A help desk software comparison template is a weighted scorecard. You pick about eight criteria, give each one a weight so the weights add up to 100, write down what a score of 1 and a score of 5 mean before you see any demo, then score every vendor and multiply. The tool with the highest total wins, unless it scored a 1 on something you cannot live without. Below is the full scorecard to copy, the weights we would start with for SaaS, e-commerce and service teams, a cost example built on published prices, and the questions that expose a weak vendor in a demo.
Why a scorecard beats a feature checklist
Every help desk has ticketing, canned replies, a chat widget and some kind of AI. Put four vendors through a yes/no checklist and they all come back with forty ticks, which tells you nothing.
A scorecard forces two decisions a checklist lets you skip. The weights say what matters most to your team, so a beautiful knowledge base cannot outvote the fact that a tool has no Telegram channel. The written score definitions stop the most common bias in software buying, which is giving a 4 to whichever sales rep ran the friendliest demo.
It also leaves a record. Six months from now, when someone asks why you picked the tool that costs more, the sheet answers for you.
How the scoring works
Keep the math simple enough that anyone on the team can check it.
- Give each criterion a weight. All weights together add up to 100.
- Score each vendor from 1 to 5 on each criterion, using the definitions in the template, not gut feel.
- Weighted score = weight × score ÷ 5. A criterion weighted 20 and scored 4 earns 16 points.
- Add the weighted scores. The maximum is 100.
- Apply the knockout rule: any vendor that scores 1 on a must-have is out, whatever its total.
In a spreadsheet, with weights in column B and one vendor's scores in column C, the total is =SUMPRODUCT(B2:B9,C2:C9)/5.
Score three vendors, four at most. Past that, the trials get shallow and every tool blurs into the next one.
Step 1: list your must-have channels
Start with where your customers already write to you, not where a vendor says they should. Pull a month of messages and count them by channel. A typical small team finds something like this: most volume on email and website chat, a steady trickle on one messaging app, and the occasional DM nobody is responsible for.
Write each channel down with its monthly volume and mark it must-have, nice to have or ignore. Then check each vendor against three questions:
- Is the channel live today on the plan you would buy, or only on a higher tier?
- Does it cost extra per message or per conversation? Intercom, for example, lists WhatsApp, SMS and phone as pay-as-you-go on its pricing page.
- Do replies from that channel land in the same inbox as everything else, or in a separate screen?
Score "coming soon" as not available until you can connect the channel yourself during the trial. If you want to map your channels before the demos, the omnichannel coverage mapper lays them out in a few minutes.
Step 2: model cost at your team size and at double
Price the plan you would really need, with the add-ons you would really buy, for the team you have now. Then price it again for twice that team. The second number is the one that hurts later, and it rarely appears on a quote.
Here is what that looks like for a six-person team growing to twelve, using list prices the vendors published (checked September 2026, monthly, before AI add-ons):
| Tool and plan | Pricing model | 6 people | 12 people |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zendesk Suite Team | $55 per agent | $330 | $660 |
| Freshdesk Pro | $55 per agent | $330 | $660 |
| Front Professional | $65 per seat | $390 | $780 |
| Intercom Advanced | $85 per seat | $510 | $1,020 |
| Help Scout Standard | $25 per user | $150 | $300 |
| Sellio Essentials, then Plus | Per workspace | $95 (up to 10 seats) | $295 (up to 50 seats) |
Two things show up once you put both columns side by side. Per-seat prices grow in a straight line, so the gap between vendors doubles when the team does. Per-workspace prices are flat until you cross a seat limit, and then they step up: the per-workspace row above jumps when the team passes ten people. Neither model is cheaper by definition. It depends on where your headcount sits against the limits.
Add the lines that are easy to miss: annual versus monthly billing, the AI add-on, paid channels, and any seat minimum. The seat vs workspace pricing calculator runs both models for your own numbers.
A simple cost score: 5 if the doubled-team price fits your budget with room to spare, 3 if it fits with no room, 1 if it does not fit at all.
Step 3: score AI on accuracy, handoff and cost cap
AI demos are always impressive because the vendor picks the questions. Bring your own. Take 20 real questions from last month, including a few awkward ones, and ask each vendor to run them through an agent trained on your help center during the trial.
Count three results for each vendor: answers that were right, answers that were wrong, and questions where the AI said it did not know and passed the customer on. A wrong answer is worse than a handoff, so score it that way.
Then look at how the AI is billed, because it varies more than seat prices do:
- Intercom's Fin AI agent starts at $0.99 per outcome.
- Help Scout's AI Answers costs $0.75 per resolution.
- Freshdesk gives 500 AI agent sessions once per account, then charges $49 per 100 sessions.
- Zendesk bills AI agents per automated resolution, on top of the seat price.
Per-resolution pricing is fair when volume is low and painful when it is high. As a hypothetical: 1,000 chats a month with 40% resolved by AI is 400 resolutions, which at $0.99 each is $396 a month added to the seat bill. The AI resolution cost calculator does this math with your volume.
Then ask whether you can set a hard monthly cap, and what happens when you hit it. A good answer is that the AI stops and conversations go to people. A bad answer is a surprise invoice.
Step 4: test setup time with a real install
Run the same timed setup on every shortlisted tool, ideally on a staging copy of your site, and write down the minutes:
- Install the chat widget and match it to your brand colors.
- Connect your support email address and send yourself a test message.
- Create three saved replies you actually use.
- Build one routing rule, such as billing questions going to one person.
- Invite a teammate and have them answer a test conversation.
- Export your test conversations and contacts to a file.
The last task is your exit test. If getting your own data out needs a support ticket or a paid service, score exit costs low now, while leaving is still free. The support tool migration checklist covers the rest of what a future move would cost.
The full help desk software comparison template
Copy this table into a sheet, keep the definitions next to the scores, and fill one column per vendor. The weights are a default; change them before the first demo, never after.
| Criterion | Weight | Scores 5 when | Scores 1 when | Vendor A | Vendor B | Vendor C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Channels | 20 | Every must-have channel is live on the plan you would buy, in one inbox | A must-have channel is missing or only on a roadmap | |||
| Cost now and at double the team | 20 | Doubled-team price fits the budget with room to spare | Doubled-team price does not fit | |||
| AI quality and cost control | 15 | 16 or more of your 20 questions right, clean handoff, hard monthly cap | Wrong answers on common questions, or no way to cap spend | |||
| Inbox and ticket workflow | 15 | Assignment, internal notes, saved replies and statuses work without training | Agents needed help to finish a basic reply | |||
| Setup time | 10 | The six setup tasks took under an hour | Setup needed a developer or the vendor's team | |||
| Reporting | 10 | First response time, resolution time and CSAT out of the box | Only a conversation count | |||
| Exit and data export | 5 | Self-serve export of conversations and contacts, monthly contract | Export on request only, or a long annual lock-in | |||
| Vendor support | 5 | Answered your trial question within a working day, with a real answer | No reply during the trial | |||
| Total | 100 | Weight × score ÷ 5, summed. Knockout: a 1 on any must-have | ||||
If you prefer a plain-text version for a doc or a ticket, paste this:
Help desk scorecard: [team name], [date]
Vendors: [A], [B], [C]
Must-have channels: [list]. Team size now: [n]. Team size in 18 months: [n].
Channels (20): A [ ] B [ ] C [ ]
Cost now and at double (20): A [ ] B [ ] C [ ]
AI quality and cost control (15): A [ ] B [ ] C [ ]
Inbox and ticket workflow (15): A [ ] B [ ] C [ ]
Setup time (10): A [ ] B [ ] C [ ]
Reporting (10): A [ ] B [ ] C [ ]
Exit and data export (5): A [ ] B [ ] C [ ]
Vendor support (5): A [ ] B [ ] C [ ]
Knockouts: [vendor and reason, or none]
Totals: A [ ] B [ ] C [ ]
Weighting examples for SaaS, e-commerce and services
The default weights suit a general support team. Shift them to match how your customers actually reach you and what a bad week costs you.
| Criterion | SaaS | E-commerce | Services |
|---|---|---|---|
| Channels | 15 | 25 | 20 |
| Cost now and at double | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| AI quality and cost control | 20 | 15 | 5 |
| Inbox and ticket workflow | 15 | 10 | 20 |
| Setup time | 5 | 10 | 10 |
| Reporting | 15 | 5 | 10 |
| Exit and data export | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Vendor support | 10 | 10 | 5 |
SaaS teams get a lot of repeat how-to questions that documentation can answer, so AI and reporting carry more weight. E-commerce stores live on chat and messaging during sales peaks, and seasonal staff make the cost of adding people matter. Service businesses such as agencies, accountants or hosting providers have fewer, longer conversations, so the ticket workflow and a predictable bill count for more than AI.
Example scoring of three popular tools
Only some rows can be scored from published facts. Cost is one of them. Take a hypothetical six-person store with a $400 monthly support budget that expects to double in 18 months, and compare Zendesk Suite Team, Help Scout Standard and Sellio Essentials on that row alone.
| Zendesk Suite Team | Help Scout Standard | Sellio Essentials / Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 people, monthly | $330 | $150 | $95 |
| 12 people, monthly | $660 | $300 | $295 |
| AI on top | Per automated resolution; Copilot $50 per agent | AI Answers $0.75 per resolution | Included credits, extra usage paid |
| Cost score (out of 5) | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| Weighted, e-commerce weight 20 | 4 | 16 | 16 |
The two cheaper options end up within $5 of each other at twelve people, so the other rows break the tie. Cost narrows the field; channels, the AI test and the setup test decide it. Every other row has to come from your own trials, because a score someone else gave a tool reflects their channels and their customers. The Freshdesk vs Help Scout comparison shows the kind of detail worth checking for a five-person team.
To see how the totals come together, here is a fully worked hypothetical with anonymous vendors and the e-commerce weights:
Vendor A: channels 5 (25), cost 2 (8), AI 4 (12), workflow 4 (8), setup 3 (6), reporting 4 (4), exit 3 (3), support 4 (8). Total 74.
Vendor B: channels 4 (20), cost 4 (16), AI 3 (9), workflow 4 (8), setup 5 (10), reporting 3 (3), exit 5 (5), support 3 (6). Total 77.
Vendor C: channels 1 (5), cost 5 (20), AI 5 (15), workflow 5 (10), setup 5 (10), reporting 5 (5), exit 5 (5), support 5 (10). Total 80, knocked out for missing a must-have channel.
Vendor C has the best total and still loses. Vendor B wins on a three-point margin, which is close enough that the team should talk it through before signing.
Red flags in demos and trials
- The price for your team size is only available on a sales call.
- The trial runs on sample data and the vendor resists importing your real questions.
- AI is billed per resolution with no way to set a monthly ceiling.
- A channel you need is "on the roadmap" or "in beta for selected customers".
- The plan you would buy has a seat minimum larger than your team.
- Monthly billing is quoted, but the demo plan is annual only.
- Data export needs a support request or a paid migration service.
- The rep cannot show a live handoff from the AI to a person in the inbox.
One red flag is a question to ask. Three on the same vendor usually means the trial is being steered.
How to present the decision to your team
The people who will live in the tool every day should see the scorecard before the contract, not after. A one-page memo is enough:
Decision: we recommend [tool] on the [plan] plan.
Why: it scored [total] against [runner-up] at [total]. It won on [two criteria that mattered most].
What we give up: [the honest weak spot, e.g. weaker reporting than the runner-up].
Cost: [monthly cost now] today, about [cost at double] if the team doubles. AI capped at [amount] a month.
Plan: trial ends [date], switch-over on [date], old tool cancelled on [date].
Questions or objections by [date] to [name].
Writing down what you give up does two things: it shows the team you saw the trade-off, and it gives you a check for the six-month review. If you want to start from vendors that already fit a small team, the comparison hub lists head-to-head pages, and the help desk for small business page explains how our per-workspace pricing works.
FAQ
How many vendors should go on a help desk comparison template?
Three, four at most. Shortlist with a quick look at channels and price, then give each finalist a proper trial. Scoring eight tools means none of them gets tested with your real questions.
Should cost be the heaviest weight?
Only if your budget is tight enough that a good tool you cannot afford is no use. For most small teams, channels and cost tie at the top. Score cost at double your team size, not today's size, or the cheapest tool on day one can become the most expensive by year two.
How long should a help desk trial take?
Two weeks is usually enough: a few days for the setup test and the AI test, then at least one week answering real conversations with two or three people. Shorter trials only test the onboarding emails.
What is the difference between a scorecard and an RFP?
An RFP asks vendors to describe themselves in writing, which suits large companies with procurement teams. A scorecard records what you saw when you tested the tool yourself. For a team of 2 to 20 people, the scorecard is faster and closer to the truth.
Can I use this template for live chat tools too?
Yes. Keep the same criteria, raise the channels and setup weights, and add one test: open the widget on a real phone, on mobile data, and check how fast it loads and whether it covers your buy button.
