According to Salesforce stats, almost 91% of customers are more likely to return if they get the type of experience they prefer.

To ensure this, you might need a compact solution to streamline the overall support process and make your customers’ journey smooth.

Today, we will explore the 11 best email ticketing systems for 2025 to enhance customer success rate and scale your business.

Why is an email ticketing system important for business?

Imagine you’re using a shared inbox that multiple support agents access, leading to duplicate responses and confusion.

Or, picture one person trying to manage thousands of emails at once. This makes it hard to track each email and know who is helping which clients.

That’s why an email ticketing system becomes essential for support agents. It turns customer emails into tickets, making it easier for support agents to manage customer queries.

Thus, you’ll have a more organized support system that simplifies support management.

Moreover, it offers a well-organized dashboard to monitor tasks, assign agents, track productivity, automation, and more.

Criteria of the best email ticketing system

Selecting an ideal ticketing system for your business is not easy. There are some key factors that you need to take into consideration to streamline your support. For example,

• User-friendly interface: As your support team has to use a ticketing system 24/7 to handle customer queries, an intuitive, fast, organized, and reliable interface will help your support reps to work better.
• Integration capability: To prevent data segregation, you should have some key integrations such as CRM, Email, WhatsApp, Slack, Telegram, Twitter, and similar tools.
• Scalability and flexibility: Suppose your business is at its peak and you are dealing with thousands of customers daily. Therefore, make sure your ticketing system is versatile and responsive to new challenges like getting millions of queries, and recurring different channels and user manuals.
• Cost-effectiveness: A cost-effective system is necessary to balance between versatility and affordability. So that you get the most return on investment to justify your expense.

So, these are some crucial things to remember before choosing the right customer support ticketing system for your business. Without further ado, let’s get into the list and find out which solution works best for you.

11 best email ticketing systems of 2024

If you’re in a hurry, click here for a brief overview

1. Fluent Support

Fluent Support is an absolute gem for a self-hosted helpdesk plugin. It is ideal for users who are seeking affordable, user-friendly, and well-maintained solutions. It’s a powerful self-hosted email ticketing system with versatile features and an intuitive interface. 

The ticketing system is designed to do many repetitive tasks like agent auto-assigning, ticket prioritization, and automated replies. This ensures time-saving and efficient support operation for your business.

Fluent support is fully equipped with everything a customer support system possibly needs. Your team does not need to take any extra burden.

Moreover, the team behind Fluent Support is committed to providing you with the best services. That’s why within just 3 years in the market 8000+ businesses are now using Fluent Support as their self-hosted support plugin.

Do you know why it comes top on the list? Because of its affordability and versatile functionality. So, whether you are a small enterprise or a startup, give it a try to transform your ticket management system.

Key features: 

• Unlimited tickets, agents, and users: No limits on ticket volume, support agents, or user accounts.
• AI-powered: Its AI-driven integrations like ticket summarization, tone analysis, generative reply, and fine tuning make the customer experience seamless and smooth.
• Workflow automation: Allowing both manual and automatic workflows enables segmentation, agent assignment, ticket closing, etc.
• Customizable dashboard: Get a customizable dashboard and WordPress widgets for more accessibility.
• Integration with 20+ tools: Seamlessly connect with 20+ plugins and external tools to enhance productivity and communication.
• Response delay Tracking: Provides necessary data such as Response time, Closing rate, and response rates to ensure timely customer support.
• Auto draft: Preventing ticket loss by automatically saving information.
• Email piping: Allows you to check tickets directly from your support email, ensuring efficient handling of customer inquiries.
• Calendar heatmap: This can predict the time and day you will most likely to face ticket overload.

Pricing:

Fluent Support offers both free and premium versions. The premium version starts at $129 per year, includes:

• Customizable ticket submission portal
• Automated agent assign
• Workflow automation
• Priority support and More.

Comment: The most prominent thing about Fluent Support is that you don’t need to spend money on extra add-ons after you buy the premium package. This quality makes Fluent Support the most affordable and compact email ticketing system for WordPress users.

Verdict: Highly recommended for businesses using WordPress.

2. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is a web-based ticketing system. It has versatile features including shared inbox, agent collision detection, and automation. These features help businesses streamline their support services through automated ticket routing and customer self-service portals. They can also integrate with third-party applications.

While the wide range of features can make setup complex, Freshdesk makes up for it with AI-powered automation. This feature scans and evaluates tickets hourly. Whether you provide customer service or support, Freshdesk covers every task in depth.

Key features: 

• Automated ticket creation: Convert all emails and inquiries into tickets.
• Ticket Dispatch: Automatically suggest ticket fields to categorize, prioritize, and route incoming tickets.
• Collision detection: Ensures that multiple agents don’t end up working on the same ticket by accident.
• Automation: Automate follow-ups, escalations, and other tasks using specific time and event-based triggers to perform any action of your choice. 
• SLA management: Set deadlines for ticket response and resolution based on different business hours or categories.
• Canned response: Provide quick, consistent responses to common questions by creating preformatted replies.
• Reporting and analytics: Provide detailed reports and analytics on ticket volume, response times, resolution times, agent performance, and customer satisfaction.
• Customize agent roles: Give differential permissions for actions according to the roles and responsibilities of agents.

Pricing:

Freshdesk offers both free and premium versions. The premium version starts at $15/agent/month, includes: 

• Email ticketing system
• 1000+ marketplace apps
• SLA management & business hours
• In-depth helpdesk report
• Custom SSL and More.

Comment: Freshdesk’s pricing is based on a per-agent model, so adding more agents costs more. However, it offers many features and integrations, making customer service much easier.

Verdict: Recommended for mid-sized enterprises.

3. Help Scout

Help Scout is an email-based ticketing system that simplifies mailbox management. With features like ticket routing, automation, and seamless integrations with platforms like Salesforce and Zendesk, it enhances customer service efficiency. It also comes with built-in tools like a knowledge base and live chat for extensive support solutions.

Help Scout combines user-friendly functionality with powerful automation. It supports customer self-service options and integrates smoothly with existing systems, ensuring a streamlined customer support experience.

Additionally, Help Scout uses its cloud storage for tickets and information, which might raise trust concerns. However, their large customer base proves their reliability in the business world.

Key features: 

• Email integration: Allows emails to convert into tickets for unified communication.
• Ticket management: Capabilities like tagging, assignment, prioritization, and status tracking are included to ensure proper handling of customer inquiries.
• Automation: Automation of workflow, query, and hourly report-based replies.
• Response templates: Pre-defined response templates enable agents to quickly respond to common inquiries while maintaining consistency in communication.
• Team collaboration: Assign conversations, leave internal notes, and see when another team member is replying to avoid duplicate replies.
• Analytics and reporting: Facilities of custom reports with unlimited reporting history.
• Knowledge Base integration: Access and share relevant articles or resources with customers directly with the ticketing system.

Pricing:

HelpScout has several packages starting from $25/month, Includes:

• Automated workflows
• Advanced API access
• Beacon help widget
• API and 100+ integrations
• Live chat and More.

Comment: Help Scout charges you by the number of agents. Also, they have tiered features for each plan that aren’t available for cheaper plans. You have to choose your plans wisely.

Verdict: Recommended for enterprises.

4. Zendesk

Zendesk is a popular web-based platform that offers an email ticketing system, AI-driven automation, live chat, etc. It combines all support channels into one workspace, making it easier for agents to manage requests. On the other hand, AI features route tickets to the right agent and suggest solutions, helping provide faster, personalized support. Automation saves time by solving requests without human help.

Despite all these excellent features, Zendesk has some complexities. Users with basic knowledge may face difficulties while implementing the integrations. However, Zendesk is a modern-day solution that offers a huge number of features and ways through their ticketing system to accelerate your customer service.

Key features: 

• Ticketing system: centralized hub to connect all customer conversations for a complete view of each customer.
• AI agents: AI agents solve customer issues on their own across all of your channels.
• Reporting and analytics: Prebuilt analytics dashboard with multiple data collection facilities.
• Extensive integrations: Offers over 1,500 apps and integrations for enhanced functionality.
• Routing and intelligence: Automatically send your ticket to agent best agent by analyzing the problem.
• AI and automation: Advance features to control the workflow include chatbots, ticket routing, frontline, etc.
• Multilingual support: Provide support and localize your help center in multiple languages (40+).

Pricing:

Zendesk has a variety of plans starting from $19/agent/month, including:

• 1,000+ apps & integrations
• AI Agent
• Custom business rules (triggers & automation)
• Pre-defined responses (macros)
• Eligible for quality assurance add-on

Comment: Zendesk went very far based on its facilities and features. But there are many add-ons you have to purchase to enjoy and see its full efficiency.

Verdict: Recommended for enterprises and large businesses. 

5. Hiver

Hiver is a Gmail-based shared inbox ticketing system for businesses seeking to optimize Gmail for scalability. It allows you to assign emails to team members, track progress, automate tasks, and produce reports within the Gmail interface. This keeps response times fast without using any extra software.

Hiver provides a Google workspace for agents to collaborate across multiple channels like email, live chat, chatbot, voice communication, and knowledge base. Moreover, Hiver’s Kanban boards provide visual workflows for project management, enabling teams to set project status and track task progress. However, It’s not a scalable solution. It can be limiting for larger customer support agents looking to achieve more than just Gmail-based collaboration.

Key features: 

• Gmail integration: Organize and track emails as tasks and drive visibility into your team’s workload.
• Workflow automation: Build rule-based automation with triggers, conditions, and actions. 
• Team collaboration: Work together as a team with features like shared drafts, approvals workflows, collision detection, etc.
• Multi-channel support: Multi-channel engagement, including channels like Email, Live Chat, Voice and WhatsApp.
• Reporting and analytics: Get insights with users, tags, contacts, and customer dashboards.
• Auto assignment: Auto-assign incoming emails in a round-robin fashion among your team members.

Pricing:

Hiver offers customer-friendly packages starting from $24/user/month, including:

• Team collaboration
• Multi-channel engagement
• Asana, Jira, Slack, and QuickBooks app integrations
• Round-robin auto-assignment

Comment: Hiver is great for companies using Gmail for support. However, enterprises or businesses with a large customer base might need more advanced ticketing systems.

Verdict: Recommended for startups.

6. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is an email ticketing system that helps teams manage emails and other channels. Its sentiment analysis tool shows the mood of customer emails, so agents can quickly respond to unhappy customers. This makes customer support faster and more efficient.

Zoho Desk also has more useful features like a chatbot, automatic ticket tagging, and basic reply drafting through its AI assistant, Zia. So, teams can understand and improve customer experiences by marking emails as positive, negative, or neutral. However, Zoho Desk may not be the easiest software to navigate but its AI functionality makes up for it.

Key features: 

• Sentiment analysis: Identifies the mood of customer emails, allowing agents to prioritize and respond to negative feedback quickly.
• Multichannel support: Collects tickets from email, social media, live chat, web forms, and phone calls, ensuring comprehensive customer support.
• AI assistant (Zia): Provides a chatbot, automatic ticket tagging, and basic reply drafting to streamline support tasks.
• Reporting and analytics: Generate detailed reports to help teams monitor performance and improve customer service.
• Ticket management: Offers traditional ticket management features to track and resolve customer inquiries efficiently.
• Accessibility control: Empower users of all abilities to work on tickets smoothly.

Pricing:

Zoho Desk has several packages starting from $20/user/month, including:

• Ticketing system
• Sentiment analysis
• Multichannel support
• AI assistant (Zia)
• Reporting and analytics and more.

Comment: Zoho Desk is heavily AI-based. If an AI virtual assistant is important to you, choose Zoho Desk. However, if you prefer a more advanced and better interface, then choose something else.

Verdict: Recommended for small businesses.

7. Awesome Support

Awesome Support is a WordPress ticketing plugin designed to meet the diverse needs of businesses. It simplifies creating, assigning, and tracking support tickets organized in one place without the chaos of scattered messages. This system is well-suited for various customer service needs. Its advanced tools, such as custom forms, analytics, and AI integrations, help businesses provide specific information and efficient support.

Awesome Support is a compact service system that provides every necessary tool to improve customer support. Yet, it lacks most of the necessary plugin integrations and the packages are not affordable for a new startup business. 

Key features:

• Ticket management: Efficiently create, assign, and track support tickets from a centralized platform.
• Email integration: Seamless integration with email for managing customer inquiries directly within the help desk.
• Customizable workflows: Tailor workflows and processes to fit specific business needs and preferences.
• Multilingual support: Provide customer support in multiple languages to cater to a diverse customer base.
• Reporting and analytics: Generate insights into support team performance and customer satisfaction metrics.
• SLA management: Set and manage service level agreements (SLAs) to ensure timely resolution of customer issues.

Pricing:

Awesome Support has a free version plugin available in WordPress.The premium version starts from $149 per year, Including:

• Unlimited tickets
• Unlimited agents
• Canned response
• Custom status & labels and more.

Comment: Awesome support got both regular and bundle packages but add-ons are separated. You need to buy the necessary add-ons again. It can be a hassle.

Verdict: Not recommended.

8. HubSpot Service Hub

HubSpot Service Hub is part of HubSpot’s software suite, focusing on customer service alongside marketing and sales tools. It transforms customer service into a revenue driver through its AI tools and seamless integration with HubSpot’s other platforms. Not only does it help teams expand their support services, but it also fosters business growth by enhancing customer relationships.

Moreover, the free plan for managing emails, setting support tickets and using email templates to respond faster. This also includes live chat and Facebook Messenger for multichannel support. It helps teams to connect with customers more easily.

Key features:

• Email management: Manage emails from a shared inbox, assign tickets, and use email templates for quick responses.
• Workflow automation: Automate repetitive tasks and workflows to increase efficiency.
• Omnichannel messaging: Access multiple channels in the inbox and seamlessly switch between them.
• SLA management: Set and manage service level agreements to meet customer expectations
• Team collaboration: Facilitate collaboration among support teams with shared inboxes and internal notes.
• AI-driven Tools: Utilize AI for smarter customer interactions and proactive support.
• Integration: Seamless integration with HubSpot’s marketing and sales platforms for a unified customer view.

Pricing:

HubSpot Service Hub has both free and paid versions. Premium models start from $20/month/seat, including:

• Ticketing system
• Live chat
• Calling SDK
• Conversational bots
• Email templates
• Reporting dashboards and more.

Comment: While Service Hub may not offer the widest range of advanced support tools, it provides a compact ticketing system supported by a top-notch team.

Verdict: Recommended for mid to enterprise.

9. ProProfsDesk

ProProfsDesk is a Saas customer support and email ticketing system. It automates tasks like ticket assignments and notifications to speed up support processes. Agents share a dashboard to manage and prioritize support tickets easily. It integrates with tools like Slack and Salesforce for enhanced functionality and provides personalized support while reducing costs.

ProProfs Desk is a reliable and affordable system for handling startups. However, it lacks the extensive features of other SaaS ticketing systems and does not yet include any AI capabilities. 

Key features:

• Email ticketing system: Manage and track customer support tickets efficiently via email.
• Shared dashboard: View, assign, prioritize, and resolve support tickets from a centralized dashboard.
• Agent collision detection: Avoid multiple agents working on the same ticket accidentally.
• Parent-child ticketing: Break down parent tickets into a group of child tickets that can be worked on by different agents or teams.
• Customizable workflows: Organized workflows to fit specific business needs for streamlined operations.
• Customer satisfaction surveys: Gather feedback from customers to measure satisfaction and improve service quality.

Pricing:

ProProfsDesk offers both free and premium versions. The premium version starts from $59.99/month/user, including:

• Advanced automation and workflow customization
• Integration with Slack, Salesforce, and Zapier
• Reporting and analytics
• 24/7 priority support

Comment: ProProfs Desk’s free version includes all the features of the premium version. This unique aspect sets it apart from other ticketing systems in the list.

Verdict: Recommended for small businesses and startups.

10. Groove

Groove is an efficient email ticketing system designed with a user-friendly interface that simplifies setup and operation. It ensures customer engagement by supporting communication through various channels like email, live chat, social media, and phone calls.

Groove is a reliable service system for its simplicity and cost-effectiveness. It facilitates quick responses and efficient team collaboration, making it good for customer service management. However, Groove lacks modern functionalities and dedicated workforce management tools which may not match broader business needs.

Key features:

• Email ticketing system: Manage customer inquiries and support tickets efficiently via email.
• Live chat: Engage with customers in real-time through live chat for instant support.
• Social media integration: Monitor and respond to customer inquiries and comments across social media platforms.
• Team collaboration tools: Facilitate internal communication and collaboration among support teams.
• Automation: Automate repetitive tasks such as ticket assignments and follow-ups to improve efficiency.
• Customizable workflows: Efficient workflows to fit specific business needs and streamline operations.

Pricing:

Groove offers subscriptions starting at $20/user/month, which include:

• Included channels
• Web widget with contact form & knowledge base
• Collision detection
• Customer feedback and more.

Comment: Groove offers a limited number of integrations, lacks advanced features, and has fewer proof points for assisting medium and large businesses.

Verdict: Recommended for SMBs and startups.

11. Support Candy

Support Candy is a WordPress plugin for managing all support inquiries. It allows you to manage tickets centrally so that you can assign, and track tickets easily. One of the outstanding features is its email notification system, by which both your team and customers are up to date about ticket statuses without constant checking. Support Candy offers effective customization for almost every aspect of the product. You can customize the user interface, ticket submission page, and agent dashboard to match your branding.

Although Support Candy integrates with third-party knowledge base tools for creating articles, it has no sufficient native knowledge base functionality. They do not provide activity history or collision detection, so a high volume of support tickets can create confusion. Apart from that Support Candy is a reliable source of customer support for WordPress users.

Key features:

• Email piping: Allows customers and agents to create and reply to tickets directly from their email inboxes.
• Workflows: Unlock the power of automation with SupportCandy workflows, revolutionizing the way you manage your processes.
• Schedule tickets: Automatically create periodic tickets by setting recurring times and information.
• Canned reply: Agents can save their replies which can be accessed in just a few clicks while replying to the tickets.
• Export tickets: Export tickets in CSV format as per the current filter from the ticket list page.
• Assign agent rules: Conditionally assign agents to new tickets automatically using set rules and workload.

Pricing:

Support Candy has a free plugin version available on WordPress. However, there are several paid versions starting from $79/year, which include: 

• 1 site license
• 1-year plugin updates
• 1-year priority support
• All extensions included
• All integrations included

Comment: They charge based on the number of websites instead of agents. If you have more websites, you’ll get a better deal.

Verdict: Not recommended.

Comparison of email ticketing systems

You already have an idea of the brief functionalities of some of the best email-based ticketing systems available on the market. Here is a tabulated list to go through before deciding to make sure we get a clearer picture.

Software	Unlimited Products	Unlimited Agents	Email Piping	Calendar Heatmap	Integrations	Pricing
Fluent Support					20+	Freemium (Premium starts at $129/year)
Freshdesk					600+	Freemium (Premium starts at $15/month)
Help Scout					100+	Premium starts at $25/month
Zendesk					1000+	Premium starts at $19/month (billed annually)
Hiver					9	Premium starts at $24/month
Zoho Desk					900+	Premium starts at $20/month
Awesome support					9	Freemium (Premium starts at $149/year)
HubSpot Service Hub					1500+	Freemium (Premium starts at $20/month/seat)
ProProfs Desk					5	Freemium (Premium starts at $59.99/month)
Groove					16	Premium starts at $20/month
Support Candy					8	Freemium (Premium starts at $79/year)

Plugins and SaaS are different types of software, but this doesn’t mean they are different business models. The main difference between Help Desk Plugin and Saas ticketing systems is that they offer different ways of software solutions.

Final thoughts

At the end of the day, it’s up to you whether you want to maintain a good relationship with your customers or push them aside. From our perspective, a customer is a good friend and a well-wisher of our business. If we take care of them with our service, they will definitely give it back.

That’s why we created our own email ticketing system, Fluent Support, to ensure every customer service team has the full functionality to meet their customers’ needs.

Our main motive for creating this list (overall, Plugin & SaaS) is to help you easily choose the right email ticketing system for your customers. Every system in this list has outstanding capabilities. Choosing one wisely can be a valuable asset for your business if you want to improve customer service and support operations.

The post 11 Best Email Ticketing Systems for 2025 appeared first on Fluent Support.

We are committed to continuously updating Fluent Support to make it more efficient for your team. Our 24/7 team is actively collecting feedback and applying it one by one with every update.

This version update is no different. So let’s start with the newly added features.

What’s New in Fluent Support 1.7.9?

As we are saying, this version update will help you organize team workflow more efficiently. To do that, we have two brand new features.

Activity Trends by Time of Day

We know you struggle with the ticket overflow. We all do. But have you noticed something interesting? Not every time of day or not every day, this overflow occurs. There is a hidden pattern.

To find the hidden pattern, we have introduced a calendar heatmap in Fluent Support. It’s a brand new way of reporting. Just go to ‘Reports’ on the Fluent Support dashboard and click on ‘Activity Reports’.

This feature will help you predict which day and what time you will most likely face ticket overload. And using this data, you can redistribute your support assets to tackle the overload more effectively.

You cannot just reorganize your team or automate the ticket flow using Fluent Support ticket automation on that specific date or time. Isn’t it handy?

Duplicate or clone workflows

Speaking of ticket automation, we all know that Fluent Support has workflow functionality. Using this, you can really dig deep into conditions and make very complex automated or manual triggers.

From time to time, you might need to recreate a similar workflow but for a different target. Instead of making it from scratch, now you can just make a duplicate of the workflow and start working on it.

Required option in product

In Fluent Support, you can add unlimited number of products. This product or brand will appear on the ticket submission portal. Now you can make this input section compulsory in the settings.

Just go to the ‘Ticket Form Config’ in global settings and check the ‘Required fields for products and services’. That’s it. Selecting a product from the dropdown is now a required field.

Now tickets will be more organized as per product, which will help you set automation triggers or assign agents automatically.

Uploaded files are more organized on cloud storage

If you love organized files and folders, then you will love this feature. Fluent Support gives you the ability to upload ticket-related files directly to cloud storage without eating up your hosting storage.

To keep everything in one place, the system created a mother folder to keep all the files in one place. But after this update, Fluent Support will create ticket-wise subfolders to make it even more neat.

Integration with FluentBoards

This is the biggest update to this version. This will make you a pro-task manager. WPManageNinja, the team behind Fluent Support, released a handy task manager, FluentBoards. And Fluent Support will be integrated with this automatically.

FluentBoards is a WordPress project management plugin featuring unlimited boards, CRM integration, Kanban boards, and project reporting. It simplifies project management within WordPress, making team collaboration and task management easy. It’s ideal for support heads to keep track of all tasks in one place.

The plugin is easy to use, offers different views and customization options, and offers a lot of integrations. It boosts productivity with clear visuals. Whether you’re handling a small team or working alone, Fluent Boards simplifies project flow with task mapping.

With this update, you can easily convert a ticket into a task with a couple clicks, and FluentBoards will add it as a task on board. All you have to do is click on the ticket, and from the top right corner, click on ‘Add Task to FluentBoards. If you check the board, you will find the ticket as a task right there.

Integrations logs 

If you want to check if FluentBoards is integrated with Fluent Support or not, we have another new update. With this update, you will be able to see all the integrated products in one integration log.

This will tell you not only what is connected with Fluent Support but also show what other interaction options are available with documentation.

A few bug fixes

Here are a few bug fixes you will get with this version update.

Language default issue

When the site language was not set to English, the workflow automatically switches to manual mode, causing potential confusion. This is fixed now.

Inbox CSS issue

There was a CSS problem hiding the text of the ticket identifier tag in all inbox tables. This impacted the tag name display. This is also fixed.

Dashboard view bug

Selecting “View dashboard” and “draft_reply” together was causing no tickets to be displayed. This issue is fixed now. 

Migration issue

Users were experiencing problems when migrating tickets from Zendesk and Freshdesk, causing potential data loss or inconsistencies. Both of the issues are fixed in this version.

Import tickets module ug

Clicking the “Import Tickets” button in the ticket migration module opened multiple modals at once, leading to a cluttered interface.

Bookmark issue

The bookmarking feature is not functioning as expected, reducing the efficiency of managing important tickets.

File upload issue

Files with long names fail to upload during ticket creation due to the WordPress log name restriction. This was limiting the ability to share detailed information.

Now a new webhook introduced, which will keep the name up to 50 characters and cut off the rest. It will allow easy upload. This webhook needs to be activated manually.

Business box restriction bug

Even after restrictions are applied to a specific business box, it still appears on the dashboard. But it’s not now.

Memberpress integration issue

In the Memberpress integration, two subscription lists appear—one for recurring and another for non-recurring. This complicated management is fixed.

WooCommerce Widget Bug

The WooCommerce widget did not appear on the ‘View Customer’ page, reducing functionality for managing customer interactions. That’s also fixed in this update.

Wrapping up

All in all, this version update is giving you a few very exciting new features. It’s taking your team management to the next level. 

The Fluent Support team is still working on the next update. We are dedicatedly listening to your needs and trying our best to make this WordPress helpdesk system more and more powerful.

The post Fluent Support 1.7.9: Activity Trends, Manage Task By FluentBoards And More appeared first on Fluent Support.

Various tools can actually help support agents to be more productive. We will talk about it in a minute. But before that, let’s start with the basics.

Over time, a lot of great tools have developed to make customer support agents more efficient. But are all of these tools good? We have to consider a few things to make a tool truly productive.

What makes a good customer service software tool?

Well, we can generalize some factors to say that the tool is productive or not. Because, practically speaking, not all tools are as effective for support agents.

So, here are three questions you can ask to justify:

Effectiveness: Is that tool really serving the purpose of the agent? 

Usability: Is it easy to use for a support agent on a busy day?

Value: Finally, does it really bring value to the support system? In simple words, is it saving money?

If all these questions answer yes, then you can say with confidence that the tool is productive.

Enough chit-chatting. Now let’s dive into the tool list. And keep reading; we have a bonus one at the end.

7 tools to improve agent productivity

We talked with our own support team at WPManageNinja. And we found out that a support agent needs these 7 types of tools during work. Don’t worry, we will not just discuss the type of tool; we also have recommendations.

1. Help Desk Software

This is a tool that helps support agents centrally receive tickets directly from customers and centrally manage and solve those as a team.

Fluent Support

If you use WordPress, which is almost 50% likely, you’ll love Fluent Support. This is a fully integrated help desk system with WordPress. And it’s a powerhouse for support agents.

It has everything a support agent can ask for. To begin with, it has an extremely powerful ticket-filtering system. Besides simple filtering and searching, it has an advanced conditional filter to find the ticket faster.

It would have been nice if someone else could do the boring job for you, and you could focus on the good staff. Well, Fluent Support can do that. It’s automation, and a custom auto-workflow can make your life easy.

Feature list:

• Automated Agent Assigning
• Collision detection
• Unlimited tickets
• Customizable ticket submission portal
• Fast-loading Support Portal
• Auto reply
• Private note-taking for agents
• Automated workflow
• 20+ integrations
• Email piping
• Email CC
• Advanced conditional filtering
• Priority support
• Custom field

2. Knowledge Base Software

This is a tool to manage, organize, and easily share information and technical documentation. It is not just vital for support agents but also essential for customers to resolve issues by themselves.

Better Doc

BetterDocs has a great reputation for making documentation easy. Not just that, it made it easy for users to find particular documents with powerful search and category-wise organization.

On top of that, it doesn’t matter which page builder you are using on WordPress. Because, besides Gutenberg, it also supports the Elementor page builder. And here is the twist: it also allows you to create documentation for Shopify.

Feature list:

• Ready Templates
• Email Reporting
• Advanced Live Search Bar
• Scrollable Table of Contents
• Internal Knowledgebase
• Multilingual Documentation

3. Live Chat and Chatbot Tools

Customers love to chat. It’s also helpful for support agents because it allows them to collect more data on the go. Because sometimes emails can create a bottleneck.

And efficient use of chatbots can reduce agent jobs for repetitive issues and initial engagements with a customer.

LiveChat

LiveChat is a system that allows your customers to directly chat with an agent. Not just direct chat but also can link with other messaging apps.

It also has an AI-powered chatbot. But here is the interesting thing: It can create a balance between AI and human agents to provide a smoother, smarter chat experience for your customers.

Feature list:

• Message sneak-peek
• Canned responses
• File sharing
• Chat ratings
• Chat widget customization
• Notifications
• Chat transfer

4. Bug Reporting Tool

This tool helps tech support agents create issues for developers. It’s a powerful tool to manage bug reports for any software system as a team or company.

JIRA

JIRA is a tool for managing projects much more efficiently as a team. And under projects, you can create bug reports. It has templates for creating and tracking bug reports efficiently from any end.

You can set priority to a bug and assign a developer or team automatically. It’s curated workflow can be optimized just for debugging. It will not interfere with the roadmap for feature development.

Feature list:

• Centralize bug report creation, management, and solving.
• Set priority to fixing bugs rather than feature development.
• Create a separate workflow for debugging.

5. Time-tracking tool

Time tracking is an essential aspect of productivity management. It helps you understand what takes your time during the day and better manage your work-life balance.

Traqq

Traqq is a simple and intuitive time-tracking app designed with users in mind. With its automatic time tracking feature, you can easily monitor your work hours. 

Traqq offers smart notifications to ensure you maintain a healthy work-life balance. Sometimes, when dedicated to assisting customers, you might lose track of time and forget to take breaks. This allows you to customize break reminders, prompting you to pause and recharge.

Additionally, this provides detailed reports, giving you valuable insights into how you use your time every day.

Feature list:

• Automatic time tracking
• Customizable reports and analytics
• Website and app monitoring 
• Smart notifications and reminders

6. Communication and Collaboration Tools

Support agents are always in touch with clients. And sometimes tickets and live chat aren’t enough, especially for tech support specialists. They might need visual communication.

Google Meet

Google Meet is a simple and easy-to-use tool for video conferencing. You just need to have a Gmail account to use this.

It’s screen-sharing feature enables support agents to share their own screen to show any instructions, and vice versa. 

Feature list:

• Add up to 100 participant
• 24-hour call duration
• Adjectable layout for better interaction
• Live captioning
• Breakout room

7. Personal note-taking and task management

Note that support agents have to manage a lot of things every day. Dealing with different customers can really be a hectic job. And on top of that, you have to keep learning new things.

So, keeping everything in mind seems impossible at some point. Note-taking and management applications help agents free up some information from their minds.

Notion

Notion is not just a note-taking app; it’s your second brain. It’s highly dynamic interface allows agents to create effective notes, todos, or documentation. You can create pages and even collaborate with others on the team.

With the help of AI, you can easily summarize any elaborate note using a simple prompt. It’s dynamic data table and Kanban feature help agents organize large amounts of data efficiently.

Feature list:

• Create unlimited blocks and pages with clounms
• Live collaboration with teams
• Create subpages with dynamic blocks
• Notion’s ready templates for managing almost anything

8. Internal communication tools

Now, this is the bonus one. Agents need to communicate internally. Within a team or with another team, they need a simple communication tool to talk to each other.

Slack

Slack is a powerful tool designed for internal communication. You can create groups, or in this case, channels, to keep conversations separate. It also has integration and app installation options with other productivity apps like JIRA or Google Meet.

Slack does not just limit your communication to chat. It has a huddle feature for video calling with screensharing. Besides that, it’s got automation features for various workflow setups, such as reminders.

Feature list:

• You can create a conversation thread
• It has multiple integration option and apps to install
• You can share any type of file, even from cloud storage.
• It has video conferencing options.

9. Community management

And the final bonus one. It’s a tool that helps you create, organize, and manage your own community. It provides the basics of communication methods for you and your customer to interact with each other.

Agents can communicate on a general level to inform and announce updates to users in the community.

BuddyBoss

BuddyBoss enables you to create a community for your customers to communicate easily in a user-friendly setup. This is not limited to websites. BuddyBoss has a mobile app, so customers can interact from anywhere easily.

Feature List:

• You can add unlimited users and user groups
• It enables you to create a seamless experience for e-learners.
• Both a website and mobile app are available
• Most importantly, it has dedicated support

Final thoughts

Support agents ensure your business’s stability. Because better support can create loyal customers. These customers can bring in new customers as brand advocates.

So, to maintain smoother support for your customers, you need to empower your support team via training or tools.

As discussed above, these tools can improve agent productivity at higher levels. As a result, it will increase the ROI of your business.

The post 7 Best Tools To Improve Agent Productivity appeared first on Fluent Support.

In today’s competitive business landscape, customer loyalty is a coveted asset that can significantly impact the success of any company.

And therefore, to foster a strong customer relationship, a robust support team is essential.

But what attributes make a team powerful?

The answer is clear communication, extensive knowledge, and adequate training. However, the efficiency and effectiveness of a group can be significantly enhanced with the right software system, making them even more powerful.

So, if you’re in the WordPress world and want to enhance customer loyalty, you’re in the right place.

11 best WordPress helpdesk plugins

In this blog, we’ll be showcasing a selection of highly effective WordPress helpdesk plugins to help you achieve your goals and build strong customer relationships.

So, for your ease, we went through all the available WordPress plugins for a support team. After testing and tinkering, we found the best 11 plugins for your WordPress website.

Let’s dive in!

1. Fluent Support – WordPress Helpdesk Plugins

Fluent Support quickly gained over 10,000 active installations within just a few years. Although it is relatively new, numerous small to large-scale businesses adore this WordPress helpdesk plugin.

With its simple, intuitive interface and extensive feature set, it’s no wonder businesses love this plugin. What sets Fluent Support apart is its exceptional features and integration with a wide range of tools and plugins. The cherry on top is its seamless OpenAI integration.

It provides the best after-sales customer support. The dedicated team behind this helpdesk plugin not only responds promptly but also provides efficient assistance, making it even more lovable.

Key feature list:

1. Integrated OpenAI helps agents respond to tickets faster by analyzing AI-generated ticket summaries and customer sentiment. It then generates a response with AI, allowing line-by-line fine-tuning.
2. Automatic workflows. Such as automatic tagging to a certain customer who comes from a certain page or domain.
3. Speaking of the domain, it has the webhook feature for subdomains.
4. You can keep track of the ticket as a team by adding members in CC or BCC in your email chain.
5. The auto-draft feature allows you to start right where you left off. So, no more loss of ticket content because of an urgent meeting.
6. You can add maximum-sized files directly from a cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox.
7. You can take private notes about your customers for consistent communication. It’s visible to agents only.
8. And the best thing is that there is no limitation regarding ticket or agent or product numbers.

Improvement area:

1. Customer feedback or survey box is not there yet after getting help from an agent.
2. This has a very simplified interface which is easy to use. But if you like trendy UI then this lacks that. And no dark mood yet.

Endnote: The developer team at Fluent Support is highly efficient and continuously working to add new features. They prioritize customers’ demands and make the system more productive for your support team.

2. Awesome Support

Awesome Support has been active on WordPress since 2016. Over the years, this WordPress ticketing system has gained a lot of trust. Now it has 10,000+ active installations as of now.

This is an open-source system created by the community. It means contributors from around the world are helping to develop the plugin.

Key feature list:

1. With this support system plugin, unlimited users can create unlimited tickets. And you can create unlimited agents to deal with the tickets.
2. It has a powerful ticket filtering feature to find out a particular ticket. Routing can be set up for specific tickets as well.
3. A single system can be used for multiple sites and manage all of your products in one place.
4. You can customize it to match your brand style.
5. Two or more agents can collaborate on a single ticket if needed.
6. Finally, a custom report can be generated and shared with others.

Improvement Area:

1. The dashboard interface design might feel a bit dated. User flow might be a bit difficult for some users.
2. The customer support team behind this plugin is not as prompt as it should be.

Endnote: Lots of developers are contributing to this plugin as it is an open-source project. Overall, it is a good WordPress helpdesk plugin for your support team.

3. Heroic Inbox

Heroic Inbox is offered by HeroThemes. It is known for its innovative customer-centric WordPress products, such as the KnowHow theme and the Heroic Knowledge Base plugin, and serves over 29,000 customers.

Heroic Inbox is no different. It’s a robust helpdesk plugin that lets you manage customer support from your WordPress dashboard. Giving you total control over customer care.

Key Feature List:

• Manage multiple email accounts (e.g., support@, sales@) from a single unified inbox with added WordPress features.
• Assign emails to team members or add notes to the conversations.
• Automate routine tasks such as tagging, assigning, and responding to emails. Use pre-written responses, and user signatures to speed up the process.
• Customer profiles and easy-to-track conversation history.
• Integrate seamlessly with WooCommerce and other popular WordPress plugins.

Improvement Areas:

While Heroic Inbox offers some really good email management features, the addition of built-in AI wouldn’t hurt.

Free Version: Not available.
Premium Version: Pricing starts at $199/year, including all features and premium support.

Endnote: Heroic Inbox is a robust solution for building your own help desk system. The onboarding process is easy to follow and the system is easy to use.

If you are a medium to large business, you can easily save hundreds of dollars compared to other SaaS alternatives.

4. Tidio

Tidio is a modern AI-powered customer service platform trusted by many businesses worldwide. It combines live chat, ticketing, AI automation, and workflow builders into a single, easy-to-use help desk solution.

Even though Tidio is primarily known as a SaaS platform, it integrates smoothly with WordPress without any heavy setup. Also, its AI agent “Lyro,” Tidio can automate up to 70% of customer inquiries (sometimes reaching up to 90%), significantly boosting response times and CSAT scores.

Its intuitive interface, central conversation hub, and strong automation features make it a standout choice for businesses aiming to scale support while maintaining personal connections.

Key feature list:

• AI-powered agent “Lyro” handles and resolves a large volume of customer queries automatically.
• Centralized inbox collects all customer conversations from live chat, email, and social media in one place.
• Live chat widget that’s lightweight, customizable, and easy to integrate into WordPress.
• Automation builder to set up workflows like FAQs, lead generation, or proactive messages.
• Seamless integration with platforms like WordPress, Shopify, and Zendesk without complicated migration processes.
• Multilingual support to serve customers globally.
• Easy-to-use mobile app for managing customer communications on the go.

Areas for Improvement:

Some features might rely on external Tidio dashboard management rather than inside the WordPress admin.

Free Version: Available with basic features and limited automation capabilities.

Pro Version: Plans start from $29/month, depending on usage and features (live chat, automation, and AI chatbot).

Endnote: Tidio is ideal for businesses that want a highly intuitive, AI-powered helpdesk system without overcomplicating their WordPress setup. If your goal is to automate a large chunk of your customer support while keeping conversations personal and manageable, Tidio could be a winning option.

5. ThriveDesk

ThriveDesk is a fully hosted, lightning-fast helpdesk solution that integrates seamlessly with WordPress—no database maintenance or complicated setup required. ThriveDesk is designed for simplicity, speed, and deep WordPress compatibility, allowing you to manage customer support effortlessly.

Key Features list:

• Enjoy cloud-based hosting with native WordPress integration for smooth operation.
• Add as many support agents as your team needs without extra fees.
• Manage multiple inboxes and organize tickets easily across departments.
• Engage with customers in real time using an AI-enhanced live chat system.
• Boost agent productivity with Neo, an AI copilot that provides support suggestions and solutions.
• Embed a customizable help center directly into WordPress, enhancing user support.
• ThriveDesk works seamlessly with WooCommerce, SureCart, FluentCRM, Freemius, and more.

Areas for Improvement:

ThriveDesk currently does not offer a native mobile app. Limited reporting options and third-party integration support are available at this time.

Free Version: No free version is available.
Pro Version: Plans range from $9 to $99 per month, with unlimited agents included at every level.

Endnote: ThriveDesk is a modern solution for support teams looking for efficient, cloud-hosted helpdesk software that integrates smoothly with WordPress, eliminating the need for hosting or database management.

6. Support Genix

Support Genix is a WordPress plugin that seamlessly integrates a robust support ticket system into your WordPress site. This tool empowers users to create and manage unlimited tickets directly from their WordPress platform.

Support Genix provides companies with efficient email handling and management. It also allows companies to add and manage unlimited agents, ensuring prompt ticket responses for every client query.

WordPress website owners can effectively manage their support efforts and improve their customer assistance experience with Support Genix.

Key feature list:

• Add unlimited agents to assist with ticket management.
• Import emails from an email address into the support ticket system with Email piping.
• Seamlessly integrates with renowned platforms like Envato marketplace, WooCommerce, WPForms, and so on. 
• Assign various roles to agents for specific permissions.
• Organize your tickets efficiently by creating distinct ticket categories.
• Customers can attach files to their tickets with customizable file type options.

Improvement Area: 

1. Limited integration with 3rd party tools. But it offers webhook integration for enhanced connectivity.
2. Report generation isn’t available now, but it will be available soon.

Free version: Available in the WordPress repository with basic features.

Pro version: Plan starts from $59/year and $99/lifetime

Endnote: To deliver smooth customer support, Support Genix provides all the essential tools to your support agents.

7. JS Help Desk

JS Help Desk is another good player among the support software plugins. It’s another feature-rich system with 5,000 active installations.

It was first released in 2017 on WordPress repository. Since then, it has kept adding functionalities to this plugin. So, let’s see what features they bring to the table.

Key features list:

1. This also offers an unlimited number of tickets and agents.
2. Users and agents get notifications via email after a ticket is created, updated, or closed
3. Guests can create a ticket without creating an account or logging in.
4. You can set tickets’ status. It will help users track their ticket process easily.
5. You can follow up on a ticket with your team by putting them on the CC list.
6. It has the capability to create detailed reports of the support service.

Improvement Area:

1. Most of the features are not out of the box. That means you need to purchase add-ons to make this system more functional.
2. Priority support might be lack for this plugin

Endnote: Either way, this whole system is very impactful for the support team if you set it up with all the premium add-ons.

8. SupportCandy – WordPress Helpdesk Plugins

SupportCandy, a WordPress ticketing system, has been active since 2014. It covered all the important features that a support agent would need. Currently, they have gained over 10,000 active installations.

The SupportCandy team has introduced a few good features. Let’s see what they have to offer.

Key features list:

1. Like other systems, this WordPress plugin also supports unlimited tricks and unlimited agents.
2. The text editor supports rich text. So you can make your ticket text more organized and formatted.
3. Agents can take notes that are only visible to them.
4. It has an advanced ticket filtering option to find a particular ticket faster.
5. Users and agents will be notified via email if tickets are modified or closed.

Improvement Area:

1. The free version of this plugin does not have that much functionality, and to make it more usable, you have to install premium add-ons. 
2. Integration options with support plugins are very much limited.

Endnote: Being one of the oldest plugins in the market, it has quite a reputation. And the developer team behind this is also very active.

9. KB Support

KB Support is a simple support system for WordPress. So far it’s got 2,000 active installations with good feedback on WordPress.

Though, it is not a new system on the market (released in 2017). And over the years, it got better with features.

Key feature list:

1. Agents can create a knowledge-based short article during ticket management.
2. Any user can submit a ticket as a guest. That means there is no need for a login.
3. You can put restrictions on an agent’s ability to access unassigned tickets.
4. You can set up a simple automation to assign agents to certain tickets.
5. This system also provides a private note-taking feature for agents only.

Improvement Area:

1. They covered the basic features. A few important features are not available such as report generation.
2. Integration with the helpdesk plugin is limited to a few applications.

Endnote: If you have a small team and need something simple, then this could be a good option.

10. WordPress Advanced Ticket System (WATS)

WATS might be the oldest WordPress plugin for the support ticketing system. However, it has only 1,000 active installations.

Released back in 2009, this is yet another simple WordPress SaaS for helpdesks.

Key feature list:

1. The system generates a ticket number as a reference. It can help track the ticket easily. It will be listed as a WordPress support number in settings.
2. You can set a ticket’s priority or status. It can be for products and also set the type of tickets by setting a key to the tickets.
3. A ticket can be submitted in various ways. You can choose from admin ticket submission, front-end form submission, or via email.
4. This plugin can generate a raw report regarding your support data.

Improvement Area:

1. The WordPress support plugin user interface is very much dated and lacks easy usability.
2. Free versions do not have much to offer and the premium version also lacks some important features such as automatically assigning a ticket.

Endnote: This system can be useful if you are looking only for a simple ticket-generating plugin for your WordPress website. However, it might not be ideal for a large-scale support team.

11. Help Scout

Here is a bonus one. Help Scout released its WordPress helpdesk plugin back in 2015. And, since then, it has had just over 700 active installations on WordPress sites.

This helpdesk system has some useful features for a support team.

Key feature list:

1. It has a knowledge-based feature that allows you to create short articles and FAQs
2. It has an email management system in the build to organize all the emails.
3. You can sort or filter the customer list easily.
4. You can generate custom reports and share them with your team with this SaaS.

Improvement Area:

1. Even though it has a good list of features, most of these are only available in premium versions.
2. This is not a fully integrated WordPress helpdesk system. You have to leave the WordPress dashboard to use the system.

Endnote: This is an individual SaaS system rather than a WordPress helpdesk plugin. It is only used for the integration of the helpdesk software. So, if you are looking for something fully integrated into your WordPress site, then there are other options in this list to choose from.

Comparison of WordPress customer service plugins

Up until now, we have covered our best picks for WordPress helpdesk plugins available in the market. Here is a brief tabulated list with some basic comparisons.

We have a detailed comparison among more WordPress helpdesk plugins and SaaS. It will help you decide which one is more suitable to manage your support team.

Final thoughts

At the end of the day, you must need a smoother pathway for your customers. Communication with your customer should be easy and prompt. To ensure this ease and promptness, you must well equip your support team.

That’s why you need a highly effective WordPress plugin for helpdesk. So do not choose this system randomly. Take some time and do your research. Go through your customer journey map. Figure out what your customer needs are.

A fully featured, resourceful WordPress helpdesk plugin not only makes your support team productive. It will also provide a better experience through budding customer sentiment.

The post 11 Ultimate WordPress Helpdesk Plugins For Customer Support appeared first on Fluent Support.

Welcome to the second release of this year. Fluent Support 1.6.9 is here! Last update we introduced “Freshdesk Migration”, which was most appreciated by our users. In this update, we tried to release another user requested feature and improvements on old features with a few bug fixes.

Let’s dive into these features and fixes below—

What’s new in Fluent Support 1.6.9?

Security is our top priority. One feature is directly related to this, and others directly or indirectly improve already existing features in Fluent Support. Take a look at the features–

Added Google Captcha “in login and sign up”

Google captcha is a most requested feature from our user community. We hear you! Now you can use google captcha in your registration form and login form.

Custom field required or optional

Want to make your custom field on support ticket forms must filled up by users or want to make it optional?

Now you can do this in your custom field settings.

Custom field in the workflow condition

Custom fields are an incredible feature of Fluent Support. We make it easy for you now to use custom fields in your workflow’s conditions. You can trigger these conditions and run workflow actions based on various integration’s custom fields.

Add “saved replies” in custom response to auto close

Auto close tickets is a useful feature used by most people to automatically close certain tickets which are idle for a certain time. We make it more user-friendly by adding the ability for you to send custom replies when automatically closing the ticket. Now you can insert your “saved replies” directly in your ‘Add Custom Response’ box.

This will save a lot of time for you! Click ‘Templates’ button in your auto close setting and your saved replies will be loaded into your custom response box. You get the idea!

Added ‘saved reply’ templates in the workflow

Previously ‘Saved Replies’ templates were available in the ticket replies option. Now you can access them through your workflow action – “Add Response” box.

This way, you can easily insert already saved replies into your automation and speed up the process.

Bug Fixes

FluentCRM widget missing issue

There was a problem showing the FluentCRM widget on the user’s ticket sidebar. Some elements were missing for some users. We fixed it and now all FluentCRM widgets are visible if your FluentCRM plugin is connected to your Fluent Support plugin.

Delete action issue on manual workflow

An issue occurred for some users using the manual workflow when using the delete action. Now this is fixed.

Thank you!

I want to thank you guys for suggesting the useful features in this release. We always try to ship the necessary features to help you run your customer support system efficiently. If you have any cool Fluent Support features in mind, please do share with us. Join our Fluent Support community. Many of you are sharing useful hacks and suggestions there. I could not thank you more!

Share your thoughts in the comments! Have a nice day!

The post Fluent Support 1.6.9: Google Recaptcha, Custom Field in Workflow & Bug Fixes appeared first on Fluent Support.

Small business owners use customer support ticket systems to quickly reply to customers’ queries, provide the right solutions, and give their users a great experience. Fluent Support fulfills the need and does more! Fluent Support helps you to automate your support operations, gives tools to your support agents to collaborate with team members using internal notes, a shared inbox, and collision detection.

In 2022, we shipped a lot of features to make Fluent Support the best WordPress helpdesk plugin possible. In this blog, we featured all the useful features you can use to run a super enthusiastic customer support team. You will learn what makes Fluent Support the best WordPress helpdesk and why it’s different from its competitors. We plan to release more awesome features in 2023. We will update this blog after every update showcasing the best features of Fluent Support.

Features that make Fluent Support the most advanced WordPress helpdesk

There are enough helpdesk plugins in the WordPress space, but what makes Fluent Support the best? Epic features released this year by Fluent Support team gave it the advantage to become the best helpdesk plugin for WordPress in 2023! Let’s find out!

1. Webhooks for automation

Webhooks help automate repeated work and connect with other tools necessary for customer support operations. We introduced internal & outgoing webhook features in 2022, most requested by users.

Use the incoming webhook form “Global Settings” and outgoing webhook as workflow action inside any automation using Fluent Support plugin.

2. Advanced ticket filtering

Fluent Support’s other best feature is “Advanced Filtering.” You can quickly search, manage and reply to tickets using these different parameters. You can also create custom filtering tabs and parameters to fulfill your customer support team’s needs.

3. REST-API

Fluent Support offers API using REST API. You can use our API to share information between your tools. Check our detailed API documentation here.

4. Receive and reply to support tickets from WhatsApp

Many small businesses use WhatsApp for their daily customer communication. That’s why we developed a Fluent Support WhatsApp integration powered by Twilio.

Fluent Support WhatsApp integration with Twilio can help you get support tickets right inside your WhatsApp chat & you can reply to the ticket using chat reply. No need to click a link or open the ticket!

Here’s how it works:

5. Move tickets from one inbox to another

Another useful feature requested by many users running multiple business inboxes on the same support dashboard. This helps you move tickets from different inboxes.

6. Merge two tickets in one & Split tickets in two

With Fluent Support, you can merge tickets in the same topics into one ticket using the ‘Merge Tickets‘ feature. It is really helpful to reduce duplicate ticket issues.

But what can you do if you need to split a ticket into another separate ticket? Use split replies into new tickets feature to separate a conversation from the current one. You can use this feature to assign different agents to that different issue. It will make your customer support operation effortless.

7. Agent bookmarks

Fluent Support introduced this new Ticket Bookmark feature, which helps agents bookmark any tickets they are working on for later use.

They can access these tickets from the bookmark tab without individually searching. It saves a lot of time.

8. Fluent Support WP dashboard widget

We added a Fluent Support dashboard widget. You can quickly glance at how many tickets are in the queue waiting for replies and follow other metrics like Total Tickets, Active Tickets, New Tickets, Un-Assigned Tickets, and Closed Tickets.

9. Fluent Support ticket summary bar

Like Dashboard Widget, ‘Ticket Summary Bar’ gives you quick access to certain metrics such as “Total Tickets, Active Tickets, New Tickets, Un-Assigned Tickets, Closed Tickets, and Witing Replies.”

10. Frontend agent support portal

This feature is one of the most requested features by our users. It helps you to view the entire agent portal in the frontend using shortcode.

Follow our documentation on ‘Frontend Agent Portal‘ to learn more. Here is how it works:

11. Activity log filters

Fluent Support’s “Activities” feature shows you everything happening in your customer support operation.

You can filter by ‘Agent’s Name” and use dates to see activities from certain periods.

12. Hourly reports

Under the report section, we added hourly reports with vanity metrics of average waiting time, response rates, etc., on hourly basis. This will help you manage ticket loads effectively.

13. Close ticket silently & automatically

We added options to close a ticket without sending notifications to your users. You can also set up settings based on inactive days, tags, and customers waiting to close tickets automatically. You can close the tickets silently or add a custom reply on automatic closing. Check our full documentation on ‘Automatic Ticket Closing & Close Ticket Silently.’

14. Superior Ticket importer

This is the best features in 2022 that users are excited about! Now you can import tickets from helpdesk plugins & Saas tools. Use our “Ticket Importer” feature to import tickets from Awesome Support, Support Candy, JS Helpdesk & Help Scout.

More migration options are on the way!

15. Updated ticket status

Want to sort tickets using your custom update status? Now you can. We added this ability to create custom stats on the ticket dashboard using Fluent Support’s webhook feature.

You can prioritize certain categories of tickets and sort them using custom status.

16. Dynamic dashboard

Dynamic dashboard is another requested feature by our users. Using this feature, you can customize Fluent Support’s default dashboard. You can read our dynamic dashboard documentation to learn how to set up your custom dashboard.

17. Export agent summary

Customer support managers may need you to export agent reports, analyze them elsewhere, or share them with team leaders. Agent Summary Export is a useful feature shipped in 2022 that lets you do this!

Follow our documentation, and use this feature to export any individual agent reports or all agent reports in a few clicks.

18. New integrations – LearnPress, Betterdocs & WhatsApp

We shipped 3 new Fluent Support integration with the LearnPress course plugin, documentation plugin Betterdocs, and messaging platform WhatsApp.

Moving forward

2023 is going to be a big year for Fluent Support. We will invest more time into user suggestions, flexible functionality, and new useful features. Our goal is to make Fluent Support the most user-loved helpdesk for WordPress.

Take a look at our 2022 year-in-review blog; we discussed Fluent Support’s yearly growth and development in detail. We also shared our plan for 2023; fluent Support’s functionality will increase tenfold next year. Welcome to our journey of becoming the best customer support ticketing system. Fluent Support wants to empower more small business owners worldwide to take action and provide a great customer support experience to their customers.

The post What Makes Fluent Support the Best WordPress Helpdesk in 2025? appeared first on Fluent Support.

To make that research simpler we’ve published a series of comparisons between the best help desks out there. This time we’re going to put Fluent Support against Freshdesk. 

Why Freshdesk vs. Fluent Support?

Well for starters, we at Fluent Support believe self-hosting is the best way to get a support system for your business. Freshdesk is a contrasting product that works on a SaaS model. So it only makes sense to compare them to see if WordPress-hosted help desk can beat SaaS tools at their own game.

We’ve also compared WordPress plugins like JS Help Desk, Awesome Support, Help Scout, and Support Candy. Make sure you check them out before finalizing your customer support desk.

Freshdesk vs. Fluent Support: In-depth Comparison

Like our comparison with Help Scout, this article is also going to rate the top 5 aspects of the help desk systems with a max score of 5 for each aspect. The system with the highest total score is the best product among the two. So let’s get started.

Ease of use

First off, we’ll look at the ease of use for each help desk. This will include the setup process, product usability, and similar aspects. This section compares the learning curve needed to start off with either product.

Fluent Support 4.5/5

To start off, it takes just 5 minutes to set up a business inbox and get started with Fluent Support. The setup process is pretty straightforward needing very little information. Similarly, it takes less than 10 minutes to set up email piping and adding agents for the first time. Overall it takes anywhere between 10-20 minutes to get a support portal up and running on your site.

Fluent Support has an effective ticketing interface that takes no time to get the hang of. The learning curve for advanced functions like sorting and filtering is pretty flat. A support agent can become a pro in less than a day’s worth of fiddling.

The recent updates even made migrating from an existing help desk simple by adding a migrator module. Not to mention it’s ready to be used on any WordPress site without any hassle.

Freshdesk 3/5

Now for Freshdesk. The setup process is a bit complex compared to Fluent Support. According to Freshdesks own documentation, it can take up to 48 hours to get the support desk up and running. In this aspect, this is the clearest drawback for Freshdesk. 

Other than that, Freshdesk scores pretty well. Mostly because of the fact that their user interface is top-notch. Another effective part of Freshdesk is they allow customer filtering for support tickets which is definitely a good feature to have. To fit your branding, you can also personalize the user interface, ticket submission page, and agent dashboard.

However, the most problematic issue is the fact Freshdesk has no direct compatibility with WordPress. So if your website is on WordPress you’ll need an additional plugin to use the portal with your website. 

Reports

Next, we’ll look at the reporting capabilities. Customer support data is crucial for businesses. To actually help a brand improve customer experience it’s crucial to have this data readily available. 

Fluent Support 4/5

When it comes to reports, Fluent Support performs exceptionally well. It provides you with all the necessary data such as Response time, Closing rate, and response rates for both individual agents and for the whole team. It also provides real-time hourly data for better performance tracking.

You can export the reports in multiple formats for evaluation in third-party systems too. It takes less than a minute to get the bigger picture of your support team so reporting is definitely a strong suit for Fluent Support.

Freshdesk 3.5/5

Freshdesk reports come in tiers like most SaaS features. You’ll have to at least get the Growth plan to get reporting for your support desk. If you upgrade to the Pro plan it provides customization for the reports which is a great feature. However, the data available to users is very limited compared to Fluent Support.

The only good bit about the reports is you can schedule reporting for agents and admins. But other than that, the reporting module is a bit underwhelming.

Support Features

In this section, we look at the individual feature list for each support desk. The aim is to evaluate the products based on efficiency and the effectiveness of the features included in different pricing plans.

Fluent Support 4/5

To start off with support functionalities we have to consider Fluent Support’s automation. It allows multiple triggers including manual and automated workflows. These can be used for segmentation, agent assignment, ticket closing, etc.

Along with that Fluent Support comes with email piping enabled. This allows you to check tickets directly from your support email. Not to mention you can organize the tickets based on multiple business inboxes, individual products, and query types as well.

For team efficiency Fluent Support also has built-in collision detection with live activity logs. This prevents agents from overlapping on the same tickets. To make collaboration smoother and save time you can save canned responses and leave internal notes for agents.

Last but not least Fluent Support allows custom privileges for agent management. This allows customer support managers to manage access to the support desk. Along with all this, you get a customizable dashboard and WordPress widgets for more accessibility. 

Freshdesk 3.5/5

The first drawback for Freshdesk in this aspect is that they don’t allow product-based ticket sorting. On the basic plans, it’s not possible to customize the dashboard so that limits some of the functionality.

However, Freshdesk more than makes up for that with its automation. Their time-based triggers are exceptionally effective and allow you to automate almost any action within the support desk. A great fact worth mentioning is their automation is powered by AI. This allows the automation module to scan and evaluate support tickets every hour to provide notifications where needed.

Along with that, they’ve included SLA management inside Freshdesk so no need to use third-party SLA managers.

Lastly, they allow custom agent roles for agents to manage privileges and access to certain parts of the help desk which is a basic but essential feature.

Integrations

A support desk is only as good as the tools it can connect to. Most businesses rely heavily on multiple third-party apps and tools. A proper support desk needs to be able to connect with these tools to improve efficiency.

Fluent Support 3/5

Fluent Support currently has 30+ integrations with popular WordPress plugins and some external tools. These tools include eCommerce platforms (WooCommerce, EDD), LMS builders(LifterLMS, TutorLMS, LearnPress, etc.), and communication apps (Slack, Telegram, Discord, and WhatsApp).

However, the best integration is the CRM and helpdesk integration with FluentCRM. With this integration, you can automate marketing automation directly from Fluent Support. On top of that, Fluent Support allows incoming and outgoing webhooks along with REST-API support. So even if a tool is not available for direct integration you can still connect it to Fluent Support.

All integrations are available for every pricing tier so you won’t have to upgrade to use the integrations to the fullest.

Freshdesk 3.5/5

Freshdesk follows the paywall method when it comes to integrations called addons. Freshdesk has a whooping 500+ add-ons that are free for use while also having 48 paid add-ons. These add-ons are not included with the basic pricing and need to be purchased separately. Sadly enough, it doesn’t allow REST-API or Webhooks to connect apps not included in their list of add-ons.

Pricing

Lastly, we’ll look at the pricing to see which tool gives you the biggest bang for the buck.

Fluent Support 4.5/5

Fluent Support has a simple pricing model that becomes more expensive for the number of sites you can use the plugin on. It’s possible to use Fluent Support on up to 50 sites with a single purchase. There’s no per-agent cost or any paywalls for integrations.

You get the whole plugin with all features at every price point. The only thing limited in pricing plans is the number of email piping inboxes. So to increase email piping capabilities you might have to upgrade but that is rarely necessary for small and medium enterprises.

Starting at just $129 for single sites/month, Fluent Support is the most reasonably priced support desk you can find.

Freshdesk 2.5/5

Off the bat, the first issue with Freshdesk is it’s based on the per-agent model. Costs upwards of $15 dollars/agent in the starting plan. So for 10 agents, it’ll cost $150 without any add-ons.

This brings us to the second drawback which is paid addons. If you’ve read our previous comparisons, you’ll know if there’s one thing we don’t like that’s paywalls. Freshdesk scores poorly simply because the per-agent model and paid addons can inflate the cost that the estimates you make. 

Not to mention it adds more cost if you want to expand your support team. This is a direct blow for fast-growing businesses that need to expand teams on the fly.

Verdict: Fluent Support

The results are in and there isn’t much of a surprise in it. We considered the most crucial aspect of customer support and evaluated each plugin individually. 

So from the scores, it’s obvious which is the better help desk. Now the thing worth mentioning here is that Freshdesk being the SaaS is better suited for large enterprises that don’t have much need for expansion and have used for advanced enterprise functionalities.

On the other side, Fluent Support is a product that suits best fast-growing businesses that need room to grow rapidly and don’t need complex features to improve customer experience. So if you’re looking for an effective customer support desk with reasonable pricing Fluent Support is the option to go for.

Until next time, happy serving.

The post WordPress Help Desk or SaaS: Fluent Support vs. Freshdesk appeared first on Fluent Support.

What is a support ticket?

A support ticket is anything that stores customer queries and complaints as a single conversation inside a management system. Support tickets are opened when a customer submits information and are closed when the outlined customer issue is resolved to completion.

Support tickets are meant to contain the whole conversation a customer has with a support representative. Ticketing is not limited to customer support tickets. Some industries use ticketing for customer service as well.

The ideal support ticket

Support tickets can store a variety of information on your ticketing system. However, there are a few bits that are identical for all support tickets, regardless of the system and industry.

For instance, a support ticket has to contain

Customer’s basic information; Tells you who the ticket is from with their whole customer profile

The message submitted by the customer; The query or complaint

Discrete Internal Notes; Notes that can be shared internally 

Previous history with a customer; Customer previous tickets and purchase history

Ticket status; The response and resolve status of the ticket (responded, resolved, unresolved, etc.)

That being said, an ideal support ticket needs to have more than just the basics. Check out the screenshot below from Fluent Support,

What is a ticketing system?

A ticketing system creates tickets automatically when customers submit a question or a complaint. Each ticketing system has its own management system that prioritizes varying functionalities. 

Some prioritize ticket management, while others prioritize collaboration and automation. What you should be looking for is a system that makes your goals easier to achieve.

Features of a good ticketing system

A good ticketing system is one that makes ticket management easy regardless of the volume of tickets you receive. That’s the only way to make a system scalable for fast-growing businesses. A good ticketing system should allow you to,

Filter and sort tickets; You should be able to sort tickets on more than just a few criteria. For instance, Fluent Support allows you to sort by products, separate inboxes, ticket status, and even the last response time.

Automate certain tasks; You should be able to automate some management tasks, such as delegating tickets to agents, segmenting based on queries, and sending saved responses.

Collaborate; Your system should allow multiple agents to view and manage a ticket to enable smooth transfers between agents and collaborate with agents with prior experience.

Log activities and detect collisions; You should know when multiple agents are attending the same ticket without good reason through collision detection and live activity logs.

Connect multiple channels; Your system should be able to create tickets outside of the basic submission process, such as by email piping. On the other hand, customer support agents should be able to view and respond to tickets from popular communication platforms (Telegram, Slack, etc.) as well.

Ticket handling best practices

For starters, it’s crucial to respond to tickets quickly. Customers want to feel heard, and responding promptly can make all the difference. Once you’re on the case, take the time to fully understand the issue before responding. This helps make sure your response addresses the customer’s needs accurately.

Another key aspect is to empathize with customers. By acknowledging their concerns and apologizing for any inconvenience caused, you can build trust and create a positive customer experience. Remember to use clear and concise language, too. Avoid technical terms and jargon that might confuse customers, and ensure your communication is easy to understand. In this case, you may use a paraphraser.

Throughout the ticket resolution process, it’s essential to keep customers informed. Provide regular updates on progress and let your customers know when the issue has been resolved.

Finally, follow up with the customer after the issue is resolved. This shows that you value their feedback and are committed to providing excellent customer service.

Wrapping up

Customer support ticket and ticketing systems are the backbone of today’s support and service practices. Companies are flooded with millions of tickets every year. Without well-managed systems, the sheer scale of customer queries would overwhelm even the most seasoned support teams. We hope this article helped you get familiar with support tickets and why they’re important.

Until next time, happy serving!

The post What even is a Customer Support Ticket? appeared first on Fluent Support.

A helpdesk plugin is dedicated to providing support to your customers. It can be used to support a variety of your company’s products and services. Thus, it’s a crucial tool for any online business or organization’s customer service and support operations.

Each of the helpdesk plugins you’ll find here has something unique to offer you. Therefore, you must be the judge and evaluate those differences and limitations before deciding to switch to an alternative.

What is a helpdesk plugin?

A helpdesk plugin is a type of software that adds customer support and ticketing capabilities to a website or application. A Helpdesk plugin typically allows users to submit support requests, track the status of their tickets, and receive assistance from customer service representatives through various channels, such as email, chat, or phone. 

Businesses commonly use these tools to manage customer interactions and provide timely, efficient client support. The helpdesk plugin allows your support team to receive, manage and respond directly to customer questions, offering more personalized support.

Top 7 Awesome Support alternatives

Without further ado! Let’s find out the best alternative to Awesome Support. 

1. Fluent Support 

Fluent Support is arguably the most powerful helpdesk on the list. It offers everything that you would ever need for better ticket management. This is your tool if you need product-based support, user information to automate responses, or to track team performance. There will be no learning curve to adapt to the plugin. 

It is fully designed to make life simpler for support agents. You can easily download it for free. It is available in both free and premium versions. Fluent Support contains advanced features such as email piping, automatic assignment, collision detection, customizable support automation, etc.

Furthermore, the time spent on each ticket is significantly decreased by its automated workflows and saved replies option. The collaboration between your teams is effective thanks to internal notes and personalized priorities. 

No product is without limitations, and so does Fluent Support. Although, this helpdesk plugin is way ahead of its competitors. However, its creators are working day and night to fulfill what they still desire to offer their customers in future updates. So, buckle up for a Fluent ride!

Fluent Support key features

Here’s a list of the key features that Fluent Support is offering at the moment.

• Unlimited support agents
• Unlimited tickets
• Customize email notification
• Collision detection
• 16 integrations (more on the line)
• Product-based agents
• Custom fields
• Advanced filtering
• User-friendly interface
• Knowledge base
• CRM and e-commerce integrations
• Reporting and analytics
• Robust security and data protection
• Reply via Slack and Telegram
• Create ticket with email
• Workflow automation
• Reply templates
• Guest ticket without login
• Sorting tickets
• Agent can open support ticket for customer
• Bulk ticket reply
• Agent tagging
• On-the-go response
• Priority management
• See activity logs
• Performance report
• Internal notes

and a lot more.

Verdict: Highly recommended

Free Version: Available

Pro Version: Available (Pricing plans start from $129/Site/Year)

2. JS Help Desk

JS Help Desk is a self-hosted help desk plugin & customer support plugin. It helps businesses manage and resolve customer inquiries and issues. This allows you to create separate teams, multiple products, and store documentation. Here, you’ll find features like ticket management, live chat, and a knowledge base to help businesses provide efficient and personalized customer support.

One of the main advantages of this is its user-friendly interface, which makes it easy for businesses to set up and manage their support operations. It also integrates seamlessly with popular customer relationship management (CRM) and e-commerce platforms, allowing businesses to track and manage customer interactions across different channels.

Another advantage of this plugin is its robust reporting and analytics capabilities, which provide businesses with insights into their customer support operations and help them identify areas for improvement. Moreover, it provides email notifications, multiple file attachments to a ticket, customer frontend widgets, Envato validation, and more.

On the downside, some users have reported that JS Help Desk can be slow and unresponsive sometimes, which is frustrating for businesses and customers. And the pricing model can also be somewhat complex, but the range is moderate.

Note: The free version of this plugin in wordpress.org has been closed since December 12, 2022, and is unavailable for download. This closure might be temporary; however, it’s still available at premium price ranges.

Key features of JS Help Desk

Currently, JS Help Desk provides the following features.

• Ticket options
• Powerful search
• Sorting options
• Ticket list
• Visitors can add tickets
• User add tickets
• Select user option
• Multi-ticket options
• 250+ configurations
• Editable & customizable email templates
• Unlimited custom fields like check box, text, input, etc.
• Responsive & easy to translate
• HTML editor
• Bootstrap base designs

etc.

Verdict: Recommended

Free Version: Currently unavailable

Pro Version: Available (Pricing plans start from $69/Site/Year)

3. SupportCandy

The SupportCandy plugin for WordPress offers a complete helpdesk ticket system with various features. This plugin is one of WordPress’s oldest support ticket systems and is designed to be simple, secure, and feature-rich. Besides the core features, the plugin offers email notifications, integration with Google reCaptcha, GDPR compliance, and macros for ticket fields.

Premium add-ons are also available, including email piping, WooCommerce integration, canned replies, assign agent rules, SLA calculation, satisfaction surveys, and automatic ticket closing. The plugin is available in multiple languages and can be used for various applications, such as technical support, customer relations, and service request management.

Though, the pricing plan is much more affordable than Awesome Support. But, they charge extra for necessary integrations like WooCommerce and features such as Email piping. This can significantly increase the overall cost of the basic package, which is a major disadvantage of SupportCandy.

Key features of SupportCandy

• Unlimited number of tickets
• Unlimited number of agents
• Advanced custom filter and search functionality
• Saved filters for customers and agents
• Private notes for internal communication of agents
• Agents can create a ticket on the customer’s behalf
• 16+ Custom field types
• Ticket fields for additional information about the ticket
• Agent-only fields to keep internal data of the ticket
• Customer fields to store information about the customer across the tickets
• Guest tickets (disabled by default)
• Guest can also see their ticket list using OTP Login (One Time Password)
• Rich-text editor (customizable)
• Email notifications
• Working hours
• Google reCaptcha integration
• GDPR Compatible
• Terms & Conditions checkbox in the ticket form
• Macros or placeholders for ticket fields

and more.

Verdict: Not recommended

Free Version: Available

Pro Version: Available (Pricing plans start from $59/Site/Year)

4. KB Support

KB Support is a user-friendly helpdesk and customer support platform. It offers seamless integrations with popular WordPress plugins such as Easy Digital Downloads and WooCommerce. The plugin also has its own built-in knowledge base for support resources.

However, the basic plan does not include integrations with Easy Digital Downloads and WooCommerce. This can be a disadvantage for WordPress eCommerce sites that want to use these integrations.

Another potential downside of KB Support is its pricing. The basic plan may not offer enough features for some businesses, while the enterprise plan may be too expensive for small to medium-sized businesses. Thus, it can make it difficult for businesses to find a plan that suits their needs and budget.

Key features of KB Support

• Unlimited Tickets
• Unlimited Agents
• Guest Submissions
• Ticket Participants
• Configurable Submission Forms
• Real-Time Reply Notifications
• Target SLA’s
• Integrated Knowledge Base
• Solution Suggestions During Submissions
• Create Restricted Articles
• Customer Management Interface
• Auto Ticket Assignment
• Fully Customisable Emails
• Responsive Customer Pages
• Templated
• Private Notes
• Restrict Agent Access
• Restrict Admin Access

etc.

Verdict: Not recommended

Free Version: Available

Pro Version: Available (Pricing plans start from $74/Site/Year)

5. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is a customer service and support software that is also available as a WordPress integration. It helps businesses manage and resolve customer inquiries and issues. Also, it offers a range of features, such as a customizable helpdesk, a self-service customer support portal, and integration with popular communication channels such as email, phone, and social media.

There are many integrations with other business tools and platforms, allowing users to streamline their workflow and improve efficiency. An advantage of Freshdesk is its robust reporting and analytics capabilities, which provide users with valuable insights into their customer support operations. It allows businesses to identify trends, track performance, and make data-driven decisions to improve customer service.

Despite these strengths, there are some potential drawbacks to using Freshdesk. For example, some users may find the pricing to be on the higher end compared to other customer support software/WP plugins. Additionally, some users may experience difficulty navigating the platform and accessing certain features, particularly if unfamiliar with customer service software.

Overall, Freshdesk is a powerful SaaS product that can help businesses improve customer interactions and resolve customer issues more effectively. It offers a range of useful features, integrations (including the WP Helpdesk Plugin), and robust reporting and analytics capabilities.

Key features of Freshdesk

• Team inbox
• Agent collision detection
• SLA management
• Ticket field suggester
• Thank you detector
• Customer ticket status
• Scenario automation
• Canned responses
• Team huddle
• Shared ownership
• Linked tickets
• Parent-child ticketing
• Support Across channels
• Manage end-end field service operations
• Ticket dispatch
• Intelligent ticket assignment
• Time-triggered automation
• Even-triggered automation
• Automatic email notification
• Chatbot powered by Freddy AI
• Help widget
• Automatically suggest solutions
• Measure and improve efficiency
• Dashboards, Customer reports, schedule reports,
• Customizable capabilities
• State-of-the-art data security

etc.

Verdict: Recommended

Free Version: Free trial available only

Pro Version: Available (Pricing plans start from $15/Agent/Site/Month)

6. Help Scout

Help Scout is a customer support platform that offers a suite of tools for growing teams to provide top-notch customer service. It is a SaaS product that has integration for WordPress. Its shared inbox includes features like private notes, @mentions for better team collaboration, and collision detection.

Automating routine tasks with workflows and gaining additional context through customer profiles is also possible with the platform. One of its standout features is Docs, which allows users to create a comprehensive customer knowledge base.

Moreover, it offers live chat capabilities and proactive support options through its Beacon widget, which can be easily embedded on your website. This allows customers to search your help documentation or submit questions to your support team directly from the widget, ensuring they get answers quickly and easily.

Performance dashboards are also included with Help Scout, providing individual and team performance reports. Also, there are custom views to see the metrics most important to you.

One major Help Scout drawback will be its high price range to get the bare minimum features.
And, as it is SaaS and not self-hosted, they’ll have all your support data. For WordPress, the free version has only a few features available.

Key features of Help Scout

• Shared inbox
• Customer service CRM
• Advanced formatting
• Chat
• Bulk actions
• 75+ keyboard shortcuts
• CSV export
• Email Signature
• Email forwarding
• Collision detection
• Merge conversations
• Live chat
• Helpdesk reporting
• Knowledge base
• Advanced filters
• Conversion drill-downs
• User-specific reporting
• Data comparison
• Translations
• Data security
• Mobile friendly
• 90+ apps and integrations

and a ton more.

Verdict: Recommended

Free Version: Available

Pro Version: Available (Pricing plans start from $20/Agent/Site/Month)

7. Zendesk

Zendesk is a helpdesk management solution (cloud-based) that offers customizable tools to build a customer service portal, knowledge base, and online communities. You can integrate your helpdesk, powered by Zendesk, into your WordPress site as a plugin by using Zendesk WordPress integration.

It has features such as a customizable front-end portal, live chat, and integration with popular applications. The solution allows businesses to brand their support pages with their logo, themes, and other brand images.

The Zendesk Suite includes various products, such as ticketing systems, a help center, a community forum, and messaging tools. Moreover, it includes Zendesk Talk, Zendesk Explore, and Zendesk Sunshine Conversations. One major drawback of Zendesk is its too much expensive.

Key features of Zendesk

• Customizable email notification
• Automatic agent assignment
• Customer fields
• Premium add-ons
• Customer support
• SMS & push bullets notification
• Real-time email notification
• GDPR Compliance
• Mobile responsive
• Email Piping
• Customer priorities
• Advanced reports
• Admin dashboard
• Detailed user dashboard
• Frontend agent dashboard
• Detailed user overview
• Smart replies with AI integrations
• Quick reply templates
• Internal notes
• Custom status & labels
• Automatic ticket close
• Automation
• Agent live activity
• Ticket bulk reply, close, and delete
• Company profiles
• SLAs
• Translation

and a lot more.

Verdict: Not recommended

Free Version: Currently unavailable

Pro Version: Available (Pricing plans start from $49/Agent/Site/Month)

Wrapping up

Lastly, the helpdesk plugins that we’ve mentioned above offer a wide range of features and capabilities. Choosing one wisely can be a valuable asset for your businesses and organizations if you want to improve customer service and support operations.

However, we would suggest you test the free help desk plugins for yourself before moving to the premium Awesome Support alternatives for your business. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this blog. We hope that you found it helpful and informative. Have a great day! 

The post 7 Best Awesome Support Alternatives to Choose as a Helpdesk Plugin appeared first on Fluent Support.

Last November 2021, we launched Fluent Support, a WordPress helpdesk plugin for small business owners. And after one year, it is now powering 4000+ small businesses’ customer support!

After the initial launch, our main goal was to improve the plugin with continuous updates. As we always do, we listen to our customers. We took every suggestion and feature request, analyzed them, and shipped them accordingly. Take a look at our anniversary blog; we recapped our whole journey and showcased important features we added.

Now it’s time for a new update. In our last update Fluent Support 1.6.6, we introduced a new feature of Fluent Support – ‘Ticket Importer.’ Using this, you can migrate your customer support tickets from other plugins. Ticket importing was only available for Awesome Support & Support Candy. Now we added two new options!

Migrate from JS Helpdesk & Help Scout

Our ‘Ticket Importer’ feature only had options to migrate from Awesome Support and Support Candy. Now we are adding two new support platforms – JS Help Desk & Help Scout!

If your customer support system runs by the JS HelpDesk WordPress plugin, it’s easy to migrate to Fluent Support with one click. Like Awesome Support & Support Candy, you must install Fluent Support Pro in your WordPress site running JS Help Desk. Then after setting up Fluent Support, you’ll see the JS Help Desk option in the ‘Ticket Importer’ setting.

Migrating tickets from Help Scout needs some work. Help Scout is a Saas tool that only offers API that can be used to transfer data from their system to your WordPress system. Check out our detailed documentation on migrating customer ticket data from Help Scout to Fluent Support.

Dynamic dashboard

Not happy to see the information shown on the Fluent Support dashboard? Now you can customize it! Easily add or hide information from your dashboard with the new “Dynamic Dashboard.”

Read our full documentation here on how to use the dynamic dashboard.

Agent summary export

Fluent Support “Report” features show both team and individual reports exclusively. What about exporting the data for other use?

We hear you! Now you can export the agent’s report summary from the ‘Report’ tab.

You can export individual reports too if you want. Check out our documentation on agent summary export.

Agent assign action added to activity log

Activity log is an important feature for knowing what is happening to your customer support team real-time. It shows all types of activity. But previously, it had not shown when an agent assigned a ticket. Now we added this to the activity log.

When a new agent is assigned to a new ticket, it will be visible on the activity log and show which agent was assigned by whom.

New WooCommerce integration improvement

We tweaked the design of Fluent Support WooCommerce integration a little bit. Now customers’ WooCommerce purchase history will show clearly in their tickets.

Here is the previous version:

Now your agents will see the WooCommerce order ID and order status in the sidebar under “WooCommerce Purchase.”

Here is the new version:

And when you click individual order, a new window pop-up with order details, including billing, shopping, and product details.

You can edit these details right from here by clicking the edit button.

Bug Fixes

We worked on some bug fixes that were requested by our users in this update. Have a look.

Actions are not showing on the manual workflow

Previously, when creating or editing manual workflows, there were no actions shown. We fixed this in this update.

Attachments are not sent on the first response

There were issues with attachments in tickets. They were not sent on a ticket’s first response. Our developers fixed the issue.

Block user’s ticket isn’t blocking in the Fluent Form Integration

When a blocked user submits a ticket through the Fluent Form integration, the ticket is still created in the support portal. But it should not be created. We looked into the issue and fixed the loophole.

Filters reversed after opening a new window

Filter doesn’t remain in place after getting out of a ticket. Filter reverted to the default mode even though it was changed before loading a ticket. We solved this glitch.

What’s next for Fluent Support

Updated your plugin yet? Update it now! We are always looking for ways to improve Fluent Support. Our highest focus is to make Fluent Support the best customer support help desk for WordPress. Please let us know if you encounter any bugs after updating the plugin.

We hear our users. If you think Fluent Support lacks any feature, suggest new features here in our Facebook community. Share your use cases with other users, brainstorm, and help fellow WordPressians!

See you, next update soon!

The post Fluent Support 1.6.7: JS Help Desk & Help Scout Migration, Dynamic Dashboard & More Bug Fixes! appeared first on Fluent Support.