TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Kayako

    Score6.8 out of 10
    N/AKayako is a help desk and customer support platform that helps businesses automate workflows, improve agent productivity, and deliver personalized customer experiences across email, chat, and social media.

    $79

    per month

    Leadfwd

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/ALeadfwd, from the company of the same name in Staten Island, combines B2B Prospecting, Sales Outreach and Account-Based Marketing. It replaces the former INBOX25.N/A
    Pricing
    KayakoLeadfwd
    Editions & Modules
    Kayako One
    $79
    per month
    Enterprise
    Contact Sales
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    KayakoLeadfwd
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    KayakoLeadfwd
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Kayako and Leadfwd
    Feature
    Kayako
    2.0
    11 Ratings
    122% below category average
    Leadfwd
    -
    Ratings
    Organize and prioritize service tickets1.011 Ratings00 Ratings
    Expert directory1.05 Ratings00 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation1.07 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ticket creation and submission7.011 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ticket response1.011 Ratings00 Ratings
    Self Help Community
    Comparison of Self Help Community features of Kayako and Leadfwd
    Feature
    Kayako
    1.0
    9 Ratings
    156% below category average
    Leadfwd
    -
    Ratings
    External knowledge base1.09 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internal knowledge base1.08 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-Channel Help
    Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Kayako and Leadfwd
    Feature
    Kayako
    1.0
    10 Ratings
    156% below category average
    Leadfwd
    -
    Ratings
    Customer portal1.07 Ratings00 Ratings
    IVR1.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social integration1.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email support1.010 Ratings00 Ratings
    Help Desk CRM integration1.06 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Kayako and Leadfwd
    Feature
    Kayako
    -
    Ratings
    Leadfwd
    7.4
    2 Ratings
    4% below category average
    WYSIWYG email editor00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
    Dynamic content00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Landing pages00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    A/B testing00 Ratings3.22 Ratings
    Mobile optimization00 Ratings6.22 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting00 Ratings9.62 Ratings
    List management00 Ratings8.62 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences00 Ratings8.82 Ratings
    Lead Management
    Comparison of Lead Management features of Kayako and Leadfwd
    Feature
    Kayako
    -
    Ratings
    Leadfwd
    8.0
    2 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Lead nurturing automation00 Ratings8.42 Ratings
    Lead scoring and grading00 Ratings7.32 Ratings
    Data quality management00 Ratings7.72 Ratings
    Automated sales alerts and tasks00 Ratings8.52 Ratings
    Campaign Management
    Comparison of Campaign Management features of Kayako and Leadfwd
    Feature
    Kayako
    -
    Ratings
    Leadfwd
    7.0
    1 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Calendaring00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
    Event/webinar marketing00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Social Media Marketing
    Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Kayako and Leadfwd
    Feature
    Kayako
    -
    Ratings
    Leadfwd
    7.5
    1 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Social sharing and campaigns00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Social profile integration00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Kayako and Leadfwd
    Feature
    Kayako
    -
    Ratings
    Leadfwd
    6.3
    2 Ratings
    17% below category average
    Dashboards00 Ratings6.52 Ratings
    Standard reports00 Ratings6.32 Ratings
    Custom reports00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Kayako and Leadfwd
    Feature
    Kayako
    -
    Ratings
    Leadfwd
    9.1
    2 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Role-based workflow & approvals00 Ratings8.82 Ratings
    Customizability00 Ratings7.92 Ratings
    Integration with Salesforce.com00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Integration with SugarCRM00 Ratings9.62 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    KayakoLeadfwd
    Small Businesses
    Help Scout
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Vbout
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Bloomreach
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Iterable
    Score8.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    KayakoLeadfwd
    Likelihood to Recommend
    1.0
    (22 ratings)
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.8
    (11 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Availability
    7.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    2.1
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    KayakoLeadfwd
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Kayako
    When it works, It's without a doubt a great help desk solution. It is perfect for our usage, and have rolled it out company-wide. It's great if you have multiple departments. We have it set up so most items come through a single desk that then hands out tickets to their proper department. There may be cheaper options for smaller organizations but for one that is as service-driven as ours, we really think Kayako is a great fit.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Leadfwd
    I think Inbox25 is a great fit for companies outgrowing lower-end, disconnected email marketing applications. Companies with a more formalized marketing organization that send a lot of emails (tens of thousands monthly or more) will be better served with a product like Inbox25 that is less complex, easier to use, and much more affordable (30% lower by our experience) from the larger marketing automation products on the market. Our company has 3 full-time marketing staff with over 100,000 contacts (with valid emails) that we target in various direct and drip email campaigns and Inbox25 fits our needs just fine. I suspect that we may outgrow the product eventually but I think it'll meet our needs just fine for many years to come.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Kayako
    • Gives a very good report on an individual level of what is being done for a customer or corporate issue.
    • Easy to understand who has what, what the tickets are about, how long they have been opened and how many times the customer/employee have gone back and forth with each other.
    • Nice dashboard view.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Leadfwd
    • SugarCRM integration
    • Ease of building workflows
    • Responsive, helpful support team
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Kayako
    • Departments need a bit of work. Even though you can have multiple departments, the only changes that can be made are globally. If you want independent queues within the departments, you have to do a lot of work that can be very confusing.
    • Survey system is not up to speed. Kayako really needs to add Net Promoter Score into their system. Also, if a staff user removes their name from an incident ticket, it removes them from the survey so you really can't even get a good estimate of how well your staff is in the eyes of the customer.
    • Very difficult to implement when you already have a customer base. Setting them up in organizations is difficult. Also, the sign-up for new customers is quirky. If you send an email to Kayako, it will say you are not an authorized user, however, it will store your email address. If you try to send an email a second time, it will go through. This is one of many reasons why we decided to move from Kayako to Oracle Service Cloud.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Leadfwd
    • Inbox25 is in a growth phase and has transformed their product pretty fast. With that comes an increased need to continually learn how to leverage new features.
    • Tutorials and product documentation exist but it is relatively minimal. They overcome this with personalized, one-on-one training that is recorded for future review using a project management platform.
    • Inbox25 has expanded beyond Sugar CRM to include Salesforce.com integration. I'm not sure if they plan to add integrations to other applications but they are positioned well for growth.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Kayako
    • We are grandfathered in on their old Software-assurance pricing and our continued use costs us only a few hundred dollars a year (excluding hosting expenses)
    • Our team's processes are now heavily ingrained in the system
    • We have not been shown a more compelling option that is more cost-effective while still offering all the features we've come to expect
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Leadfwd
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Kayako
    I did not come from an IT background and I picked this program up quickly
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Leadfwd
    No answers on this topic
    Reliability and Availability
    Kayako
    They are really good, but it takes a while to get back, because of the large time difference to the Eastern US. However, they are very helpful.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Leadfwd
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Kayako
    • We didn't have to use support too much, but when we did, they were able to assist us and help us make everything work.
    • Mostly we used their Online KB and step by step instructions to get all of our issues resolved.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Leadfwd
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Kayako
    Three years in we are about as happy with Kayako as we could be. We've had several employee's leave and on-boarding new hires was easier than it has ever been as things are uniform and consistent across the entire application.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Leadfwd
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Kayako
    We were using Spiceworks for a few years before switching to Kayako but found that it wasn't as customizable or as user friendly for our customers. The SNMP scanning and inventory features with Spiceworks was nice but we needed more of a Help Desk that would allow us to scale our services to more companies.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Leadfwd
    Different platforms stack up particularly well for different use cases. INBOX25 is our default choice for SugarCRM users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Kayako
    • Tickets were definitely responded to faster once we implemented the audible alarm that would go off when new tickets came into the queue. This was possible because of the API.
    • Since the system was email based we could set our monitoring software up to generate tickets automatically via email for customers when it found something out of the ordinary.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Leadfwd
    • We have successfully moved cold suspects to leads and leads to opportunities, and opportunities to customers with Inbox25. We are just now starting to realize more value given that we've only recently started using the more advanced drip marketing and lead scoring features.
    • When we used the pay-as-you-go version we were paying just pennies per email and remained CAN-Spam Act compliant. It was harder to quantify the ROI then but it was apparent that email marketing was working and moving prospects from one sales stage to another. It was also very useful for re-engaging prospects and promoting products and services to customers.
    • Our total investment in the advanced edition is less $30,000 annually and we expect the ROI to be less than one year. It could have been sooner if we'd have been more thoughtful in our initial implementation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots