In recent times, customer needs and expectations from brands and businesses are high. Businesses that fail to deliver timely and seamless customer support lose their customers at the speed of light. The longer it takes to resolve customer issues, the longer emails remain unanswered, and the more frustrated customers get. Frustrated customers end up dumping one service provider for the other.
To navigate this new reality, forward-thinking businesses are embracing help desk software to help them stay ahead and meet customer needs.
Help desk software is a support system that helps your support team to track issues, assign tickets, deliver speedy responses and resolutions, and maintain stellar customer and employee support.
In this guide, we’ll tell you all you need to know about help desk software, including:
- What is Help Desk Software?
- What is Help Desk Software Used For?
- Why Do Businesses Need It?
- The Core Features of Help Desk Software to look out for.
- Benefits of Help Desk Software for Small Businesses?
- Different Types of IT Help Desk Software
- How to Choose the Right Help Desk Management Software
- The Top 5 Best Help Desk Software
And lots more!
Let’s get into it!
What Is Help Desk Software?
Help desk software is a digital platform that helps companies and support teams to organize, track, assign, and resolve internal or external support issues within a single platform.
This platform can be likened to the human central nervous system that receives, processes, and controls information. In this case, every query, complaint, IT query, and customer enquiry is received, tracked, and handled within the help desk software.
What is Help Desk Software Used For?
Help desk software is used for simplifying and improving customer support by centralizing all service requests in one platform. Businesses and IT teams rely on it for a variety of practical purposes, including:
- Managing Customer Inquiries: Collecting and tracking all customer questions, complaints, and requests in one place for faster response.
- Automating Ticket Assignments: Automatically routing tickets to the right support agents based on expertise or priority.
- Providing Self-Service Options: Offering knowledge bases, FAQs, and customer portals so customers can find answers on their own.
- Supporting Internal IT Teams: Helping IT departments manage technical issues, system requests, and employee support.
- Tracking Performance & Satisfaction: Measuring response times, resolution rates, and customer satisfaction to improve service quality.
- Streamlining Multichannel Support: Handling emails, chats, phone calls, and social media messages from a single dashboard.
By using help desk software, businesses ensure quicker resolutions, improved customer satisfaction, and greater team efficiency.
Evolution of help desks
Help desks have evolved over the years from simple inquiry inboxes, notes, and spreadsheets. Every issue had to be manually written, tracked and resolved. However, as technology evolved, Artificial intelligence came onto the scene, and improved communication features became available, Help desks now leverage these systems to automate requests, track and prioritize issues, and implement multi-channel communication.
What is the difference between a help desk and a service desk?
Although people often use both terms interchangeably, they are not the same thing.
Here’s the difference:
While a help desk handles problem resolution or fixing issues, such as tech issues, a service desk offers a single point of contact between a company and its employees, customers, and partners and delivers a wide range of support, including inquiries, onboarding, tracking, etc.
Why Businesses Need a Web-Based Help Desk Software
Modern businesses are struggling under the weight of support issues. Support agents are stressed, customers are dissatisfied, but the problems keep multiplying.
Some of the common problems businesses face include:
- Missing support tickets
- Slow responses
- Disorganized communication
- Several agents are handling the same issue
- Long-term unresolved issues
The more these issues persist, the more dissatisfied your customers get, and the more stressed your customer support agents become. The only way out of this abyss of unproductivity and its associated issues is to get a web-based help desk software.
You need a centralized platform for all your support tasks. With web-based help desk software, your business can:
- Automate support tasks
- Route and track tickets
- Maintain clear communication
- Collaborate easily
- Track progress
- Deliver faster results
The statistics don’t lie. Customers are happier when their issues are resolved faster.
According to a survey by PwC, 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a good customer experience. Also, 92% of customers would completely abandon a company after two or three negative interactions.
The secret to happy, satisfied, and returning customers is investing in a web-based help desk software.
But how do you know the right software?
Core Features of a Simple Help Desk Software
The right help desk software for your business is one that is simple to use, delivers the core features your business needs. They include:
1. Ticket management & automation
Tag and assign tickets automatically according to type, priority, and availability of agents, without manual effort.
2. Omnichannel support
No more choosing between email and chat, or handling them on different platforms. Manage inquiries from social media, phone, email, or chat on one unified platform.
3. SLA management & escalation rules
Automatic deadline tracking, escalating overdue issues for resolution, and enforcing response targets.
4. Knowledge base & self-service portal
Empower customers to solve simple issues with FAQs and resources, and reduce agent tasks.
5. Agent performance tracking & reporting
Track performing and under-performing agents, find out where delays happen and why they happen.
6. AI-powered suggestions/chatbots
Leverage AI to render customer support, suggest solutions to issues, route queries, and offer support when agents are unavailable.
7. Internal collaboration tools
One platform that supports collaboration via internal comments, notes, teammate tagging, and other forms of internal communication.
8. Integrations
Smooth synchronization with email platforms, work tools like Slack, CRMs, and other important tools for teamwork.
A platform with all these features is a winner- just like Easy Desk.
Benefits of Using Help Desk Software for Small Businesses
Small businesses stand to gain a lot from help desk software. Whether you have a small team and a few customers, or a growing client base, help desks improve your interactions by a lot. Here’s how help desk software improves the experiences of different stakeholders of your business.
For Support Agents
– Improved team productivity
– Streamlined workflow and reduced interaction platforms
– Faster resolution of customer queries
– Time-saving with automated tasks
– Full ticket history to give context to issues
For Customers
– Enhanced customer satisfaction & loyalty
– Access to self-help portals
– AI chatbots for 24/7 support
- Consistent positive support experience across all channels
For Managers
– Better accountability and tracking of support issues
– Insights via analytics and reporting of agent and team performance and customer sentiment
– Workload balancing and SLA tracking
– Auditing and compliance reporting support
Beyond these advantages, help desk software has an overall benefit for businesses that leverage it, including scalability for growing teams and new customer demands, affordability for businesses on a tight budget, and simplicity, which eliminates the need for tech experience or serious training. Onboarding can also be handled in a short time with no delays or loss of details.
Types of IT help desk software
There are several types of IT help desk software, and the nature of your team largely determines the type of IT help desk software you need.
Let’s explore and compare some of them:
1. Cloud-based vs On-premises help desk software
Cloud-based help desk software is hosted on external servers and is only accessible via the internet. The advantages of these servers are low set-up cost, easy deployment, and complete remote accessibility.
On the other hand, on-premises help desk software is set up on a company’s server and managed via that server. It grants total data control to the company but it is more expensive.
2. Internal (ITSM) vs External (Customer Support)
Internal help service software also called IT Service management, is designed to support an organization’s employees in handling and resolving internal support issues.
External help desk software on the other hand offers support to an organization’s customers and external stakeholders, handling all queries via chats, emails, or other communication channels.
3. Enterprise vs Small Business solutions
Enterprise-level software solutions are built for high-volume support tasks and feature advanced automated workflows, detailed analytics, AI-powered ticket routing, etc.
Small business solutions prioritize easy usage, affordability, basic automation, ticket management, and reporting, without much complexity.
How to Choose the Right Help Desk Management Software
Now that you know almost everything you need to know about help desk software, the next step is to choose the right software for your team. It is important to make this decision after careful consideration because the productivity of your team, the disposition of your customers, and business success depend on your choice.
Here’s how to start:
1. Make a Feature checklist
Identify all the important features for your team, including automation, self-service, or ticketing and consider a software that offers those features. Check out the Easydesk Feature Page to see the features we offer.
2. Pricing considerations
Consider software that delivers the best price for the features you need. Have a budget in mind and look out for transparent pricing.
3. Scalability
Your business is bound to grow, and the best software solution is one that grows with your business and needs.
4. Ease of use
Your support team and your customers need to find the software easy to use and adapt to.
5. Integration needs
Ensure that your chosen software integrates with tools messaging platforms, CRMs, and other work software.
6. Customer support and onboarding
Do they offer onboarding and customer support? Will they train your team or offer assistance when necessary? Prioritize a software that supports you.
Examples & Use Cases Across Industries
One reason help desk software like Easy Desk is sought after is that it adapts to different industries. This isn’t a blanket solution; it is applicable to the peculiarities of different sectors.
SaaS companies leverage help desk software for onboarding assistance, product support, and the creation and delivery of a seamless user experience.
In the e-commerce industry, support software is used to track orders, handle shipping queries, and receive customer feedback via multiple channels like email, phone, or social media.
IT support teams use IT help desk software to resolve technical issues, implement SLAs, and manage devices via asset management and ticket routing features.
Even healthcare and education leverage help desk software to handle queries from students and parents, render staff support, and handle compliance-related issues.
Easy Desk software offers the adaptability needed to meet the unique needs of businesses in these industries and many more, supporting the smallest of operations to the largest of support teams.
Let’s See The Top 5 Best Help Desk Software
- EasyDesk (Best for Simplicity)
- HelpDesk (Best for Basic Ticketing Support)
- Zendesk (Best for Large Enterprises)
- Zoho Desk (Best for Zoho Ecosystem)
- HelpScout (Best for Documentation)
Here are our suggestions for the top 5 help desk software for support teams. We curated this list based on factors like features, flexibility, pricing, integration, and scalability.
1. EasyDesk (Best for Simplicity)
EasyDesk is a cloud-based help desk software for support teams that want the best features but want to keep things simple. It is a platform designed for internal and external support.
EasyDesk has a simple interface, good automation features, multiple channels, and integrations, EasyDesk is great for businesses that need a platform that grows with them.
Pros
- Simple layout
- Easy to set up and use
- Excellent onboarding
- Reliable customer support
- Affordable pricing
Cons
- Some enterprise-level integrations are lacking
- No advanced AI automation (coming soon)
2. Help Desk
HelpDesk is a ticketing system for simple customer support. The platform offers simple features, automation, ticket tracking and management, collaboration as well as integrations to several platforms.
Pros
- User-friendly interface
- Easy set up
- Affordable plans
Cons
- No access to training and support for smaller plans
- Limited analytics for smaller plans
- No built-in chat feature (needs integration)
- Limited customization features
3. Zendesk
Zendesk is a popular help desk software that serves a lot of large businesses. It offers multiple-channel communication, is highly scalable and delivers extensive and exclusive features. It offers automation, analytics, AI chatbots, and extensive third-party integrations. Zendesk is perfect for enterprise businesses that want advanced support features and large-scale systems.
Pros
- High scalability
- Great analytics and reporting tools
- Comprehensive range of features for large-scale support
Cons
- More expensive than alternative software
- Hard for new and inexperienced users to navigate.
4. Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is yet another cloud-based software with simple, yet versatile support features. It delivers features like multiple-channel automation, ticket tagging and routing, a self-service portal, and AI insights.
Zoho integrates with its own CRM platform, as well as other communication tools. It perfectly blends affordability and delivery.
Pros
- Integrates with the Zoho suite of products
- AI-powered features
- Customizable workflows
- Affordable compared to the features
Cons
- Set up for new users takes time
- Poor Interface
5. HelpScout
Help Scout is a help desk software with an email-first design for small and medium-sized businesses moving away from email-only support to embrace other support channels. The software has a user-friendly interface that is designed like a shared inbox, but it has other features like live chat, a knowledge base, as well as several customer satisfaction tools. It is ideal for businesses that support simplicity in their features and approaches.
Pros
- Easy onboarding for teams transitioning from traditional email support
- Simple user experience with a familiar layout.
- Great customer documentation and support
- Speedy set up with very little need for training.
Cons
- Limited reporting and analysis
- Limited automation features
- May have issues with scalability for growing or large teams.
Here is the Top 5 Best Help Desk Software Comparison
| Feature / Platform | EasyDesk | HelpDesk | Zendesk | Zoho Desk | Help Scout |
| Best For | Simple, scalable internal & external support | Basic ticketing support | Large enterprises needing advanced support | Small to medium businesses using Zoho ecosystem | SMBs shifting from email to multichannel support |
| User Interface | Simple and clean | User-friendly | Complex for new users | Poor UI | Familiar email-like layout |
| Ease of Setup | Very easy | Easy | Complex | Time-consuming | Quick and easy |
| Automation | Good (basic) | Basic | Advanced (AI) | Multichannel automation | Limited |
| AI Features | Not Yet | None | Advanced AI bots | AI insights | Limited |
| Channels Supported | Multiple | Ticketing only (chat via integration) | Multichannel | Multichannel | Email, chat, knowledge base |
| Integrations | Basic integrations | Several platforms (some limited) | Extensive third-party | Strong Zoho integration | Some integrations |
| Customization | Moderate | Limited | High | Customizable workflows | Limited |
| Analytics / Reporting | Basic | Limited (for smaller plans) | Extensive & advanced | Good insights | Limited |
| Scalability | Grows with business | Suitable for small teams | Highly scalable | Moderate scalability | May not scale well for larger teams |
| Pricing | $49 / per month | $50 / month | $115 / month | $40 / month | $50 / month |
| Support & Onboarding | Excellent onboarding, reliable support | No support/training on smaller plans | Support available | Setup support needed | Great documentation & onboarding |
| Cons | Lacks some enterprise integrations | No chat, limited customization & analytics | Expensive, steep learning curve | Setup complexity, poor UI | Limited scalability, automation, and reporting |
Let’s see Why EasyDesk Works for Services Like GainHQ & Payrun.app
Efficient customer & employee support: Empower small internal teams to manage queries for finance tools like HR Software – Payrun or internal user requests at Gain Solutions Ltd.
- Personalized comms at scale: Integrated WhatsApp support means users feel seen—even in automated systems.
- Transparency and quality: Reporting and SLA controls help these companies maintain quick, highquality responses.
- Anywhere support: With mobile apps, distributed teams (e.g. payroll admins or HR specialists) stay connected from anywhere.
Start using EasyDesk now as a Free 14-Day Trial with Enterprise Plan’s Feature
Conclusion & Next Steps of your online help desk software
In the past sections, we have ascertained that the right help desk software is a priceless addition to your support efforts. It helps your team deliver fast, high-quality support and improve customer experiences. Your support team also benefit from automated features, collaboration, communication, knowledge base, and other forms of support that the software offers.
So, whether you are solving internal or external issues, you are putting your best foot forward.
Modern software solutions help you to deliver top-notch customer support, improve productivity, and increase customer satisfaction.
EasyDesk empowers support teams of all types and sizes thanks to its high-level third-party integration, multiple-channel communication and support, automation, and insight and analysis, ensuring an effective and efficient delivery of services.
The best part about embracing EasyDesk for your business needs is that it is scalable and highly intuitive. It doesn’t deliver blanket solutions. It adjusts to meet your unique needs without lags or delays. With easy onboarding, simple interface, and zero learning curves, Easy Desk is ready to support you from day one.
Are you ready to improve your support? Explore Easy Desk’s features, plans, request a free demo, or Sign up for a free trial today! Join smart businesses making their processes smarter with support from Easy Desk.
FAQs About Help Desk Software
What is help desk software used for?
Help desk software is used by support teams to effectively manage service and support requests. These software solutions have important features that support these functions, such as ticketing, automation features, a knowledge base, and insight capacities.
What’s the difference between CRM and help desk software?
While CRM is primarily designed for customer relationship management and interactions, help desk software focuses on handling customer support issues, technical, and operational queries. However, some help desk platforms offer CRM integration to ensure a smooth transition between both platforms.
Do small businesses need help desk software?
Absolutely! Small businesses need help desk software to improve their support processes and ensure efficient inquiry handling, better tracking of issues, and improved customer service delivery. Small, medium, and growing businesses have a lot to benefit from help desk software like Easy Desk.
Is help desk software only for IT teams?
No. Help desk software serves more than just IT teams. Beyond IT teams, help desk software has a long list of functions, including customer support, human resources, and operations.
Can it be used for internal employee support?
Yes. It can be used in internal employee support by helping HR departments, IT departments, as well as administrative teams to handle technical issues, employee inquiries, and track performance while maintaining standards.