As the global helpdesk market continues to grow at an exponential rate, with current estimates at around $30 billion, over 75% of new implementations now are fully dependent on cloud-native platforms. This transition is the result of current market demands for speed, scalability, and remote access for distributed teams.
Many technology purchasers do not fully understand how the cost of support applications is priced today. In fact, it is no longer sufficient to evaluate pricing based solely upon the monthly per user pricing for SaaS helpdesk software. The market has fundamentally shifted its approach to the way that it charges for customer support applications.
Today’s support solutions employ a hybrid methodology of fixed pricing for agents plus variable pricing based upon usage. Variable pricing is closely tied to the use of artificial intelligence. As the AI agent manages a ticket, the customer is billed for that specific transaction.
The transition to variable pricing creates a different total cost of ownership for the customer. If the customer follows an outdated feature checklist when evaluating an application, then the customer is likely to experience significant unexpected expenses in the first year after implementation.
How SaaS Companies Calculate Support Costs
Before the rise of SaaS companies, helpdesk application purchases were made based upon how many agent logins occurred daily. This model is now becoming obsolete. The new model comprises a base rate for agents, combined with a defined rate for AI-generated activities.
Data indicates that 65% of all support teams are in the process of integrating AI. It is projected that 57% of all ticket resolutions will be completed by an AI agent. As such, vendors are adjusting their pricing structures to account for revenue generated from automated resolutions.
If a customer does not account for these variable resolution costs when evaluating software options, the customer will likely experience budgetary discrepancies. The cost to resolve an issue through an AI-powered tool can vary depending on the tool’s vendor and whether the user has already used the monthly allocation of resolutions. The vendor’s charging method and potential added costs for high-volume users should be closely analyzed to ensure a proper match between your actual monthly ticket volume and the selected vendor’s charges.
The Hidden Costs of AI Tools
Therefore, an understanding of your company’s total cost model for the use of the helpdesk platform is critical to evaluating which helpdesk models provide the best long-term cost model. A SaaS helpdesk software platform that you think is inexpensive at 1,000 tickets per month (e.g., the total cost of the helpdesk platform for the month – 1,000 tickets) could very well be more than your company can afford as your list of tickets continues to grow.
Consider this example: If you choose a helpdesk platform that charges you $0.99 per successful AI resolution, you will incur a significant expense if you expect your business to use that platform to resolve, for example, 1,000 basic password resets and billing inquiries; this equals approximately $1,000 added to your base software bill at that time.
As you increase your resolved AI cases to 5,000 each month with the same platform, you would experience an additional $5,000 expense added to your monthly cost of the helpdesk platform. Once your company grows to an average of 20,000 resolved automatic tickets, your average cost per month for AI features alone will be close to $20,000.
This may explain why flat-rate vendors are obtaining greater market share in the helpdesk automation space; by providing a complete package at a defined price point, they have produced a highly attractive product to enterprise-level prospects. As such, you must perform an analysis of different potential options before making a decision to register with a vendor.
Directing Customer Questions to the Right Team
Automated support processes in SaaS environments need to be created to manage specific business models and therefore need to revolve around the individual requests that SaaS companies encounter from their clients. Therefore, your SaaS software has to be able to immediately direct these requests to the correct support team. In the beginning someone has to help out the new user who has had issues during the on-board phase. Your helpdesk will be able to figure out how long the user has been with us and immediately get them to the front of the queue. First response time being a major factor in the first thirty (30) days of the relationship with a customer.
In some cases, we may need to address disputes about billing in a different manner than other types of requests. If a high value customer calls in regarding an invoice, then the ticket must not just sit in the general 'ticket' queue. Instead, the ticket must have set time triggers for service level agreement (SLA) compliance and send an alert to the account manager for follow up.
Another example of a situation where the speed of the software is critical to maintaining long-term customer retention is in churn save operations. If a user attempts to cancel their subscription, then the software should 1) automatically provide them with alternative solutions and then 2) route the request to a retention specialist. If your system doesn't have deep routing rules built into it, you can't build these types of flows.
Top SaaS Helpdesk Software Options
Selecting the right SaaS helpdesk software requires looking closely at pricing models and operational features. Below are twenty top support tools evaluated for modern teams.
1. Zendesk
Zendesk remains the enterprise level option of choice for complex support operations. It is highly customizable, has solid security standards and has massive integration capabilities for large businesses.
Pricing for Zendesk ranges from $19 per agent to $169 per agent, per month. However, the true cost of Zendesk is driven by AI usage. Once your initial allowance of AI resolutions is exceeded, you can expect to pay between $1.50 and $2.00 per AI resolution.
If you have multiple brands that you need to manage from one central location, then Zendesk shines in this area. Additionally, Zendesk can handle the most complex workflows extremely well. However, these advanced features will require dedicated administrators to maintain them over time.
2. Freshdesk
Freshdesk also provides a very easy to access starting point for scaling teams. Freshdesk will allow you to deliver excellent multichannel support without the extensive setup time that is usually associated with the older legacy systems.
The per-agent pricing remains competitive among its core tiers. In higher-tier plans, the platform provides its proprietary Freddy AI for triage and basic agent assistance.
Freshdesk has been very popular with teams that prefer a platform with the ability to scale easily. A small startup can start with it as an email management system, and later evolve it into a full voice/chat center.
3. Intercom
Intercom is an AI-first messaging solution that provides cutting-edge in-app customer support and proactive customer engagement, making it very popular within the software startup community.
The cost of the base plan varies from $29 for the Essential Plan to $199 for the Expert Tier. A noteworthy cost driver for Intercom is the Fin AI agent, which charges $0.99 for each successful resolution that it provides.
Recently, a price increase has been implemented by the company. High-volume teams should be cautious in estimating their total cost for the Intercom platform, as the hybrid seat model combined with a usage-based pricing strategy could lead to excessive costs if the team's AI deflection rates are high.
4. Help Scout
Help Scout emphasizes the human side of the customer experience. It has created a design that allows users to collaborate in a way that is invisible to the customer and avoids the traditional look of a customer ticket.
The company offers a free tier for five users, with paid plans that vary from $25 to $75, depending on the number of paid users. A unique feature of Help Scout's paid plans is that they allow for unlimited contacts and user tracking.
Therefore, Help Scout is a preferred platform for teams who want a simple way to work together. Using the AI Answers feature, the costs of automation for this program are very easy to predict at roughly $0.75 per successful resolution.
5. BoldDesk
BoldDesk highlights itself as a direct competitor to the existing market leaders by being an end-to-end solution that provides help desk software, live chat support, and a helpful AI guide. Pricing is straightforward as BoldDesk offers a flat rate without complicated pricing tiers.
BoldDesk’s pricing structure starts at approximately $99 for the first five agents. As volume increases, so will the discount applied to the agents, which can be as low as $10 per agent. Notably, BoldDesk does not implement per-resolution fees for AI usage.
BoldDesk reports that up to 70% of standard inquiries can be answered automatically using the AI. Since there are no charges associated with per-outcome AI usage, BoldDesk positions itself as a major cost savings advantage for mid-market teams.
6. Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is an excellent fit for teams that need strict budget control for help desk software. This is largely due in part to its ability to integrate with the broader Zoho software ecosystem.
Plans start at approximately $14 per user, per month and despite being budget-friendly, Zoho Desk still includes excellent SLA tracking and workflow automations.
Zoho Desk uses the Zia assistant to assist agents with handling their daily workloads. This combination of affordability, functionality, and practicality positions Zoho Desk as a great tool for both small and mid-market companies.
7. Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud is a purpose-built platform for organizations that require vast amounts of customer relationship information attached to each individual ticket. As a result, it provides an enterprise-grade solution.
Salesforce Service Cloud is costly. Enterprise plans are priced at $165, with the Unlimited tier starting at $330. The new “Einstein 1 Service” layer carries an approximate pricing of $500, and your pricing will increase if you include voice and digital channel capabilities.
This platform is not designed for small start-up companies. This service is ideal for large, complex global enterprises that require robust data governance practices and an extensive field service management process along with outstanding digital support.
8. Jira Service Management
Jira Service Management links customer support with development activities. It is an excellent fit for product development teams dealing with large quantities of bug reports or technical incidents.
Jira Service Management has a free tier for smaller teams. The Standard plan is priced at approximately $20-per-agent-per-month, while the Advanced plan is priced around $49-per-agent-per-month.
Jira Service Management works seamlessly with Jira Software (another Atlassian product), allowing developers and support agents to collaborate without switching between applications. It serves to connect issues from the external world with corrections to coded problems internally.
9. Front
Front converts your ordinary email system into a collaborative workspace. By combining an external communication channel with an internal team chat program, it allows you to resolve complex customer problems faster.
The Front application employs tiered pricing by installation location. Advanced analytic capabilities and AI draft feature sets are found only in the higher (and more expensive) pricing tiers.
The most notable benefit of the Front application is the prevention of errors among agents. Collision detection is built-in, preventing two agents from responding to the same customer simultaneously.
10. Hiver
Hiver operates entirely within Google Gmail. This application allows agents to use their shared email address(es) without having to learn an unfamiliar software interface.
The pricing for Hiver is strictly by user within the standard pricing tiers. For many small business owners, it is an attractive option as most of them use Google Workspace as their primary way to run their businesses.
The most significant advantage of Hiver is its ease of use. Because of its design, as soon as an agent logs into their email account, they can begin using the Hiver platform immediately.
11. Desk365
Desk365 offers an easy-to-use and clear-cut approach to omnichannel ticketing. It is aimed at the small- to medium-sized marketplace, giving them easy-to-use modern capabilities without having to deal with complexities typically associated with large enterprises.
The vendor has a standard tiered pricing model where the per-agent price is the primary determining factor in determining each tier of service. Automated routing and advanced reporting analytics features are available to teams that subscribe to the upper tiers of the tiered pricing structure.
The interface of Desk365 has received high praise from users for its ease of use, and teams can easily add new communication channels as they develop over time without disrupting their traditional email ticketing flow.
12. Tidio
Tidio combines live chat with a standard helpdesk application. It is most widely used by online retailers and small software teams that are looking for a real-time and direct way to communicate with their customers and prospective customers.
Pricing is based on seating capacity, but companies that have a high volume of traffic should closely monitor their chatbot usage levels because they may quickly reach their maximum limit.
It is one of the top products on the market for companies that would like to be able to generate leads and simultaneously resolve basic customer support questions. This chat first approach is ideally suited to fast-paced sales organizations that are continuously striving to improve their sales processes.
13. Capacity
Capacity's solution is built around artificial intelligence and deep integrations. Capacity has the ability to integrate with over 250 different types of business systems and be able to pull instant answers from them.
Capacity's pricing structure is tiered based on seat volume, and therefore plans offer several service tiers with significantly different pricing structures. The solution's core value proposition is to be able to deflect incoming support requests by providing users with instant answers prior to reaching a human.
Capacity is an excellent solution for companies needing pre-built workflows. A company uses Capacity to automate account updates and to guide users through in-depth software installation without a human being involved.
14. ProProfs Desk
ProProfs Desk provides a very cost-effective suite of basic support tools for businesses to utilize.
15. Featurebase
From a product and ticketing management perspective, product roadmaps are linked closely to providing support to customers after the product has been purchased.
The system's primary modules comprise acquiring customer feedback on the product, organizing feature requests, and supporting customers by keeping them updated on new features.
The primary benefit of this feature is that when customers encounter an issue, agents will be able to associate that incident with the public feature board for real-time visibility into product updates.
16. TalkDesk
TalkDesk was initially established as a cloud-based solution designed specifically for providing telephony services, then it of course evolved into a cloud based solution for helping with all aspects of customer service.
This was primarily because of demand from the client base as well as a focus on phone traffic and call routing through intelligent routing technology.
Per-seat pricing applies to the entire system so that companies can scale their customer support operations accordingly. Organizations that need high-volume customer service calls as well as utilize the benefit of working with large global teams would be supported with this solution.
17. HelpCrunch
HelpCrunch is a solution that offers the simplicity of a shared inbox along with live chat and self-service options. Many times when searching for alternatives to their monthly software costs, buyers equate HelpCrunch to Zendesk because of the competitive nature of pricing.
18. Gorgias
Gorgias is a service that is known for its presence in the online retail industry, but it is also used by companies that use software for high-volume transactions. The way it connects revenue generation and support.
The pricing structure is structured differently. It has tiers based on how many tickets a business receives and not just how many agents are available to handle those tickets.
It's good at handling workflows and managing customer orders. With its built-in automation rules, agents can quickly answer basic transactional questions, freeing agents to deal with the more complex technical issues.
19. Kustomer
Kustomer changes the application of the traditional ticket into a visual representation of a customer timeline. Instead of having multiple open tickets for a single customer, Kustomer presents a visual history of all previous conversations, purchases, and engagements.
Kustomer is positioned into an enterprise pricing model. It has a higher-than-average per seat cost and defines itself as being a platform designed to help modern brands grow and scale by having all customer history in a single view, enabling agents to provide more personalized support without having to ask the same question multiple times.
20. HubSpot Service Hub
HubSpot Service Hub integrates fully with HubSpot's broader customer relationship management platform. It has ticketing, surveys, and complete data integration for HubSpot users.
HubSpot Service Hub has a limited free plan that is available for teams that don't use any of the paid versions of HubSpot yet require automated reporting and more complex functions. Most teams that use HubSpot for sales will use HubSpot Service Hub because it provides seamless integration of data between the sales and support teams, giving them tremendous visibility into operations.
How to Measure Support Software Performance
Evaluating any software platform is dependent upon measuring its actual performance in the most common daily use cases. Please note: The vendor's claim of providing an excellent tool for automated ticket resolution through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) should be validated through a minimum of one success trial before adoption.
There is a significant difference between vendor claims regarding the amount of ticket resolution during automation through AI and the actual results produced. Many companies incorrectly believe that they will save significant amounts of money due to the use of AI by having their customers contact them via email. However, their costs will actually increase from having to staff additional staff to respond to inquiries.
In a perfect world, you could hire one human support agent to handle 100% of your inquiries, or 20 employees to handle 500% of all requests. However, since humans must respond to tickets within a reasonable amount of time, businesses will not be able to achieve the desired goal of having an entirely automated support department.
A deflection rate represents how many inquiries are handled by a company's current system of ticket resolution versus how many inquiries are actually answered directly by the support department using traditional means of answering inquiries (i.e., human to human). If a vendor states that they can automate the resolution of 70% of inquiries through their solution, you will need to check the actual number of unfulfilled inquiries during the trial to see if that matches reality.
Ultimately, customer satisfaction is the litmus test of a company's helpdesk. A customer will always prefer to speak with an individual who knows how to respond to their questions, rather than receive an automated response. You should measure how many of your AI-handled inquiries result in customer satisfaction compared to all others handled by your existing support staff.
Moving to a New Support Tool
Operational risk will be incurred during a platform migration and/or cutover to a new support ticket system. If you do not strictly adhere to a formalized execution plan, you may be left with a loss of all historical customer data and have to deal with extreme service level disruptions during this transition period.
Data mapping will be the first major hurdle during the migration to a new SaaS helpdesk software platform. Most customer fields are not formatted the same way between systems, so you must manually map customer records (i.e., attributes, company size, and billing status) to a new format.
Also, when migrating your knowledge base, you will need to ensure that you have formatted your knowledge base correctly. Many self-service centers will experience loss of both internal links and image styling once they are migrated to a different platform. Consequently, a service interruption during the migration that results in a spike in customer tickets being submitted online will likely occur due to the interruption.
Additionally, it is important to protect your SLAs (service-level agreements) throughout the entire cutover period. While it is tempting just to drop active tickets from the previous system, there needs to be a transition period for agents to keep track of tickets via two systems until all active tickets from the old queue have been closed and archived.
Picking the Right AI Tools for Your Budget
The strategic alignment of AI support infrastructure with the financial model you select to support your business plan is essential. You must ensure that the support solution aligns with your projected support volumes based on your future growth forecast and the size of the team that will be utilized to support these volumes.
For example, systems that are sold as pay-per-AI-resolution will impose a penalizing cost structure for any organization with a significant number of routine inquiries. Conversely, very expensive flat-rate systems will waste a portion of their budget on businesses with low ticket counts. You must match your historical reporting data with the pricing models of the vendors you are evaluating before making a final decision.
Final Summary on SaaS Helpdesk Software
Ultimately, the best help desk systems operate invisibly in the background. They will route critical support issues in a timely manner, accurately deflect repetitive inquiries to the appropriate self-service agent, and provide management with the information they need to monitor agent productivity and efficiency effectively. Choose a platform that meets your budget expectations, supports the requirements of your supported software workflows, and is flexible enough to enable you to scale your support operations to meet the ever-changing needs of your organization.
Questions About SaaS Helpdesk Software
How does usage-based billing change the way we budget for support?
When a service provider charges by the AI resolution, the monthly costs will vary according to customer usage. For instance, if a company experiences an unexpected product failure or performs a major software update, there would be an enormous increase in question-related inquiries. If the AI were able to answer a large number of these types of inquiries, the company's monthly software expenses would dramatically increase, thereby negating its projected budget.
Why do routing systems fail during peak periods of high traffic?
Routing systems become overloaded and dysfunctional during periods of high volume when there are conflicting service level agreements that create confusion. For instance, if a high-priority billing ticket is received and at the same time a low-priority technical error crawls through the same escalation timer, the routing system might assign one of them to the incorrect tier of agents. Also, improperly assigning priority tags to tickets creates bottlenecks, forcing managers to manually route tickets to agents during a peak period.
What causes the deflection of inquiries to a self-service app to decrease after deploying a new system?
The transfer of a poorly developed knowledge base, so that the AI engine can appropriately suggest the correct article to users, is caused by problems with transferring both metadata and keyword tagging. AI agents will not be able to effectively prevent incoming inquiries from being submitted if they do not have the appropriate amount of clean, well-structured text to block incoming tickets.
How does customer wait time during collision events affect satisfaction?
If a company’s platform is not synchronizing properly, due to a lag of even one second on the server-side, two agents might begin to create a response to the same customer at the same time. The customer would receive two different responses, and possibly even contradictory responses, simultaneously. This experience immediately breaks a customer’s trust in a support team, which creates an image of total chaos within the support team.
