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    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

    Thunderbird

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/AThunderbird is an open-source email management application from MZLA Technologies Corporation, a subsidiary of Mozilla.N/A
    Pricing
    KayakoThunderbird
    Editions & Modules
    Kayako One
    $79
    per month
    Enterprise
    Contact Sales
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    KayakoThunderbird
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    KayakoThunderbird
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Kayako and Thunderbird
    Feature
    Kayako
    2.0
    11 Ratings
    122% below category average
    Thunderbird
    -
    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 Thunderbird
    Feature
    Kayako
    1.0
    9 Ratings
    156% below category average
    Thunderbird
    -
    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 Thunderbird
    Feature
    Kayako
    1.0
    10 Ratings
    156% below category average
    Thunderbird
    -
    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
    Best Alternatives
    KayakoThunderbird
    Small Businesses
    Help Scout
    Score9.3 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    KayakoThunderbird
    Likelihood to Recommend
    1.0
    (22 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.8
    (11 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 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
    KayakoThunderbird
    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
    Mozilla
    I like that it's free, I like that it's open-source, and the fact that it allows IMAP lets me have this on all 3 laptops and it's synced. I would never consider using it as my primary email client, however; just too clunky and can't navigate around fast enough the way I do with Gmail. And not even close to having all the features I'd need that Gmail does: 30 second undo-sending, canned responses, easy-to-create signatures for each email address (I literally toggle over to Gmail, compose a message, and paste my sig into the body of Thunderbird emails, so clunky), all spam ends up in my inbox even after I've marked enough as spam that it should know, email labeling and filtering... Gmail is just way more advanced and feature-ful. But, Thunderbird does beat my ridiculous RoundCube webmail interface!
    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
    Mozilla
    • Email receiving
    • Email sending
    • Email composition
    • Ability to add calendar and task plugins
    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
    Mozilla
    • definitely needs a mobile /andriod version
    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
    Mozilla
    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
    Mozilla
    Thunderbird is a software very simple to use, but efficient in every aspect. We don't have a specific need, apart to manage email in both directions, and Thunderbird does it's job in the best way. I would like to see a more friendly interface, with some colours more, to help the sight in the email searching. When we have many of them, sometimes it's difficult to find the one that we need.
    Read full review
    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
    Mozilla
    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
    Mozilla
    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
    Mozilla
    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
    Mozilla
    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
    Mozilla
    • Its FREE and donation based. Can't get better than that.
    • I love that we aren't giving away our privacy to Google.
    • And I especially love that it's a grass-rootsy endeavor.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots