Ticketing systems have become an essential tool for companies to manage customer support, internal requests, and other tasks. With so many options on the market, companies must carefully evaluate ticketing systems to find one that best fits their needs and budget. The most popular ticketing systems provide customization, automation, and integration with other software while being user-friendly. When determining which solution to choose, key factors include ease of use, features, scalability, and cost.
What are the main types of ticketing systems?
There are a few main types of ticketing systems that companies typically choose from:
- Help desk software – This is the most common type of ticketing system used for customer service and internal IT support tickets. Popular help desk tools include Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Jira Service Desk.
- Issue tracking systems – These track software bugs, tasks, and feature requests during product development. Atlassian Jira and GitHub are two popular issue trackers.
- Service request software – Used for non-IT requests like HR or facilities. Cherwell and ServiceNow are examples of service request tools.
- Shared mailbox managers – Outlook and Gmail shared mailboxes can also serve as basic ticketing systems.
Many ticketing systems have overlapping capabilities, but some are tailored more specifically to certain use cases.
What features should you look for in a ticketing system?
Key features to look for include:
- Ticket management – The ability to create, assign, categorize, prioritize, and update tickets through different stages like open, pending, resolved.
- SLA tracking – Service level agreement monitoring to ensure tickets are addressed within the required timeframe.
- Reporting – Ticket metrics and analytics to identify trends and areas for improvement.
- Custom fields – Ability to add custom fields to tickets to capture additional information.
- Automation – Rules like auto-assignments and trigger-based actions to streamline workflow.
- Email integration – Creating tickets via email and automatic email notifications.
- Self-service portal – Allowing customers to submit support tickets through a web portal.
- Mobile access – Native mobile apps or mobile-friendly interfaces for accessing tickets on the go.
- Collaboration – Team communication within tickets through comments, @mentions, attachments.
- Integration – Ability to connect with other workplace apps like chat, project management, billing.
What are the most popular ticketing systems used by companies?
According to various surveys and reviews, some of the most widely used ticketing systems by companies today include:
Zendesk
Zendesk is one of the leading help desk platforms, used by over 160,000 organizations. It offers robust customer support ticketing features, advanced automation, and APIs for extensive integration. Zendesk provides mobile apps, extensive analytics, and a customizable self-service portal. It’s praised for its user-friendly interface and extensive capabilities that grow with organizations.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a popular cloud-based help desk system, used by over 50,000 companies worldwide. It makes it easy for support teams to track, prioritize, and solve support tickets. Key features include ticketing management, lead and deal scoring, SLAs, shared mailboxes, automation rules, and custom reporting. Freshdesk offers intuitive interfaces across desktop, mobile, and web platforms.
Jira Service Desk
Jira Service Desk is a service desk software built on Atlassian’s popular Jira platform. It’s trusted by 25,000+ customers globally for advanced ticket tracking and seamless integration with other Atlassian tools like Confluence and Jira. Key highlights include efficient ticket handling, user self-service, SLA monitoring, multi-channel communication, and ITIL support.
Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk provides a feature-rich service desk and shared mailbox manager used by over 60,000 organizations. It enables easy ticket management across email, web forms, chats, and social media channels. Zoho Desk stands out for its automations, customization flexibility, and integration with the broader Zoho suite of business apps. Pricing is competitive for its robust feature set.
HubSpot
Although better known for its inbound marketing software, HubSpot also provides the HubSpot Service Hub – a complete service and support ticketing platform. Key features include ticketing, live chat, knowledge base, and advanced automations for modern service teams. HubSpot also makes it easy to align support with sales and marketing efforts.
Spiceworks
Spiceworks Help Desk is a popular free option used by over 2 million businesses. It provides essential ticketing features and IT automation capabilities for smaller companies. Spiceworks is cloud-based, easy to set up, and enables ticket management via email. However, advanced features come at an additional cost and customization is limited compared to other platforms.
HappyFox
HappyFox touts itself as an all-in-one customer engagement platform, supporting ticketing, live chat, calling, self-service, and more. It combines ease of use with extensive customization and automation for streamlined ticket workflows. HappyFox is well-suited to growing mid-market companies looking for a full-featured service management solution.
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ServiceDesk Plus by ManageEngine offers ITSM functionality with one of the most extensive IT help desk feature sets on the market. It covers ticketing, asset management, self-service portals, knowledge management, survey tools, and more. ServiceDesk Plus can accommodate complex and changing IT support processes.
Vision Helpdesk
Vision Helpdesk is a flexible, web-based help desk system used by over 6,000 customers globally across various industries. It provides core ticketing features plus extensions for chat, asset management, expense tracking, and an online shop for internal service requests. Integration options and customization capabilities make Vision Helpdesk scalable for growing organizations.
How do the top ticketing systems compare on key criteria?
Here is an overview of how leading ticketing systems stack up across some of the key evaluation criteria:
| System | Ease of Use | Customization | Automation | Reporting | Mobile Access | Support Options |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zendesk | Excellent | Strong | Advanced | Powerful | Full apps | 24/7 support, extensive resources |
| Freshdesk | Very user-friendly | Flexible | Robust | Customizable dashboards | Native mobile apps | 24/7 live support, community forums |
| Jira Service Desk | Fairly easy | Extremely customizable | Broad automation | In-depth analytics | Mobile views | 24/5 support, knowledge base |
| Zoho Desk | Intuitive interface | Highly configurable | Advanced rules | Custom reporting | Mobile access with Android & iOS apps | 24/7 email and live chat support |
| HubSpot | Very easy | Flexible configurations | Robust for sales & marketing | In-depth for sales pipeline | Full mobile optimization | 24/7 chat support and community forums |
| Spiceworks | Easy for basic use | Limited with free plan | Decent rules and workflows | Good basic reporting | Mobile optimized | Active community support |
What are the pricing models for ticketing systems?
Ticketing systems are usually priced in one of three ways:
- Per agent/user – Pricing based on the number of agent accounts or total user logins needed. Ranges from ~$15-$60 per agent/month.
- Tiered plans – Packages based on the number of agent seats and other features needed. Entry plans start ~$20/mo while enterprise plans go up to $300+/mo.
- Per ticket – Charges based on the volume of tickets processed per month/year. Around $5-25 per ticket per month is typical.
Many systems offer monthly, annual, and multi-year plans. Volume discounts are common for larger numbers of agents or tickets. While core help desk systems have become relatively affordable, support and additional capabilities may require premium fees.
What are the key factors to evaluate when choosing a system?
The most important criteria to evaluate ticketing systems on include:
- Core features – Ensure support for all the essential ticketing capabilities you require.
- Ease of use – How intuitive the interface is for agents, admins, and end-users.
- Customization – Ability to tailor fields, workflows, brands, portals, and apps to your processes.
- Integration – What other business systems it connects with out-of-the-box or via APIs.
- Reporting – Robustness of real-time stats, historical analytics, and visualizations.
- Scalability – Ability to support team growth and increased ticket volumes.
- Mobile experience – How fully-featured and responsive the mobile platforms are.
- Support – Quality of documentation, training, customer service for issues.
- Total cost of ownership – Not just monthly fees but time/resources needed for setup, management, and updates.
- Company viability – Vendor reputation, user base size, and likelihood of lasting viability.
It’s important to thoroughly test short-list options with free trials to evaluate the experience firsthand before purchasing.
Conclusion
Finding the best ticketing system for your company depends on closely analyzing your specific use cases, priorities, and budget. However, some of the most popular and highly rated platforms among businesses today include Zendesk, Freshdesk, Jira Service Desk, Zoho Desk, HubSpot, and HappyFox. All provide robust ticket management capabilities along with flexibility to customize the system to your needs. Focus your decision criteria on ease of use, features, integration, scalability, and total cost to select a solution positioned to streamline support operations and scale with business growth.