11 Best Ticketing Systems for Efficient Customer Support (+ 20 Bonus Tools)

Ticketing systems are the backbone of efficient support. In this guide, we break down what they are, why they matter, and which tools stand out in 2025 so you can manage customer queries with less chaos and more clarity.

Table of Contents

• Quick Summary
  • Shortlist: A Quick Glance at the Top Ticketing Systems for 2026
• Why Trust Us?
• What is a ticketing system? 
• Our Selection Criteria for the Best Ticketing Systems
  • 1. Multichannel Ticketing
  • 2. Ticket Assignment and Workflow Automation
  • 3. SLA Tracking and Compliance
  • 4. Collaboration and Internal Communication
  • 5. Analytics and Reporting
  • 6. AI Assistance
  • 7. Self-Service Support 
  • 8. Integrations and Ecosystem Compatibility
  • 9. Customisation and Ease of Use
  • 10. Customer Feedback and Proven Results
• Benefits of a Ticketing System
  • 1. No more missed or duplicate responses
  • 2. Reduced delays and bottlenecks
  • 3. Fewer silos across departments
  • 4. Better visibility into support operations
  • 5. Easier scalability as volume grows 
• 11 Top Ticketing Systems for 2025 (+ Some Unique Picks)
  • 1. Hiver
• 2 REVE Chat
  • 3. Zendesk
  • 4. Freshdesk
  • 5. Front
  • 6. Zoho Desk
  • 7. Help Scout
  • 8. Jira Service Management
  • 9. Zammad
  • 10. UseResponse
  • 11. Enchant
• 20 Other Ticketing Systems for Customer Support
• Choose The Ticketing System That Fits Your Support DNA
• Frequently Asked Questions

Shortlist: A Quick Glance at the Top Ticketing Systems for 2026

Tool	Best For	Starting Price	Key Strengths
Hiver	Easy-to-use, scalable ticketing	$25/user/month	Multichannel support & AI automation
Reve Chat	AI live chat support	$15/agent/month	Omnichannel chat & customizable ticketing
Zendesk	Large teams and deep customisation	$19/agent/month	Custom workflows & advanced analytics
Freshdesk	Small to midsize teams	$15/agent/month	Affordable Ticket automation & SLA management
Front	Collaborative, personalised support	$19/user/month	Shared inbox & CRM integration

Why Trust Us?

We work with 10,000+ teams, including Upwork, Flexport, and NYU, to simplify customer support with smarter workflows, AI, and integrations. Our platform is used daily across SaaS, finance, IT, travel and education sectors, so we see firsthand what actually moves the needle.

And these improvements aren’t just about speed; they’re about reliability too.

We also dig deep into real-world feedback. Every tool on this list is evaluated against clear criteria: ease of use, key features, integrations, and support. We cross-check our findings with user reviews and ongoing conversations with CX leaders.

The result? Practical, honest recommendations based on what support teams truly need.

What is a ticketing system?

When customer requests start flooding in from email, chat, phone, WhatsApp, and social media, things can spiral into chaos fast. Duplicate replies, missed follow-ups, and no clear sense of who’s handling what. It’s easy for the team to get out of sync and for conversations to lose momentum.

This is the core problem that ticketing sytem solves. Ticketing system is a tool that turns every customer inquiry into a trackable “ticket” – a centralized record with an owner, status, and history. Instead of juggling overflowing email inboxes or sticky-note reminders, every request goes into one organized hub. 

With a ticketing system in place, your support team gets full visibility into open issues, clear ownership for every ticket, and a standardized way to manage requests. No customer request goes unnoticed and agents can address problems faster, which ultimately leads to happier customers.

Our Selection Criteria for the Best Ticketing Systems

SaaS support teams need more than just basic email management. They need tools that scale with them, support multiple channels, and help agents stay productive without drowning in busywork.

To find the best ticketing systems for SaaS companies in 2026, we focused on tools that offer:

1. Multichannel Ticketing

Today, customers interact across email, live chat, voice, and social platforms. The best ticketing systems should:

• Maintain continuity across multiple channels
• Organise complete conversation history in one thread
• Enable smooth handoffs between chat, email, and voice
• Support omnichannel visibility for all agents

2. Ticket Assignment and Workflow Automation

To balance workloads and prevent missed queries, an efficient ticketing system will:

• Automatically assign tickets by priority, workload, or skills
• Route specific issues to the right teams
• Automate repetitive actions
• Use macros or canned responses

3. SLA Tracking and Compliance

Customer satisfaction often depends on meeting Service Level Agreements (SLAs), so the ideal tools should allow you:

• Set SLA policies by ticket priority or customer tier
• Receive real-time alerts for SLA breaches
• Track countdowns and resolution progress
• Generate SLA compliance reports automatically

4. Collaboration and Internal Communication

Customer support requires team effort, so we highlighted tools that:

• Use internal notes for behind-the-scenes communication 
• Allow collaboration via shared drafts and @mentions
• Prevent duplicate responses
• Provide transparency into who’s working on what

5. Analytics and Reporting

Analysing raw support data offers insight for improvement, so our top picks:

• Track core metrics like ticket volume and resolution time
• Generate customizable dashboards and reports
• Filter data by channel, product, agent, or customer type
• Identify trends for continuous service improvement

6. AI Assistance

AI reduces repetitive work and improves accuracy, so we prioritised systems with AI assistants that:

• Suggest responses or summarise tickets automatically
• Detect customer sentiment and flag urgent issues
• Route tickets based on context or keywords
• Deploy chatbots for routine or preliminary inquiries

7. Self-Service Support

Reducing ticket volume starts with self-service, so our top tools:

• Integrate a knowledge base and FAQ portal
• Enable AI-powered chats
• Allow customers to track and manage tickets
• Offer automated answers for repetitive queries

8. Integrations and Ecosystem Compatibility

Customer service teams work with multiple tools, so good ticketing systems for SaaS companies should:

• Connect with CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot
• Integrate with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, and other platforms.
• Offer API access or app marketplaces for customisation
• Sync with calendars and billing systems

9. Customisation and Ease of Use

We favoured systems that balance function with ease-of-use through:

• Intuitive interfaces
• Customizable workflows, fields, and tags
• Quick onboarding for new users and teams
• Consistent user experience across web and mobile

10. Customer Feedback and Proven Results

Finally, we investigated the true performance of each tool through:

• Verified results from long-term users and enterprises
• Case studies showcasing measurable improvements
• High satisfaction ratings on trusted review platforms

Benefits of a Ticketing System

If you’re on the fence about adopting ticketing software, consider these common support pain points and how a ticketing system addresses them in practical ways:

1. No more missed or duplicate responses

Without a proper system, it’s easy to overlook customer messages or for two team members to unknowingly respond to the same query. A ticketing tool logs every customer request as a ticket, so no query is missed, even during peak volume. 

2. Reduced delays and bottlenecks

When teams rely on a basic shared email inbox, urgent issues can easily get buried under a flood of messages, and long threads can go unanswered until a customer complains again. Ticketing software helps you set SLAs (Service Level Agreements), which are time targets for responses and resolutions. When an agent misses an SLA, the system escalates the ticket to a designated supervisor. Additionally, automated workflows sort and prioritize incoming tickets so the team tackles the most critical issues first.

3. Fewer silos across departments

More often than not, resolving a customer issue isn’t a one-team job. You might need inputs from sales, engineering, and other departments. Coordinating with those teams over email can be messy and lead to miscommunication. Ticketing software includes collaboration features that break down these silos. Agents can add internal notes to a ticket or @mention colleagues right in the ticket thread to ask for their insight, without the customer seeing those discussions. 

You can even share tickets or escalate them to specialist teams with full context attached. This means everyone involved, across departments, stays on the same page. 

4. Better visibility into support operations

Managing support through siloed tools for every channel makes it hard to get a “big picture” view of your support quality. How many issues came in today? Which ones are still unresolved? Are we meeting our response goals?

A ticketing platform answers these questions with clear dashboards and reports. Managers (and agents) get real-time visibility into all open tickets and their statuses. You can see, for example, that 20 tickets are open, 5 are high priority, and 3 are waiting on customer info. 

Ticketing tools with advanced reporting capabilities also aggregate key customer service metrics like average response time, resolution time, and customer satisfaction scores.

5. Easier scalability as volume grows

What works for a five-person team and a trickle of emails won’t work when you’re fielding hundreds of queries daily or expanding your support team. Many businesses start with simple email support and a spreadsheet, but as ticket volume grows, so do the gaps. 

Ticketing software is built to scale your operations. It provides a structured framework (with categories, workflows, and automations) that can handle increasing load without breaking down. As your customer base doubles or new support channels come into play, your team can keep delivering timely, high-quality support because the system organizes and streamlines the work. 

11 Top Ticketing Systems for 2025 (+ Some Unique Picks)

Finding the right customer support ticketing software can make all the difference in delivering fast, helpful service. We’ve compared ten top tools, each with its own strengths, to help you choose based on your team’s needs.

Tool	Best For	Key Features	Price (per user/month)
Hiver	High volume, customer-facing teams that handle inquiries across multiple platforms and want a modern ticketing tool that can scale easily with their operations.	– Shared inbox- Multichannel ticketing (email, chat, voice, WhatsApp)- AI Copilot- SLAs- Self-service tools- Automation	Free–$75
Reve Chat	Customer-facing businesses that rely on real-time chat and want customizable, AI-powered omnichannel support to manage customer interactions.	– Live chat, video, voice, and co-browsing- Chatbots and automation- Unified inbox across platforms- Custom branding and chat widgets- Analytics and visitor insights	$15-$50
Zendesk	Large organisations and teams that need advanced analytics and deep customisation features for large-scale support.	– Omnichannel support- AI bots- Custom workflows- 1700+ integrations- Advanced analytics	Starts at $19, up to $115+
Freshdesk	Small to mid-sized businesses that want structured ticket management, automation, and omnichannel support to reduce repetition and shorten response times.	– Email/chat/social/voice- Parent-child ticketing- Freddy AI- SLA tracking- 1000+ integrations	Free–$79 (Pro/Enterprise)
Front	Collaborative teams that offer personalised customer communication and want a shared inbox that integrates with their CRM and workflows.	– Shared inbox,- Low-code app builder- CRM integrations- Front Intelligence (AI insights)	$19–$59+
Zoho Desk	Startups or businesses on a budget that need a customizable ticketing system with AI assistance, SLA tracking, and analytics.	– Multichannel ticketing- Zia AI- SLA tracking- Customizable KB- Custom dashboards and reports	Free–$40
Help Scout	Small teams, nonprofits, and organisations that prioritise personal customer communication and want to keep support empathetic and human.	– Shared inbox- Beacon (chat) and Docs (KB)- AI drafts- Customer profiles- 90+ integrations	Free plan (50 contacts), $50+
Jira SM	IT and DevOps teams that need collaboration and structured workflows to manage complex service requests, incidents, and changes.	– ITIL templates​​- Incident, problem, and change management- Request portals and knowledge base via Confluence- Asset and configuration management- Deep Atlassian integration	Free–$40+
Zammad	Developers and technical teams who want open-source flexibility, multi-channel support, and customizable permissions for self-hosted or hybrid setups.	– Ticketing via email, phone chat, Twitter, Facebook, etc- Self-hosted and cloud deployment options- Customizable permissions- Audit logs- API access	Free (self-hosted), €5+ hosted
UseResponse	SaaS companies and community-driven organisations that thrive on user feedback or want to combine customer support with engagement.	– Ticketing + forums- Idea voting- Knowledge base- SLA automation- Cloud/on-premise deployment	$49+ cloud, $120+ on-premise
Enchant	Small teams that want a simple ticketing solution with multichannel support, shared inboxes, and AI-powered replies.	– Email/chat/SMS support- Customer history and profiles- Shared inbox- AI replies- Collision detection- Flat pricing	$20 flat

1. Hiver

Hiver is an AI-first, modern multichannel customer service and ticketing platform with an intuitive interface that enables teams to get started within minutes. Powered by AI and powerful workflows, it enables teams to remove the busy work out of customer service and handle communication across all channels from a single interface.

Key Features

Shared Inbox 

Hiver helps your team manage group email addresses like support@ or info@ from a shared inbox. Every incoming query gets converted into a trackable ticket. You can assign those tickets to an agent, monitor their status in real time, and track their progress until resolution. It’s a simple way to bring visibility and accountability to every conversation.

Team Collaboration Tools

The tool provides in-context collaboration features within the conversation thread. Agents can leave internal notes and @mention teammates on a ticket instead of forwarding or CCing. It also has real-time collision alerts to prevent duplicate replies. Additionally, shared drafts and template libraries further help teams craft responses together efficiently.

Multi-Channel Support

Beyond email, Hiver supports multiple channels like live chat, phone, and even WhatsApp – all managed from the same inbox interface. For example, Hiver’s WhatsApp integration allows customer WhatsApp messages to flow into your Hiver inbox so agents can reply without switching tools.

Workflow Automations

With Hiver, you get access to rule-based automations to streamline repetitive tasks. You can set up round-robin assignment to auto-distribute incoming emails among team members and define SLA timers to track response deadlines. Automation triggers and conditions (e.g. based on sender, keywords, tags) can automatically assign emails, update statuses, or send template replies, reducing manual work.

Self-Service Options

Hiver also offers a built-in Knowledge Base and a Customer Portal on higher plans. The Knowledge Base lets you create help articles and FAQs that customers can access for self-service support. The Customer Portal allows customers to raise tickets and check status updates on their requests online.

Analytics

You can track metrics that really matter, like response and resolution times, ticket volumes (pending, resolved, in progress), and customer satisfaction scores. Want something more specific? You can build custom reports to focus on the metrics your team cares about most.

AI Assistance 

Hiver’s AI-powered features are built to take the grunt work off your agents’ plates. The AI Copilot works like a smart search bar for your helpdesk. It pulls answers from your knowledge base and connected tools instantly. You can also deploy AI agents to deflect questions across channels. You can even use AI to detect customer sentiment across conversations, extract key info from conversations, triage tickets and route them to right owner. Hiver’s AI can help you automate pretty much everything and take the busy work out of customer service.

Pros	Cons
Seamless Gmail/Outlook integration with minimal learning curve	Advanced features like chatbots are available only on higher tiers
Includes self-service tools like knowledge base and customer portal	Fewer third-party integrations compared to larger platforms
Free plan with unlimited users	Some channels and tools are not available on the Free plan

Pricing

Plan	Price (per user/month)	Best for	Highlights
Free	$0	Small or just‑starting teams	Shared inbox, email+chat+WhatsApp+voice support, basic ticketing & collaboration
Growth	$25	Small to growing teams	Shared inbox + rule‑based automations, custom fields, linked conversations, customer portal, basic analytics & workflows
Pro	$45	Teams scaling support operations	Adds CSAT surveys, business‑hours/SLAs, chatbots, load‑balanced assignment, custom dashboards & reporting
Elite	$75 (or custom for larger orgs)	Larger teams with complex workflows	Skill‑based routing, unlimited inboxes, custom roles, HIPAA & Okta SSO, dedicated CSM, advanced automation & compliance

All plans include: Android/iOS mobile apps, shared drafts, @mentions, collision alerts, 24/7 chat & email support, and a 7-day free trial with access to the Elite plan.

Note: AI features are available at an add-on of $20 per user per month across all paid plans.

Our Unbiased Take

Hiver is a great ticketing solution for organizations deep into the Google Workspace or Outlook ecosystem, wanting to keep things simple and familiar. If you value quick onboarding and ease of use, Hiver is a strong choice. It’s also quite cost-effective for small businesses.

2 REVE Chat

G2 Rating: 4.6 ⭐

REVE Chat is an omnichannel helpdesk ticketing software that seamlessly combines with Live Chat. It can create tickets from the widget and receive ticket requests from different channels in a single inbox. It is best for the teams looking for more than basic ticketing. Because it has added benefits of real-time ticket creation and escalation.

Key Features:

• Seamless ticketing from live chat that automatically turns any live chat into a ticket

• Omnichannel ticketing system with all customer requests from email, chat, social media, or the website in one inbox

• Ticket widget for site and apps allowing customers to submit tickets directly from the website or app

• Dynamic ticket status showing whether a ticket is open, pending, or solved

• Customizable ticket forms designed to capture only the information required from customers

• Advanced ticket filters to sort and search tickets based on priority, department, or status.

• Import tickets and email sync to import prior tickets and sync your email so that it’s all managed in one place.

Pros	Cons
Extremely easy to turn chats into tickets	Takes a little time to set up all channels
All customer requests in one inbox	Might feel advanced for small teams
Customizable ticket forms and filters	Initial setup needed for email sync

Pricing: Starts at $15/agent/month with a Live Chat agent. Advanced features and team plans are available with a 14-day free trial.

Our Unbiased Take

REVE Chat’s ticketing system stands out for its simplicity and seamless integration with live chat. We’d recommend it for small to medium teams that want to manage customer queries efficiently without the complexity or high cost of larger platforms. Its free plan with a live chat agent, along with a 14-day trial for advanced features, makes it a great choice for teams just starting out or looking for an easy-to-use solution. For organizations that need lightweight, reliable ticketing with instant chat support, REVE Chat delivers strong value without unnecessary overhead.

3. Zendesk

Zendesk is often considered the gold standard for customer service software. It’s an omnichannel ticketing system known for its powerful features and scalability. Companies of all sizes use Zendesk to manage support tickets from email, chat, phone, social media, and more in one place.

Key Features:

• Omnichannel support: email, live chat, voice, SMS, social media
• Customizable ticketing workflows with advanced triggers and macros
• AI Answer bots and agent-assist tools
• 360-degree customer view and context
• SLA management, reporting dashboards, and customer satisfaction tracking
• Marketplace with 1,700+ integrations
• Self-service portal with knowledge base and community forums

Pros	Cons
Extremely powerful and scalable for large teams	Steep learning curve for new users
Best-in-class automation and reporting	Can get expensive as you scale + no free plan
Supports a wide range of channels and integrations	Overkill for small or email-only teams

Pricing: Starts at $19/agent/month (Support Team). Higher tiers (Suite Team, Suite Professional, etc.) go up to $115+/agent/month with AI, advanced routing, and analytics. Zendesk offers a free 14-day trial for all plans.

Our Unbiased Take: Zendesk is one of the most comprehensive ticketing solutions on the market. We’d recommend it for medium to large teams that need scalability, reliability, and advanced features (especially around AI and analytics). The trade-off, however, is cost and complexity. Smaller teams or those with straightforward needs might find Zendesk overwhelming (and its price hard to swallow). To sum it up, Zendesk works best if and when you plan to leverage its rich feature set fully; otherwise, a lighter-weight tool could deliver better value.

4. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is another popular ticketing platform known for its user-friendly interface and affordable pricing. It’s especially favored by small and mid-sized businesses, including startups that need robust support features without the complexity of enterprise tools. A standout feature is its parent-child ticketing (available on the Pro plan and above), which lets you split complex issues into smaller, linked tasks. Each “child” ticket can be tracked individually while staying connected to the main “parent” ticket, which is ideal for managing multi-step problems across teams with complete visibility.

Key Features: 

• Email, chat, phone, and social media ticketing
• Parent-child ticketing
• Workflow automation and canned responses
• Freddy AI for automated ticket triage, auto QA, instant responses, and insights on ticket trends, agent performance, and customer sentiment.
• SLA management and custom ticket views
• Knowledge base and self-service portal
• Integration with 1000+ tools
• Key metrics like CSAT, response times, and ticket trends

Pros	Cons
Easy to use and quick to deploy	Some features locked in higher-tier plans
Affordable entry pricing	Occasional UI limitations with customization
Good omnichannel coverage	Reporting can be basic in lower tiers

Pricing: Free plan with basic email ticketing, a knowledge base, and canned responses. Paid plans start at $15/agent/month. Pro and Enterprise tiers offer more advanced AI, analytics, and automation. All plans offer a 21-day free trial. 

Our Unbiased Take: Freshdesk hits that sweet spot between functionality and affordability. It brings many enterprise-level features like AI, automation, and omnichannel support, without the complexity or price tag. In our view, Freshdesk is an excellent choice if you want a well-rounded ticketing system that you can get running quickly. It’s best for organizations that need solid multi-channel support and automation but don’t require a lot of deep customization or heavy integrations. As your operation grows more complex, you might outgrow Freshdesk’s capabilities, but thanks to their tiered plans, you can cross that bridge when you come to it.

5. Front

This customer communications platform blends the personal touch of email with the workflow benefits of a help desk. In practice, Front looks and feels like an email client, making it an excellent fit for teams who want to manage support collaboratively without losing the human feel of one-to-one emails. What sets Front apart is its low-code platform capability. You can build custom apps and workflows directly into the inbox, so agents can take action or pull in data from other tools without switching tabs.

Key Features: 

• Shared team inbox for email and other channels like SMS, live chat, and social media
• Assignments, tags, and internal comments
• Collision detection and shared drafts
• Analytics and response time tracking
• CRM integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.)
• Front Intelligence for AI-driven insights on customer sentiment, ticket trends, agent performance, and emerging issues

Pros	Cons
Very user-friendly, email-like interface	Lacks some advanced help desk automation features
Ideal for collaborative replies and teamwork	May be too lightweight for complex support operations. No knowledge base and community forum
Powerful CRM and app integrations	Higher-tier plans can get expensive

Pricing: Starts at $19/user/month for basic features like shared inbox and canned responses. More robust automation and analytics come with higher-tier plans ($59+/user/month). There’s a 7-day free trial. No free plan is available.

Our Unbiased Take: If your support feels too impersonal and “ticket-like,” Front offers a refreshing change. It keeps workflows organized, but the conversation feels like a normal email thread. We recommend Front for teams like client success, account management, B2B support, or professional services, where maintaining personal customer relationships is key. On the flip side, if you need heavyweight helpdesk features or a lower-cost solution, Front might not be the best fit. 

6. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is a part of the Zoho family of business apps and is known as a cost-effective, feature-rich help desk solution. It is especially attractive if you’re already in the Zoho ecosystem owing to its tight integration with Zoho CRM and other Zoho tools. It offers multi-channel ticket management, strong automation and AI-powered assistance at a reasonable cost. Typical users are small and mid-sized businesses, including those on a budget or those who want every part of their software stack under one roof.

Key Features: 

• Email, chat, phone, and social media ticketing
• Workflow automation and SLA tracking
• Multi-brand, customizable help center and knowledge base
• Work Modes to let agents view tickets by criteria like due time or customer type, improving efficiency
• Zia AI support assistant for generative writing help, real-time sentiment analysis, and proactive insights into ticket patterns, customer behavior, and resolution bottlenecks
• Integration with other Zoho apps and third-party tools
• Custom dashboards and reports

Pros	Cons
Affordable pricing and flexible plans	Interface can feel dated or clunky to some users
Works seamlessly with other Zoho tools	Zia AI only available on higher-tier plans
Highly customizable (you can tailor fields, statuses, and even the help center without needing code)	Limited third-party integrations compared to competitors

Pricing: A free plan is available for up to 3 agents. Paid plans start at $14/agent/month. Enterprise plan is $40/agent/month. All plans have a 15-day free trial.

Our Unbiased Take: Zoho Desk is a powerful pick for the price. We recommend it for teams that want a full-fledged helpdesk but need to watch costs. It’s often the next step up for those graduating from email or from a bare-bones free tool. If you’re already using Zoho apps, adopting Zoho Desk is almost a no-brainer due to the tight integrations. We’ve noticed that Zoho Desk can require a bit more admin effort to fine-tune compared to some competitors, but the payoff is a very tailored support system. 

7. Help Scout

Help Scout’s ticketing platform is focused on simplicity and often favored by small businesses, nonprofits, and teams that want a more personal touch to how they deliver support. It provides a shared inbox for managing email communications, along with a knowledge base and live chat (Beacon) option. One thoughtful feature of the tool is customer profiling, which helps teams create detailed, realistic snapshots of each customer, including their goals, pain points, and behavior patterns, so agents can tailor support, improve messaging, and build stronger engagement.

Key Features: 

• Shared inbox and email collaboration tools
• Docs (knowledge base) and Beacon (chat widget)
• AI-assisted drafts and summaries
• Customer profiles and history inside conversations
• Reporting and CSAT surveys
• 90+ integrations including Slack, HubSpot, and Shopify

Pros	Cons
Clean, intuitive UI and easy onboarding	No built-in phone support features
Great for personalized and collaborative support	May not scale well for enterprise-level complexity
Helpful knowledge base and live chat combo	Fewer workflow automation features than competitors

Pricing: Help Scout offers an unlimited-users pricing model and is instead priced by the number of “contacts helped” per month. They have a free plan for up to 50 contacts/month with one mailbox and one knowledge base included. The Standard plan is $50/month for 100 contacts and includes AI, multiple mailboxes, and a knowledge base. Plus ($75/month) and Pro plans offer more volume and advanced features like custom fields and integrations. A 30-day free trial is available for the paid plans.

Our Unbiased Take: We recommend Help Scout for support teams that prioritize thoughtful, one-on-one conversations. Features like customer profiles and AI-suggested drafts help agents respond more personally, which is especially valuable for mission-driven teams. It may not have every bell and whistle, and if you need enterprise features, Help Scout might fall short. But for the vast majority of everyday customer support operations, Help Scout covers the bases with minimal fuss and a friendly touch.

8. Jira Service Management

Atlassian’s Jira Service Management (JSM) is a powerful platform that combines help desk ticketing with IT service management (ITSM) capabilities. It’s built on the Jira platform (famous for software issue tracking) and is an excellent choice for IT support teams or any organization that wants deep customization and integration with development workflows. Typical uses include internal IT help desks, service desks handling technical customer issues, and companies practicing DevOps or ITIL processes.

Key Features: 

• ​​Incident, problem, and change management
• SLA tracking and automation workflows
• Request portals and knowledge base via Confluence
• Asset and configuration management
• Tight integration with Jira Software and DevOps tools
• ITIL-compliant templates

Pros	Cons
Robust for IT teams and technical workflows	Can be overkill for general customer support
Deep integration with Atlassian ecosystem	Requires more setup and admin overhead
Offers strong ITSM and change management tools	Less intuitive for non-technical users

Pricing: Free plan is available for up to 3 agents. Standard plan starts at $19.04/agent/month and includes unlimited agents, email support, SLAs, and integration with Jira Software, with 9×5 support from Atlassian. Premium and Enterprise tiers are available with added ITSM features.

Our Unbiased Take: Jira Service Management is a solid solution for IT and software-centric teams. In our experience, if you have an existing Jira or engineering workflow, implementing JSM for support brings your dev and support teams closer together. That cross-team synergy is a huge win. 

9. Zammad

Zammad is a refreshing entrant in the help desk world. It’s an open-source ticketing system that you can host on your own or purchase as a hosted service. Zammad appeals to those who want full control over their support tool or need a budget-friendly solution without per-agent fees (when self-hosted). It’s used by companies of all sizes, and especially by organizations that prefer open-source software for data sovereignty or customizability.

Key Features: 

• Ticketing via email, phone chat, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
• Knowledge base
• Role-based access and detailed permissions
• Audit trails and real-time reporting
• Full-text search and customer overviews
• API and LDAP integration
• Self-hosted and cloud deployment options

Pros	Cons
Free and open-source with strong customization	Requires technical setup and maintenance (if self-hosted)
Transparent, community-driven development	Lacks polish and offers limited advanced capabilities
Multichannel and flexible for tech-savvy teams	Limited third-party integrations

Pricing: Free for self-hosted use. Hosted version starts at €5/user/month. Enterprise support available at higher rates.

Our Unbiased Take: Zammad is a fantastic option if you value open-source or have budget constraints. If you’re a tech-savvy team, you’ll love the control it has to offer. You can fix issues yourself or adapt the system via APIs and code. It’s also a good fit for NGOs that need a no-cost solution. 

10. UseResponse

This all-in-one customer support suite stands out by combining traditional help desk ticketing with community forums and feedback tools. Its intuitive, customizable interface presents tickets, forum threads, and feedback portals in a clean dashboard, with embeddable widgets that can be branded and styled to match your site. UseResponse can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise, and it is handy for SaaS companies, gaming communities, or any business that wants to engage users in both support and feedback gathering.

Key Features: 

• Multi-channel ticketing (email, chat, feedback forms)
• Community forums and idea management
• Knowledge base
• Automation rules and SLA policies
• AI chatbot and canned responses
• Internal notes and tagging
• Self-hosted and cloud versions

Pros	Cons
Combines ticketing with feedback management	UI and UX can feel dated
Flexible deployment and white-label options	Limited marketplace of integrations
Good for customer-driven product teams	Setup may require technical expertise

Pricing: Starts at $49/user/month for cloud for up to 2 agents. Self-hosted version is priced at $120/agent/month starting from 5 agents.

Our Unbiased Take: UseResponse is a hidden gem for companies that want to build a community around their product while supporting their customers. It can work wonders for product-driven companies where users can submit ideas, vote on them, and support tickets are visible to product teams. If you find yourself juggling a help desk and customer feedback tool, UseResponse can kill two birds with one stone. It’s also a sensible choice if you anticipate needing to be on-premise now or in the future; you can start on the cloud and later migrate to self-hosting with the same system. 

11. Enchant

Enchant is a refreshingly simple help desk tool built for teams that want access to the essential channels and features without dealing with complex tiers or bloated features. Its all-inclusive plan covers everything, making it ideal for small or growing businesses. You get a shared inbox for multiple email addresses, live chat, SMS, and messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook—all in one place. Agents can collaborate using internal notes, canned replies, and collision detection, while Enchant AI offers helpful tools like suggested replies and summaries. 

Key Features: 

• Shared inbox with assignments and notes
• Customer history and profiles
• Basic automation
• Collision detection
• Reporting dashboard
• Knowledge base and customer portal
• AI-suggested reply drafts, translations, and summarization
• Integrations with Shopify, Slack, and other tools.

Pros	Cons
Fast and straightforward to set up	Lacks phone or social media channel support
Access to all features on a single-tier pricing	Limited scalability for complex workflows
Multi-brand support	Fewer advanced automation options

Pricing: Flat $20/user/month with all core features included. No tiers, no surprises. Optional add-ons for security and AI. There’s a 30-day free trial available.

Our Unbiased Take: Enchant is a breath of fresh air for support teams that just want to get things done without navigating a maze of add-ons and tiers. It’s particularly great if you’re going to use multiple channels (email + chat + social + SMS) – Enchant handles all of them gracefully in one inbox, for one price. It may not have every advanced feature under the sun, but it nails the fundamentals of support.

20 Other Ticketing Systems for Customer Support

Here are some other reliable ticketing systems for SaaS companies that didn’t make it into our main list but are still worth exploring:

12. HappyFox: For intuitive, scalable AI help desk support.

13. LiveAgent: For managing tickets, chat, and calls in one dashboard.

14. ProProfs Help Desk: For AI-powered ticketing and faster resolutions. 

15. HubSpot Service Hub: For managing tickets with CRM-integrated automation.

16. Salesforce Service Cloud: For automating support and resolving cases.

17. Helpdesk.com (by LiveChat): For automating tickets and unifying messages.

18. Intercom: For real-time conversational ticketing.

19. SolarWinds Service Desk: For automating ticketing and tracking IT assets.

20. SysAid Technologies: For AI-powered ticketing that automates IT service tasks.

21. ServiceNow: For exploring ticketing and IT workflows.

22. TeamSupport: For automating ticketing and handling complex issues

23. BMC Helix ITSM: For AI-Driven IT service management

24. Kayako: For AI-driven ticketing with automated triage and replies.

25. Freshservice: For automating IT workflows and tickets.

26. Gorgias: For e-commerce support and multi-channel ticketing.

27. Jitbit Helpdesk: For handling email-first ticketing and automating workflows.

28. Desk365: For automating workflows and multi-channel ticketing.

29. Spiceworks Help Desk: For cloud IT ticketing with automation and self-service.

30. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus: For customizable IT ticketing and full ITSM.

31. OTRS: For automated ticketing with workflows and self-service.

Choose The Ticketing System That Fits Your Support DNA

There’s no universal “best” ticketing system. What works brilliantly for a 5-person SaaS startup could be a disaster for a 200-agent team with global customers and strict SLAs. The real win is finding a platform that reflects how your team actually works, and where it’s headed next.

That’s why we didn’t just list feature checkboxes in this guide. We looked at how these tools feel to use day to day. How quickly teams can get up and running. Where they shine under pressure. And where they fall short when things get messy.

If you’re looking for a ticketing system that’s easy to use yet power-packed, Hiver strikes the right balance. It’s quick to roll out, simple for teams to adopt, and built to scale as your support needs grow.

Don’t want to take our word for it? Put Hiver to the test and see if it clicks for you:

Frequently Asked Questions