Good customer service can be the key factor in retaining customers. If your business needs to deal with more than a handful of enquiries, customer service software can help you respond to enquiries effectively. The right software can pay for itself, both improving efficiency and boosting customer satisfaction.
**Prices correct on 09/09/2025 (limited-time offers may be available)
Here’s our guide to some of the UK’s most popular customer service software and how to choose the right solution for your business.
Customer service software and CRM
Some of the best-known customer service packages are part of broader suites of customer relationship management (CRM) software. Customer service software focuses on dealing with customer enquiries and problems. CRM aims to manage wider aspects of the relationship – from marketing and sales to new customers, to maintaining existing relationships.
Salesforce
Salesforce is best known for serving larger businesses.
- Small business ‘Starter Suite’ offers a relatively simple CRM suite, including email lead management and customer enquires via email or web.
- Service Professional is a service-focused CRM. It includes computer telephony integration enabling a call centre to link telephones to the software.
- More sophisticated packages are also available to suit even the largest businesses.
- Complexity and pricing may be challenging for smaller businesses.
Pricing:
- Free version for small businesses
- Free trial
- Starter suite costs £20 per user per month
- Pro suite costs £80 per user per month
Freshdesk
Freshdesk is part of the Freshworks suite.
- Freshdesk focuses on tracking and dealing with customer enquiries through any channel (email, phone, social media etc).
- A free starter offering (limited functionality for at most 2 users) can be a good way for smaller businesses to try out the software.
- More advanced packages offer features including management dashboards and a customer self-service portal.
- Freshdesk (and Freshworks) may be a more approachable offering for medium-sized businesses than Salesforce.
Pricing:
- Free trial
- Growth package costs £12 per user per month when billed annually
- Pro package costs £35 per agent per month when billed annually
- Pro + AI copilot costs £58 per agent per month when billed annually
HubSpot
HubSpot offers a full CRM system, probably best known for its marketing capabilities.
- HubSpot’s free version is a low-risk option. It offers most or all of the customer service and CRM capabilities required by a small business.
- HubSpot’s Starter Customer Platform offers a CRM covering up to 1,000 contacts, including email ticketing, live chat and more.
- Hubspot offer a range of marketing tools that work together and can help you manage and automate customer relationship management and customer service, sales, and marketing.
Pricing:
- Hubspot's free tools for up to two users can help you with marketing, sales, service, content and data
- Marketing Hub Starter costs £9 per user per month
- Starter Customer platforms costs £9 per user per month
- Smart CRM costs £40 per seat per month
Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is part of the Zoho software suite. It's not just a CRM package but an entire ‘business operating system’ including financial management, email, ecommerce and more.
- Zoho Desk offers all the core customer service features.
- Zoho can be a particularly attractive proposition for businesses that also want to use Zoho CRM, Bigin (Zoho’s simpler CRM for small businesses) or other Zoho software packages.
Pricing:
- Free trial available
- The Express bundle, offering all the micro business essentials, costs £5.60 per user per month
- The Standard bundle costs £12 per user per month
- More advanced packages cost between £18 and £35 per user per month
Choosing one of these market-leading suites can be ideal for businesses that are also looking to implement additional CRM capabilities. Find out more about the best small business CRM software.
Stand-alone customer service software
Stand alone customer service software can be a good option. If you are also looking for wider CRM capabilities, you want to be sure that the different packages you buy will work together well.
Zendesk
Zendesk is a leading UK customer service solution, with all the functionality your business is likely to need.
- Zendesk's Startups programme helps new businesses deliver better customer service from day one.
- Optional add-ons include Copilot, workforce management and workforce engagement bundles and contact centre.
- Although best known for customer service, Zendesk also offers a sales-focused CRM.
- Comprehensive marketplace of integrations with other software packages.
Pricing:
- Zendesk’s Startups Programme offers qualifying startups (fewer than 50 employees and with outside funding) six months free
- The Zendesk Support Team package costs £15 per agent per month
- Suite Team costs £45 per agent per month
Help Scout
Help Scout prides itself on ease of use.
- Shared inbox, help centre and live chat software.
- New users are claimed to be up and running within an hour, and experts within a day.
- Simple pricing based on the number of contacts rather than per user. Free account for 50 contacts per month.
Pricing:
- Free package allows you to manage up to 100 contacts per month
- Standard account offering multiple inboxes and advanced reporting from $50 per month (for up to 100 contacts)
HappyFox
HappyFox offers HelpDesk customer support software and a range of different customer service products.
- Handle all email, phone, chat and web enquiries in a single ticketing system.
- A simpler, more affordable alternative to more complex packages aimed at larger businesses.
Pricing:
- Pricing ranges from $21 per agent per month.
Groove
Groove is another help desk solution that provides a relatively simple user experience for smaller businesses.
- Shared inbox, live chat and self-service knowledge base.
- Groove’s sister company Helply offers an AI agent, trained on your own data, that can automate replies to up to 70% of initial customer enquiries. Prices start from £79 per month.
Pricing:
- Free trial
- Pricing from $24 per user per month (maximum 25 users).
Other customer service software
Some software focuses on particular aspects of customer service, or is most suited to particular industries. Examples include:
- Hiver is based around email management. It also allows multi-channel customer service to be run through email rather than a traditional customer service ticketing system. A free plan supports multi-channel shared inboxes. Paid plans start from $19 per user per month.
- WotNot helps you build your own chatbot. There's a free, simple chatbot builder up to 100 chats. The cheapest paid starter package (with AI) costs $23 per month.
- ProProfs offers both employee training and customer support. There's a free plan for a single user. The team plan costs $39.99 per user per month. Self-service customer knowledge base typically $99 per month.
- Customer service solutions such as Customerly and Intercom focus on using AI to automate customer service. Pricing depends on volume of AI usage.
- Gorgias is a specialised customer service platform for ecommerce businesses with an emphasis on automation. Pricing depends on enquiry volume and AI usage.
Choosing the best customer service software
Start by identifying what your customer service needs are. Key questions to ask include:
- What channels do you get enquiries through? For example, email, phone, social media. Do you want to offer ‘live chat’ on your website?
- Do you want to offer self-service customer service? For example, with a knowledge base on your website.
- What volume of enquiries do you get and how responsive do you need to be? For example, offering 24/7 customer service or replying to initial inquiries within four hours?
- Are you likely to get a large volume of similar enquiries that might be dealt with using a template, an internal knowledge base or AI automation?
- What issues are there with sharing and tracking enquiries (particularly for larger businesses)? For example, if an initial inquiry to a customer service agent is passed on to a product expert or someone in your accounts department?
- Do you want management tools to help you manage your customer service operation – for example, analytics and/or a dashboard?
- What other software do you want to be integrated with? Will you need technical help to set up any software integrations?
Cost is inevitably a consideration. A free plan can be very attractive, and is a helpful way of trying out new software. When comparing costs between packages, take into account both monthly costs and any add-ons, initial setup costs and your own internal training costs.
The right package should more than justify its expense by reducing customer service costs, encouraging the use of cheaper methods such as self-service or online rather than phone enquiries. Automation can help further reduce costs. Most importantly, focus on getting software that will help you deliver the right outcome – happy customers who recommend your business and buy from you again.
