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One of the most valuable sources of information for people in the market for new software for their business is one that often gets overlooked: user reviews.

Business software review sites like Capterra, G2 Crowd, and GetApp provide business software users a place to share, often at length, about their experiences with the software they use on a daily basis. The information reviewers share on these sites gives software buyers an invaluable source of information about how everyday business professionals use certain tools as well as what they like or dislike about them.

Software buyers looking for Freshdesk alternatives can take advantage of these websites to find new options and read what real users have to say about them.

Vision Helpdesk users have found their way to these sites and rated our software higher in most measures when compared to Freshdesk. After comparing responses on G2 Crowd from Freshdesk and Vision Helpdesk users, here are what these reviewers have said:

The basics

There are a few common factors that people in the market for any business software have to consider — help desk or otherwise — when looking to implement a new solution. When it comes to considerations like overall usability, met requirements, and ease of doing business, Vision Helpdesk users ranked the software higher than Freshdesk users ranked their software of choice.

When it comes to maintenance, support, and product direction, Vision Helpdesk users ranked the product higher than Freshdesk in each of those measures as well.

In fact, according to G2 Crowd, the only place Freshdesk ranked higher than Vision Helpdesk was narrowly in the “setup” metric (9.1 vs. 9.0, on a 10-point scale).

The specifics

As for the core features of help desk software, comparing user reviews and opinions clearly shows how Vision Helpdesk ranks as the best Freshdesk alternative. G2 Crowd breaks the core features that make up help desk software into five categories: ticket and case management, communication channels, call center, self service/community, and help desk reporting and analytics.

Ticket and case management features include email ticketing, time tracking, labels and tags, status tracking, etc. The features in this category are designed to track incidents and other tickets from submission to completion. In between those two stages, they allow staff to make sure tasks are assigned to the right person in with the right level of priority. The ability to get granular in the management of incoming tickets ensures users are being taken care of effectively which ultimately leads to a satisfied customer. Vision Helpdesk outperformed Freshdesk in user satisfaction for this this category, 9.6 vs. 8.8 (again, on a 10-point scale).

Features included in the communication channels category involve integrations with various social channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.), VOIP integrations, and live chat support. These integrations make it easier to reach and connect with customers where they’re already spending time. Vision Helpdesk beat Freshdesk in this category as well, 9.4 vs. 8.7. Call center features are also focused on facilitating communication with users, and Vision Helpdesk scored 8.6 vs. Freshdesk’s 8.3 for that feature category.

The self service/community feature category may be the most important ranking in this comparison. These features tend to be clients’ first point of contact with they’re reaching out to for support. Self service features include external and internal knowledge bases, FAQs, suggestions, downloads, articles, etc. Forums and commenting abilities are also common features that fit in this category and allow users to communicate and troubleshoot issues together. Users interact with the self service/community aspect of the help desk software to find solutions to problems and identify next steps should they need to escalate an issue to a support team. For this feature category, Freshdesk fell short again to Vision Helpdesk by a wider margin than in the other categories, 9.5 to 8.5.

Help desk reporting and analytics features help businesses track overall system performance and generate reports are various data points. For this feature category, Vision Helpdesk users were more satisfied than their Freshdesk counterparts (9.5 vs. 8.4).

User samples included in the comparison of Vision Helpdesk vs. Freshdesk involve reviewers from similar demographics. In both groups, about 65% of reviewers work for a small business, and the largest industry represented in both group is information and technology services.

G2 Crowd isn’t the only place where user reviews show these differences in satisfaction between Vision Helpdesk and Freshdesk. A similar, although less detailed, comparison of the two software can be found on GetApp. GetApp is a Gartner-owned user review site that neatly displays not only the satisfaction differences, but also the available features on each platform as well.

Another Gartner-owned website, Capterra, collects reviews from software users as well. They were mentioned earlier in this post but are worth bringing up again as every review on their site for Vision Helpdesk rates the software very highly. Unfortunately, Capterra doesn’t allow you to directly compare review data against products.

The verdict

Websites like the ones mentioned above serve as a valuable resource for software buyers. Not only do they provide in-depth reviews and satisfaction data, they also serve as a directory for software buyers looking for alternatives to expensive business software.

Software review websites are especially helpful for small and mid-sized business employees who may be unfamiliar with their options in the help desk software space. Instead of declaring whether one product is better than the other, we encourage you to take a look at reviews on these sites and we’ll let our users speak for themselves.