Best helpdesk software
Billing bases differ — some charge per seat, some per conversation — so the cheapest row is not automatically the cheapest for your volume. Every figure below was read from the vendor's own pricing page on the date beside it. The ordering is cheapest entry price first — a basis you can check rather than a ranking you have to trust.
What “best” means on this page
“Best” is not a mood — it is whichever axis you actually care about, measured. Our record can say which tool is cheapest to start, whose free plan is real, who bills local currency and whose prices just moved; it cannot say which tool fits your work, which is what the full comparisons are for. Cheapest never means best — it means cheapest. Each verdict below names its axis, and every tool links to its own site so you can check us against the source. No vendor paid for any position.
Entry at £45/mo — the lowest published paid plan in this set. Cheap is a fact, not a verdict; the profile below says what you get for it.
site ↗pricing ↗Showed us different money in different countries on the same day — measured, not assumed. The profiles carry the figures.
A change only counts once a second clean read agrees. The change log →
Tool by tool
Zendesksite ↗pricing ↗
A customer service platform built around ticketing, aimed at larger support operations. Paid plans start at £45/mo (Suite Team); no free plan is published. The ladder we hold runs 2 paid tiers, topping out at £89/mo (Suite Professional). It bills by country — entry $55/mo to a US reader, from our same-day reads. Its published prices moved on 2026-10-12 — the change log holds the rows.
Side by side
| Tool | Paid from | Free plan | Currency | Read | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zendesk | £45/mo | — | GBP | 2026-10-13 | page |
Billed in another currency
These tools are in the same category but did not show us a price in GBP on our last read — they quote the currency shown. We list them rather than convert: a converted figure is not a price anyone is charged.
Intercomsite ↗pricing ↗
A customer messaging and support platform combining live chat, AI answers and product tours. Paid plans start at $39/mo (Essential (per Fin outcome)); no free plan is published. The ladder we hold runs 5 paid tiers, topping out at $139/mo (Expert (per Fin outcome)). Its published prices moved on 2026-10-11 — the change log holds the rows.
Crispsite ↗pricing ↗
A customer messaging tool bundling chat, shared inbox and a knowledge base at a flat price. Paid plans start at $45/mo (Mini); no free plan is published. The ladder we hold runs 3 paid tiers, topping out at $295/mo (Plus). We read the same $45/mo in every market we check, so this vendor does not price by country. It quotes USD here rather than local currency, so your bank sets the conversion.
| Tool | Paid from | Free plan | Currency | Read | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intercom | $39/mo | — | USD | 2026-09-07 | page |
| Crisp | $45/mo | — | USD | 2026-10-13 | page |
How to choose in this category
- A per-conversation plan can beat a per-seat one for a small team and lose badly as ticket counts grow.
- Free rows are common here; read whether they cap seats, conversations or channels.
- Count your monthly conversations before comparing — the two billing bases only meet at one volume.