Top 8 SaaS help desk software solutions: 2024 guide

Providing stand-out customer service in today’s SaaS market is crucial to business success.

How crucial? So important that:

• 67% of customers report a terrible customer experience as the reason for switching businesses

• U.S. businesses lose approximately $62 billion each year due to bad customer experiences

With customers, and revenue, on the line, ensuring a consistent level of high-quality service has never been more important for growing SaaS companies. 

That’s where a SaaS help desk comes in. 

SaaS help desk software enables teams to take a more unified, human-centric approach to support by saving agents time and making it easy for them to collaborate so they can deliver memorable, personalized experiences that will lead to loyal customers.

In this guide we’ll explore:

• What is SaaS help desk software?

• Top 8 SaaS help desk solutions of 2024

• Features to look for in a SaaS help desk

• Benefits of using a SaaS help desk solution

• Grow with Front’s SaaS help desk

What is SaaS help desk software?

A SaaS help desk is software specifically designed for companies who offer software as a service to manage customer inquiries, support tickets, and service requests efficiently. 

With the features of traditional help desk solutions combined with new, innovative technology, SaaS help desks help teams support their customers, optimize internal efficiency, and scale as they grow.

With features like workflow automation, AI chatbots, detailed reporting, and proactive messaging, these help desks enable teams at SaaS companies to stand out in competitive markets by making it easy for them to provide top-notch customer service while being their most efficient for the sake of the business.

The top 8 SaaS help desk solutions of 2024

Front

Powering over 8,500 support teams, Front serves businesses across SaaS, financial services, logistics, and more with its complete customer service solution. Front is routinely a leading help desk choice for SaaS companies because it encourages strong collaboration, focuses on the user experience, and is super intuitive — so whether at a small startup or large enterprise, teams can be their most efficient while also providing personalized experiences to all customers. 

These features include, but aren’t limited to:

Core Front features:

• Real-time team collaboration: Front’s collaboration features, like collision detection, conversation guests, and shared drafts help teams — and even non-Front users — work in lockstep so they can be more responsive to customers. Tag in teammates, coordinate with ease, and make sure every customer gets an answer.

• Streamlined conversation management: With Front’s omnichannel inbox, teams can manage all conversations in one place. Bring email, live chat, SMS, social media, and more into one shared inbox so your team doesn’t have to toggle between tools and can respond to customers faster. 

• Integrated knowledge base: Front’s knowledge base can be used internally and externally, making it easy for customers and teams to find the information they need, and find it fast. Deflect FAQs and simple requests so your team can spend more time on complex conversations. 

• Automation and workflow customization: Front’s no-code workflow automation is easy to set up and impactful for teams of all sizes. Users can automatically trigger messages and follow-ups, route messages, and accomplish other administrative tasks all without any additional effort. Workflows save teams time so they can focus on tasks that require thoughtfulness and personalization. 

• AI-powered assistance: Front’s AI features help teams to be more productive without losing the human-touch. With capabilities ranging from instant chat resolution to email thread summarization and rapid drafting assistance, Front’s AI agent assistance enables teams to be more efficient while delivering better support to customers.

• Detailed analytics and reporting: Front’s analytics and reporting provide teams with actionable insights, so they can make data-driven decisions and improve processes over time. Users can monitor team and individual performance, measure key metrics, and identify where to improve. World-class support is right around the corner.

Front G2 rating: 4.7 / 5 

Pricing starts at $19/seat/month

Zendesk

Zendesk is a popular help desk solution for SaaS companies, due to its robust ticketing system. Zendesk provides omnichannel support, so customers can reach teams from email, chat, and social, and support teams can centralize customer queries in one platform.

Built with high ticket volume in mind, Zendesk works best in environments where requests are typically resolved by individual agents with minimal need to collaborate with teammates. While Zendesk offers functionalities like workflow automation, knowledge base hosting, and AI-powered chatbots, teams looking for seamless collaboration may not find these natively, and will need to integrate with additional tools.

Core features:

• Omnichannel ticketing system

• Workflow automation

• Knowledge base

• Out-of-the-box reporting

Zendesk G2 rating: 4.3 / 5

Pricing starts at $19/seat/month

Read: Front vs. Zendesk

Freshdesk

Designed as a ticketing solution, Freshdesk is a help desk software used across different industries and business sizes. With flexible pricing, it’s a popular choice for businesses looking to organize and fulfill customer inquiries.

The platform’s integrated ticketing system enables teams to manage customer requests all in one place. However, Freshdesk is designed like a traditional help desk tool — one built for individual agents to resolve standardized issues. The lack of collaboration features limits teams’ ability to work together, resulting in a customer experience that can feel transactional.

Core features:

• Team inbox

• Custom ticket status

• Knowledge base

• Workflow automation

Freshdesk G2 rating: 4.4 / 5

Pricing starts at $15/agent/month

Read: Front vs. Freshdesk

Help Scout

Simple and easy to use, Help Scout is a popular small-business help desk. With a shared inbox, knowledge base, and team collaboration tools, it’s well-suited for startups looking to manage customer communications.

Help Scout functions like a shared inbox rather than a traditional ticketing tool. And because it’s built primarily for small businesses, Help Scout’s features are fairly basic and it lacks advanced offerings like chatbots and comprehensive analytics. If you’re looking for a help desk tool with forward-thinking technology that can grow as you do, Help Scout may not be the right tool for you.

Core features:

• Shared inbox

• Basic automation

• Knowledge base

• Help widget

Help Scout G2 rating: 4.4 / 5

Pricing starts at $22/seat/month

Hubspot Service Hub

Service Hub is the customer service product within the Hubspot suite. Designed like a traditional help desk solution, it enables service agents to organize and manage customer support tickets.

With features like ticketing, live chat, and a knowledge base, Service Hub allows users to connect with their customers in different ways. However, because it’s more of a ticketing solution, Service Hub wasn’t built with team collaboration in mind, resulting in miscommunication, missed requests, and toggling between other tools. 

Core features:

• Ticketing management

• Basic automation

• Live chat

• Knowledge base

HubSpot Service Hub G2 rating: 4.4 / 5

Pricing starts at $20/seat/month

Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk, the support product in the Zoho suite, is a help desk tool used to organize customer requests from various channels, like email, chat, and social media. With features like ticketing, SLA management, and knowledge base hosting, it’s an effective choice for businesses looking for a traditional help desk solution.

However, if you’re looking to use advanced help desk features like the AI chatbot, Zobot, for example, you will have to purchase another Zoho product, Zoho SalesIQ, which requires an additional investment. 

Core features:

• Ticket management

• Knowledge base

• Workflow automation

• Integrations with Zoho suite

Zoho Desk G2 rating: 4.4 / 5

Pricing starts at $14/seat/month

HappyFox

HappyFox, a help desk software, provides users with tools like a ticketing system, knowledge base, and workflows. With HappyFox, users can centralize inbound requests and help customers find answers on their own with self-service options.

Boasting its ticketing system as its core product, HappyFox may be well-suited for those looking for a traditional help desk solution, but for those looking for a scalable solution, HappyFox may lack advanced automation and AI capabilities. 

Core features:

• Ticket management

• Basic automation

• Knowledge base

• Integrations

HappyFox G2 rating: 4.5 / 5

Pricing starts at $9/seat/month

Jira Service Management

Jira Service Management, previously known as Jira Service Desk, is a service management tool primarily used by IT teams. With the evolution from Jira Service Desk to Jira Service Management in 2020, the tool now includes new IT service management (ITSM) capabilities geared towards development, IT operations, and business teams. 

Jira Service Management may be a good choice for service teams who need to work with IT regularly or who are already using other Atlassian products. If you’re looking for a complete customer service solution built specifically for support teams, however, Jira does not have true omnichannel support or team collaboration tools like shared drafts and collision detection.

Core features:

• Multi-channel support, including email and chat

• Templates for ITSM, customer service, HR, and more

• Branded help center

• Incident and problem management 

Jira Service Management G2 rating: 4.2 / 5

Pricing starts at $17.65/agent/month

Features to look for in a SaaS help desk

In order to provide support that drives loyalty, teams need a SaaS service desk tool that empowers them to collaborate, provide positive customer experiences throughout the customer journey, and accomplish their day-to-day operational tasks.

Below are a list of essential features to look for when choosing a help desk for your SaaS business:

Multichannel support

Whether by email, live chat, social media, or SMS, your customers should be able to reach out for help and your team should have a centralized place to manage all of the conversations.

With Front, teams have an omnichannel inbox to organize, manage, and respond to all customer inquiries — no toggling between tools or missing a support request.

Knowledge base

Help customers help themselves by providing a knowledge base with company and product information, so they can get their questions answered when and how they want.

With Front’s knowledge base tool, companies can quickly and easily create multiple self-service hubs for FAQs, saving the team time from answering simple questions. Connect your knowledge base to Front Chat so customers can seamlessly toggle between a company’s help center and live chat for faster resolution times. 

Automation capabilities

Spend less time with manual work and more time with customers.

With Front’s workflow automation, users can automatically trigger workflows — think follow-ups, conversation tagging, routing, and more — so teams can clear their to-do lists of administrative tasks and focus on helping more customers.

Comprehensive analytics and reporting

Make improvements where it matters most based on individual and team performance data.

With metrics like response time, resolution rate, and employee satisfaction scores, Front’s detailed reporting and analytics help users pinpoint areas of improvement, saving teams time and businesses money. 

Flexible integrations 

Connect essential tools that your team uses day-to-day into one platform.

Front’s 110+ integrations and open API make it easy to bring data from all the tools your team uses into one place, saving them from juggling multiple channels. Whether a CRM, project management, or marketing automation tool, users can seamlessly integrate their favorite products with Front so their team has the information they need at all times.

Scalability and flexibility

Your help desk tool should be able to be customized to fit your business needs. Whether you’re a small business or enterprise empire, your help desk tool should work all the same. 

From no-code workflows for new team members to a robust open API for your development team, Front can be uniquely yours and works for you at every stage. 

Benefits of a SaaS help desk

Finding the right help desk is essential to creating happy customers and thriving businesses. Here are a few benefits of choosing a SaaS help desk tool:

Beyond simple ticketing: Simply answering a customer inquiry is no longer enough. Implementing top-notch SaaS help desk software that goes beyond simple ticketing is crucial for being at the forefront of customer happiness.

Front provides more than just a feature set to equip teams with what they need to collaborate easily and treat customers like humans, not tickets. With must-have capabilities for SaaS companies, including the omnichannel inbox, no-code workflow automations, and extensive integrations and APIs, teams can efficiently prioritize and manage customer communications while working cross-functionally.

Better information sharing: Help desks designed for SaaS businesses offer things like internal collaboration and integrations with sales, marketing, and productivity tools (to name a few), so teams can work together and move quickly. Creating this visibility and accessibility for teams across the business fosters an internal culture of information sharing, leading to overall business efficiency. 

Faster response times: Help desk software can help businesses respond to customers more quickly and efficiently. Features like a shared inbox, live chat, and knowledge base help streamline support processes so teams can provide timely, convenient assistance to customers.

Personalized support: SaaS help desk software can help businesses deliver hyper-personalized experiences using support data, like customer interactions and preferences. By leveraging this data, businesses can provide tailored experiences and meet the unique needs of individual customers, resulting in higher customer satisfaction.

Impactful collaboration features: Without collaboration features, help desks become clunky and siloed, resulting in missed requests, slow service, and unhappy customers. With collaboration features like internal commenting, message assigning, and draft sharing, teams can work together seamlessly, increase visibility, and ensure no customer request is left unanswered.

Grow with Front

Great customer service is at the core of successful SaaS businesses — and teams need the right help desk software to make that happen. 

Front is more than a help desk tool — it’s a complete customer support solution built for startups and enterprises alike. Unlike other solutions, Front combines foundational help desk features with forward-thinking technology so teams can increase efficiency without sacrificing quality.  

Customer service is about helping humans, not numbers, afterall, so choose a SaaS help desk solution that makes it easy to work fast, work together, and create happier customers. 

Choose Front.