11 Best Email Ticketing Systems

FACT: Whether they have a question, issue, or problem, customers will most likely reach your support via email.

And they won’t be very forgiving if you either let them down or delay replying.

The problem? With so many inquiries coming in every day, it’s easy to lose track of what’s been processed and which email still needs your reply.  

The solution? Implementing an email ticketing system, and in this guide, I’ll show you exactly what are the best email ticketing systems that you should consider.

A complete help desk, inside Gmail?

Keeping turns your Gmail into a fully featured help desk. It's not magic, but it feels magical.

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Before we get to the good stuff, though, let’s discuss what those tools actually are.

What is an email ticketing system?

When we use this term – email ticketing system – we refer to software that allows you to turn every email reaching your customer support into a support ticket.

As a result, instead of dealing with emails, your customer support team needs to manage 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

Below, I compiled a list of the best email ticketing systems that are available on the market today. Naturally, the list is based on a subjective choice. Having said that, I truly believe that these indeed are the best tools to turn emails into support tickets and manage their resolution.

#1. Keeping

Type: Dedicated email ticketing system for Gmail

Best for: Small and medium-sized businesses

Channels: Email

Overview:

Keeping (disclaimer – this is my tool) is an email ticketing system that works inside Gmail. 

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. 

An important thing about Keeping is the fact that it works with Gmail. It creates a new section inside our users’ Gmail accounts 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 converted into a “ticket” that can be assigned, tracked, or prioritized.

Target industries:

• IT/Tech Support
• People Operations & HR
• Education
• eCommerce
• Finance & Operations

Email ticketing-related features:

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

AI-powered Features:

• Keeping is a Gmail plugin and gives you access to all of Gmail’s AI features.

Free trial: 14 days

#2. Gmelius

Type: Email collaboration and business process automation platform

Best for:  Larger organizations

Channels: Email

Overview:

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

Unlike Keeping, however, Gmelius’ features like Kanban boards, business process automation, meeting automation, or drip campaigns make the tool more suitable for larger organizations that seek an all-in-one tool to manage their various processes and not just the support. 

Target industries:

• Customer Service & ITSM
• Sales & Revenue Operations
• Finance Operations

Email Ticketing-related Features:

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

AI-powered Features:

• AI auto-tagging
• Predictive analytics
• Trend analysis
• Sentiment analysis

Free trial: 7 days

#3. Zendesk

Type: Customer service platform

Best for: Businesses of all sizes, really.

Channels: Email, live chat, help center, phone

Overview:

Zendesk is not a dedicated email ticketing tool but a complete customer service platform. That said, it does include email ticketing and a shared inbox as part of its feature set. But aside from that, Zendesk customers can also access messaging, live chat, voice support, and many other features. 

As a result, Zendesk is a perfect email ticketing system for companies that seek to streamline their entire support and customer service operations, not just email support. 

Target industries:

• Retail
• Financial Services
• Education
• Government
• Transportation
• Manufacturing
• Software
• Healthcare
• Telecommunications
• Media

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

AI-powered Features:

• Predictive analytics
• Sentiment analysis
• AI-driven insights
• AI auto-tagging

Free trial: 14 days

#4. Helpscout

Type: Customer support platform

Best for: SMEs

Channels: Email, live chat, knowledge base.

Overview:

Help Scout is another email ticketing system that allows you to manage customer inquiries from your shared inbox. It gives customer service agents a simple user experience that allows them to treat customers as fellow humans, not ticket numbers. It’s easy to see which tickets are open and assign them to the relevant team member.

Help Scout supports email, messenger, and chat, allowing you to bring multiple customer service channels into one place. A built-in self-service help center enables teams to deflect more tickets with useful content that helps customers without human intervention. Detailed reporting gives you insight into the performance of your customer service team. 

Target industries:

• SaaS
• eCommerce
• Financial Services
• Education
• Media
• Healthcare
• Professional Services
• Logistics
• Property Management
• Manufacturing
• Real Estate

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)

AI-powered Features:

• AI auto-tagging
• Predictive analytics
• Trend analysis
• Sentiment analysis

Free trial: 15 days

#5. Freshdesk

Type: Helpdesk and ticketing software

Best for: Small and medium-sized businesses

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

Overview:

Freshdesk is great if you want a fully-fledged ticketing system for your team. Equipped with the basic features such as ticket tracking and the ability to assign tickets to team members, you can also take advantage of Freshdesk’s extensive AI features, such as the deployment of chatbots to serve your customers.

You can see the history of your customer interactions so your agents never lose vital context, no matter which agent is handling the case. Collision detection tells you when a particular agent is already working on a ticket and prevents other agents from duplicating work. SLA management helps you set deadlines for ticket responses and keeps customer service standards high. 

Target industries:

• Retail
• Financial Services
• Education
• Government
• Transportation
• Manufacturing
• Software

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

AI-powered Features:

• Freddy AI – Both for ticket management
• Predictive analytics
• Sentiment analysis
• AI-driven insights
• AI auto-tagging

Free trial: 14 days

#6. Hiver

Type: Email management platform

Best for: SMEs

Channels: Email

Overview:

Hiver offers two distinct products. One is a multi-channel helpdesk tool. The other is 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, conduct internal discussions and collaborate on emails, prevent collisions, and even run customer satisfaction surveys.  

Target industries:

• Customer Service
• Finance
• IT and SaaS
• Operations
• Client Services

Email Ticketing-related Features:

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

AI-powered Features:

• AI-driven insights
• AI-powered email tagging

Free trial: 7 days

#7. Jitbit

Type: Helpdesk software

Best for: SMEs

Channels: Email

Overview:

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 is optimized for support teams that rely primarily on email. 

And so, with JitBit, you can process emails on a shared team inbox, use automations, and even process email tickets using JitBit’s mobile app. 

Target industries:

• IT Support
• Customer Service
• Internal Helpdesk

Email Ticketing-related Features:

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

AI-powered Features:

• AI-generated responses
• Suggested Knowledge Base articles
• Predictive analytics

Free trial: 21 days

#8. HappyFox

Type: Helpdesk management software

Best for: Small and medium businesses

Channels: Email, voice, social media, live chat

Overview:

HappyFox is a multidisciplinary platform with capabilities spanning email ticketing, a helpdesk, live chat but also, business intelligence, a service desk, and more. However, you can purchase the company’s products separately, meaning you can use the tool to power your helpdesk alone if needed. 

Target industries:

• Education
• IT Services
• Non-Profit Organizations
• Airlines
• Retail
• Telecom
• Healthcare
• Government
• Real Estate
• Travel
• Manufacturing
• Shipping

Email Ticketing-related Features:

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

AI-powered Features:

• AI-driven insights
• AI-powered automation
• AI chatbots

Free trial: 14 days

#9. Front

Type: All-in-one customer support platform

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

Best for: SMEs and larger organizations

Overview:

Front is a dedicated customer service app. This means that it gives you one central location to funnel all your inbound support messages from email, social media, SMS, voice, and more. And naturally, with all messages in one place, resolving customer issues becomes significantly simpler.

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

Target industries:

• Technology
• Financial Services
• Logistics
• Manufacturing
• Professional Services
• Travel

Email ticketing-related features:

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

AI-powered features:

• Chatbots
• AI-powered agent assistance
• Predictive analytics
• Sentiment analysis

Free trial: 7 days

#10. Liveagent

Type: All-in-one customer support platform

Best for: Small, medium-sized businesses and enterprises

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

Overview:

Liveagent focuses on helping businesses streamline ticket management and resolution. But it doesn’t do it on email specifically. Instead, Liveagent facilitates customer support and ticket management across a multitude of customer service channels. 

Liveagent does offer an email ticketing system, of course. But it also provides you with a help desk, the ability to create your own knowledge base and help customers self-serve their issues. You can also power a call center with the product, use it to manage live chat support, and more. 

Target industries:

• Education
• IT Services
• Non-Profit Organizations
• Airlines
• Retail
• Telecom
• Healthcare
• Government
• Real Estate
• Travel
• Manufacturing

Email ticketing-related features:

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

AI-powered features:

• Chatbots

Free trial: 14 days

#11. Zoho Desk

Type: All-in-one customer support platform

Best for: SMEs and larger enterprises

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

Overview:

Zoho Desk, part of the Zoho platform, is a robust helpdesk software. Naturally, since every customers service team these days uses email to communicate with and resolve client issues, Zoho Desk focuses largely on email ticket management.

That said, the platform works with managing support tickets across other channels, too – Social media, live chat, phone, and more. 

This robust focus on omnichannel ticket management makes Zoho Desk ideal for SMEs offering several support channels, and needing to bring all this information into one interface for agents to manage.

Target industries:

• Education
• IT Services
• Non-Profit Organizations
• Airlines
• Retail
• Telecom
• Healthcare
• Government
• Real Estate
• Travel

Email ticketing-related features:

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

AI-powered features:

• Zia bot
• AI-driven auto tagging

Free trial: 15 days

And there you have it…

11 of the absolutely best email ticketing systems on the market today. All that’s left for you is to pick the ones that match your requirements and evaluate them further.

Good luck!