SolarWinds Service Desk vs Zendesk vs Help Scout
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
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
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
Pricing
SolarWinds Service Desk
- SolarWinds Service Desk Team $39
- SolarWinds Service Desk Business $79
- SolarWinds Service Desk Professional $99
- Free trial
Zendesk
- Support Team $19
- Support Professional $55
- Support Enterprise $115
- Free trial
Help Scout
- Help Scout Standard $22
- Help Scout Plus $44
- Help Scout Pro $65
- Free trial
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
- Contextual Workspaces
- Dynamic content
- Email scheduling
- Essentials Card
- Guided Mode
- Light Agents
- Macros
- Shared canned responses
- Auto Bcc
- Personal canned responses
- Responsive, mobile-friendly Help Center
- Traffic cop
10/10
- Asset Relationship Mapping
- ITSM Process Integration
10/10
- Collaboration
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 journey
- Customer Lists
- Identify contacts using external ID
- Net Promoter Score® Surveys (Feedback)
- Satisfaction Prediction
- Customer 360
7.5/10
- 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
6.7/10
- 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
- Premium Sandbox
- Sandbox test environment
- SLA reporting
7.1/10
- Approval Workflows
- Customize Incident Lifecycle
- Form templates
- Service Catalog
- Task Management
- Multiple SLA Policies
- Auto-suggest Solutions
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
10/10
- Branding removal (email)
- Complete portal customization
- CSS customization
- Custom domain mapping
- Public portal customization
4.4/10
- Community forums
- Knowledge base
- Rich text Help Center articles
- Unlimited data
- Help Center insights
- Internal Help Center
- Related articles
- SEO
- 301 Redirection
5.3/10
- 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
- Custom objects
- Email integration with Outlook
- Gamification
- HubSpot Integration
- Private custom apps
- Webhooks
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
- Advanced Insights
- Analytics
- Performance distribution
- Schedule Data Export
- Support Performance dashboards
- Team Dashboards
- Ticket drill down in reports
- Ticket lifecycle report
- Ticket volume trends
- User-specific reporting
- Tickets closed reports
5.7/10
- 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
- Agent device management
- Automatic redaction
- Business rules analysis
- Content Delivery Network
- Digitally signed emails (DKIM/DMARC)
- Email compliance archive
- Guaranteed availability SLA (1 Hour Support SLA)
- Log in with Google
- Network access restriction (IP Whitelisting)
- SPF(Sender Policy Framework)
- Two-Factor Authentication
- Independently Tested
3.3/10
- Chat Support (in English)
- Email Support
- Guidance Program
- Phone Support (in English)
- Calling
- Facebook
- Live chat
- Multibrand Support
- Professional Services
- SDK
- Twitter
- Web Widget
6/10
- Custom Email Templates
- Email tickets
- Merge tickets
- Outbound email
- Outgoing SMTP settings
- Public and private notes in tickets
- Support workflow
- Ticket export
- Time tracking
- Assume identity
- Email forwarding
- Mailboxes (inboxes)
- Satisfaction surveys - Customizable
- Spam filtering
- Ticket templates
6/10
- Announcements
- Backup
- Community forums
- Notifications
- Printer-friendly
- Unlimited End Users
- Automatic sitemap generation
- Date comparisons
- Facebook in-sync app
- Voicemail integration
Zendesk
7.2/10
- 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
- Contextual Workspaces
- Dynamic content
- Email scheduling
- Essentials Card
- Guided Mode
- Light Agents
- Macros
- Shared canned responses
- Auto Bcc
- Personal canned responses
- Responsive, mobile-friendly Help Center
- Traffic cop
0/10
- Asset Relationship Mapping
- ITSM Process Integration
10/10
- Collaboration
9.3/10
- 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 journey
- Customer Lists
- Identify contacts using external ID
- Net Promoter Score® Surveys (Feedback)
- Satisfaction Prediction
- Customer 360
10/10
- 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
9.2/10
- 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
- Premium Sandbox
- Sandbox test environment
- SLA reporting
4.3/10
- Approval Workflows
- Customize Incident Lifecycle
- Form templates
- Service Catalog
- Task Management
- Multiple SLA Policies
- Auto-suggest Solutions
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
3.3/10
- Change Management
- Problem Management
- Release Management
8/10
- Branding removal (email)
- Complete portal customization
- CSS customization
- Custom domain mapping
- Public portal customization
7.8/10
- Community forums
- Knowledge base
- Rich text Help Center articles
- Unlimited data
- Help Center insights
- Internal Help Center
- Related articles
- SEO
- 301 Redirection
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
- Custom objects
- Email integration with Outlook
- Gamification
- HubSpot Integration
- Private custom apps
- Webhooks
0/10
- Mobile Devices
- People Shared Services Ready
- Beacon builder
- Javascript API
- Open tracking
- Update conversations remotely
9.5/10
- 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
- Advanced Insights
- Analytics
- Performance distribution
- Schedule Data Export
- Support Performance dashboards
- Team Dashboards
- Ticket drill down in reports
- Ticket lifecycle report
- Ticket volume trends
- User-specific reporting
- Tickets closed reports
8.9/10
- 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
- Agent device management
- Automatic redaction
- Business rules analysis
- Content Delivery Network
- Digitally signed emails (DKIM/DMARC)
- Email compliance archive
- Guaranteed availability SLA (1 Hour Support SLA)
- Log in with Google
- Network access restriction (IP Whitelisting)
- SPF(Sender Policy Framework)
- Two-Factor Authentication
- Independently Tested
10/10
- Chat Support (in English)
- Email Support
- Guidance Program
- Phone Support (in English)
- Calling
- Facebook
- Live chat
- Multibrand Support
- Professional Services
- SDK
- Twitter
- Web Widget
8/10
- Custom Email Templates
- Email tickets
- Merge tickets
- Outbound email
- Outgoing SMTP settings
- Public and private notes in tickets
- Support workflow
- Ticket export
- Time tracking
- Assume identity
- Email forwarding
- Mailboxes (inboxes)
- Satisfaction surveys - Customizable
- Spam filtering
- Ticket templates
8/10
- Announcements
- Backup
- Community forums
- Notifications
- Printer-friendly
- Unlimited End Users
- Automatic sitemap generation
- Date comparisons
- Facebook in-sync app
- Voicemail integration
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
- Contextual Workspaces
- Dynamic content
- Email scheduling
- Essentials Card
- Guided Mode
- Light Agents
- Macros
- Shared canned responses
- Auto Bcc
- Personal canned responses
- Responsive, mobile-friendly Help Center
- Traffic cop
0/10
- Asset Relationship Mapping
- ITSM Process Integration
10/10
- Collaboration
4/10
- 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 journey
- Customer Lists
- Identify contacts using external ID
- Net Promoter Score® Surveys (Feedback)
- Satisfaction Prediction
- Customer 360
10/10
- 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
4.2/10
- 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
- Premium Sandbox
- Sandbox test environment
- SLA reporting
1.4/10
- Approval Workflows
- Customize Incident Lifecycle
- Form templates
- Service Catalog
- Task Management
- Multiple SLA Policies
- Auto-suggest Solutions
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
7.8/10
- Community forums
- Knowledge base
- Rich text Help Center articles
- Unlimited data
- Help Center insights
- Internal Help Center
- Related articles
- SEO
- 301 Redirection
7.3/10
- 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
- Custom objects
- Email integration with Outlook
- Gamification
- HubSpot Integration
- Private custom apps
- Webhooks
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
- Advanced Insights
- Analytics
- Performance distribution
- Schedule Data Export
- Support Performance dashboards
- Team Dashboards
- Ticket drill down in reports
- Ticket lifecycle report
- Ticket volume trends
- User-specific reporting
- Tickets closed reports
6.8/10
- 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
- Agent device management
- Automatic redaction
- Business rules analysis
- Content Delivery Network
- Digitally signed emails (DKIM/DMARC)
- Email compliance archive
- Guaranteed availability SLA (1 Hour Support SLA)
- Log in with Google
- Network access restriction (IP Whitelisting)
- SPF(Sender Policy Framework)
- Two-Factor Authentication
- Independently Tested
3.3/10
- Chat Support (in English)
- Email Support
- Guidance Program
- Phone Support (in English)
- Calling
- Facebook
- Live chat
- Multibrand Support
- Professional Services
- SDK
- Twitter
- Web Widget
4.7/10
- Custom Email Templates
- Email tickets
- Merge tickets
- Outbound email
- Outgoing SMTP settings
- Public and private notes in tickets
- Support workflow
- Ticket export
- Time tracking
- Assume identity
- Email forwarding
- Mailboxes (inboxes)
- Satisfaction surveys - Customizable
- Spam filtering
- Ticket templates
7/10
- Announcements
- Backup
- Community forums
- Notifications
- Printer-friendly
- Unlimited End Users
- Automatic sitemap generation
- Date comparisons
- Facebook in-sync app
- Voicemail integration
Reviews
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...
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...
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...