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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Gist

    Score9.5 out of 10
    N/AGist is a unified marketing, sales, and support platform. It includes live chat, a help desk, knowledge base, email marketing, marketing automation, opt-in forms, and more.

    $29

    per month

    SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)

    Score6.1 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds Web Help Desk is ticketing and IT asset management software. It is designed to simplify help desk management. This solution includes built-in ticketing management, asset management, change management, and knowledge base capabilities.

    $533

    per year per user

    Pricing
    GistSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Editions & Modules
    Professional
    $29.00
    per month
    Premium
    $99.00
    per month
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    GistSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—SolarWinds also offers Perpetual licensing starting at $1129 per technician.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    GistSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Considered Both Products
    Gist
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    95%
    Would buy again
    20 Answers
    89%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    19 Answers
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    8 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    21 Answers
    78%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    21 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    20 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    Features
    GistSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Chat Analytics and Reports
    Comparison of Chat Analytics and Reports features of Gist and SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Feature
    Gist
    8.9
    2 Ratings
    2% above category average
    SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    -
    Ratings
    Chat history and transcripts8.92 Ratings00 Ratings
    Chat reporting8.92 Ratings00 Ratings
    Chat and web analytics8.92 Ratings00 Ratings
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Gist and SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Feature
    Gist
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    9.2
    20 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.020 Ratings
    Expert directory00 Ratings8.014 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings9.817 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings9.014 Ratings
    Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
    Ticket response00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
    Self Help Community
    Comparison of Self Help Community features of Gist and SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Feature
    Gist
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    8.0
    9 Ratings
    0% below category average
    External knowledge base00 Ratings7.07 Ratings
    Internal knowledge base00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
    Multi-Channel Help
    Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Gist and SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Feature
    Gist
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    9.2
    10 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Customer portal00 Ratings9.78 Ratings
    Social integration00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Email support00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
    Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.04 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    GistSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Small Businesses
    Olark
    Score10 out of 10
    Help Scout
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zoho SalesIQ
    Score9.7 out of 10
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Genesys DX (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GistSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.5
    (112 ratings)
    6.8
    (20 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    6.7
    (4 ratings)
    6.8
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.6
    (9 ratings)
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GistSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Gist
    If your marketing model is selling products, services, or SAAS where you are doing inbound marketing and your website will do most of the lead generation and conversion, this is a great product. From live chat, support, event tracking, and automation, you could almost put your entire business on autopilot. If your marketing model is mostly outreach to cold leads and conversion, this software currently does not have any type of sales stages or task generation. I would still use Gist for website inbound but use another software for outreach and cold leads then when they become a lead put them into Gist for marketing automation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds WHD is well suited if you have a limited budget, as it costs less than many help desk software packages that are more full featured and modern in their design. It is not well suited to an environment where you want to manage inventory, users, purchases and tickets all in one package. It has an asset feature that we don't use but that looks quite limited. We track our assets and users separately from this.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Gist
    • Customer service via a unified inbox so you dont have to separately monitor your twitter, Facebook or IG account for consumer communication there. Gist unified all into one inbox, better than anyone else I've seen in the market. They archive all communications and tie them back to a single user so you get unified customer history / data.
    • Marketing segmentation and automation: they track user history and behavior across the site and have super detailed segmenting capability, on par with ActiveCampaign's, but better I'd say. Better UI for the marketing admin person, and more unified data than in AC.
    • Live chat and chatbot. Usually it's either one or the other but with Gist you can do both seamlessly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Customized reporting allows us to track our service and support better, and find where we need improvements. This allows us to constantly upgrade our service levels and keep the customers happy.
    • Detailed tracking and response to the end users have led to quicker remediation of tickets. We are able to see where we need a better response or where to add additional resources for support.
    • Overall metrics allow us to staff properly for our tickets by location and remote users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Gist
    • Plan limits can be confusing. For example, there is a monthly charge for support and a monthly charge for "growth," plus there's a separate charge depending on how many contacts and seats you have. Perhaps this is normal in the industry, but it can make it a little challenging to understand the bill every month.
    • The vast amount of features means development will never be as fast as you'd like it to be (even though they release updates all the time). This may not actually be a valid concern, and it certainly isn't unique to Gist (who doesn't have a wishlist they're waiting on their favorite SaaS to get to?), but I do believe the likelihood of being stuck without your desired feature being developed goes up a lot as the product gets bigger and bigger.
    • Email deliverability has been less than perfect in the past, but it has improved drastically in the last year.
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Because of AD integration, users sometimes try logging in with their email address and not AD credentials. The user then calls stating they can't put a ticket in, it would be nice if there was a method of matching the AD Email field with a login.
    • Setting up new techs with the building they are responsible for can be a little messy
    • I would like to see the UI updated. It looks old, even in the latest releases.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Gist
    Gist is a quite reliable service with a lot of added values. We don't need to pay for different Saas for these important features. If I had an issue the team was super responsive and helpful, that is essential for every business. The email delivery is great, so virtually no email has landed into spam folder
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    We are definitely going to be sticking with Web Help Desk for the foreseeable future since the product is very inexpensive for the features that it provides, the integration that it has with our existing systems, and the ease for managing users, assets, locations, and tickets. Web Help Desk is a great product that is backed by even better support, which is well worth looking into if you are considering moving to a new ticketing system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Gist
    It’s pretty simple, but it does a lot so there are more complicated features which depend on an individuals ability for software implementation. I am not an IT expert and I’ve managed to implement everything myself, others that are more tech-minded may find everything easier.
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    I give it this rating based on my experience with SNOW which I would rate lower because it is so difficult to find anything in SNOW. It might be better with more time to configure but we "had a box to check" and it met that requirement and I haven't had time to refine it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Gist
    Fantastic support. Ask a question, get an answer within 24 hours every time. And sometimes within a few minutes. They've always come through for me, helpful and, even when it's an issue on my end, they point me in the right direction.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    SolarWinds is a great customizable and affordable ticketing system. We use SolarWinds Web Help Desk for IT and Software
    Development trouble ticket tracking and resolution. The reporting that
    SolarWinds provides is great since it helps us discover problem areas and fix
    those areas so they don't keep reoccurring
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Gist
    No answers on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Take the time to roll out a test VM to configure and make changes to before doing a live deployment, this way you don't end up with a VM that has been tweaked and re-tweaked until it's perfect and instead end up with a final, polished product. I would also recommend taking the time to read through the support forums for figuring out minor issues that may pop up, chances are that you aren't going to be the first one to encounter them. When all is said and done, SolarWinds Support is VERY responsive and you shouldn't hesitate to contact them.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Gist
    Gist combines all our previous products into one application and adds many more features that would require more apps. Gist is excellent and a no-brainer all-in-one application when compared to having to manage multiple applications at higher cost. The support from the whole Gist team has been extremely responsive.
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    Web Help Desk is definitely lacking in the UI/UX department compared to most other ticketing systems I have used int he past. It's very utilitarian; however, what it lacks in UI it makes up for in extensibility and customization. The main issue that the developers need to address is the use of a Web Objects back-end.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Gist
    • They are perfect for me as a someone who needs a lot of bang for the buck. The chat messenger device on my website alone has brought me new prospects that I did not have to spend money recruiting.
    • I am able to save hours of time with the automated emails that are GDPR compliant.
    • I don't have to pay for a designer to have excellent looking emails either.
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Amazing impact on our Organization, we are much more organized since we implemented SolarWinds Web Help Desk
    • The ROI is in the statistics! The application cost pennies to run compared to what the product will do for your organization.
    • I challenge you to find a better product for the price!
    • Our documentation has improved since we implemented SolarWinds Web Help Desk
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Gist Screenshots

    Screenshot of Live ChatScreenshot of Email MarketingScreenshot of Marketing Automation WorkflowsScreenshot of Knowledge BaseScreenshot of Meetings

    SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD) Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot