search history.
- Real-time dashboards.
- Live chat and call center functionality.
- Performance reports to monitor the productivity of your support agents.
- Language adaptable widgets.
- Ability to build fully customizable knowledge bases and customer portals based on your products, services, or types of customers. Add knowledge base articles, forums, or feedback boards.
- Access to LiveAgent’s Android and iOS apps for customer service on the go.
- Self-service options include a comprehensive customer portal, complete with knowledge base articles and how-to videos.
- Access to Customer Service support should you have any questions.
Merge, split, and do mass actions with tickets - all in a row. Source: LiveAgent
Because of LiveAgent’s advanced functionality, getting familiar with all the features can be a little challenging at first. However, LiveAgent provides a step-by-step ‘Getting Started’ guide right inside of your LiveAgent dashboard that walks you through all the steps to set up your help desk solution.
Once you are ready for advance pricing plans, you can select from Small business, Medium business, Large business, and Enterprise tariffs starting from $9 per agent per month billed annually. But before you make your choice, we suggest you request a Free Demo or a Free trial for 14 days with a free email or 30 days with a company email.
Get your customer service to Freshdesk
Freshdesk is not new to the market and has already made a name for itself. Designed for speed and performance, it is a highly popular choice for growing support teams. It helps businesses build trustworthy relationships with their customers through an intuitive workspace.
For very small teams, their Free Program offers a great 6-month trial of the basics:
- Up to 2 agents free for your first 6 months.
- Email and social media ticketing to track, prioritize, and reply to inquiries directly from Freshdesk.
- Basic ticket dispatch to automatically organize incoming emails based on simple rules.
- Team collaboration tools to discuss tickets internally with other team members.
- A public knowledge base so customers can find answers on their own.
- 24/5 email support directly from the Freshdesk team.
- A dedicated mobile app that closely replicates the desktop experience.
Ticket properties, customer account details, and actions you can do with it - this is what you see in a standard ticket menu in Freshdesk. Source: Crozdesk
Overall, the UI is great and responsive. While some elements may lack polish and appear a bit busy, they are mostly cosmetic. If performance is your priority, Freshdesk unquestionably delivers.
For those seeking to scale, Freshdesk offers Growth ($19/agent/month), Pro ($55/agent/month), and Enterprise ($79/agent/month) packages, billed annually. To ensure Freshdesk meets your expectations, you can access a 14-day free trial to test out their higher-tier features.
Is osTicket your next customer support service software
Developed as an open-source tool, osTicket is a customer service platform maintained by the dedicated community. While its interface looks dated and takes some setup, its extreme flexibility makes it a powerful option for budget-conscious IT teams who want complete control over their system.
The completely free, self-hosted open-source version of osTicket offers several core advantages:
- Seamlessly route and centralize incoming requests via email, phone calls (manually logged), and customizable web forms.
- Use the ticket filter system to automatically assign, respond to, and route tickets to specific agents or departments based on custom criteria.
- A built-in ticket-locking mechanism prevents multiple agents from responding to the same ticket at the same time, avoiding conflicting replies.
- Easily transfer and assign tickets to the specific agents or teams who are best equipped to handle them.
- Tailor the data you collect by creating custom ticket forms and fields matching your unique business needs.
- Create an unlimited number of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and map them to specific departments, help topics, or ticket filters to track overdue alerts.
- Set up a public-facing portal where customers can view their ticket history and search a robust knowledge base to resolve issues on their own.
- Narrow down tickets using precise search parameters and save those configurations as custom views for quick access later.
Automate your ticket creation, rerouting, and many more actions using custom filters, fields, and queues. Source: osTicket
Because this is a community-driven open-source project, new core features and modern UI enhancements roll out slowly. The interface itself can feel a bit clunky, with many options buried deep in administrative menus. However, if you have the internal IT resources to handle self-hosting, server maintenance, and initial setup, it is a highly secure, zero-licensing-cost powerhouse.
Pricing & Cloud Options
If you do not want to manage your own servers, databases, and upgrades, you can opt for their official cloud-hosted service, SupportSystem (by osTicket).
- Open-Source (Free): $0/month. Completely free to download and run on your own servers with no limits on agent seats.
- Cloud-Hosted: Starts at $12 per agent/month. This includes managed upgrades, daily backups, guaranteed uptime, and email/phone support from the core development team. A 30-day free trial is available to test the hosted version.
- Virtual Appliance: Custom-quoted pricing for enterprise teams who want a pre-configured, secure virtual machine to deploy on their own private cloud infrastructure.
Why to go for Jira Service Management
Jira Service Management needs no introduction; it's one of the top service desk tools available. But did you know it offers a freemium plan? If you want to use Jira Software for general project management, it's free for up to 10 users. But if you are using the Free plan for Jira Service Management as a service-desk or intake tool, you are limited to three agents completely free of charge.
Getting back to JSM, while it is a great starting point, keep in mind that it is pretty heavily restricted—featuring a 2 GB storage cap, a 100 email notifications per day limit, and no custom branding or direct Atlassian support.
That said, for a free tool, it provides an impressive foundational toolkit right out of the box:
- Multi-channel support: Both agents and customers can submit requests easily via a dedicated customer portal, email, or a embeddable chat widget.
- Basic ticketing & queues: Easily organize, prioritize, and triage incoming requests with customizable forms.
- Knowledge base integration: Create self-service articles to help customers resolve their own issues and deflect incoming tickets.
- Basic Incident Management: Access basic templates to log and track service alerts and basic incidents.
- Pre-configured templates: Quickly deploy pre-configured workflows tailored for IT, HR, or customer service teams.
- Atlassian Marketplace: Extend your functionality with third-party apps, though keep in mind some add-ons have limited capabilities on the Free tier due to admin permission restrictions.
- Community Support: Get answers and troubleshooting help from the global Atlassian Community forum.
Create a new ticket in Jira Service Management. Source: Atlassian
The ITSM system is highly flexible and features a clean, user-friendly interface. While its powerful automation and deep integrations yield excellent performance, it does come with a steep setup learning curve. For teams looking to centralize their development and support operations, it is an industry-leading tool that is absolutely worth testing.
If you need to scale beyond the 3-agent free tier, Jira Service Management's paid plans start at $20 per agent per month (annual billing, or approximately $23.80 billed monthly). You can easily test the waters with a 7-day free trial.
How to select the best free help desk software?
After reviewing the best free help desk software, you might have your favorites in mind. Nevertheless, it's crucial to consider core factors such as feature sets, usability, customization, scalability, vendor support, and data security measures when selecting the right free helpdesk software.
Additionally, it's important to review the paid options of the chosen help desk to ensure that their feature set and pricing can meet your future needs. Evaluate how well the software aligns with your specific business requirements, integrates with your existing tools, and supports business growth.
Bottom Line
And that wraps it up. While there are many more tools we haven’t touched on, the ones we’ve listed should be more than enough to get you started. There's no harm in trying each one of them—they're free, and each offers a unique feature that adds value.
If you've already decided on a customer service tool, we can assist you in migrating your data to the new platform. Just leave us a message, and our specialists will contact you promptly!
