The best customer self-service portals
A customer self-service portal reduces your team's workload while delighting customers with 24/7 access to information. Try one today with a free trial.
A guide to 12 of the best customer self-service portal software
최종 업데이트: April 3, 2025
Customers want to solve their problems on their own—it gives them independence and is often easier than reaching out to a customer service agent. However, implementing a cohesive self-service system into your customer support operations can be difficult without the right guidance.
To navigate this transition successfully, you need to understand the technology that powers customer self-service portals and the strategies that make them effective. Whether you're considering adopting a self-service strategy or optimizing your existing portal, this guide will provide valuable insights to help you satisfy customers.
More in this guide:
- What is a customer self-service portal?
- Why should you use a customer self-service portal?
- Types of customer self-service portal tools
- The 12 best customer self-service portals
- How to choose the right customer self-service software
- How to make a self-service platform
- Frequently asked questions
- Embrace an AI-powered customer self-service portal with Zendesk
What is a customer self-service portal?
A customer self-service portal is a tool that lets customers search for answers to their questions without having to reach out to an agent. It offers a knowledge base, allows users to manage community contributions, and tracks support interactions—all in one personalized hub. The portal organizes information for easy searching and a clear understanding of solutions.
Many self-service portals are branded and require authentication. They allow customers to log in and manage their accounts, update personal details, and track their transaction history. They are a key part of a broader self-service ecosystem that also includes help centers (knowledge bases with FAQs and guides) and customer communities (peer-to-peer support hubs). Together, these channels create a seamless, self-sufficient customer experience.
Why should you use a customer self-service portal?
Customer self-service platforms are simple tools with big benefits. With the right solution, you’ll start noticing the following improvements in your organization:
- Increased customer satisfaction: Having a customer service tool is a good way to reduce many of the frustrations customers experience when using a new product or encountering an issue. If anything, their annoyance will transform into satisfaction when they see how easy you’ve made it for them to solve their own problems.
- Improved customer onboarding and product adoption: Self-service software portals offer a wealth of resources to help new customers get the most out of your product or service. Portals can contain guides, FAQs, and a community forum where customers can share experiences and learn from others.
- Faster reply times: Effective self-service portals minimize wait times for those who do need to talk to a human and boost your company’s ability to provide fast, responsive customer care
- Boosted agent productivity and reduced ticket volume: Rather than constantly contacting your representatives for updates, customers can check the status of their support tickets on their self-service portal so they know exactly when you will resolve their issue.
- Personalized and proactive customer support Self-service portals can leverage customer data to provide tailored recommendations, relevant content, and proactive solutions. This enhances the user experience by delivering the right information at the right time.
- Reduced costs and greater scalability: Since self-service portals significantly reduce the number of support tickets, leaner service teams’ workloads stay manageable during peak times or seasons.
- Customer empowerment and retention: Giving customers the tools to solve their own problems fosters engagement, builds trust, and increases customer loyalty.
- Potential for increased revenue: Self-service portals can drive additional sales by offering personalized product recommendations, exclusive promotions, and rewards. Doing so encourages repeat purchases and boosts overall revenue.
Customer self-service portals offer a win-win solution for customers and businesses, delight customers with 24/7 support while boosting efficiency and lowering costs.
Types of customer self-service portal tools
Self-service tools are incredibly useful, but they shouldn’t exist in isolation. For a truly impactful strategy, it’s essential to take a broader approach, implementing a variety of tools that work together seamlessly:
| Type | Definition |
|---|---|
| Knowledge bases | Libraries of resources—like FAQs, tutorials, and how-to articles—that cover the full range of a business’s services and products. They can be customer-facing or have an internal knowledge base. |
| Community forums | A space where customers can connect and answer each other’s questions. |
| AI agents | Advanced chatbots that can autonomously handle even the most complex customer queries from start to finish. |
| FAQ pages | Collections of common customer queries. They are typically organized by topic or category, allowing customers to find information quickly. |
| AI-powered search engines | Advanced search capabilities that allow customers to find answers more efficiently within your knowledge base. |
| Advanced knowledge management systems | Systems that can proactively help customers find necessary information like article recommendations, before they're even searching for it. |
By prioritizing these essential tools, businesses can create a robust, user-friendly self-service help desk that meets current customer needs and adapts to future demands.
The 12 best customer self-service portals
Now that we've covered the basics, here is an expanded look into 12 customer self-service portals that weigh the pros and cons, pricing, user reviews, and more.
- Zendesk: Best for AI-powered customer support
- Zoho Desk: Best for Zoho users
- HubSpot Service Hub: Best for sales and marketing teams
- Intercom: Best for conversational marketing
- LiveAgent: Best for live chat
- Gladly: Best for B2C organizations
- Document360: Best for internal and external team needs
- Help Scout: Best for customization
- Salesforce Service Cloud: Best for Salesforce users
- Gorgias: Best for e-commerce businesses
- Whatfix: Best for mobile users
- Freshdesk: Best for Freshworks users
1. Zendesk
Best for: AI-powered customer support
Starting price | Free trial | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| $55 per agent/month (billed annually) | 14 days |
|
Zendesk provides an AI-powered customer self-service portal as part of its comprehensive customer service software. It's secure, scalable, and user-friendly for both customers and agents.
Build a portal in record time with generative AI tools that can expand content, shift tone, and simplify language. Let your ticket data guide you with AI-powered Content Cues that highlight self-service gaps based on common customer questions and flag underperforming content to keep your knowledge up to date. Advanced reporting tools provide insights into the impact of self-service efforts, enabling continuous optimization.
Our flexible architecture allows for customization and integration of additional third-party tools in the Zendesk Marketplace, ensuring you can tailor the portal to match brand aesthetics and expand functionality to meet specific business needs.
Zendesk AI agents, the most autonomous bots in the industry, can leverage your knowledge to automate support for over 80 percent of customer requests. When customers need further assistance, portal-submitted requests are seamlessly routed to our industry-leading Agent Workspace, where agents can manage them alongside other channels. Customers benefit from a single interface to check the status of all their requests, regardless of the submission method.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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User reviews
- “Zendesk is by far the best platform for customer support companies.”
- “All in One tool to support our clients in different channels.”
- “Zendesk Support Suite: Facilitating smooth customer support.”
- “Zendesk is great.”
Explore more Zendesk pricing plans.
2. Zoho Desk
Best for Zoho users
Starting price | Free trial | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| $7 per user/month (billed annually) | 15 days |
|
Zoho Desk is a cloud-based customer self-service help desk featuring a knowledge base. Zoho’s omnichannel function allows users to converse across multiple channels, including email, phone, social media, and websites. Users can also participate in community forums to share experiences and learn from one another. Zoho Desk can also integrate with other Zoho applications, so users can maintain an ecosystem if they already have Zoho products.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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User reviews
- “Great features and a great program.”
- “Decent experience so far.”
- “Poor customer service and difficult to navigate.”
Recommended reading: Learn how Zoho integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. Zoho compare.
3. HubSpot Service Hub
Best for sales and marketing teams
Starting price | Free trial | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| $15 per seat/month (billed annually) | Free plan is available |
|
HubSpot Service Hub offers support features like live chat, help desks, and ticketing. The knowledge base can store answers to your customers’ most common questions and organize and tag them so they’re discoverable. Chatbots can share those articles, and conversation intelligence tools reveal insights into what the bots do right and what needs work. Along with its customer self-service features, HubSpot Service Hub also integrates with other HubSpot platforms like Marketing, Sales, and Content.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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User reviews
- “A perfect tool for startups, but there's room for improvement.”
- “HubSpot was great prior to the latest update.”
- “It can be better.”
Recommended reading: Learn how HubSpot integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. HubSpot compare.
4. Intercom
Best for conversational marketing
Starting price | Free trial | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| $29 per seat/month (billed annually) | 14 days |
|
Intercom is a conversational relationship platform (CRP) that provides customer support through bots, personalized messaging, and chats. Intercom’s platform includes a conversational marketing feature, incorporating customizable online chatbots that engage website visitors in real-time conversations. The chatbots can pull answers from sources such as help center articles, public URLs, and PDFs. The software also offers onboarding features, including one-off messages and integrated campaigns, complete with in-product messaging and customizable banners for the top of your app or website.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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User reviews
- “All in one solution for most support needs.”
- “There's room for development - reports and assignments, as well as support quality.”
- “Platform is complicated to use.”
Recommended reading: Learn how Intercom integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. Intercom compare.
5. LiveAgent
Best for live chat
Starting price | Free trial | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| $15 per agent/month (billed annually) | 30 days |
|
LiveAgent provides real-time chat options, a customer self-service software, and a built-in call center. Key features include a customizable knowledge base, allowing businesses to create and organize a repository of frequently asked questions, articles, and tutorials. The portal offers analytics capabilities, allowing businesses to track key metrics, measure performance, and identify areas for improvement. The customer portal allows customers to view the progress of their open tickets and communicate with support reps via live chat if needed.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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User reviews
- “Enabled us to have more effective response tools to achieve customer satisfaction.”
- “Good for small teams.”
- “Good name brand, not the easiest interface/slowed down site.”
Recommended reading: Learn how Zendesk vs. LiveAgent compare.
6. Gladly
Best for B2C organizations
Starting price | Free trial | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| Contact Gladly | Unavailable |
|
Gladly is a personal customer service platform for SMBs and large B2C companies that offers computer telephony integration and customer complaint tracking. Gladly’s platform allows for customer conversations across several channels, including text, in-app chats, IVR, and social media. Gladly’s chat widget provides automated responses to customer inquiries, giving fast answers regarding order statuses.
Users can customize the knowledge base to provide answers in multiple languages based on the customer’s location. When users change an article, they can publish the update across all channels.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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User reviews
- “Gladly will use Gladly.”
- “It's a good platform; [it] needs some improvements, though.”
- “Streamlined, but confusing.”
Recommended reading: Learn how Zendesk vs. Gladly compare.
7. Document360
Best for internal and external team needs
Starting price | Free trial | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| Contact Document360 | 14 days |
|
Document360 specializes in knowledge base building and management. Its knowledge base portal offers an editor and category manager for producing self-help content. It provides customers and employees with a knowledge base site and an optimized search engine that allows for reading on any device. It also offers tools for building FAQ pages, online user guides, and employee handbooks.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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User reviews
- “Intuitive documentation, amazing support.”
- “Promising tool.”
- “This product creates a sleek-looking Knowledge Base, but its content editor needs to be more robust.”
Recommended reading: Learn how Document360 integrates with Zendesk.
8. Help Scout
Best for customization
Starting price | Free trial | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| $50 per month for up to 100 contacts (billed annually) | Available |
|
Help Scout is a customizable customer support platform with two self-service software tools. The first tool, Docs, helps businesses easily build a knowledge base that users can reference to find quick answers. Beacon, the second tool, is a help widget embedded in the knowledge base articles that can answer frequently asked questions related to the article.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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User reviews
- “Down-to-earth product that works.”
- “Entry-level customer care platform.”
- “Support software with horrible support.”
Recommended reading: Learn how Zendesk vs. Help Scout compare.
9. Salesforce Service Cloud
Best for Salesforce users
Starting price | Free trial | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| $25 per user/month (billed annually) | Available |
|
Salesforce Service Cloud is a customer service management platform with self-service capabilities. Users can create articles on the interface or upload files from third-party sources like Google Docs. Generative AI search helps customers find answers by auto-generating suggestions from relevant articles. Service Cloud is also part of the wider Salesforce ecosystem, so Salesforce users can integrate their systems if they operate with the other platforms.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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User reviews
- “Salesforce Service Cloud is an industry-leading solution for Quality and Complaint Management.”
- “Enterprise Grade solution yet outdated UI/UX and features.”
- “It's an option.”
10. Gorgias
Best for e-commerce businesses
Starting price | Free trial | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| $10 per month for up to 50 help desk tickets | Available |
|
Gorgias is an e-commerce help desk platform that uses automation to resolve customer issues. Its self-service software portal can automatically categorize tickets or suggest responses based on past interactions. Merchants can then provide automated answers to common questions like where orders are or how to make returns. The platform also supports live chat and offers an analytics suite, allowing businesses to track performance metrics.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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User reviews
- “The ultimate customer support platform.”
- “It was great, but ultimately, after a long trial run, we went with another company.”
- “Was hoping for more.”
Recommended reading: Learn how Zendesk vs. Gorgias compare.
11. Whatfix
Best for mobile users
Starting price | Free trial | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| Contact Whatfix | Unavailable |
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Whatfix is a digital adoption platform that integrates with existing applications across web, desktop, and mobile to help users learn. Its customer self-service software uses in-app walkthroughs, smart tips, and help menus to guide users. The platform has embeddable self-help wikis that users can use to search for content, including videos, slideshows, and PDFs. It also lets businesses collect analytics regarding user behavior to identify which features customers use the most and identify weak areas within their content.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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User reviews
- “Early on the journey, but [I] love Whatfix!”
- “Bugs and integration issues.”
- “The product is great, [but] the people pushed me away.”
12. Freshdesk
Best for Freshworks users
Starting price | Free trial | Key features |
|---|---|---|
| $15 per agent/month (billed annually) | 14 days |
|
Freshdesk by Freshworks is a customer service platform with self-service capabilities. Users can create branded portals that customers can use to find answers independently. AI email bots allow businesses to respond to customers automatically without creating a support ticket. Additionally, Freshdesk connects with the wider Freshworks ecosystem, enabling businesses and current users to integrate all platforms.
Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
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User reviews
- “A solid choice that is worth considering.”
- “Not Good for smaller customers.”
- “The first internal ticket engagement tool, [but] not as good as Zendesk, though.”
How to choose the right customer self-service software
Selecting the right customer self-service platform is crucial to improve your customer experience and operational efficiency. When evaluating potential solutions, consider these key factors to make an informed decision:
- Ensure it fully integrates with your tech stack: Solid integration allows for seamless data flow between systems and prevents data silos. For example, it enables you to connect the customer portal to your ticketing system so customers can request support within the portal.
- Evaluate its AI capabilities: Understanding the full capabilities of the product's AI and how it is trained gives you an idea of what it will be like to incorporate it into your operations. For instance, you can deploy pre-trained AI immediately, but if it isn’t specialized in CX, you may need to dedicate more time to training it yourself.
- Prioritize ease of use: Self-service portals must be user-friendly and easy to maintain. A simple, intuitive interface encourages customers to find answers on their own, while a low-maintenance platform reduces the burden on support teams.
- Assess its total cost of ownership (TCO): A low TCO provides greater value over the life of the software. Accounting for unexpected costs like developer fees and maintenance costs helps avoid budget overruns.
By carefully considering these aspects, you can choose a customer self-service platform that meets your immediate needs and supports your long-term growth and customer satisfaction goals.
How to make a self-service platform
Housing a self-service portal within your company’s help desk software can improve CX and alleviate your service team, but you need to build it properly. Follow these best practices to ensure it has the most value for your customers:
- Leverage AI tools to get started fast: Use generative AI knowledge base tools to quickly draft initial content for creating FAQ pages, guides, and tutorials. AI-powered analytics can help you prioritize which customer issues and queries to address first.
- Tailor it to the look and feel of your brand: Use consistent colors, logos, and typography throughout the portal. Also, ensure the tone and language match your brand voice (generative AI tools can assist with this).
- Keep the search bar front and center: The search bar is the ultimate tool for finding answers. Every page of your portal should have a search bar so they don’t have to navigate back to the main page to enter another inquiry.
- Categorize everything clearly: Sometimes, your customers already know where their problem stems from. Giving them a categorized list of common issues or components lets them jump straight to their resolution.
- Link to related articles: Other times, your customer may not know how to search for their problem. Linking your articles together lets readers work their way down the rabbit hole, narrowing their focus until they finally arrive at the question they meant to ask in the first place.
- Provide a way to contact customer support: Even with a wealth of resources, customers may sometimes give up or realize that the answer isn’t there. Providing a way to contact support on every page—with a chat widget, email address, or phone number—reminds them that someone is still around to help if needed.
- Build processes to keep knowledge fresh: Self-service portal analytics can provide valuable insights into which resources your customers use the most. For example, Content Cues can reveal which resources your customers use the most—and least—allowing you to prioritize updates or build new content around them.
These practices help create an efficient, effective, and brand-aligned self-service experience.
Frequently asked questions
Embrace an AI-powered customer self-service portal with Zendesk
Zendesk provides AI-powered customer self-service portal software as part of our comprehensive CX solution. It's quick to set up, user-friendly for both customers and agents, secure, and scalable. With AI tools like generative AI for content creation, AI agents, and AI-powered search, your self-service portal works harder to deliver maximum benefits.
Start boosting your self-service rates by building your portal today with a free trial.