Best ticketing software for support teams, ranked by seat cost at 25 agents

Queue Bench benchmark desk October 8, 2026

The best ticketing software on seat cost is Jira Service Management: its Standard plan runs a 25-agent team $5,650 a year on annual billing, 1st on the seat-cost leaderboard. Intercom is next at $5,700, then Help Scout and Hiver at $7,500. This list covers twelve help desks with ticketing and ranks them by the yearly cost of 25 agents on the cheapest plan that handles both email and live chat, with ties broken by native channel coverage. Prices are list prices as of 8 October 2026.

Zendesk costs $16,500 and counts nine native channels, the most of the ranked tools. Zoho Desk, Gorgias and HappyFox follow unranked: regional pricing, ticket-volume pricing and a separate chat product keep each of them out of the seat comparison.

How this list is ranked

Each figure comes from the October 2026 seat-cost run: the yearly list price for 25 agents on annual billing, on the cheapest plan that includes both email and live chat. Where a seat cap stops a plan short of the team size, the figure uses the next plan up, as with HubSpot. Ties are broken by native channels on the channel and language coverage leaderboard, so Help Scout, with eight, sits ahead of Hiver, with five.

A tool without a usable seat price is labelled and placed after the ranked tools, never shown as zero. The basket and the rules for free plans are on the testing method page.

Jira Service Management

$5,650/year Standard (Free covers email and chat for up to 3 agents only). Tiered per-age...; annualized from monthly billing (no annual plan published)

the lowest seat bill for a ticketing team of 25 or 100 agents

Jira Service Management Standard is the cheapest plan with email and chat ticketing at 25 agents, $5,650 a year on annual billing, 1st on the seat-cost leaderboard. Its per-agent price is tiered, so the same plan costs $1,250 a year for 5 agents and $19,700 for 100, also 1st at that size. The Free plan covers email and chat for up to 3 agents, and Atlassian states a ceiling of 100,000 agents with unlimited customers. Monthly billing costs more, $6,750 a year at 25 agents. Jira counts four native channels.

Watch for: Jira Service Management is sold within Atlassian's Service Collection, and it earns no channel credit for voice, SMS, WhatsApp or social messaging.

Intercom

$5,700/year Essential

small and mid-size teams that want help desk seats and an AI agent from one vendor

Intercom Essential costs $19 per seat a month on annual billing and $29 monthly, $5,700 a year for 25 agents on annual terms, joint 2nd on seat cost and $50 behind Jira. Full seats are paid, and the Advanced and Expert plans add free Lite seats, 20 and 50 respectively. Intercom counts seven native channels, including the in-app SDK and Slack. Fin, its AI agent, costs $0.99 per outcome. Intercom holds 4.5 on G2 from 3,918 reviews.

Watch for: Monthly billing raises the 25-agent figure to $8,700 a year, and Fin outcomes come on top.

Help Scout

$7,500/year Standard

email ticketing teams of up to 25 people

Help Scout Standard costs $25 per user a month on annual billing, $7,500 a year for 25 users, the most Standard allows. It ties Hiver on price and ranks ahead on channel coverage, eight native channels to five. Plus raises the cap to 50 users at $45, and Pro removes it at $75 with a 10-user minimum, sold through Book a Demo. Help Scout's Free plan covers up to 5 users. AI Answers costs $0.75 per resolution.

Watch for: Standard stops at exactly 25 users, and at 100 agents the figure reaches $90,000 a year on Pro.

Hiver

$7,500/year Hiver Omni Growth

growing teams that want one plan from 25 to 100 agents

Hiver Omni Growth costs $25 per seat a month on annual billing and $35 monthly, $7,500 a year at 25 agents, level with Help Scout and behind it on the channel tie-break. No seat cap is stated, so Growth stays the plan at 100 agents, where Hiver costs $30,000 a year. Seats are sold from 2, then 5, then in steps of 5. Hiver counts five native channels, including WhatsApp and Slack or Teams. It holds 4.6 on G2 from 1,292 reviews.

Watch for: Hiver in Gmail is a separate product, priced separately; these figures are for Hiver Omni.

Freshdesk

$8,700/year Freshdesk Omni Growth

teams that want email ticketing now and chat later from the same vendor

Freshdesk sells two lines. Plain Freshdesk is email-led, from $19 per agent a month on Growth, and Freshdesk Omni adds live chat from $29 on Omni Growth. Omni Growth is the ranked plan here: $8,700 a year for 25 agents on annual billing and $10,500 on monthly billing. Omni counts seven native channels, including WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and a community forum. Freddy AI Agent sessions cost $49 per 100. Freshdesk holds 4.4 on G2 from 3,777 reviews.

Watch for: Plain Freshdesk Pro and Enterprise stay email-led at $55 and $89 on annual billing, so chat needs the Omni line.

eDesk

$11,700/year Essential ($39 annual / $49 monthly per user; Email, Live Chat and Social mes...; annualized from monthly billing (no annual plan published)

ecommerce teams ticketing orders from marketplaces and social channels

eDesk Essential costs $39 per user a month on annual billing, $11,700 a year for 25 agents. eDesk builds its help desk around ecommerce, and Essential covers one online store or marketplace. Its Professional plan includes 2 free read-only users. eDesk counts five native channels: email, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and X. The AI Agent charges $0.99 per outcome, once per ticket.

Watch for: Essential covers one online store or marketplace, and AI outcomes are billed per ticket on top of the seat.

Zendesk

$16,500/year Suite Team

large ticketing teams that want nine native channels on one plan

Zendesk's cheapest ticketing plan, Support Team, costs $19 per agent a month on annual billing and covers email ticketing with no messaging or live chat. Suite Team adds messaging and live chat at $55, which makes 25 agents $16,500 a year on annual billing and $20,700 on monthly billing. Suite Team counts nine native channels, joint 2nd on the channel coverage leaderboard. Zendesk states no seat cap. It holds 4.3 on G2 from 7,094 reviews.

Watch for: Suite Professional, the next plan up, costs $115 per agent a month on annual billing.

Front

$19,500/year Professional

B2B teams that handle tickets in shared email and Slack

Front Professional costs $65 per seat a month on annual billing, $19,500 a year for 25 agents. Starter is cheaper at $25 but covers one channel type, email or chat, and caps at 10 seats. Professional caps at 50, so 100 agents means Enterprise at $105 a seat on annual billing only, $126,000 a year. Front counts eight native channels, including X and Slack. It holds 4.7 on G2 from 2,515 reviews.

Watch for: Above 50 seats Front sells only Enterprise, on annual billing.

HubSpot Service Hub

$27,000/year Professional

service teams already running HubSpot CRM

HubSpot Service Hub Starter lists at $20 per seat but stops at 10 users, so a 25-agent ticketing team needs Professional at $90 per seat on annual billing and $100 monthly: $27,000 a year, the highest 25-agent figure on the leaderboard. HubSpot states no additional seat minimums for new customers. Professional includes 10,000 HubSpot Credits a month, and the customer agent costs $0.50 per resolution on Professional or Enterprise. HubSpot counts six native channels.

Watch for: HubSpot's Professional table shows a starting price per plan alongside a per-seat price, so the number of seats included in the base is ambiguous.

Zoho Desk

Regional pricing only

ticketing teams that want nine native channels and can buy on regional pricing

Not ranked on seat cost. Zoho Desk prices by region and currency, and its US list price is unsettled for this run. It sells Free, Express, Standard, Professional and Enterprise editions, and the paid Professional and Enterprise editions offer light agents, with 50 free light users on Enterprise. Zoho Desk counts nine native channels, joint 2nd on the channel coverage leaderboard. It holds 4.4 on G2 from 7,983 reviews.

Watch for: Zoho gives two different user caps for Standard, one in its pricing FAQ and one in its comparison table.

Gorgias

Not applicable

Shopify stores that prefer paying by ticket volume to paying per agent

Not ranked on seat cost. Gorgias states that its helpdesk scales from 50 to 5,000 tickets a month and is never priced per agent, so a cost for 25 agents is not defined. Starter includes 3 seats and the other plans 500. Gorgias counts six native channels, including WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram. Its AI Agent costs $1.00 per automated interaction on monthly billing and $0.90 on annual billing. It holds 4.6 on G2 from 582 reviews.

Watch for: Gorgias publishes no overage rate for AI interactions past the plan allotment.

HappyFox

Not applicable

teams that want an email ticketing help desk and will buy chat separately

Not ranked on seat cost. HappyFox's Help Desk plans do not include live chat: HappyFox states that web messaging, AI, workflows and BI are separate products, priced separately, so no single plan covers the email and chat basket. Its higher Help Desk plans include unlimited agents on a flat annual fee with a yearly ticket allowance. HappyFox counts seven native channels, including SMS, Messenger, Instagram, X and Slack, with live chat as an add-on. It holds 4.5 on G2 from 138 reviews.

Watch for: Two HappyFox pages describe its chatbot pricing in conflicting ways, so it is unranked on AI price per outcome too.

Email-only ticket plans

Several vendors sell a cheaper plan for email ticketing alone. Zendesk Support Team costs $19 per agent a month on annual billing and has no messaging or live chat. Plain Freshdesk Growth also costs $19 and is email-led. Front Starter costs $25 but covers one channel type. Jira Service Management’s Free plan handles email and chat for up to 3 agents. None of these is ranked here, because the basket requires email and live chat on the same plan.

Per agent or per ticket

Most tools here charge per agent seat, and some change shape with size. Jira Service Management tiers its per-agent price, so the rate per seat falls as a team grows. Hiver sells seats from 2, then 5, then in steps of 5. Gorgias prices by tickets a month and never per agent, and HappyFox’s higher Help Desk plans include unlimited agents on a flat annual fee with a yearly ticket allowance. A team with a small staff and a high ticket count should price both models before choosing.

Where AI fits in a ticket queue

AI resolution is billed per ticket or conversation at most of these vendors. Jira Service Management charges $1.00 per resolution, eDesk $0.99 per outcome once per ticket, Intercom $0.99 per outcome and Help Scout $0.75 per resolution. Zendesk includes 5 resolutions per agent a month on Suite Team, and HubSpot charges $0.50 on Professional or Enterprise. The AI help desk software list ranks these prices on the AI price per outcome leaderboard. How fast a queue answers depends on the team, and the first response time guide covers how to measure it.

Picking by team

Atlassian shops running IT and customer tickets: Jira Service Management, 1st at 25 and 100 agents.
Chat-first teams with an AI agent: Intercom at $5,700. The Intercom alternatives list ranks what sits around it.
Email ticketing up to 25 people: Help Scout, with the Help Scout alternatives list for teams moving off it.
Teams growing toward 100 agents: Hiver, which stays on one plan at $30,000 a year for 100.
Many native channels: Zendesk. Zendesk vs Freshdesk sets it against Freshdesk, and the Zendesk alternatives list ranks the rest.
Ecommerce: eDesk for marketplace sellers, Gorgias for Shopify stores priced by ticket volume.

The short answer

Jira Service Management is the cheapest ticketing software to run at 25 agents, at $5,650 a year, and it stays 1st at 100 agents. Intercom is $50 behind with more channels, and Zendesk is the pick for teams that need nine native channels. The help desk software ranking applies the same seat basket to the wider help desk field, and the customer service software ranking reorders the field by channels first.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best ticketing software?

On seat cost, Jira Service Management is the best ticketing software: Standard costs $5,650 a year for 25 agents on annual billing, 1st on the seat-cost leaderboard. Intercom is next at $5,700, Help Scout suits email ticketing teams up to 25 users at $7,500, and Zendesk suits teams that want nine native channels at $16,500.

How much does ticketing software cost for 25 agents?

Among the nine ranked tools here, 25 agents on annual billing cost from $5,650 a year (Jira Service Management Standard) to $27,000 (HubSpot Professional). Freshdesk Omni Growth costs $8,700, eDesk Essential $11,700 and Zendesk Suite Team $16,500.

Is there cheaper ticketing software for email only?

Yes. Zendesk Support Team and plain Freshdesk Growth both cost $19 per agent a month on annual billing for email ticketing without live chat, and Front Starter costs $25 for one channel type. They are cheaper than the ranked plans, which must include both email and live chat.

Which ticketing software is priced per ticket instead of per agent?

Gorgias states that its helpdesk scales from 50 to 5,000 tickets a month and is never priced per agent. HappyFox's higher Help Desk plans include unlimited agents on a flat annual fee with a yearly ticket allowance.

Does Jira Service Management work for customer service ticketing?

Yes. Atlassian prices Jira Service Management for customer service inside its Service Collection, with email, live chat, help center and Slack or Teams as native channels, and a customer service AI agent at $1.00 per resolution.