Helpscout vs LiveAgent vs Jitbit

Helpscout

You know that moment when you finally find a help desk that doesn’t fight you? Helpscout feels that way, like a sturdy tool you actually reach for because it just fits into the day-to-day flow. It supports you with straightforward Import and Export so you can pull in customer data from spreadsheets or push notes out to your CRM without wrestling with the format. The design customization isn’t flashy, but it’s practical—labels, colors, and layouts you can tweak to match how your team works, not how a vendor thinks you should work.

Internationalization is a quiet win, letting you serve folks in multiple languages without juggling half a dozen apps. It’s nice to see a system that respects regional needs—that means date formats, currency, and wording can adapt as your audience grows. And when you need to connect other tools, there are Third-party Integrations that keep things moving instead of creating another silo. It’s the kind of setup that’s easy to explain to teammates, with a focus on sharing tickets, notes, and status across the places you already live—without turning support into a full-time puzzle.

LiveAgent

You know how it goes: you open a help desk and suddenly you’re juggling tickets, chat windows, and a half-dozen docs, all at once. LiveAgent stacks up a straightforward workflow for support teams, letting you keep conversations organized without getting lost in the shuffle. It covers the basics and then some—tickets roll in from email, chat, or social channels, and you can thread replies, add notes, and track status without hunting through separate tools.

A few things feel practical rather than flashy. SLA Management helps you set response and resolution targets so you’re aware of your deadlines without micromanaging everyone. There’s an On-premise Version for teams that want to keep data in-house, which can be a fit for places with strict security or regulatory needs. For self-serve help, the Community Forums and Knowledge Base are there so users can find answers or contribute solutions, reducing the same recurring questions. It’s not about flashy features; it’s about keeping support human and the workflow clear, with a system that aligns documentation, forums, and live help into a single, workable rhythm.

	Helpscout	LiveAgent	Jitbit
	A simple help desk focused on email.	Powerful support suite with ticketing and chat	Help Desk Software built for email. Trusted by thousands of companies across 50 + countries.
Pricing: 3 years / 5 agents	$6300	$5220	$3897
Pricing: 3 years / 10 agents	$12600	$10440	$8367
Active Directory	✅ Only Azure AD is supported	✅ AD catalog integration, but no Windows-integrated authentication	✅ Integration via a script for your server or ADFS and SAML
Activity Dashboard	❌	✅ There's a dashboard report, but it's not live-updated	✅ 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	✅ 'Canned answers' are available on the $15/mo/user plan	✅ You can also assign canned responses to specific ticket categories if you need to
Community Forums	❌	✅ Customer forum is included with all plans	✅ Ideas Forum comes out of the box
Custom Fields	✅ Up to ten custom fields per mailbox	✅ Multiple custom field types available	✅ Many custom field types, including dependant fields. Various privacy options.
Custom Statuses	❌	✅ Custom statuses are available, but no permission control	✅ 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	✅ For chats only	✅ Optional CSATs in email notifications and a report
Design Customization	✅ Customize Knowledge Base with externally hosted CSS files	✅ You can customize customer portal and knowledge base but not the ticketing system	✅ Unlimited customization options. Change colors with a live preview, add custom CSS and JS
Email Notification Templates	❌	✅ Editing email templates available on paid plans only	✅ You are able to completely change a template for any notification type
Escalation	❌	✅ Escalating manually or via routing rules	✅ Possible to set up various escalation scenarios via automation
Exchange Integration	❌	✅ IMAP only	✅ Native EWS support instead of IMAP. oAuth support for Office 365
Import and Export	✅ Can be done via API	✅ Tickets CSV export, users CSV import	✅ Import and Export tickets via CSV files
Internationalization	✅ You can manually translate some parts of the app	✅ Yes, with the ability to add custom languages	✅ Available in 16 different languages
ITIL Compliance	❌	✅ Yes	✅ Support for most ITIL processes
Knowledge Base	✅ It's called Docs and it is highly customizable	✅ Knowledge Base and customer portal	✅ Customizable Knowledge Base optimized for search engines
Live Chat	❌	✅ Live chat button is included	✅ A free live chat component in the web widget
Mobile Apps	✅ iOS and Android	✅ Both iOS and Android	✅ iOS and Android
Multi-channel support	❌	✅ Email, chat, social networks	✅ Possible to add unlimited channels via integrations and API
On-premise Version	❌	✅ Downloadable license available	✅ A full on-premises version that runs on Windows Server
Reports and Analytics	✅ Most must-have reports are included	✅ Multiple reports and analytics included	✅ 13 reports with an ability to build your own and to export everything to Excel
REST API	✅ Sparate APIs for KB and tickets	✅ API covers all the app features	✅ API covers all the app features
Single-Sign-On	✅ Separate add-on for $5 per user per month	✅ Custom-built PHP solution	✅ SAML, Google login, Windows-integrated etc.
SLA Management	❌	✅ Full SLA management	✅ Full SLA automation via actions/triggers
Support Widget	❌	✅ Chat widget for websites	✅ Two different versions of a web widget
Third-party Integrations	✅ 80+ apps	✅ API and Integrations on $15/mo/user plan and higher	✅ 30 native integrations and 500 more via Zapier
Ticket Collaboration	❌	✅ Reply-history, CC	✅ See when other techs are viewing tickets in real-time, assign multiple people to a ticket
Workflow Automation	✅ Very basic automation features are available	❌	✅ 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.