The 13 best email ticketing systems

Even though customers have an ever-increasing number of communication options available at their fingertips, many still rely on email to connect with businesses for support. An email ticketing system helps customer service teams provide fast and personalized support experiences at scale.

Unlike a shared inbox, an email ticketing system enables support teams to seamlessly track, manage, and organize customer inquiries. In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about email ticketing systems and compare the top solutions so you can make an informed decision for your business.

More in this guide:

• What is an email ticketing system?
• Key features of email ticketing software
• Benefits of an email ticketing system
• A comparison chart of the best email support ticket systems
• The 13 best email ticketing systems
• Email ticketing system best practices
• How to choose the right email ticketing system?
• Frequently asked questions
• Try the Zendesk email ticketing system for free?

An email ticketing system is crucial for managing customer service efficiently, allowing teams to track, organize, prioritize, and respond to a high volume of email inquiries. When enhanced with AI, these systems streamline workflows, automate support functions, and assist agents in managing their tasks more effectively.

Managing a shared inbox can become cumbersome and disorganized as your business grows. Ticketing software centralizes all customer communications in one place, simplifying email management and improving overall efficiency.

The best email ticketing software offers features you need to provide high-quality customer support. Here are a few key features to look for.

AI assistance for agents

AI can assist agents with instant ticket support to unlock faster and more accurate customer resolutions. It surfaces relevant knowledge base articles to help agents reply to tickets faster. It can also automate mundane tasks like greetings or follow-up emails and analyze customer sentiment to guide human agents toward the most appropriate resolution. During ongoing customer interactions, AI generates suggested replies that agents can use or edit.

Workflow automation

Ticketing software automates repetitive tasks, such as routing tickets based on language, sentiment, intent, agent skill, status, or capacity. It also assigns conversation priority based on those factors, ensuring tickets are sent to the most qualified agent for faster response times. If a ticket remains unresolved for a pre-defined number of days, the software sends reminders to agents to address the delay.

Real-time reporting and analytics

Cross-channel reporting via a ticketing system lets you integrate and compare information from email conversations with other support or ticketing channels. Email analytics provide insights into how well your team is meeting service level agreements (SLAs) and other performance goals, which helps you ensure high customer satisfaction. Real-time reporting also allows you to identify and address complaints early, reducing the risk of customer churn.

Omnichannel support

Manage inquiries from all your customer support channels in one central location with omnichannel customer service. Whether a customer reaches out via email, chat, social media, or your app, you can see and track all their conversations in a single workspace.

This approach provides a unified view of customer interactions and allows agents to switch between channels seamlessly without losing context, speeding up time to resolution and reducing the need for back-and-forth communication.

Enterprise-class security

Customers expect Fort Knox levels of data security, and CX leaders know this. In the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2024, 83 percent of CX leaders noted data protection and cybersecurity as top customer service priorities when strategizing business goals.

The best ticketing systems offer security features like encryption for emails and customer data, access controls to restrict user permissions, and audit logging to track all system activity.

Email ticketing systems offer a wealth of benefits to your business, agents, and customers. Here are a few of the most common benefits.

Improve agent productivity

An email inbox is a serious speed bump for productivity and efficiency due to the limited options for tagging and categorizing emails. Agents must also rely on basic email functionality to organize, prioritize, respond to, and track customer issues. As you scale, that becomes nearly impossible to do.

An email ticketing system, like Zendesk, is a full-fledged email classification and management tool that empowers agents to track all incoming emails and see which tickets are resolved, which are in process, and which haven’t been addressed. Collaboration tools with features like internal notes on tickets and the ability to tag in other departments will further streamline ticket resolution.

Increase customer satisfaction and loyalty

Consumers want fast, effective, and personalized customer service. The companies with the best support teams excel at personalizing customer service, making each customer feel unique and valued.

AI helps support teams deliver personalized experiences by providing tailored answers and recommendations based on customer history and sentiment, helping build strong customer relationships. AI-powered email ticketing software also improves response times, increasing customer loyalty and satisfaction. Intelligent routing immediately sends tickets to the right place for fast resolutions, while email triggers and automated replies quickly give customers the information they need.

Scale customer support operations

There’s a reason every help desk solution has some version of an email ticketing system. Email-based ticketing software creates a solid foundation where you can build more service capabilities, such as AI chatbots, knowledge bases, and new service channels like messaging and voice.

With the right email ticketing system at the core of your operations, you can easily and steadily scale your business and establish a reputation for customer service excellence.

Deflect email tickets with self-service and AI

Self-service support is a win-win for both service teams and customers when done right. The best email ticketing systems include tools to help your email support team reduce ticket volumes, which is particularly beneficial during busy periods or surges in support demand. Self-service tools like knowledge bases, community forums, and customer portals enable customers to resolve issues independently, giving your agents time back to focus on more meaningful tasks.

Additionally, AI can provide automated responses to customer questions, ensuring immediate support. For example, Zendesk AI agents are pre-trained on billions of real customer interactions, so they can autonomously resolve a wide range of customer requests, from simple inquiries to complex issues.

Gain visibility into performance metrics

If your suite of business tools doesn’t give you uninhibited access to performance metrics, it’s letting you down. The best email ticketing systems peel back the curtain to reveal granular details on employee performance, interaction quality, customer sentiment, and more.

By viewing your performance metrics, you can do two things: reward positive performance and address areas needing improvement. Managing employee performance includes recognition and learning opportunities—with visibility into your most important KPIs, you can proactively manage your team.

The best email ticketing systems have the capabilities to help your team address customer inquiries efficiently. Our chart compares the best email support software so you can pick the right solution for your business.

Take a deep dive into the top email ticketing systems for 2024. Below, we provide an overview of each platform, its key features, and pricing.

1. Zendesk

Zendesk provides a scalable, AI-powered email ticketing system that is user-friendly and quick to set up. It's also omnichannel, allowing agents to manage customer email requests from the same workspace as all your other support channels. This increases agent efficiency because they don't have to toggle between different tools.

AI is built into the agent workspace to help them offer faster and more personalized support. For example, intelligent routing funnels tickets to the most suitable agent based on customer intent, sentiment, and language. Meanwhile, the Zendesk agent copilot equips support reps with proactive suggestions for how to resolve issues based on each customer’s unique needs. AI can also be deployed across email to automatically resolve customer requests without a human agent ever getting involved.

The Zendesk customer service solution also provides AI-driven quality assurance and workforce management tools to optimize team productivity and elevate your service. From schedule adherence to resolution time, Zendesk sends you actionable insights that show exactly how your team performs over email (and all your support channels).

Finally, with over 1,500 plug-and-play apps and integrations in the Zendesk Marketplace, you can connect all your data across systems for a 360-degree customer view. Furthermore, advanced privacy and security controls keep your business safe. With Zendesk, you can leverage secure, cutting-edge AI built specifically for CX to help you operate at scale.

Features:

• AI assistance for agents
• Workflow automation
• Real-time reporting and analytics
• Omnichannel support
• Enterprise-class security
• 1,500+ apps and integrations

Pricing: Plans start at $19 per agent/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

Explore more Zendesk pricing plans.

2. Front

Front is a customer service platform that combines email with help desk functionality. With a shared inbox, your team can manage email, messaging apps, SMS, live chat, and other channels in a single view.

This email ticketing system routes conversations effectively, automatically assigning and tagging reps to handle the issue. Agents can collaborate on tickets and escalate issues, ensuring high-priority tickets get addressed. Front also integrates with nearly 100 apps for as-needed platform additions.

Features:

• AI assistance for agents
• Workflow automation
• Real-time reporting and analytics
• Omnichannel support
• Enterprise-class security
• Nearly 100 integrations

Pricing: Plans start at $19 per seat/month, billed annually. A seven-day free trial is available.

Recommended reading: Learn how Zendesk vs. Front compare.

3. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk’s email ticketing system lets support teams connect with customers via email and manage tickets in a shared inbox. It allows teams to prioritize and act on customer inquiries, measure progress, and facilitate conversations across service channels.

Zoho Desk features tools like workflow builders, task automation, and intuitive ticket views. There’s also a ticket sorting feature that routes requests to the appropriate agent based on the contents of the customer inquiry.

Features:

• AI assistance for agents
• Workflow automation
• Real-time reporting and analytics
• Omnichannel support
• Enterprise-class security

Pricing: Plans start at $7 per user/month, billed annually. A 15-day free trial is available.

Recommended reading: Learn how Zoho integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. Zoho compare.

4. HubSpot Service Hub

HubSpot’s ticketing system connects to its CRM through the Service Hub plan. Service Hub filters customer service requests within a shared inbox, offering basic features such as ticket collaboration tools, prioritization rules, and ticket tagging. Users can opt to pay for advanced tools like customer service analytics, enabling you to monitor agent performance and view metrics like contact volume and response times.

Automated ticket routing and task automation help teams manage repetitive actions. HubSpot also has a free plan with inboxes, email ticketing, and some basic reporting.

Features:

• AI assistance for agents
• Workflow automation
• Omnichannel support
• Enterprise-class security

Pricing: Paid plans start at $15 per seat/month, billed annually. A free plan with limited features is also available.

Recommended reading: Learn how HubSpot integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. HubSpot compare.

5. HelpCrunch

HelpCrunch provides multichannel email ticketing through its customer support software. In addition to shared inboxes, omnichannel support, and ticket management, HelpCrunch offers features like detailed customer profiles and team productivity analytics.

HelpCrunch has a central dashboard where agents can view real-time and historical reports on email ticketing analytics. From there, agents can gain insights into past interactions and see the context for customer queries and complaints.

Features:

• AI assistance for agents
• Workflow automation
• Real-time reporting and analytics
• Omnichannel support
• Enterprise-class security
• Apps and integrations

Pricing: Plans start at $12 per team member/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

6. TeamSupport

TeamSupport offers email-based ticket management software that allows agents to view and manage customer conversations in a web-based help desk interface. TeamSupport provides customization options for routing, escalation, and resolution ticketing rules.

TeamSupport enables businesses to automate repetitive tasks and set up rules that prompt agents to follow up on tickets, too. Higher-tier plans also include pre-built analytics dashboards, knowledge bases, and customer self-service portals.

Features:

• AI assistance for agents
• Workflow automation
• Real-time reporting and analytics
• Omnichannel support
• Enterprise-class security

Pricing: Plans start at $29 per agent/month.

7. Jitbit Helpdesk

Jitbit is an online SaaS (software as a service) help desk with an email ticketing system. Its platform supports IMAP, POP3, and SMTP—email protocols that enable emails to be sent and received between your inbox and server. The software also supports live chat, knowledge bases, chatbots, and integrations.

Jitbit Helpdesk’s interface is built around a shared inbox and features advanced reporting tools, ticket organization capabilities, and ticket filters. It categorizes, tags, and assigns tickets to agents, tracks time spent on tickets, and prevents agent collisions.

Features:

• AI assistance for agents
• Workflow automation
• Real-time reporting and analytics
• Omnichannel support
• Enterprise-class security
• Apps and integrations

Pricing: Plans start at $29 per month for one agent. A 21-day free trial is available.

8. Hiver

Hiver’s customer service email ticketing system can support multiple communication channels from a Gmail inbox. Users can assign customer queries to specific agents, delegate emails, tag tickets, automate email workflows, and view live status updates to see who’s working on what. Hiver lets you automate routine tasks based on manual configurations, too.

Hiver offers reporting and analytics software that helps you track customer service metrics. It has built-in reports with customization options. Hiver also includes collision alerts to prevent agents from working on the same ticket.

Features:

• AI assistance for agents
• Workflow automation
• Real-time reporting and analytics
• Omnichannel support
• Enterprise-class security
• Apps and integrations

Pricing: Plans start at $19 per user/month, billed annually. A seven-day free trial is available.

9. HappyFox Help Desk

HappyFox offers cloud-based customer service software with an email ticketing system. The platform provides omnichannel support, allowing agents to handle requests across various channels like phone, SMS, live chat, and email. It uses custom queues, tags, and fields to route requests where they need to go.

Collaboration tools from HappyFox enable agents to share information about tickets to expedite resolutions. The Private Notes feature lets you communicate with internal teams on customer tickets while hiding the message from the customer. In addition to its email management system, HappyFox plans include help desk features like SLA management, self-service tools, embeddable widgets, and a mobile app.

Features:

• AI assistance for agents
• Workflow automation
• Real-time reporting and analytics
• Omnichannel support
• Enterprise-class security

Pricing: Plans start at $29 per agent/month, billed annually.

Recommended reading: Learn how HappyFox integrates with Zendesk.

10. Freshdesk

Freshworks offers an email-based ticketing software called Freshdesk, which converts customer queries into tickets that agents can track, prioritize, reply to, and collaborate on. Freshdesk includes features like knowledge base publishing, email and social ticketing, and rule-based ticket routing.

Users can access more features—including chatbot builders, social media messaging, advanced analytics, and SLA rules—but they must pay extra. As a result, businesses may spend more money in the long run, reducing their overall return on investment.

Features:

• AI assistance for agents
• Workflow automation
• Reporting and analytics
• Omnichannel support
• Enterprise-class security
• 1,000+ apps and integrations

Pricing: Paid plans start at $15 per agent/month, billed annually. A free plan and a 14-day free trial are available.

Recommended reading: Learn how Zendesk vs. Freshdesk compare.

11. Help Scout

Help Scout is an email ticketing solution embedded in a help desk tool. Users can organize tickets, automate workflows, and collaborate through its shared email inbox. Help Scout claims its shared inbox is like regular email but with added functionality, such as automation and collaboration tools.

The Help Scout ticketing system also supports simple email ticketing workflows. The platform includes knowledge management, reporting and analytics, and a conversation sidebar in the agent workspace that displays customer data, activity, and other relevant information.

Features:

• AI assistance for agents
• Workflow automation
• Real-time reporting and analytics
• Omnichannel support
• Enterprise-class security
• 100+ apps and integrations

Pricing: Plans start at $20 per user/month, billed annually. A 15-day free trial is available.

Recommended reading: Learn how Zendesk vs. Help Scout compare.

12. Intercom

Intercom began as a messaging app designed to help teams solve simple customer issues, primarily for e-commerce, healthcare, financial services, and educational companies. It now offers email ticketing features with automations and omnichannel support.

Intercom allows businesses to collect, track, and route customer inquiries, analyze service performance, and deploy ticketing workflows. Users can also access a library of apps and integrations for additional use cases.

Features:

• AI assistance for agents
• Workflow automation
• Real-time reporting and analytics
• Omnichannel support
• Enterprise-class security
• 450+ apps and integrations

Pricing: Plans start at $39 per seat/month, billed annually. A 14-day free trial is available.

Recommended reading: Learn how Intercom integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. Intercom compare.

13. ProProfs Help Desk

ProProfs Help Desk is a customer support tool with an email ticketing system. It automatically converts emails to tickets, tracks them in real time, and prioritizes urgent issues. With a central dashboard, agents can efficiently manage support email accounts and collaborate using internal notes.

ProProfs offers automatic ticket routing to assign requests to the appropriate agents. Users can also leverage the software to build chatbots for 24/7 support and collect customer feedback. Additionally, the platform includes a built-in knowledge base, enabling self-service options to reduce the support ticket load.

Features:

• AI assistance for agents
• Workflow automation
• Real-time reporting and analytics
• Omnichannel support
• Enterprise-class security

Pricing: Paid plans start at $19.99 per user/month, billed annually. A free plan and a 15-day free trial are available.

Recommended reading: Learn how ProProfs integrates with Zendesk.

Here are a few ticketing system tips and best practices for implementation.

Take advantage of AI and automation capabilities

AI technology is an advantage for email because AI agents or bots can communicate with customers via email—the most basic function is an automated response with relevant help center article content.

AI technology helps you deliver faster and more personalized email support. For example, the Zendesk agent copilot can suggest replies to agents based on each customer's unique needs.

AI can also handle email requests autonomously, freeing your support team up for more engaging tasks. Our advanced email bots come pre-trained to understand customer service intents so they can deliver accurate and personalized responses. Plus, our intelligence in the context panel feature guides agents by suggesting the best actions and providing automated responses they can use.

Define your service level agreements (SLAs)

Your service level agreement (SLA) documents the details of the service you will provide to your customer. SLAs can be legally binding or an informal promise. They can also apply differently to specific individuals or groups of customers. Whether your SLA is formal or informal, defining one is important because it sets customer expectations and clarifies priorities for your agents.

Typically, SLAs detail things like maximum first-response time, agent availability, business hours, exceptions, length of service, and more.

Measure the quality of interactions

Measuring conversation quality helps you identify potential areas for training and development. It also makes it easier to recognize top performers to encourage continued excellence.

With Zendesk QA, you gain a granular view of agent performance through data-driven insights. This information allows you to identify conversations at risk of churn based on customer satisfaction levels, helping your agents prioritize and promptly resolve urgent tickets.

Invest in team training and development

Enhance your email ticketing performance metrics with customer service workforce engagement (WEM) solutions such as workforce management (WFM) and quality assurance (QA) tools. These tools help highlight training opportunities to develop your agents’ skills, which increases productivity and agent satisfaction.

For example, with Zendesk WFM and QA software, you can monitor agent performance to ensure they meet their targets and focus training on improvement areas. You can also monitor quality scores to reduce customer churn, keep agents on the right track, and make necessary adjustments.

Collect customer feedback

Without customer feedback, you can’t be certain that your CX is improving. Customers can provide insights into the support experience, highlighting areas for improvement you might have otherwise missed.

You can ask targeted customer satisfaction questions to assess sentiment about their interaction with your team. Meanwhile, your email ticketing tool can surface data like the most popular customer requests so you can share that information with relevant stakeholders. Even though customers may not know you’re using a ticketing system, the speed and personalization of your service can leave a lasting impression.

The right ticketing system for your business will support your growth and act as a natural extension of your support teams.

Make sure it meets security and compliance requirements

If you handle customer information, you must comply with data handling laws and best practices. Not every ticketing system will have a full suite of security features, but the best ones—like Zendesk—can help you tackle compliance without breaking a sweat.

For example, Zendesk uses advanced data privacy and protection with encryption to guard your valuable data. It allows you to effortlessly manage and organize the data you need and wipe the data you don’t. That way, prying eyes stay away from private information, and you stay compliant with the law.

Consider time to value and total cost of ownership

A ticketing system with a short time to value (TTV) enables you to unlock its full potential more quickly, including reducing agent work overload and increasing ticket resolution speed—that means better CX from day one.

Zendesk is flexible, so you can tailor it to your needs without incurring additional costs for extra features. Plus, you won’t need to hire a developer to set up the software, resulting in a lower total cost of ownership. With over 1,500 no-code integrations at your fingertips, it’s fast and cost-effective to customize Zendesk.

Ensure it provides onboarding and adoption guidance

Your agents want a ticketing system that reduces friction, not amplifies it. When there’s discord while adopting a new tool, there might be less excitement about it—and if agents aren’t happy with the tools they’re using, that could spell trouble for customer success.

Zendesk makes onboarding and adoption a breeze. Our team has the customer support and service experience you need to position your CX strategy for success. With our onboarding and training services, your team can feel confident using the Zendesk email ticketing system from the get-go.

Look for a tool that’s easy to use

An email ticketing system should be efficient and easy to use. Choose software with an intuitive design that your agents can use comfortably. For example, Zendesk email ticketing software is ready to use out-of-the-box, so no training is required. It also boasts advanced AI tools to increase agent efficiency, which can improve the employee experience.

In the Zendesk Employee Experience Trends Report 2024, 80 percent of respondents noted that employee experiences were a critical business priority and a key competitive differentiator. This means your email ticketing tool needs to work for your support team—not the other way around—if you want to retain top talent.

Get software that can scale with your business

The optimal ticketing system will scale with your business as it grows without needing replacement. As your customer base increases, so will the number of inquiries you receive. You need a ticketing system that won’t bog down agents with a backlog of requests.

For example, Zendesk is designed to seamlessly accommodate new teams, divisions, and global bases without hassle. Moreover, if new use cases emerge, Zendesk offers an extensive marketplace of apps and integrations, giving you the flexibility to extend your capabilities.