Free customer service software lets businesses provide resources and assistance to customers and manage support tickets at no cost. They can either be individual apps or modules within customer relationship management (CRM) software. The best products will have a wide range of support tools, solid data capacity to store customer records, and an easy-to-use interface on their freemium plans.
Based on our evaluation, the seven best free customer service software include:
- Best free CRM for customer service: Bitrix24
- Great for providing email support at no cost: HubSpot Service Hub
- Most robust free ticketing system: LiveAgent
- Excellent free agent productivity tools: Freshdesk
- Best free customer service tools for revenue operations: EngageBay
- Solid free support software for artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots: Tidio
- Best option for free SLA tracking: Zoho Desk
- Best Free Customer Support Software Compared
- Bitrix24: Best Free CRM for Customer Service
- HubSpot Service Hub: Best for Free Email Communication Tools
- LiveAgent: Best Free Ticketing System
- Freshdesk: Best Free Agent Productivity Tools
- EngageBay: Best for Revenue Operation Teams
- Tidio: Best Free Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chatbot Tools
- Zoho Desk: Best for Free SLA Management
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Bottom Line
Best Free Customer Support Software Compared
| Provider | Starting Monthly Price to Upgrade* | # of Users on Free Plan | Our CRM Rating Out of 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
 | $43 (up to five users) | Unlimited | 4.67 |
| Visit Bitrix24 | |||
 | $18 (up to two users) | Unlimited | 4.64 |
| Visit HubSpot | |||
 | $9 | Unlimited | 4.61 |
| Visit LiveAgent | |||
 | $15 | 2 | 4.55 |
| Visit Freshdesk | |||
 | $13.79 | 15 | 4.45 |
| Visit EngageBay | |||
 | $29 (up to three users) | 3 | 4.18 |
| Visit Tidio | |||
 | $7 | 3 | 4.05 |
| Visit Zoho Desk | |||
| *Based on annual billing on a per user, per month basis. Monthly billing is also available for slightly higher rates. | |||
Bitrix24: Best Free CRM for Customer Service
When to Use Bitrix24
- You want to use a complete CRM for customer service: Compared to the other free service tools on this list, Bitrix24 is unique in that you subscribe to an entire CRM system. This means users have access to the contact center and customer inquiry queue monitoring features in addition to free contact and deal management, project tracking, ecommerce, and sales automation features.
- You need free live chat customer service channels: Bitrix24 stands out as it includes free live chat engagement in its contact center. Businesses can connect a widget to their website for visitors and customers to ask quick questions, submit inquiries, and get navigation assistance, in which users can give responses and manage conversations from the CRM interface.
When to Use an Alternative
- You want more robust ticketing features: The Bitrix24 ticket management capabilities are limited to just viewing customer inquiries in a list view on a queue-tracking system. There aren’t multi-view options to monitor tickets on a pipeline, ticket merge, split or clone functions, or ticket assignment automation.
- Alternative: LiveAgent is our pick for the best free customer support software for ticket management.
- You need a more intuitive customer service software that’s free: As a CRM software tool, Bitrix24 does not perform well in product usability. Its interface can be overwhelming, with many navigation options, and the features require a steep learning curve.
- Alternative: HubSpot Service Hub and Freshdesk are the two best free customer support software products in terms of ease of use.
Key Free Customer Service Features
- Unlimited user access
- Project management for client deliverables
- Unlimited contact storage with client profile management to add all relevant account records in one place
- Contact center tools for one channel, such as web forms for collecting customer inquiries or social media integration with Facebook or Instagram to engage customers
- Live chat engagement with website visitors
- Ticketing queues to process and track customer requests
- Bitrix24.Sign tool for getting customer signatures on documents
- Products catalog to store products and services
Paid Plans Summary: Customer Service Features Once You Upgrade*
- Price: $43 per month (up to five users)
- Main Added Features
- Everything in Free
- Built-in phone
- Up to two contact center channels
- Email engagement
- Employee knowledge base resources
- Price: $87 per month (up to 50 users)
- Main Added Features
- Everything in Basic
- Stored company drive
- Unlimited quotes
- Up to 10 contact center channels
- Video meeting scheduling from client records
- Price:$175 per month (up to 100 users)
- Main Added Features
- Everything in Standard
- Task automation based on rules and triggers
- Unlimited contact center channels
- Price $325 per month (up to 250 users)
- Main Added Features
- Everything in Professional (no added customer service features)
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. Bitrix24 offers a 30-day free trial on paid plans. Pricing reflects pricing info available at the time of publishing. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.
Our Expert Opinion
Bitrix24 is a solid free customer service tool bundled with other CRM features, including lead, deal, project, and marketing campaign management. Because of its wide range of capabilities and business functions, it stands out as the best CRM to use for customer service purposes. We like its free availability for unlimited users, multi-channel communication tools, 360-degree client profile views, e-signature options, and the fact it can support unlimited customer data records.
HubSpot Service Hub: Best for Free Email Communication Tools
When to Use HubSpot Service Hub
- You want to heavily leverage email customer support: HubSpot Service Hub has the most robust free email tools. Small businesses that prefer using an email-focused customer service operation can create tickets from emails, send bulk messages out to customers, and store email templates, all at no cost. It also lets users save and insert canned responses to outgoing emails for frequently used messages or replies.
- You need a highly intuitive free customer service system: In addition to offering a solid free-forever plan for unlimited users, HubSpot Service Hub stands out for its product usability. It uses a clean and modern interface that users find easy to navigate early on. Additionally, new users won’t require a long time to learn its service features, like ticketing, email communications, meeting scheduling, and live chat engagement.
When to Use an Alternative
- You need more than one free ticketing pipeline: While users can create and manage tickets in HubSpot Service Hub, users are limited to just one pipeline, which isn’t ideal if you have different support processes depending on the inquiry or product line.
- Alternative: EngageBay includes up to two unique views on its Free plan.
- You want to use ticketing automation for free: Although workflow automation is available to auto-assign tickets, set statuses, or send notifications for ticket resolution updates, this capability in HubSpot requires a paid plan.
Key Free Customer Service Features
- Unlimited users
- Contact management with documents storage
- One customer ticket pipeline
- Email communication channels with templates, canned responses, and bulk sending
- Meeting scheduler
- Live chat and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot communications that can create tickets, schedule meetings, and qualify leads
- Facebook Messenger integration
Paid Plans Summary: Customer Service Features Once You Upgrade*
- Price: $18 per month (up to two users)
- Main Added Features:
- Everything on Free
- Two ticket pipelines
- Additional document storage
- Telephonic capabilities
- Payment processing
- Simple ticket automation.
- Price: $450 per month (up to five users)
- Main Added Features:
- Everything in Starter
- 15 ticket pipelines
- Customer surveys
- Service level agreement (SLA) management
- Help desk automation
- Customer self-service portal management
- Knowledge base hosting
- Custom branch logic for the chatbot to have full conversations with customers
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. Each plan offers a 14-day free trial. Pricing reflects info available at the time of publishing. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.
**Pricing uses the monthly Service Hub costs for individuals and small teams. The provider also offers Enterprise-level products for larger teams for a higher cost. Users can subscribe to other Hubs for sales, marketing, content management system (CMS), and operations software.
Our Expert Opinion
HubSpot Service Hub provides an easy-to-use and free support platform to those needing robust email features. Letting you send bulk and direct messages, perform email-to-ticket functions, store email templates, and insert canned responses, HubSpot gives users a solid product for all things email. Any service operation prioritizing free email tools need look no further than HubSpot.
LiveAgent: Best Free Ticketing System
When to Use LiveAgent
- You need robust ticketing tools for free: LiveAgent’s Free plan includes the most comprehensive ticketing tools for small businesses that receive a high volume of inquiries. Users can receive tickets from contact forms, email, or live chat and then manage them throughout the resolution process. It includes functions like ticket merge for duplicates, split for separating inquiries, ticket search and filter, and ticket transfer to other agents.
- You want to manage a customer portal: Another useful attribute of LiveAgent’s freemium subscription is the customer portal features. Teams can create a self-service pool of resources, such as FAQ pages, knowledge base articles, and a community forum for customers, to get the information they need on their own without having to contact a service rep.
When to Use an Alternative
- You want broader business use cases: LiveAgent is a specialty product designed for customer service operations. That said, users cannot use the platform to manage other business functions such as sales, marketing, or projects.
- You need a simple customer support system: While a solid pick for ticket tracking, customer engagement, and providing self-service resources, LiveAgent gets poor ratings for product usability. More specifically, users feel there’s a solid level of technical experience needed to best understand how to operate the features.
- Alternative: HubSpot Service Hub and Freshdesk are excellent alternatives that are easy to learn and operate.
Key Free Customer Service Features
- Unlimited users
- Customer self-service portal management to store FAQ pages, a knowledge base, and host a community forum
- Ticket management with custom data fields plus ticket merge, split, search, and transfer
- One contact form to collect tickets or customer data
- Email communications with email-to-ticket
- Live chat widgets
- Customer and contact grouping or segmentation
Paid Plans Summary: Customer Service Features Once You Upgrade*
- Price: $9
- Main Features Added:
- Everything in Free
- Up to three contact forms
- Slack notifications for tickets
- Canned responses on chat or email
- Price: $29
- Main Features Added:
- Everything in Small Business
- Up to 10 contact forms
- Telephone call center
- Feedback button to get customer recommendations
- Video calling
- Ticket and chat satisfaction surveys
- Web visitor monitoring
- Price: $49
- Main Features Added:
- Everything in Medium Business
- Up to 20 contact forms
- Time tracking on ticket resolution and agent tasks
- Custom agent roles
- Integration with Viber, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp for expanded communications
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-user, per-month breakdown. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. LiveAgent offers a 30-day free trial on paid plans. Pricing reflects pricing info available at the time of publishing. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.
Our Expert Opinion
LiveAgent provides free specialty software for those primarily needing an advanced ticket management system and customer engagement via email or live chat. In terms of the ticketing capabilities, no other free product is more elaborate. Between the field customization options and search, filter, transfer, merge, and split ticket functions, LiveAgent is the ultimate no-cost tool for keeping agents organized and supplying fast service.
Freshdesk: Best Free Agent Productivity Tools
When to Use Freshdesk
- You want to enhance agent productivity at no cost: The most standout free features included in Freshdesk are the productivity tools designed to help agents stay organized and resolve tickets faster. These capabilities include automated notifications and task assignments for inbound tickets, quick canned responses for commonly answered questions, ticket tagging, and task management dynamics with to-do lists.
- You need a solid range of ticketing functions: Freshdesk is one of the better free products on this list for managing a help desk and tracking service tickets. Users can set statuses and priorities for customer inquiries, split and merge tickets, and generate new tickets from incoming emails. There’s even a help desk dashboard that lets users track agent performance and monitor ticket volume trends.
When to Use an Alternative
- You want to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) tools for free: AI provides hands-free communication to customers in the form of chatbots. While Freshdesk does offer this feature through Freddy AI, it’s not available until the Enterprise plan for $79 per user monthly.
- Alternative: Tidio and HubSpot Service Hub include AI chatbot options starting in their free plans.
- You need free service level agreement (SLA) tracking: Features for SLA management allow agents to ensure they are resolving customer issues promptly and in a way that aligns with a service contract. Freshdesk, like many other free providers, does not offer this until its paid plans.
- Alternative: Zoho Desk is the only provider with any free SLA tracking tools—letting you set ticket priorities and send orchestrated responses in the ticket system based on preset contract agreements.
Key Free Customer Service Features
- Up to 2 users
- Ticket management with email-to-ticket function, merge, splitting, and status-setting on tickets
- Communications through email, Facebook, and chat
- Agent productivity tools like canned responses, note-taking in tickets, tagging, task management, and quick-action replies to customers
- Workflow automation that send users notifications and assigns tasks for new tickets
- Knowledge base management and public customer portal customization
- Help desk dashboard with ticket volume trend reporting
Paid Plans Summary: Customer Service Features Once You Upgrade*
- Price: $15
- Main Features Added:
- Everything in Free
- Multiple shared email ticket inboxes
- Ticket splitting
- Time tracking
- WhatsApp communications
- A built-in phone
- Automated task reminders,
- Rule-based service level agreement (SLA) management
- Expanded workflow automation for time and event-based triggers
- Price: $49
- Main Features Added:
- Everything in Growth
- Ticket templates
- Customer satisfaction surveys
- Custom objects
- Round-robin ticket assignment
- Expanded SLA management with reminders, escalation rules, and multiple SLA policies
- Price: $79
- Main Features Added:
- Everything in Pro
- Skills-based automated ticket assignment
- Agent shift tracking
- Knowledge base hierarchies for articles
- Freddy artificial intelligence (AI) for auto-engaging customer via email and chat, getting social signals, and suggesting articles
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-user, per-month breakdown. Monthly billing is available for a higher cost. Freshdesk offers a 21-day free trial on paid plans. Pricing reflects pricing info available at the time of publishing. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.
Our Expert Opinion
The Freshdesk free support software is simply a productivity hack. Most of its standout features are the automation and organization tools that allow agents to shorten ticket resolution times and put certain tasks on auto-pilot. We especially like the stored canned response for users to send quick replies to customers through email or live chat channels using commonly used responses—a huge time saver.
EngageBay: Best for Revenue Operation Teams
When to Use EngageBay
- You function as a revenue operations (RevOps) team: EngageBay is a CRM that includes sales, marketing, and service modules in one product. This makes it a great option for RevOps teams, who manage all revenue-generating functions under one umbrella—something common in technology consulting and software businesses.
- You want to track more than one ticket view for free: EngageBay is the only free customer support software that offers multi-pipeline and viewing of tickets. It allows up to two different views for teams to sort tickets based on status, type, updates, and other criteria, as well as monitor ticketing processes on two different tracks.
When to Use an Alternative
- You need more contact record data storage: One downside of the EngageBay freemium plan is storage capacity. Users are restricted to just 250 contact or customer records until they upgrade.
- Alternative: Bitrix24 includes unlimited contact storage on its Free plan.
- You are new to using a customer service tool: EngageBay, while useful for customer service and entire revenue operations teams, requires a learning curve to fully utilize it. Designing a new system with custom data fields is tricky, and some of the modules have an interface that appears outdated, especially the ones housing data records.
- Alternative: HubSpot Service Hub is our pick for best customer service tools that are free and easy to use.
Key Free Customer Service Features
- 15 users
- Contact management for up to 250 contacts
- Ticket management for up to two views
- Email engagement with customers with templates
- Live chat communications
- Web forms and record tagging
- Task management and appointment scheduling
Paid Plans Summary: Customer Service Features Once You Upgrade*
- Price: $13.79
- Main Features Added:
- Everything in Free
- 500 contact records
- Calling minutes
- Ticket macro automations
- Up to 10 ticket views
- Ticket groupings
- Canned responses
- 360-degree customer profile views
- Personal notes in tickets
- Price: $59.79
- Main Features Added:
- Everything in Basic
- 5,000 contact records
- Custom workflow automation for tickets or task management
- Pro: $110.39
- Main Features Added:
- Everything in Growth
- Unlimited contact records
- Role-based permissions for agents
- Custom reporting
- Goal management
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per user, per month breakdown. Monthly billing is also available for a higher cost and biennial billing is available for a lower cost. Features shown only consider the tools in the Customer Service module. Provider also includes Sales and Marketing modules in its package. Pricing reflects pricing info available at the time of publishing. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.
Our Expert Opinion
Any business in the technology space should consider EngageBay for their service software needs. It’s an all-in-one solution to managing revenue operations—a structure most applicable in software as a service (SaaS), tech consulting, and cybersecurity verticals. In terms of engagement, whether for sales, marketing, or support, the platform offers a wide range of free communication tools as well as multi-view ticketing to track any support process.
Tidio: Best Free Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chatbot Tools
When to Use Tidio
- You want to use artificial intelligence (AI) for customer support: Tidio is a great free solution for deploying AI in customer service operations. Users get up to 100 chatbot conversations per month to engage website visitors, generate leads, recommend products, and answer customer questions automatically. The freemium plan also includes an AI Reply Assistant to improve answers given to customers, identify satisfaction, and determine frequently asked questions.
- You need free surveying tools: While most customer service platforms don’t include customer surveying until higher-tiered plans, Tidio offers this feature for free. Even better, the satisfaction surveys can be deployed automatically immediately after a resolved ticket, or once a chat conversion concludes.
When to Use an Alternative
- You need a free plan for more than three users: Tidio, unfortunately, only allows up to three users on its freemium plan, which isn’t ideal if you have a larger support team.
- Alternative: Bitrix24, HubSpot Service Hub, and LiveAgent all include unlimited free users.
- You have a high volume of inquiries from live chat: If live chat is your primary source of customer inquiries and tickets, you may want to look elsewhere for service management tools, as the Free plan for Tidio restricts users to just 50 monthly live chat conversations.
Key Free Customer Service Features
- Access for three users
- Up to 50 monthly live chat conversations plus 100 monthly chatbot triggers that automate conversations with customers using artificial intelligence (AI)
- Ticketing system
- Communication through Facebook Messenger and Instagram
- Email communications and ticketing from emails
- Customer satisfaction surveys
- AI Reply Assistant tool that speeds up response times and helps you enhance your answers to customer questions
Paid Plans Summary: Customer Service Features Once You Upgrade*
- Starter: $29 per month (up to three users)
- Main Features Added:
- 100 live chat conversations
- 500 chatbot triggers
- Website visitor monitoring
- Price: $25 per user, per month (up to five users)
- Main Features Added:
- Unlimited live chat conversations
- 100 chatbot triggers
- Analytics for agent performance, website visitors, and ticket trends
- Price: $29 per month (up to three users)
- Main Features Added:
- 50 live chat conversations
- 2,000-40,000 chatbot triggers
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-month breakdown. Monthly billing is also available for a higher cost. Tidio offers a seven-day free trial for paid plans. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.
**Pricing is not based on tiers but on specific feature needs. Some features available on the Communicator page are not included in ChatBots. Users also have the option to bundle Chatbots and Communicator for $29 per month plus $25 per user, per month.
Our Expert Opinion
Tidio is the best free customer service option for those looking to springboard into the future of support operations. As artificial intelligence (AI) grows in business use cases and more businesses rely on it for automation, you’ll want a platform to accommodate this emerging technology. Tidio is that platform, offering free AI chatbots to auto-engage website visitors and assist customers using responses that appear no different than a human rep.
Zoho Desk: Best for Free SLA Management
When to Use Zoho Desk
- You need free service level agreement (SLA) tools: Zoho Desk is the only free customer support software that includes any type of SLA tracking capabilities. This allows teams to ensure they’re staying within the bounds of a service contract by setting ticket priorities for certain inquiries based on response-time expectations of a contract.
- You want to automate customer service activity: Like its Zoho CRM counterpart, Zoho Desk is a great platform for workflow automation. Its Free plan includes basic help desk automation that notifies users and assigns tasks for new tickets. There are also macro automation options that let users complete repetitive tasks, such as sending an acknowledgment email to a customer, creating a task for another user, or updating a status field in just one click.
When to Use an Alternative
- You want to host a community forum for customers at no cost: Community forums let customers and users engage with each other to resolve issues and learn about your product or services. While Zoho Desk does offer a customer portal option, the Free plan restricts you to just hosting knowledge base articles. Hosting a community forum requires the Standard plan for $14 per user, monthly.
- Alternative: LiveAgent has the most robust free customer portal design tools that include FAQ pages, knowledge base articles, and a community forum.
- You need live chat support tools: Unfortunately for Zoho Desk, live chat engagement is not included for free.
Key Free Customer Service Features
- Up to three users
- Contact and account management
- Ticketing system with history tracking, tagging, resolution notes, and email-to-ticket conversions
- Customer support channels and ticket collection through email and web forms, plus a self-service help center for customers to access knowledge articles
- Help desk automation for ticket notifications and up to two macro, one-click automations for handling, assigning, and responding to tickets
- Basic service level agreement (SLA) setting ticket priorities and managing responses based on specific customer engagement
- Agent productivity tools like quick ticket views, saved response drafts to customers, and record searching
Paid Plans Summary: Customer Service Features Once You Upgrade*
- Price: $7
- Main Features Added:
- Everything in Free
- Ticket merge, split, and clone
- Timeline tracking
- Table view of active tickets
- Custom workflow automation and ticket assignment rules
- Multi-level SLA escalation
- Social media support channels via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
- Price: $14
- Main Features Added:
- Everything in Express
- Ticket time tracking
- Canned snippets
- Priority-based ticket views
- Team collaboration on tickets
- Community forum hosting
- Instant messaging support channels
- Time-based workflow automation
- Price: $23
- Main Features Added:
- Everything in Standard
- Approval requests for ticket resolutions
- Team ownership of tickets
- Gamification for ticket management
- Agent collision detection
- Telephone support channels
- Round-robin ticket assignment
- Customer-based SLA management
- Price: $40
- Main Features Added:
- Everything in Professional
- Live chat support channels
- Complete workflow automation design tools
- Skills tracking for agents with skills-based ticket assignment
- SLA contract management
- Artificial intelligence (AI) for auto-replies, predications, and ticket anomaly detection
*Pricing is based on annual billing on a per-user, per-month breakdown. Monthly billing is also available for a higher cost. Zoho Desk comes with a 15-day free trial. Pricing reflects pricing info available at the time of publishing. While we update pricing information regularly, we encourage our readers to check current pricing here.
Our Expert Opinion
Zoho Desk’s freemium plan is the best product for businesses that need to enforce strict contract requirements. Being the only service software with free service level agreement (SLA) management tools, users can leverage Zoho to set ticket priorities that need immediate attention based on preset SLA triggers, such as the type of ticket generated or the specific customer.
How We Evaluated the Best Free Customer Service Software
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is customer service software?
Customer service software is a product that allows businesses to engage their customers and resolve complaints or inquiries. It’ll include communication tools to support customers through phone, email, live chat, social media, and a self-service portal, as well as contain a module for collecting, tracking, and resolving service tickets.
What's the difference between customer service software & CRM?
Customer service software is specifically meant to improve customer satisfaction and retain business through ticketing tools and communication features. A CRM is primarily a sales and marketing platform that lets you track deals, store contacts, engage leads, and deploy marketing campaigns. Some CRMs, however, include modules for customer service—letting you oversee all revenue functions in a single platform.
What's the best free customer service software?
The best free customer service software depends on your feature needs and user capacity requirements. For example, if you want to use a CRM system for customer service with sales, marketing, and project management tools, we’d recommend Bitrix24. Alternatively, HubSpot Service Hub is the best option if email support for your customers is a top priority, while LiveAgent has the most robust free ticketing system available.
Bottom Line
Free customer service software lets businesses manage inquiries and engage customers all at no cost. While Bitrix24 scored the highest as it’s a full CRM with a wide range of capabilities, other products could be a better fit depending on your unique needs. For instance, Zoho Desk is the only free support system with service level agreement (SLA) tracking, while Freshdesk has great agent productivity capabilities like canned responses and task management.
