3 Help Desk Tools Best Reviewed for Ease of Use

Kristen Bialik profile picture
By Kristen Bialik

Published
4 min read

Help desk agents are constantly solving problems—let other agents help you find the right help desk software through reviews.

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Help desk work is challenging—agents are tasked with solving a rapid stream of customer problems and they need software that will help them, not get in their way.

Effective, intuitive help desk software will allow your agents to spend time on what actually matters—your customers—instead of getting bogged down trying to navigate a system or search for answers buried in your knowledge base.

We’ve analyzed thousands of software user reviews in our help desk software directory to find some of the easiest-to-use help desk products on the market. We did this by calculating a sentiment score for each help desk product and then listing the three help desk products with the highest sentiment scores for ease-of-use.

What is a sentiment score?


The sentiment score is a rating based on how positive or negative users are when they review a product. On a scale from 1 to 10, rave reviews get a high score, unfavorable reviews get a low score, and lukewarm reviews get a score in between. Review scores are then averaged to determine the sentiment score for the product.

Top 3 easy-to-use help desk software systems

Product (click to jump to that section)

Ease-of-use sentiment score (out of 10)

HelpCrunch

6.47

Atera

6.34

Workbooks

6.33

Products are listed in order of highest sentiment score to lowest. To learn more about our methodology, click here.

1. HelpCrunch

Ease-of-use sentiment score: (6.47 out of 10)Mentions of ease of use in reviews: 38Percent of mentions that are positive: 96%

HelpCrunch is a multi-channel customer communication platform designed for customer service, marketing, and sales.

For help desk, it features detailed customer profiles, a knowledge base, email management, live chat, and conversation transcripts. The live chat can also serve as lead generation for sales, while the email management and segmentation capabilities are great for email marketing.

On ease of use, HelpCrunch users have the following feedback:

  • Easy to set up

  • Nice user interface

  • Easily customizable

a-preview-of-helpcrunchs-chat-and-email-dashboard

A preview of HelpCrunch’s chat and email dashboard (Source)

How do users feel about HelpCrunch’s ease of use?

Users are overwhelmingly positive on how user-friendly HelpCrunch is. Of reviews that mention ease of use, a whopping 96% mention it positively and 0% mention it negatively. By comparison, the ease-of-use sentiment for the help desk category as a whole is 80% positive.

how-people-about-helpcrunchs-ease-of-use-ease-of

How does HelpCrunch compare to the category average for ease-of-use sentiment?

While the entire help desk category averages an ease-of-use sentiment score of 6.05, HelpCrunch averages 6.47.

ease-of-use-sentiment-score-helpcrunch-compared-t


Read user reviews of HelpCrunch

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2. Atera

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of date of publication

Atera is a somewhat niche product within the help desk space as it’s specifically designed for managed services providers (MSPs) and IT professionals.

As a remote access and support tool, Atera brings remote monitoring and management (RMM) capabilities to its help desk and knowledge base offerings. It also includes features for IT automation, patch management, contracts and service level agreements (SLA), as well as billing and invoicing.

When it comes to ease-of-use, Atera users cite the following:

  • Intuitive user interface

  • Easy to install

  • Easy-to-generate reports

a-preview-of-ateras-desktop-and-mobile-dashboards

A preview of Atera’s desktop and mobile dashboards (Source)

How do users feel about Atera’s ease of use?

The vast majority (94%) of ease-of-use comments about Atera are positive. Only 6% are neutral and 0% negatively mention Atera’s ease of use. By comparison, the ease-of-use sentiment for the help desk category as a whole is 80% positive.

how-people-feel-about-ateras-ease-of-use-ease-of

How does Atera compare to the category average for ease-of-use sentiment?

While the entire help desk category averages an ease-of-use sentiment score of 6.05, Atera averages 6.34.

ease-of-use-sentiment-score-atera-compared-to-the


Read user reviews of Atera

Take me there


3. Workbooks

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of date of publication

Workbooks is more than a help desk tool, it’s a full customer relationship management (CRM) suite with capabilities for marketing, sales, and customer service.

For help desk, it offers ticketing and case management, knowledge base, and multi-channel support features. For marketing and sales, it offers lead and account management, segmentation, performance metrics, and more.

Workbooks users say the following for ease of use:

  • Intuitive user interface

  • Easy to navigate and configure

  • Easy to generate and customize reports

activity-tracking-in-workbooks

Activity tracking in Workbooks (Source)

How do users feel about Workbooks’ ease of use?

Workbooks’ users find the system very easy to use, as evidenced by the 93% of mentions that positively reference its ease. Only 5% of ease-of-use comments are neutral and 2% are negative. By comparison, the ease-of-use sentiment for the help desk category as a whole is 80% positive.

how-people-feel-about-workbooks-ease-of-use-ease

How does Workbooks compare to the category average for ease-of-use sentiment?

While the entire help desk category averages an ease-of-use sentiment score of 6.05, Workbooks averages 6.33.

ease-of-use-sentiment-score-workbooks-compared-to


Read user reviews of Workbooks

Take me there


Looking for more help desk software options?

Of course, how easy software is to use is just one factor in finding the right product for your business. Price, features, integrations, and customer support are also essential considerations.

If you’re looking for more help desk options, visit our help desk software directory. There you can filter products by feature, read user reviews, and see our latest Top 20 Help Desk Software report.


Methodology


To be considered for this report, products had to meet our help desk market definition, meet our review count minimum, and have a high percentage of positive mentions for ease of use compared to other evaluated products.

  • Help desk market definition: In order to be considered a help desk system, products must have ticketing management and knowledge base management features.

  • Review count minimum: Products had to have 20 or more unique reviews mentioning “ease of use” or related terms.

  • Percent of mentions that are positive: Products listed in this report had the highest percentage of positive mentions of ease of use among eligible products.

To calculate sentiment score, we looked at specific mentions of ease of use in each review (i.e., “snippets”) and analyzed the language used to describe the product’s usability. We then scored the language on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most positive, five being neutral, and one being the most negative. The score for each snippet was the sum of all descriptive terms in the snippet. Snippet scores were then averaged to determine the sentiment score for the product.

When comparing a product’s sentiment score to the average score for the entire category, the product’s score was removed from the category for accuracy.


Looking for Help Desk software? Check out Capterra's list of the best Help Desk software solutions.

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About the Author

Kristen Bialik profile picture

Kristen Bialik is a senior specialist analyst covering customer experience for Capterra. She holds B.A.'s in English and Communications from the University of Michigan and an M.A. in Journalism Research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Follow her at @kebialik for insight on CX for small and midsize businesses.

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