9 Helpshift Alternatives for Your Customer Communication Needs
As markets grow, it’s common for companies to start differentiating themselves through specialization. As the saying goes, “The riches are in the niches.” Depending on the business you’re in, there’s certainly some merit to that line of thinking.
In the world of support software, we’re starting to see the specialization trend. Some companies focus on a certain industry, some on a specific use case, and others on a specific channel. Such is the case with Helpshift.
Helpshift describes itself as an “in-app, mobile-first customer service platform.” For that specific use, there aren’t many tools on the market that can compete. But there is one major downside to going the hyper-specialized route: You take agency away from your customers.
We’re not ones to make the argument that you need to devote resources to every channel a customer could possibly contact you on, but customers should be empowered to some degree to choose their own support adventure.
If you’re a current Helpshift customer or are just starting your support software search, we’ve put together a list of nine Helpshift alternatives to consider for your support needs.
9 Best Helpshift Alternatives
For our alternatives, we selected products that offered similar functionality to Helpshift but also include a few other tools. There is some feature overlap, but each option below has a use case where it excels.
1. Help Scout
Best Helpshift alternative for customer-focused teams.
Help Scout is a complete customer communication platform that empowers teams to interact with customers across multiple channels. Similar to Helpshift, you’re able to offer in-app and live chat support through Beacon, an embeddable chat widget. However, that’s just one of the tools you get access to when signing up.
Our shared inbox encourages team collaboration through features like private notes and @mentions. Collision detection reduces duplicate work by showing when someone is actively working on a specific conversation. You’re also able to automate routine tasks like conversation sorting with workflows and get additional context with customer profiles.
Another powerful tool you get access to is our knowledge base builder, Docs. Docs lets you create, organize, and manage both internal and external help documentation. The WYSIWYG editor makes content creation simple. All Docs sites have built-in search functionality, making it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for. You also get access to Docs-specific reports to understand which articles are performing best and areas where you can expand.
To better understand overall team performance, Help Scout comes with pre-built performance dashboards. With reports, you’re also able to create custom views to focus on the metrics that matter most to you. And if you ever need help with anything, reporting or otherwise, our world-class support team is ready to assist 24/6.
Price: Free plan available. Paid plans starting at $50 per month.
2. LiveAgent
Best Helpshift alternative for ecommerce teams.
When LiveAgent first started, it was a live chat tool (hence the “live” in the name). Since then, they’ve grown into a multichannel customer support platform including a shared inbox, a knowledge base builder, phone support, and customer portals.
LiveAgent also has quite a few integrations, helping you provide support on a variety of different platforms like Shopify and social sites like Twitter and Facebook. You’re also able to automate certain manual tasks like ticket sorting and understand team performance through channel-specific reports.
Price: Starting at $15/agent per month.
3. Zoho Desk
Best Helpshift alternative for teams using Zoho CRM.
Zoho Desk is a multichannel customer support tool that covers email, phone, and live chat. If you use Zoho’s flagship CRM product, you’re able to connect the two and get even more insight about the customers contacting you, giving your team the context they need to resolve issues quickly.
There are a few other features unique to Zoho like headquarters, which is a live dashboard showing both macro and micro-level trends. Their work modes feature automatically assigns open tickets to agents to keep productivity up. Last, they have an AI assistant called Zia that can handle basic requests or make suggestions to agents to keep things running smoothly.
Price: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $14/agent per month.
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4. HelpDesk
Best Helpshift alternative for email support.
HelpDesk is a shared inbox tool that lets your team collaborate and respond to customer inquiries from a centralized location. HelpDesk is mostly meant for email communication, though the makers of HelpDesk do have a couple of other products to cover other support channels like chat.
With HelpDesk, you’re able to group tickets together by topic to create custom views. You can manage multiple email addresses in one account and create specific folders for each to keep things organized. You’re also able to create basic automations and saved replies for routine requests to maintain team productivity.
Price: Starting at $29/agent per month.
5. Zendesk
Best Helpshift alternative for large teams.
Zendesk is an enterprise-focused customer support platform that offers tools to provide support across a variety of channels. They have two main plan types: foundational and suite. If you want chat functionality, you’d look at the suite plans since chat isn’t offered on their foundational plans.
With Zendesk you’re able to automate routine tasks through automation and even answer basic tickets using their AI-powered bot. On their higher-cost plans, you can create self-service portals for specific customers and custom reporting dashboards to better understand team performance.
Price: Starting at $19/agent per month.
6. Freshdesk
Best Helpshift alternative for teams looking for a free option.
Freshdesk has a very similar offering to Zendesk. However, they do have a couple of things that set them apart. First, they offer a free plan teams can use for basic support, but it is limited to email and social media messages. If you need to do in-app support, you’d have to sign up for one of their omnichannel plans.
Beyond having a free plan, they also have minutes added to all their omnichannel plans, which is very useful for teams offering phone support. Some other standout features are co-browsing capabilities and the option to set up custom SLAs for different clients to ensure you’re always hitting the mark.
Price: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $15/agent per month.
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7. HappyFox
Best Helpshift alternative for teams new to support.
HappyFox is a support platform that offers a few different tools to assist customers and streamline team operations. Their primary product is a help desk that lets you respond to email requests as well as build a knowledge base. You’re also able to create customer portals to allow secure file and information sharing.
If you’re looking for chat functionality, it’s not offered as part of their help desk, but they’ve recently released HappyFox chat. It is a separate product and does come at some additional cost.
Price: Starting at $29/agent per month.
8. Olark
Best Helpshift alternative for chat-focused teams.
Like Helpshift, Olark is also a dedicated chat tool. With it, you’re able to offer live chat support as well as provide automated support through customizable chatbots. Olark offers a number of productivity features like saved replies to answer frequently asked questions quickly and chat routing to automatically assign new chats.
Olark also has quite a few native integrations, allowing you to connect to a number of other tools in your tech stack. They also include agent- and team-level analytics to better understand where you’re excelling and where you can grow.
Price: Starting at $29/seat per month.
9. ChatBot
Best Helpshift alternative for automated support.
As the name suggests, ChatBot is a chatbot tool that helps teams provide automated support to customers. Its no-code builder makes setting up a chatbot simple and fairly quick. They also have a library of prebuilt chatbots you can use if you want to get started even faster.
ChatBot gives you access to reporting data to be better informed about when and why customers are contacting you. You’re also able to connect to a variety of platforms like Slack, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp to offer chatbot support wherever your customers are.
Price: Starting at $42/month.
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Making the right choice
There’s no doubt that Helpshift is a useful tool, but it is limited in scope. The fact of the matter is there are multiple tools on the market today that offer similar functionality, along with other tools that ultimately provide better value for most teams.
That said, you’re the only one who can say for certain what will work best for your team. Take the time to understand your needs, vet the options available, and be thoughtful in your eventual choice. If you do, we’re certain you’ll land on a tool that’s able to serve your needs now and into the future. If you’d like more guidance, check out our Buyer’s Guide to Choosing the Right Support Tool.
Jesse Short
After spending a few years working as a support agent, Jesse made the switch to writing full-time. He is a Help Scout alum, where he worked to help improve the agent and customer experience.
