6 ms·

Ask HN: Support SaaS

14 points by 3000 4y ago

hey, im looking for some tool to handle support (tickets, email, live, KB etc) for my saas. whats everyone using or recommending? any one on HN run one? grateful for suggestions. have an awesome weekend!

aquark 4y ago
We've used https://www.enchant.com/ https://www.enchant.com/ for about a decade for email support .. it's great, does exactly what is is supposed to and doesn't add a bunch of 'cruft' on top. Had to check our volume, currently over 40,000 tickets in that time. They do live chat too but we've never used that.
- 3000 4y ago
  thank you!
david_p 4y ago
We’ve been using helpscout for the last 6 years, it’s good but we will be migrating to another service (to be defined) soon. Reasons: - they are expensive, and have announced a price increase next august - they do not offer options to host data in europe - they have no web ui for customers to track all their requests (helpscout is mail-only)
- 3000 4y ago
  thank you for the information, specially the euro thing.
satya71 4y ago
We use HelpScout
- 3000 4y ago
  thanks!
jebronie 4y ago
Zammad (open source and self-hosted) for email tickets.
- 3000 4y ago
  nice, thanks!
sealeck 4y ago
- Chatwoot - GitLab service desk - HubDesk.io
- 3000 4y ago
  nice ones, thanks
sunir 4y ago
FreshDesk is pretty solid. Though their live chat is a bit weak. Olark is better (I worked there so I’m biased.) Freshworks has a startup plan as well.
- 3000 4y ago
  thank you, startup plan is always welcome!
cmer 4y ago
FreeScout is awesome and self hosted. Been using it for over a year and have been super happy. Protip: use Gmail SMTP for ultimate deliverability. I personally have a local Postfix forwarding to Gmail. Works great because it keeps a queue and retries if there’s a problem. I found this solution more reliable.
- 3000 4y ago
  great tip. dont think i wanna self host though. will see, not decided yet.
- auspex 4y ago
  You need to be careful using Google SMTP for business apps. It’s very easy to get your domain on spam lists. I’d recommend moving to something like Mailgun or whatever as volume increases
ericpauley 4y ago
For a long time when we didn't have much support volume we just used a google group that anyone doing tickets could access. This has the nice upside of being free. We've used Teamwork Desk for the past few years and have been decently satisifed with it. It can be a little clunky at times and the help site feature has had some weird downtime, but for the most part it handles our small support workloads fine.
- 3000 4y ago
  will check it out, thank you for the suggestion
9woc 4y ago
osTicket? Open-source and both self-hosted and cloud versions available.
- pkrotich 4y ago
  I second this - but I’m biased! Thanks @9woc
- 3000 4y ago
  thank you
jonathanbull 4y ago
We went through about five different platforms for our SaaS (EmailOctopus) before settling on Help Scout. It’s excellent.
- 3000 4y ago
  thanks. your saas is on my list of signing up to later by the way :)
mooreds 4y ago
We use Zendesk for tickets and email. Slack connect for live. Don't really have a KB, just a forum (nodebb) and docs (jekyll + asciidoc).
- 3000 4y ago
  thank you
sidcool 4y ago
I have heard great things about Zoho helpdesk ticketing system.
- 3000 4y ago
  ah yes, of course. thanks for the reminder!

14 points by 3000 4y ago

aquark 4y ago

We've used https://www.enchant.com/ https://www.enchant.com/ for about a decade for email support .. it's great, does exactly what is is supposed to and doesn't add a bunch of 'cruft' on top. Had to check our volume, currently over 40,000 tickets in that time. They do live chat too but we've never used that.

3000 4y ago
thank you!

david_p 4y ago

We’ve been using helpscout for the last 6 years, it’s good but we will be migrating to another service (to be defined) soon. Reasons: - they are expensive, and have announced a price increase next august - they do not offer options to host data in europe - they have no web ui for customers to track all their requests (helpscout is mail-only)

3000 4y ago
thank you for the information, specially the euro thing.

satya71 4y ago

We use HelpScout

3000 4y ago
thanks!

jebronie 4y ago

Zammad (open source and self-hosted) for email tickets.

3000 4y ago
nice, thanks!

sealeck 4y ago

- Chatwoot - GitLab service desk - HubDesk.io

3000 4y ago
nice ones, thanks

sunir 4y ago

FreshDesk is pretty solid. Though their live chat is a bit weak. Olark is better (I worked there so I’m biased.) Freshworks has a startup plan as well.

3000 4y ago
thank you, startup plan is always welcome!

cmer 4y ago

FreeScout is awesome and self hosted. Been using it for over a year and have been super happy. Protip: use Gmail SMTP for ultimate deliverability. I personally have a local Postfix forwarding to Gmail. Works great because it keeps a queue and retries if there’s a problem. I found this solution more reliable.

3000 4y ago
great tip. dont think i wanna self host though. will see, not decided yet.
auspex 4y ago
You need to be careful using Google SMTP for business apps. It’s very easy to get your domain on spam lists. I’d recommend moving to something like Mailgun or whatever as volume increases

ericpauley 4y ago

For a long time when we didn't have much support volume we just used a google group that anyone doing tickets could access. This has the nice upside of being free. We've used Teamwork Desk for the past few years and have been decently satisifed with it. It can be a little clunky at times and the help site feature has had some weird downtime, but for the most part it handles our small support workloads fine.

3000 4y ago
will check it out, thank you for the suggestion

9woc 4y ago

osTicket? Open-source and both self-hosted and cloud versions available.

pkrotich 4y ago
I second this - but I’m biased! Thanks @9woc
3000 4y ago
thank you

jonathanbull 4y ago

We went through about five different platforms for our SaaS (EmailOctopus) before settling on Help Scout. It’s excellent.

3000 4y ago
thanks. your saas is on my list of signing up to later by the way :)

mooreds 4y ago

We use Zendesk for tickets and email. Slack connect for live. Don't really have a KB, just a forum (nodebb) and docs (jekyll + asciidoc).

3000 4y ago
thank you

sidcool 4y ago

I have heard great things about Zoho helpdesk ticketing system.

3000 4y ago
ah yes, of course. thanks for the reminder!