Helpdesk system for non-profit organisation?

[Sim]

Our Little Athletics club (non-profit sporting / community organisation) is looking for a helpdesk / ticketing system to help us manage our inbound emails.

I have considered using XenForo - but I think that complicates things too much - people are much more likely to simply email their questions.

We currently have a bunch of gmail addresses that people can communicate with committee members on - for example, secretary / registrar / results / uniform / etc ... but at the start of the season the secretary and registrar get inundated with emails which can often be answered by other committee members to help spread the workload.

We don't need anything complicated - just a system which allows us to manage responding to emails while avoiding collisions (multiple people responding to the same email at the same time).

We also don't have much in the way of budget - so free or cheap is ideal.

Options like Freshdesk sound good on the surface, but their free plan only allows up to 3 agents and we'll likely have 6 or more people needing to access the system.

I currently use HelpSpot in my business - but again, that has a 3 agent limit for their free tier.

Anyone have any experience with helpdesk / ticketing systems that may work for our situation?

 

[Chris D]

I have zero recent experience with any, though I was vaguely aware of one I used to use and support (a decade ago ) that was commercial but had free non-profit licenses. It doesn't look like they do anymore as they've been bought out by Solarwinds (https://www.webhelpdesk.com/).

Though while I was searching for that, this popped up and looks interesting on the surface:

Help Desk Software HESK - a free PHP help desk

HESK allows you to set up a web-based customer support portal or an IT help desk. Hesk is secure, user-friendly, and easy to use. Available as a cloud SaaS solution or on-premise help desk software.

www.hesk.com

Let us know how you get on. Good luck!

 

[eva2000]

I've looked at free and cheap and didn't really want to self host for a ticket system. I ended up using Zoho Desk for my Centmin Mod paid work https://www.zoho.com/desk/pricing-comparison.html. You can start with free which is what I did to learn the ropes and then upgrade as needed. I've been on Standard paid plan for most of 2021 and been using free plan for about 2yrs. Still there's so many features in Zoho Desk that I've hardly mastered ~30% of them LOL

FYI, for self-hosted the one that I evaluated to be closest to using was https://freescout.net/

 

[Chris D]

Ah yeah Zoho is generally a good shout. They don't get enough of a look in. I used to use them for invoicing.

 

[eva2000]

Ah yeah Zoho is generally a good shout. They don't get enough of a look in. I used to use them for invoicing.

Yeah Zoho folks seem to have many nice products. I already have an account for Zoho @mydomain emails so was easy to just add Zoho Desk to same account

They also have comparisons

1. https://www.zoho.com/desk/helpscout-alternative.html
2. https://www.zoho.com/desk/freshdesk-alternative.html

Zoho also have a product called Creator https://www.zoho.com/creator/ not a programmer, but can imagine some smart folks could create nice tools from it

 

[RDR]

@Sim

Non-free option but fairly well-priced for what you get and can do:

Front Pricing and Plans | Front

Front is a best way to route, respond to, and measure all customer conversations. Join 9,000+ businesses who streamline their operations in Front.

frontapp.com

Started for teams up to 10

 

[m1ne]

FOSS community always provides.

Open Source HelpDesk System | Php Based Customer Support Software

Open Source helpdesk ticket System - UVdesk provides PHP based free customer support ticket software, that includes Email piping, Knowledgebase, Automated workflow, Mailbox, Email templates, and many more. UVdesk is written on PHP+MYSQL and built on the Symfony framework.

www.uvdesk.com

osTicket | Support Ticketing System

osticket.com

 

[RobinHood]

I've used the free version of Freshdesk before for a small business ticket tracking for incoming leads/emails and it's worked well without any need to go paid.

Freshdesk | Customer Service Software by Freshworks Inc

Online cloud-based customer service software providing helpdesk support with all smart automations to get things done faster. Sign up for a free trial today!

freshdesk.com

Edit: Although it looks like 'Collision Detection' is specifically in the first paid plan now.

 

[RobinHood]

Options like Freshdesk sound good on the surface, but their free plan only allows up to 3 agents and we'll likely have 6 or more people needing to access the system.

Freshdesk looks like unlimited agents on free, but no collsion detection on this page

Freshdesk Pricing & Plans | Freshworks

Freshdesk pricing starts from $15 USD, with a free plan and enterprise plan available. Compare our plans to discover features and add-ons.

freshdesk.com

 

[Sim]

@Sim

Non-free option but fairly well-priced for what you get and can do:

Front Pricing and Plans | Front

Front is a best way to route, respond to, and measure all customer conversations. Join 9,000+ businesses who streamline their operations in Front.

frontapp.com

Started for teams up to 10

I got excited by the pricing for a while until I re-read the pricing page more carefully

I'm not impressed by businesses who play little games like that on their pricing pages.

US$19 per person per month is far too high for a non-profit, we'd be looking at over AU$2Kpa which we definitely won't be able to justify.

 

[RDR]

I got excited by the pricing for a while until I re-read the pricing page more carefully

View attachment 252484

I'm not impressed by businesses who play little games like that on their pricing pages.

US$19 per person per month is far too high for a non-profit, we'd be looking at over AU$2Kpa which we definitely won't be able to justify.

Yikes, sorry about that, I didn't notice either! We have a client that uses it but I didn't know all the prices details

 

[mallguvner]

I know this is several month old post. I was doing a search on built in ticketing system for Xenforo and saw this post in search result so I thought I would add to it.

If you only care about help desk via online portal or email piping only then there is an open source helpdesk call osTicket. https://osticket.com/

We been using it for years and it a good ticketing system if you don't need the other features only found on paid version.