Helpscout vs Jira Service Desk vs Jitbit

Helpscout

You ever notice how a good help desk feels like it’s reading the room? Helpscout slides into that space with a calm, practical vibe. It gives you a REST API so you can tug data in and out without wrestling with clunky plugins, which means you can stitch it into the tools you already use. The workflow automation feels like a lightweight brain that handles repetitive steps so you don’t have to. Tickets are routed, reminders fire off, and statuses update in the background, which keeps you from playing tag with your own inbox.

Import and export are straightforward enough that moving between systems doesn’t become a scavenger hunt, and you can steer that transition with confidence. The setup asks for what you actually need, not a galaxy of bells and whistles you won’t touch. On the customer side, there’s a built-in sense-check: a simple satisfaction survey that nudges you to look at what’s actually working and what isn’t. It’s not a personality, just a steady toolset that feels like it’s there when you need it, and quiet when you don’t, which is a rare kind of relief in a busy support week.

Jira Service Desk

You know that moment when you finally pin down what’s happening with tickets instead of chasing them down? Jira Service Desk feels like that steady guide, the kind of tool you actually reach for when support cycles get messy. It centers around a clean Activity Dashboard where you can spot new requests, updates, and responses at a glance, so you’re not digging through logs or inbox chaos. The flow between submitting issues, triaging priorities, and routing work to the right teammates is straightforward enough to keep your day from turning into a labyrinth.

Behind the scenes there are solid pieces that teams tend to lean on: Reports and Analytics give you a picture of trends, response times, and backlog without needing a dozen spreadsheets. If you ever need to automate or extend things, the REST API is there, letting you pull data or push updates into your existing workflows. The Support Widget makes it easy for people to reach out from outside the platform, and you can customize it to fit how your team talks. It’s not flashy, just something that feels dependable when you’re juggling tickets and trying to stay in sync.

	Helpscout	Jira Service Desk	Jitbit
	A simple help desk focused on email.	Customize everything to suit your needs	Help Desk Software built for email. Trusted by thousands of companies across 50 + countries.
Pricing: 3 years / 5 agents	$6300	$6000	$3897
Pricing: 3 years / 10 agents	$12600	$12000	$8367
Active Directory	✅ Only Azure AD is supported	✅ Not on the SaaS version	✅ Integration via a script for your server or ADFS and SAML
Activity Dashboard	❌	✅ Ability to create custom dashboards	✅ Live overview dashboard
Asset Management	❌	❌	✅ A complete asset management module tightly integrated into the rest of the app
Canned Responses	✅ They are called Saved Replies. You can insert them in ticket replies	❌	✅ You can also assign canned responses to specific ticket categories if you need to
Community Forums	❌	❌	✅ Ideas Forum comes out of the box
Custom Fields	✅ Up to ten custom fields per mailbox	✅ Various custom field options	✅ Many custom field types, including dependant fields. Various privacy options.
Custom Statuses	❌	✅ You can create custom statuses and customize how your customers see them	✅ Add custom statuses, customize how your customers see them and assign different colors to them
Customer satisfaction survey	✅ Comes with CSATs and a Happiness report	✅ CSATs come out of the box along with the nessesary reports	✅ Optional CSATs in email notifications and a report
Design Customization	✅ Customize Knowledge Base with externally hosted CSS files	✅ Customize colors and upload a logo. No custom CSS or JS	✅ Unlimited customization options. Change colors with a live preview, add custom CSS and JS
Email Notification Templates	❌	✅ A lot of template settings and customization	✅ You are able to completely change a template for any notification type
Escalation	❌	✅ Multiple ways to set up a ticket escalation	✅ Possible to set up various escalation scenarios via automation
Exchange Integration	❌	❌	✅ Native EWS support instead of IMAP. oAuth support for Office 365
Import and Export	✅ Can be done via API	✅ Import and export to CSV or JSON	✅ Import and Export tickets via CSV files
Internationalization	✅ You can manually translate some parts of the app	✅ Translate email templates and field names	✅ Available in 16 different languages
ITIL Compliance	❌	✅ Jira is ITIL certified	✅ Support for most ITIL processes
Knowledge Base	✅ It's called Docs and it is highly customizable	✅ Full-featured and searchable customer self-service portal	✅ Customizable Knowledge Base optimized for search engines
Live Chat	❌	❌	✅ A free live chat component in the web widget
Mobile Apps	✅ iOS and Android	✅ Great mobile apps for all platforms	✅ iOS and Android
Multi-channel support	❌	❌	✅ Possible to add unlimited channels via integrations and API
On-premise Version	❌	✅ Comes with an installable version built on Java	✅ A full on-premises version that runs on Windows Server
Reports and Analytics	✅ Most must-have reports are included	✅ Ability to built custom reports	✅ 13 reports with an ability to build your own and to export everything to Excel
REST API	✅ Sparate APIs for KB and tickets	✅ Complete API with oAuth	✅ API covers all the app features
Single-Sign-On	✅ Separate add-on for $5 per user per month	❌	✅ SAML, Google login, Windows-integrated etc.
SLA Management	❌	✅ SLA support out of the box	✅ Full SLA automation via actions/triggers
Support Widget	❌	✅ Web widget for your site	✅ Two different versions of a web widget
Third-party Integrations	✅ 80+ apps	✅ Marketplace with hundreds of apps, paid and free	✅ 30 native integrations and 500 more via Zapier
Ticket Collaboration	❌	❌	✅ See when other techs are viewing tickets in real-time, assign multiple people to a ticket
Workflow Automation	✅ Very basic automation features are available	✅ Support for simple WHEN/IF/THEN logic	✅ Automation Rules are very powerful and can go beyond simple if-this-then-that logic

Looking for help desk software? Check out Jitbit. We offer a fully-featured app at a very affordable price. It comes with all the must have features like knowledge base, two-way email integration (including native Exchange and Office 365 support), automation, hundreds of integrations with third-party apps and much more. Available both as a hosted "SaaS" version and an on-premises version you can install on your own server.