Help Desk Software: The Best Solutions in 2025
Optimize IT support with 2025's best Help Desk software. Top 10 solutions: InvGate Service Management, Freshdesk, Zoho Desk, ManageEngine and more.
The Help Desk Software (2025 guide)
Discover the top 10 best help desk software in 2025 for big and small businesses, both cloud and on-premise. Plus, it's must-have features to improve IT support.
Every passing year, organizations get more dependent on their IT infrastructure to keep their business going, and on IT departments to ensure that everything works as it should. In this context, help desk software solutions are the perfect ally to channel all that.
Once organizations reach a certain number of team members, email support often falls short. Having a ticketing system allows them to communicate effectively with customers and solve all incoming customer requests or issues in an organized way.
This guide will help you navigate the different elements you need to consider when choosing a help desk system for your organization.
TL;DR
- Organizations use help desk software to manage employee and customer requests.
- Although it’s often related to IT, other areas of the organization can also benefit from it – such as HR and Maintenance.
- Among its main features, help desk solutions should offer ticketing, self-service capabilities, automation, and reporting and analytics.
- To choose the right help desk software, you should first focus on your company needs and goals, the support team structure, regulations, and budget.
Want the short version? Pick InvGate Service Management and start handling tickets in a day
We tried to be as thorough as possible, but if you don't have enough time to read it through and through, here's (another) TL;DR: InvGate Service Management can do everything we say here, and you can test it right away for free for 30 days.- Start your 30-day free help desk trial.
- View pricing options.
- Explore the product tour.
- Jump to the comparative analysis.
What is help desk software?
Help desk software is a tool to help manage employee or customer inquiries and service requests. This type of software typically offers features such as ticket tracking, automated responses, and self-service portals, allowing end-users to quickly get help without going through a lengthy process.
Companies use it to centralize the requests for support – commonly called “tickets” – because it allows the Customer Support Department to route the request to the right agent, keep a history of the interactions between that employee and the support department, and provide self-service tools such as a knowledge base and ticket status for faster resolution.
According to Market Research Future, the help desk software market value is projected to reach 18.0 USD Billion by 2032.
Typically, help desk software connects to the customer contact points: email, text support, chatbots, and self-service portals, routing the queries uniformly to the service desk team. The software will also be connected to the customer database as well as to the knowledge base for providing clear replies to customer queries.
Modern help desk solutions also have analytics and deep learning capabilities to help you further optimize your helpdesk. These systems deliver actionable insights for better management of resources and resolve any bottlenecks in the ticket management pipeline.
Help desk vs. service desk
The main difference between a help desk and a service desk is that the former has a reactive approach to support. Help desks typically act after an issue has occurred. On the contrary, service desk software allows organizations to be proactive, set up a strategy, and prepare for issues long before they arise.Top 10 best help desk software
| Help desk Software | Hosting | Free help desk trial | Pricing | Licensing Model | Pink Verify Practices | Integration Costs | Support costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| InvGate | Cloud & on-premise | Yes (30 days) | Starts at $17/month for advanced features. | Agent/Year | 6 | Included + free API | Included |
| Freshdesk | Cloud | Yes (21 days) | Free for 2 agents, starts at $15/month for more features. | Agent/Month | 6 | Free & paid | Email support included - Phone support included in some plans |
| Zoho Desk | Cloud | Yes (15 days) | Starts at, $12/month for more help desk software features. | Agent/Month | 4 | Paid | Email support included - Phone support included in some plans |
| ManageEngine | Cloud & on-premise | Yes | Starting at $13/month | Technician/Month | 4 | N/A | Included |
| SolarWinds | On-premise | Yes (30 days) | Starting at $39/month | Technician/Month | N/A | N/A | Included in some plans |
| BMC Helix | Cloud | Yes | Request a quote | N/A | 5 | N/A | Included |
| Help Scout | Cloud | Yes (15 days) | Starts at $20/month | User/Month | N/A | Included in some plans | Included |
| ServiceNow | Cloud | Yes | Request a quote | N/A | 11 | Free & Paid | Included |
| Jira Service Management | Cloud | Yes | Free for up to 3 agents, then $19.04/month for more features | Agent/Month | N/A | Free & paid | Included |
| HappyFox | Cloud | No | Starting at $14/month | Agent/Month | N/A | Included in some plans | Included |
1. InvGate Service Management
InvGate Service Management is a help desk solution for all types of companies. Its easy-to-use interface and Low-Code/No-Code capabilities make it a flexible tool that can adapt to multiple industries — from IT and retail to education and healthcare.
Among its top features, it provides organizations with support ticket management, automation, workflows, and AI-powered capabilities. Plus, it holds a PinkVERIFY Certification for practices (Change Management, Incident Management, IT Operations Management, Knowledge Management, Problem Management, Request Management).
In addition, its dashboards and custom reports make it simple to monitor the tool's performance, and spot improvement opportunities on the fly.
And the best thing is that it can be implemented in just one day.
"We are definitely pushing all employees (4,500) to move from email to tickets. There is better control over them, determining times, necessary training and employee performance."
Martin Nuñez, Service Desk Manager at Harmony Public Schools
InvGate Service Management key features
- Self-service capabilities (self-service portal, knowledge base, service catalog).
- Workflow automation with a visual workflow editor.
- AI-powered features that offer agents suggestions on ticket recategorization and help agents write ticket replies.
- Native (InvGate Asset Management, Microsoft Teams, Zapier) and third-party integrations.
- Multiple department integration.
- Gamification.
InvGate Service Management pricing
Want to see all these in action? Explore the pricing options and get a quote from InvGate tailored to your specific needs, or check how the tool works by signing up for a 30-day free trial.2. Freshdesk
Freshdesk Features
- Integrations with communication channels like Slack, Freshservice chatbot, or MS Teams.
- Integrated knowledge base and self-service capabilities.
- Streamlined operations across IT, facilities, legal, and HR, with Enterprise Service Management.
- Expert onboarding and migration services.
Preços do Freshdesk
$15/agent/month (billed annually).3. Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is a popular service desk solution that helps deliver high levels of customer satisfaction.
Zoho Desk also supports omnichannel services, including support through the website, email, phone, and social media. It can help you build a state-of-the-art workflow to provide quick responses and follow-ups to customers.
Freshdesk Features
- Self-service capabilities and an integrated knowledge base.
- AI and automation that help quickly resolve customers’ queries through your site, mobile app, or SaaS product.
- Seamless integration with different tools like Salesforce, Teams, Slack, Twilio, Jira service management, etc. using REST APIs.
Zoho Desk Pricing
Free for 3 agents, then starts at $12/month for more features4. ManageEngine
ManageEngine is a popular service desk solution delivering consistent results for the last 10 years.
One of the key features of the ManageEngine service desk solution is that it offers a variety of flexible plans to suit businesses of all types and sizes. This solution is highly power-packed and can help you run your service desk optimally.
ManageEngine features
- Incident Management to reduce outages, meet SLAs, improve productivity, and manage
- Problem Management to classify and analyze issues.
- Change Management to streamline changes and roll out updates seamlessly.
- Integrated Asset Management to manage, discover, and track IT software and hardware.
- Service catalog functionality.
- CMDB to manage and track configuration items.
- IT project management to manage projects and resources.
- Powerful reporting and insights.
ManageEngine Pricing
The platform provides a free trial and various subscription plans based on the number of technicians, starting at$13/month/technician. Additionally, you can request a customized quote.5. SolarWinds Service Desk
SolarWinds is a popular service desk for modern IT teams used by MNCs all over the world. It helps establish better control over IT processes and improve customer service. It combines useful features and quality services to offer the best customer support to your audience.
The SolarWinds service desk specializes in industries with strict regulations and frequent audits. This software is useful for organizing your license and contract documents, staying compliant, and managing inventory. It is suitable for businesses of all sizes and is deployed as a SaaS solution.
SolarWinds Service Desk features
- Integrated IT Asset Management with automated asset detections.
- Integrated Incident Management.
- User-friendly employee service portal.
- Integrated knowledge base.
- Problem Management.
- Change Management.
- Service catalog workflow engine.
- Ticket management, SLA management, reporting, and more.
SolarWinds Service Desk Pricing
The tool provides a free trial but does not have a free version. Pricing starts at $39/month/technician.6. BMC Helix
BMC Helix is an award-winning help desk software. This solution uses smart automation to employ the best practices of ITSM principles.
It is suitable for modern businesses that work with CIOs, change managers, service desk managers, and IT operations managers that can utilize it for their teams.
BMC Helix Features
- BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker offers a seamless and secure service experience in different cloud environments.
- Persona-based user experience across devices.
- Powerful reports and visualization tools to gain insights.
- Proactive Incident and Problem Management.
- BMC Helix iPaaS provides top-class iPaaS to help increase scalability, usability, and adaptability.
BMC Helix Pricing
The pricing models are non disclosed. The tool offers a free trial, but not a free version.7. Help Scout
Help Scout offers help desk software that is quick to learn and simple to configure. Its setup is more than enough for most small-to-medium-sized businesses - though it will miss out on more complex features.Help Scout features
- Simplified, straightforward ticket management.
- Intuitive, easy-to-use interface.
- Hassle-free knowledge article creation.
- Single-dashboard analytics view.
- Manual task automation.
Help Scout Pricing
Starts at $20/month8. ServiceNow
ServiceNow Relevant features
- Powerful support ticket management system with Incident Management capabilities.
- AI-powered chatbot.
- Flexible and easy-to-navigate knowledge base articles.
- AI and machine learning-powered automation.
- Large user community.
ServiceNow Pricing
The platform doesn't offer a free option and the pricing is not disclosed by the company.9. Jira Service Management
Jira Service Management features
- Free help desk for up to 3 agents.
- Easy-to-customize self-service portal.
- Flexible, easy-to-edit workflows.
- Simple, intuitive implementation.
- Modern UI and practices.
Jira Service Management Pricing
Free for up to 3 agents, then $19.04/month for more features.10. HappyFox
Formerly known as Jira Service Desk, Jira Service Management is a help desk software solution built on the popular Jira platform designed for high-velocity teams. Its tools empower teams to deliver great, coordinated service experiences without the complexity of traditional ITSM.Jira Service Management features
- User-friendly design.
- Easy issue management.
- Self-service portal creation.
- Easy reporting and analytics.
- Ticket management auto-assign.
- Custom email request templates.
- Social media integration.
HappyFox Pricing
Starting at $14/monthWhat is help desk software used for?
The short version is to provide your teams with a better way to handle support requests or tickets through a comprehensive ticket management system.
While some support ticket management systems are used to provide support to external customers (such as an e-commerce site or travel agency), help desk software features includes popular elements like providing restricted access to employees and perhaps selected external users (such as partners) to offer them the assistance they need in their daily work.
But that’s not the only benefit of having help desk software. The list also includes:
- Offer self-service capabilities and a knowledge base for end-users to solve frequent issues by themselves without overloading agents.
- Have an internal knowledge base to standardize IT support and serve as a training tool for new agents.
- Establish SLAs to classify tickets according to their level of urgency and ensure standard resolution times.
- Measure your agents’ performance and improve continually according to trustable metrics.
How does a help desk ticket management system work?
With a help desk ticketing system, users can submit a request – be it from email, through a communication platform, or directly from the self-service platform.
The ticket is then automatically prioritized and assigned to a specific agent while letting the help desk manager keep track of the performance of their team, and re-assign tickets to agents with fewer incidents in the queue.
Also, Service Level Management helps create visibility on the expected resolution times for a ticket, letting help desk software and the help desk manager escalate it or give it a higher priority.
Types of help desk software
If we take a look at the different types of help desk software tools or desk software solutions we’ll notice that they can be grouped and compared based on several factors.
Help desk ticket management software according to the areas that provide support:
- IT help desk - Focused on offering solutions and automating processes regarding hardware, software, and technical issues.
- HR help desk - Focused on offering solutions related to the Human Resources department, and creating HR automation.
- Enterprise help desk software - Focused on providing automation and solutions for large companies with an established customer base. They are more customizable and need a bit more experience to work with. They also take more time to implement compared to basic SaaS software.
Help desk service options according on its users:
- Internal help desk - Aimed to assist the organization’s employees.
- External help desk - Aimed to assist a company’s paying customers.
Help desk solutions depending on their deployment:
- Cloud help desk or web-based help desk - Hosted by the software provider, so you don’t have to worry about server costs or maintenance personnel. And as your team and organization grow, it’s relatively easier and cheaper to scale up a cloud-based help desk solution.
- On-premise help desk - Hosted by the organization; it’s usually suitable for highly-regulated companies that have a support team and the resources for maintaining their own servers and hardware.
Help desk software solutions according to licensing methods:
- Open-source help desk - This is a great option if you’re on a budget. But as with any free software, it has its drawbacks. Nonetheless, if you have the resources for a team of developers, you can tweak open-source software to your exact requirements.
- Closed-source help desk - This is the go-to option for most businesses since it allows a certain amount of customization and flexibility without the need to develop code.
8 must-have IT help desk software features
To be able to pick the help desk software that best suits your requirements, you need to know what to look for first. Besides understanding your company’s needs, you have to know what a help desk system that’s worthy of the name has to offer.
Here are 9 must-have IT help desk software features to seek.
1. Ease of use
2. Ticket Management automation
Since the help desk will be essentially handling issues and requests, automating the ticket management process flow is key to:- Optimize your agents’ time.
- Distribute the work evenly among your team.
- Speed up first-response times.
- Ensure SLA fulfillment.
- Guarantee that no ticket goes unnoticed.
- Establish a correct ticket management escalation process.
3. Workflow automation
4. Reporting and analytics
5. Self-service capabilities
Self-service capabilities constitute level 0 of IT support. They exist to offer your users 24/7 basic help, free up agents so they can focus on more complicated tasks, and improve your end-users’ overall experience.
These capabilities typically include:
- A self-service portal - It acts as a single point of contact with IT support, and empowers your users to find answers to their inquiries before contacting support, fix their incidents, raise their own support tickets, and even help their colleagues by promoting a culture of knowledge sharing and collaboration. With service portals, employees lose less time per ticket than when using email as a channel for IT support services.
- A service catalog - It gives your users visibility of all the services that can be provided to them from the different departments.
- A knowledge base - It allows your help desk to store all information relevant to your organization. This way, both agents and users can access articles to solve issues that were previously experienced by other users.
6. Service Level Management
SLAs define the level of service expected by users and the support team. A help desk ticket management system with Service-Level Management capabilities can route a ticket to the right agent according to priority, urgency, and knowledge level. Also, it provides signals to the agents to help them prioritize tickets based on expected resolution times.7. Integration with Asset Management
If your scope of services includes hardware support or device maintenance (or if your agents have to handle hardware in any way), it’s best to get a service desk that has Asset Management features, or that can easily integrate with an IT Asset Management tool.
By acquiring a combined solution, you’ll:
- Centralize all the information needed to solve issues in one platform.
- Improve visibility over the company's operations and asset management.
- Automate tasks across both platforms.
- Enhance agents' productivity.
- Improve employee and customer experience.
8. Other integrations
How to choose the right help desk software for your organization
Há muito a considerar, sabemos disso. Por esse motivo, a última parada antes de mergulharmos nas melhores soluções de help desk do mercado é um guia rápido para você saber como escolher a mais adequada para o seu negócio.
Levando em conta o que já mencionamos, ao escolher um help desk de TI, é necessário considerar as necessidades de sua organização.
Communication channels
What channels does your organization use to interact with IT? Are they mostly using email, phone, or maybe Microsoft Teams?Help desk goals
What are your objectives in terms of communication efficiency? Do you want to decrease the number of emails? Or perhaps you’re aiming to optimize your processes?Organization openness
How open is your organization to adopting new processes? Most help desks struggle to achieve the adoption of the help desk system by the organization.Support team structure
How many agents does your organization have? Does your help desk have different agent levels? What are your different levels of IT support?Prioritization
Do you need to route different tickets according to priority, department, and seniority?Collaboration
Do you expect a collaboration between agents? Or perhaps you’d like to assign to a ticket multiple agents with different roles?Regulations
Does your company abide by strict regulations regarding data storage? This could help you decide between an on-premise or cloud solution.Budget
What can your company afford? Should you choose an open-source help desk or do you have enough budget for subscription-based software?Requesting a help desk RFP
When shortlisting candidates, numerous organizations opt to request from vendors to complete a Request for Proposal (RFP).
RFPs are standardized documents where businesses outline their requirements and expectations regarding their IT Service Management practice. They handle them out to vendors, and receive in return organized insights to compare solutions using the same criteria.
If you want to build a document for your company, you don’t need to start from scratch; just download this help desk RFP template!
The bottom line
Choosing the right help desk software for your organization is essential to streamline your IT support and provide the best possible customer satisfaction and employee experience. To do so, you need to take into account:
- The company’s goals.
- Its openness to adapt to changes.
- The customer service team’s structure.
- Expert onboarding and migration services.
Based on the assessment of your company’s current state, you’ll be able to determine which features are more relevant to you – and whether you need help desk software or maybe it’s time for you to adopt an ITSM approach and opt for a service desk.
In general, make sure the help desk tool you end up using offers:
- Ticket automation.
- SLAs Management.
- Problem Management.
- Product, Inventory, and Asset management.
- Customizable dashboards to visualize data.
- Automation and integrations.
- Analytics and reporting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Check out InvGate as your ITSM and ITAM solution
30-day free trial - No credit card needed
