Best help desk software in 2026, ranked by what companies run

Zendesk is the help desk software companies run most, with 42,431 companies in our data, followed by Freshdesk, Intercom, LiveChat and Tidio. Small teams lean on those, online stores on Gorgias, and large enterprises on ServiceNow.

What is the best help desk software, judged by what companies actually run?

The best help desk software, by the measure used in this article, is the tool the most companies have actually put in place. On that test Zendesk leads, followed by Freshdesk, Intercom, LiveChat and Tidio. Each of those is a count of companies with a public trace of the tool, not a review score.

Most lists of the best help desk software are ranked by an editor, or by the vendor publishing the list, and the vendor tends to win. We took a different route. runsonwhat checks public records (DNS records, certificate logs and website code) for 1,826,463 companies, and we counted which of 16 help desk tools turn up. What peers chose is a useful input to your own shortlist, even though it isn't the whole decision.

One caveat: these are companies with a public trace of a tool. They are not market share, revenue or paying-customer counts, and they are not reviews. A company can run more than one of these tools, and anything used purely inside a company leaves no trace.

In total, 83,495 companies run at least one of these tools, and the figures below show the scale of the group.

Zendesk is the clear leader: 51% of those companies run it. The ranking chart shows a long tail, with eight tools that have thousands of companies behind them and a sharp drop after that, starting with ServiceNow.

Help desk software, in plain terms, turns customer questions that arrive by email, chat or social into tracked tickets that a team can assign, answer and measure. Read the ranking with one thing in mind: this group mixes different kinds of tools. Zendesk, Freshdesk and Help Scout are built around tickets and shared inboxes. LiveChat and Tidio are built around live chat and now describe AI agents on top. ServiceNow is an enterprise workflow platform that covers IT service management. A company can sensibly run a chat tool and a ticketing tool side by side, so it can appear in more than one tool's count.

Which help desk tools do companies use most?

Zendesk, Freshdesk, Intercom, LiveChat and Tidio are the five help desk tools companies run most, in that order, followed by Gorgias, Crisp and Help Scout. The table lines up all 16 tools by companies with a public trace, with the typical size and industry beside each.

Share = share of the companies running any of these help desk tools. Size = most common employee band.

Tool	Companies	Share	Size	Top industry	Often run with
Zendesk	42,431	51%	11–50	Software	Atlassian Statuspage, Cursor
Freshdesk	12,612	15%	11–50	IT Services	Freshworks CRM, Anthropic
Intercom	9,057	11%	11–50	Software	Heap, Customer.io
LiveChat	6,953	8.3%	11–50	Retail	Heap, Mouseflow
Tidio	5,777	6.9%	11–50	IT Services	Heap, Omnisend
Gorgias	3,987	4.8%	11–50	Retail	Gorgias Convert, Okendo
Crisp	3,050	3.7%	11–50	IT Services	Salla, PushEngage
Help Scout	2,908	3.5%	11–50	Software	PushEngage, Simple Analytics
ServiceNow	936	1.1%	1,001+	IT Services	Cisco Intersight, Docker
Front	425	0.5%	11–50	Software	Customer.io, Heap
LiveAgent	304	0.4%	11–50	IT Services	Post Affiliate Pro, Adform
Dixa	296	0.4%	51–200	Retail	Nosto, Contentstack
Pylon	144	0.2%	11–50	Software	Clay, ClickHouse
Kustomer	133	0.2%	11–50	Retail	Pepperjam, Northbeam
Oracle Service Cloud	118	0.1%	1,001+	Retail	BioCatch, Medallia
Plain	76	under 0.1%	11–50	Software	Serval, Google Gemini

The profiles below cover the tools that most shortlists start from.

Zendesk

Zendesk is an AI-powered customer service platform that covers ticketing, messaging, AI agents and analytics for customer service, employee service and contact center teams. 42,431 companies run it, the largest count in the group by a wide margin.

The typical Zendesk company is small, with 45% of those with a known size in the 11–50 band. Yet it over-indexes among 1,001–5,000 employee firms: Zendesk's companies are 1.8x more likely than the average company to be in that band. It is often run with Atlassian Statuspage, and GitHub, Roblox and Vimeo all show a public trace of it.

Freshdesk

Freshdesk is the customer support help desk from Freshworks, which runs customer support and employee IT service on AI-powered workflows. It is the second most common tool here, with 12,612 companies.

IT Services is its top industry (20% of companies with a known industry), and it also over-indexes in Software. Its over-index in the 201–1,000 and 1,001–5,000 bands shows it reaching mid-size and larger firms, not only startups.

Its strongest pairings are Anthropic and Atlassian, each run by 17% of Freshdesk companies. Freshworks CRM also shows up, at 4.2%. PBS and Podbean Inc are among those with a public trace of Freshdesk.

Intercom

Intercom is a customer service helpdesk with a built-in AI agent, plus an inbox, tickets, a help center and outbound messaging, aimed at customer service teams including early-stage startups. 9,057 companies run it.

It leans toward software companies more than Zendesk or Freshdesk do: 28% of companies with a known industry are in Software, and Intercom's companies are 3.9x more likely than the average company to be in that industry.

Small teams are well represented too: its companies are 3.3x more likely than the average company to be in the 1–10 band. It is often run with analytics tools like Heap and FullStory. One detail we like: Zendesk's own domain shows an Intercom trace, as do Cloudinary and Wolt.

LiveChat

LiveChat is live chat software with AI agents that adds real-time chat to a website to support customers and increase online sales. It is built for sales and support teams at ecommerce and business-to-business companies, and 6,953 companies run it.

Retail is its top industry (11% of companies with a known industry). Its companies are 2.5x more likely than the average company to be in Automotive, with Real Estate also above average. That mix fits a tool sold for sales as well as support.

It often shows up beside Crisp, Tidio and Heap. D2m3, Envelo and Kersys are examples with a public trace.

Tidio

Tidio is a customer service platform with live chat and an AI agent that answers questions and turns conversations into sales, leads and bookings. It is built for online businesses and Shopify merchants, and 5,777 companies run it.

Among the five largest tools, Tidio has the highest share of 11–50 employee companies, at 63%. It over-indexes in Consumer Goods (1.8x more likely than the average company) and Retail, though IT Services is its most common industry.

Omnisend and Judge.me are among its usual companions. Public traces also appear at Billund Airport and Dalton Park, a reminder that chat widgets are not only for online stores.

Gorgias

Gorgias is an ecommerce help desk and conversational AI platform that automates support and drives sales through an AI agent, chat, voice, SMS and FAQs. It is built for online stores, especially on Shopify, and 3,987 companies run it.

Its industry skew is among the sharpest in the group. Retail is the top industry at 24%, and Gorgias's companies are 28.3x more likely than the average company to be in Apparel & Fashion.

Gorgias Convert is its closest companion, run by 78% of its companies, and Okendo comes next at 14%. Aerosoles and Alpha Industries show a public trace of Gorgias.

Crisp

Crisp is a multichannel customer messaging platform with a chat widget, shared inbox, AI agent, CRM, knowledge base and ticketing, built for businesses of all sizes. 3,050 companies run it.

It is the small-company end of the group: 65% of companies with a known size have 11–50 employees, the highest share of any tool here, and Crisp's companies are 2.8x more likely than the average company to be in the 1–10 band.

IT Services is its top industry. The country mix is unusual, with France second and Saudi Arabia fifth among its top countries. It often appears with Salla and PushEngage, and ThemeGrill and Active Gymnastics show a public trace.

Which help desk software fits which size and kind of company?

Size and industry are where the tools differ most in our data. The 11–50 band is the most common size for nearly every tool, so the useful question is which tools lean toward the smallest firms, which reach mid-size ones and which belong to enterprises. Industry then narrows the list further.

The chart shows 11–50 employees as the most common band for most tools, with ServiceNow and Oracle Service Cloud as the exceptions at the enterprise end and Dixa one band up.

By company size:

• 1–10 employees: Intercom, Crisp and Help Scout over-index here. Intercom's companies are 3.3x more likely than the average company to be in this band.
• 11–50 employees: the home turf of Zendesk, Freshdesk, LiveChat, Tidio, Gorgias and Crisp, among others.
• 51–200 employees: Dixa has this as its top band (47% of companies with a known size), and Kustomer and Pylon over-index here.
• Mid-size and upper mid-size firms (201–1,000 and 1,001–5,000 employees): Freshdesk over-indexes in both bands, and Zendesk in the upper one (1.8x more likely than the average company).
• 1,001+ employees: ServiceNow, where 41% of companies with a known size are in this band, and Oracle Service Cloud, at 53%.

By industry:

• Ecommerce and retail: Gorgias, Dixa, Kustomer, Tidio and LiveChat. Dixa's companies are 218.7x more likely than the average company to be in E-commerce, the most extreme skew in the group, and Retail is Kustomer's top industry at 24%.
• Software and SaaS: Intercom, Help Scout, Front, Zendesk and the two business-to-business support tools, Pylon and Plain. Software is Plain's top industry at 41%, and Pylon's companies are 5.9x more likely than the average company to be in it. Mixpanel and OpenAI show a public trace of Pylon, while Vercel Inc., Coinbase and Laravel show Plain.
• IT and enterprise operations: ServiceNow and Freshdesk both have IT Services as their top industry, ServiceNow at 28%.
• Telecom, utilities and big retail: Oracle Service Cloud lists Retail, Telecommunications and Utilities as its top industries, and LinkedIn and Costco show a public trace of it.
• Automotive and real estate: LiveChat is the tool that over-indexes in both.

LiveAgent is the one tool without a clear segment. It combines ticketing, live chat, a call center and an AI chatbot on one platform and over-indexes on nothing notable, and Adtelligent Inc. is one company with a public trace of it.

How should I shortlist help desk software?

Shortlist by looking at what companies like yours already run, then test two or three of those on your own tickets. Start with your size band and industry, decide whether you need customer support or internal IT service, and ask vendors for pricing and features directly, because public records can't show either.

Our data tells you what peers chose. It doesn't tell you what any tool costs, so treat every figure above as a way to narrow the field, not as a verdict.

How do I evaluate a help desk before I buy?

Work through these checks in order, using the vendor notes and peer data above as your starting point:

• Match your size band. At 11–50 employees, nearly every tool here has that as its most common band, so peers narrow little and industry has to do the work. At 1,001+ employees, look first at ServiceNow and Oracle Service Cloud, whose most common band this is, and at Zendesk and Freshdesk, which over-index among 1,001–5,000 employee firms.
• Pick support or IT first. ServiceNow describes IT service management alongside customer service, Freshdesk covers customer support and employee IT service, and Zendesk handles customer and employee requests. Most others are built for customer-facing teams only.
• Check the channel you live in. Help Scout, Front and Crisp describe a shared inbox. LiveChat, Tidio, Crisp, Front and LiveAgent describe live chat. Pylon is built around business-to-business support across Slack, Teams, email and chat.
• Look at what it runs alongside. Gorgias companies tend to run other ecommerce tools, and Intercom companies tend to run product analytics. That shows the ecosystem peers use, though it doesn't prove the tools integrate.
• Test AI with your own tickets. Most tools in this group describe an AI agent in their own materials, so the label no longer separates them. Ask for a trial on real conversations.
• Ask where it is hosted. Our scans see tools that leave a public trace, which tilts toward hosted products, so ask each vendor about hosting and data location.

What features should help desk software have?

Across the 16 tools, vendors describe much the same core kit: ticketing or a shared inbox, a help center or knowledge base, one or more channels such as live chat, email, phone or social, automation and routing, an AI agent, and analytics. Intercom, Help Scout, Front and Crisp each mention a help center or knowledge base, while Dixa stresses routing, automation and quality checks. Decide which of these your team would miss most, then judge each vendor on that one first.

What does a help desk detection look like?

A help desk detection is a public record, such as a DNS entry, a verified domain or a script on a website, that points a company's domain at a vendor like Zendesk. We show that record for each match so you can judge the evidence yourself.

help.example.com CNAME examplesupport.zendesk.com

The record proves that the company's domain is connected to the vendor, which means the tool has been set up and tied to that company. It doesn't prove how many agents use it, whether tickets flow through it today or what the company pays. You can check any company with our lookup.

How did we count help desk usage, and what can't the data see?

We counted companies with a direct public trace of one of the help desk tools in this article: a DNS record, a verified domain, a script on the website or a custom domain pointing at the vendor. Our scans covered 1,826,463 companies, and every figure here is as of October 31, 2026. A subset of those companies runs at least one of the help desk tools we compared, and that subset is what the rankings count.

The data has limits you should know about:

• These are companies with a public trace, not market share, revenue, paying customers or reviews.
• A company can run several tools in the group, so one company can appear in more than one count.
• Sizes and industries are known for only part of the companies, and every share of size or industry is among companies where we know them.
• Tools used only inside a company leave no public trace, so smaller and self-hosted tools are undercounted.
• Public records say nothing about price, features or how satisfied a team is.

This article is a snapshot. Our records also track when companies start and stop tools over time, which is how we study switching. More on the method is in our research notes.