Best small business help desk software for 2025

Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) need a direct line of communication with their customers to manage incoming support requests effectively. Due to the nature of SMBs, support teams and business leaders often spend more time nurturing relationships and offering one-on-one support. To achieve this without overburdening agents, use dedicated help desk software to organize conversations.

Help desk software ensures that your team sees all messages and meets service-level agreement (SLA) expectations regardless of the channel a customer uses. Learn more about the best help desk software for small businesses and the ins and outs of selecting the right solution. In this article, we will discuss:

More in this guide:

• What is help desk software for small businesses?
• Small business help desk software comparison chart
• The 12 best help desk software for small businesses
• Features of small business help desk software
• Benefits of small business help desk software
• How to choose the right help desk software for a small business
• Frequently asked questions
• Try Zendesk help desk software for small businesses for free

Small business help desk software provides tools so businesses can efficiently manage and resolve customer or employee support requests. It centralizes incoming inquiries, tracks their progress, and provides an interface for communication when enterprise-grade plans might be impractical.

Take a look at the top help desk tools for small businesses side-by-side to see which products have the features you need within your budget.

Discover the top help desk software for small businesses. We based our roundup on customer reviews, overall features, and how each solution meets typical SMB needs.

• Zendesk: Best for AI-powered CX
• Freshdesk: Best for working with collaborators
• Salesforce Small Business Service: Best for Salesforce sales CRM integration
• Zoho Desk: Best for free usage
• Front: Best for inbound sales
• Hiver: Best for Google Workspace integration
• Help Scout: Best for using a shared inbox
• HubSpot Service Hub: Best for ticket segmentation
• HappyFox Help Desk: Best for identifying and managing ticket tasks
• Jira Service Desk: Best for Atlassian integration
• SolarWinds: Best for IT use cases
• Gorgias: Best for e-commerce use cases

1. Zendesk

Best for AI-powered CX

If you’re looking for a user-friendly help desk solution that gives you access to the latest tools without going over budget, Zendesk is the best option. Small business owners love how well Zendesk integrates with their favorite applications and often discover new ways to boost productivity through our extensive marketplace of pre-built applications.

Because of the software’s agility, fast time to value, and scalability, SMBs can continue to provide outstanding customer service as they grow. This is possible because the Zendesk help desk software and task automation are easy to configure. Some SMBs also use the Zendesk software for internal help desks to provide technical support for employees.

Users can tag coworkers on tickets, share internal notes, and even see who's working on the same issue in real time to prevent duplicate work. And with our mobile app, your team can continue to use the remote help desk software to respond to customers wherever they are.

The Zendesk AI copilot helps agents get more done by suggesting responses, sharing relevant information, and even improving the replies agents write. This means faster resolutions and happier customers. Additionally, Zendesk AI can generate new articles from just a few bullet points, ensuring your self-service resources are fully fleshed out.

The software is accessible to businesses of all sizes, but qualifying startups receive six months of free access through the Zendesk for Startups program. This includes our award-winning customer service, sales, and engagement tools. Connect with our community, learn from our experts, and build a world-class customer experience.

Features:

• Omnichannel agent workspace
• AI agents
• Knowledge base
• Automated workflows
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing: Plans start at $19 per agent/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

Recent user reviews

• “Zendesk is by far the best platform for customer support companies.”
• “Zendesk makes ticketing much simpler.”
• “All in one tool to support our clients in different channels.”
• “Zendesk: Paving the way for the future of customer service.”
• “Unparalleled software.”

Explore more Zendesk pricing plans.

2. Freshdesk

Best for working with collaborators

Freshdesk’s cloud-based help desk software is a contact center solution and ticketing system for small businesses. The software provides customer health analytics and automated workflows to assist with everyday help desk tasks. While it supports omnichannel performance, the feature is only available with the Freshdesk Omni plan. The other plans are multichannel.

The platform also works with other Freshworks tools, like Freshchat, allowing agents and bots to talk to customers across channels like WhatsApp, Facebook, and SMS. Additionally, teams can bring in users who aren’t on the plan to collaborate on issues without needing another license.

Features:

• Omnichannel agent workspace
• AI chatbots
• Knowledge base
• Automated workflows
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing: Paid plans start at $15 per month, billed annually. A free plan and a 14-day free trial are available.

Recent user reviews

• “Managing your company's ticket flow with a breeze.”
• “Straight-forward helpdesk that provides all the features you need to excel at CS.”
• “Okay on a small scale.”
• “Using Freshdesk for close to a year with mixed feelings.”
• “Still leaves a lot to be desired.”

Learn more: Discover how Zendesk vs. Freshdesk compare.

3. Salesforce Small Business Service

Best for native sales CRM integration

Businesses can manage support requests and automate repetitive administrative tasks with Salesforce Small Business Service. Users can deliver customer support and manage incoming tickets from digital channels like social media or live chat. However, Salesforce primarily specializes in sales-related functions, so its customer support guidance may not be as robust as dedicated help desk services.

Small Business plan users can access the Salesforce CRM to track sales pipelines. The case management tools enable users to handle customer inquiries and issues, including case creation, assignment, and resolution tracking. Additionally, the platform provides insights through customizable reports and dashboards, empowering businesses to make data-driven decisions and improve overall customer satisfaction.

Features:

• Omnichannel agent workspace
• AI chatbots
• Knowledge base
• Automated workflows
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing: Plans start at $25 per user/month. A 30-day free trial is available.

Recent user reviews

• “An efficient and scalable customer service solution.”
• “A software for your schedule and other things that will make you lose your mind.”
• “Salesforce Service Cloud User Experience”
• “Easy and powerful, yet confusing.”

Learn more: Discover how Salesforce integrates with Zendesk or how Zendesk vs. Salesforce compare.

4. Zoho Desk

Best for free usage

Zoho Desk lets users view all customer conversations in a single queue where they can filter by deadline, priority, status, or customer business rules. The mobile app also helps with ticket management by making it easy for agents to tag, assign, and escalate tickets from anywhere.

Small teams can use the free plan to create a knowledge base, manage tickets, and customize the look. They can also utilize Zoho Desk Express to log and triage tickets, assess customer history, automate workflows to eliminate bottlenecks, and monitor customer satisfaction with advanced reporting dashboards.

Features:

• Omnichannel agent workspace
• AI chatbots
• Knowledge base
• Automated workflows
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing: Plans start at $7 per user/month, billed annually. A free plan and a 15-day free trial are available.

Recent user reviews

• “Extended tool that makes things easier!”
• “Zoho Desk — Pleasant Surprise”
• “A positive experience with Zoho Desk, with some aspects to improve.”
• “It’s great, but a lot of things require the support team!”

Learn more: Discover how Zoho Desk integrates with Zendesk or how Zendesk vs. Zoho Desk compare.

5. Front

Best for inbound sales

Front allows users to manage all customer communications from email, live chat, and SMS in a collaborative hub. Support team members can use Front to manage high volumes of support requests by accessing information from a single customer view.

Team inboxes allow for cross-functional collaboration, message templates support consistent replies, and automatic load balancing ensures even ticket assignment. In addition to customer support, Front can also assist inbound sales desks in automating lead routing and scheduling.

Features:

• Omnichannel agent workspace
• AI chatbots
• Knowledge base
• Automated workflows
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing: Plans start at $19 per seat/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

Recent user reviews

• “Useful, customizable, and easy to use.”
• “All the things at the same place, awesome!”
• “Unsatisfactory Customer Service”
• “Front is the place where I can share my ideas, ask for feedback, and see my performance.”

Learn more: Discover how Zendesk vs. Front compare.

6. Hiver

Best for Google Workspace integration

Hiver is a help desk solution that is built to work with Google Workspace. It integrates with Gmail, allowing teams to manage customer emails, track interactions, and collaborate effectively without leaving their inboxes. Features like collision alerts, shared drafts, and internal notes let teams work together and deliver consistent communication.

Additionally, Hiver's mobile app enables agents to stay connected and respond to customer inquiries on the go. Hiver’s platform also specializes in customer service, IT service management (ITSM), and operations.

Features:

• Omnichannel agent workspace
• Knowledge base
• Automated workflows
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing: Paid plans start at $19 per user/month. A free plan and a seven-day free trial are available.

Recent user reviews

• “Keep yourself and your team on top of incoming emails with Hiver.”
• “Hiver has been in use for [a] couple [of] months in our company, and so far, we are satisfied.”
• “Very helpful tool with some limitations.”
• “Making Work More Efficient”

7. Help Scout

Best for using a shared inbox

The Help Scout small business help desk solution uses a shared inbox to allow teams to collaborate effectively on customer conversations. This shared space centralizes all customer interactions, enabling direct communication and knowledge sharing among team members.

Customer conversations are filtered into a single location where support team members can assign, tag, and organize conversations. Help Scout also provides features like customer profiles, which store customer history and interactions.

Features:

• Omnichannel agent workspace
• Knowledge base
• Automated workflows
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing: Paid plans start at $50 per month. A free plan and a free trial are available.

Recent user reviews

• “Down-to-earth product that works.”
• “Easy tracking of multiple tickets.”
• “Using Helpscout since 2015.”
• “Don’t think it’s fair.”
• “Very simple & user-friendly communication tool.”

Learn more: Discover how Zendesk vs. Help Scout compare.

8. HubSpot Service Hub

Best for ticket segmentation

HubSpot’s help desk is a part of HubSport Service Hub and includes features like ticketing, customer feedback, and a knowledge base for customer self-service. Teams can use pipelines to segment tickets based on factors like the relevant region or brand so they can handle them properly.

Hubspot Service Hub helps users monitor customer conversations and support requests. Support teams can use the software to resolve tickets with an integrated system, automated ticket routing and triage, SLA management, performance metrics, and more.

Features:

• Omnichannel agent workspace
• AI chatbots
• Knowledge base
• Automated workflows
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing: Paid plans start at $15 per user/month, billed annually. A free plan is available.

Recent user reviews

• “A perfect tool for startups, but there's room for improvement.”
• “Really useful tool for service teams to stay on top of requests and tickets!”
• “Not worth it.”
• “Feature-rich but with a moderately steep learning curve”

Learn more: Discover how HubSpot integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. HubSpot compare.

9. HappyFox Help Desk

Best for identifying and managing ticket tasks

The HappyFox Help Desk offers task management tools so customer support agents can break down the steps needed to resolve issues. Teams can create, assign, and track tasks related to tickets, including setting due dates.

Beyond task management, HappyFox provides a shared inbox for team collaboration, automated workflows, and a knowledge base for self-service support. It also integrates with various other business applications so users can connect with existing tools and workflows.

Features:

• Omnichannel agent workspace
• Knowledge base
• Automated workflows
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing: Plans start at $24 per agent/month, billed annually. A free trial is available.

Recent user reviews

• “Happy Fox, Good mix of tools, capabilities, and customization.”
• “Does what it needs to do, but not the most user-friendly.”
• “HappyFox works for us, and it’s easy.”
• “Great help desk product”

Learn more: Discover how HappyFox integrates with Zendesk.

10. Jira Service Desk

Best for Atlassian integration

Jira Service Management is a help desk tool with IT service management (ITSM) functionality that natively integrates with other Atlassian tools, like Confluence and Jira. Jira’s help desk software comes with the necessary features for IT and general support teams to deliver support to customers and employees. For example, development teams can track bugs and issues in Jira Software and then seamlessly transition them to Jira Service Management for resolution.

Small businesses can utilize Jira’s knowledge base to resolve incoming trouble tickets, manage SLAs, track action-oriented requests, and uncover customer satisfaction (CSAT) insights. The platform also provides customizable workflows, reporting, and automation.

Features:

• AI chatbots
• Knowledge base
• Automated workflows
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing: Paid plans start at $23.80 per agent/month. A free plan and a seven-day free trial are available.

Recent user reviews

• “Not my favorite CSM app, but solid.”
• “Handle and track service requests, incidents, problems, changes, and assets all in one platform.”
• “My experience with Jira Service Management during automation”
• “JSM- great ITSM and ticketing tool”

Learn more: Discover how Jira integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. Jira compare.

11. SolarWinds

Best for IT use cases

SolarWinds Service Desk is an ITSM solution that helps organizations oversee their IT support operations. Its incident management capabilities allow teams to track, prioritize, and resolve issues. Additionally, it offers asset management tools to track and manage IT assets throughout their lifecycle to maintain inventories.

The software also provides customizable roles and permissions to control user access and streamline workflows. Real-time dashboards offer insights into KPIs, enabling monitoring and informed decision-making. Furthermore, SolarWinds Service Desk supports SLA management, so service delivery meets pre-defined standards.

Features:

• AI chatbots
• Knowledge base
• Automated workflows
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing: Paid plans start at $39 per technician/month. Free tools and a 30-day free trial are available.

Recent user reviews

• “Help desk and remote support in one place.”
• “Good tool, but could be great with a bit of improvement.”
• “Good product if you take the time to set it up right.”
• “Reliable and Easy to use Service Desk Tool”

Learn more: Discover how SolarWinds Service Desk integrates with Zendesk.

12. Gorgias

Best for e-commerce use cases

Gorgias provides help desk software for small businesses in the e-commerce industry. Its integrations with popular e-commerce platforms, like Shopify, allow agents to access order information, process refunds, and manage customer accounts directly within the help desk.

Furthermore, Gorgias supports omnichannel communication, enabling businesses to manage customer interactions across channels. The centralized view of customer profiles delivers data on customer needs and preferences.

Features:

• Omnichannel agent workspace
• AI chatbots
• Knowledge base
• Automated workflows
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing: Plans start at $10 per month for 10 support tickets. A free trial is available.

Recent user reviews

• “Easy to use, but always has system updates.”
• “My personal experience using Gorgias”
• “No support for CCPA/DSAR requests.”
• “Don't recommend; other more flexible affordable options out there.”

Learn more: Discover how Zendesk vs. Gorgias compare.

Small businesses seeking a new service desk system should prioritize help desks with immediate support and scalable features. This avoids frequent software changes as the company grows. Here are five features that the best help desk software provides to help you find the right solution.

Omnichannel agent workspace

An omnichannel agent workspace provides a centralized interface that consolidates communications from all channels like email, live chat, social media, and phone. This integrated approach lets support agents view a complete customer interaction history at a glance, reducing response times.

Presenting a holistic view of customer interactions helps agents deliver more personalized and context-aware support. Moreover, the omnichannel workspace facilitates better collaboration among team members and provides managers with comprehensive analytics to track performance.

AI chatbots

Modern AI chatbots go beyond simply starting a conversation on behalf of your agents. Now, they’re capable of gathering customer context, surfacing relevant support recommendations, and resolving complex tasks autonomously. AI chatbots are excellent resources for SMBs because they:

• Provide 24/7 support
• Deflect tickets away from busy agents
• Direct customers to self-service
• Manage multiple chat sessions simultaneously

Zendesk AI agents are the next generation of AI chatbots, assisting customers or staffing internal help desks. The AI copilot is another tool that can help your agents be more effective, like writing responses and sourcing needed information.

Knowledge base

An ideal knowledge base should provide intuitive authoring interfaces that allow support agents and subject matter experts to quickly create, edit, and organize articles. It should also offer rich text editing, multimedia support, and the ability to categorize content for easy navigation. The knowledge base should also include powerful search functionality that enables users to find relevant information rapidly.

Additionally, look for solutions that offer version control, multilingual support, and analytics to track article usage and effectiveness. The flexibility to customize the knowledge base's look to match your brand's aesthetic ensures a consistent and professional self-service experience.

Automated workflows

Small business help desk systems should provide a visual, drag-and-drop interface that allows support managers to easily create complex, multi-step workflows. This enables actions like automatic ticket assignment, priority escalation, skills-based routing, and triggered notifications without needing coding skills.

The software should support conditional logic that dynamically adjusts workflows based on ticket attributes, customer characteristics, or team configurations. This includes automatically escalating high-priority issues, sending follow-up surveys, and routing technical issues to specialized teams.

Reporting and analytics

Oftentimes SMBs don’t need as granular of customer service metric insights as larger businesses. However, the help desk software you choose should monitor baseline data like support volume, time to resolution, and conversation volume by channel metrics.

As you grow, you may even want to track additional help desk metrics and assess individual agent performance. For example, Zendesk offers a few useful reporting features that serve small businesses and startups well as they grow:

• Dashboards: Our pre-built, out-of-the-box dashboard gives small businesses fast and easy access to standard help desk metrics. As your organization grows, you can customize dashboard widgets to display the most relevant customer support information from each channel you utilize.
• Custom fields: With our easy-to-use custom fields, you can gain extensive data insights without any technical skills. This helps small businesses set benchmarks and monitor the KPIs that impact their organization the most.
• Unified analytics: Zendesk creates a unified customer analytics experience by making it easy for small businesses to import data from other sources. This helps users see the whole picture and supports educated decision-making.
  Be sure that the help desk solution you go with can keep up with your needs as they change.
  

Juggling multiple tasks and wearing many hats can make it challenging for small businesses to deliver consistent and efficient support. However, the right help desk can bring many benefits that can help you overcome these problems.

Increased customer and employee retention

Small business help desk software provides agents with comprehensive customer histories, unified communication channels, and intelligent ticket management. This enables faster, more personalized support that directly impacts customer satisfaction and keeps customers returning for more.

For employees, help desk software can reduce administrative burden and minimize repetitive tasks. They offer clear performance tracking and workflow management, increasing job satisfaction and reducing burnout.

Lowered operational costs

Help desk software reduces operational costs for small businesses by automating routine support tasks and minimizing human intervention and ticket processing time. The software streamlines workflows, enabling support agents to handle larger volumes of customer inquiries efficiently. The software decreases resolution times by centralizing communication channels and providing self-service resources, lowering costs.

Unified data

Since omnichannel help desk software integrates customer interactions from across channels into a single interface, it enables cross-department visibility. Sales, support, and customer success teams can then access complete customer interaction histories and contextual information. By breaking down communication silos, the software ensures consistent, informed customer experiences and provides holistic insights that support more personalized and efficient service strategies.

Greater visibility and insight

Help desk software provides comprehensive operational visibility through its reporting and analytics dashboards. These insights reveal response times, ticket resolution rates, agent productivity, customer satisfaction scores, and emerging support trends. By transforming raw interaction data into actionable intelligence, the software enables managers to identify operational bottlenecks, optimize resource allocation, and make data-driven decisions that continuously improve support strategies and customer experience.

Small businesses must consider several factors to choose the best help desk solution for their company. Follow these five help desk best practices to set your company up for support success.

Set time to value and ROI expectations

Before you begin your search or schedule any sales meetings with providers, set some expectations for yourself. These should include:

• Ideal return on investment (ROI)
• Budget
• Time to value

It’s important to define what you’re looking for early on to avoid wasting time on solutions that won’t work for you and increase the likelihood that your decision will pay off how you envision it will.

Determine its ease of use

Evaluate the user interface for intuitive navigation, clean design, and minimal learning curve. Assess the complexity of core tasks like ticket creation, routing, and reporting, ensuring agents can perform these actions with minimal clicks and without extensive training. Request a demo or free trial to personally experience the solution’s usability and seek feedback or reviews from current users about their experience with the system.

Assess its scalability

Find a help desk partner that understands your business and can grow alongside you. While you may be small now, your service desk should accommodate a growing number of support requests in the coming years.

Any good help desk solution can support your agents as they adapt to fluctuating ticket volumes or unique customer needs and provide customizable tools.

Evaluate the total cost of ownership (TCO)

TCO is an important factor when considering any business software because it shows the true cost of a tool—how much you’ll spend to implement and utilize it throughout its lifetime at your company.

Ideally, the software you select will have a low TCO, meaning your business will see cost savings on expenses attributed to implementation, subscriptions, and ongoing maintenance.

Ensure the vendor provides adequate support

Consider how much support the vendor will offer to help you get set up and how accessible they will be to correct any future issues. Ideally, the vendor will have a number of support options available. Some examples of this are:

• Video courses or training
• 24/7 AI agents
• Live training and configuration support
• Guides and knowledge base articles
• Customer service agents across multiple channels that provide real-time customer support

Pay attention to how the company responds during your free trial to get an understanding of how they’ll treat you when you’re a customer.