5 Most Known HelpDesk ticketing systems

More or less, every helpdesk software is basically a ticketing system - a system that tracks support tickets that come from customers and users in a form of a support email, or a web-based request from some website etc. User can then track the ticket status, read replies from the support team, add more information etc.

Spiceworks

SpiceWorks helpdesk - a free old-school ticketing system. SpiceWorks is a "downloadable" helpdesk app that is installed "on-premise". It's a Windows-based app so you will need a Windows Vista/7/8/2008-Server or similar machine, that your users will connect to using a browser. Technically, it's based on Ruby and SQLite, but you don't have to install those, the helpdesk app comes with all the prerequisites.

The software is free, no catch, but the company asks you to register in their "community" - the place where IT pros (are claimed to) hang out, kind of a social network for IT professionals.

The app has all the features you expect from a helpdesk, like a web-based ticket queue, email-integrations, network-inventory tracking etc. The UI is pretty outdated though. Also, no mobile support.

Jitbit Helpdesk

Jitbit Helpdesk Ticketing system is the only commercial system that offers both "cloud-hosted" and "on-premise" versions of their software. You can even buy the source codes and tune it if you want. The on-premise version is Windows-based, but we recommend going with the hosted one. Both versions are very moderately priced compared to most helpdesk software apps out there.

The feature set is also pretty standard for a ticketing system - there's a ticket queue, prioritization/categorization engine, Knowledge-base, file-attachments, search, AD-integration, JIRA-integration, automation and other tools. By the way, this one has the Google-Drive integration, not sure if your team needs this, but it's a nice feature. Personally, we found the UI to be the most attractive among others.

Request tracker

Request tracker is also free and open-source. This app is Perl-based and requires a *nix system to run, it's not compatible with Windows.

Overall, the system is quite powerful, but the UI-design is also a bit outdated. The system is free, but the company offers commercial support (otherwise you're on your own) which starts at $395 a month for a Bronze package. Which is quite pricey if you ask us, some cloud-based systems are much cheaper (while support is included).

Freshdesk

Freshdesk is the newest one. The company has a free plan (limited to only one support agent) and offers a "hosted" version only.

This application offers a nice and tight Twitter integration module (with other social networks) in case you're interested in this way of communicating with your customers. Freshdesk is also the only app that offers "forums" where your customers can hang out and discuss their issues with each other.

Just like Jitbit, Freshdesk offers a powerful "automation" module, that triggers various operations upon various events. You can describe it as an "if this - do that" engine. For instance "if a ticket is overdue - send an email to XXX". This is a must-have for a modern helpdesk.

Zendesk

Zendesk. Of course. You must know Zendesk right? How can we leave this one out... One of the most widely used ticketing systems out there. The feature-set is pretty standard, nothing special to highlight. On the other hand - that's not bad. It has everything you need.

Zendesk is hosted only. You can't download and install it on your server. Again, not sure if this is a downside. Not for us. By the way, even the hosted version has a way to integrate with your Windows Active Directory by installing a small script on your Windows server.