Kustomer vs. Spiceworks Help Desk

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Kustomer
Score 8.2 out of 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
Spiceworks Help Desk
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Spiceworks offers a set of free tools for IT network management and help desk support ticketing. The inventory management system essentially provides comprehensive device information for asset management. The Spiceworks Network Monitor provides information on observed IT for problem tracking and server performance monitoring. And finally, the Spiceworks Help Desk Software lets IT personnel stay on top of issues across the network with a ticketing system. Help desk roles with role-based…N/A
Pricing
KustomerSpiceworks Help Desk
Editions & Modules
Enterprise
$89
per month, per user
Ultimate
$139
per month, per user
All Tiers
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
KustomerSpiceworks Help Desk
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.
More Pricing Information
Features
KustomerSpiceworks Help Desk
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Kustomer
8.5
17 Ratings
8% above category average
Spiceworks Help Desk
8.3
55 Ratings
6% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.116 Ratings8.054 Ratings
Expert directory8.314 Ratings7.147 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications8.513 Ratings8.542 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation8.013 Ratings6.445 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission8.217 Ratings9.954 Ratings
Ticket response9.117 Ratings9.953 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Kustomer
7.3
13 Ratings
4% below category average
Spiceworks Help Desk
7.2
52 Ratings
5% below category average
External knowledge base8.213 Ratings7.948 Ratings
Internal knowledge base6.413 Ratings6.648 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Kustomer
8.5
17 Ratings
11% above category average
Spiceworks Help Desk
7.4
52 Ratings
3% below category average
Customer portal8.611 Ratings7.746 Ratings
IVR8.310 Ratings5.711 Ratings
Social integration7.314 Ratings6.427 Ratings
Email support9.117 Ratings9.146 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration9.112 Ratings7.928 Ratings
Best Alternatives
KustomerSpiceworks Help Desk
Small Businesses
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Front
Front
Score 8.8 out of 10
Front
Front
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
KustomerSpiceworks Help Desk
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(38 ratings)
9.6
(83 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.9
(2 ratings)
10.0
(29 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(4 ratings)
9.0
(9 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(2 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Performance
6.4
(2 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.7
(7 ratings)
8.7
(26 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
(7 ratings)
Configurability
7.9
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.7
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
KustomerSpiceworks Help Desk
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!
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Spiceworks Ziff Davis
It's a great helpdesk solution - we currently have five years of data within it, roughly 25,000 tickets. The older edition is a great inventory and software license tracking tool. It is easy for users to use the interface and submit tickets and requests on the web, and its email integration is solid. The new version is a below-average system monitoring tool, only giving up/down status and a few other metrics.
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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.
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Spiceworks Ziff Davis
  • It helps to multitask, even on the go with the mobile App.
  • We can customize to meet your needs with automated responses, notifications, and templates.
  • Detailed reports allow managers to keep track [of] and analyze data.
  • Allows for a database to store notes helpful for future tickets.
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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.
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Spiceworks Ziff Davis
  • I have always wanted a way to redirect a support request into another IS bin, such as a development task.
  • It's possible to extract the data from the Spiceworks database, but it would be helpful if the process to do so were easier.
  • Improved ability to customize the system generated emails to improve the formatting and company branding.
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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.
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Spiceworks Ziff Davis
Spiceworks is a free tool, so there would be no hesitation if we are required to upgrade it. We have installed Spiceworks on a dedicated server with more than enough resources to get the most from this tool, so we will have this running in our department for years to come.
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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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Spiceworks Ziff Davis
Spiceworks is user friendly and easy to set up. It can be customized to suit your needs. If there are any problems, you can go to the community forums for support and be in contact with many IT Pros, as well as the Spiceworks support staff and development teams who are always happy to help users out
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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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Spiceworks Ziff Davis
We use it both locally on our own server so up time is decided by us and we also use the hosted help desk. We have never had an outage of that.
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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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Spiceworks Ziff Davis
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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Spiceworks Ziff Davis
Spiceworks has been working out of the box, and some of the basic customizations have been successful with just our internal staff handling. We don't have any other issues with the tool. It provides us with the inventory information we want in a quick and concise report in a variety of formats for our team.
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In-Person Training
Kustomer, LLC
Because they are very hands-on in training us and very approachable
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Spiceworks Ziff Davis
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.
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Spiceworks Ziff Davis
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.
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Spiceworks Ziff Davis
If you can spin up a VM to run it on, you'll thank yourself later. If you have remote sites, set up a local server (or dedicated computer) at each site and set them up as remote collectors for the main site. You'll save time and bandwidth
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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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Spiceworks Ziff Davis
EGroupware UI is clunky and hard to use, Jira is great but the pricing is expensive in comparison with spice works that has a free version and you can test it out properly before buying and make a correct decision based on your business plan and company objectives with the right software.
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Scalability
Kustomer, LLC
Because customer is flexible and scalable
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Spiceworks Ziff Davis
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Kustomer, LLC
  • We’re getting so much positive feedback — which is not something you traditionally associate with a customer care team — because we’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, we’ve seen a significant reduction of $3 to $4 for every cost per contact.
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Spiceworks Ziff Davis
  • Positive - Allow organizations to implement structured Help Desk procedures.
  • Positive - IT can begin to quantify their tickets and uncover needs within the organization.
  • Positive - IT can develop a solid roadmap with [the] management of future needs, equipment refresh schedules, etc.
  • Positive - IT can pinpoint employees who may need extra training or updated equipment based on historical ticketing data.
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ScreenShots

Kustomer Screenshots

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