Help Scout vs Zendesk vs SolarWinds Service Desk
Overview
Help Scout
Help Scout is a cloud-like customer service platform being able to scale its toolset for businesses of any range and field. What makes it different from the systems on the market i...s no ticketing or portals for managing customer requests. Help Scout is built in an alternative way - as a shared mailbox that enables providing your customer service in the most human-like manner. However, it but doesn’t forget about your business management needs as well.
Platforms supported
- macOS
- Linux
- iOS app
- Android app
Support Options
- FAQs/Forum
- Knowledge Base
- 24/7 (Live rep)
- Phone Support
- Email/Help Desk
- Chat
Training Options
- Live Online
- Documentation
- In Person
- Videos
- Webinars
Screenshots
Zendesk
Zendesk is the industry-leading customer service solution that equips you to deliver quality customer service. It covers nearly every business aspect: from managing a help desk to ...the IT service with ITSM best practices. Its varied functionality comes in a product line: Zendesk for sales, Zendesk for service, and Sunshine Platform.
Platforms supported
- macOS
- Linux
- iOS app
- Android app
Support Options
- FAQs/Forum
- Knowledge Base
- 24/7 (Live rep)
- Phone Support
- Email/Help Desk
- Chat
Training Options
- Live Online
- Documentation
- In Person
- Videos
- Webinars
Screenshots
SolarWinds Service Desk
For starters, we need to define what a help desk system is in the first place. Why you might be asking? It will give you a better idea of what to expect, as well as you will know h...ow to use one more effectively. So, a help desk system is a piece of software that is designed to accelerate work, eliminate mundane tasks, and push more sales. There are many different iterations of the same software and each of them has a distinct set of characteristics/functions that help businesses achieve certain results.
Platforms supported
- macOS
- Linux
- iOS app
- Android app
Support Options
- FAQs/Forum
- Knowledge Base
- 24/7 (Live rep)
- Phone Support
- Email/Help Desk
- Chat
Training Options
- Live Online
- Documentation
- In Person
- Videos
- Webinars
Screenshots
Pricing
Help Scout
- Help Scout Standard $22
- Help Scout Plus $44
- Help Scout Pro $65
- Free trial
Zendesk
- Support Team $19
- Support Professional $55
- Support Enterprise $115
- Free trial
SolarWinds Service Desk
- SolarWinds Service Desk Team $39
- SolarWinds Service Desk Business $79
- SolarWinds Service Desk Professional $99
- Free trial
Feature comparison
Help Scout
6.2/10
- Agent collision prevention
- Auto Bcc
- Bulk actions
- Edit/hide threads
- Email signatures
- Filtered Search
- Group your agents
- Interaction History (Ticket activities)
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Macros
- Mobile app
- Multilingual (Multiple) content
- Personal canned responses
- Private Comments within tickets
- Responsive, mobile-friendly Help Center
- Shared canned responses
- Tags
- Traffic cop
- Contextual Workspaces
- Custom & Group Views
- Dynamic content
- Email scheduling
- Essentials Card
- Guided Mode
- Light Agents
- Restricted conversation views
- Skills-based routing
- Add reminders on to-dos
- To-dos
10/10
- Collaboration
4/10
- Contact Form
- Contacts & Accounts Management
- Contacts & ticket history
- Customer 360
- Customer profiles
- Customer satisfaction ratings (CSAT)
- Custom user and organization fields
- Customer journey
- Customer Lists
- Device data log
- Group contacts by organization
- Identify contacts using external ID
- Net Promoter Score® Surveys (Feedback)
- Organization profiles
- Satisfaction Prediction
10/10
- Auto reply
- Automatic ticket assignment using Dispatch'r
- Custom business rules (triggers & automations)
- Event-triggered workflow automations
- Multi-task workflows with one-touch Scenarios
- Time-based Rules
- Time-triggered automations
- Workflow automations
4.2/10
- Business Hours
- Custom ticket fields
- Set your Time Zone
- Ticket file attachment size
- Ticket sharing
- Dynamic ticket forms
- Multiple Ticket Forms
- Premium Sandbox
- Sandbox test environment
- Service Level Agreement (SLA) management
- SLA reporting
- Custom status
1.4/10
- Auto-suggest Solutions
- Approval Workflows
- Form templates
- Multiple SLA Policies
- Customize Incident Lifecycle
- Service Catalog
- Task Management
10/10
- Branding removal (email)
- Complete portal customization
- CSS customization
- Custom domain mapping
- Public portal customization
7.8/10
- 301 Redirection
- Internal Help Center
- Knowledge base
- Related articles
- Rich text Help Center articles
- SEO
- Unlimited data
- Community forums
- Help Center insights
7.3/10
- API rate limit
- Cloud telephony integration app
- Email integration with Outlook
- Google Apps (G Suite)
- HubSpot Integration
- Integration with Atlassian Jira
- Integrations
- Salesforce integration
- Slack integration
- Webhooks
- Zapier integration
- Custom objects
- Gamification
- Private custom apps
- Public apps (Marketplace)
6.7/10
- Beacon builder
- Javascript API
- Open tracking
- Update conversations remotely
- Mobile Devices
- People Shared Services Ready
4.8/10
- Analytics
- Custom Reports
- Export reports
- Google Analytics for Help Center
- Helpdesk in-depth report
- Performance distribution
- Save reports
- Ticket drill down in reports
- Tickets closed reports
- User-specific reporting
- Advanced Insights
- Agent Dashboard (Agent Scorecard)
- Manager Dashboard (The Headquarters)
- Overview dashboard
- Schedule Data Export
- Schedule Reports
- Support Performance dashboards
- Team Dashboards
- Ticket lifecycle report
- Ticket volume trends
- Zendesk Benchmark
6.8/10
- Ability to configure for HIPAA
- Business rules analysis
- Custom roles and permissions
- Digitally signed emails (DKIM/DMARC)
- Disaster recovery
- Domain Whitelisting
- Encryption: data at rest and in motion
- GDPR compliance
- Guaranteed availability SLA (1 Hour Support SLA)
- Independently Tested
- Log in with Google
- Network access restriction (IP Whitelisting)
- PCI compliance (Level 1)
- Privacy Shield and Safe Harbor compliant
- Single sign on with SAML
- Single sign-on (SSO) for web and mobile
- SPF(Sender Policy Framework)
- SSL encryption
- Two-Factor Authentication
- Advanced password policy for agents and customers
- Agent device management
- Audit logs
- Automatic redaction
- Content Delivery Network
- Data center location
- Email compliance archive
- Custom SSL certificates (default free)
- User provisioning
3.3/10
- Calling
- Live chat
- Multibrand Support
- SDK
- Chat Support (in English)
- Email Support
- Facebook
- Guidance Program
- Phone Support (in English)
- Professional Services
- Twitter
- Web Widget
4.7/10
- Email forwarding
- Mailboxes (inboxes)
- Merge tickets
- Outbound email
- Outgoing SMTP settings
- Public and private notes in tickets
- Spam filtering
- Assume identity
- Custom Email Templates
- Email tickets
- Satisfaction surveys - Customizable
- Support workflow
- Ticket export
- Ticket templates
- Time tracking
7/10
- Automatic sitemap generation
- Backup
- Date comparisons
- Notifications
- Printer-friendly
- Unlimited End Users
- Voicemail integration
- Community forums
- Facebook in-sync app
- Announcements
0/10
- Problem Management
- Change Management
- Release Management
0/10
- Asset Relationship Mapping
- ITSM Process Integration
0/10
- Asset Auto-discovery
- Asset Lifecycle Management
- Contract Management
- IT Inventory Management
- Managed Assets
- Purchase Order (PO) Management
- QR and Barcode Asset Scanner
- Risk Management
- Software Asset Management
- Software License Management
- Warranty Information
Zendesk
7.2/10
- Agent collision prevention
- Auto Bcc
- Bulk actions
- Edit/hide threads
- Email signatures
- Filtered Search
- Group your agents
- Interaction History (Ticket activities)
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Macros
- Mobile app
- Multilingual (Multiple) content
- Personal canned responses
- Private Comments within tickets
- Responsive, mobile-friendly Help Center
- Shared canned responses
- Tags
- Traffic cop
- Contextual Workspaces
- Custom & Group Views
- Dynamic content
- Email scheduling
- Essentials Card
- Guided Mode
- Light Agents
- Restricted conversation views
- Skills-based routing
- Add reminders on to-dos
- To-dos
10/10
- Collaboration
9.3/10
- Contact Form
- Contacts & Accounts Management
- Contacts & ticket history
- Customer 360
- Customer profiles
- Customer satisfaction ratings (CSAT)
- Custom user and organization fields
- Customer journey
- Customer Lists
- Device data log
- Group contacts by organization
- Identify contacts using external ID
- Net Promoter Score® Surveys (Feedback)
- Organization profiles
- Satisfaction Prediction
10/10
- Auto reply
- Automatic ticket assignment using Dispatch'r
- Custom business rules (triggers & automations)
- Event-triggered workflow automations
- Multi-task workflows with one-touch Scenarios
- Time-based Rules
- Time-triggered automations
- Workflow automations
9.2/10
- Business Hours
- Custom ticket fields
- Set your Time Zone
- Ticket file attachment size
- Ticket sharing
- Dynamic ticket forms
- Multiple Ticket Forms
- Premium Sandbox
- Sandbox test environment
- Service Level Agreement (SLA) management
- SLA reporting
- Custom status
4.3/10
- Auto-suggest Solutions
- Approval Workflows
- Form templates
- Multiple SLA Policies
- Customize Incident Lifecycle
- Service Catalog
- Task Management
8/10
- Branding removal (email)
- Complete portal customization
- CSS customization
- Custom domain mapping
- Public portal customization
7.8/10
- 301 Redirection
- Internal Help Center
- Knowledge base
- Related articles
- Rich text Help Center articles
- SEO
- Unlimited data
- Community forums
- Help Center insights
10/10
- API rate limit
- Cloud telephony integration app
- Email integration with Outlook
- Google Apps (G Suite)
- HubSpot Integration
- Integration with Atlassian Jira
- Integrations
- Salesforce integration
- Slack integration
- Webhooks
- Zapier integration
- Custom objects
- Gamification
- Private custom apps
- Public apps (Marketplace)
0/10
- Beacon builder
- Javascript API
- Open tracking
- Update conversations remotely
- Mobile Devices
- People Shared Services Ready
9.5/10
- Analytics
- Custom Reports
- Export reports
- Google Analytics for Help Center
- Helpdesk in-depth report
- Performance distribution
- Save reports
- Ticket drill down in reports
- Tickets closed reports
- User-specific reporting
- Advanced Insights
- Agent Dashboard (Agent Scorecard)
- Manager Dashboard (The Headquarters)
- Overview dashboard
- Schedule Data Export
- Schedule Reports
- Support Performance dashboards
- Team Dashboards
- Ticket lifecycle report
- Ticket volume trends
- Zendesk Benchmark
8.9/10
- Ability to configure for HIPAA
- Business rules analysis
- Custom roles and permissions
- Digitally signed emails (DKIM/DMARC)
- Disaster recovery
- Domain Whitelisting
- Encryption: data at rest and in motion
- GDPR compliance
- Guaranteed availability SLA (1 Hour Support SLA)
- Independently Tested
- Log in with Google
- Network access restriction (IP Whitelisting)
- PCI compliance (Level 1)
- Privacy Shield and Safe Harbor compliant
- Single sign on with SAML
- Single sign-on (SSO) for web and mobile
- SPF(Sender Policy Framework)
- SSL encryption
- Two-Factor Authentication
- Advanced password policy for agents and customers
- Agent device management
- Audit logs
- Automatic redaction
- Content Delivery Network
- Data center location
- Email compliance archive
- Custom SSL certificates (default free)
- User provisioning
10/10
- Calling
- Live chat
- Multibrand Support
- SDK
- Chat Support (in English)
- Email Support
- Facebook
- Guidance Program
- Phone Support (in English)
- Professional Services
- Twitter
- Web Widget
8/10
- Email forwarding
- Mailboxes (inboxes)
- Merge tickets
- Outbound email
- Outgoing SMTP settings
- Public and private notes in tickets
- Spam filtering
- Assume identity
- Custom Email Templates
- Email tickets
- Satisfaction surveys - Customizable
- Support workflow
- Ticket export
- Ticket templates
- Time tracking
8/10
- Automatic sitemap generation
- Backup
- Date comparisons
- Notifications
- Printer-friendly
- Unlimited End Users
- Voicemail integration
- Community forums
- Facebook in-sync app
- Announcements
3.3/10
- Problem Management
- Change Management
- Release Management
0/10
- Asset Relationship Mapping
- ITSM Process Integration
0/10
- Asset Auto-discovery
- Asset Lifecycle Management
- Contract Management
- IT Inventory Management
- Managed Assets
- Purchase Order (PO) Management
- QR and Barcode Asset Scanner
- Risk Management
- Software Asset Management
- Software License Management
- Warranty Information
SolarWinds Service Desk
5.9/10
- Agent collision prevention
- Auto Bcc
- Bulk actions
- Edit/hide threads
- Email signatures
- Filtered Search
- Group your agents
- Interaction History (Ticket activities)
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Macros
- Mobile app
- Multilingual (Multiple) content
- Personal canned responses
- Private Comments within tickets
- Responsive, mobile-friendly Help Center
- Shared canned responses
- Tags
- Traffic cop
- Contextual Workspaces
- Custom & Group Views
- Dynamic content
- Email scheduling
- Essentials Card
- Guided Mode
- Light Agents
- Restricted conversation views
- Skills-based routing
- Add reminders on to-dos
- To-dos
10/10
- Collaboration
6/10
- Contact Form
- Contacts & Accounts Management
- Contacts & ticket history
- Customer 360
- Customer profiles
- Customer satisfaction ratings (CSAT)
- Custom user and organization fields
- Customer journey
- Customer Lists
- Device data log
- Group contacts by organization
- Identify contacts using external ID
- Net Promoter Score® Surveys (Feedback)
- Organization profiles
- Satisfaction Prediction
7.5/10
- Auto reply
- Automatic ticket assignment using Dispatch'r
- Custom business rules (triggers & automations)
- Event-triggered workflow automations
- Multi-task workflows with one-touch Scenarios
- Time-based Rules
- Time-triggered automations
- Workflow automations
6.7/10
- Business Hours
- Custom ticket fields
- Set your Time Zone
- Ticket file attachment size
- Ticket sharing
- Dynamic ticket forms
- Multiple Ticket Forms
- Premium Sandbox
- Sandbox test environment
- Service Level Agreement (SLA) management
- SLA reporting
- Custom status
7.1/10
- Auto-suggest Solutions
- Approval Workflows
- Form templates
- Multiple SLA Policies
- Customize Incident Lifecycle
- Service Catalog
- Task Management
10/10
- Branding removal (email)
- Complete portal customization
- CSS customization
- Custom domain mapping
- Public portal customization
4.4/10
- 301 Redirection
- Internal Help Center
- Knowledge base
- Related articles
- Rich text Help Center articles
- SEO
- Unlimited data
- Community forums
- Help Center insights
5.3/10
- API rate limit
- Cloud telephony integration app
- Email integration with Outlook
- Google Apps (G Suite)
- HubSpot Integration
- Integration with Atlassian Jira
- Integrations
- Salesforce integration
- Slack integration
- Webhooks
- Zapier integration
- Custom objects
- Gamification
- Private custom apps
- Public apps (Marketplace)
3.3/10
- Beacon builder
- Javascript API
- Open tracking
- Update conversations remotely
- Mobile Devices
- People Shared Services Ready
4.8/10
- Analytics
- Custom Reports
- Export reports
- Google Analytics for Help Center
- Helpdesk in-depth report
- Performance distribution
- Save reports
- Ticket drill down in reports
- Tickets closed reports
- User-specific reporting
- Advanced Insights
- Agent Dashboard (Agent Scorecard)
- Manager Dashboard (The Headquarters)
- Overview dashboard
- Schedule Data Export
- Schedule Reports
- Support Performance dashboards
- Team Dashboards
- Ticket lifecycle report
- Ticket volume trends
- Zendesk Benchmark
5.7/10
- Ability to configure for HIPAA
- Business rules analysis
- Custom roles and permissions
- Digitally signed emails (DKIM/DMARC)
- Disaster recovery
- Domain Whitelisting
- Encryption: data at rest and in motion
- GDPR compliance
- Guaranteed availability SLA (1 Hour Support SLA)
- Independently Tested
- Log in with Google
- Network access restriction (IP Whitelisting)
- PCI compliance (Level 1)
- Privacy Shield and Safe Harbor compliant
- Single sign on with SAML
- Single sign-on (SSO) for web and mobile
- SPF(Sender Policy Framework)
- SSL encryption
- Two-Factor Authentication
- Advanced password policy for agents and customers
- Agent device management
- Audit logs
- Automatic redaction
- Content Delivery Network
- Data center location
- Email compliance archive
- Custom SSL certificates (default free)
- User provisioning
3.3/10
- Calling
- Live chat
- Multibrand Support
- SDK
- Chat Support (in English)
- Email Support
- Facebook
- Guidance Program
- Phone Support (in English)
- Professional Services
- Twitter
- Web Widget
6/10
- Email forwarding
- Mailboxes (inboxes)
- Merge tickets
- Outbound email
- Outgoing SMTP settings
- Public and private notes in tickets
- Spam filtering
- Assume identity
- Custom Email Templates
- Email tickets
- Satisfaction surveys - Customizable
- Support workflow
- Ticket export
- Ticket templates
- Time tracking
6/10
- Automatic sitemap generation
- Backup
- Date comparisons
- Notifications
- Printer-friendly
- Unlimited End Users
- Voicemail integration
- Community forums
- Facebook in-sync app
- Announcements
10/10
- Problem Management
- Change Management
- Release Management
10/10
- Asset Relationship Mapping
- ITSM Process Integration
10/10
- Asset Auto-discovery
- Asset Lifecycle Management
- Contract Management
- IT Inventory Management
- Managed Assets
- Purchase Order (PO) Management
- QR and Barcode Asset Scanner
- Risk Management
- Software Asset Management
- Software License Management
- Warranty Information
Reviews
Help Scout
4 of 5
PROS: Help Scout offers a well-designed interface that is easy to use. The Saved Auto Replies feature helps us to respond quickly to cu...
3 of 5
Help Scout offers wonderful customer support and a community experience. Our company has 80 employees using this software, and they are...
5 of 5
An admirable aspect is the vendor keeps improving the software by constantly releasing new features. One feature I love is “Edit this a...
Zendesk
5 of 5
The key goals to deliver fast and quality responses to ticket and communicate on multiple channels are smoothly fulfilled with Zendesk....
4 of 5
Zendesk proved to be efficient in a quick issue resolution on multiple channels on time. The collaboration features enhanced and improv...
5 of 5
Zendesk provides a comprehensible UI and a lot of useful capabilities. It is worth to mention the outstanding features of customer sati...
SolarWinds Service Desk
4 of 5
The service desk was easy to implement and frankly, it meets all of our needs. With it, we can post various solutions in an easy to dig...
4 of 5
Samanage is a powerful tool that is made to track assets, keep IT in order, and most importantly, manage work orders. It is a perfect s...
5 of 5
The best part of Samanage is that it allows you to track the entire life-cycle of a ticket. Ever since we started to use Samanage our p...