Customer service software lets businesses engage their customers, receive and track inquiries, and improve the delivery of their services. The best products are affordable and come with a vast set of tools for ticketing, monitoring service performance, and communicating via email, live chat, text, phone, and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. Based on our evaluation, we’ve identified the eight best customer service software for small business teams.
- Freshdesk: (Overall) Best for ease of use
- HubSpot Service Hub: Best free customer service software
- Help Scout: Best for engaging customers on digital channels
- Bitrix24: Best for client management
- Zoho Desk: Best for monitoring service performance
- Jira Service Management: Best for employee support and request management
- Zendesk Support: Best for managing support tickets
- ProProfs Help Desk: Best for help desk collaboration
- Best Customer Service Software for Small Business Compared
- Freshdesk: (Overall) Best for Ease of Use
- HubSpot Service Hub: Best Free Customer Service Software
- Help Scout: Best for Engaging Customers on Digital Channels
- Bitrix24: Best for Client Management
- Zoho Desk: Best for Monitoring Service Performance
- Jira Service Management: Best for Employee Support & Request Management
- Zendesk Support: Best for Managing Support Tickets
- ProProfs Desk: Best for Help Desk Collaboration
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Bottom Line
Best Customer Service Software for Small Business Compared
| Provider | Free Plan | Free Trial | Starting Monthly Price per UserBased on annual billing; monthly billing is available at a higher cost unless otherwise specified. | Our Rating out of 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ✔2 users | 14 days | $15 | 4.63 |
| Visit Freshdesk | ||||
 | ✔2 users | X | $15 | 4.61 |
| Visit HubSpot Service Hub | ||||
 | ✕ | 15 days | $22 | 4.53 |
| Visit Help Scout | ||||
 | ✔Unlimited users | 15 days | $49 for 5 users | 4.35 |
| Visit Bitrix24 | ||||
 | ✔3 users | 15 days | $7 | 4.34 |
| Visit Zoho Desk | ||||
 | ✔3 users | 7 days | $58.33 for 3 users | 4.32 |
| Visit Jira Service Management | ||||
 | ✕ | 14 days | $19 | 4.25 |
| Visit Zendesk Support | ||||
 | ✔1 user | X | $19.99 | 3.99 |
| Visit ProProfs Help Desk | ||||
Freshdesk: (Overall) Best for Ease of Use
Freshdesk Pricing Plans*
Cost: $0 for two users
Key Features:
- Ticketing with routing capabilities
- Shared inbox
- Analytics and reporting
- Knowledge base
- Role-based access control
Freshdesk Add-ons:
- Freddy AI CopilotAI coach that can summarize issues, suggest next steps, handle repetitive tasks, improve tone and a lot more; available with Pro and Enterprise plans only. : $29 per user monthly
- Day PassesOccasional agents with temporary access for a day; available with Growth plan and above. : $2 to $12 per pass
- FreshcallerAll in one contact center with voice interactions and advanced inbound routing; available with Growth plan and above. : $15 to $69 per user monthly
- Connector App TasksBuild, automate, and streamline workflows end to end between your account and third-party integrations; available with Growth plan and above. : $80 per 5,000 tasks
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown of the plans, though monthly billing and enterprise-level options are available at a higher cost. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
Freshdesk ticket status monitoring (Source: Freshdesk)
Our Expert Opinion
Freshdesk’s maker, Freshworks, is known for building apps with an intuitive user interface and little to no learning curve. Freshdesk’s ease of use, robust ticketing system, and wide range of support channels propelled it to the top spot in this list. The free ticket creation automations, collaboration tools, and dashboard reporting of ticket volume trends can add substantial value to a small business.
HubSpot Service Hub: Best Free Customer Service Software
HubSpot Service Hub Pricing Plans*
Cost: $0 for two users
Key Features:
- Ticketing with one ticket pipeline
- Live chat
- Breeze CopilotAI-powered assistant that provides personalized insights and recommendations about leads, customers, and engagements; generates content; and gets routine tasks done quickly in their CRM
- VoIP integration
- Channel switching
- Ticket routing to AI chatbots
- Facebook Messenger integration
- Email tracking, scheduling, and health reporting
- Team email with a shared inbox
- Reporting dashboard
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown of the plans. Monthly billing and enterprise-level options are available for a higher cost. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
HubSpot Service Hub emailing from a ticket (Source: HubSpot)
Our Expert Opinion
HubSpot Service Hub is our best-recommended software for managing small business customer service at no cost. It offers a highly robust free plan with tools for managing support tickets, meetings, and customer engagement. Its Breeze Copilot also improves your support team’s productivity and efficiency by automating chat flows and generating instant answers. Moreover, this platform has high usability ratings because of its simple and intuitive design.
Help Scout: Best for Engaging Customers on Digital Channels
Help Scout Pricing Plans*
Cost: $22 per user (maximum of 25 users)
Key Features:
- Two shared inboxes
- Email, live chat, contact forms, and social media communication channels
- AI assists in crafting service responses
- Phone and SMS integration
- Workflows and autoreplies
- Knowledge base and help widget
- Targeted messages
- Surveys, NPS, and customer satisfaction (CSAT) ratings
- Prebuilt and custom reports
- Access to 100-plus third-party integrations
Help Scout Add-ons:
- AI Drafts: $50 per 100 conversations
- Messages: Starts at $40 for more than 2,000 unique viewers
*Pricing is based on annual billing and a per-month breakdown of the plans. Monthly billing for some plans and enterprise-level options are available at a higher cost. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
Help Scout’s proactive Messages feature with several digital engagement options (Source: Help Scout)
Our Expert Opinion
Help Scout has fully adapted to customer preferences for seeking support via email, live chat, and social media channels. It has a proactive Messages feature that helps you reach customers before they need your help. We like the centralized conversational inbox for teams to collaborate and stay on top of customer issues in real time. We also can’t overlook the sophistication of the platform through its unique AI capabilities and workflow automation options.
Bitrix24: Best for Client Management
Bitrix24 Pricing Plans*
Cost: $0 for unlimited users
Key Features:
- Unlimited contacts storage and deals with timeline activity tracking
- Deal and contact management
- Contact Center with live chat, videoconferencing, and social media messaging channels
- Queue management for handling incoming inquiries from the Contact Center
- Automatic dialer and automated replies
- Team collaboration via internal feed and shared calendar
- Agent-facing knowledge base
- Project management module
- Tasks and checklists
- CoPilotAI tool for summarizing long texts, transcribing call recordings, completing fields in CRM, and creating tasks
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown of the plans. Monthly billing and enterprise-level options are available for a higher cost. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
Bitrix24 customer profile with interaction history (Source: Bitrix24)
Our Expert Opinion
Bitrix24 is a great option for bundling customer support tools in a sales CRM system. Any service-based business can get tons of value from this platform’s client profiles, project management, and activity-tracking capabilities. We also like how the contact center is integrated into the system, so you can easily receive inquiries and maintain customer conversations from where you’re closing deals, storing data, and collaborating on customer projects.
Zoho Desk: Best for Monitoring Service Performance
Zoho Desk Pricing Plans*
Cost: $0 for up to three users
Key Features:
- Basic ticket management with email-to-ticket creation and agent collaboration
- Agent productivity tools and dashboard with quick ticket view
- Support channels through email, self-service help center, and web form widget
- Help desk automation for ticket progress notifications
- Help desk customization and personalization
- Priority-based SLA monitoring for tickets
- Contact and account management
- Agent-facing knowledge base
Zoho Desk Add-ons:
- Light AgentLight agent is a profile assigned to users who assist full-time agents but are not part of the customer service team; available starting with the Standard plan (50 free light agents with the Enterprise plan). : $6 per light agent monthly
- Additional DepartmentFor Enterprise plan only : $6 per department monthly
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown of the plans, though monthly billing is available at a higher cost. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
Zoho Desk overview dashboard for monitoring ticket metrics (Source: Zoho Desk)
Our Expert Opinion
Performance monitoring in your service operation is vital for goal tracking, coaching, and capacity planning. Zoho Desk has excellent features for ensuring customer satisfaction and quality agent performance, such as feedback widgets, customer happiness ratings, and performance monitoring. These features are advanced and cost-effective, with most analytics tools available on the free and low-tiered plans.
Jira Service Management: Best for Employee Support & Request Management
Jira Service Management Pricing Plans*
Cost: $0 for three users
Key Features:
- 2GB file storage
- Help center with unlimited service portals
- Embedded knowledge base
- Request management with omnichannel support, configurable workflows, and SLAs
- Incident and problem management
- Chat conversations via Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom
- Customer service management template and request escalations
- IT service registry
- Automation
- Reporting and analytics
Jira Service Management Add-ons:
- AssetsAsset and configuration management is included in Premium and Enterprise plans; first 50,000 asset objects are free. : Starts at $0.05 per asset object monthly
- Virtual Service AgentIncluded in Premium and Enterprise plans; each plan comes with free 1,000 assisted conversations per month. : Starts at $0.30 per assisted conversation monthly
*Pricing is based on annual billing and a per-month computation of the plans for a minimum of three agents. Monthly billing is available at a higher cost, and an Enterprise plan is available for teams of at least 201 agents. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
Jira Service Management project template for IT service and request management (Source: Jira)
Our Expert Opinion
Jira Service Management provides IT, development, and operations support teams with a single platform for managing employee service requests, resolving issues, and deploying changes. Its free plan includes a self-service portal, service automations, and customizable support queues. In addition, its Premium plan (starts at $133.33 per month for three users) offers asset discovery, tracking, and management features.
Zendesk Support: Best for Managing Support Tickets
Zendesk Support Pricing Plans*
Cost: $19 per user
Key Features:
- Ticketing system with customer interaction history
- Email, web widget, and social media messaging support channels
- AI-powered chatbots with automated resolutions
- Unified agent workspace
- Workflows with ticket sharing and conversation routing based on status and capacity
- Predefined responses
- Unified staff management
- Prebuilt analytics and dashboards
Zendesk Support Add-ons:
- Zendesk Workflow Management: $25 per user monthly
- Zendesk Quality Assurance: $35 per user monthly
- Advanced AI: $50 per user monthly
- Advanced Data Privacy and Protection: $50 per user monthly
- Zendesk Workforce Engagement Bundle: $50 per user monthly
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown of the plans, though monthly billing is available at a higher cost. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
Zendesk Support skill-based ticket routing (Source: G2)
Our Expert Opinion
Zendesk is the grandfather of help desk tools and has already mastered streamlining customer support. Zendesk Support’s unified agent workspace makes it easy for customer service teams to manage and respond to tickets. It provides a single platform for viewing customer interaction history, sharing tickets, routing conversations, and sending predefined responses.
ProProfs Desk: Best for Help Desk Collaboration
ProProfs Help Desk Pricing Plans*
Cost: $0 for one user
Key Features:
- Unlimited tickets and conversation history
- Multiple inboxes
- Multiple departments and teams
- Autoresponse messages
- Canned responses
- Internal notes in tickets
- Ticket ratings
- Ticket routing
- Audit and admin controls
- Roles and permissions
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown of the plans, though monthly billing is available at a higher cost. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing.
ProProfs Help Desk shared inbox (Source: ProProfs Help Desk)
Our Expert Opinion
ProProfs Help Desk is perfect for startups and small businesses needing a free or low-cost ticket collaboration and internal service management solution. It’s a single platform for managing multiple inboxes, such as @support, @billing, or @info. Agents can also use internal notes to collaborate on tickets and to avoid task collisions. Plus, it has a pleasantly simple user interface despite its robust features.
How We Evaluated the Best Customer Service Software for Small Business Teams
We evaluated the specific features relevant to assisting and communicating with customers to determine the best customer service system. For instance, a ticketing system lets you track incoming inquiries or issues, while a contact center lets you engage customers via phone, email, and live chat. We also looked at other critical product attributes, including price, available third-party integrations, product ease of use, and customer support availability by the provider. Review our process of evaluating and choosing the best customer service management software.
We first looked at overall features crucial to any customer service software for small business teams, regardless of its primary use case or function. These features include workflow management tools, communication channels, ticketing systems, shared inboxes, and email templates. We also wanted to see mobile customer service functionality, a wide range of third-party integrations, and robust reporting and analytics tools available.
We looked at niche features specifically useful for customer service teams. Gamification tools, for instance, help agents become more engaged and effective through friendly competition. We also checked the availability of predefined responses, chatbots, CSAT ratings, and performance metrics.
We checked if the provider has built-in templates or automations to assess ease of use. We also searched reputable review sites to gauge general user sentiment regarding its learning curve and ease of setup. In addition, we considered its plan options to see if it is easily scalable.
Pricing considered the costs of the subscription plans for the customer service platforms for small businesses. We wanted to see freemium, low-priced, and scalable options available. We also considered the billing flexibility in terms of price savings by subscribing annually.
Extensive user support helps prevent poor experiences while operating these customer service software products. We wanted to see customer service applications that offer channel availability via phone, email, and live chat at any time of the day so you can access them 24/7 or during extended business hours. We also considered the self-service resources available, such as a community forum and knowledge base articles.
In addition to first-hand experience with these customer service management platforms, we evaluated what users say about each product according to online reviews. This allowed us to see how real users felt about the product’s features and whether it was worth the price. It also helped us better evaluate the product usability by setting up, operating, and navigating the software system.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
CRM tools for customer service are programs with features for managing sales activity and boosting customer satisfaction. These tools leverage case management and communication features to enable reps to oversee customer activities and assist customers from the same platform.
There are several types of customer service software, including CRM, help desk, live chat, and knowledge base software. A CRM system is a centralized platform for managing all aspects of customer relationships, while help desk software helps you track, prioritize, and answer customer queries. Live chat tools help you converse with customers in real time, and knowledge bases serve as a directory of information about your products.
To set up customer service for your business, determine which communication channels you’ll support and identify the most relevant metrics for your service. Next, organize your incoming request and case escalation processes. Then, choose the customer service tools you’ll use—whether live chat, help desk, or a combination of several. Finally, train your reps to use these tools and regularly evaluate your processes and performance.
Bottom Line
The best customer service software for small business teams offers centralized systems to manage tickets, store customer data, engage customers, and track performance metrics. While we ranked Freshdesk as the best overall small business service software for its ease of use, other providers could be better based on your needs. HubSpot Service Hub, for example, offers the most robust free option, while Zoho Desk offers the best performance monitoring tools.
