The best help desk software for a small business (2026)

Which help desk should a small business choose?

Choose by how your customers reach you and how you'd like to pay. The short version:

If you are	Choose	Why
A service business answering email	Help Scout	A shared inbox that feels like email, with a free plan
On a tight budget	Zoho Desk	Free for three users, then $7 a user
Ready for classic ticketing	Freshdesk	Tickets, portal and knowledge base on every plan
Supporting customers on every channel	Zendesk	Email, chat, messaging and phone in one place
A software company with a website chat	Intercom	Fin, the most developed AI agent
A Shopify store	Gorgias	Priced by tickets, with AI for orders and returns
A team that lives in Gmail	Hiver	The help desk runs inside Gmail
A small site that needs live chat	Tidio	Chat with an AI agent and a free plan
A team that wants one flat price	Re:amaze	Unlimited team members on Starter
A team that does support and everything else	Mojobase	Support beside email, CRM, invoices and orders

We make Mojobase, so read its entry with that in mind. Every fact about the other products comes from their own websites, checked on 7 November 2026, with each price linked to its source below.

What does a small business need from a help desk?

Four things, and most small teams need nothing more. A shared inbox where each conversation has an owner and a status, so nothing is answered twice or not at all. Saved replies for the questions you get every day. A help center, so customers can answer themselves. And AI that drafts answers from that help center, so your team edits rather than types.

What you probably don't need yet: skill-based routing, workforce management, multiple brands or a contact center. They're what the higher plans add, which is why Zendesk's Suite Professional lists at $115 an agent a month and Intercom's Expert at $132, billed yearly.

The ticketing-system guide explains request tracking; the help-center guide covers the self-service library alongside the queue. For maintaining those answers, compare knowledge-base software.

Which help desks are best for a small business?

Help Scout: best for service businesses that answer email

Help Scout keeps support looking like email: a shared inbox with saved replies, tags, snooze and customer profiles, plus a knowledge base called Docs. The free plan covers five users and one inbox. Standard, at $25 a user a month billed yearly, adds live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger. AI Drafts writes replies from past conversations and help content, and the Envoy chatbot charges $0.75 only when it resolves a question.

Freshdesk: best for classic ticketing at a fair price

Freshdesk gives every plan ticketing, a shared inbox, a customer portal, a knowledge base, reporting and internal threads on tickets. Growth is $19 an agent a month billed yearly. The Freddy AI Agent comes with 500 sessions once per account, then $49 per 100; Copilot is a $29 add-on per agent per month paid annually. Choose it if you want a full ticketing system with a customer portal and knowledge base on the entry plan.

Zoho Desk: best on a tight budget

Zoho Desk is free for three users with email ticketing, and Express costs $7 a user a month billed yearly, with email, social and web-form tickets. Its AI agents run on your own AI key or Zoho's model, with up to 30 million free tokens a month on Express. Phone support and Zia AI arrive on Professional. Choose it if price matters most, or you already use Zoho.

Zendesk: best for supporting every channel

Zendesk's Support Team plan is email and ticketing at $19 an agent a month billed yearly; Suite Team, at $55, adds messaging, live chat, telephony, a knowledge base and AI agents. Each plan includes a few automated AI resolutions per agent, then $1.50 each committed or $2.00 pay as you go. Choose it if customers call as well as write, or you expect to grow into a larger support team.

Intercom: best AI agent for website chat

Intercom combines a chat Messenger, shared inbox, ticketing and public help center with Fin, its AI agent, which charges $0.99 per outcome on top of seats. Essential is $19 a seat a month billed yearly for new customers, against a $29 list price. Choose it if most questions start in a chat on your website or app and you want AI to resolve as many as possible.

Gorgias: best for online stores

Gorgias is built for Shopify and ecommerce: order details sit beside each ticket, pricing is by tickets a month rather than agents, and its AI Agent answers shoppers, tracks orders and handles returns. Helpdesk-only Starter is $10 a month billed monthly for 50 tickets; helpdesk-only Basic is $50 a month billed yearly for 300 tickets. AI Agent requires a separately priced bundle: Starter and Basic bundles include 30 automated interactions, then $1.50 each beyond that allowance. Voice and SMS are add-ons. Choose it if most of your support is about orders.

Hiver: best for teams that live in Gmail

Hiver can run the whole help desk inside Gmail, so nobody learns a new app. AI agents, Copilot and a knowledge builder are on every plan, and agents pause for approval on actions marked sensitive. Growth is $25 per user per month billed yearly, after a seven-day trial. Seat purchases start at two, then five, then increments of five. Successful AI resolutions add $0.80 each on top of seats; handoffs and assumed resolutions are not charged. Choose it if your team won't leave Gmail.

Tidio: best for live chat on a small site

Tidio is live chat and ticketing for websites and online stores, priced by conversations rather than agents. The free plan includes ten seats and 50 conversations a month, and its Lyro AI agent answers from your FAQ, with the first 50 AI conversations free. Starter is $24.17 a month billed yearly. Choose it if chat on your website is your main channel.

Re:amaze: best flat price for a whole team

Re:amaze Starter charges $59 a month for unlimited team members, up to 500 responded conversations, with unlimited email inboxes, live chat, chatbots and a FAQ. Per-member plans add SMS and voice from Pro, and its AI agent includes a few resolutions per user each month, then $0.85 each. Choose it if many people help with support part-time.

Mojobase: best when support is one job among several

Mojobase puts support inside Customers, next to email, the CRM, invoices and store orders. Switch a mailbox such as support@ to Support and its mail moves into a shared Inbox, where each conversation is open, waiting or closed, with one owner and an AI draft. The draft comes from your published Handbook and the customer's history, so it can mention their last order or the invoice they're asking about. A Messenger widget handles chat on your website.

The support AI answers alone only for the topics a person sets to Auto, hands over when it isn't sure, and records every reply in Activity. There's no phone or SMS channel, SLA policies or routing rules. It costs $39 a month for the first person and $25 for each after, with every other Mojobase app and a monthly AI allowance included.

For other queue and website-chat options, compare Tidio alternatives.

How do help desks price agents and AI?

Prices are from each company's own pricing page; per agent or user a month, billed yearly, unless noted.

Help desk	Free plan	Entry price	AI that answers customers	Source
Help Scout	5 users	$25 a user (Standard)	Envoy, $0.75 per resolution	helpscout.com
Freshdesk	None	$19 an agent (Growth)	500 sessions once, then $49 per 100	freshworks.com
Zoho Desk	3 users	$7 a user (Express)	AI agents on your own key or Zoho's model	zoho.com
Zendesk	None	$19 an agent (Support Team)	Included resolutions, then $1.50 or $2.00 each	zendesk.com
Intercom	None	$19 a seat for new customers (Essential)	Fin, $0.99 per outcome	intercom.com
Gorgias	None	$10 a month for 50 tickets (Starter, helpdesk-only, monthly)	Separately priced AI Agent bundles: 30 interactions on Starter/Basic, then $1.50 each	gorgias.com
Hiver	None	$25 per user per month billed yearly (Growth); seat blocks: 2, then 5, then increments of 5	Successful AI resolutions add $0.80 each on top of seats; handoffs and assumed resolutions are not charged	hiverhq.com
Tidio	50 conversations, 10 seats	$24.17 a month (Starter)	Lyro, from $32.50 a month for 50 conversations	tidio.com
Re:amaze	None	$59 a month flat (Starter)	Included resolutions, then $0.85 each	reamaze.com
Mojobase	None	$39 for the first person, $25 each after	Part of the monthly AI allowance, or your own key	Pricing

There are three pricing models here. Per agent (Freshdesk, Zendesk, Help Scout, Hiver, Intercom) suits a few full-time support people. Per ticket or conversation (Gorgias, Tidio) suits stores with seasonal peaks. Flat or per person across every app (Re:amaze Starter, Mojobase) suits teams where many people answer support part of the day.

Should AI answer your customers on its own?

It should for some questions and shouldn't for others. A wrong answer about opening hours costs little; a wrong answer about a refund costs a customer. The best help desks let you decide by topic, and bill you for each answer the AI gives, so start with drafts a person sends and widen from there.

Mojobase's support AI is built that way: it answers only from the Handbook pages you've published, hands the conversation to a person when it isn't sure, answers by itself only on the topics you've set to Auto, and puts every reply in Activity.

Where does Mojobase fit among help desks?

Mojobase isn't the deepest help desk here. Zendesk, Intercom and Freshdesk do more for a dedicated support team, and Gorgias does more for a store that lives on Shopify. Mojobase fits the business where the person answering support also sells, sends the invoices and books the meetings, and where a good answer needs all of that in view.

The answer-support-with-AI walkthrough follows the work across the inbox and approved knowledge.