SolarWinds Service Desk vs Help Scout vs Freshdesk
Overview
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
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
Freshdesk
The help desk platforms for IT support and ITIL management had already hit the market of business software. Freshservice turns out to be a good option if you are looking for produc...tive IT support with a ticketing system. This help desk offers a handful of advanced tools for handling multiple channels, automate workflows, prevent damages, and analyze problems in any corporate scenario.
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
SolarWinds Service Desk
- SolarWinds Service Desk Team $39
- SolarWinds Service Desk Business $79
- SolarWinds Service Desk Professional $99
—
- Free trial not available
Help Scout
- Help Scout Standard $25
- Help Scout Plus $50
- Help Scout Company $65
—
- Free trial not available
Freshdesk
- Freshdesk Sprout $0
- Freshdesk Blossom $15
- Freshdesk Estate $49
- Freshdesk Forest $79
- Free trial not available
Feature comparison
SolarWinds Service Desk
5.9/10
- Add reminders on to-dos
- Agent collision prevention
- Bulk actions
- Custom & Group Views
- Edit/hide threads
- Email signatures
- Filtered Search
- Group your agents
- Interaction History (Ticket activities)
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Mobile app
- Multilingual (Multiple) content
- Private Comments within tickets
- Restricted conversation views
- Skills-based routing
- Tags
- To-dos
- Auto Bcc
- Macros
- Personal canned responses
- Responsive, mobile-friendly Help Center
- Shared canned responses
- Traffic cop
- Canned forms
- Contextual Workspaces
- Dynamic content
- Occasional agents
- Session replay
- Summary app
10/10
- Asset Relationship Mapping
- ITSM Process Integration
2.5/10
- Collaboration
- Contextual collaboration with Freshconnect
- Linked tickets
- Parent-child ticketing
6.9/10
- Contact Form
- Contacts & Accounts Management
- Contacts & ticket history
- Custom user and organization fields
- Customer profiles
- Customer satisfaction ratings (CSAT)
- Device data log
- Group contacts by organization
- Organization profiles
- Customer 360
- Customer journey
- Customer segments
- Identify contacts using external ID
6.7/10
- Automatic ticket assignment using Dispatch'r
- Custom business rules (triggers & automations)
- Event-triggered workflow automations
- Time-based Rules
- Time-triggered automations
- Workflow automations
- Auto reply
- Multi-task workflows with one-touch Scenarios
- Round robin ticket assignment
7.3/10
- Business Hours
- Custom status
- Custom ticket fields
- Multiple Ticket Forms
- Service Level Agreement (SLA) management
- Set your Time Zone
- Ticket file attachment size
- Ticket sharing
- Dynamic ticket forms
- Sandbox test environment
- SLA reporting
7.1/10
- Approval Workflows
- Customize Incident Lifecycle
- Form templates
- Service Catalog
- Task Management
- Auto-suggest Solutions
- Multiple SLA Policies
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
10/10
- Change Management
- Problem Management
- Release Management
7.1/10
- Branding removal (email)
- Complete portal customization
- CSS customization
- Custom domain mapping
- Public portal customization
- Branding removal (Help Center)
- FreshThemes gallery
5/10
- Community forums
- Knowledge base
- Rich text Help Center articles
- Unlimited data
- 301 Redirection
- Internal Help Center
- Related articles
- SEO
5.7/10
- API rate limit
- Google Apps (G Suite)
- Integration with Atlassian Jira
- Integrations
- Public apps (Marketplace)
- Salesforce integration
- Slack integration
- Zapier integration
- Cloud telephony integration app
- Email integration with Outlook
- HubSpot Integration
- Webhooks
- Gamification
- Private custom apps
3.3/10
- Mobile Devices
- People Shared Services Ready
- Beacon builder
- Javascript API
- Open tracking
- Update conversations remotely
4.8/10
- Agent Dashboard (Agent Scorecard)
- Custom Reports
- Export reports
- Google Analytics for Help Center
- Helpdesk in-depth report
- Manager Dashboard (The Headquarters)
- Overview dashboard
- Save reports
- Schedule Reports
- Zendesk Benchmark
- Analytics
- Performance distribution
- Ticket drill down in reports
- Tickets closed reports
- User-specific reporting
- Advanced Insights
- Schedule Data Export
- Support Performance dashboards
- Team Dashboards
- Ticket lifecycle report
- Ticket volume trends
6.4/10
- Ability to configure for HIPAA
- Advanced password policy for agents and customers
- Audit logs
- Custom roles and permissions
- Custom SSL certificates (default free)
- Data center location
- Disaster recovery
- Domain Whitelisting
- Encryption: data at rest and in motion
- GDPR compliance
- PCI compliance (Level 1)
- Privacy Shield and Safe Harbor compliant
- Single sign on with SAML
- Single sign-on (SSO) for web and mobile
- SSL encryption
- User provisioning
- Business rules analysis
- Digitally signed emails (DKIM/DMARC)
- Guaranteed availability SLA (1 Hour Support SLA)
- Independently Tested
- Log in with Google
- Network access restriction (IP Whitelisting)
- SPF(Sender Policy Framework)
- Two-Factor Authentication
- Custom email servers
3.3/10
- Chat Support (in English)
- Email Support
- Guidance Program
- Phone Support (in English)
- Calling
- Live chat
- Multibrand Support
- SDK
- Facebook
- Support Bot
- Twitter
- Web Widget
4.5/10
- Custom Email Templates
- Email tickets
- Merge tickets
- Outbound email
- Outgoing SMTP settings
- Public and private notes in tickets
- Support workflow
- Ticket export
- Time tracking
- Email forwarding
- Mailboxes (inboxes)
- Spam filtering
- Annotated image attachments
- Assume identity
- Satisfaction surveys - Customizable
- Sort ticket conversations
- Split tickets
- Ticket templates
- Undo send
- Watch tickets
6/10
- Announcements
- Backup
- Community forums
- Notifications
- Printer-friendly
- Unlimited End Users
- Automatic sitemap generation
- Date comparisons
- Voicemail integration
- Facebook in-sync app
Help Scout
6.2/10
- Add reminders on to-dos
- Agent collision prevention
- Bulk actions
- Custom & Group Views
- Edit/hide threads
- Email signatures
- Filtered Search
- Group your agents
- Interaction History (Ticket activities)
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Mobile app
- Multilingual (Multiple) content
- Private Comments within tickets
- Restricted conversation views
- Skills-based routing
- Tags
- To-dos
- Auto Bcc
- Macros
- Personal canned responses
- Responsive, mobile-friendly Help Center
- Shared canned responses
- Traffic cop
- Canned forms
- Contextual Workspaces
- Dynamic content
- Occasional agents
- Session replay
- Summary app
0/10
- Asset Relationship Mapping
- ITSM Process Integration
2.5/10
- Collaboration
- Contextual collaboration with Freshconnect
- Linked tickets
- Parent-child ticketing
4.6/10
- Contact Form
- Contacts & Accounts Management
- Contacts & ticket history
- Custom user and organization fields
- Customer profiles
- Customer satisfaction ratings (CSAT)
- Device data log
- Group contacts by organization
- Organization profiles
- Customer 360
- Customer journey
- Customer segments
- Identify contacts using external ID
8.9/10
- Automatic ticket assignment using Dispatch'r
- Custom business rules (triggers & automations)
- Event-triggered workflow automations
- Time-based Rules
- Time-triggered automations
- Workflow automations
- Auto reply
- Multi-task workflows with one-touch Scenarios
- Round robin ticket assignment
4.5/10
- Business Hours
- Custom status
- Custom ticket fields
- Multiple Ticket Forms
- Service Level Agreement (SLA) management
- Set your Time Zone
- Ticket file attachment size
- Ticket sharing
- Dynamic ticket forms
- Sandbox test environment
- SLA reporting
1.4/10
- Approval Workflows
- Customize Incident Lifecycle
- Form templates
- Service Catalog
- Task Management
- Auto-suggest Solutions
- Multiple SLA Policies
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
0/10
- Change Management
- Problem Management
- Release Management
7.1/10
- Branding removal (email)
- Complete portal customization
- CSS customization
- Custom domain mapping
- Public portal customization
- Branding removal (Help Center)
- FreshThemes gallery
8.8/10
- Community forums
- Knowledge base
- Rich text Help Center articles
- Unlimited data
- 301 Redirection
- Internal Help Center
- Related articles
- SEO
7.9/10
- API rate limit
- Google Apps (G Suite)
- Integration with Atlassian Jira
- Integrations
- Public apps (Marketplace)
- Salesforce integration
- Slack integration
- Zapier integration
- Cloud telephony integration app
- Email integration with Outlook
- HubSpot Integration
- Webhooks
- Gamification
- Private custom apps
6.7/10
- Mobile Devices
- People Shared Services Ready
- Beacon builder
- Javascript API
- Open tracking
- Update conversations remotely
4.8/10
- Agent Dashboard (Agent Scorecard)
- Custom Reports
- Export reports
- Google Analytics for Help Center
- Helpdesk in-depth report
- Manager Dashboard (The Headquarters)
- Overview dashboard
- Save reports
- Schedule Reports
- Zendesk Benchmark
- Analytics
- Performance distribution
- Ticket drill down in reports
- Tickets closed reports
- User-specific reporting
- Advanced Insights
- Schedule Data Export
- Support Performance dashboards
- Team Dashboards
- Ticket lifecycle report
- Ticket volume trends
7.6/10
- Ability to configure for HIPAA
- Advanced password policy for agents and customers
- Audit logs
- Custom roles and permissions
- Custom SSL certificates (default free)
- Data center location
- Disaster recovery
- Domain Whitelisting
- Encryption: data at rest and in motion
- GDPR compliance
- PCI compliance (Level 1)
- Privacy Shield and Safe Harbor compliant
- Single sign on with SAML
- Single sign-on (SSO) for web and mobile
- SSL encryption
- User provisioning
- Business rules analysis
- Digitally signed emails (DKIM/DMARC)
- Guaranteed availability SLA (1 Hour Support SLA)
- Independently Tested
- Log in with Google
- Network access restriction (IP Whitelisting)
- SPF(Sender Policy Framework)
- Two-Factor Authentication
- Custom email servers
3.3/10
- Chat Support (in English)
- Email Support
- Guidance Program
- Phone Support (in English)
- Calling
- Live chat
- Multibrand Support
- SDK
- Facebook
- Support Bot
- Twitter
- Web Widget
3.5/10
- Custom Email Templates
- Email tickets
- Merge tickets
- Outbound email
- Outgoing SMTP settings
- Public and private notes in tickets
- Support workflow
- Ticket export
- Time tracking
- Email forwarding
- Mailboxes (inboxes)
- Spam filtering
- Annotated image attachments
- Assume identity
- Satisfaction surveys - Customizable
- Sort ticket conversations
- Split tickets
- Ticket templates
- Undo send
- Watch tickets
7/10
- Announcements
- Backup
- Community forums
- Notifications
- Printer-friendly
- Unlimited End Users
- Automatic sitemap generation
- Date comparisons
- Voicemail integration
- Facebook in-sync app
Freshdesk
9.3/10
- Add reminders on to-dos
- Agent collision prevention
- Bulk actions
- Custom & Group Views
- Edit/hide threads
- Email signatures
- Filtered Search
- Group your agents
- Interaction History (Ticket activities)
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Mobile app
- Multilingual (Multiple) content
- Private Comments within tickets
- Restricted conversation views
- Skills-based routing
- Tags
- To-dos
- Auto Bcc
- Macros
- Personal canned responses
- Responsive, mobile-friendly Help Center
- Shared canned responses
- Traffic cop
- Canned forms
- Contextual Workspaces
- Dynamic content
- Occasional agents
- Session replay
- Summary app
0/10
- Asset Relationship Mapping
- ITSM Process Integration
10/10
- Collaboration
- Contextual collaboration with Freshconnect
- Linked tickets
- Parent-child ticketing
9.2/10
- Contact Form
- Contacts & Accounts Management
- Contacts & ticket history
- Custom user and organization fields
- Customer profiles
- Customer satisfaction ratings (CSAT)
- Device data log
- Group contacts by organization
- Organization profiles
- Customer 360
- Customer journey
- Customer segments
- Identify contacts using external ID
8.9/10
- Automatic ticket assignment using Dispatch'r
- Custom business rules (triggers & automations)
- Event-triggered workflow automations
- Time-based Rules
- Time-triggered automations
- Workflow automations
- Auto reply
- Multi-task workflows with one-touch Scenarios
- Round robin ticket assignment
10/10
- Business Hours
- Custom status
- Custom ticket fields
- Multiple Ticket Forms
- Service Level Agreement (SLA) management
- Set your Time Zone
- Ticket file attachment size
- Ticket sharing
- Dynamic ticket forms
- Sandbox test environment
- SLA reporting
5.7/10
- Approval Workflows
- Customize Incident Lifecycle
- Form templates
- Service Catalog
- Task Management
- Auto-suggest Solutions
- Multiple SLA Policies
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
0/10
- Change Management
- Problem Management
- Release Management
10/10
- Branding removal (email)
- Complete portal customization
- CSS customization
- Custom domain mapping
- Public portal customization
- Branding removal (Help Center)
- FreshThemes gallery
7.5/10
- Community forums
- Knowledge base
- Rich text Help Center articles
- Unlimited data
- 301 Redirection
- Internal Help Center
- Related articles
- SEO
10/10
- API rate limit
- Google Apps (G Suite)
- Integration with Atlassian Jira
- Integrations
- Public apps (Marketplace)
- Salesforce integration
- Slack integration
- Zapier integration
- Cloud telephony integration app
- Email integration with Outlook
- HubSpot Integration
- Webhooks
- Gamification
- Private custom apps
0/10
- Mobile Devices
- People Shared Services Ready
- Beacon builder
- Javascript API
- Open tracking
- Update conversations remotely
7.6/10
- Agent Dashboard (Agent Scorecard)
- Custom Reports
- Export reports
- Google Analytics for Help Center
- Helpdesk in-depth report
- Manager Dashboard (The Headquarters)
- Overview dashboard
- Save reports
- Schedule Reports
- Zendesk Benchmark
- Analytics
- Performance distribution
- Ticket drill down in reports
- Tickets closed reports
- User-specific reporting
- Advanced Insights
- Schedule Data Export
- Support Performance dashboards
- Team Dashboards
- Ticket lifecycle report
- Ticket volume trends
7.2/10
- Ability to configure for HIPAA
- Advanced password policy for agents and customers
- Audit logs
- Custom roles and permissions
- Custom SSL certificates (default free)
- Data center location
- Disaster recovery
- Domain Whitelisting
- Encryption: data at rest and in motion
- GDPR compliance
- PCI compliance (Level 1)
- Privacy Shield and Safe Harbor compliant
- Single sign on with SAML
- Single sign-on (SSO) for web and mobile
- SSL encryption
- User provisioning
- Business rules analysis
- Digitally signed emails (DKIM/DMARC)
- Guaranteed availability SLA (1 Hour Support SLA)
- Independently Tested
- Log in with Google
- Network access restriction (IP Whitelisting)
- SPF(Sender Policy Framework)
- Two-Factor Authentication
- Custom email servers
9.2/10
- Chat Support (in English)
- Email Support
- Guidance Program
- Phone Support (in English)
- Calling
- Live chat
- Multibrand Support
- SDK
- Facebook
- Support Bot
- Twitter
- Web Widget
10/10
- Custom Email Templates
- Email tickets
- Merge tickets
- Outbound email
- Outgoing SMTP settings
- Public and private notes in tickets
- Support workflow
- Ticket export
- Time tracking
- Email forwarding
- Mailboxes (inboxes)
- Spam filtering
- Annotated image attachments
- Assume identity
- Satisfaction surveys - Customizable
- Sort ticket conversations
- Split tickets
- Ticket templates
- Undo send
- Watch tickets
9/10
- Announcements
- Backup
- Community forums
- Notifications
- Printer-friendly
- Unlimited End Users
- Automatic sitemap generation
- Date comparisons
- Voicemail integration
- Facebook in-sync app
Reviews
SolarWinds Service Desk
4 of 5 March 15, 2018
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 March 13, 2018
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 January 20, 2018
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...
Help Scout
4 of 5 December 10, 2020
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 December 8, 2020
Help Scout offers wonderful customer support and a community experience. Our company has 80 employees using this software, and they are...
5 of 5 December 8, 2020
An admirable aspect is the vendor keeps improving the software by constantly releasing new features. One feature I love is “Edit this a...
Freshdesk
4 of 5 March 28, 2019
The call center integrated with Freshdesk works great - the call is turned into a ticket right away after the agent has finished a conv...
4 of 5 March 28, 2019
Freshdesk delivers lots of useful options. To be more precise, it enables dealing with multiple customers at the same time without any ...
5 of 5 March 18, 2019
The fast and quality service become an obligation if you want to retain a customer. How to handle multiple tickets? The answer is in he...