11 Best Email Ticketing Systems For Growing Businesses in 2024

Whether they have a question, issue, or problem, most customers will reach out to your business via email.

And trust me, they won’t be very forgiving if you let them down or take your time to reply.

The problem? When the inquiries start to stack up, it’s easy to lose track. That’s where an email ticketing system comes in handy.

I’ve spent time trying out the various tools, and they’re not all built equally.

Here are some of the best options out there. Take a look and see if one of these email based ticket solutions might be a good fit for your team.

Best email ticketing systems at a glance

• Keeping for growing teams seeking affordability and the simplicity of Gmail
• Gmelius for teams requiring light project management
• Zendesk for enterprises requiring omnichannel support
• Help Scout for large dedicated support teams
• Freshdesk for enterprises who could benefit from AI automation
• Hiver for large teams using email needing advanced functionality
• Jitbit for technical teams that prefer to self-host
• HappyFox for businesses that require numerous integrations
• Front for teams looking to centralize all customer communication
• Liveagent for teams focused on immediate customer engagement
• Zoho Desk for businesses requiring seamless integration with Zoho apps

How (and why) we created this list of email support systems

As the founder of a fast-growing startup myself, I get it. Scaling customer support is no easy feat.

Not only is our team at Keeping tasked with handling our own support, we’re in charge of creating solutions for growing startups all around the world. But fortunately all this hands-on experience has been incredibly valuable – it’s taught us a thing or two about what startups need most when it comes to an email support system.

Does this ring a bell? You’ve outgrown basic email management but aren’t yet at the point where you need a dedicated, enterprise-level help desk system.

This is the most common feedback we hear from founders.

And considering that only 36% of consumers feel like a unique individual when engaging with customer service, businesses are struggling more than ever to make customer support feel personal.

What follows is a summary of our deep-dive into the different email ticketing systems on the market.

We focused our efforts on the criteria we know matters most to startups and SMBs:

• ✅ Scalability
• ✅ Ease of use + setup (the quicker the better)
• ✅ Core ticketing and collaboration features
• ✅ Platform (and whether it requires the team to learn a new tool)
• ✅ Plan costs per user

My hope is that our research helps simplify the decision-making process for businesses looking to implement an email based support system.

Before we get to the good stuff, though, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page.

What is an email ticketing system?

An email ticketing system is a type of software that allows you to turn every email that reaches your customer support into a support ticket.

This makes it easy for your customer support team to manage the inbox, transforming emails into tickets.

On a practical level, this means that:

• They can easily track the status of each ticket
• Tickets can be assigned to specific support agents
• Agents can collaborate with others to resolve customer issues

The best part? They can do it all without leaving their email inbox (which is exactly why we’re referring to those tools as email ticketing tools).

Here’s what a typical email ticketing system looks like:

11 best email ticketing systems today

#1. Keeping

Keeping (disclaimer – this is my tool) is an email ticketing system that integrates seamlessly inside Gmail. It’s easy to set up, and allows you to go from signup to ticket responses quickly (in fact, most companies are on board in about 15 minutes).

The beauty is in its simplicity. It works by creating a new section inside a user’s Gmail account through a Chrome extension.

Once installed, users can access their shared mailbox in their personal or work Gmail account. Every inbound email to their shared mailbox is then converted into a “ticket” that can be assigned, tracked, or prioritized. The beauty of this approach is that it doesn’t disrupt your current workflows – no dedicated tool needed, no migration, no learning curve.

Keeping helps customer support teams collaborate on their shared emails, like support@, help@, or any other email account that needs to be accessed by several people and offers such capabilities as a shared inbox, the ability to assign emails to agents, prioritize and track the status of a ticket, automated workflows, and more.

While many ticketing solutions focus on adding bells and whistles that most users will never use, Keeping makes it simple to focus on providing superior customer support. Instead of setting up a complex ticket naming system that makes users feel like just another number in a queue, you can keep your customer interactions personable and empathetic. Replies come directly from your support staff’s inbox (ie., no case IDs or “reply above this line”), so customers get the human touch and develop a relationship with your team.

It’s also the most affordable option on the list, making it a solid choice for growing businesses. We welcome feedback from the businesses that trust us, so we’re always happy when you get in touch to request features or make suggestions. Keeping might not have all the advanced automation features that some enterprise-focused solutions do, but we’re always listening (and rapidly expanding).

Type: Simple email ticketing system for Gmail

Best for: Growing teams seeking affordability and the simplicity of Gmail

Channels: Email

Email ticketing-related features:

• Shared inbox
• Email assignment
• Email prioritization
• Email tracking
• Collision detection
• Custom approval workflows
• Email templates
• Automated workflows

Free trial: 14 days

Keeping Pricing: Starts at $14/month per user (monthly billing) or $12/month per user (annual billing)

#2. Gmelius

Gmelius is another add-on that helps turn Gmail into an email ticketing system. It gives you all the capabilities you’d expect from such a tool: a shared inbox, SLA management, and workflows, to name a few.

It also gives teams the ability to add Kanban boards, business process automation, meeting automation, or drip campaigns – making the tool more suitable for larger organizations that seek an all-in-one tool to manage their various processes (and not just support). For the businesses that do need this functionality, however, it can certainly help streamline collaboration.

The only downside to all the added functionality is that it can make the Gmail interface feel less intuitive (especially for larger teams or as projects become more complex). Overall, it’s a solid option if your team requires the extra features but wants to keep support native in Gmail.

Type: Email collaboration and business process automation platform

Best for: Teams requiring light project management

Channels: Email

Email ticketing-related features:

• Shared inboxes
• Email assignment
• Email delegation
• Collision detection
• SLA management
• Email templates
• Email tracking
• Custom workflows

Free trial: 7 days

Gmelius Pricing: Starts at $15/month per user (monthly billing) or $15/month per user (annual billing)

#3. Zendesk

Zendesk is not a dedicated email ticketing tool, but rather a complete customer service platform that allows you to respond to messages from across various different channels. That said, it does include email ticketing and a shared inbox as part of its feature set. Zendesk users can also access messaging, live chat, voice support, and a number of other features catering to larger organizations with more complex needs. Enterprise users tend to appreciate the ability to set up automations and customize different aspects of their workflows. The reporting and analytics features I found to be quite extensive, as well. I just wish the interface was slightly more user-friendly.

Overall, it can be a great choice for companies seeking to streamline their entire support and customer service operations. But for many smaller businesses, it’s probably overkill. Not only are you paying for the robust feature set, but it also takes quite a bit of time to set up – both in terms of the switchover and required team training.

Type: Customer service platform

Best for: Enterprises requiring omnichannel support

Channels: Email, live chat, help center, phone

Email ticketing-related features:

• Shared inbox
• Automated ticket routing
• SLA management
• Email templates
• Ticket collaboration
• Reporting and analytics
• Ticket prioritization

Other features: 

• Live chat
• Messaging
• Voice support

Free trial: 14 days

Zendesk Pricing: Starts at $25/month per user (monthly billing) or $19/month per user (annual billing)

#4. Help Scout

Help Scout is another email ticketing system geared toward large, dedicated support teams. It allows you to manage customer inquiries from your shared inbox.

One thing that stands out when you first sign up is the clean and user-friendly interface. But do keep in mind that Help Scout requires switching to a new, dedicated platform.  

The upside is that customer service agents are given a simple user experience that allows them to treat customers as fellow humans, not ticket numbers. It feels intuitive and easy to view open tickets and assign them to the relevant team member.

It supports email, messenger, and chat, allowing you to bring multiple customer service channels into one place. The built-in self-service help center enables teams to deflect more tickets with useful content that helps customers without human intervention. Large teams might also appreciate the reporting and analytics features, which can give insights into the performance of your customer service team. Compared to Zendesk, however, they don’t feel as robust.

Type: Customer support platform

Best for: Large dedicated support teams

Channels: Email, live chat, knowledge base.

Email ticketing-related features:

• Shared inbox
• Email delegation
• Collision detection
• SLA management
• Email tracking
• Automated workflows

Other features:

• Knowledge Base
• Live Chat
• Customer Feedback
• Reporting and Analytics
• CRM integration
• Beacon (real-time chat widget)

Free trial: 15 days

Help Scout Pricing: Starts at $25/month per user (monthly billing) or $22/month per user (annual billing)

#5. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is great if you want a more automated ticketing system for your enterprise team and are willing to use a dedicated solution. It offers all the basic features like ticket tracking and the ability to assign tickets to team members, but also has built-in AI features such as automated chatbots and ticket routing. For larger teams that require this functionality, it can help save precious time.

The interface may be slightly overwhelming, especially for new users. But one upside is that it allows your agents to see the history of your customer interactions so they never lose vital context – no matter who is handling the case. Their collision detection features tell you when a particular agent is already answering a ticket and prevents other agents from duplicating work. 

We didn’t get to put this to the test ourselves, but we’ve seen user reports online that Freshdesk’s own customer service can be slow to respond at times. Worth testing during your trial if you do decide to give it a spin, as you want to ensure you’re fully supported when using a more complex ticketing solution for your business.

Type: Helpdesk and ticketing software

Best for: Enterprises who could benefit from AI automation

Channels: Email, phone, social media, chat, website, Whatsapp

Email ticketing-related features:

• Shared inbox
• Automated ticket routing
• SLA management
• Email templates
• Ticket collaboration
• Reporting and analytics
• Collision detection
• Email tracking

Other features:

• Live chat
• Messaging
• Voice support
• Help center
• CRM integration

Free trial: 14 days

Freshdesk Pricing: Starts at $18/month per user (monthly billing) or $15/month per user (annual billing)

#6. Hiver

Hiver offers two distinct products: 1) a multi-channel helpdesk tool, and 2) an email management platform that allows support teams to manage, collaborate on, and resolve issues coming to their shared inbox.

With Hiver, your team can assign tasks (or have them assigned to agents automatically,) turn emails into support tickets, set and track the status of each inquiry, collaborate on emails, and prevent collisions. Some large teams will also appreciate the ability to use Hive to run customer satisfaction surveys, or some of their other advanced features like custom access control and single sign-on.

Hiver allows you to do all of this within Google Workspace, just like Keeping. The difference is that Hiver is designed with large corporations in mind. When you compare pricing, you start to see a large difference even with a moderate-sized team. Whether or not it’s right for you will come down to factors like budget and requirements.

Type: Email management platform

Best for: Large teams using email needing advanced functionality

Channels: Email

Email ticketing-related features:

• Shared inbox
• Email assignment
• Email delegation
• Collision detection
• SLA management
• Email templates
• Email tracking
• Automated workflows

Free trial: 7 days

Hiver Pricing: Starts at $24/month per user (monthly billing) or $19/month per user (annual billing)

#7. Jitbit

Jitbit is helpdesk software, but unlike most similar tools, it focuses on email first. This means it’s one of the few email ticketing platforms on my list that’s optimized for support teams that rely primarily on email.

The big differentiator is its ability to be self-hosted. This can be a major upside for some technical teams, or those that are focused on privacy (when it comes to GDPR regulations, for example). Such teams can have full control over the way they set up their infrastructure or host their data. But this flexibility comes with a trade-off – overall, Jitbit feels less user-friendly than its cloud-based competitors, and also offers fewer integrations. Whether or not that matters will depend on what you’re optimizing for.

What does stand out is Jitbit’s ability to process emails on a shared team inbox, its automations, and their user-friendly mobile app. Overall, it’s a solid solution for teams that need an on-premise help desk.

Type: Helpdesk software

Best for: Technical teams that prefer to self-host

Channels: Email

Email ticketing-related features:

• Shared inbox
• Automated ticket assignment
• SLA management
• Email templates
• Email tracking
• Collision detection

Free trial: 21 days

Jitbit Pricing: Starts at $29/month per user (monthly billing) or $24.92/month per user (annual billing)

#8. HappyFox

HappyFox is a multidisciplinary platform with capabilities spanning email ticketing, a help desk, and live chat. But what separates it from other tools in its category is its business intelligence features, service desk, and extensive number of integrations.

It’s fairly easy to use, which is great, but it’s hard not to notice that its interface feels slightly outdated and lacks a certain visual appeal. If you can get over that, however, the tool does work well and has a number of solid features.

Though they have an all-in-one offering for their platform, you can purchase the company’s products separately. For example, you can use the tool to power your help desk alone if needed.

Type: Helpdesk management software

Best for: Businesses that require numerous integrations

Channels: Email, voice, social media, live chat

Email ticketing-related features:

• Shared inbox
• Email assignment
• Email delegation
• Collision detection
• SLA management
• Email templates
• Email tracking
• Automated workflows

Free trial: 14 days

HappyFox Pricing: Starts at $14/month per user (monthly billing) or $9/month per user (annual billing)

#9. Front

Front is a dedicated customer service app giving your business one central location to manage all your inbound support messages from email, social media, SMS, voice, and more. The appeal is obvious – all messages are funneled into one place, so resolving customer issues becomes significantly simpler.

The thing to keep in mind is that in order to properly take advantage of all Front offers, your team will need to start using it for all day-to-day email. It requires a switchover, and with it, the retraining of staff. Setup and onboarding can certainly be a challenge as it can be slightly complex. But for teams prepared to handle the steep learning curve, it certainly offers a number of powerful features.

As most all-in-one customer support platforms, Front offers more capabilities than just an email ticketing system. With the platform, you can manage your live chat, create a knowledge base, automate workflows, and more.

Type: All-in-one customer support platform

Channels: Email, live chat, knowledge base, SMS, call

Best for: Teams looking to centralize all customer communication

Email ticketing-related features:

• Shared inboxes
• Email assignment
• Email delegation
• Collision detection
• SLA management
• Email templates
• Email tracking
• Automated workflows

Free trial: 7 days

Front Pricing: Starts at $19/month per user (monthly billing) or $29/month per user (annual billing)

#10. Liveagent

Liveagent focuses on helping businesses streamline ticket management and resolution. But it isn’t an email-focused tool. Instead, Liveagent facilitates customer support and ticket management across a multitude of customer service channels including live chat.

Liveagent does offer an email ticketing system, of course. But it also provides you with a help desk, plus the ability to create your own knowledge base and help customers self-serve their issues. Overall, it’s a platform that’s known for its real-time support features.

The pop-ups and interface can feel slightly outdated at times, but at its price point for the feature set it’s hard to complain. For customers who need to engage customers quickly, this may be a solid choice. 

Type: All-in-one customer support platform

Best for: Teams focused on immediate customer engagement

Channels: Helpdesk, email, live chat, social media, call center, knowledge base

Email ticketing-related features:

• Shared inbox
• Email assignment
• Email delegation
• Collision detection
• SLA management
• Email templates
• Email tracking
• Automated workflows

Free trial: 14 days

Liveagent Pricing: Starts at $15/month per user (monthly billing) or $9/month per user (annual billing)

#11. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk, part of the Zoho platform, is a robust help desk software that focuses largely on email ticket management. But the platform helps manage support tickets across other channels, too – including social media, live chat, phone, and more.

This robust focus on omnichannel ticket management makes Zoho Desk a good option to consider for SMEs offering several support channels and needing to bring all inquiries into one interface for agents to manage. If your business is already using other Zoho ecosystem apps, your decision might be made easier. Integration is seamless, and you can set up a more robust bigger-picture customer support experience. 

But that’s definitely its major draw. Without the need to integrate other apps from the Zoho suite, you might feel limited in terms of customization options when using Zoho Desk.

Type: All-in-one customer support platform

Best for: Businesses requiring seamless integration with Zoho apps

Channels: Email, social media, live chat, phone, webform 

Email ticketing-related features:

• Shared inbox
• Automated ticket routing
• SLA management
• Email templates
• Ticket collaboration
• Reporting and analytics
• Collision detection
• Email tracking

Free trial: 15 days

Zoho Desk Pricing: Starts at $18/month per user (monthly billing) or $12/month per user (annual billing)

What to look for in an email ticket management system

When you’re evaluating the various email ticketing systems, it’s important to keep focused on what your business really needs. Some features may sound fancy, but there’s a good chance you’ll never have a need for them.

With that in mind, I’ve written up a checklist of features you should definitely keep an eye out for.

• Seamless integration: Ideally your chosen tool works out-of-the-box with your current workflows, tech stack and inboxes. This cuts down on the need for new processes, training, and development hours – plus keeps things simple in terms of setup.
• SLAs: Ticketing systems should make it easy to create and manage Service Level Agreements (SLAs) so that you can set clear expectations – both with clients, and your internal support staff.
• Collision detection: You’ll want to ensure this feature is in place to prevent multiple team members from simultaneously working on the same support request.
• Confirmation receipts: Look out for features that allow you to send an automated reply when you receive a new support message.
• Personalization: The more you can let your customers feel heard (and less like a number in a queue), the better. Ideally your chosen tool allows for direct responses without complex ticket numbers and cases so you can bring the human touch to every interaction.
• Response templates: This feature allows your team to answer each question only once. Prepare canned responses to common customer inquiries for faster response times.
• Tags, labels and shared notes: Core organizational features ensure its easy for your team to communicate exactly what needs to be done, or the most ideal way to follow up.
• Mobile access: To give more flexibility to your support team, your chosen tool ideally works on both desktop and mobile.
• Reporting and analytics: These features give you the data you need to measure your team’s performance and keep standards high. For example, you can view busiest times, track key metrics like email volume and response times, and identify top performers (or those who are falling behind).

Benefits of Gmail-based email ticketing systems

If you’re like most startups and small businesses, you prefer tools that are simple to adopt, scale easily, and don’t break the bank. You’re just looking to solve your growing pains in the most efficient way possible.

When you use a help desk or ticketing system that’s built into Gmail, you get just that: an elegant solution that you can start using right away. But there are a number of other factors you might not have thought of.

Here’s why you should consider a Gmail-based solution for your business:

• No new tools or training needed: When you switch tools, there’s a learning curve. There are multiple logins and platforms. New training is required. When you stick to a Gmail-based ticketing system, your staff already has all the knowledge they need.
• Simple to set up: Setting up a Keeping mailbox is quick and requires minimal configuration compared to competitors.Easy Collaboration: Teams can work together on emails and track progress directly within Gmail using features like assigning tasks, sharing notes, and tracking email status.
• Avoid overkill: More enterprise-focused solutions offer various tiers with fancy project management features that most teams will never need – and that comes at a price. By sticking to Gmail, you keep the focus on what really matters: providing excellent customer service (with the core features that help you do it right).
• Invisible to customers: Most tools send communications that have ‘help desk’ written all over them: case IDs, “reply above this line” or other identifiers that make customers feel like just another number. By keeping it simple, your customers just see an email response from a friendly customer support member who’s happy to help.
• Don’t get locked in: Dedicated solutions require you to use their platforms, with separate logins, routing, and the whole nine yards. When you decide to stop using them, you lose all your past conversations. By using Gmail, this isn’t a risk – your emails will always be yours.

Frequently asked questions about email ticketing systems

Selecting your pillar of support

And there you have it…

My list of the best email ticketing systems on the market today. 

Hopefully you now have all the info and knowledge you need to narrow down your selection. All that’s left for you is to select the one that best matches your requirements and hop on the free trial.

My advice? When in doubt, keep it simple. With many solutions, you pay up for features that you may never even use. You can always make the switch to a more dedicated platform as your business grows.