Kustomer vs. SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Kustomer
ScoreĀ 8.3Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
N/A
Kustomer is a customer service CRM platform built for managing high support volume by optimizing experiences throughout the customer service journey. Kustomer was acquired by Facebook in late 2020, but spun out in 2023 and re-launched as an independent entity, Kustomer, LLC.
$89
per month per user
SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
ScoreĀ 7.9Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
N/A
SolarWinds 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.N/A
Pricing
KustomerSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
Editions & Modules
Enterprise
$89
per month, per user
Ultimate
$139
per month, per user
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
KustomerSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAll plans require an annual subscription and 8 users minimum.ā€”
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
KustomerSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
Considered Both Products
Kustomer
Chose Kustomer
Kustomer simply does more than any other platform I've been able to work with. Sure some others will give you a handful of neat tricks built in for managing a channel or two but those rarely offer any external integrative capacity or limit what you can do in connections. ā€¦
SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
KustomerSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Kustomer
8.6
17 Ratings
9% above category average
SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
9.8
19 Ratings
22% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.116 Ratings9.819 Ratings
Expert directory8.314 Ratings10.013 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications8.513 Ratings9.817 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation8.013 Ratings9.014 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission8.517 Ratings9.99 Ratings
Ticket response9.217 Ratings9.99 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Kustomer
7.3
13 Ratings
6% below category average
SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
9.4
8 Ratings
19% above category average
External knowledge base8.213 Ratings9.46 Ratings
Internal knowledge base6.413 Ratings9.48 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Kustomer
8.6
17 Ratings
11% above category average
SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
9.4
9 Ratings
20% above category average
Customer portal8.611 Ratings9.78 Ratings
IVR8.310 Ratings00 Ratings
Social integration7.714 Ratings10.04 Ratings
Email support9.217 Ratings9.89 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration9.212 Ratings8.04 Ratings
Best Alternatives
KustomerSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
Small Businesses
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
ScoreĀ 9.0Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
ScoreĀ 9.0Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
ScoreĀ 9.0Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
ScoreĀ 9.0Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Enterprises
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud
ScoreĀ 8.7Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud
ScoreĀ 8.7Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
KustomerSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(38 ratings)
8.4
(19 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.9
(2 ratings)
10.0
(4 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(4 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
6.4
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.9
(7 ratings)
10.0
(5 ratings)
In-Person Training
7.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.3
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.9
(2 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Configurability
7.9
(2 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.2
(2 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.7
(2 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(2 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
KustomerSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
Likelihood to Recommend
Kustomer, LLC
I would say the greatest strength of Kustomer is its flexibility. In the hands of a skilled admin, it can be adapted to tons and tons of different use cases. I've been able to make custom displays for different groups of agents, produce complex cross sections of users, draw interesting data relationships combining marketing contacts and customer-initiated contacts. For example, there's really no other data source in our company which could tell you which users received a specific promo code and checked out with it, received their delivery within 14 days and then can related that to the number of times they contacted us about using our product. At the intersection of communication, marketing, data, and relationship-management, Kustomer shines at the center. I would say it falls short when you are trying to coordinate multiple "side conversations" with multiple sources to resolve an issue. This is a tough task for any type of platform, but if you're maintaining 3 different email chains with a 3PL partner, the customer, and a separate internal conversation, it would be confusing anyway!
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.
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Pros
Kustomer, LLC
  • All customer data (past orders, communication with customer service, rewards account data) is in one place. This helps agents avoid confusion and reduces the number of tabs they need to open.
  • The Knowledge Base (or K Base) is very helpful. Any time we roll out a new policy or have a limited-time promotion, we can add all the relevant information and worksheets there for the convenience of the agents. That way they can stay in a chat while looking up the answer to a question.
  • We can seamlessly move from chat into email if the customer leaves or the queue times are too long. All the interactions will stay on the customer profile page, so they are kept up to date.
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.
Read full review
Cons
Kustomer, LLC
  • Small chat window--maybe the ability to chat in real-time with the person who received your ticket would help.
  • Different teams could have differently colored notes.
  • The notification bell could be a bit bigger. It's hard to keep track sometimes, when a lot of notes pile on.
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
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Likelihood to Renew
Kustomer, LLC
I believe at this time, Kustomer is doing a good job. I really love its functionality at the moment.
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.
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Usability
Kustomer, LLC
There is a learning curve, but it is more than worth it, especially to have a dedicated resource pointed at Kustomer and any other software it interacts with. The basic implementation is useful, and powerful - certainly a MASSIVE upgrade over taking care of your customers in an email inbox or shuffling between multiple windows and applications! It is also set up really well to grow and reconfigure with your business. I'm a big fan.
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SolarWinds
The system has time and time again proven to be much easier to use and setup for both technicians and end users. It is simple enough to enter a ticket for end users, and even easier to communicate with logging back and forth because you can reply to the ticket emails to enter comments on the tickets. The technician side is a little clunky at first, but after looking at it for a few minutes it's very clear to see what you need to do to accomplish the goals. The mobile interface is snappy and responsive. It's a great product overall.
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Reliability and Availability
Kustomer, LLC
I gave it a 10 rating because it is very helpful and the availability is there when needed. I have never had issues with application errors or unplanned outages so far.
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SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
Performance
Kustomer, LLC
Kustomer Performances need improvement. The pages do load very slowly but that might be because of the information they carry. If Kustomer integrates with other software or systems it does slow the performance. They need to find a solution to this.
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SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Kustomer, LLC
I did not reach out to Kustomer support when we had an issue. Still, whenever we provide feedback to our manager regarding what can improve based on our experience using Kustomer, our manager always comments that Kustomer support always replies with some positive feedback based on our suggestions.
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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
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In-Person Training
Kustomer, LLC
Because they are very hands-on in training us and very approachable
Read full review
SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Kustomer, LLC
The best training I did was online. Videos teach as well as explain how everything works and what Kustomer's functions are.
Read full review
SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Kustomer, LLC
Nothing really because it is easy to use. After an hour of using it, we're already getting the hang of it.
Read full review
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.
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Alternatives Considered
Kustomer, LLC
Apps like Intercom, Zendesk, and Gorgios all treat customer inquiries as tickets, just tracking that one issue or interaction with a customer. Kustomer treats each customer as an individual, which allows us to provide top-notch customer service. Customers love that we're able to be more conversational and informal, while still solving their issues quickly. It also helps us build relationships with customers and increases repeat orders.
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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.
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Scalability
Kustomer, LLC
Because customer is flexible and scalable
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SolarWinds
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Kustomer, LLC
  • Weā€™re getting so much positive feedback ā€” which is not something you traditionally associate with a customer care team ā€” because weā€™re making it effortless for customers to deliver both positive and negative feedback, and we can now resolve the bad feedback really really quickly.
  • Primarily from our increased efficiency with Kustomer, weā€™ve seen a significant reduction of $3 to $4 for every cost per contact.
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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
Read full review
ScreenShots

Kustomer Screenshots

Screenshot of Example of a customer profile within Kustomer.Screenshot of Example of how Kustomerā€™s automated chats can save agents time by handling less complex requests automatically.

SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD) Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of