6 Best Customer Portal Software to Help Your Customers

Customer portal software helps you build and deploy secure online digital environments for customers to interact with your business. Portals give customers the ability to log in, access information, and communicate with your employees over the web. We looked at the best customer portal software and evaluated them based on pricing, features, and usability.

Top 6 Customer Portal Software 2019

How We Evaluated Customer Portal Software

Customer portal software should make it easy to set up and deploy pages that your customers can log on to and access information. Portals should provide, among other things, knowledge bases, community forums, and channels to start customer support tickets. They should also provide enough security measures to keep sensitive customer data safe. Advanced service packages allow businesses to offer each customer their own unique portal.

We evaluated customer portal software based on the following:

• Pricing: Services should be affordable enough for small businesses to use.
• Ease of use: The ideal customer portal software system should be easy enough to use for workers of all skill levels.
• Knowledge base: We looked at the type of knowledge base-building modules available in each service.
• Community forums: Many portal solutions allow businesses to deploy community forums for customers.
• File sharing: We looked at the file sharing capabilities offered by each system.
• Channel support: We looked at what channels each portal solution supports.
• Cloud hosting: Most providers offer a cloud-hosted version of their product, but others will require you to host the service yourself.
• Ticket management features: Many customer portal systems also allow clients to create tickets for support teams.
• Security: Portal activity should be secure and kept from malicious actors.
• Mobile app: A mobile app or mobile-friendly site can be helpful for customers who want to access company information while out of the office.
• Custom branding: We looked at the custom branding functionality available from each solution.
• Software integrations: We looked at the third-party app integrations offered by these products.
• Agent-client communications: Allowing employees to chat directly with customers within portals can help drive customer satisfaction.
• After-hours functionality: This feature can automatically greet customers with an after-hours message and help them, even when your staff is unavailable.

Based on the above criteria, we find that Freshdesk is the best customer portal software for most small business users. It has all the features you need to build and offer customer self-service help for your clients such as a knowledge base, forums, support ticket creation, and more. It is also affordable and easy to use.

FreshDesk: Best Customer Portal Software for Small Businesses

Freshdesk is a helpdesk solution that provides business owners with the ability to set up and offer portals for all of their clients. Freshdesk offers a free version and paid versions starting at $15 per agent, per month. You can build and deploy a knowledge base so that customers can look up information for themselves rather than reach out to your staff. Freshdesk is perfect for small businesses looking to create self-service knowledge bases and solve customer tickets.

Freshdesk Pricing

The Sprout version of Freshdesk is free and supports unlimited agents as well as customer portal functionality. More advanced versions of the service range from $15 to $49 per agent, per month. The top-tier Estate version allows you to give each client their own private portal with their own login.

Freshdesk Tiered Features

*Pricing is on an annual basis

Sprout

The free Sprout version of Freshdesk comes with features for creating customer support channels complete with knowledge bases and the ability to create support tickets within the portal. Their knowledge base builder is among the most intuitive on the market today. Additionally, its collaboration features let agents chat with one another and work on solving a ticket issue together.

This package is missing some of the functionality found in the paid versions of the service. You don’t get the collision detection module, so there is no measures in place to prevent multiple agents from working on the same ticket. It also lacks the ability to give each of your customers their own, unique portal. Still, this has a strong feature set for a free offering, and is a great customer portal and help desk service for any general small business user.

Blossom

At $15 per agent, per month, the Blossom tier of Freshdesk adds collision detection features, which alerts agents when another teammate is looking at their current ticket. This is an extremely helpful feature as it prevents your team from having to solve the same ticket multiple times. Outside of that, its portal-centric features are identical to those found in the Sprout package.

Freshdesk Blossom is missing the time tracking functionality of the Garden package, so you won’t be able to see which of your agents are doing the bulk of the work. You’ll also have to upgrade to Garden if you want to offer your knowledge base in multiple languages. Still, there are a lot of features to be found here, and it is an ideal fit for companies that want to connect customer service data with their other business programs.

Garden

The Garden edition of the system, which costs $29 per agent, per month, adds time tracking capabilities so that you can better understand what your staff is working on. Additionally, it includes the ability to offer your knowledge base in different languages. This is quite useful if you do business overseas, or if you are located in a diverse area. Customers will likely be more satisfied with your portal offerings if they can get help in their native language.

Unfortunately, this version lacks the individualized portal features found in the Estate plan. For example, you will not be able to provide each customer with their own unique portal that they log on to with special credentials. Therefore, you can only offer public customer portals in the form of knowledge bases and support pages. However, the multilingual knowledge base capabilities make Freshdesk Garden great for companies with multicultural customer bases.

Estate

The top-tier Estate edition costs $49 per agent, per month. The service comes with the ability to give your customers individual portals where they can look up knowledge bases, post on a community forum, and create tickets from within the portal. This is perfect for making your organization look like an established enterprise. You also get a support chatbot to greet and answer customer questions within a chat window.

Unfortunately, Freshdesk Estate is likely too expensive for most smaller organizations. After all, Free services like osTicket are open-source and allow you to customize your self-help channels as well. With that in mind, Freshdesk has the most user-friendly portal builder by far, so it’s great for growing teams that want to quickly make custom portals for customers.

What Freshdesk is Missing

Freshdesk’s Estate version makes it easy to change the look and feel of individual customer portals. However, it does not let you change other things about the service like the agent-facing interface or manager dashboards. If customization is of the utmost importance to you, we suggest looking at TeamSupport instead.

What Users Think About Freshdesk

Users are mostly satisfied with Freshdesk. They find that it is incredibly easy to use and that its features save their agents a lot of time and effort when helping customers. However, several users have also said they’d like to see the service’s interface improve.

Where to Find Freshdesk

Freshdesk is one of the most popular customer portal software solutions on the market, and with good reason. It offers a wealth of help desk features, it is easy to use, and it allows businesses to offer customer portal channels free of charge. Click the link below to start using Freshdesk today.

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TeamSupport: Most Customizable Customer Portal Software

TeamSupport, which starts at $50 per agent, per month, is a help desk system with a design focus on customizability. You can change most aspects of the system, whether that is the agent interface, reports, forms, or ticket information. TeamSupport also lets you build intuitive self-help customer portals that look just like Wiki pages. The service is great for teams that want full control over how their solution looks and feels.

TeamSupport Pricing

TeamSupport offers two different pricing packages. The Support Desk edition costs $50 per agent, per month. The Enterprise version is $65 per month but can be used by small businesses as well, as it has no minimum of users needed for the service and comes with helpful features for teams of all sizes.

TeamSupport Tiered Features

Support Desk

The Support Desk edition of TeamSupport, which costs $50 per agent, per month, comes with all of the ticketing features you’d expect of a modern help desk system. It offers the ability to build both public knowledge bases for customers and private customer portals. Here, you can offer self-service and access to customer account information. You can also communicate with customers via email, chat, and even video chat while they are using the portal.

This is one of the most expensive entry-level packages on the market. However, it has just about all of the core features you’d need for a successful customer portal that will help your clients solve problems. It also forces you to have a generic-looking customer portal that does not offer any of your company branding or colors. Still, this is a great fit for teams that want to completely customize their help desk interface.

Enterprise

Despite its name, the Enterprise tier is suitable for small businesses because it does not place a minimum on users. It also comes with a few extra features that might be of interest to business owners who can afford to spend the extra $65 per agent, per month. The Enterprise tier allows you full control over the layout, colors, and other aspects of your hub page.

This is one of the least affordable customer portal service packages available, and it is simply too expensive for the majority of small businesses. Still, the ability to build and deploy a customer portal page can make your organization look more established, so it could be perfect for organizations that want to offer the most professional-looking portal experience possible.

What TeamSupport Is Missing

TeamSupport has a lot of features and customizability options, but it is too expensive for most small businesses. Additionally, it lacks advanced security features like permissions settings and automatic digital watermarking of all documents. If security is of the utmost importance to you, we suggest looking at the Team version of OneHub, which offers some of the best security features in a customer portal software service we’ve seen to date.

What Users Think About TeamSupport

Out of all the solutions we looked at, TeamSupport’s customer service team received the most compliments for its responsiveness and knowledge. One user mentioned that an agent from the company helped them for several hours and showed professionalism the entire time. However, some customers have experienced problems, saying that the app can sometimes run slow and there are glitches present.

Where to Find TeamSupport

TeamSupport is one of the most powerful help desk systems on the market. Not only that, but it offers the ability to deploy Wiki-style knowledge bases for your customer portals and full customization of the software. Click the button below to start your 14-day free trial.

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OneHub: Best Customer Portal Software for Security

Onehub is a cloud storage and collaboration service that also offers individual customer portals where clients and representatives can work together. In addition to offering private workspaces for each client, OneHub comes with advanced security features such as encryption, 24/7 server monitoring, and digital watermarking of all documents. OneHub starts at $29.99 per month and is great for any business that needs best-in-class security for their client workspaces.

OneHub Pricing

The Team version of OneHub is $29.99 per month and supports up to three users. Every additional user is $10 per user, per month. The Business version is $99.99 per user, per month and supports up to five users. It is one of the more expensive services on the market.

OneHub Tiered Features

*Pricing is on an annual basis

Team

OneHub’s Team package costs $29.99 per month and supports up to three users. The system supports unlimited workspaces, meaning you can offer portals for as many clients as you like. You also get 1TB of cloud storage for all of your files, a custom URL for your company, and the ability to decide which employees have access to which features.

This package is missing many of the advanced security features found in the more expensive Business version. It does not come with two-factor authentication to protect user accounts, nor does it come with document watermarking or the ability to set documents to read-only. Still, OneHub Team offers quite a bit of functionality at a low price, making it best for small business users who value security above all else.

Business

The Business version of OneHub costs $99.99 per month, making it one of the most expensive packages we looked at. For the extra money, you get access to Enterprise-level security features such as audit trails, two-factor authentication, and password protected links to individual documents and files. You also get access to 24/7 phone support if you need help from the company.

All told, this is the package you’ll need if you absolutely need top-level security. The fact that it offers so many more security measures over the Team package makes this a great choice for anyone who needs to make sure that client files are secure. This is especially useful for any business that handles customer banking or healthcare information.

What OneHub is Missing

OneHub does a fantastic job at offering businesses secure virtual workplaces to collaborate with clients. However, human users are entirely responsible for keeping knowledge bases up to date and relevant. Zendesk Guide, on the other hand, offers AI-powered recommendations for companies to update and add to knowledge base articles.

What Users Think About OneHub

OneHub’s customers find the service to be easy to set up and use. They also like having so many features to keep client documents secure. However, many customers find that the administrative features can take a bit of time to learn.

Where to Find OneHub

OneHub is a perfect fit for small business owners who want to make sure that their customer’s information is as secure as possible. Not only that, but the service also allows for intuitive, useful customer portals where clients and agents can work together on documents and other files. Click here to start using OneHub today.

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Zendesk Guide: Best Customer Portal Software with AI

Zendesk Guide, which offers a free version and paid editions starting at $15 per agent, per month, is a customer portal software solution that allows you to deploy a knowledge base, community forums, and more. However, what makes Zendesk Guide stand apart is the fact that you can quickly build and update knowledge bases with AI-assisted recommendations. It is ideal for companies that want to use cutting-edge technology in their portal operations.

Zendesk Guide Pricing

Zendesk guide offers both a free version with basic knowledge base and ticketing functionality There is also a Professional version that costs $15 per agent, per month and adds advanced features like community forums and the ability to connect data with outside software.

Zendesk Guide Tiered Features

Lite

The free Lite version of Zendesk Guide offers a basic set of tools for creating and deploying customer portals for your business. You can create a knowledge base, search that content, and track knowledge base activity with Google Analytics. Like the Sprout edition of Freshdesk, it allows small businesses to access a small core set of features at no cost.

This package lacks the AI and customization features of the Professional package. It also lacks the ability to deploy community forums unlike competing systems. It also lacks the ability to update and add to knowledge bases with AI functionality. Still, it is a suitable client portal solution for any small business that wants to deploy a knowledge base for customers.

Professional

For $15 per agent, per month, Zendesk Guide Professional comes with custom theming for your portals. Most notably, it comes with AI-powered recommendations for your knowledge base. This feature scans your knowledge base content and looks for outdated information concerning your company’s services so that you can update it. If it is connected with Zendesk Support, it can also suggest new knowledge base content based on what customers ask in support tickets.

This version of Zendesk is the same price as Freshdesk’s Blossom edition. However, it is missing the dedicated support features like email and social ticketing that are found in Freshdesk’s offering because Zendesk offers a separate Support product. We would prefer if the two products were bundled, but Zendesk Guide is still a helpful service for companies that want AI-powered help when maintaining their customer portal.

What Zendesk Guide is Missing

Zendesk Guide offers integrations with other Zendesk products as well as CRMs like Salesforce. However, it does not offer nearly as many as integrations as Zoho Desk. Zoho Desk natively integrates with Zoho’s dozens of other business applications as well as a wealth of third-party solutions.

What Users Think About Zendesk Guide

Our readers think very highly of Zendesk Guide. They find it very easy to build and deploy portals for their customers so that they can solve their own problems. They also appreciate that there is a free version available. However, some customers say that they have run into glitches while using the service.

Where to Find Zendesk Guide

Zendesk Guide makes it easy to set up self-help portals for your customers. Not only that, but the power of AI can help you maintain and add to your knowledge base, making sure it is always at its best. Click the button below to start using Zendesk Guide for free today.

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Zoho Desk: Best Portal Solution For Zoho Customers

Zoho Desk is a help desk software system that comes with features for deploying customer self-service portals. The software offers a free version as well as a paid edition starting at $12 per agent, per month. Zoho Desk allows for portal customization, community forums, and customers creating Support tickets from within the portal. Zoho Desk also integrates with most products in the Zoho family, making it perfect for existing Zoho customers.

Zoho Desk Pricing

Zoho Desk’s small business options include two tiers. The Free version includes features for basic ticket handling at no cost. The Professional version, on the other hand, costs $12 per agent, per month. Zoho Desk is one of the more affordable options on the market.

Zoho Desk Tiered Features

Free

The Free version of Zoho Desk comes with the ability to handle customer tickets over web form and email. It also comes with the ability to fully customize your customer portal via HTML and CSS code editing. In fact, you could make your customer portal page look on-brand with your company’s website if you wanted a cohesive branding experience. You can deploy knowledge bases in these portals so that customers can look up information on your company’s services.

Additionally, the Free version offers integration with other Zoho products and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms like Salesforce. Unfortunately, no small business versions of Zoho Desk allow you to offer community forums, so your clients will not be able to help each other troubleshoot problems. Still, Zoho Desk Free offers a wealth of features that make it best for organizations that want powerful portal-building tools.

Professional

The paid Professional edition of Zoho Desk costs $12 per agent, per month and adds support for making tickets over social media, chat, and phone channels. It also comes with features for automating ticket actions like you can with just about any other help desk solution.

For the price, Zoho Desk Professional is an incredible value. However, if you are simply looking to deploy a customer portal page, then the free edition will meet your needs just fine. Additionally, we hope that Zoho Desk puts in community forums for its small business packages and not just its top-tier edition meant for enterprises. Still, Zoho Desk Professional offers great features for those who want to allow customers to solve each-others problems via forums.

What Zoho Desk Is Missing

Zoho Desk is a cloud-based solution like most of the customer portal systems we looked at. This is convenient for most small businesses who do not have the resources to host a solution and do not care about having full control over their platform. However, if you want to be able to change anything you want within an open source customer portal software, we recommend osTicket instead.

What Users Think About Zoho Desk

Our readers like Zoho Desk, saying that it is painless to navigate and understand. They also say it is phenomenal if you use any of Zoho’s other apps, as it provides a seamless business software experience once all solutions are connected. However, common complaints about the service include the fact that the initial setup can be difficult and that the email ticketing sometimes doesn’t work.

Where to Find Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is only one part of Zoho’s long line of business applications. The service is powerful on its own, but it truly shines when it is integrated with the company’s other systems. Click the link below to try our Zoho Desk for free and try it for yourself.

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osTicket: Best Self-Hosted System For Customer Portals

osTicket is a free, open-source help desk service that supports the deployment of portal pages for customers. What makes osTicket stand out is the fact that not only does it offer a free version, but it is also a self-hosted product, meaning that you must host the solution on one of your work machines. The open-source and self-hosted nature of the product makes it ideal for tech-savvy business owners who want full control over their help desk solution.

osTicket Pricing

osTicket is free if you are fine with hosting the solution yourself. There is also a Cloud-Hosted edition that costs $9 per agent, per month and also comes with guided help and regular updates. The free version is best for companies with IT staff or anyone capable of hosting and maintaining a solution.

osTicket Tiered Features

Open-Source

osTicket’s free Open Source version includes support for email ticketing, ticket management, and agent collision detection. It also comes with the ability to provide customers with portals so that they can track their ticket statuses as well as view a knowledge base if you choose to write one. Additionally, because the service is open-source, you can add and edit features as you see fit. There are extensions available through the web and resources from the company.

The biggest downside of osTicket Self-hosted is that, as its name implies, you will have to host the solution on your own network. Downloading, configuring, and deploying the service to your customers takes a lot more technical knowledge than just subscribing to a cloud-based service where the vendor takes care of hosting on their end. Still, business owners that are able to host osTicket may appreciate the control it provides.

Cloud-Hosted

The main difference between the Open Source and Cloud-Hosted editions of osTicket is that you do not have to host the Cloud version yourself. This means that, whenever osTicket gets a software update or new feature, it will automatically be added to your system. It also comes with access to live support as well as a free walk-through session of all of the platform’s features. This works in a very similar fashion to Zoho Desk, Freshdesk, and other competitors.

At just $9 per agent, per month, osTicket is one of the most affordable customer portal software services available. However, it still requires more technical knowledge to set up and use than more novice-friendly services like Zoho Desk and OneHub. This version is best suited for capable managers that can perform the complex setup of the service.

What osTicket is Missing

osTicket’s gives you the option of hosting and configuring your own trouble ticket software. However, making those changes is beyond the skill level of many business users. If you are looking for a service that is easier to set up and use, we suggest looking at a cloud-hosted small business service like Freshdesk instead.

What Users Think About osTicket

osTicket customers appreciate that they can customize the system to their liking. They enjoy the wealth of extensions because it essentially means they can add any missing features that they want. However, some users find the setup process to be daunting, especially if they are hosting the solution themselves.

Where to Find osDesk

osTicket is an open source free ticketing system that lets you deploy customer portals for your customers. There are also many plugins available on the web to add features as you see it. Click the link below to get started with osTicket today.

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Bottom Line

Customer portal software is essential for giving your customers assistance and keeping them happy. These systems offer self-service help for your customers, let them look up information, and sometimes even connect with your staff directly. These systems come in many variations, ranging from free software to costing thousands of dollars per month.

We recommend Freshdesk for most small business owners looking for a customer portal software system. It is powerful, intuitive, and offers advanced features to help you create useful help channels for your customers. Click here below to start using Freshdesk for free today.

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