I wanted to know what everyone rated some of the best help desk systems.

My concern is that they are really good and work with email too.

I am hoping for an open source system since there are a ton, but would also like to know of the paid ones like kayako and cerberus helpdesk.

Are any opensource ones worthy???? Is it better to just spend the cash for the paid solutions? I just need one seat!!!
Any info will be great!

Cerberus has a free trial. Why not try it out?

I have tried it way back and thought it was good. My comments are more towards trying to find out if any Open Source Free solutions are worthy enough against Cerebrus or Kayako ;)

Anyone use the free solutions?
osticket.com
http://scripts.sheddtech.com/ssm/

There seem to be a ton of other promising ones out there. Do any stand up?

Here are some of the others:
http://exoscripts.com/

http://www.helpcenterlive.com

The best i think is kayako esupport and the new version much better ( supportsuite )

You have trial versions of:

www.sitepanel2.com

www.deskpro.com

I agree and think that if I chose to pay for a solution, it would be Kayako.

My question is, are any of the open source free ones successful enough to use? Exoscripts looks pretty good, along with osticket.com

Anyone use a free solution with many tickets successfully?

I would second the suggestion for Cerberus. www.cerberusweb.com -- it's free if you just need one e-mail address.

GSV

If you only need one email address piped into the helpdesk, then Cerberus Helpdesk is the way to go (www.cerberusweb.com) since it's free. The actual PHP files are all 100% viewable source as well, which is great news if you want to customise it. Piping more emails & domains into the system is also fairly cheap to do, and the unlimited domain license is excellent value for money :)

I haven't come across any OSS ones that could really "hack it".
We're currently using PerlDesk internally and Kayako for the public and are very happy with both of them.

Kayako or Cerberus.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=385990

Originally posted by foress
Kayako or Cerberus.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=385990

I'm with you on this one, Kayako or Cerberus are my choices.

Cerberus, without question.

Cerberus stands head and shoulders over Kayako. Kayako is slow when under heavy use (extremely) has little or no dev innovation. Cerberus, on the other hand, is customizable, stable, secure, and the WGM staff are awesome (Jeff, Jerry, Jeremy, et al).

Simon

I just started using Kayako after testing the rest. Find Kayako to be the most user friendly. Friendly interface and very easy integration into your existing web site. In fact after I start using a few clients email to ask what I am using because they are getting Kayako too. Strongly recommended.

Originally posted by IHSL
and the WGM staff are awesome (Jeff, Jerry, Jeremy, et al).
You missed out Ben, the parser guru! ;)

The team behind Cerberus are just one more reason to choose them over anything or anybody else, paid or free.

Originally posted by tickedon
You missed out Ben, the parser guru! ;)
I was getting dizzy with all the "J" names, so I gave up trying to remember the other guys. :D

Simon

Looks like Kayako and Cerberus steal the show for support systems. I definitely am considering them as my 2 main choices.

What I was hoping to also find out is if any of the free scripts work "good enough" and are solid without too many bugs. Anyone actually use any of the free ones? Doesn't look like it...

This is a nice thread, thanks to all for their contributions... it's been very helpful in deciding against the two standouts.

Cerberus is the best for "functionality". It does just about anything you could dream of needing for a helpdesk.

But it's very ugly. (Yes, I realize you can "skin" it and change it.. but that's just a lot of work when they could easily fix this problem by hiring a good UI designer. Not every has time/effort/skill to fix up the admin area or the end-user area so it isn't so blasted ugly.)

Kayako is very nice looking. It looks great. It is nice to look at. Clients like to use it because it is "easy" to understand and submit a ticket and get around the interface.

But ultimately, Cerberus has more functions/features, and I believe is better supported by the vendor.

If you want something that is "pretty", then go with kayako. if you want something that gives you good support from the vendor, and has every feature you will ever need, then go with Cerberus.

I also agree with mrzippy's comments after extensive testing of them both.

I can't see why anyone wouldn't use the FREE Cerberus 1 email account desk and give it a shot. I am going to run with it and hope to invest later. For now, 1 email will do the trick, especially at the price!!!!!:)

Free version of Cerberus has only one restriction, that is one Free email acount for support desk.. That's what I know. Any other restrictions?

Originally posted by Dark_Coder
Free version of Cerberus has only one restriction, that is one Free email acount for support desk.. That's what I know. Any other restrictions?
That's it. The only restriction is that you can only pipe one email address into the support desk. Other than that, it's fully featured and has exactly the same features and everything as if you'd paid for it.

I like these
Crafty Syntax Live Help
Help Center Live
If you want more of a ticket system... these two are my favorites
osTicket
PHP Support Tickets
Hope that helped...

Then.. better try Cerebrus :)

did anyone try the contact center from liveperson?