21 Support Ticketing Tools Your Service Team Will Love You For

A support ticketing system is a centralized platform that organizes, tracks, and manages all customer support requests from multiple channels. Email, chat, phone, and social media inquiries all flow into one unified dashboard. Think of it as a team’s mission control for delivering exceptional customer service at scale.

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When a customer reaches out for help, the system automatically creates a “ticket”, i.e., a trackable record of their issue. Every rep on a team has access, ensuring no request falls through the cracks. Tools like HubSpot’s Service Hub take this further with automated ticket routing and comprehensive analytics. The result is support that improves the customer experience.

This guide covers the pitfalls of scattered emails and spreadsheets, how to choose the right ticketing system for each business, and 21 tool recommendations to help transform customer service operations. Want to see how it works and identify great tools? Get started below.

Table of Contents

• What is a support ticketing system?
• Why You Need a Support Ticketing Tool
• How to Choose the Right Support Ticketing Tool
• Best Support Ticketing Tools
• Frequently Asked Questions About Support Ticketing Systems

What is a support ticketing system?

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A support ticketing system is software that helps businesses track, manage, and resolve customer support requests from one central place. A support ticketing system provides centralized tracking and assignment of customer issues. Each ticket contains the customer’s original issue, their contact information, conversation history, and internal notes the team can use to collaborate on solutions.

A support ticketing system offers features like automation, reporting, and multi-channel support. Unlike email, ticketing systems organize every issue, assign tasks to the right team members, and provide visibility into response times and outcomes.

To choose the best system, service teams should consider business size, must-have features, and integration needs. Setting up a ticketing system is straightforward, and most cloud-based tools offer step-by-step onboarding. With the right platform, companies can boost team productivity, improve customer satisfaction, and scale support as they grow.

Support Ticketing System vs CRM: What’s the difference?

While support ticket systems and CRMs both help manage customer relationships, they serve distinct purposes:

• CRM systems provide a 360-degree view of customer interactions across sales, marketing, and service.
• Ticketing systems specialize in organizing and resolving customer service requests efficiently.

The best approach is to integrate the ticketing system with the team’s CRM. That gives both service reps and account managers insights into customer health. Service Hub offers a native connection to HubSpot’s CRM, giving teams complete customer context while streamlining support workflows.

Why Email Alone Isn’t Enough

Customer support teams that only use email struggle with collaboration. Fellow service reps can’t see customer context, creating duplicate work when multiple agents respond to the same request. Previous interactions get buried in inbox threads, and managers can’t track response times or identify bottlenecks.

Most importantly, an email-only service approach makes measuring team performance a challenge. A dedicated ticketing system solves these problems by creating organized workflows, enabling automation, and providing the analytics modern support teams need to excel.

Why You Need a Support Ticketing Tool

Customer support teams rely on ticketing systems to organize daily workloads, prioritize critical issues, and maintain high customer service standards. Instead of tracking down an old email thread or call recording, reps can use a ticketing system to search archived cases and locate important historical information quickly.

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For example, when I worked on HubSpot’s customer support team, I sometimes needed help to solve web page design problems. I used my support ticketing system to search for past cases to provide context and see how other reps solved similar issues in the past.

A support ticketing system improves team productivity and customer satisfaction. It’s an important customer service tool businesses use to:

• Deliver a consistent customer experience.
• Increase rep accountability.
• Streamline support workflows.
• Enhance service efficiency.

How to Choose the Right Support Ticketing Tool

An organization’s customer service ticketing system is the primary operation center for a support team, so selecting the right service desk tool can significantly impact their efficiency and ability to solve for the customer.

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Support ticketing systems offer features like automation, reporting, and multi-channel support, but the best fit depends on how a team operates. Today, there are many tools to choose from, and it’s not a choice to take lightly.

So what criteria should a company look for?

Organizational and Service Team Needs

The first step is to assess business and service team needs. Different companies will have different support requirements. Some things to consider are:

• How large is the team?
• What’s the budget?
• What’s the expected ticket volume?
• Which channels will customers use to reach out?

A smaller support team with only a few reps and minimal special requirements will be better served by a more lightweight and cost-effective ticketing system solution. A free help desk might even work for small businesses.

However, large enterprises with substantial support teams and needs for advanced customization will likely require a robust (and expensive) solution designed to handle hundreds of thousands of tickets.

Pro tip: Start with HubSpot Service Hub’s free tier and upgrade to paid tiers as the team, ticket volume, and necessary features expand. HubSpot’s Help Desk also provides an AI-powered ticketing workspace for efficient case management. This makes it an excellent tool for larger support teams.

Scalability

Companies need to choose a tool that can grow with the business. When a support team is likely to expand, the organization should seek a ticketing software equipped to handle increasing reps and incoming tickets.

Most of the options reviewed below are cloud-based solutions that offer different tier levels that allow teams to unlock more seats and advanced features as growth necessitates.

Pro tip: HubSpot Service Hub offers a free tier with essential ticketing, contact management, and shared inbox, for up to two users. It scales seamlessly from the free plan right up to Enterprise as businesses grow. Upgrade across tiers to unlock SLA tracking, knowledge base, advanced automation, custom workflows, and AI agents as support demands increase.

User-Friendly Interface

Customer service ticketing systems are all designed to do the same thing and offer similar features. However, not all user interfaces are created equal.

As a former support representative, I can attest to how crucial it is for your ticketing software to have an intuitive, attractive interface. Reps will work inside the ticketing system daily, so navigating and accomplishing daily tasks should be seamless.

Pro tip: HubSpot Service Hub unifies chat, email, forms, calling, and Facebook Messenger into one help desk workspace, helping agents manage tickets and triage requests efficiently from a single, intuitive dashboard.

Automation and AI Features

When choosing a support ticketing system, consider options that include features to automate routine tasks like ticket assignment, prioritization, and escalation. Automation and AI enhance ticket routing and resolution speed, saving time and boosting efficiency.

AI can also help agents draft responses and provide reporting insights. Thus, look for an AI ticketing system that incorporates this emerging technology.

Pro tip: HubSpot Service Hub (certain paid plans) includes Breeze Customer Agent, an AI-powered digital teammate that helps autonomously resolve customer inquiries, escalating to agents when needed.

Integration Capabilities

When choosing a customer service ticketing system, organizations should also take into consideration the other systems currently in use. Ideally, a company’s help desk seamlessly integrates with the CRM, email, or whatever other platforms are used to run the business.

Pro tip: HubSpot’s ticketing system is part of Service Hub and natively connects with HubSpot’s free CRM, so HubSpot CRM users can gain better insights into the customer lifecycle by uniting service data. The platform also offers over 1,000 integrations through the HubSpot App Marketplace.

Cloud vs. On-Premise Considerations

Cloud-based ticketing systems, like Service Hub, have become the default choice for most organizations due to their lower upfront costs, faster deployment, automatic updates, flexibility, and scalability. These solutions require no hardware installation and allow support teams to access tickets from anywhere with an Internet connection.

On-premise solutions still make sense for specific scenarios. Organizations in highly regulated industries like healthcare or finance may require data residency, strict audit trails, or full control over servers for compliance. Companies with robust existing IT infrastructure might also prefer hosting internally to maintain full oversight of customer data and security configurations.

Security considerations differ as well. Cloud providers offer enterprise-grade security and dedicated teams that most mid-sized companies can’t afford internally, while on-premise solutions give direct and complete control, but the burden of implementation and monitoring is on the IT team. Choosing between both depends on business needs.

Pro tip: HubSpot Service Hub is a cloud-based SaaS solution, removing the need for on-premise servers or manual updates.

Now that it’s clear how to choose the right support ticketing tool, let’s get on to the top choices for the best support ticketing tools of 2026.

Best Support Ticketing Tools

Teams should pick a support ticketing tool that matches their needs. To help navigate these options, the platforms below state which type of team they work best for. That includes:

• All-in-one platforms (HubSpot, Zendesk). Best for growing businesses wanting integrated CRM and service tools. HubSpot Service Hub integrates with its CRM and marketing software for a unified customer experience.
• Ecommerce focused (Gorgias, Kustomer). Ideal for online retailers needing order management integration.
• Budget-friendly (Spiceworks, osTicket). Perfect for small teams getting started.
• Enterprise-grade (ServiceNow, Salesforce Service Cloud). Built for large organizations with complex workflows.

Each tool below includes pricing, key features, and who it serves best.

Ticketing Software	HubSpot Ticketing Software	HappyFox	Gorgias	Kustomer
CRM	Native CRM integration included	Integrates with multiple CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive, Microsoft Dynamics, etc.)	Ecommerce CRM integrations (Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, Yotpo, etc.)	Unified CRM and ticketing system
Key Features	Omnichannel ticket management AI-powered chatbot Customizable automation workflows Comprehensive reporting and analytics Self-service knowledge base	Multi-channel ticket management Smart rules for automation Customizable priorities and statuses Advanced reporting and analytics Collision detection Self-service knowledge base	Unified omnichannel inbox AI-powered workflows Ecommerce platform integrations Advanced analytics and reporting Self-service knowledge base	Unified CRM and ticketing system AI-driven automation Omnichannel support inbox Real-time analytics dashboards Customizable workflows Proactive customer service features
Pricing	Free tools available Starter: $15/user/month Professional: $90/user/month Enterprise: $150/user/month	Basic: $24/user/month Team: $49/user/month Pro: $99/user/month Enterprise PRO: Custom pricing	Basic: $10/month Pro: $50/month Advanced: $300/month Enterprise: Custom pricing (Sliding-scale based on ticket volume)	Enterprise: $89/user/month Ultimate: $139/user/month (8-user minimum required)
Free Trial	Free version available	Free trial available (after demo)	Free trial available	Demo available (no free trial)

1. HubSpot Ticketing Software

Best for: Companies of all sizes looking for a scalable solution.

HubSpot’s Service Hub tools let teams manage customer support tickets on one dashboard. Reps can view all communication on each ticket and oversee the case’s progress throughout the troubleshooting process. Tickets are also linked to a customer’s contact card in the CRM, making it easier for customer service reps to reference past engagements with the company.

Additionally, HubSpot’s Service Hub provides ticket analytics that customer service managers can use to track their team’s performance. This data includes important metrics like agent response time and ticket volume, which can indicate if a team is meeting customer demand. If not, management can investigate individual rep workflow and identify critical roadblocks preventing the team from achieving business goals.

What I like: HubSpot Ticketing Software is a cost-efficient option for small business owners. Companies can use it for free and upgrade to premium additions as the business grows and their needs increase. I’m a big fan of HubSpot’s AI chatbot features, which allow teams to quickly create and deploy a ChatGPT-powered bot on their site that can help customers 24/7.

Key Features

• Omnichannel ticket management.
• AI-powered chatbot.
• Customizable automation workflows.
• Comprehensive reporting and analytics.
• Native CRM integration.
• Self-service knowledge base.
• AI customer agent.

Pricing

• Free tools are available.
• Starter: $15 per user/month.
• Professional: $90 per user/month.
• Enterprise: $150 per user/month.

2. HappyFox

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Best for: Any size company looking to improve its customer service experience.

HappyFox is a help desk software that offers a knowledge base, multichannel support, and automation capabilities. The software also provides templates that businesses can distribute to their customer service teams. Companies can create a consistent tone and layout for customer-facing communications by sharing these ticket templates across the entire department.

What I like: I like HappyFox because of its intuitive and easy-to-use interface. During my demo, navigating the product felt natural, and I never struggled to locate any buttons or complete basic tasks like ticket assignment or categorization. I think HappyFox offers a competitive feature set at an attractive price point.

Key Features

• Multi-channel ticket management.
• Smart rules for automation.
• Customizable priorities and statuses.
• Advanced reporting and analytics.
• Collision detection.
• Self-service knowledge base.

Pricing

• Basic: $24 per user/month.
• Team: $49 per user/month.
• Pro: $99 per user/month.
• Enterprise PRO: Pricing upon request.

*Annual pricing.

3. Gorgias

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Best for: Ecommerce businesses looking for a help desk explicitly tailored to their needs.

Gorgias is an all-in-one customer service ticketing system designed for ecommerce businesses. Like other help desk options, it organizes customer support requests from multiple channels (phone, email, web forms, live chat) into a unified inbox. It also offers powerful automation features, AI-powered chatbots, and advanced analytics regarding service performance and its impact on sales.

What I like: I like Gorgias because it is a sleek and robust solution for serious ecommerce businesses. If you sell products online, Gorgias offers robust integrations with platforms like Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce and features designed to enable ecommerce success.

Key Features

• Unified omnichannel inbox.
• AI-powered workflows.
• Ecommerce platform integrations.
• Comprehensive customer timeline.
• Advanced analytics and reporting.
• Self-service knowledge base.

Pricing

Gorgias offers a sliding-scale pricing system based on the number of support tickets teams manage monthly. Plans are as follows, with prices increasing based on the number of support tickets.

• Starter: $10/month.
• Basic: $50/month.
• Pro: $300/month.
• Advanced: $750/month.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing.

4. Kustomer

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Best for: Medium to large companies seeking an integrated support ticketing system and CRM.

Kustomer is an AI-powered CRM platform designed to deliver omnichannel customer support. It uses a unified timeline view to provide a comprehensive overview of a customer’s journey from the initial purchase to creating a support request, giving agents the capability of delivering personalized, informed support.

What I like: Kustomer is an exciting option on this list. I like that it offers a unified CRM approach to its ticketing system. I believe Kustomer is similar to HubSpot CRM, which is used alongside HubSpot Service Hub, allowing you to have a holistic view of the customer lifecycle. It’s pricey when considering the eight-user minimum and add-ons. Still, I think Kustomer is an excellent option for brands looking to unify their sales and support software solutions.

Key Features

• Unified CRM and ticketing system.
• AI-driven automation.
• Omnichannel support inbox.
• Real-time analytics dashboards.
• Customizable workflows.
• Proactive customer service features.

Pricing

• Enterprise: $89 per user/month.
• Ultimate: $139 per user/month.

*There is an 8-user minimum when purchasing Kustomer.

5. LiveAgent

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Best for: Small companies beginning their foray into customer service software.

LiveAgent is a customer service ticketing solution focused on simplicity. It may not feature all the fancy reports and AI-powered insights of other options on this list, but LiveAgent is a very capable help desk solution that will unify customer support inquiries from all channels, automate repetitive tasks, and integrate with your CRM. For the price, LiveAgent is an excellent option for companies with fundamental customer service needs.

What I like: I like LiveAgent because of its simplicity and value. The user interface is functional, and the product contains every feature necessary to manage customer support operations from the ground up. I also think it's great that they offer a completely free version of their product (with limited features) that can help fledgling businesses get started with their first customer service ticketing system.

Key Features

• Omnichannel support.
• Universal inbox.
• Live chat functionality.
• Ticketing system.
• Knowledge base.
• Team collaboration tools.

Pricing

• Free plan.
• Small: $15 per user/month.
• Medium: $29 per user/month.
• Large: $49 per user/month.
• Enterprise: $69 per user/month.

6. Zendesk Ticketing System

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Best for: Medium to large businesses.

Zendesk is a help desk tool that provides various ticket management tools, SLA support, pre-built analytics dashboards, and AI agents that can solve customer issues independently. Its ticketing system integrates all customer communication into the platform, provides agents with a detailed history of past customer interactions, and automates everyday tasks.

It also offers automatic ticket creation that turns calls, messages, and texts into tickets, with no action needed from an individual agent. If a company has a forum on its website, Zendesk gives it the ability to turn community posts into tickets if a customer raises a serious issue in a post. Reps can also share tickets across multiple Zendesk accounts — this is especially useful if a ticket can be used as a training opportunity for service reps.

What I like: During my Zendesk demo, I was impressed with the cleanliness of the UI and the little features that make reps’ lives easier. I particularly liked how tickets were clearly marked with color-coded labels to organize cases by status:

N = New, O = Open, P = Pending, and S = Solved.

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As a former support representative, I can clearly see that this is a valuable (albeit subtle) feature that makes it easy for reps to prioritize their workflow at a glance.

Key Features

• Omnichannel ticket management.
• AI-powered agent assistance.
• Extensive app marketplace (1,000+ integrations).
• Customizable automation rules.
• Advanced reporting and analytics.
• Self-service help center.

While Zendesk is a popular help desk software, there are Zendesk alternatives that offer robust automation capabilities.

Pricing

• Support Team: $19 per user/month.
• Suite Team: $55 per user/month.
• Suite Professional: $115 per user/month.
• Suite Enterprise: $169 per user/month.

* Annually billed pricing. Advanced AI tools are available as an add-on for an additional $50 per user/month.

7. Front

Best for: Small to mid-sized businesses that want a solution that scales as they grow.

Front is a customer communication hub that organizes customer requests from all channels into an intuitive interface. Automation features and built-in analytics help teams maintain maximum efficiency so reps can focus on solving for the customer instead of handling admin tasks.

What I like: My first impression of Front’s interface was very positive. Navigating the app felt intuitive, and I liked how responding to customer requests felt as familiar as sending a chat on Facebook Messenger. Another useful feature was the contextual AI assistant, which can analyze the entirety of a case and catch you up on the details. This is super valuable if a customer reopens an old ticket or one rep takes over a case from another rep and needs a refresher/primer on the case details.

Key Features

• Unified customer communication hub.
• Real-time collaboration tools.
• AI-powered contextual assistance.
• SLA management.
• Customizable workflows.
• Advanced reporting and analytics.

Pricing

• Starter: $25 per user/month.
• Professional: $65 per user/month.
• Enterprise: $105 per user/month.

8. ProProfs Help Desk

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Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses.

ProProfs Help Desk is an affordable yet comprehensive cloud-based ticketing system designed to streamline customer support operations. It offers multiple shared inboxes, live chat, a self-service knowledge base, and automated ticket routing to help support teams stay on top of incoming customer requests.

What I like: I love that ProProfs offers a free forever plan, which is valuable for individuals and startups beginning their customer support journey. Also, ProProfs has an intuitive interface reminiscent of Gmail, which creates a shallow learning curve for new reps.

Key Features

• Shared inbox for team collaboration.
• Integrated chatbots.
• Automated ticket routing.
• Parent-child ticketing.
• Knowledge base management.
• Customizable reporting.

Pricing

• Free plans are available (limited to a single user).
• Paid plan: $39.99 per user/month.

9. Spiceworks Help Desk

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Best for: Small businesses with budget constraints seeking internal IT support software.

Spiceworks is a free, cloud-based help desk and network monitoring solution designed for IT professionals. It includes ticket management, a knowledge base, a mobile app, and analytics features. End users can raise tickets to Spiceworks via email, mobile app, or user portal. Tickets can be automatically assigned and routed based on your determined prioritization schema.

Spiceworks is different from other options on this list because it is designed as an internal helpdesk tool, meaning employees use it to submit tickets to IT instead of external customers contacting the support team.

What I like: It’s free! Spiceworks is a free tool with no admin or ticket limit. While its capabilities might not be as robust as premium options from competitors, it offers more than functional ticketing system capabilities. You might wonder how Spiceworks remains free, and the answer is ads. It sounds annoying, but after poking around the product, I got used to it pretty quickly.

Key Features

• Ticket management system.
• Automated ticket routing and assignment.
• Internal collaboration tools.
• Mobile app support.
• Asset management.
• Network monitoring.

Pricing: Free

10. Service Provider Pro

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Best for: Productized agencies seeking an integrated support solution.

Service Provider Pro’s helpdesk feature provides a comprehensive support system that seamlessly integrates with client management, making it easier for agencies to provide top-notch customer service. With robust ticket management and communication tools, SPP helps agencies efficiently handle client support while maintaining a professional workflow. Plus, the helpdesk integrates with contact forms, allowing agencies to capture leads from their website.

What I like: Service Provider Pro eliminates the need for multiple tools by providing an all-in-one support solution that brings all client communication into a single platform. The tool offers unparalleled flexibility with custom ticket statuses, and you can add team members and external contractors to handle tickets.

Key Features

• Client portal ticket creation.
• Integrated contact form submissions.
• Email forwarding to create tickets automatically.
• Custom ticket statuses for flexible workflow.
• Ticket tagging for organization.
• Response time tracking to monitor team performance.
• Ticket ratings to gather client feedback.

Pricing

• Basic: $129/month for 5 team members.
• Pro: $299/month for 10 team members.
• Enterprise: $1,500/month for 50 team members.

11. AzureDesk

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Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses.

AzureDesk is a cloud-based help desk and ticketing system that offers all the must-have customer support features you expect from fancier systems at an affordable price. It includes ticket management and tracking, reporting, knowledge, and collaboration features to loop in colleagues directly on tickets where you need assistance.

One thing to mention, AuzureDesk’s UI feels like a more complex version of Outlook. Perhaps it was a purposeful move to associate it with Microsoft and its Azure cloud computing services. Regardless, other options on this list are easier on the eyes.

What I like: It’s refreshing to see a product that offers a single, all-encompassing plan at a reasonable price. If you go with AzureCloud, you’ll never have to worry about upgrading for more seats or missing out on cool features that are only available in higher versions. What you see is what you get with AzureDesk, and the price is decent.

Key Features

• Ticket management and tracking.
• Multiple third-party integrations.
• Internal collaboration tools.
• Customizable workflows.
• Reporting and analytics.
• Knowledge base management.

Pricing

• 14-day free trial.
• Plus: $33 per user/month.

12. SupportBee

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Best for: Small businesses.

SupportBee is a customer service ticketing system, focused on email, based on simplicity and collaboration. It features a shared inbox for emails with collaboration features, a knowledge base, and the ability to create a customized customer service portal where customers can send and track the progress of their support requests.

SupportBee is designed to be lightweight, easy to use, and get teams up and running quickly. SupportBee is an excellent option for small businesses looking to get started with a basic ticketing system.

What I like: I like SupportBee for its affordability and ease of use. It may not include fancy automation features and AI-driven insights like other options, but not everyone needs them. SupportBee is an excellent option for smaller companies on a budget who still insist on a quality, functional product.

Key Features:

• Shared inbox.
• Knowledge base content management.
• Customer portal.
• Mobile interface.
• Ticket labels and organization.
• Basic automation features.

Pricing:

• Startup: $20 per user/month.
• Enterprise: $25 per user/month.

13. Zoho Helpdesk Ticketing System

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Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses that use Zoho CRM.

Zoho’s ticketing system allows support teams to collect tickets from multiple channels, including social media, email, live chat, web forms, and telephone. Team leaders can automatically assign tickets to customer service reps and create assignments based on preset criteria. For example, if a service rep is well-trained in website design, all website help inquiries can be automatically routed to them.

Another helpful feature is its sentiment analysis tool, which helps agents gauge the sentiment in a ticket before opening it. Reps then know which tickets to respond to quickly and de-escalate.

What I like: Zoho has Zia, a powerful AI tool that supports your support team. Zia can read a ticket and suggest relevant solutions from your knowledge base, identify and auto-tag tickets based on their content, analyze customer sentiment, and help craft replies.

Key Features:

• Omnichannel ticket management.
• Zia AI assistant.
• Automatic ticket assignment.
• Sentiment analysis.
• Customizable ticket views.
• Customer feedback collection.

Pricing:

• Standard: $14 per user/month.
• Professional: $23 per user/month.
• Enterprise: $40 per user/month.

14. Freshdesk

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Best for: Small businesses looking to scale.

Freshdesk is the cloud-based help desk offering from Freshworks. It serves as a centralized customer support hub for managing and responding to customer inquiries. Freshdesk will consolidate customer requests from multiple channels, such as email, live chat, and social media, and neatly organize them in a shared inbox for the support team to tackle.

Freshdesk also boasts AI-powered automation and workflows to boost productivity, while generative AI assists agents in crafting accurate customer responses every time.

What I like: I think Freshdesk is up there with the heavy hitters of the customer service ticketing world (HubSpot, Zendesk, Zoho). It offers competitive features at a decent price, all packaged up in a modern, sleek interface. I also like that Freshdesk is fully customizable. From custom CSS to match the look and feel of your brand to custom objects to emphasize information unique to your business, you’re free to create a helpdesk that is custom-tailored to your business using Freshdesk.

Key Features:

• Omnichannel support.
• AI-powered automations.
• Collision detection.
• SLA management.
• 1,500+ apps and integrations.
• Self-service portal.

Pricing:

• Free plan available (up to 10 agents).
• Growth: $15 per user/month.
• Pro: $49 per user/month.
• Enterprise: $79 per user/month.

15. Shared Inbox by Canary

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Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses that want an AI-powered shared inbox to streamline support.

Shared Inbox by Canary is a modern support solution that helps teams manage customer emails collaboratively. Instead of juggling multiple inboxes, all customer requests flow into a single, unified inbox where messages can be assigned, replied to, or tracked. Built-in AI assistance speeds up response times with suggested replies, while analytics highlight top issues and team performance.

What I like: I like Shared Inbox by Canary because it strikes a great balance between simplicity and intelligence. The interface is clean and email-first, so there’s little to no learning curve. At the same time, features like AI-suggested replies and analytics make it far more powerful than using a regular inbox for support.

Key Features

• Unified team inbox for emails.
• AI-suggested replies to speed up responses.
• Ticket assignment and status tracking.
• Team analytics: individual and group performance, top issues.
• AI-powered deflection via chatbot.
• Simple onboarding and minimal setup.

Pricing

• Starter: $10 per user/month.
• Business: $20 per user/month.
• Scale: $30 per user/month.

16. Help Scout

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Best for: Small to medium-sized Saas and Tech companies.

Help Scout is a ticketing system for growing businesses. It can handle all aspects of customer support through email, self-service, live chat, customer data, and more. Keeping in line with the increased demand for multiplatform work, Help Scout can integrate with 50+ apps such as HubSpot, Google Apps, and Shopify.

What I like: Help Scout emphasizes collaboration with features like @ tagging to loop in colleagues for help on a ticket. Customer support is a team effort, and when I worked in support, my colleagues and I leaned on one another often to solve tough cases.

Best Features

• Shared inbox.
• Live chat and messaging.
• AI-powered knowledge base.
• Collaboration tools.
• Automation and workflows.
• Customer management features.

Pricing

• Standard: $25 per user/month.
• Plus: $45 per user/month.
• Pro: $75 per user/month.

*Annual billing for all prices.

17. Vision Helpdesk

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Best for: Organizations looking to manage customer support for multiple brands/companies in one place.

Vision Helpdesk is a multi-channel ticket management software that supports ticketing through email, social media, phone, and live chat. It allows companies to manage customer interactions seamlessly in one unified dashboard. It also comes with automation and workflow rules, so the right tickets always end up in the hands of the rep most suited to handle them.

Vision also includes gamification features, which allow agents to set up “levels and quests” to increase productivity and efficiently close out customer tickets. In addition to task management capabilities that allow for creating, tracking, and assigning tasks, Vision Helpdesk makes these features available on Android and iOS devices.

What I like: Vision offers a special version of its software called Satellite Help Desk. This system is just like the regular ticketing system, but with the added ability to manage customer support for multiple companies or brands. Such a specific use case makes Vision valuable for certain companies with special needs.

Key Features

• Multi-channel support.
• SLA management.
• Multiple brand support.
• Internal collaboration tools.
• Knowledge base management.
• Advanced reporting and analytics.

Pricing

• Starter: $12 per user/month.
• Pro: $20 per user/month.
• Satellite: $24 per user/month.

18. Intercom

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Best for: Companies seeking to implement AI-powered chatbots.

The Intercom Customer Service Suite is a leading customer service platform that emphasizes AI-powered features. One of its key capabilities is Fin, an AI Agent that helps solve customer queries, escalating to the team as needed. It also provides an AI Copilot to assist agents and an AI Analyst to automatically identify trends and areas for improvement.

Intercom also offers the expected features of a help desk ticketing system, like a shared inbox, knowledge base, and automation workflows to manage ticket assignment and flow.

What I like: Intercom offers an impressively comprehensive set of AI features that feel tightly integrated into the framework of the system. As a former customer support agent, I see how the AI Copilot is a precious and time-saving feature. The AI Copilot will read an incoming ticket and automatically suggest an informed response based on information in your knowledge base. Agents can click to load the AI-generated response into their inbox and then personalize it to fit their voice.

Key Features

• AI-powered chatbot.
• Shared inbox.
• Ticketing system.
• AI-assisted agent support.
• Knowledge base management.
• Proactive support features.

Pricing

• Essential: $29 per user/month.
• Advanced: $85 per user/month.
• Expert: $132 per user/month.

*All prices billed annually.

19. Hiver

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Best for: Small businesses looking to use Gmail for customer support.

Hiver is a multi-channel ticketing system that offers a fully featured help desk with shared inboxes, collision detection, knowledge base, rule-based automation, SLA management, AI capabilities, and more. It can also personalize and turn your Gmail or Outlook account into a shared inbox with collaborative features for emails.

What I like: Most people are already familiar with the Gmail or Outlook UI, which makes the email shared inbox an advantage for Hiver.

Key Features

• Gmail-integrated shared inboxes.
• Ticketing system.
• Collision detection.
• SLA management.
• AI-powered features.
• Multiple integrations.

Pricing

• Free plan.
• Growth: $25 per user/month.
• Pro: $65 per user/month.
• Elite: $105 per user/month.

*Annual billing pricing.

20. TeamSupport

Source

Best for: B2B companies.

TeamSupport is a fully featured customer service ticketing system designed to meet the specific needs of B2B companies. It includes ticket management, live chat, collaboration features, SLA management, AI-powered chatbots, and integrations with many popular CRMs such as Salesforce and HubSpot.

TeamSupport is a unique offering because it focuses on customer relationships. Many other help desk tools concentrate on individual tickets, but TeamSupport enables the management of entire customer accounts, which often contain multiple contacts and complex interaction histories.

What I like: I like that TeamSupport offers a solution specifically for B2B companies. While B2B companies can use any of the other options on this list, TeamSupport offers smartly designed features to meet the unique needs of companies that work with other businesses instead of individual consumers. For example, TeamSupport’s comprehensive customer database provides a holistic view of customer interactions and service history. It also has complex SLA management functionality to track SLAs at different levels depending on products, ticket types, or customer contracts.

Key Features

• B2B-focused ticket management.
• Live chat functionality.
• Comprehensive customer database.
• Complex SLA management.
• Knowledge base.
• Automation features.

Pricing

• Starter: $45/month (up to 5 users).
• Professional: $65/month (unlimited users).
• Scale: $85/month (unlimited users).

*Annual billing pricing.

21. Tidio

Best for: Small to medium-sized ecommerce businesses.

Tidio is an all-in-one customer service platform with a ticketing system for managing customer inquiries from multiple channels (live chat, email, social media) within a unified inbox. It is popular among small-to-medium-sized businesses and is particularly suited to ecommerce companies.

Tidio offers proactive messaging features to engage with visitors through automated messaging based on website activity. This feature is useful for mitigating support requests and initiating conversations that boost sales.

What I like: I was impressed with Tidio’s user-friendly interface, which I felt was responsive and intuitive during my demo of the product. I appreciate that Tidio boasts a quick setup time and a reduced need for rep training.

I also liked their Lyro AI chatbot, powered by Claude AI, which connects to your support content. I tested the chatbot and felt that the responses were markedly natural and humanlike, and the chat UI was also attractive.

Key Features

• Unified omnichannel inbox.
• AI-powered chatbot (Lyro).
• Visitor segmentation and tagging.
• Proactive messaging.
• Live chat functionality.
• Basic ticketing system.

Pricing

*Tidio does not charge per user like most other options. They include unlimited seats, but prices increase based on the number of conversations handled. Their Lyro AI Chatbot is sold as a separate subscription. All prices listed are for annual billing.

• Starter: $15.83/month.
• Growth: $32.50/month.
• Plus: $749/month.
• Premium: Contact for pricing.

Frequently Asked Questions About Support Ticketing Systems

What is support ticketing?

Support ticketing is the process of logging, tracking, and resolving customer service requests through a centralized system. When customers contact a business for help, their request becomes a “ticket”, i.e., a unique record that follows their issue from first contact through resolution.

What’s the difference between a help desk, a support ticketing system, and a CRM?

A help desk, support ticketing system, and CRM serve related but distinct purposes in customer support.

• A support ticketing system is the core tool that captures, tracks, and manages customer issues as tickets, ensuring nothing gets lost and requests are resolved efficiently.
• A help desk typically builds on a ticketing system by adding workflows, automation, knowledge bases, and reporting to support customers and internal users more comprehensively.
• A CRM focuses on managing the overall customer relationship — such as sales interactions, account details, and communication history — and may include basic support features, but it’s designed for long-term relationship and revenue management rather than day-to-day issue resolution.

Why do support teams need a dedicated ticketing system instead of just email or a CRM?

A support ticketing system is different from email and CRMs as it centralizes, tracks, automates, and reports on customer support issues in a structured way. Ticketing systems, like Service Hub, create a single source of truth for all service records, enable advanced reporting and automation, prevent duplicate work through collision detection, and provide historical context that makes reps more efficient at solving customer issues.

What should I look for when choosing a ticketing system?

Prioritize features such as scalability, a user-friendly interface, automation/AI features, and integration capabilities (especially with the CRM). Also assess team size, budget, and expected ticket volume before deciding on a ticketing software.

What’s the best ticketing system for growing businesses?

Service Hub is a great ticketing system for growing businesses as it offers free tools that scale with the company, integrates natively with HubSpot’s CRM for 360-degree customer insights, includes AI-powered chatbots, and provides comprehensive analytics to track team performance.

How does a support ticketing system work?

A support ticketing system converts customer inquiries from various channels (email, chat, phone, social media) into organized tickets with unique ID numbers. Each ticket captures the customer’s issue. The system then routes tickets to appropriate agents based on rules like issue type, priority, or agent expertise.

What are the main benefits of using a support ticketing system?

Support ticketing systems centralize all customer requests so nothing gets lost or forgotten. They improve response times through automatic routing and prioritization, help teams collaborate on complex issues, and provide valuable analytics on support performance.

How much does a support ticketing system cost?

Costs for a support ticketing system vary widely based on features, team size, and deployment type. Basic plans start around $15–$50 per agent/month for cloud-based solutions. Mid-tier platforms typically range from $50–$100 per agent monthly. Enterprise solutions can exceed $150+ per agent monthly. HubSpot Service Hub starts with a free plan and scales as teams grow.

How do I implement a support ticketing system?

Start by defining your requirements, like channels you need to support, team size, must-have features, and budget. Choose a system that fits these needs. Import existing customer data and configure email integration or embed widgets on your website. Migrate gradually rather than all at once, and gather feedback to refine your setup.

What are the best practices for managing support tickets?

Some best practices for managing support tickets include:

• Setting clear SLA targets for response and resolution times.
• Using categorization and tagging to make tickets searchable.
• Prioritizing tickets based on urgency and business impact.
• Monitoring key metrics like first response time, resolution time, and customer satisfaction scores.

Can automation or AI help with support ticketing?

Yes, AI and automation can help with support ticketing. AI-driven customer service software, such as Service Hub, can automatically route incoming tickets, power self-serve chatbots, and provide agents with recommended responses. Breeze, HubSpot’s AI customer service agent, can handle routine inquiries autonomously while escalating complex issues to human agents.

Is a cloud-based or on-premise ticketing system better for my business?

Cloud-based systems work best for most businesses as they require no hardware investment, update automatically, scale easily as you grow, and allow support from anywhere. On-premise systems make sense if you have strict data residency requirements, need extensive customization, have unreliable Internet connectivity, or must integrate deeply with legacy systems.

Improve your customer service with a ticketing system.

Implementing a ticketing system can be a game-changer for a customer service team. It helps streamline and unify customer conversations while serving as a repository of invaluable data to continually improve your service operations. Centralizing customer conversations with an omnichannel support system ensures consistent, personalized support across all touchpoints, with the ultimate result being increased customer satisfaction.

While considering the options laid above, remember that the right platform depends on an organization’s specific needs, budget, and growth plans. Ready to take a tool for a spin? Check out HubSpot’s ticketing system today.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.