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
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
*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.
Bitrix24 live chat queue (Source: Bitrix24)
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
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.
*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.
HubSpot Service Hub integrated inbox (Source: HubSpot)
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
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
*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.
LiveAgent customer ticket record (Source: LiveAgent)
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
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
*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.
Freshdesk searching canned response (Source: Freshdesk)
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
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
*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.
EngageBay creating a live chat widget (Source: EngageBay)
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
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
*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.
Tidio configuring an AI chatbot (Source: Tidio)
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
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
*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.
Zoho Desk creating an SLA ticket rule (Source: Zoho)
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
To determine the best free customer service apps, we only considered support products and CRM systems that offered freemium plan options. We then evaluated the specific features included in those free-forever plans, such as ticket management, agent productivity tools, and communication channels to support customers via phone, email, chat, social media, and self-service portals. Additionally, we evaluated the user experience of each product stemming from ease of use, customization, and support available by the provider. The tabs below offer insight into our evaluation process of the best free customer service software:
We first looked at overall features we find essential to any customer service software. These include reporting and analytics tools to track agent performance and ticket resolution efficiency, availability of a mobile app, and access to third-party integrations. We also looked at each product in terms of whether its free plan offered a ticketing system along with the granular tools in the module like ticket merge, split, and automated assignment.
Because we were evaluating free customer support software, the availability of a freemium subscription was a must for our evaluation. Additionally, we looked at the cost of purchasing paid plans, scalability of the plans to affordably upgrade as your business grows, and billing flexibility by offering monthly and annual payment terms.
In addition to essential customer service management features, we looked at more advanced capabilities included in each product’s free plan. These include a wide range of contact center channels to support customers on phone, email, live chat, social media, and an automated chatbot that uses artificial intelligence (AI). We also considered whether there was a customer portal users could design for customers to access self-serve resources like articles or FAQ pages.
Extensive support by the software provider helps prevent poor user experiences while using these customer service software products. Specifically for users on the free-forever plans, we wanted to see channel availability via phone, email, and chat plus self-service resources. We also looked at the hours of availability and whether 24/7 support was offered.
In addition to firsthand experience with these free customer service apps, we evaluated what actual users say about each software according to reviews found on online product evaluation sites. This allowed us to understand where users were in terms of how they liked the features and the perceived value from the freemium plans. We also were able to gauge product ease of use for operating, navigating, and setting up each customer service system.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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.
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.
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.
