If you’re running a small or medium-sized business (SMB) or managing an eCommerce brand, you know that customer support can make or break your relationship with buyers. While Halp (a helpdesk solution integrated into Slack) is popular for streamlining ticket management directly within Slack, it’s not the perfect fit for everyone.
Many teams may find themselves outgrowing its features or needing more flexibility and affordability, especially as Halp becomes more tightly integrated with Jira Service Management.
Businesses are looking for helpdesk alternatives that offer more robust ticket management, better integrations, or lower pricing.
This article explores seven Halp alternatives that might better serve the needs of growing eCommerce brands and SMBs, with tools that can help you manage customer support, improve communication, and ultimately deliver a better customer experience.
Here, we’ll break down the top choices and their key features, pricing, and best use cases.
7 Best Halp alternatives
1. Desku
Desku is best helpdesk solution designed specifically with small and medium-sized businesses in mind. It focuses on simplicity and affordability, making it a great option for SMBs and eCommerce brands that need an easy-to-use support tool without complex setups or high costs. Desku integrates smoothly with Slack, allowing teams to manage customer support efficiently while staying within their existing workflow.
Key Features:
- Omni-channel Support: Desku allows you to manage customer queries from email, chat, and social media channels all in one place, making it easier to keep track of your support tickets.
- Slack Integration: Desku’s Slack integration is a key feature for teams who prefer working within Slack. It lets you create and manage tickets directly from Slack, ensuring that your team stays updated and can respond quickly without needing to switch platforms.
- Automation and Workflows: It includes automation features to help streamline your support processes. For example, you can set rules to automatically assign tickets to the right agents based on criteria like urgency or topic.
- Simple Ticketing System: The platform offers a straightforward, easy-to-navigate ticketing system that allows support teams to track customer issues and resolve them efficiently.
- Knowledge Base: Like many modern helpdesk tools, Desku includes a built-in knowledge base feature, so customers can help themselves by accessing frequently asked questions or help articles.
Pricing:
Desku offers one of the most affordable helpdesk solutions, with pricing starting at $19/user per month. This makes it particularly attractive for small businesses or startups that are looking to minimize costs while maintaining efficient support operations.
Best For:
Desku is best suited for SMBs and eCommerce brands that are looking for an affordable, easy-to-set-up helpdesk solution. Its seamless Slack integration and simeal for businesses needing a budget-friendly omnichannel support system. The ability to scale up as the business grows makes it especially appealing for small businesses looking to improve their customer support without committing to higher costs upfront
2. Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a versatile customer support platform widely used by businesses of all sizes. It offers a unified solution for managing customer interactions across different channels, making it a strong choice for small to medium-sized businesses and eCommerce brands looking for an efficient, all-in-one helpdesk solution.
Key Features:
- Omnichannel Support: Freshdesk supports multiple customer communication channels like email, live chat, social media, and phone. This makes it easy to manage all customer queries from a single platform.
- AI-Powered Analytics: The platform uses AI to provide detailed reports and insights into team performance and customer satisfaction, allowing you to optimize your support workflow.
- Ticket Management: Freshdesk provides a centralized system to manage, assign, and resolve support tickets efficiently. It includes automation features to help route tickets to the right team members based on predefined rules.
- Slack Integration: For teams already working in Slack, Freshdesk’s integration allows for easy ticket creation, updates, and collaboration directly within the Slack interface. This integration keeps your support team in sync without constantly switching tools.
- Self-Service Options: It includes a knowledge base feature that allows your customers to find answers to common issues on their own, reducing the number of incoming support tickets.
Pricing:
Freshdesk has a free plan that supports up to 10 agents, which is perfect for smaller teams. Paid plans start at $15/agent per month for the Growth tier, with more advanced options for larger businesses at higher price points.
Best For:
Freshdesk is ideal for businesses needing a budget-friendly omnichannel support system. The ability to scale up as the business grows makes it especially appealing for small businesses looking to improve their customer support without committing to higher costs upfront.
3. Zendesk
Zendesk is one of the most widely used customer service platforms globally. It’s known for its advanced features and integrations, making it a powerful solution for businesses looking to scale their customer support. While it may come with a higher price tag than some other alternatives, its robust capabilities and ease of use make it a great choice for medium-sized businesses looking to offer comprehensive customer service across multiple channels.
Key Features:
- Omnichannel Support: Zendesk supports communication via email, chat, phone, and social media, allowing for seamless management of all customer queries.
- Slack Integration: Zendesk integrates well with Slack, enabling teams to create, assign, and manage tickets directly within Slack. This makes collaboration easier without needing to switch between multiple platforms.
- Automation and AI: Zendesk offers powerful automation tools to route tickets, set priorities, and even provide auto-responses using AI. This improves response times and reduces manual work.
- Reporting and Analytics: The platform provides in-depth analytics and reporting, helping businesses track performance, customer satisfaction, and support efficiency.
- Self-Service Options: With an integrated knowledge base and community forums, customers can find answers to common issues on their own.
Pricing:
Zendesk offers multiple pricing tiers, starting at $19 per agent/month. Higher-tier plans come with more advanced features, making Zendesk a scalable option for growing teams.
Best For:
Zendesk is ideal for medium businesses that require robust features and need to handle customer support across multiple channels with automation and advanced reporting
4. Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is a powerful helpdesk platform that caters to businesses of all sizes. It’s known for its extensive feature set and affordability, making it especially appealing to small and medium-sized businesses. With a focus on AI and automation, Zoho Desk helps teams streamline their support operations and respond to customer issues more efficiently.
Key Features:
- AI Assistant (Zia): Zoho Desk’s AI assistant, Zia, helps support teams by offering response suggestions, automating repetitive tasks, and providing insights based on customer interactions.
- Customizable Reports and Dashboards: The platform includes tools to create custom reports and dashboards, allowing businesses to monitor key performance metrics.
- Slack Integration: Zoho Desk’s integration with Slack enables teams to receive ticket updates and retrieve ticket details directly within Slack. This helps streamline collaboration between agents.
- Knowledge Base: Zoho Desk offers a self-service portal where customers can access articles and FAQs to resolve issues without contacting support.
Pricing:
Zoho Desk offers a free trial, with paid plans starting at $10 per agent/month. This makes it one of the more affordable options, especially for smaller teams that need robust features at a lower price point.
Best For:
Zoho Desk is best suited for SMBs that need AI-driven features and customizable reporting to help improve the efficiency of their support operations
5. Intercom
Intercom is more than just a helpdesk—it’s a complete customer communication platform that focuses on customer engagement, support, and sales. Its powerful messaging tools, combined with automation features, make it an excellent choice for eCommerce brands and SMBs looking to boost both their customer support and sales efforts.
Key Features:
- Live Chat and Messaging: Intercom offers live chat and in-app messaging, which helps businesses engage with customers in real-time across their websites and apps.
- Automation with Chatbots: Intercom’s chatbots help automate responses to common queries, freeing up agents to handle more complex issues.
- Slack Integration: Intercom’s integration with Slack allows your team to receive notifications and updates about customer conversations directly in Slack. This helps keep support teams organized and responsive.
- CRM Capabilities: In addition to support, Intercom also offers tools for customer relationship management (CRM), making it easier for businesses to manage both support and sales from one platform.
Pricing:
Intercom’s pricing starts at $39 per month for smaller teams, with additional features available in higher tiers.
Best For:
Intercom is best for eCommerce brands and SaaS companies looking to combine customer support with sales and engagement tools
6. ProProfs Help Desk
ProProfs Help Desk is a straightforward and efficient helpdesk tool aimed at smaller teams that need a simple way to manage customer inquiries. It offers essential features such as ticket management, collaboration tools, and self-service options, making it an attractive option for businesses that don’t need overly complex solutions.
Key Features:
- Integrated ticketing system: ProProfs provides a centralized ticketing system that helps businesses track, assign, and resolve customer queries quickly.
- Collaboration Tools: The platform enables team collaboration on tickets, allowing support agents to work together efficiently.
- Self-Service Portal: Businesses can set up a knowledge base where customers can find answers to common questions without contacting support directly.
- Customer History Tracking: ProProfs allows businesses to track customer interactions and history, ensuring that support agents have full context when resolving issues.
Pricing:
ProProfs Help Desk starts at $19.99 per month for small teams, making it an affordable option for smaller businesses that don’t need advanced features.
Best For:
ProProfs is ideal for small teams that need a simple and easy-to-use helpdesk solution
7. Jira Service Management
Jira Service Management is an IT-focused helpdesk platform from Atlassian that excels in service and IT management. While it’s tailored more towards IT teams, its powerful features and seamless integration with other Atlassian products make it a great choice for businesses that need to handle complex workflows and service requests.
Key Features:
- Integration with Slack: Jira Service Management integrates well with Slack, allowing support teams to manage tickets, receive updates, and collaborate directly from within Slack.
- ITIL Workflows: The platform supports ITIL workflows, which are widely used in IT service management to handle incidents, requests, and changes.
- Customizable Workflows: Teams can create custom workflows to match their specific support processes.
- Asset and Configuration Management: Jira offers tools to track and manage assets and configurations, making it a robust solution for businesses that require detailed asset tracking.
Pricing:
Jira Service Management starts at $20 per agent/month, with higher tiers available for businesses that need more advanced features.
Best For:
Jira Service Management is perfect for IT service teams or businesses already using other Atlassian products like Jira Software
Conclusion
In conclusion, selecting the right Halp alternative comes down to your business needs. If you’re looking for an affordable solution, Desku and Zoho Desk offer great features at a lower price.
For more comprehensive, scalable solutions, Freshdesk and Zendesk are strong choices. And for businesses needing to blend customer engagement and support, Desku stands out.
