“For a five-person team, I wouldn't automatically buy Zendesk, ServiceNow, or another enterprise ticketing platform.”
“### B. Freshdesk — best all-rounder”
“A good middle ground between a simple shared inbox and a traditional enterprise helpdesk.”
“- SLA policies.”
“- Escalation capabilities.”
“One important distinction: Freshdesk's Pro plan is needed for multiple SLA policies.”
“### A. Help Scout — best for simplicity”
“Probably the easiest option if your work is predominantly email-based customer support.”
“- SLA tracking.”
“Verdict: Excellent if you need a lightweight ticketing system and don't need sophisticated escalation matrices.”
“- Standard: one basic SLA policy. - Plus: two advanced SLA policies. - Pro: unlimited SLA policies.”
“### C. Zoho Desk — best budget option”
“Probably the best value if you're comfortable with a slightly less polished interface and some configuration work.”
“One particularly useful feature is its escalation configuration: you can trigger different actions when response or resolution targets are approaching or breached.”
“Probably the best value if you're comfortable with a slightly less polished interface and some configuration work.”
“Some advanced SLA capabilities require Professional or Enterprise editions.”
“For a five-person team, I wouldn't automatically buy Zendesk, ServiceNow, or another enterprise ticketing platform.”
“### D. Jira Service Management — best for internal IT”
“Excellent if you're running a small internal IT/service desk.”
“- Configurable SLA targets.”
“You can define when an SLA starts, pauses, and stops, including around weekends and public holidays.”
“The catch: the Free plan supports only three agents.”
“Probably unnecessary overhead for straightforward customer support.”
“Freshservice is worth evaluating if you need: - Incident management. - Service request management. - SLA-based prioritisation. - Escalation workflows. - Asset and configuration management. - Change management.”
“For five people, I'd be careful not to pay for the additional ITSM functionality unless you actually need it.”