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What is a help desk?
A help desk is the system a business uses to receive, track and answer customer questions. Each email, chat or call becomes a ticket with an owner, a status and a history, so nothing gets lost and anyone on the team can pick it up. Most help desk software adds a knowledge base, reports and AI that drafts answers.
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How does a help desk work?
A help desk works by turning each request into a ticket and moving it through a few states until it's resolved. A typical ticket's life:
- It arrives. A customer emails support@, starts a chat on your website or fills in a form.
- It becomes a ticket, with the customer's details and the conversation so far.
- It's routed and assigned. Rules or a person send it to the right owner: billing questions to billing, Spanish to whoever speaks Spanish.
- Someone answers, often starting from a saved reply or an article, adding internal notes the customer never sees.
- It waits. The status shows "pending" while the customer replies, and the ticket leaves the team's to-do list.
- It's solved. If the customer writes again, it reopens with the full history.
- It's measured. Response times, volume and satisfaction add up into reports.
What's the difference between a help desk, a service desk and a shared inbox?
All three handle incoming questions, but they differ in structure and scope. A shared inbox is the lightest; a service desk the heaviest.
| Shared inbox | Help desk | Service desk | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it handles | Email to a shared address | Customer questions across channels | All IT services for employees |
| Unit of work | A conversation | A ticket | A ticket, change or incident |
| Channels | Email, chat, forms, often social and phone | Portal, email, chat, phone | |
| Knowledge base | Rarely | Usually, with a public help center | Usually, mostly internal |
| Reports and targets | Basic | Response times, satisfaction, volume | Service levels, asset and change records |
| Fits | 1 to 5 people answering email | Growing support teams | IT departments |
What features does help desk software have?
Help desk software shares a common core, and the differences are in channels, automation and AI. The features most small teams use:
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ticketing | One record per request, with an owner, a status and the history |
| Channels | Email, website chat, contact forms; some add social, SMS and phone |
| Saved replies | Pre-written answers to common questions, adjusted per customer |
| Rules and routing | Assign, tag or prioritise tickets automatically |
| Knowledge base | Articles for the team, and a public help center for customers |
| Service targets | Deadlines for first response and resolution, with warnings |
| Reports | Volume, response and resolution times, satisfaction |
| AI | Drafts replies, summarises long threads, or answers on its own |
The help-center guide explains how a library of customer answers complements that queue.
What should a small business measure in its help desk?
Measure how fast customers hear back, how fast their problem goes away, and whether they were happy with it. Five numbers are enough:
- First response time: how long a customer waits for the first human or useful reply.
- Resolution time: from first message to solved.
- Volume by topic: which questions come in most, which tells you what to fix or document.
- Reopen rate: how often a "solved" ticket comes back, a sign the first answer missed.
- Customer satisfaction: a one-question rating after the ticket closes.
Volume by topic is the most useful for a small business: if a third of tickets ask "where's my order?", a better shipping email removes them.
How much does help desk software cost?
Help desk software is priced in three ways: per agent, per ticket volume, and per AI answer. These examples are from each company's pricing page, checked on 7 November 2026:
| Pricing model | Example | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Free for a few users | Zoho Desk Free Edition | $0 for 3 users, email ticketing |
| Per agent a month | Zendesk Support Team | $19 per agent billed annually ($25 monthly) |
| Per agent a month | Freshdesk Growth | $19 per agent billed annually ($23 monthly) |
| Per agent a month | Zoho Desk Express | $7 per user billed annually ($9 monthly) |
| Flat, by ticket volume | Gorgias Starter (helpdesk only) | $10 a month for 50 tickets, then $0.40 per extra ticket |
| Per AI resolution | Help Scout Envoy chatbot | $0.75 per resolution |
The cheapest plan is rarely the one a growing team ends up on. Automation, multiple brands, service targets and AI usually sit in higher tiers, and AI answers are increasingly charged per conversation on top of seats.
How is AI changing the help desk?
AI is changing the help desk in two steps. First it drafts: it reads the ticket and the knowledge base and proposes an answer a person checks and sends. Then it answers on its own for routine questions, such as order status or opening hours, and hands the rest to a person.
The second step is where care is needed, because a reply to a customer can't be taken back. The safe pattern is to let the AI answer only from your published articles, only for topics you've chosen, to hand over whenever it isn't sure, and to keep a record of everything it said.
How does Mojobase handle the help desk?
In Mojobase, the help desk is the Inbox in Customers. Switch an address such as support@ to Support, and each conversation gets a state (open, waiting or closed) and one assignee, next to the customer's past mail, meetings, orders and invoices. The AI drafts each answer from your published Handbook pages for a person to send. For topics you set to Auto, it answers on its own; when it isn't sure, it hands the conversation to a person; and every reply is in Activity.
Customers also add Messenger, a chat widget for your website under the same rules. Mojobase covers email and website chat; it has no phone or SMS channel, so a team that supports customers by phone is better served by a help desk with voice. Built for 1 to 25 people, and it works well for teams up to 100. More on the Support page.
Compare Tidio alternatives and Zoho Desk alternatives for other ways to organise the queue.
Further reading
Questions people ask
What is the difference between a help desk and customer service?
Customer service is the job: helping customers before and after they buy. A help desk is the tool and the routine for doing it, so every question is recorded, assigned and answered, and you can see how well it's going.
What is an example of a help desk?
An online shop's support@ address connected to Zendesk, Freshdesk or Help Scout. Each customer email becomes a ticket, one person owns it, saved replies speed up common answers, and the shop can see how long customers wait.
Is a help desk the same as IT support?
The word covers both. An IT help desk answers employees' technical problems; a customer help desk answers customers. The software and the habits are the same: tickets, owners, statuses and a record of every answer.
Is there free help desk software?
Yes. On their pricing pages, checked 7 November 2026, Zoho Desk offers a Free Edition for 3 users with email ticketing, and Help Scout a free plan for up to 5 users with one inbox. Free plans suit low volume; automation and AI cost more.
What is a ticket in a help desk?
One customer request, tracked from first message to resolution. It holds the conversation, the customer, who owns it, its status and any internal notes. The ticketing system is the part of a help desk that creates and tracks them.
Do I need a help desk or a shared inbox?
A shared inbox is enough when questions arrive by email and a few people answer them. Move to a help desk when you add chat, need a public help center, want response-time targets or reports, or want AI to answer routine questions on its own.