Call CenterCustomer Services & Support

7 Top-Rated Free Help Desk Software

Preksha Buttan profile picture
By Preksha Buttan

Published | Updated on
14 min read

From emails and phone calls to Instagram messages and live chat, customers are using these platforms to raise their concerns. As a support team manager, it's important for you to manage your platforms so you don't miss customer queries. But you don't need to juggle between each one. Instead, use a help desk tool to bring support requests on a single interface.

If you are a budding business with a small support team, free help desk software can let you manage your tickets and generate performance reports without a purchase commitment.

In this article, we've highlighted, in alphabetical order, seven top-rated free help desk software products based on verified software reviews. Read more.

We've categorized these products into dedicated help desk tools and CRM suites with help desk capabilities. Dedicated help desk tools only offer features related to help desk operations, including ticket management, contact management, and knowledge base. CRM suites, on the other hand, support help desk operations along with offering marketing and sales-related features.

1. Agile CRM

Agile CRM is a CRM suite with help desk capabilities. It offers tools to manage leads, track customer interactions, automate marketing campaigns, and provide support. The ticketing functionality of the tool allows you to organize incoming tickets and track them on a dashboard to monitor their statuses. You can also set service level agreements (SLAs) so that the customers have a clear understanding of what they can expect from the support team. Additionally, these SLAs will allow you to compare your support team's performance against the set expectations.

Agile CRM supports ten users in its free plan. If your support team grows, you'll need to switch to a paid plan for the tool. Also, note that the free plan lets you save 1,000 contact information within the tool but in the paid plans, you can save 10,000 to an unlimited number of contacts.

Free features:

  • Groups: Categorize tickets based on the type of issues to route them to a dedicated support staff. This ensures that the ticket is being handled by a support representative who is qualified to address a particular type of issue.

  • Labels: Organize tickets by adding a label to them based on common attributes, such as urgency. Grouping allows the team to identify similar issues, track patterns, and improve searchability. 

  • Canned responses: Create and store pre-written, standardized replies for frequently asked questions or common issues. Agents can easily access and use these responses to provide prompt and consistent replies to customers.

Customer support options: Knowledge base, email, chat, and phone calls.

Who should consider Agile CRM?

Managers of small businesses can consider Agile CRM for their help desk needs. Given that the tool has marketing and sales functionalities as well, you will be able to manage most of your marketing, sales, and support operations using a single tool. Additionally, leveraging the canned responses feature that this tool offers in its free plan, your team will be able to address common queries quickly without having to type out similar answers repeatedly. This will give your support staff some time back, allowing them to spend more time on complicated requests.

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Cost to upgrade

$9.99 per user, per month (billed annually)

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of August 2023

2. EngageBay CRM

EngageBay is another CRM suite with a separate help desk module called Service Bay. It allows your support staff to chat with customers in real time to address their concerns. The tool notifies you as and when someone initiates a chat via your website and lets you see their user journey on your site, allowing you to provide a personalized support experience. It also stores chat transcripts for analysis.

Although Service Bay offers all the support features for free, it only supports 15 users. Opting for a paid plan of EngageBay CRM will give you access to marketing and sales features as well.

Free features:

  • Contact management: Store customer information in a centralized database that agents can use to have personalized interactions with each customer. This information can include customer details and communication history.

  • Ticket management: Track customer inquiries, issues, or requests by assigning unique identifiers (tickets) to each case. Support teams can monitor ticket status, assign ownership, communicate updates, and track progress.

  • Ticket views: Organize tickets by grouping them into lists based on different conditions. Create custom views as per your preferences and monitor the status of your tickets.

Customer support options: Knowledge base, email, and phone calls.

Who should consider EngageBay CRM?

Customer service managers managing small teams should consider Service Bay. Having access to all the help desk features for free will let you provide a great customer experience. However, keep in mind that this tool only supports 15 users. If your team grows over time, you may have to incur additional costs.

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Cost to upgrade

$13.79 per user, per month (billed annually)

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of August 2023

/ Pro tip

Assess your business requirements with respect to the kind of customers you wish to address and the type of support you want to provide to your customers. For example, if your business is spread across countries, a tool with multilingual capabilities and integration with various communication channels will serve you best.

3. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is a dedicated help desk system that supports email ticketing. The tool automatically converts incoming emails into tickets for efficient tracking, monitoring, and addressing. It offers customizable inbox views and unique login details to each support agent, eliminating the chances of two support agents working on the same ticket. 

The free plan for Freshdesk allows you to run automation of every ticket and perform actions such as assigning tickets to specific agents, setting ticket priority, or triggering email notifications to agents. However, to get time-triggered automation capabilities, such as sending a reminder email, you'll have to invest in the paid plan of the tool.

Free features:

  • Integrated ticketing: Convert all inquiries you receive via email or social media into email tickets. These tickets are easy to track and can be addressed by a dedicated support agent handling inquiries. 

  • Knowledge base: Create a knowledge base answering all the common questions that your customers frequently ask. Share the same with your customers, empowering them to find answers to their questions themselves. 

  • Ticket trend report: Analyze tickets to identify trends and related patterns. It offers insights into ticket volume, response times, resolution rates, and other key metrics, helping support staff to identify areas for improvement. 

Customer support options: Knowledge base, community support, chat, email, and phone calls.

Who should consider Freshdesk?

Freshdesk can help fulfill the needs of email support team managers. Since it has email ticketing features, you'll be able to leverage those to address customer queries via a mailbox. Moreover, the tool has basic automation features that will help you automatically route incoming tickets to the appropriate support agent.

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Cost to upgrade

$12.14 approximately per user, per month (billed annually)

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of August 2023

4. Gist

Gist is a CRM suite that includes help desk features. It allows you to interact with your website visitors via a chat widget that you can customize. The chat history is stored so that the visitors can come back and pick up the conversation anytime. Moreover, you can integrate a knowledge base into your website that your customers can use to find answers to their questions. 

The free plan of Gist lets you chat with website visitors and customers via an integrated chatbox. However, to address queries you receive via email or social media, you'll have to invest in the paid plans.

Free features:

  • Live chat: Chat with your customers in real time to provide instant assistance, quick issue resolution, and personalized interactions. Live chat enhances customer engagement, reduces response times, and fosters positive user experiences.

  • Conversation history: Maintain a chronological record of all communications between customers and support agents. It ensures that a comprehensive history of previous conversations is accessible, allowing you to track past solutions and provide consistent and informed assistance. 

  • Team inbox: Get a shared workspace where team members can collectively manage and respond to customer inquiries. It centralizes communication, allowing agents to collaborate, assign tasks, and track progress on tickets. 

Customer support options: Knowledge base and chat.

Who should consider Gist?

Gist can be a suitable tool for customer service teams looking for an affordable tool to engage with their website visitors. Leveraging the live chat feature of this tool, you can address the questions and concerns a customer or website visitor may have in real time. The shared inbox feature is also beneficial as your team members can jump into the conversation and take over.

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Cost to upgrade

$29 per month for 5 users (billed monthly)

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of August 2023

/ Pro tip

Look for internal collaboration features, such as real-time messaging, shared inbox, collision detection, and internal notes. These features will help agents communicate and collaborate with each other.

5. JIRA Service Management

JIRA Service Management is another dedicated help desk system that helps handle various IT and service-related processes. These processes include managing incidents or disruptions in operations, addressing customer requests, implementing changes in IT systems or applications, and more. JIRA Service Management also allows you to provide multilingual support to audiences spread across various geographies.

This IT service management solution supports three agents and one location in its free plan. While you can leverage the real-time chat feature, the paid version offers an AI-powered virtual agent that uses historical data to provide support to your customers instantly.

Free features:

  • File storage: Get 2 GB of storage space to store and manage attachments, screenshots, logs, and other relevant files associated with customer inquiries or support tickets.

  • Email notifications: Receive notifications about new tickets or updates on older tickets via emails. The free version of the tool supports 100 email notifications per day.

  • Self-service portal: Give your customers and employees access to an online platform with an integrated knowledge base to submit requests, respond to queries, and look for solutions in the knowledge base.

Customer support options: Knowledge base, community support, and emails.

Who should consider JIRA Service Management?

If you are an IT support manager, JIRA Service Management can serve the needs of your team the best. The IT-focused features of the tool, such as incident management, change management, and asset management, will help you provide IT service support to your employees and customers.

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Cost to upgrade

$21 per user, per month (billed monthly)

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of August 2023

6. Raiseaticket

Raiseaticket is a dedicated help desk platform that allows your support agents to add notes, attach files, update ticket statuses, and track time spent resolving those tickets. You can create SLAs to ensure your support team meets the set expectations of resolving a ticket and that your customers know what to expect. 

Raiseaticket offers all of its help desk features for free with no limitations. Along with managing tickets, the tool allows you to manage your team and their time. Additionally, you can generate reports to get a comprehensive performance view of individual agents.

Free features:

  • Team management: Coordinate with your team members and oversee their work by assigning tasks, distributing workload, and tracking performance. This supports optimal resource allocation and efficient collaboration.

  • Ticket classification: Categorize and tag incoming support tickets based on predefined criteria such as issue type, urgency, or department. It helps organize and prioritize tickets, ensuring they are routed to the appropriate teams or agents for efficient handling.

  • Reporting: Analyze various metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) related to customer support activities. It provides visual summaries, charts, and graphs that offer a clear overview of support team performance, ticket volume, response times, resolution rates, and more. 

Customer support options: Knowledge base, email, and phone calls.

Who should consider Raiseaticket?

Given that Raiseaticket is a completely free help desk solution, startups and up-and-coming businesses can benefit from this tool. They can leverage its ticket management capabilities to provide support to their customers. The tool also simplifies managing teams and generating reports, all at no cost, which will help small businesses optimize their processes without having to incur any costs.

Most affordable

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Cost to upgrade

Free

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of August 2023

/ Pro tip

Evaluate the reporting capabilities of the tool to check whether the tool supports the type of metrics you need to track. These metrics can include resolution time, first response time, resolution rate, and total conversations.

7. Tidio

Tidio is also a dedicated help desk solution, but it stands out with its conversational AI and machine learning capabilities. Its AI chatbot, Lyro, is capable of replying to queries in a conversational format, resembling human conversations. It leverages the knowledge base to answer questions and machine learning capabilities to understand the context of the message sent by a customer, remember previous messages, and ask questions.

The tool offers 50 free Lyro conversations. If you cross this limit, you'll have to pay to get the feature as an add-on. Tidio lets you manage unlimited tickets in the free plan but supports only three agents. Paid plans, on the other hand, let you have up to five support agents.

Free features:

  • Multiple languages: Communicate and assist customers in multiple languages by having multilingual interfaces or automated translation tools. It allows customers to interact and receive support in their preferred language, enhancing customer experience. 

  • Chatbot triggers: Set up automated responses and actions based on specific conditions or customer interactions during a live chat. Triggers can initiate predefined chatbot responses, route conversations to appropriate agents, or escalate to higher levels of support.

  • Automated satisfaction survey: Automatically send post-interaction surveys to customers once their support request is resolved. It collects feedback on the quality of service, agent performance, and overall experience, helping identify areas for improvement. 

Customer support options: Knowledge base, chat, and email.

Who should consider Tidio?

If, as a support manager, you are looking to adopt AI chatbots for your support operations, you can consider Tidio. This tool will help you see the results an AI-enabled chatbot can provide. Since you get 50 free Lyro conversations, you can try out the product and if it works well, you'll be able to make an informed decision about investing in this tool.

Best functionality

Trial/Free Version

  • Free Trial
  • Free Version

Cost to upgrade

$29 per month for 3 agents (billed monthly)

Device compatibility

* Analysis accurate as of August 2023

What is the cost to upgrade from free help desk software to a paid one?

Help desk software upgrades can be as low as $9 per user, per month, or increase up to $150+ per month, depending on various factors—features, number of users, number of tickets, and more. Most help desk platforms typically include the following subscription plans:

  • Free trials: No-cost plans ranging from seven to 21 days, giving users access to all or limited software features. These are ideal for businesses that wish to try out a tool before purchasing it.

  • Free versions: Free software plans offer basic features and limited premium feature access. This is ideal for small businesses or individuals on a budget.

  • Entry-level plans: Start at $9 per user, per month, and offer limited features. This option is suitable for small businesses or teams with basic feature requirements such as contact storage and ticket management.

  • Mid-tier plans: Range from $12 to $45 per month and offer features such as canned responses, automated chat triggers, and chat transcripts. These are ideal for businesses that have outgrown basic help desk solutions but don't require the full range of functionality offered by enterprise-level tools.

  • High-end plans: Advanced plans that cost over $150 monthly and offer unlimited users, analytics, AI chatbots, training sessions, and more. These are ideal for cross-functional businesses with multiple teams and departments that need a customized solution.

Hidden costs associated with help desk software

Besides the software license, additional costs associated with online help desk software include priority support, advanced data security, additional users, and maintenance/upgrades. Small businesses should also budget for these expenses when considering a new tool.

Frequently asked questions when selecting free help desk software

Here are some questions to ask help desk software providers before making a final purchase:

How many agents does the free plan support?

This is one of the most important questions that you should consider asking your software vendor when choosing a free help desk solution. Make sure the number of customer service agents supported by a tool accommodates your business needs. This will allow you to provide customer support to your customers without any delay in response.

Does the software offer an interactive dashboard?

Before shortlisting tools for your customer support needs, make sure that the service desk platform comes with an interactive dashboard that provides you with a bird’s eye view of new, pending, resolved, and urgent tickets. The dashboard should also allow agents to check support ticket statuses, organize them based on deadlines or priority, and view performance reports at a glance.

What are the available self-service features?

Self-service is a great way to scale your customer support efforts, reduce the burden of incoming tickets, and save time while still fulfilling customer expectations. Before you invest in a free help desk tool, inquire about the self-service features offered by the software. Consider a solution that offers various self-service modes, such as a knowledge base, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and video tutorials to answer customer queries.


Methodology

We selected the seven products with the highest ratings to feature in this article. To be considered for this list, products must:

  • Have at least 20 unique product reviews published on Capterra within the past two years, with an average rating of 3.0 or higher (as of August 01, 2023).

  • Offer a free, stand-alone software version (not a trial version where you must purchase the product after a limited time).

  • Meet our help desk software market definition: “Help Desk software enables organizations to respond more efficiently to users, answering technical and functional questions by providing improved methodologies for ticket tracking, IT management, and customer service support.”

Read more about our editorial independence.

The "most affordable" tool is identified based on the lowest pricing a vendor offered on their website in terms of cost to upgrade as of August 01, 2023.

The "best functionality" tool is identified based on the highest user ratings for functionality that a vendor received based on publicly available reviews as of August 01, 2023.

Product research for this article was contributed by Akriti Sharma.

Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from Capterra's help desk software. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in the Capterra directory that offer them. Only products with publicly available pricing information as of August 01, 2023, were considered for pricing calculation.


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

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About the Author

Preksha Buttan profile picture

Preksha Buttan is a Writer at Capterra. She provides expert insights and helps small businesses identify the right software for their needs by analyzing user reviews for the highest rated products in relevant software categories. She has previously written and published content for the medical and automotive industries. Her interest lies in marketing and branding. When she’s not working, she can be found watching a thriller.

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