Hosted vs On Premise Helpdesk?
Jitbit Helpdesk comes in two varieties:
- A hosted help desk. The SaaS (software as a service), subscription-based version that runs on Jitbit’s own cloud-based servers.
- A self-hosted help desk solution. The so-called "on-premises" version, installed on your own company hardware.
What are the benefits of each?
Benefits of a SaaS Helpdesk
If you're looking for a managed solution where installation, upgrades and backups are handled by our administrators, then the hosted version is the way to go.
Slightly different feature set!
With Jitbit, there's another key difference to consider - our SaaS version includes an enhanced feature set that isn’t available in the self-hosted version. One of the biggest advantages is our AI-powered knowledge base and external documentation indexing. The SaaS version leverages vector embeddings stored in a Quadrant database to provide highly accurate and context-aware AI suggestiong and search results. Additionally, our cloud version includes a built-in web crawler — a fully functional web spider—that can fetch and index content from an external website. This allows the AI to suggest relevant information not just from your internal KB but also from your website or documentaion, making it easier for agents to find answers. These capabilities rely on cloud-based microservices that would be too complex to implement in an on-premise setup, making our hosted version the best choice for teams that want powerful AI-driven assistance without the infrastructure overhead.
Helpdesk Maintenance is On Us
The hosted version is updated several times a day (so called "continuous deployment"). We also tune the heck out of our hardware.
We fine tune our servers, our CDN-network and our database servers regularly. To give you an example, we recently moved our helpdesk database transaction logs to NVMe SSD drives to improve performance.
We’re always finding ways to enhance the help desk service we provide.
Email Perks
The default email server that comes with the hosted version uses the fastest network hard-drives. We are able to fine tune it, configuring reverse DNS entries and keeping an eye on blacklists.
We also have a dedicated, super-fast Linux-based email server that routes emails right into the helpdesk app. Without any POP/IMAP middle tier, via our own API. It makes sure your email converts into support tickets almost instantly.
These servers also look for viruses and kill spam.
We use Amazon Servers
But it's not just Amazon. It's the fast-performing high-memory instance, optimized for network storage performance and SSD local drives. The best Amazon can offer. Which means daily S3 backups and hourly database backups.
And even if the server were to crash, a copy of your data is stored on a network drive, located physically on a separate machine. More here.
Single Sign-On? AD? SAML? Not a Problem
Our hosted version supports Active Directory logins via your on-premises, Windows-integrated authentication. Or single sign-on via SAML. Or a customizable authentication API. If you want total control, it’s yours.
Don't want to get stuck in a Subscription?
We give you the option to cancel at any time. But you don’t go home empty-handed. We give you all of your data: a free backup including all of your tickets.
And if you ever decide to come back, we save your data for four months. Even for cancelled accounts. Even for trial accounts. So you can sign back up without a hitch.
Benefits of a Self-Hosted (On-Premises) System?
If your organization has a policy of storing all that important data in your own basement, we're cool with that. That's exactly why we developed a self-hosted “on-premises” version.
It has the exact same code base and feature set as the hosted version. What’s more, you get Windows-integrated authentication for your intranet users. And, if you have a Windows domain, all your users have to do is open the app in their browsers.
If you're looking for full control over your help desk software, backups and data then choose and download the self-hosted version.
Related article: Why a Hosted Helpdesk is best