TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Help Scout

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/AHelp Scout is help desk software. The vendor’s value proposition is that that their solution reduces time spent on training users because Help Scout is simple to use and set up and scales like any enterprise product. This solution includes multiple mailboxes to support as many email addresses as needed in order to work collaboratively across teams, and manage several products or brands from one account. Reports on conversation trends, team performance, productivity, and customer happiness are…

    $30

    per month starts with 100 contacts

    osTicket

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AosTicket is an open-source help desk / ticketing platform that can create inquiries online, through email, and through phone calls.

    $12

    per month

    Pricing
    Help ScoutosTicket
    Editions & Modules
    Standard
    $30
    per month starts with 100 contacts
    Plus
    $90
    per month starts with 200 contacts
    Company
    Contact sales team
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Help ScoutosTicket
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Help ScoutosTicket
    Considered Both Products
    Help Scout
    No answer on this topic
    Enhancesoft LLC
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Help ScoutosTicket
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Help Scout and osTicket
    Feature
    Help Scout
    8.7
    23 Ratings
    6% above category average
    osTicket
    7.6
    9 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Organize and prioritize service tickets9.123 Ratings7.99 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications8.113 Ratings8.47 Ratings
    Ticket creation and submission8.021 Ratings6.89 Ratings
    Ticket response9.522 Ratings6.29 Ratings
    Expert directory00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings7.27 Ratings
    Self Help Community
    Comparison of Self Help Community features of Help Scout and osTicket
    Feature
    Help Scout
    8.5
    21 Ratings
    6% above category average
    osTicket
    8.3
    7 Ratings
    4% above category average
    External knowledge base8.720 Ratings9.05 Ratings
    Internal knowledge base8.219 Ratings7.57 Ratings
    Multi-Channel Help
    Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Help Scout and osTicket
    Feature
    Help Scout
    8.5
    23 Ratings
    6% above category average
    osTicket
    6.9
    8 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Email support9.623 Ratings9.57 Ratings
    Help Desk CRM integration7.415 Ratings5.03 Ratings
    Customer portal00 Ratings9.07 Ratings
    IVR00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Social integration00 Ratings4.01 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Help ScoutosTicket
    Small Businesses
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Help Scout
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Help ScoutosTicket
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.6
    (23 ratings)
    9.1
    (9 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    9.4
    (6 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    1.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Help ScoutosTicket
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Help Scout
    Small businesses that want a conversational type of customer support experience. Nothing wrong with support tickets, but it does make you feel like a number. Also, we needed to get up and running quickly so the "inbox" feel of the dashboard was already familiar with the team so they could adopt the new software quickly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Enhancesoft LLC
    For beginning smaller companies that are in need of partially automating their incoming requests this product is easy to set up and will assist in structuring these request[s]. These requests can come in via email/phone or web portal. For companies that are beginning to streamline their support procedures, this tool can be a first step into automating part of these processes. This is also how user[s] should see it. It is merely a tool that can assist in structuring the incoming request flow the rest still has to be fit into business processes.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Help Scout
    • Extremely simple to use and understand as a user - treats communications like human beings and provides a much more personal feel to communication (as opposed to making people feel like numbers).
    • The email newsletter.
    • They are super responsive. They are pretty rad and transparent: if something goes wrong on their end they are not afraid of admitting fault. Which leads me to trust them because I can believe them. I know that tells you very little about the product, but as leadership, that's something that I really need
    • Help Scout does exactly what it needs to (facilitate organized, efficient conversations between customers and support people) without getting in the way.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Enhancesoft LLC
    • osTicket is extremely user friendly for end users and support agents. It's very easy for new end users to put in a service request. This aspect of simplicity is important because we don't have to train new users on how to put in service requests.
    • Feature wise osTicket has everything you need without being overly complicated or cluttered. This is important for us because it allows for faster support times and happier end users.
    • Lightweight and very reliable, osTicket uses PHP and MySQL. Setup is easy and it can be hosted internally or externally web hosed. Also, since it relies on PHP it gives you flexibility to use Apache, Nginx , Lighttpd , IIS, etc.
    • Thriving community: the community behind osTicket is feature-wise. Which is very helpful if you have any questions.
    • Best of all, osTicket is completely free and open source. While they do offer pair tier cloud-hosting and enterprise support. The free version offers all the features of the paid tiers (minus hosing and support).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Help Scout
    • Trying to group tickets is a bit unflexible. You can create folders which can be part of a workflow (automatic trigger) but you can't create a folder based on tags. This needs to be improved because there's a need to create smarter segments and mix them.
    • Metrics are useful but there needs to be more details about them. You can drill down in some but others are still not very actionable or visible (ok, that number went down, but what was the cause? what's the criteria with what you measure that?)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Enhancesoft LLC
    • Language package should permit also the translation of the templates
    • It should not require the user to enter his details when creating a new ticket. This should be filled automatically
    • Improve the layout of the ticket messages to facilitate reading and interpretation.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Help Scout
    We are receiving feedback from the organizational level that they may want us to transition to a different solution to provide consistency across the company.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Enhancesoft LLC
    It does well what I was looking for on a ticketing tool
    Read full review
    Usability
    Help Scout
    Help Scout is a great solution for support teams. There are many articles and webinars to help you learn how to use Help Scout. There are also many features to help make your workflows easier and more efficient. I would readily recommend Help Scout to any small or medium-growing support teams.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Enhancesoft LLC
    I am familiar with osTicket and this allow me to teach all the staff and support them whenever they have any concern regarding the usability and following processes.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Help Scout
    No answers on this topic
    Enhancesoft LLC
    Being open-source it is community supported. There is a hosted version that provides better support. Honestly, I have not really needed support
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Help Scout
    No answers on this topic
    Enhancesoft LLC
    Grant all prerequisites are met, before installing to avoid any issue during the installation
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Help Scout
    Only have minimal experience with G-Suite for a much smaller company. This worked well for that organization but did not have similar specialization functions that suite our larger organization very well. Help Scout's pricing makes sense, and continues to service our needs well. Minimal usage of other programs, but have no need to explore alternatives at this time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Enhancesoft LLC
    osTicket has proven to be a very useful tool for the team to help support the business. Open-source was the right price point and self-hosting as mentioned was quite important (however I believe that osTicket does have a hosting solution available if needed). Jitbit was a close contender but didn't like how it doesn't separate people submitting tickets from users acting as agents. So all in quite happy with the choice.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Help Scout
    • We are able to retain our customer base due to the outstanding customer service our Customer Experience department provides. Without an organized tool like Help Scout, this would not be possible. We pride ourselves in quick response times to customers and are able to do so by effectively routing tickets to the right agents.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Enhancesoft LLC
    • When we had a hosted version of osTicket, we were saving some time by having them work on our setup, but we were spending a lot. Switching to our own osTicket build from their open sourcing not only saved us money upfront but we actually spent LESS time developing because we knew our ideas and didn't have to explain them to another (unrelated) party.
    • Creating our own ticketing infrastructure for institutional data requests has been a game changer for us. We have been able to interface with our enterprise email client and create a level of customization that meets our existing informational technology culture.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Help Scout Screenshots

    Screenshot of Build better relationships with your customers, and work together better as a teamScreenshot of Tools designed specifically for team collaboration on customer supportScreenshot of Docs Knowledge Base provides self-service that sets your customers up for successScreenshot of The conversation report can change the conversation with your customers from problems to praise by pinpointing what they write in about and when.Screenshot of Productivity Reports track your team's customer-helping velocity and identify sticking points to push through with even greater momentum.Screenshot of Happiness Reports are the closest you can get to your customer's true feelings without hiring a telepath.