21 Best Free Help Desk Software Tools for 2026 (Free Plan Features Compared)

Quick summary

If I were setting up a support function from scratch with zero budget, these are the five free help desks I’d pick from. They’re relatively easy to set up and use, while building workflows on these tools is also straightforward.

Tool	Channels in free plan	Automations	Knowledge Base	Free user limit	Best for
Hiver	Email, chat, WhatsApp, voice	❌ None	✅ Yes	Unlimited	Teams that want a omnichannel help desk with zero setup friction
Zoho Desk	Email + help center	⚠️ 2 macros only	🔒 Private only	3 agents	Teams already using Zoho products
Jira Service Management	Email + forms	⚠️ 100 rules/month	🔒 Confluence required	10 users	IT + engineering teams already on Jira
HubSpot Service Hub	Email + live chat	⚠️ AI chat routing only	❌ None	Unlimited contacts, 1 shared inbox	Teams using HubSpot CRM
Desk365	Email, Teams, web	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	3 agents	Microsoft Teams-first organizations

Don’t evaluate free plans by features alone: look for limits around automation, reporting, user caps, and branding. These are the friction points you’ll feel within 30 days.

A help desk is one of the simplest ways to keep customer support organized. It brings structure to incoming queries, gives you visibility into every conversation, and helps your team respond on time even when volumes spike. 

Many of these tools also automate repetitive work — with or without AI — so your team isn’t spending hours on tasks that don’t need manual effort.

The challenge is cost. Not every small business or early-stage team can commit to a full paid help desk. That’s where they start evaluating free help desk tools. 

For this guide, I evaluated the free versions of top 11 help desk ticketing tools in a detailed way. I’ve also provided 10 bonus options.

Table of Contents

• Quick summary
• Why trust us?
• My top 11 free help desk software picks 
  • 1. Hiver
  • 2. Zoho Desk
  • 3. Jira Service Management
  • 4. HubSpot Service Hub
  • 5. Desk 365
  • 6. Freshdesk
  • 7. Spiceworks
  • 8. osTicket
  • 9. LiveAgent
  • 10. HelpDeskZ
  • 11. ProProfs Help Desk
• 10 additional free help desk ticketing tools 
• What is a help desk software?
• Selecting the best free help desk software for your team
• Frequently asked questions

Why trust us?

We evaluate help desks from two angles: as researchers who test dozens of tools, and as the team behind a customer service platform (Hiver) used by 10,000+ support teams. That combination gives us a clear understanding of what good help desk software looks like. 

We look closely at things that usually get ignored in comparison blogs:

• how long setup actually takes
• whether agents can learn it fast
• what the free plan realistically supports
• how pricing behaves when you scale
• which features create real efficiency

This approach has been shaped by years of working with customers like Flexport, Ping Identity, and Travelist — teams that care about speed, consistency, and visibility in their support operations.

And while I won’t oversell Hiver here, the proof usually comes from the teams who use it:

My top 11 free help desk software picks

I shortlisted these 11 tools after digging into real user reviews, trying a few of them personally, and comparing what each one truly offers in its free plan. Here’s a quick comparison: 

Tool	Key features	Ideal for
Hiver	– Email management – Live chat, WhatsApp and Voice support channels – Internal collaboration – Slack integration  – Knowledge base	Teams that want a free help desk without any setup hassle. No clunky interface or complicated workflows to figure out
Zoho Desk	– Knowledge management – Multilingual help desk  – Canned email templates	Small to mid-sized businesses needing a customizable helpdesk that scales with growth
Jira Service Management	– Unlimited goals, projects, tasks, and forms  – Reports and dashboards  – Atlassian Community support	IT teams that need deep integration with Agile and DevOps workflows
HubSpot Service Hub	– Email scheduling  – Reporting dashboard  – Email templates  – 1 shared inbox	Businesses already using HubSpot’s CRM and looking to integrate customer service into the same ecosystem
Desk 365	– SLAs, Knowledge base – Workflow automation  – Microsoft Teams ticketing system	Ideal for teams of all sizes seeking reliable and efficient helpdesk software
Freshdesk	– Ticket dispatch  – Knowledge base  – Ticket trend report	Companies of all sizes that want a user-friendly platform with comprehensive support features
Spiceworks	– Automated responses  – Customizable web portal  – Knowledge base – Reporting	IT teams and small businesses wanting a simple free ticketing system
osTicket	– Email channel for customer support  – Community support  – Agent collision avoidance	Small to medium-sized businesses. Need some technical expertise to set up the platform
LiveAgent	– 7-day ticket history  – Customer portal  – Chat and calls widget customization	Businesses that need basic live chat and email ticketing
HelpDeskZ	– Ticket system  – Knowledge base  – Customer query management	Small to medium businesses comfortable with self-hosting a customizable, PHP-based helpdesk
ProProfs Help Desk	– Canned responses – Basic reporting & analysis	Small teams that want a simple, email-based help desk with basic automation and insights

1. Hiver

Ideal for: Companies that are setting up their customer service function but don’t want to compromise on support channels and collaboration features.

Hiver is a modern AI-powered customer service platform that brings all your essential support channels – email, live chat, WhatsApp, voice, and social – into one intuitive interface. 

What’s standout about Hiver is that support teams can get started pretty quick. The setup is straightforward and you don’t need any extensive training before you can start handling tickets. 

Under the free plan, you get ticketing, email, live chat, WhatsApp, voice, and a customer-facing knowledge base. You also get Slack integration and other collaboration capabilities. All of this is quite rare because the free plans of most tools limit you to one or two channels or cap essential features.  

More than 10,000 teams, including Flexport, Harvard University, Upwork, and Epic Games, use Hiver to manage their support operations. 

Key features:

• Turn incoming customer queries into trackable tickets so your team always knows what needs attention and who’s handling what.
• Use notes, @mentions, and shared drafts to discuss customer issues internally, ask for help, and align on responses. 
• Create custom views to sort and filter conversations by priority, category, or status.
• With the “Out-of-office” feature, mark yourself unavailable so conversations don’t get assigned to you when you’re offline or away.
• Publish help articles customers can access anytime. This reduces repetitive questions and gives customers easy self-service options.
• Receive instant Slack alerts for new tickets, assignments, mentions, and updates, so the team stays aligned without having to go back and forth between multiple tools.
• Get 24/7 email and live chat support, even on the free plan.

Pros:

• Unlimited users means no per-agent cost as your team grows.
• Instant onboarding, minimal setup, zero training required.
• Real multi-channel support without paying for separate tools.
• Collaboration-first design improves resolution speed and quality.
• Solid stack of AI features (AI Agents, AI Copilot and AI QA) if you decide to upgrade later.

Cons:

• No automations included in the free plan.
• No analytics or performance reports.
• Limited to one shared inbox (teams with multiple support addresses will need to upgrade). Check the pricing plans here. 

2. Zoho Desk

Ideal for: Ideal for small teams that want email-based ticketing with basic automations. 

Zoho Desk is Zoho’s flagship support platform, now positioned as an agentic-AI powered system for managing customer queries.

The platform leans on its AI assistant, Zia, to guide agents with ticket suggestions, sentiment cues, and automations that make support work easier. 

Their free plan comes with three user licenses, which is a comfortable starting point for any small team. Getting started is fairly easy; 

I added a few basic details (like name, email, contact), verified the account, and the dashboard opened up without any fuss. 

Once you’re inside, Zoho Desk neatly pulls your customer emails into one place and gives you a clean timeline to work through. 

Key features:

• Omnichannel basics: 1 email-based support address, a help center, and web forms for capturing requests.
• Two macros to automate repetitive tasks (like tagging, status changes, or assignment updates).
• Private knowledge base for internal documentation and agent collaboration.
• Zoho Desk Radar app to monitor ticket traffic, trends, and workloads on mobile. 
• Multilingual support in 9 languages. 
• Email support which is available 24/5. 

Pros:

• Users say the free plan is more powerful than managing support from Gmail or Outlook.
• Works well within Zoho’s ecosystem. Great if you plan to adopt CRM, Projects, or Zoho One later.
• Easy to use for agents who are new to help desk tools.

Cons:

• The free plan is too limited for growing teams. Essential features like contact import, advanced automation, and SLAs are locked. 
• No public knowledge base on the free tier. You can create internal articles, but nothing customer-facing.
• Very little customization – layouts, views, reporting, and dashboards are restricted on the free plan, so you can’t tailor the workspace much.

3. Jira Service Management

Ideal for: Teams that already use Jira and want a free help desk that connects engineering, IT, and internal service processes.

Jira Service Management is Atlassian’s support platform that helps businesses handle both customer and internal requests in a structured way. 

The free plan lets you manage up to 10 agents, create unlimited projects, and track requests through different views like boards, timelines, and backlogs. 

You can turn a ticket into a task, link it directly to engineering work, and create up to 100 automations per month. 

If your team already uses Jira, this is one of the easiest “free” help desk setups to start with.

Key features:

• Multiple work views such as Backlog, List, Board, Timeline, Calendar, and Summary to monitor requests.
• 100 automation rules per month per site, ideal for routing, notifications, tagging, other repetitive tasks.
• Basic reports and dashboards to track request volume, workload, and progress (though customization is limited).
• 2 GB of storage, enough for small teams but limited for heavy file usage.
• Access to the Atlassian Community, which genuinely helps troubleshoot issues and workflows faster than most vendor support channels.

Pros:

• Excellent for technical teams. Users love how easily they can link support tickets to Jira issues, dev tasks, or bug reports.
• Multiple project views help teams visualize work the way they prefer, from agile boards to timelines.

Cons:

• Reporting feels clunky. Many users mention that customizing dashboards or pulling the exact metrics they need takes effort.
• Free plan email notifications are capped at 100/day, which can become restrictive as ticket volume grows.
• No built-in knowledge base. You must integrate Confluence, which is a paid tool. 

4. HubSpot Service Hub

Ideal for: Early-stage teams that want basic ticketing, email support, and live chat built directly into their CRM timeline.

HubSpot Service Hub is the support layer built directly into HubSpot’s CRM. The free plan gives you ticketing, a shared inbox, live chat, and basic AI routing.

Every ticket automatically displays the customer’s full CRM record — past emails, form submissions, notes, and deal history — which makes follow-ups faster and more accurate.

Its free plan bundles 30+ CRM and support tools, so you can track tickets and customer data in one place without paying for extras.

Key features:

• Shared inbox for email + live chat, though both include HubSpot branding.
• AI chatbot routing, useful for simple triage.
• Email tracking + notifications capped at 200 per month.
• Templates and meeting scheduling, with limits (3 email templates + 1 personal booking link).
• Basic reporting widgets.

Pros:

• Most free help desk tools require you to manage chat and email separately. HubSpot funnels everything into one queue, which keeps the workflow clean for small teams that don’t want multiple tabs to monitor.
• Any HubSpot form (newsletter, signup, contact form) can instantly create a ticket. This is something other free help desks rarely offer without paid automation.
• Most free help desks cap contacts or limit visibility. HubSpot lets you store and view an unlimited number of customers.

Cons:

• Emails, chat, templates, and meeting links carry HubSpot branding, which limits customization.
• No knowledge base on the free plan.
• Reporting is extremely limited, and advanced automation (workflows) is locked behind paid tiers.
• Support is community-only, with no direct email, chat, or phone support for free users.

5. Desk 365

Ideal for: Small teams (up to 3 agents) that work heavily inside Microsoft Teams and want a help desk that fits into their existing workflow.

Desk365 is a budget-friendly help desk built for Microsoft-centric teams. That’s because it sits right inside Microsoft Teams, allowing users to create, update, assign, and collaborate on tickets without leaving their workspace.

As part of the free plan, you get multi-channel ticketing, SLAs, workflow automation, a shared knowledge base, and Microsoft SSO. 

Another advantage: Desk365 offers HIPAA and GDPR compliance even on the free plan, which is rare among free help desk tools.

Key features:

• Manage tickets from multiple channels, including Microsoft Teams, email, web forms, and support portals.
• Automate routine tasks like assigning tickets to specific agents, updating statuses, or tagging issues.
• Build and maintain a repository of solution articles for both agents and customers.
• Set and track service level agreements to ensure timely responses and resolutions.
• Seamless Microsoft Single Sign-On (SSO) support for secure, one-click access.

Pros:

• Stronger free-plan inclusions than most competitors, especially with SLAs and automation.
• Focus on security is strong. 
• Straightforward onboarding since the platform works inside Microsoft Teams.

Cons:

• Hard limit of 50 tickets per month. 
• No custom ticket fields, forms, roles, or advanced reporting tools.

6. Freshdesk

Ideal for: Very small teams and early-stage startups that need a structured ticketing system for 1-2 agents. 

Freshdesk is a collaborative, multi-channel platform that helps teams manage customer queries with structure and clear ownership. 

Previously known as Sprout, its free plan gives businesses access to 35+ core features. That includes email and social ticketing, basic automation, collaboration tools, and ticket trend insights. The plan supports up to 2 agents, and serves as an entry point for teams looking to experience Freshdesk.

Important: The free plan expires after 6 months. 

Key features:

• Integrated email + social ticketing to manage queries from multiple channels.
• Assign tickets automatically by creating rules.
• Ticket merging, notifications, exporting, and priority/status controls.
• Shared canned responses, internal notes, tags, to-dos, and dynamic placeholders.
• Private knowledge base for internal documentation.
• Default dashboard + ticket trend reports (no custom reporting).
• 24×5 email support from Freshdesk.

Pros:

• Email ticketing, merging, exporting, and status controls cover everything a small team needs to stay organized.
• Default reports give you enough visibility into ticket volume.

Cons:

• Strict limit on number of users: 2 
• The free plan expires after 6 months. 
• Automation is limited. No round-robin, no SLA workflows, no skill-based routing.
• Freshdesk’s AI capabilities (including Freddy AI or Thank You Detector) are not included.

7. Spiceworks

Ideal for: Teams that want a completely free cloud-based help desk with no limits on features. 

Spiceworks is one of the few help desks that’s genuinely free. You can add unlimited users and there’s no cap on the number of tickets you can handle.

The platform comes with automated ticket sorting, customizable queues, and reporting that connects with Power BI for deeper insights. 

However, the interface isn’t as clean or modern as other tools on this list. 

Note: Ads can appear in agent screens, customer emails, and even exported PDFs.

Key features:

• Automated ticket sorting and assignment based on priority and category.
• Custom ticket queues for different teams, issues, or urgency levels.
• Reporting + Power BI integration for deeper ticket analysis.
• Task organization and ticket categorization for cleaner workflows.
• Knowledge center, email support, and forums included for free.

Pros:

• Completely free with no usage limits.
• Huge user community (8M+ IT pros) available for troubleshooting.
• Good for basic IT help desk workflows.

Cons:

• The platform shows ads everywhere.
• Old-school user interface. 
• Search filters can be frustrating to configure. 

8. osTicket

Ideal for: Small to mid-sized teams that want a powerful, cost-effective help desk they can fully customize. 

osTicket is a popular open-source ticketing platform that lets you customize every part of your support operation.

The platform pulls customer requests from email, web forms, and phone calls into a simple, web-based dashboard that teams can manage with ease. Here, you can customize everything — workflows, forms, automation rules, UI elements, and even backend logic. 

The free version is strong on core functionality but requires some technical expertise to get it up and running. Also, keep in mind that you’ll need to handle installation, hosting, updates, and troubleshooting yourself.

Key features:

• Create, track, and organize tickets with clear status and priority controls.
• Capture specific data and automate routing based on categories, keywords, or rules.
• Build and publish guides, FAQs, and how-to articles for customers and agents.
• Prevent duplicate responses by showing when another agent is viewing or replying to the same ticket.
• Community-powered support: Access a forum of developers and users (no official support in the free version).

Pros:

• Completely free and open-source, giving full control over customization and deployment.
• When someone emails your support address for the first time, osTicket automatically creates a user for them. Any future emails they send get linked to that same profile; no manual setup needed.
• A large community of developers and users can help troubleshoot issues, share fixes, and offer configuration advice.

Cons:

• The UI looks outdated and customizing it requires editing PHP files.
• Built-in reports and graphs are basic; custom reports require technical skills or paid versions.

9. LiveAgent

Ideal for: Early-stage support teams that need a basic multi-channel help desk with unlimited agents, a customer portal, and live chat.  

LiveAgent is a full-fledged help desk that brings email, chat, and portal-based support into one workspace. 

The free plan gives you unlimited agents, two email accounts for ticketing, a customer portal with a forum, and one live chat channel. You also get essential security controls like restricted access, password rules, 2FA, and HTTPS.

Note: Ticket history is limited to 7 days. That means older conversations disappear from your view unless you upgrade. 

Key features:

• Basic ticketing workflow for handling email and chat queries.
• Unlimited agents; add as many team members as needed at no cost.
• Two email accounts for tickets and one for live chat.
• Customer portal + community forum for basic self-service and user discussions.

Pros:

• The free plan holds up well for low to moderate ticket volume
• The UI is straightforward.

Cons:

• No reporting or analytics, which limits visibility into trends and agent performance.
• No social media or voice call integrations, making the free plan limited for multi-channel support.
• Ticket history is limited to 7 days, which is restrictive for any team handling recurring or long-term issues.

10. HelpDeskZ

Ideal for: Small businesses and IT teams that prefer full control over data, customization, and server infrastructure.

HelpDeskZ is a free, open-source help desk built with PHP. Because it’s self-hosted, you decide where it lives, how it performs, and how deeply you want to customize it (from the interface to the ticket forms to the backend behavior).

You can add unlimited agents, build out your entire knowledge base, and manage tickets end-to-end without worrying about seat restrictions or monthly bills.

Important: HelpDeskZ runs on PHP 7.x+, so hosting requirements are minimal and compatible with most shared providers.

Key features:

• Knowledge base + FAQ builder to help customers self-resolve common issues.
• Self-hosted environment, giving you full access to code, database, and server configuration.
• Customizable UI and workflows, ideal for teams that want to tailor every part of the support experience.
• Community-driven support, with forums for troubleshooting and shared fixes.
• Basic ticket management, including priorities, assignments, and tracking.

Pros:

• Free and fully open-source, making it a strong option for teams on tight budgets.
• Unlimited staff accounts, which is rare for free help desk tools.
• Easy to integrate into existing websites, since it’s PHP-based and lightweight.

Cons:

• No official support team, so you rely on community forums for help.
• Lacks advanced features like automation, custom analytics, or performance dashboards.
• Performance can depend on your server setup

11. ProProfs Help Desk

Ideal for: Ideal for freelancers, solo founders, and single-agent support environments.

ProProfs Help Desk is a simple, cloud-based ticketing tool that has a very interesting free plan. Instead of giving you a stripped version with locked features, it lets you use all premium capabilities, like automation, canned responses, analytics, ticket routing, SLAs, and more. 

But there’s one major catch: the free plan supports only one user. 

Key features:

• Unlimited tickets and customer interactions with no volume caps.
• Access to all premium features, including automation, workflows, and canned responses.
• Analytics and reporting tools to understand trends and performance.
• Ability to manage inboxes like info@ and support@.

Pros:

• Cloud-based platform. No setup, hosting, or technical configuration needed.
• Pairs well with other ProProfs tools like chat, surveys, and training if you want an all-in-one ecosystem later.
• Helpful for process testing. You can build workflows, macros, and rules before adding more agents.

Cons:

• Handling all incoming tickets as the sole user can get overwhelming.
• Lack of multi-agent visibility (queues, assignment load, activity) since free plan is strictly single-user.

10 additional free help desk ticketing tools

Here are 10 additional free help desk options with quick snapshots of what they offer. Helpful if you want to widen your research without going into full reviews.

• Zammad: Open-source help desk with email, chat, and phone integration. Comes with a clean interface, and fast, advanced search. Supports groups, roles, and dashboards without licensing fees.
• UVdesk: Self-hosted help desk with email-to-ticket conversion, knowledge base tools, and multi-brand support. Built around Symfony + Backbone.js, giving developers flexibility to extend it.
• ZOHO Assist: While primarily a remote support tool, it includes session-based ticket handling and technician management. Helpful for teams managing customer issues that require remote troubleshooting.
• Odoo Helpdesk: Part of the open-source Odoo suite; includes email ticketing, assignments, SLA tracking, and canned responses. Useful when paired with Odoo CRM or website apps.
• MantisBT: Primarily a bug tracker, but works well as a basic help desk for internal support teams. Supports categories, status tracking, email notifications, and simple reporting.
• Request Tracker (RT): A robust open-source ticketing system widely used in universities and government organizations. Email-driven workflows, custom queues, dashboards, and extensive configuration options.
• Liberum Help Desk: Windows-based help desk tool for internal IT support. Includes ticket assignment, AD authentication, and simple reporting.
• FreeScout: A lightweight, self-hosted help desk that mirrors the core experience of email-based ticketing systems. Supports modules for chat, CRM-style insights, and collaboration.
• Helpy: Self-hosted platform that provides ticketing, multilingual knowledge bases, communities, and customer threads. Supports API integrations and theme customization.
• YetiForce: An advanced CRM with a built-in help desk module offering ticketing, SLAs, and detailed workflow automation. 

What is a help desk software?

A help desk software gives support teams a structured workflow for handling customer queries. It centralizes messages from every channel, adds ownership and priority, and keeps all communication in one timeline.

Instead of scattered inboxes and manual tracking, support teams get a reliable system that shows what’s pending, what’s urgent, and what’s already been handled, reducing the chances of missed customer conversations.

Selecting the best free help desk software for your team

The best way to know what actually works for your team is to test a help desk in your real workflow. Most free plans don’t require commitments, so pick one that aligns with your basic needs and use it for a couple of weeks.

You’ll quickly see where it holds up and where it doesn’t: whether the interface makes daily work easier, how well it handles your volume, and whether the collaboration features match the way your team operates. If it fits, you save both time and money. If it doesn’t, you have clarity on what to upgrade to and which features genuinely matter to you.

If you’re evaluating tools, start with something fast to set up. Hiver takes under an hour to go live, even for non-technical teams. You can immediately see whether it fits your support workflow.

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Frequently asked questions