How we rank
Your help desk is where customers find out what you're like when something goes wrong. Choosing one deserves a ranking that shows its working.
This page is here so you can check our work. Every ranking, profile, comparison and price on the site follows the rules below, and if we ever break one, we'll say so here.
You
How do you decide which help desk is number one?
Every list I find ranks them differently, and I can't tell which ones were paid for.
The answer is below, one rule at a time, with the evidence.
A help desk turns a pile of messages into a queue someone owns.
Customers write in by email, chat, phone and social media, and in a shared inbox some of those messages never get an owner. A help desk gives every request an owner and a status, and keeps it open until it's resolved. Software built for that job is what we rank.
- EmailWhere is my order? It's been nine daysPriya, by email
- ChatCan I swap this for a size medium?Leo, by chat
- VoicemailI was charged twice for one orderDana, by voicemail
- Social DMThe discount code won't apply@kit.fits, by social dm
- EmailBox arrived crushed, photos attachedOmar, by email
- Web formHow do I cancel my subscription?Mei, by web form
What we rank
- Customer service help desks: software for receiving, tracking and resolving customer requests, where each request has an owner and a status
- Help desks for internal IT and employee support are a different purchase, so we don't rank them yet
- A help desk is listed in the A–Z directory once we've checked its facts on its own website
- A help desk is ranked only once we've written a full review of it
How 271 help desks become one ranking.
271help desks turned up when we looked for every one we could find.
175of them are built for customer service, which is what we rank. Help desks for internal IT and employee support are a different purchase, so they aren't ranked here.
167are in our A–Z directory. A help desk goes in only after we've checked its facts on its own website. Browse the directory
96have a full review so far, and only those are ranked. We won't rank a help desk we haven't reviewed, so the ranking grows as we review more.
What the ordering means today
- The order is our editorial judgement, based on the research behind each review
- No review shows a score yet
- A ranking for a use case or a feature goes live only once at least five reviewed help desks qualify for it. Until then, we don't publish it
- We review the order every month, and sooner when a help desk changes its prices or its product in a way that matters to buyers
Every fact comes with a receipt.
We take every fact from the help desk's own website and note the page we read it on and the date. Here's the record for Gorgias.
Sources
- gorgias.com
- status.gorgias.com
- updates.gorgias.com
- gorgias.com/pricing
- gorgias.com/about-us
- gorgias.com/llm-info
- and 4 more
- Review-site ratings
- Not used
- Review-site text
- Not used
- Ad copy
- Not used
Sources checked10
Where the facts come from
- The vendor's own website: its pricing page, documentation, changelog, status page and news
- Every fact is saved with the page we read it on and the date
- Before a review is published, every price, feature and fact in it is checked against those pages
- We never use content from review sites, whether ratings, review text or paraphrases of either
- We don't copy vendor marketing. A claim that only appears in an ad isn't treated as a fact
- When a vendor's own pages disagree, we say so instead of picking one
Every price tells you how it's billed.
Most pricing pages show the yearly rate first, and it's lower than paying month to month. We always say which one you're looking at and when we last checked it. Switch these plans to monthly to see the difference.
How we handle prices
- Prices come from the vendor's own pricing page, never from a marketplace listing
- We re-read the pricing page of every reviewed help desk each week, and the rest each month. A price change goes live once two readings agree
- Every price shows the date we last checked it
- Every price says how it's billed: monthly, yearly, or once for a licence
- Prices stay in the currency the vendor publishes. We never convert them
- If a vendor doesn't publish a price, we say "contact sales" and don't guess
- We got this wrong once. Our first Gorgias prices came from a marketplace listing and were too low. We fixed them within two days, and that's why the first rule above exists
Money can't buy a place on the list.
No vendor can pay to be listed, ranked higher or featured, and commissions never change the order. Some of our links earn a commission, and any page with one says so.
The top of our ranking
- 1Gorgias
- 2Zendesk
- 3Intercom
- 4Zoho Desk
- 5Agentforce Service
Press the button to see what commissions change.
What money does and does not do
- No vendor can pay to be listed, ranked higher or featured
- Some links may earn us a commission, and any page with one says so
- Commissions never affect a ranking or a review
- Ridgeline, the agency behind this site, sets up help desks for clients, so we have a business interest in this category. It's also why we know it well
Written by people who have run support desks for more than 10 years.
Our opinions come from that work. We keep them apart from the facts, so you can always tell which is which.
Facts
Each one has a source and a date
- Pricing
- Features by plan
- Integrations
Judgement
Our opinion, read by a second person before it goes live
- Verdict
- Pros
- Cons
Who writes this
- We've run customer support desks for more than 10 years, and our opinions come from that work
- Verdicts, pros and cons are our opinion. Pricing, features and integrations are facts, each with a source
- A second person reads every review before it goes live
If we're wrong, we fix it where you found it.
When something here is out of date, tell us below. We'll correct it on the page and date the fix.
- NewNew
1. You tell us
A price has changed, or a review gets the product wrong. Use the form below.
- OpenOpen
2. We check
Against the vendor's own website.
- SolvedSolved
3. We fix it on the page
The fix goes where you found the mistake, with the date.
Telling us we are wrong
If a figure is out of date or a review gets your product wrong, tell us. We'll check it against your own website, fix it on the page and update the date we checked it. If you're the vendor, we'll reply with the source we used.
How we compare help desks
- Every claim in a comparison, good or bad, traces back to a dated page on each vendor's own website
- We keep a dated copy of every pricing page reading, so we can show what a page said on the day we checked it
- Opinion is kept apart from fact, the same way it is in a review
- Both help desks are priced the same way, at the same team size, so the numbers can be compared
Now go find the one that fits your team.
Pick well and your team spends its day helping customers instead of hunting for emails.
These rules were last updated on .
You
How do you decide which help desk is number one?
Every list I find ranks them differently, and I can't tell which ones were paid for.
Answered above, one rule at a time.