What Are Agents in Helpdesk Software? (And How Jitbit Handles Agent Pricing)

If you are evaluating help desk software, you have probably seen the term "agent" on every pricing page. But what exactly is a helpdesk agent, how do agents differ from regular users, and why does it matter for your budget? This article breaks it all down.

What Is a Helpdesk Agent?

A helpdesk agent — also called a "technician," "tech," or "support agent" — is anyone on your team who works with customer requests. That includes:

• Reviewing the ticket queue and triaging new issues
• Responding to customers and resolving tickets
• Changing ticket details such as priority, status, or category
• Moving tickets between departments or adding tags
• Viewing reports and managing the knowledge base

A regular user, by contrast, is someone who submits tickets — your customers, employees, or end users. The distinction matters because most help desk vendors charge per agent, and that cost adds up fast as your support team grows.

How Jitbit Handles Agent Pricing

Many help desk tools charge a per-agent monthly fee, which means your bill climbs every time you add a new support team member. Jitbit takes a different approach: we do not charge per agent on most plans. Instead, each pricing tier includes a set number of agents, and you pick the plan that fits your team.

For example, if your plan includes up to four agents, you can have four people handling customer requests, viewing reports, managing the knowledge base and more. And there is no limit on the number of end users or tickets they create — you can have a million customers each filing a hundred tickets a day and it will not affect your plan.

What Happens If You Exceed Your Agent Limit?

Your helpdesk stays fully operational. Jitbit simply displays a reminder to upgrade your plan — we never lock you out or disrupt your support workflow.

Agents vs. Technicians vs. Users in Jitbit Helpdesk

In the Jitbit Helpdesk interface, agents are called "technicians" (or "techs"). A technician is a user with permissions to one or more ticket categories. This design lets you organize your support team into groups that work independently:

• IT and Sales in one app — each department sees only its own category of tickets unless you choose to share access.
• Granular permissions — assign technicians to specific categories so they focus on the tickets they are qualified to handle.
• Administrators count as agents — for billing purposes, admin users are included in your agent count.

Regular users — your customers or internal requesters — are completely unlimited on every plan. They can submit tickets, track progress through the self-service portal, and browse your knowledge base at no extra cost.

Need Someone to Reply to a Ticket Occasionally? No Extra Agent Seat Required

Sometimes you need a colleague — say, a sales manager or a product engineer — to jump into a single conversation without making them a full-time agent. Jitbit handles this with ticket subscribers.

Every ticket has a list of subscribers: people who follow that conversation and receive updates. Add a colleague as a subscriber, and they can:

• Read the full ticket history
• Post replies that go directly to the customer via email
• Stay in the loop on future updates

Subscribers do not count as agents, so you are never charged for their seat. They simply cannot see other tickets in the system, view reports, or be assigned as the person responsible for a ticket.

Example: "Hey John from Sales, this customer wants to know about volume discounts — can you chime in?" John opens the ticket, posts his reply directly to the customer, and stays subscribed for follow-ups. He never needs an agent license.

Why Agent Pricing Matters When Choosing Help Desk Software

Per-agent pricing is one of the biggest hidden costs in help desk software. A tool that charges $50 per agent per month might look affordable for a team of three — but at 20 agents, you are paying $1,000 every month. Jitbit's tier-based model keeps costs predictable as your team scales, with plans that include multiple agents at a flat rate.

Combine that with unlimited users, unlimited tickets, and free subscriber seats, and you get a help desk that grows with your business without surprise bills.

Start a free Jitbit Helpdesk trial — no credit card required — and see how our agent model works for your team.