Low Pricing (weighted 11%)
Freshdesk
Freshdesk offers 5 princing plans:
Sprout:
FREE - unlimited agents
Main features include:
Email Support Channel
Standard Phone Channel
Knowledge Base
Blossom:
$19/agent/mo when billed annually
or
$25/agent/mo when billed month-to-month
Main features include:
All Sprout features
Social Support Channels
Community Forums
Game Mechanics
Garden:
$35/agent/mo when billed annually
or
$44/agent/mo when billed month-to-month
Main features include:
All Blossom features
Live Chat Channel
Multiple Products
Multilingual Support
Estate:
$49/agent/mo when billed annually
or
$59/agent/mo when billed month-to-month
Main features include:
All Garden Features
Enterprise Reports
Portal Customization
Custom Agent Roles
Forrest:
$89/agent/mo when billed annually
or
$99/agent/mo when billed month-to-month
Main features include:
All Estate Features
IP Whitelisting
Custom Email Servers
Advanced Phone Channel
24 x 7 email support and 24 x 5 phone support included with all plans.
When you sign up, you get access to all the features in the Freshdesk Estate Plan for a 21-day free trial. No credit card is necessary and there are no cancellation fees. If you cancel, you’ll be billed for the current month. You can upgrade, downgrade or cancel at any time.
LiveAgent
LiveAgent offers 3 pricing plans:
Ticket
$9 per agent/mo
Main features include:
Custom domain parking
E-mail support - Ticketing
Contact forms
Forum & Knowledge base
iPhone/Android app
Ticket + Chat
$29 per agent/mo
Main features include:
All Ticket features
Live Chat
Real-time visitors monitoring
Chat invitations
Feedback management
All-inclusive
$39 per agent/mo
Main features include:
All Ticket + Chat features
Facebook & Twitter
Call Center support
Video call
Time tracking
Gamification
Features like Live Chat, Real-time visitors monitoring, Chat invitations or Feedback management are only available starting with the Ticket+Chat. And Facebook & Twitter, Call Center support, Video call, Time tracking, Gamification are only available for the All-inclusive plan.
The 14-day free trial starts with the All-inclusive plan, and there's no credit card required to during your trial period.
Design (weighted 11%)
Freshdesk
Freshdesk's design looks a bit dated but the interface is quite simple.
Your portal can be customized to reflect your brand. You can put up your logo and favicon and paint your self service portal in your brand colors.
LiveAgent
LiveAgent's design is not as up to date, the dashboard is a bit cluttered but intuitive. You may customize it up to one point by adding custom branding.
The interface seems to be geared towards users that have some experience with this kind of software so if you're just starting out, go with Freshdesk.
Features (weighted 11%)
Freshdesk
Freshdesk lets you create a knowledge base section for your users, and this is one of the most important features of a help desk software.
Some of the most important features are: Help desk Ticketing, Multi-Channel Customer Support, Time Tracking, Built in Knowledge Base, Help desk Automation, Integrated Forums, Multi-product Customer, Support, Reports & Insights, Integrated Game Mechanics, Mobile Friendly App, but for the full list of features available you should check out the Freshdesk homepage.
LiveAgent
LiveAgent has more than 170 support features and some of the most important include: Automation, SLA, Ticketing, POP3 accounts, Email piping, Departments, Priorities, Statuses, Tags, Rules, Ticket Routing, Canned/Predefined messages, Macros, Email templates, Performance Reports, Voice integration and call recording. Most important LiveAgent also has an integrated live chat feature.
Backend Features (weighted 11%)
Freshdesk
Once you login as an agent and setup your account you'll find the following tabs:
Dashboard: by default it will show the standings for the current month and for all agents.
Tickets: once you have configured your mailbox, all your emails are converted to tickets and you can view them under the tickets tab. Here you'll also find tickets from other channels like Facebook, Twitter, or phone.
Social: here you can reply to your brand mentions from your social media accounts.
Solutions: here you can create and edit your articles for your knowledge base.
Forums: here you can setup community forums to give a platform for you customers to talk about your product/brand.
Whenever a ticket is created, the requester is automatically added as a contact in your helpdesk. You can see these contacts in the Customers tab.
Reports: here you'll find an overview of all the important metrics.
Admin: under the admin tab you can add or remove agents, configure support channels and configure automation tasks.
LiveAgent
The Dashboard gives you overall information about what's happening into your account.
In the Chat section you can see your online visitors running in pending chats.
Next is the Tickets section. Here you can view all the communication between you and your customers.
The Reports tab gives you insights on overall performance, agent performance, department or channel reports.
Customer portal allows you to create, manage, and customize your online knowledge base.
Team size (weighted 11%)
Freshdesk
Because of its flexible pricing Freshdesk is suitable for both small and large businesses. For up to 3 agents it’s completely free if you’re only interested in email support and creating a knowledgebase. On the higher end there are more advanced features available for larger business and teams. Without a doubt it is the most affordable help desk software from our list, especially on the lower end.
LiveAgent
LiveAgent is the most affordable help desk software we have reviewed. The $12/agent fee makes LiveAgent great for small businesses and independent freelancers. The interface is simple and intuitive, making it an application that is easy to learn, use, and implement when you’re just starting out.
Reports (weighted 11%)
Freshdesk
Freshdesk has a strong reports section which gives you an overview of all the important metrics. You can export your data to a CSV whenever you want to create custom reports, free of cost. You also have access to a range of filters that make it easier for you to decide which parameters to export.
LiveAgent
LiveAgent has a strong reporting section. Even if you're running a one-man business or a medium size organization, every report tool is available, from department reports, usage statistics, performance reports, agent rankings, customer satisfaction ratings and detailed insights of every communication channel: Email, Live Chat, Call Center, Contact Forms, or Social Media messages.
Flexibility (weighted 11%)
Freshdesk
Freshdesk also offers a builtin chat option (starting with the Garden plan) and a mobile app (iOS and Android) that allows you to reply to tickets, add notes and perform bulk actions on tickets while on the go. A mobile-ready web-based version is also available that can be used to access your helpdesk from any device.
You can even add a support app to your Facebook page from where your customers can raise support tickets.
LiveAgent
LiveAgent has a great set of features making it one of the most competitive help desk software out there, therefore a native iOS and Android app is available, so you can provide customer service while on the go. The app will allow you to transfer and respond to tickets, chat with your customers, or get push notifications of new tickets or chats.
A big plus for LiveAgent are the 39 translations available, so your agents can use LiveAgent in a language they prefer.
LiveAgent has also an integrated live chat feature that is included starting with the Ticket + Chat plan.
Extensibility (weighted 11%)
Freshdesk
There are around 100 integrations available for Freshdesk, including apps like Zappier, Twitter, Shopify, Salesforce, and Gmail. If your favorite service doesn't have an app yet, you can create your own using the new Freshdesk SDK.
LiveAgent
There are only 41 integrations at the moment, but most of the popular online services are available: MailChimp, AWeber, Braintree, Shopify, Facebook, or Twitter.
If you're code savvy and you're really tied to a particular web service there is an API available for creating integrations.
Support (weighted 11%)
Freshdesk
A discussion forum and a huge knowledge base are available, where you can explore how-to's and help you getting started with Freshdesk.
In case you need to contact their support team you may open a support ticket via email or a web form. Telephone numbers are available from Monday to Friday for 4 different time zones.
They also offer a cool support glossary where you'll find the definitions of every term you need to know in a helpdesk.
LiveAgent
The support section is not as friendly and well organized as you would expect. There are 25 video tutorials available, a getting started section, a technical section (including FAQs) and a support forum.
If you need some fast answers, a live chat option is available on the homepage or you may reach their support by email, phone, and social media.