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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Reading, UK
    Posts
    602

    Post Kayako v4 alternatives?

    We were looking to move to Kayako from our now under-featured in house solution, but the new pricing they have implemented with v4 pushes it over what I would be happy to spend up front.

    Of course as a hosting company using their hosted option seems kind of silly to us, and currently you can only be company.kayako.com which to be frank, looks really unprofessional who ever you are- its also pretty expensive considering that flaw.

    So, what are the alternatives, and what does everyone think of them? It'd be really nice if we could build up a list of products here with some reviews and information on their compared features vs cost.

    What I do not want to see is people plugging their software, or people from Kayako justifying the new pricing. I've read all that and understand why you've done it, it just pushes the software out of my budget.

    Many thanks,
    Toby
    Xeo Solutions - Discovering Innovation
    Managed Service Provider & Cloud Hosting | Launching Late August 2019

  2. #2
    Are you looking for Live Chat or a Help Desk or both?

    Help Desk Software
    http://thevisionworld.com $9.99 /month
    http://accord5.com Free

    Live Chat Software
    http://livezilla.net Free
    http://livehelp.stardevelop.com/$119.95 for one domain and $249.95 for Multiple Domains
    http://www.phplivesupport.com/ $49.95

    I tried these before and thought they wasn't that bad all. We can't think of any others at the moment.
    Last edited by M Bacon; 11-24-2010 at 08:15 PM.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    292
    Kayako Alternative Helpdesk Softwares

    Vision Helpdesk starts from $9.99 per month unlimited staff.
    WHMCS offers billing and limited support options but its good for small companies who do not want advance helpdesk features.
    Trellis Free

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    917
    If you go with WHMCS, not only do you get a billing system but a support system and as an option upgrade you can have the Star Develop live chat system within WHMCS as well.

  5. #5
    I got free Vision Helpdesk (http://www.thevisionworld.com) license from my web hosting provider and have been using it since last few weeks now and pretty satisfied with its features and working..

    The application is a very good alternative to Kayako considering the vast number of features it offers as compared to high kayako pricing.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Reading, UK
    Posts
    602
    Thanks for all the suggestions so far!

    Quote Originally Posted by M Bacon View Post
    Are you looking for Live Chat or a Help Desk or both?
    Just a help desk really, as we've got Zopim in place for live chat which we really like, but I was interested in the new features of Kayako's full package with their new live chat system


    Quote Originally Posted by Daryl View Post
    If you go with WHMCS, not only do you get a billing system but a support system and as an option upgrade you can have the Star Develop live chat system within WHMCS as well.
    Because of what we do, WHMCS wouldn't really fit our needs for billing, and the support desk doesn't have enough reporting functions etc. Perfect for shared hosting, but the accountability with reporting and features like SLA management that we need isn't there.


    Anyone using ZenDesk or Ceberus? I'm pretty interested in ZenDesk but not seen much mention of hosting companies using it.
    Toby
    Xeo Solutions - Discovering Innovation
    Managed Service Provider & Cloud Hosting | Launching Late August 2019

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    London, UK
    Posts
    1,765
    How many employees do you have?

    On a per employee basis Kayako isn't that expensive.
    Darren Lingham - Stablepoint Hosting
    Stablepoint - Cloud Web Hosting without compromise
    We provide industry-leading cPanel™ web hosting in 80+ global cities.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    292
    Quote Originally Posted by Toby H View Post

    Anyone using ZenDesk or Ceberus? I'm pretty interested in ZenDesk but not seen much mention of hosting companies using it.
    Zendesk is just good looking but useless for Web Hosting.

    Cerberus is bad looking and non user friendly, You can try installing their software and you will know what I mean

    Again its just my opinion, you are free to burn your time and energy.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    95
    I am trying to find a way too.

    Kayako has become a nightmare for me.

    Simply is not a service I can trust any more. the software is full of bugs and features lost. good luck

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    Singapore
    Posts
    4,685
    If you need cheaper Vision Helpdesk license you can visit LicensePal. It's pretty cheap and many are recommending it.

    http://www.licensepal.com/products/vision.php

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Scotland, UK
    Posts
    2,916
    Quote Originally Posted by Toby H View Post
    Anyone using ZenDesk or Ceberus? I'm pretty interested in ZenDesk but not seen much mention of hosting companies using it.
    I've been a big fan of Cerberus for many years. We haven't used their most recent release but it's backed by a great team (we ended up building our own helpdesk to meet some specific needs and so no longer use Cerberus).

    The staff interface is a bit... bland? Certainly very functional though and all the features you'd need should be there somewhere.

    The front-facing customer interface was always very easily themed - we got plenty of comments from our customers asking what we were using as it was really nice and worked really well.

    I can only assume that V5 continues that and is even better. Well worth a look imo
    Alasdair
    Long time ex-host, ex-billing software owner/developer/support staff. Recent lurker.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    292
    Quote Originally Posted by tickedon View Post
    (we ended up building our own helpdesk to meet some specific needs and so no longer use Cerberus).
    That's what happens when you start using Cerberus you start feeling better develop our own helpdesk. Cerberus is backed by good developers but lacking design and architecture.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Scotland, UK
    Posts
    2,916

    Thumbs up

    Quote Originally Posted by bluemediaprint View Post
    (we ended up building our own helpdesk to meet some specific needs and so no longer use Cerberus).
    That's what happens when you start using Cerberus you start feeling better develop our own helpdesk. Cerberus is backed by good developers but lacking design and architecture.
    Not actually true in our case! I didn't want to get into it in my last post - our "specific needs" are that we actually sell billing/CRM software and our customers wanted an integrated helpdesk, which we built. It would be a bit strange if we didn't use our own software, so that's why we switched ("eating your own dog food" and all that!).

    I've nothing but praise for Cerberus, and it's full readable source nature makes it very easy to customise (which we had).
    Alasdair
    Long time ex-host, ex-billing software owner/developer/support staff. Recent lurker.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Reading, UK
    Posts
    602
    Quote Originally Posted by dazmanultra View Post
    How many employees do you have?

    On a per employee basis Kayako isn't that expensive.
    There's 5 of us, we're just under a year old as a company, until now we're not really been offering our services to the world and just working with some specific partners, as such we'd been using our own systems for client management, support and billing.

    Now the time has come for us to start offering our services more widely, we're looking to switch to easier to use and nicer to look at software for our customer facing systems, rather than our current internal helpdesk system.

    Thanks
    Toby
    Xeo Solutions - Discovering Innovation
    Managed Service Provider & Cloud Hosting | Launching Late August 2019

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Upstate New York
    Posts
    1,452
    Hi, have you done a quick search on any SE for live support software or live chat software? You should find plenty of providers, or in-house software you can run on your own servers.
    John Rasri
    Private Label Live Chat Provider For Resellers
    GotLiveChat.com
    White Label/Brand-able live chat software solutions

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    292
    Quote Originally Posted by gotlivechat View Post
    Hi, have you done a quick search on any SE for live support software or live chat software? You should find plenty of providers, or in-house software you can run on your own servers.
    You too offer Helpdesk Software? or just Live chat? Never heard of gotlivechat before.

  17. #17
    Greetings:

    We use http://www.helpspot.com/; and it works extremely well.

    Thank you.
    ---
    Peter M. Abraham
    LinkedIn Profile

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