5 revenue metrics that every business should know

Today, we will calculate total revenue, net revenue, deferred revenue, marginal revenue, and annual recurring revenue  (ARR) to give you increasingly nuanced insights about the company’s financial health.

So, let’s start the counting and see what they reveal.

1. Total revenue formula

Total Revenue = Price per unit x Quantity sold

You need to multiply the price of each item or service by the number of units sold to calculate your total revenue.

This figure represents all the money coming into your business before accounting for any expenses, refunds, discounts, or adjustments. In short, it’s the unfiltered amount your business generates through sales.

The total revenue formula includes:

It doesn’t subtract things like:

For businesses juggling multiple pricing tiers, the formula expands:

Total Revenue = (Price of Plan ‘A’ × Number of Plan ‘A’ Subscribers) + (Price of Plan ‘B’ × Number of Plan ‘B’ Subscribers) + …

Example:

Total Monthly Revenue = ($10 × 150) + ($25 × 75) + ($100 × 15) = $1,500 + $1,875 + $1,500 = $4,875

While this number looks promising, it’s just the surface. Because beneath, there’s also some revenue leakage. By counting these costs and leakage, you can uncover the next revenue metric.

2. Net Revenue formula

Net Revenue = Total Revenue – Returns – Discounts – Allowances

It refers to the actual amount of money that stays in your business after deducting the leakages like refunds, discounts, allowances, etc.

Essentially, it’s the total amount a business receives from its core operations after accounting for these specific adjustments. 

Example:

Net revenue would be: $10,000 – $800 – $1,200 – $200 = $7,800

This means while $10,000 initially appeared to be coming in, $7,800 is what actually stayed in your business. This difference ($2,200 or 22% of total revenue) represents your “leakage,” money that slipped through costs.

A high leakage percentage might indicate problems with customer satisfaction, pricing, or product-market fit that need addressing for sustainable growth.

3. Deferred Revenue formula

Unlike traditional businesses, SaaS often collects payment before delivering your full service. That creates a financial time lag that needs special attention.

Deferred revenue (sometimes called “unearned revenue”) represents this prepaid amount that you’ve collected but haven’t yet earned through service delivery. It’s recorded as a liability on your balance sheet, not as revenue on your income statement.

Deferred Revenue = Sum of all prepaid amounts for services not yet delivered

To calculate deferred revenue, sum the payments of all the undelivered products or services that will be delivered in the future.

Example: 

In January, after the first month of service:

Recognized Revenue: ($96/12 × 10) + ($240/12 × 5) = $80 + $100 = $180

Deferred Revenue: ($96 × 10 – $80) + ($240 × 5 – $100) = $880 + $1,100 = $1,980

That $1,980 represents a promise to deliver value over the coming months. It’s also a sign of customer confidence and secured future income. 

4. Marginal Revenue formula

That’s where marginal revenue helps you measure the true value of growth. Marginal revenue is the additional revenue you gain by selling one more unit of your product or service.

Marginal Revenue = Change in Total Revenue / Change in Quantity Sold

Or, in mathematical terms, it is defined as the derivative of Total Revenue with respect to quantity. This typically means adding one more subscriber or customer for a SaaS business.

Example: 

A company runs a promotion that brings in 20 new Pro tier subscribers:

Marginal Revenue = $500 / 20 = $25 per additional subscription

But what if acquiring each of those customers costs $30 in marketing? Suddenly, you’re growing, but at a loss. This insight connects directly to our final and perhaps most powerful metric.

5. Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)

ARR is calculated by taking your Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) and multiplying it by 12 to annualize it. This gives you a standardized annual view of your subscription income.

ARR = Monthly Recurring Revenue × 12

Example: Monthly Recurring Revenue from all current subscriptions: $4,875

ARR = $4,875 × 12 = $58,500

If we factor in an average monthly growth rate of 5%:

Projected ARR (end of year) = $58,500 × (1.05)^12 = $100,195

This projected growth from $58,500 to over $100,000 represents the power of compound growth in the subscription model. 

That’s why investors love SaaS businesses and why understanding your ARR trajectory is critical for planning everything from hiring to product development.

By mastering these five revenue metrics

You’ll gain valuable insights into your SaaS business’s performance and potential. More importantly, you’ll be equipped to make strategic decisions that drive sustainable growth and long-term success.

Remember, these metrics are interconnected. So, improvements in one area often lead to positive changes in others. Start tracking them today, and watch how they transform your understanding of your business’s financial health.

The post Total Revenue Formula: 5 Metrics That Scale Up Your Business appeared first on Fluent Support.

Well, we’ve all been there. It’s annoying, confusing, and sometimes feels like a dead end.

Hey, don’t you worry. It’s not as bad as it seems.

In this blog, we’ll explain what it is, why it happens, and how to fix it step by step.

So, are you ready to deal with the error? Let’s dive in.

What does ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ error mean?

The ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ error is a common issue in Google Chrome that occurs when the browser cannot access or retrieve cached data for a webpage.

Normally, browsers store cached files—like images, scripts, and other website elements to speed up loading times. So, instead of downloading everything again, Chrome pulls these files from local storage. But when something goes wrong, this error appears.

There are several reasons why this might happen.

One common cause is outdated or corrupted cached data. If a website updates its content but your browser still tries to load the old version, Chrome might fail to fetch the correct files.

This results in a mismatch, causing the ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ error.

Another frequent trigger is form resubmission. If you fill out a form and then hit the refresh or back button, Chrome may block the page from reloading to prevent duplicate submissions.

That’s why you often see this error with a message like “Confirm Form Resubmission.”

It’s not a bug. It’s actually a built-in feature to stop unintended duplicate actions.

Sometimes, browser extensions or misconfigured settings can also interfere with caching. Certain extensions modify how Chrome handles stored data, which may lead to conflicts.

In some cases, even website-side issues, like incorrect cache settings or coding errors, can contribute to the problem.

Well, there are several variations of this error, but they all essentially mean the same thing.

Let’s overview the variations.

• ERR_CACHE_MISS

• CONFIRM FORM RESUBMISSION ERR CACHE MISS

• NET::ERR_CACHE_MISS

• NET ERR_CACHE_MISS

• ERR_CACHE_MISS FIX

Let’s explain ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ error in the simplest example possible.

Think of it like using an expired ticket to enter a movie theater. The system expects a valid ticket (cache), but when it doesn’t match the records, you’re denied entry.

Similarly, Chrome expects to load a site from cache, but when it can’t, it throws the ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ error.

How to fix ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ in Chrome (10 proven tactics)

Here comes the most crucial section of this blog: 10 proven tactics to fix the ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ error.

We’ve explained each tactic simply and straightforwardly, so even if you’re not technically inclined, that won’t be a problem.

Just move forward boldly without hesitation.

1. Reload the page

In most cases, a simple page reload is all you need to fix the ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’.

Your Chrome browser might have temporarily failed to fetch the cached data, and a quick refresh can fix that. Click the refresh button or press F5 (Windows) / Command + R (Mac) to reload the page.

If that doesn’t work, try a hard refresh.

This forces Chrome to ignore cached files and fetch fresh data from the server. You can do this by pressing Ctrl + Shift + R (Windows) or Command + Shift + R (Mac).

This is especially useful if outdated or corrupted cache files cause the error.

If a simple refresh didn’t work, don’t panic. There are still plenty of fixes to try. The next logical step is to restart your browser and see if that helps.

2. Restart your browser

Sometimes, browsers get stuck with minor glitches. Perhaps a fresh start could clear things up and resolve the ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ error.

First, completely close the Chrome browser (don’t just minimize it). On Windows, right-click the Chrome icon in the taskbar and select “Exit.” On Mac, click Chrome in the top menu and choose “Quit Google Chrome.”

For a more thorough restart, open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc on Windows) or use Command + Option + Esc on Mac to bring up the Force Quit window. From there, close all Chrome processes. You can also use Activity Monitor for deeper cleanup if needed. This makes sure Chrome fully shuts down in the background.

Now, relaunch Chrome and try loading the page again.

Note: If you don’t want to deal with all these steps, you can easily restart your Chrome browser with a URL. Just type “chrome://restart” in the address bar and hit Enter. (Boom, Chrome restarts on its own.)

If any of these steps fixed the issue, you’re all set (and can breathe easy). If not, you may go one step further to delete and reinstall the Chrome browser (not recommended, though).

3. Clear cache and browsing data

Still seeing that ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ error?

It might be your browser cache messing things up. Let’s investigate whether your browser cache or data is the culprit.

Chrome stores cached versions of websites to load them faster. But if those files get old or corrupted, they can cause weird issues like ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ or others.

In that case, by clearing the browser cache and data, you could erase those old files and give your Chrome browser a fresh start.

And don’t worry. It won’t remove your saved passwords, bookmarks, autofill data, or other essential elements. Instead, it’s likely to fix the error you’re experiencing.

To do this, click the three dots at the top right of your Chrome browser. From the dropdown, select “Delete browsing data.”

If “Delete browsing data” doesn’t appear directly, follow this: Settings > Privacy and security > Delete browsing data.

On Mac you will also have another way: Click on Chrome from the top-left of your screen, then select “Delete browsing data” directly from there.

If you prefer shortcuts, use Ctrl + Shift + Delete on Windows, or Command + Shift + Delete on Mac.

Or, directly paste this URL: chrome://settings/clearBrowserData

Now, when the “Delete browsing data” pop-up appears, you’ll see two tabs: Basic and Advanced. Stick with Basic for now.

From the Time range dropdown, choose “All time.” This ensures that all cached data is completely cleared (no leftovers).

Must check the box “Cached images and files.” That’s the one we want. You can leave the others unchecked if you don’t want to lose history or cookies.

Click Clear data and let Chrome do its thing. It just takes a few seconds.

Now try reloading the page again. If it still throws the same error, don’t worry. We’re just getting warmed up. Up next, let’s check that internet connection of yours.

4. Disable the browser cache system

Disabling the browser cache system is another simple trick for dealing with the browser cache and resolving the ‘ERR_Cache_Miss’ error.

Clearing the cache manually isn’t enough in some cases. Chrome might still try to load parts of the site from memory. To avoid this, you can turn off caching temporarily using DevTools.

Here’s how to do it:

• On Windows, press F12 to open DevTools.
• On Mac, press Command + Option + I.

Once the DevTools panel appears, follow these steps:

• Click on the Network tab in DevTools.
• Check the box that says “Disable cache.”
• Don’t close DevTools (this part is super important).

Okay, refresh the page (hard refresh is recommended). Chrome will now skip using cached files and fetch everything from the website’s server.

It’s the best way to ensure you view the most up-to-date version of any page.

Reminder: As soon as you close the DevTools panel, caching will start again. So, make sure to keep it open during testing or troubleshooting.

5. Disable browser extensions

If the cache fix didn’t work either, something else might be the reason. Maybe it’s the Chrome extensions that you’ve installed.

Well, even handy tools (extensions) can sometimes cause problems.

Some of them might interfere with website loading, especially ad blockers, privacy tools, or security add-ons.

And, this could trigger the infamous ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ error.

Now let’s figure out how to deal with these extensions to fix the error.

Simply, click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of Chrome → hover over Extensions → click Manage Extensions. Or type this in your address bar and hit Enter: chrome://extensions/

After this, you will land on the extension page. From here, toggle the switch off for each installed extension. This disables them temporarily.

Now, refresh the page that was showing the error. If the page loads fine now, bingo! One of those extensions is the culprit.

To determine which one it is, re-enable your extensions one by one and refresh the page after turning each one back on.

To figure out which one it is, re-enable them individually and refresh the page after activating each.

If the error reappears after enabling a specific extension, you’ve found the troublemaker. Consider updating, reinstalling, or removing it entirely.

And if nothing changes, no worries. Let’s move on to the next step in your ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ fix journey.

6. Check for Chrome updates

Well, it might be time to upgrade Chrome (if you’re using an older version).

Outdated versions of Chrome can have bugs or compatibility issues that mess with the cache’s functionality. So, checking for updates is a quick win.

Let’s look into how you can update your Chrome browser (or check for updates).

• Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner.

• Hover over Help and click About Google Chrome.

• Or click Settings and scroll all the way down. At the very bottom, you’ll find “About Chrome”. Click it to land on the update page.

• You can also go straight to the update page by entering this in the address bar: chrome://settings/help.

• Chrome will now check for updates automatically. If an update is available, it’ll start downloading right away.

• Once done, click Relaunch to finish the update.

That’s it.

Updating the browser will ensure you’re running the latest version with the newest fixes and performance improvements.

Now, open the same web page you were trying to access. If an outdated Chrome version caused the ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ error, it should be gone.

What if it persists? No stress. We’ve got four more fixes lined up.

Let’s move on.

7. Reset your Chrome settings

When nothing else works, resetting Chrome might be one of the solutions.

Over time, extensions, plugins, or even accidents might change your Chrome settings. A reset clears out all the weird (and possibly unwanted) changes and restores Chrome to its clean default state.

You need to try it out now. So, get straight to the process:

• Click the three-dot menu at the top right.

• Go to Settings.

• From the left sidebar, select Reset settings.

• Then click ‘Restore settings to their original defaults’.

• You’ll see a confirmation box. Hit Reset settings again.

Simple. 

Want to get there faster? Just copy and paste this into your address bar: 

chrome://settings/reset

No worries.

Resetting Chrome settings will not delete your saved passwords, history, or bookmarks. It will just reset things like the homepage, new tab settings, and search engines.

After the reset, restart your browser and give that page another go.

Still seeing the ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ error? Hang tight. We’ve still got more solutions to try next.

8. Reset your network settings

Sometimes, Chrome is not the real troublemaker. Your system’s network settings might be causing the mess.

Over time, your device may pick up incorrect network settings or store outdated connection information that prevents websites from loading correctly. Resetting your network can help clear out the junk and start fresh.

Let’s reset your network to eliminate any weird configurations or broken connections.

For Windows Users:

1. Click the Start menu (bottom-left corner) and type cmd.

2. Right-click Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator.

3. Now, a black window will appear.

4. Copy and paste (or type) these lines one by one and press Enter after each:

netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /flushdns

Don’t worry. You’re just telling Windows to forget its old internet settings.

For Mac Users:

1. Open System Settings (or System Preferences, depending on your version).

2. Choose Network, then click on your active connection (like Wi-Fi).

3. Hit Details (or Advanced) and go to the TCP/IP tab.

4. Click Renew DHCP Lease. This refreshes your internet connection.

Now that your general network settings are refreshed, there’s one more thing you might want to check — your DNS settings.

A misconfigured or slow DNS can also mess things up. Changing it to something more reliable (like Google’s public DNS) often helps.

So, let’s get straight to the process.

For Windows users:

1. Open your Control Panel.

2. Go to Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center.

3. Click Change adapter settings (on the left).

4. Right-click your Wi-Fi (or Ethernet) connection and choose Properties. You will get a pop-up option there.

5. Double-click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4). Another pop-up will appear for it.

6. Select Use the following DNS server addresses and type in:

• Preferred: 8.8.8.8
• Alternate: 8.8.4.4

7. Hit OK to save.

If you wanna go for even faster browsing, use Cloudflare’s DNS instead:

• 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1

8. Finally, restart your computer. That’s it!

For Mac users:

1. Open System Settings > Network.

2. Pick your network and click Details.

3. Head to the DNS tab.

4. Click the + and enter:

• 8.8.8.8
• 8.8.4.4

5. Press OK and then Apply.

Once you’ve completed the network reset and DNS update, relaunch Chrome and visit the page that showed the error.

If it were a network-related glitch, the error should be solved.

9. Use incognito or private mode

Next up: go for incognito or private mode.

Your regular browsing session saves extra stuff, like cookies, cache, or form data, which can cause problems loading a page.

Using Incognito mode (or Private mode on other browsers) helps you test if that’s what’s causing the ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ error.

Here’s how to open it:

On Windows: Press “Ctrl + Shift + N”.

On Mac: Press “Command + Shift + N”

Or, click the three-dot menu (top-right in Chrome) and select New Incognito Window.

Now, revisit the same page. If it works here, it confirms that your cached data or browser extensions are to blame.

If this actually happens, at least you’ll know Chrome isn’t the problem. It’s just your browsing session causing issues.

In that case, what should you do?

• Clear your browser cache and cookies.
• Deal with extensions.
• Restart Chrome.

All of these methods discussed above, you know.

10. Consult the hosting provider

If you’ve tried all the browser-related fixes and that ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ error still sticks around, your website’s server might be the real culprit.

Sometimes, server-side caching, misconfigured headers, incorrect Content Security Policy (CSP) rules, or broken SSL/TLS certificates can block Chrome from loading a page properly.

This is especially common if the issue only happens on one specific site (like your own) and not others.

So, what should you do?

Reach out to your hosting provider’s support team. Tell them exactly what’s happening and mention the error message. Share details like:

• The exact error you’re getting

• Which page shows the problem

• When it started happening

• What you’ve already tried to fix it (our suggested fix)

• If it happens for all visitors or just you

So, they’ll be able to check your site’s server logs, caching layers (like Varnish or Cloudflare), and other configurations (technical terms they know) that might be messing things up behind the scenes.

If you’re using a managed WordPress host, they might even have built-in caching systems or firewall rules that you can’t control yourself. The support team can adjust those for you.

And once they’ve done their part, revisit your site and check if the issue is resolved.

Wrapping up

And that’s it.

You’ve just walked through all the proven ways to fix Chrome’s ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ error. If you ever face it again, you know exactly what to do.

There’s no need to stress out next time. Just follow these steps, and you’ll fix it like a pro.

Lastly, thanks for taking the time to read this blog.

The post How to Fix ‘ERR_CACHE_MISS’ in Chrome (10 Proven Tactics) appeared first on Fluent Support.

Moreover, it equips you with valuable insights into revenue patterns, customer acquisition strategies, and overall business health.

This guide will explain you what ACV is, how to calculate it, and why it matters for your business growth.

What is Annual Contract Value (ACV)?

Annual Contract Value (ACV) is the average yearly revenue earned from a customer contract, excluding any additional fees. For example, if a customer signs a 5-year contract worth $100,000, the ACV would be $20,000 per year.

It’s a standardized metric that allows businesses to compare contracts of different lengths and values on an equal footing by normalizing them to a single year.

ACV is particularly significant for:

• SaaS companies and subscription businesses.
• Enterprise sales teams with varying contract lengths.
• Financial modeling and forecasting.
• Investor presentations and valuation discussions.
• Sales strategy development and optimization.

It provides a clearer picture of recurring revenue generation and helps standardize revenue reporting across diverse customer contracts.

To enhance your client support strategy—download our comprehensive FREE eBook and build a high-performing customer service team.

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How to calculate ACV in sales?

Calculating ACV is relatively straightforward, but it’s important to use a consistent methodology across your organization. 

The basic formula of ACV:

ACV = Total Contract Value ÷ Number of Years in the Contract

For subscription-based businesses, the calculation typically includes:

ACV = (Subscription Fee + One-time Fees) ÷ Contract Duration in Years

When calculating ACV, remember these key points:

• Include all recurring revenue components (subscription fees, maintenance fees).
• Include one-time payments (setup fees, implementation costs) that are part of the initial contract.
• Exclude renewal fees or upsells that weren’t part of the original contract.
• Convert the contract duration to years (e.g., a 6-month contract = 0.5 years).

ACV formula in different sales examples

Let’s analyze the formula for ACV and its relation to other SaaS metrics.

Example 1: For a simple 1-year contract

Imagine a customer who pays you $60,000 for a one-year service contract. They also pay a $5,000 setup fee that’s just a one-time payment.

To find the ACV, we:

So the ACV is $55,000. This represents the recurring annual revenue from this customer.

Example 2: For a multi-year contract

Now imagine a customer signs up for 3 years, paying a total of $180,000 for those three years, plus a $10,000 implementation fee paid once at the beginning.

To calculate ACV:

The ACV is $56,667. This tells you that on an annual basis, this 3-year contract is worth $56,667 per year.

Example 3: For a short contract (less than a year)

Here, a customer signs a 6-month contract worth $30,000 with no one-time fees.

To calculate ACV:

The ACV is $60,000. This means if the contract were extended to a full year at the same rate, it would be worth $60,000.

Example 4: Company-wide average ACV

This is slightly different! It calculates the average ACV across all your customers:

This tells you that, on average, each customer brings in $50,000 of annual recurring revenue.

What’s the difference between ACV and ARR?

While ACV and Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) may seem similar, they serve different purposes and are calculated differently:

The key distinction is that ACV provides insight into the average value of contracts, while ARR focuses specifically on recurring revenue that can be expected year after year.

ARR example:

To better understand the difference between ACV and ARR, let’s look at an ARR calculation example using the same scenario from our first ACV example:

Company ‘A’ signs up for your software service with the following terms:

Monthly subscription: $2,000

One-time implementation fee: $6,000

Contract duration: 2 years

The ARR calculation would be:

ARR = Monthly Recurring Revenue × 12 = $2,000 × 12 = $24,000

Notice that the ARR ($24,000) is lower than the ACV ($27,000) because ARR excludes the one-time implementation fee of $6,000 that was factored into the ACV calculation.

Why does ACV matter in our business?

Annual Contract Value (ACV) serves as a fundamental metric in subscription and contract-based businesses for several important reasons:

1. Standardized comparison framework

ACV creates a common language for evaluating contracts of different durations, payment structures, and complexity.

By normalizing everything to an annual basis, you can directly compare a 6-month contract to a 3-year contract to understand their relative value. This standardization is essential for making fair assessments across your entire customer portfolio.

2. Strategic decision making

With accurate ACV calculations, businesses can make better-informed decisions about where to allocate resources. 

For example, if you discover that enterprise customers have an ACV of $120,000 while small business customers average only $15,000! You might decide to shift your sales and marketing efforts toward the enterprise segment for higher returns on investment.

3. Sales performance evaluation

Furthermore, ACV provides a clearer picture of sales performance than simply counting deals or tracking total contract value. 

A salesperson who closes ten contracts with an average ACV of $75,000 is generating more sustainable value than someone closing fifteen contracts with an average ACV of $30,000, even though the second person has more “wins” on paper.

4. Business forecasting and valuation

Since it focuses on recurring revenue (by excluding one-time fees), it gives a clearer picture of sustainable income. 

Investors also closely watch ACV trends when valuing subscription-based companies, as it indicates the company’s ability to generate predictable future revenue.

5. Customer success prioritization

Also, understanding which customers represent the highest ACV helps customer success teams prioritize their efforts. 

Higher ACV customers typically warrant more attention and resources to ensure their satisfaction and reduce churn risk.

6. Growth trend analysis

Lastly, tracking ACV over time reveals important business health indicators. If your average ACV increases quarter over quarter, it suggests a shift toward more valuable customers.

Conversely, declining ACV might signal pricing pressure or an inability to retain high-value clients.

By optimizing your ACV

You can build a more predictable, sustainable subscription business with healthy unit economics and strong growth potential. 

The reason for aligning your sales, marketing, product, and customer success strategies with the ACV profile is to maximize both acquisition and retention. So, don’t wait, start your calculation now!

The post What is Annual Contract Value (ACV) and How to Calculate It? appeared first on Fluent Support.

This is where a modern customer engagement center becomes crucial. CEC helps you engage with them meaningfully across their entire journey and create holistic, omnichannel experiences.

Core functionalities of customer engagement center

CEC has the functionality to cut down on certain redundant manual tasks while also having access to collaboration tools and real-time analytics. 

Here are the functionalities that equip support agents with those opportunities.

• Omnichannel communication: Phone, email, chat, social media, video, self-service portals, etc.
• 360-degree customer views: Complete history and context for every interaction.
• Intelligent routing: Getting customers to the right resource at the right time.
• Knowledge management: Easy access to information for both agents and customers.
• Analytics and AI capabilities: Data-driven insights and automation.
• Integration capabilities: Seamless connections with other business systems.
• Customer journey analytics: Identify trends, pain points, and opportunities for improvement.

Hereby, you got enough primary knowledge about a CEC platform. But how would you build your own centralized platform or ecosystem that goes beyond traditional customer service? 

Without any further ado, let’s start building a successful customer engagement center for your business.

How to build a successful customer engagement center?

The most effective CECs strike a balance between efficiency and personalization. Leveraging technology to handle routine tasks while empowering agents to add the human touch where it matters most.

So, start with identifying the right strategy and finish by combining all your unique business needs together.

1. Identifying your CEC strategy

Create a strategy of what you are trying to achieve. Maybe you’re aiming to reduce support costs while improving satisfaction scores. Or perhaps you want to transform customer service into a revenue-generating department through upsells and cross-sells. 

Whatever your goals, they should drive every decision that follows.

These approaches are commonly recommended by experts. For example, several vendors and industry research reports (including Salesforce and Gartner) stress the importance of starting with a clear vision and well-defined objectives. 

2. Defining the ideal customer experience

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Map out their journey from initial awareness through purchase and beyond. Where are the pain points? Where are the opportunities to delight?

Identify pain points (like having to repeat their story multiple times) and look for opportunities to delight them. Then create detailed customer personas and journey maps. Document the ideal experience for each touchpoint, then identify the gaps between your current state and where you want to be.

3. Getting a technology infrastructure in place

With your strategy and ideal experience defined, it’s time to evaluate technology solutions. 

Look for platforms that offer:

The technology should enable your strategy, not define it. Too many companies fall into the trap of letting software limitations dictate their customer experience.

4. Connecting to your customers where they are

Today’s customers hop between channels like nobody’s business. They might start on your website chat, continue via email, and finish with a phone call. And they will expect you to keep up.

Your CEC needs to meet customers on their preferred channels while maintaining context across interactions. This doesn’t mean you need to be everywhere at once, though. Start with the channels your customers use most, then expand methodically.

A survey of your current customers can reveal surprising insights about channel preferences. For example, younger customers might prefer text messaging, where older ones overwhelmingly chose email over phone calls. These omnichannel strategies are now standard in customer service and CX practice.

5. Putting the right people in place

We all know, even the best technology needs to be supported by the right team. That’s why your CEC team needs to be equipped with the right skill and knowledge. 

Such as,

Consider a cross-functional teams (or “pods”) approach where teams handle specific customer segments across all channels rather than specializing by channel. This encourages ownership of the entire customer relationship.

However, training isn’t a one-time event. Build continuous learning into your CEC culture with regular skill refreshers and opportunities to share best practices.

To enhance your client support strategy—download our comprehensive FREE eBook and build a high-performing customer service team.

The form can be filled in the actual website url.

6. Building a CEC for your business

Finally, remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Your Customer Engagement Center (CEC) should be tailored to your unique business needs and customer expectations.

Start with a minimum viable product that addresses your most critical pain points, then evolve it using real customer feedback and performance data.

Consider a phased implementation strategy:

An agile, iterative rollout is a proven best practice in the customer engagement space. It mirrors the adaptive nature of successful CX transformations, what works for one business might require fine-tuning for another. That’s why a phased, feedback-driven approach isn’t just popular; it’s essential.

Wrapping up

Building a successful Customer Engagement Center isn’t just about installing new software. It’s about creating a foundation for meaningful customer relationships that drive business growth.

Also, this journey of building a successful CEC is never truly “finish.” Customer expectations continue to evolve, and so should your engagement strategy. The journey of improvement never ends, but with each step, you’ll build stronger, more profitable customer relationships.

The post How to Build a Successful Customer Engagement Center appeared first on Fluent Support.

Handling that many tickets isn’t just about having a good system; it’s about understanding customer needs, streamlining workflows, and constantly evolving. So, we took this chance to dig deeper into their experiences—how by using Fluent Support they tackled their daily challenges, what worked, and what lessons they’ve learned along the way for the past few years.

Joining us in this conversation are MD. Kamrul Hasan (Head of Support at WPManageNinja), along with 2 other senior team members of their big Support team, Ibrahim Sharif (Support Lead, FluentCRM), and Mahdi (Support Lead, FluentForms). From their firsthand experiences, we’ll explore not just the mechanics of handling support but also the bigger picture of what great customer support truly means.

Let’s get into it!

Interviewing the users of Fluent Support

Uttam: Over 100,000 customer support tickets were resolved by WPManageNinja using their own Fluent Support, the best-known self-hosted Helpdesk plugin for customer support in WordPress. That’s not just a big number, right? That’s incredible. It’s a massive indicator of a system that really works. Because, you know, if you’ve ever felt bogged down by handling customer support and just can’t keep pace with your needs, their journey may offer some really valuable lessons.

For that reason, today, I’m looking forward to having a conversation with some of the key members of WPManageNinja’s customer support team. I’m here with MD. Kamrul Hasan (Head of Support at WPManageNinja), and 3 other senior members of their big support team, Ibrahim, Mahdi, and Farhan. I’m pleased to get a chance to have a chit-chat with you guys. 

So Kamrul, what we’re going to do now is, we’re going to delve into the specific challenges that you and your team faced, the reasons behind the development of Fluent Support, and the key features that have enabled them to handle this just incredible workload. I know, you were there back in 2020 when WPManageNinja first decided to build an in-house helpdesk plugin for the team. But we’ll skip the dramatic flashback—because we’ve already turned that saga into a fun-to-read comic book! Seriously, it’s way more fun to read than hearing us ramble on. So, I’d love our reader to check that out for sure!

Innovation of Fluent Support: Flashback

[Comic of the real story]

Get the FREE Comic

My first question to you is—what were the biggest headaches with your previous system that pushed you to build your own in-house solution? What specific limitations were they encountering that made a change necessary? 

Kamrul: Well, back then, the primary issue was scalability. As WPManageNinja expanded, the previous system simply couldn’t cope with the growing number of support requests. Ticket loading time was a huge bottleneck, along with some other limitations of the tool.

We used to sit for minutes just for a simple ticket to load. The inefficiencies led to a significant accumulation of tickets, resulting in ticket backlogs. Pretty frustrating dealing with the inefficiencies day in and day out. 

So, my team recognized the need for a more effective way to support their expanding user base, as we’re spending more energy fighting the technical limitations of the tool we were using at that time.

Uttam: Okay, got it. So, I guess that’s how WPManageNinja reached a point that led them to this decision of actually developing an in-house ticketing system by themselves. 

Kamrul: Right, exactly. 

Uttam: Another thing, Kamrul, once Fluent Support was implemented internally, what tangible changes did you observe? What were the immediate results? On the customer service end, was the transformation almost instantaneous? 

Kamrul: Absolutely, we witnessed a significant decrease in the general ticket resolution time, and there was an uplift in customer satisfaction levels too. From that point on, that internal validation provided clear evidence of the potential market to the stakeholders.

In 2021, the solution clearly resonated with others facing similar issues, and we launched it for the wider market. And fast forward to today, Fluent Support is now powering 10,000+ businesses globally. 

Uttam: That’s great, Kamrul. Now I’d like to turn to Ibrahim.

So, Ibrahim, I’d love to get your take on this—how do you see Fluent Support fitting into the larger WPManageNinja ecosystem? Does it act as a missing piece, seamlessly integrating with other products? And more broadly, when it comes to WordPress-powered businesses, does it help boost the overall efficiency of other plugins and workflows?

Ibrahim: That’s a great question! From a firsthand perspective, Fluent Support isn’t just another helpdesk plugin—I believe, it’s a strategic enabler. When they built it, they weren’t just thinking about handling tickets; they also thought about how a ticketing system fits into the entire workflow of a WordPress-dependent business and, without a doubt, the WPManageNinja ecosystem.

We work for products like Fluent Forms, FluentCRM, FluentBooking, FluentCommunity, FluentSMTP, and other powerful tools. And, Fluent Support connects with all of them very smoothly. This makes it easier for businesses to automate customer interactions, streamline workflows, and provide better solutions without jumping between multiple platforms.

Right now, along with WPManageNinja’s own plugins, Fluent Support offers various other plugin integrations, including WooCommerce, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, TutorLMS, LearnDash, BetterDocs, Discord, Google Drive, Dropbox, PMPro, and a lot more.

So, to answer your question—yes, Fluent Support doesn’t work only as a standalone tool. It charges the entire support experience by connecting with the tools businesses already rely on. That makes everything more efficient, responsive, and customer-friendly.

Uttam: That’s great, Ibrahim! It’s really interesting to see how Fluent Support isn’t just solving customer support issues but actually strengthening the entire WordPress ecosystem. Now, Mahdi, I’d like to ask you, for those who are currently using Fluent Support, what are some of the standout features that seem to resonate most strongly with users? What aspects do they particularly appreciate?

Mahdi: Alright! So the biggest thing people love about Fluent Support? It just makes support easier. It takes a lot of the manual work off your plate. The automation possibilities are huge. You can set up workflows that auto-assign tickets, send saved replies, and even trigger CRM actions without having to think about it, and then there’s is email piping.

There’s advanced filtering and separate inboxes, which is super useful if you’re managing multiple products or teams. And the fact that you can customize the ticket portal the way you want? People love that.

But honestly, I guess the most exciting thing right now for everyone is the new AI powers. The team introduced AI-integrations recently, and it’s actually really smart. It doesn’t just generate replies—it is capable of understanding customer sentiment. 

So if a customer is not happy about it a thing, it picks up on that, and agents can adjust their responses accordingly. You can also fine-tune the AI’s answers before sending them, so it’s not just some robotic reply—it still feels human. 

And as far as I know, team Fluent Support is working on even more ways AI can help businesses in terms of customer service in general. 

Uttam: Okay, great—got it! So basically, Fluent Support is trying to do all the heavy lifting with automations, integrations, and even AI stepping in for an even better overall experience and taking the load off from the support agents. Right? 

Mahdi: Yes, that’s right. 

Uttam: So Kamrul, I want your opinion on this, AI in helpdesks—do you think it’s truly enhancing support, or are we risking losing that human touch? What’s your take on it?

Kamrul: As I deal with our customers a lot, and manage a team of support agents on a daily basis, thinking from a customer’s perspective, I still prefer speaking to a real person. But there, what really matters how fast, accurate, and empathetic that person on the other side is. 

Now, for those who use Fluent Support, AI can really help deliver on those qualities. However, as a customer, if the response feels too robotic or lacks a personal touch, it can be a bit off, even if the solution is right in most cases. That’s why I believe AI should assist, not replace, the human interaction. At least, not at this stage of AI assistance. 

From a customer’s point of view, when reaching out for help, they want to feel like their issue is being addressed with care and efficiency. Those who use Fluent Support can take advantage of features like ticket automation, tone analysis, and suggested responses to help understand customer sentiment, even when there’s a language barrier. With these tools, an agent can quickly determine if a customer is frustrated, happy, or neutral and respond accordingly.

Uttam: That’s a valuable take, Kamrul! I totally agree—speed and accuracy matter, but empathy is what makes the difference. AI should enhance the experience, not replace the human touch. Fluent Support’s features like tone analysis and automation definitely help agents strike that balance. Love that perspective!

Alright, Kamrul and team, now, I’d like to shift gears a bit. Turning to Ibrahim, Mahdi and you too—let’s do some rapid-fire questions as we’re nearly at the end of this discussion. Short answers, straight to the point. Ready?

Rapid-fire Q&A – For the support agents who get it done

Uttam: What’s one mistake you think most customer support agents make?

Ibrahim: Not listening enough before jumping into solutions. You have to have a lot of patience in you.

Uttam: How do you handle a tough customer who’s really upset?

Kamrul: I focus on solutions rather than dwelling on the problem. First, I try to understand the root cause of their frustration. With patience and empathy, I make sure they feel heard and reassure them that we’re working on the best possible solution. Then, I do everything I can to deliver that solution as quickly as possible.

Uttam: What’s one piece of advice you’d give someone new to customer support?

Ibrahim: Understanding the product inside out is crucial. Many newcomers focus on communication skills but overlook the technical depth required to solve complex issues efficiently. The more you know about the system, integrations, and common troubleshooting methods, the faster you can provide accurate solutions—without always escalating tickets.

Uttam: Do you think customer support teams should specialize in certain areas?

Mahdi: Definitely. Specialization improves efficiency, but a broad understanding is just as important. When agents focus too narrowly, simple issues get escalated, slowing everything down. A strong support team balances deep expertise with general knowledge.

Uttam: What do you think the future of customer support looks like?

Kamrul: A more advanced hybrid model. AI will handle routine, mundane tasks, where human interaction is not necessary, or not asked, while humans tackle more complex issues, and where customers want them to appear and listen to their problem and provide a solution.

Uttam: What should someone know before starting a career in customer support?

Ibrahim: Customer support isn’t just about answering tickets—it’s about solving problems efficiently. You need strong communication skills, patience, and the ability to handle tough customers without losing focus. Most importantly, you have to think critically and adapt quickly because no two issues are the same.

Uttam: What tools should a new customer support agent learn to use?

Mahdi: A good support agent needs to be comfortable with essential tools like help desk software, live chat platforms, and knowledge bases. Knowing how to use WooCommerce, Github, and CRM systems like HubSpot or Salesforce helps manage customer data effectively. And for internal communication, tools like Slack, Jira, or Microsoft Teams are a must.

Uttam: Alright, folks! That was a deep dive into the world of customer support and yes, how WPManageNinja solved over 1,00,000 tickets or customer issues with the help of Fluent Support and how they built the system itself. We’ve covered the mindset, the skills, and even the technical side that often gets overlooked.

A huge thanks to Ibrahim, Mahdi, and Kamrul for their valuable insights! You guys brought some sharp perspectives to the table today.

And to everyone who are here—keep growing, keep learning, and most importantly, keep making customer experiences better!

Innovation of Fluent Support: Flashback

[Comic of the real story]

Get the FREE Comic

The post How One Company Resolved Over 100K Tickets Using Fluent Support appeared first on Fluent Support.

25+ best ticketing system software in 2025

In 2025, several ticketing system software options emerged with vast features, scalability, and integrations. From there, we’ve curated a list of 26 platforms to manage customer support effectively.

Here are the top picks for today!

Each tool comes with its own pros and cons based on industry-specific needs. So, which ticketing system will perform best for you might depend on your needs!

However, you can compare them using the list of features, availability, and authentic user reviews from trusted sources like Capterra and the WordPress Plugin repository below.

Fluent Support

Best for WordPress + WooCommerce support.

Ticketing System			Pricing and Free Trial
			Free version available Single site license, $11/month, billed annually for unlimited agent Agency license, $21/month, billed annually for unlimited agent 50 Sites license, $33/month, billed annually for unlimited agent
Recent user feedbacks
"It works very well!! Fast and clean interface, with workflows to assign tickets to agents. After having tried several support plugins, this one is the best without a doubt. Thank you!!" -hwuser "Love the plugin. Have been using online systems for years paying annual fees. I like having a self hosted solution that I can tweak and add code to make it work even better for our org. Thanks Fluent and Wpmanage." -jazzedge "Great product and great support from the team, way better than other SaaS products in the market. deep integration with WooCommerce and other WP functions that are helpful for agents and keeps the workflow efficient." -ahmedzeidan "Really loving Fluent Support. It works great and is a very low priced option to provide quality support to your customers. I really love how we can read/answer support tickets directly in Slack, too." -jasondion
Overall rating	Customer service		Overall rating
4.4 (52 reviews)						4.4

Zendesk

Best for enterprises with complex support needs.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free trial available Support Team, $19/agent/month, billed annually Suite Team, $55/agent/month, billed annually Suite Professional, $115/agent/month, billed annually Suite Enterprise, customize solution option with individual discussion		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Zendeks helps you organize your ticketing system and is one of the best in the industry. I highly recommend about the ease of use.“ -Daniel L “Not often but some users would get confused and totally miss updates or questions sent back to us from the IT team and therefore we lost time." -Jared F “For ease of use, I think it tops the chart and is more user friendly than its competitors like the SalesForce comprehensive cloud setup.“ -Brittany L “Overall, I really love to use Zendesk. This is a very useful tool for doing analysis on our live channels and as I mentioned, reports has a great function when it comes to filtering." -Jr L				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.4 (4036 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Freshdesk

Best for small businesses needing affordability.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free, $0, up to 2 agents Growth, $15/agent/month, billed annually Pro, $49/agent/month, billed annually Pro + AI Copilot, $78/agent/month, billed annually Enterprise, $79/agent/month, billed annually		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Freshdesk is one of my favorite help desk tools because it is intuitive and simple to master, even for complete newcomers. Finding comparable tickets is as simple as conducting a Google search, and there are numerous filtering options to select from.“ -Kelly B. “Better than average. It checks all the boxes with various levels for companies to determine what is liked." -Samuel S. “We've been using Freshdesk for 7+ years. We had explored other ticketing platforms but landed on Freshdesk for a balance of cost + features." -Chris O. “We used it for several years before eventually moving on, but to be honest, the Helpdesk side of things was very wasy to use." -Frank O.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.5 (3378 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Help Scout

Best for human-centric customer communication.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free trial available Free, $0 for 50 contacts/month Standard, $50 for 100 contacts/month, billed annually Plus, $75 for 100 contacts/month, billed annually Pro, starts with 1000 contacts, talk to sales		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Help Scout has treated our company great. It has given us room to grow while helping us manage technology needs along the way.“ -Anonymous “It was good, although we decided pretty quickly to move to Intercom." -Anonymous “This helpdesk solution is amazing because it has been meeting our expectations. I am impressed by the reliability of Help Scout." -Marco C. “The capabilities of Help Scout have been so excellent. Help Scout is easy to use and reliable help desk solution." -John D.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.6 (221 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Zoho Desk

Best for teams using Zoho’s ecosystem.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free, $0 up to 3 users Express, $7/user/month, billed annually Standard, $14/user/month, billed annually Professional, $23/user/month, billed annually Enterprise, $40/user/month, billed annually		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Experience an automated support, self-service management and professional customization.“ -Lisa M. “Provides web-based customer support, reducing workloads and leaving our customers happy and confident in the support we provide them." -Peter J. “Overall Zoho Desk has been extremely helpful, though I wish the settings were more adjustable and allowed more changes to specific profiles." -Taylor K. “Using Zoho Desk has been a largely positive experience. Using Zoho Desk has been a largely positive experience." -Scott B.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.5 (2198 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

HappyFox

Best for marketing automation workflows.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free trial available Basic, $24/agent/month, billed annually Team, $49/agent/month, billed annually Pro, $99/agent/month, billed annually Enterprise PRO, talk to sales		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“We get access to reports. Which help us prioritize how to make the constituent experience smooth. Another benefit is that we can easily work as a team to respond to constituents.“ -Sharon A. “Great tool to keep the status of our print projects updated. easy to use. easy access." -David G. “HappyFox has made ticketing reliable, where incredible and quick support is well shared." -Gestione P. “All fairly good except the Knowledge Base interface which is abysmal. They need to study and mimic Zendesk's much more usable KB user interface." -Branko B.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.6 (93 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Jira Service Management

Best for Agile/ITSM teams.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free, $0 for up to 3 agents Free trial, 7 day for paid plans Standard, $20/agent/month, for 4-15 agents (16+ agents at discount price) Premium,$48/agent/month, for 4-15 agents (16+ agents at discount price) Enterprise, available with billed annually.		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“I prefer Jira Service Management because it is very similar to Jira software; If you are familiar with Jira software, you will have no problem using this one. Concise but effective." -Lillian G. “JSM will take your company's organization in projects and IT requests to a new level! We used to miss deadlines and small details that came back to bite us all the time. Since switching to JSM, those are few and far between!" -Aaron H. “User friendliness is great and its unified platform makes it easy for submitting any requests/tickets that can be categorized easily." -Haruki T. “I am using Jira Service Management tool to manage requests and incidents. Jira Service Management tool automates manual tasks and streamlines workflows." -Naveen C.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.5 (713 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Intercom

Best for conversational support & SaaS platforms.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free 14-day trial Essential, $29/seat/month, billed annually Advanced, $85/seat/month, billed annually Expert, $132/seat/month, billed annually Enterprise, available with billed annually.		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Quickly and simply, I can access the Macros and write/update the articles in the assistance center. Streamlining the process of submitting tickets to the correct division for handling user concerns. It's a time saver for all teams because they can deal with it themselves." -Lillian G. “Intercoms is a great tool and makes live chat seemless." -Ayomikun O. “I love how Intercom's abilities to automate repetitive tasks like the initial message to engage prospects and ensure the lead is accurately routed to me, instead of another rep who doesn't own the territory. The ability to identify the prospect's behavior on our website is very helpful." -Haruki T. “In my experience, Intercom has been great to work with. They have released some new features that are part of our general subscription which is always a bonus." -Joel C.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.5 (1100 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Front

Best for shared inbox collaboration.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free 7-day trial available Starter, $19/seat/month, billed annually, up to 10 seats Growth, $59/seat/month, billed annually, no seat minimum Scale, $99/seat/month, billed annually, 2 seat minimum Premier, discussed individually		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Overall great product, really happy with the exception of the email nesting." -David D. “Frustrating and time-wasting. It breaks my workflow when I need to waste time finding emails." -Jaime E. “It was so easy to integrate all the social media channels we wanted to be able to use all of them from the same interface." -Zoltan S. “We have a shared inbox and we had trouble to avoid double answers and we had to forward the emails to each other or CC them on our replies so they could get informed of a conversation." -Marjolaine L.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.6 (270 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Kayako

Best for unified multi-channel support.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free 14-day trial available Inbox, $15/agent/month, for small teams Growth, $30/agent/month, for growing teams Scale, $60/agent/month, for larger teams and businesses Enterprise, $100/agent/month, for larger companies		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“We had Zendesk before but Kayako is a really serious support ticket system I wish the price were better." -Rodrigo C. “It is an excellent software for managing tickets and customer support. It has great features and support for the customer service staff. I highly recommend it." -Muzammal H. “Very helpful to start-up business as it provides total help desk and customer support in a more efficient manner. The product is recommended to all types of business especially the starting ones." -Ryan L. “Overall experience is good. We got their support every team of their teams. On cost side they need to think through from customer perspective." -Amit G.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.0 (173 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Tidio

Best for e-commerce live chat + chatbots.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free 7-days trial available Free, $0/month, upto 50 handled conversations Starter, $29/month, upto 100 handled conversations Growth, $59/month, upto 250 handled conversations Plus, $749/month, Custom quota of handled conversations Premium, $2999/month, Unlimited handled conversations		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“It is possible to convert our web visitors/leads into more loyal customers with Tidio.I'm impressed with the way Tidio integrates well with multiple tools that I'm already using in our organization." -Sydney B. “Tidio increases out customers satisfaction.Again, Tidio automates and streamlines customer services operations." -Joseph N. “I use the Tidio social medial integrations to respond to questions from clients online and the live chat to resolve their cases on time." -Kenneth O. “Great value for money - and even better if you can fit in the free plan. The company has been developing throughout the years so its definitely one of the safe bets in the industry." -Deyan K.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.7 (464 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

LiveAgent

Best for live chat widgets.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free 30-days trial available Small business, $15/agent/month, billed annually Medium business, $29/agent/month, billed annually Large business, 49/agent/month, billed annually Enterprise, 69/agent/month, billed annually		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Everything about LiveAgent has worked so perfectly so far. It makes it easy to interact with our customers and help us provide quick support services. Since day one, the LiveAgent experience has been very flawless." -Brooke S. “LiveAgent seamlessly integrates with websites and also allows you to add agents." -Elia M. “Customers can visit anytime and find advice on their own. Great time saving tool." -Artur L. “We have been using this platform for more than 2 years now and it has helped us in building one of finest Customer interaction tool. The interface is also user friendly and fulfills all the needs." -Swati S.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.7 (1680 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

JitBit

Best for self-hosted/on-premise solutions.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Freelancer, $29/agent/month (SaaS plan) Startup, $69/month, 4 agents (SaaS plan) Company, $129/month, 7 agents (SaaS Plan) Enterprise, $249/month, 9 agents (SaaS plan) Also, their self-hosted plans start from $2199 (one time purchase)		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Jitbit has provided me clear viability into my current workload for my team. I am now able to create a strong business plan to grow my department, delegate the work efficiently , and allow me to interact with other lines of business without interrupting my day to day operations." -Michael M. “Jitbit Helpdesk has a focused and immediate form of reaching to clients and offering responses to the challenges they face." -Gestione P. “Jitbit Helpdesk makes discussions authentic, and there are immediate consultations to make every response recorded." -Annex L. “Jitbit has helped us deal with helpdesk issues faster, better, and in a more dynamic way. We get to generate reports which can quickly show us user satisfaction, feedback, common incidents, etc. which can all help us to improve our customer service." -Josemaria G.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.5 (34 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Spiceworks

Best for NGOs and educational institutions wanting free helpdesk.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Spiceworks cloud help desk is available for free of cost.		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Overall I have been very happy with Spiceworks, especially the community of users." -Robert R. “Spiceworks IT Helpdesk Cloud version does everything I want from a cloud based Ticketing system so even though its lacking some features which I hope will get added soon as ive mentioned earlier it does do everything you would expect from a basic IT Support helpdesk ticketing system. So if your looking for a free IT helpdesk solution I would really try out Spiceworks offering and also take a look at there cloud hosted version which I use myself." -john K. “Spiceworks works well as a free help desk system. It does what it says on the tin. It has decent audit logging, relatively easy configuration, and a simple user interface." -Keenan G. “My life became easy when I stated using Spice work to update all the IT assets, as I can add new devices from anywhere and monitor who was assign to a particular device for tracking and report documentation." -Joshua O.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.4 (567 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Groove

Best for startups needing simplicity.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free 90-days trial available Standard, $24/user/month, billed annually (limit 25)  Plus, $36/user/month, billed annually Pro, $56/agent/month, billed annually		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Much better than simply using e-mail for support. It allows us to track some basic metrics and keeps things orderly." -Ash K. “Groove is the smartest "abstraction layer" over email I've seen so far. We don't think in terms of E-Mails any more (you wouldn't know there are any), but individual customer threads in a proper ticketing system." -Ensons S. “Overall, my experience with Groove has been great! It's made emailing a lot more easier and feel more organized." -Emily M. “Great collaboration tool that helped achieve the goals set within the company." -Loganne Y.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.5 (86 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Kustomer

Best for omnichannel e-commerce support.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Enterprise, $0.35/conversation (conversation-based pricing) Ultimate, $0.50/conversation (conversation-based pricing) Enterprise, $89/user/month, billed annually (seat-based pricing) Ultimate, $139/user/month, billed annually (seat-based pricing)		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“I love that Kustomer is so sleek and well-designed. It isn't clunky, or hard to use. It's really streamlined. The reporting is A+, it's very in-depth for not just the customers but also your team. It works really well in tracking team performance and productivity, as well." -Jisselle B. “Its good tool as compared to other but they need good documentation that is easy to understand and learn about all the features." -Anonymous “Pretty solid tool for our daily use, but could definitely use more improvements especially with the glitches that happen." -Rachel C. “Kustomer is just amazing. I use this platform daily for communicating processes and notifying decisions to our customers and agents." -Yeiry G.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.6 (77 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Mojo Helpdesk

Best for education/nonprofit sectors.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free 21-days trial available Team, $13/agent/month, billed annually Business, $22/agent/month, billed annually Enterprise, $31/agent/month, billed annually		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Simple and easy to use. Having minimum number of characters for Pros goes against simple and easy." -Didzis D. “The ability to create, manage and track work requests. This has been very helpful internally but our clients have not embraced it." -Anonymous “Organization and ease of reporting the quantity of work being completed on a regular basis." -Rocky R. “Ease of adoption/acceptance by the user community. Transformed departmental workload from individual e-mail requests to departmental requests. By providing workload transparency at a department level the support model improved overall customer support. Minimized requests from falling through the cracks." -Russ S.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.5 (72 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

SupportCandy

Best for WordPress-based support ticketing.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free version available Personal, $7/month for 1 site license, billed annually Professional, $13/month for 5 site license, billed annually Agency, $25/month for 20 site license, billed annually		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“We use SupportCandy as a system to process maintenance requests at a school. It’s a great way to manage and process the multitude of requests coming in from various departments." -warrenogs “This is a great product and the support team are five star!!" -frontierflyfishing “Saving time, huge support, professional and more, you will never regret." -esaeed1 “I love the plugin and but above all support is the best added value, Tthey are always reachable and available to fix any issues. Good job!" -forprof				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.9 (271 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

TeamSupport

Best for B2B customer collaboration.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Chat support, $29 /agent/month, for better conversational experiences Essential support, $35 /agent/month, for basic ticketing Professional support, $49 /agent/month, for advanced functionality (fully customized) Enterprise Support, contact to sales		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Overall, our company has toyed with the idea of using competitors but TeamSupport has held strong as a useful solution for us whose advantages outweigh its detractors." -Tyler R. “Overall its expressive and much useful portal for organization and the customer" -Deepak N. “The support from Team Support is top notch. THey are responsive, available, and knowledgeable. We are clearly pushing parts of the software beyond its intended use, and they have been helpful identifying what is possible." -Daniel W. “I really like TeamSupport a lot. It has helped us get in touch with our customers through live chats, IT ticketing system, and reply to inquiries on time, thus improving our relationship with our customers." -Mizanur Rahman M.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.5 (850 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

SalesForce Service Cloud

Best for Salesforce CRM users.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free 30-days trial available Starter suite, $25/user/month, billed annually Pro suite, $100/user/month, billed annually Enterprise, $165/user/month, billed annually Unlimited, $330/user/month, billed annually Einstein 1 Service, $500/user/month, billed annually		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“It's a win-win for both your business and your customers. Customer service has been boosted as a result. The help and service provided to customers has improved. It makes work more adaptable and scalable." -Kelly B. “I enjoy using the product. Think it streamlines your work by having everything in one app." -Bret B. “Salesforce has been an amazing CRM and provides great flexibility in their Service cloud platform. From case/ticket management to creating a portal for customers to ask their questions and find answers via knowledge base, Salesforce has it all." -Vershley J. “Has been an excellent way to transform business processes and modernise our technology stack." -Alex C.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.4 (787 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Gorgias

Best for Shopify/Magento e-commerce.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free 7-days trial available Starter, starting from $10/month for 50 tickets  Basic, starting from $50/month for 300 tickets, billed annually Pro, starting from $300/month for 2,000 tickets, billed annually Advanced, starting from $750/month for 5,000 tickets, billed annually Enterprise, discussed individually		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Overall, there is no other customer service platform I would use or reccomend more." -Connor J. “The overall experience has been fantastic! Our team is so glad we found Gorgias. It has impacted our team's time in a very psositive way and customers have been very pleased with how quickly we are able to reply to them. Very straight forward." -Michael C. “Before we migrated to this platform, it would take almost 72 hours to respond to customer queries, but with this software, we cut that time down to just around 30 minutes on average within a few days after migration." -Maria H. “User love it and very few headaches. Some integrations need better docs on how to use advanced functionality." -Anonymous				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.6 (123 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Awesome Support

Best for WordPress ticket management.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free version available Standard, $13/month, billed annually Pro, $20/month, billed annually Enterprise, $25/month, billed annually Agency, $35/month, billed annually		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“An excellent plugin with technical support requests for WordPress. The free version has quite a lot of functionality. Thank you very much to the developers!" -stanislav5web “Works for us. Would give it five stars. If it wasn’t a little bit clunky sometimes. Input boxes have become very small, which they tell me is a WooCommerce or other plug-in problem. Which sounds a little bit like passing the buck!" -dohm “It’s great and nice looking plugin for support tickets. It has all features that we need and a nice user interface that integrated well with our website." -wiredwhite “I like the flexibility and the functions. The pricing of the additional extensions could be a little less intensive." -neuronprocessing				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
3.5 (193 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

ServiceNow

Best for enterprise IT service management.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Pricing is hidden, and a business email address is required. Trial, available upon request		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“So far, ServiceNow is a distraction with no benefit. Unlikely ServiceNow will ever modernize their product. Every year is 1971 for them, with an IBM 3270 "green screen" interface." -James O. “We are using this ServiceNow CSM as our primary Customer Service tool and we are easily able to manage thousands of cases per day which we have found difficult when using other applications in the past." -Ryan W. “The tool is good for any service based organization but needs to focus on some improvements because there are several ticketing tools available in the market with better options." -Anonymous “I am using service now from last two year, i found it very easy comfortable and best application for it ticket and incident management." -Omkar V.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.3 (152 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

SysAid

Best for ITSM with integrated IT asset management.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free 30-days trial available Pricing is hidden, and a business email address is required.		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Experience with he application has been a love hate relationship sometime it gets on my nerves but at the end of the day it is a general application the organization i work in use." -Rasheed S. “SysAid are great tool and it's not just IT Service Management, HR< and fleet department also use it. e.g., Fleet uses to book and schedule for vehicle rooting maintenance." -Peter A. “Implementation is still happening after go live. That stressful." -Samuel S. “My experience with SysAid so far is great. The integration with teams makes it more flexible and user friendly." -Stephanie S.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.5 (484 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Atera

Best for MSPs needing RMM + PSA integration.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free 30-days trial available Pro, $129/user/month, billed monthly Growth $179/user/month, billed monthly Power $209/user/month, billed monthly Superpower, discussed individually		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Atera has been great to use here at our company. It used to be a challenge to support the environment and relied on outside consulting support. We have been able to bring things fully in-house and realize faster response times as well as 6 figure plus cost savings in the IT budget." -Robert M. “I have been using Atera for the past 3 years and have seen a tremendous growth i their service delivery. Their road map since the first time i used atera is what they are delivering. Support is 24/7 and you can never get lost alone." -Raymond M. “Atera is a good all in one tool for managing. It is easy and has many useful features. It could be better but it still provides a good value." -Akanksha S. “I appreciate what Atera did with a CRM system that also includes a computer management system I’ve been working with it for 3 years now and I’m content with the support and uptime of the service." -Shaked T.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.6 (422 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Teamwork Desk

Best for Teamwork project suite users.

Ticketing System		Add New	Pricing and Free Trial		Add New
		Add New	Free 30-days trial available Starter, $9.50/user/month, billed annually Pro, $17.00/user/month, billed annually Premium, $33.00/user/month, billed annually Enterprise, discussed individually		Add New
Recent user feedbacks				Add New	Add New	Add New
“Very responsive and helpful team. You will usually get a response within 20 minutes. We love the Teamwork team!" -Jas S. “We are absolutely in love with this platform, we have used several other platforms in the past and Teamwork have made our work easier, creating projects, communicating with customers and organizing our task through the day." -MArielle M. “Teamwork Desk has been a breeze to work with. They have worked with me to resolve any bugs I noticed, and also have worked to implement features that continually make the product better. I would recommend them to anyone looking for a customer service ticketing service." -Danny K. “The transition to using this tool for our team was seamless. We needed a way to centralize all client communication out of our inboxes so our entire team could see, in a way that was easy for our clients." -Lisa M.				Add New	Add New	Add New
Overall rating	Customer service	Add New	Overall rating
4.4 (145 reviews)				Add New	Add New	4.4

Features of ticketing system software that users value the most

It’s evident that users prioritize features capable of streamlining workflows, enhancing communication, and boosting efficiency. But which ticketing system features will actually deliver these results for your business? 

For that you need some understanding of these features while comparing ticketing systems.

How to choose the right IT ticketing system software for your customer service

The right ticketing system software acts as a multiplier for support teams. However, selecting the right IT ticketing system isn’t easy if you don’t know where to start and what the outcome will be. 

Below is a step-by-step process to choose a solution that aligns with your organization’s unique needs.

1. Assess your team’s needs

Start by identifying your support team’s pain points and goals. 

Identify:

This clarity will help you prioritize features like multi-channel communication, SLA management, or access controls based on your workflow demands.

2. Prioritize core features

Align the system’s capabilities with the functionalities your team values most (as highlighted in the previous section). 

For example:

Ensure the tool supports both ITIL frameworks for enterprise teams and flexibility for simpler workflows for smaller teams.

3. Evaluate integration capabilities

Your ticketing system shouldn’t operate in isolation. Look for seamless integration with:

4. Consider scalability

Choose a system that grows with your business. 

Identify:

Scalability ensures you won’t outgrow the system within a year.

5. Focus on user experience

A clunky interface frustrates agents and slows down resolutions. 

Prioritize:

A system that’s easy to use boosts agent productivity and reduces resistance to change.

6. Test automation and AI capabilities

Good IT ticketing systems leverage AI and modern automation. Test valuable features like:

Look for smart automation to reduce manual work and accelerate resolutions.

7. Review security and compliance

For industries like IT, e-commerce, finance, or government, ensure the system offers:

Data encryption and regular security updates are non-negotiable.

8. Compare pricing models

Sometimes, the system starts with a cheap price, but the costs might grow like mountains with necessary addons. So, comparing these prices:

9. Leverage free trials and demos

Most vendors offer 14–30-day trials. Use this time to:

A hands-on trial reveals whether the system aligns with real-world workflows.

10. Check vendor reputation and support

It’s the last but the most important part of evaluating a ticketing system. 

Research:

A responsive vendor ensures quick resolution of technical hiccups.

Wrapping up

So, till now, you have all the tools and detailed procedures to choose the best ticketing system that fits your needs. 

The systems presented here are the best ticketing system software for 2025, each catering to different user needs and goals. However, if you’re using a WordPress website and need a fast, compact ticketing plugin with flat pricing, Fluent Support is definitely worth trying.

The post Top IT Helpdesk Software and Ticketing System in 2025 appeared first on Fluent Support.

Whatever the case, knowing how to block a website on Chrome can be a super handy skill. 

In this guide, we’ll dive into six methods that can help you manage web access and keep distractions to a minimum. 

Ready to regain your focus and create a safer online environment? Let’s go!

1. Using Chrome extensions

If you’re looking for a simple and effective way to block websites on Chrome, look no further than Chrome extensions. These handy tools can be quickly added to your browser and provide a range of functionality to help you manage your browsing experience more effectively. 

Let’s dive into the world of Chrome extensions and discover how you can use them to block unwanted sites.

Popular website blocking extensions

There are numerous extensions available designed to help you block websites on Chrome. Here are a few popular options you might consider:

1. BlockSite: This is one of the most popular Chrome extensions for blocking websites. It’s user-friendly and allows you to block not only websites but also adult content and apps. You can also set a schedule to block sites during certain hours.
2. StayFocusd: If you’re looking to improve productivity, StayFocusd is a great choice. It limits the amount of time you can spend on time-wasting websites. Once your time is up, the sites will be blocked for the rest of the day.
3. WasteNoTime: Similar to StayFocusd, this extension helps manage the time you spend online by blocking distracting sites after your acceptable usage time has expired.
4. SiteBlock: This extension is straightforward. It offers simple controls to keep you focused by blocking access to distracting sites. (both permanently and temporarily)

These extensions can vary in terms of features and customization, so it might be worth trying a few to find the one that best meets your needs.

Installation and setup

Setting up these Chrome extensions is simple! Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to get you blocking websites in no time:

1. Open Chrome: Launch your Chrome browser and go to the Chrome Web Store.

2. Search for extensions: Type the name of the extension you want into the search bar. For instance, you could search for “BlockSite” or “StayFocusd.”

3. Add to Chrome: Click on the extension you’ve chosen, then click the “Add to Chrome” button. You’ll see a pop-up where you’ll need to confirm the addition by clicking “Add Extension.”

4. Configuration: After the extension is added, you’ll see its icon in the top-right corner of your browser. Click on it to begin configuring your list of blocked sites.

5. Set your preferences: Input the websites you want to block. Depending on the extension, you might also have the ability to set time limits, create schedules, or define blocked keywords.

These extensions are designed to be non-intrusive, so they blend seamlessly with your browsing experience while providing the control you need.

Managing blocked sites with extensions

So you’ve installed an extension and blocked a few distracting sites—great start! Here’s how you can manage your blocked sites using extensions:

1. Add or remove sites: Most extensions have a simple interface where you can easily add additional sites to your blocked list or remove them. Just click on the extension’s icon, navigate to the settings or preferences, and make your changes.
2. Adjust time settings: For extensions that offer scheduling features, you can customize your online time management by increasing or decreasing allowable usage times. This is particularly useful if your schedule changes or if you notice certain times of day are more prone to distractions.
3. Review site activity: Some extensions provide reports or activity logs that show you how much time you spend on each blocked site. Use this information to adjust your blocking strategy as needed.
4. Enter a “Focus Mode”: Many of these tools offer specific modes designed to help you stay on task. Whether it’s a strict mode that prevents any changes during certain times or a focus mode that cuts off all distractions, use these options to optimize your productivity.

2. Modifying host files

For those who prefer a more hands-on method to block websites, modifying your computer’s host files is an effective way to manage web access. It’s a tad more complex than simply using a Chrome extension, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a powerful tool.

Understanding host files

Host files are like little black books within your computer that map domain names (like www.example.com) to IP addresses. By tweaking these files, you can redirect specific websites to a dead-end, effectively blocking them on your network.

Here’s how it works: when you type a website into your browser, your computer first checks the host file to see if there’s a specific IP address it should redirect to. If no entry is found, it then checks with DNS servers to locate the correct web address. To block a website, we’ll create a loopback entry in the host file that tells your computer to redirect that website to an IP address that leads nowhere.

Steps to modify on Windows

Ready to dive in? Here’s how you can modify the host file on a Windows computer:

1. Open Notepad as admin: Click on the Start Menu, search for Notepad, then right-click it and choose “Run as administrator.” This step is crucial for saving changes to system-level files.

2. Open host file: Within Notepad, go to File -> Open. Navigate to \`C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\\`. You won’t see any files at first, so ensure that you select “All Files” from the dropdown menu. Open the \`hosts\` file.

3. Add entries: To block a website, type \`127.0.0.1 www.blockedsite.com\` at the end of the document, with each blocked website on a new line. The IP \`127.0.0.1\` is a loopback address that directs the site to nowhere.

4. Save changes: Go to File -> Save to overwrite the original host file with your changes. You may need to restart your browser or computer to see the effects.

5. Test it out: Try visiting the blocked website in your browser. You should find that the site is no longer accessible.

This method is great for people who prefer a hard-set block that can’t be bypassed easily by browser settings.

Steps to modify on Mac

If you’re on a Mac, the process to modify the host files is quite similar, though it involves using Terminal. Here’s how to proceed:

1. Open terminal: You can find Terminal through Spotlight by pressing \`Command (⌘) + Space\` and typing “Terminal.”

2. Access host file: In the Terminal window, enter the command \`sudo nano /etc/hosts\`. You’ll be prompted to enter your admin password, which gives you the required permissions to edit the file.

3. Add the entries: Navigate to the bottom of the host file using the arrow keys and enter \`127.0.0.1 www.blockedsite.com\` for each site you wish to block. Just like on Windows, each entry should be on a new line.

4. Save your changes: Press \`Control (^) + O\` , then press \`Enter\` to save the changes. Next, press \`Control (^) + X\` to exit the editor.

5. Clear the DNS cache: You’ll need to clear your DNS cache for the changes to take effect. In Terminal, type \`sudo dscacheutil -flushcache\` followed by \`sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder\`.

6. Check your work: Now, try accessing a blocked site. Similar to Windows, you should find that your computer redirects to a dead-end.

3. Configuring router settings

When it comes to blocking websites on Chrome, one of the most comprehensive methods is configuring your router settings.

This approach doesn’t just restrict access to one device; it governs all devices connected to your network. This makes it a robust solution for families, shared accommodations, or small businesses.

Benefits of blocking at the router level

Blocking websites at the router level provides several advantages that go beyond simple convenience. Here’s why you might want to consider this method:

• Network-wide coverage: This approach affects all devices on your Wi-Fi—laptops, phones, even that tablets your kid uses for homework. It’s a great way to ensure certain content is blocked across the board without needing individual setups.
• Enhanced control: If you’re a parent or someone managing a public or shared network, keeping certain websites out of reach ensures a safer and more productive online environment.
• Device agnosticism: It doesn’t matter whether you’re browsing on Chrome or another browser. Since the restriction is set up at the router level, it covers all web browsers.

Accessing the Router Admin Panel

Before you can block websites, you’ll need to access your router’s admin panel. Here’s how to do it:

1. Find the router’s IP address: Most routers have an IP like 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. You can usually find this on a label on the router itself, or it might be in the router’s manual.

2. Open a web browser: Enter the IP address into the URL bar of your browser and hit Enter. This will bring up your router’s login page.

3. Login: Use the login credentials for your router. If it’s your first time, the default username and password might still be in place (often ‘admin’/’admin’ or ‘admin’/’password’). It’s a good idea to change this after you log in for better security.

Adding websites to the block list

Once you’re inside the admin panel, you can add specific websites to your router’s block list. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. Find the block or parental control section: Routers organize settings differently, but look for an option labeled ‘Access Restrictions,’ ‘Firewall,’ or ‘Parental Controls.’

2. Create a new filter: In the settings, you should be able to create a rule or filter that allows you to block certain URLs.

3. Add URLs: Enter the web addresses of the sites you wish to block. Remember to save the changes you make.

4. Test the settings: Try accessing the blocked sites from a device connected to the network to ensure that the restrictions are in place.

4. Utilizing parental control software

If adjusting your hardware sounds a bit too technical, or if you need more specialized control, using parental control software is another effective avenue.

This software gives you fine-grained control over web access, perfect for parents who need to manage what kids can access on the internet.

Plus, it’s very intuitive and user-friendly, which means you don’t have to be a tech wizard to keep your family safe online.

Features of parental control tools

Parental control tools come with a range of features tailored to help you manage web content easily:

• Time limits: Many apps let you set time limits for internet usage, great for making sure children or even yourself don’t spend all day online.
• Content filtering: Automatically block inappropriate or risky websites, ensuring safe browsing.
• Activity reporting: Keeps track of what sites the user visits, when, and for how long—giving peace of mind and insight into browsing habits.
• Remote management: Manage settings remotely from any device, which is perfect for adjustments on the go.
• App blocking: Some options let you control which apps can be downloaded or used, adding an extra layer of oversight beyond just web browsing.