An online ticketing system your team opens in a browser. Nothing to install, nothing to patch, and no server to provision - just sign up and start taking tickets. Free for 5 agents and 500 tickets a month, with no credit card and no trial clock.
People search for a cloud based help desk, an online ticketing system and web based helpdesk software as though they were different products. They are three names for the same arrangement: the software runs on the vendor’s servers and your team reaches it through a browser, rather than it running on a machine you own.
The only distinction that actually matters is cloud versus on-premise. On-premise means you install the help desk on your own server and take responsibility for it: the hardware, the updates, the backups, the security patching. Cloud means somebody else does that and you log in.
Neither is automatically better. On-premise wins when regulation requires the data to stay on infrastructure you control, and you have the people to run it properly. Cloud wins nearly everywhere else, because the total cost of an on-premise system is rarely the licence - it is the person maintaining it.
It is worth being precise about this when you compare tools, because the naming causes real confusion in shortlists. A product described as an online ticketing system and one described as cloud help desk software are not two categories to choose between; they are the same category described by two vendors who picked different words. Judge them on what they actually do - how tickets are captured, routed and measured - rather than on which label the marketing settled on.
A help desk ticketing system, cloud or otherwise, exists to make sure every customer question, request and reported issue reaches the right person and is answered. Running it online changes how much of your time that costs.
There is no installation to plan. Sign up, create your workspace, invite your agents and connect a mailbox. A guided setup walks through departments, priorities and SLA policies, so the queue is configured for how you actually work before anybody depends on it.
Because it is a web based help desk, it adapts to desktops, laptops, tablets and phones through the browser. Agents covering an evening shift from home reach the same queue, with the same permissions, as the ones at their desks.
Customers rarely wait patiently. An online ticketing system removes the cluttered shared mailbox where requests go unnoticed, and shows at a glance what needs answering now, what is approaching its target and what is already overdue.
Routing sends each ticket to the department and agent best placed to handle it, rather than to whoever happens to read it first. Private notes let colleagues contribute without a chain of forwarded email, and the full history stays on the ticket.
Email, the customer portal and web forms all land in one queue. Customers get one place to raise a request and check its status, instead of guessing which address reaches a human.
Distributed teams need no VPN into an internal server and no client software. A browser and a login is the whole requirement, which is what makes an online help desk practical for teams that are not in one building.
Reports cover ticket volumes, first response and resolution times, SLA breaches and how individual agents and departments are performing. See reports and analytics.
Less time spent triaging a mailbox, chasing status and re-typing the same answer. A knowledge base handles the questions that repeat, so agents spend their time on the ones that need them.
Most free cloud help desk plans withhold the parts you need most and call it a free tier. Ours is the whole product for 5 agents and 500 tickets a month.
This is the question that stops most on-premise teams moving, and it deserves a straight answer rather than reassurance. The honest position is that cloud is not inherently more or less secure than self-hosting. It moves the responsibility.
Self-hosting means the security of your customers’ data depends on your own patching cadence, your backup testing, your access controls and whoever is on holiday when a vulnerability is disclosed. That is entirely achievable, and plenty of teams do it well. It is also a standing commitment that does not pause, and an unmaintained help desk holding years of customer correspondence is a genuine liability rather than a saving.
A cloud help desk moves that work to the vendor. What you are really assessing is whether they do it competently: how access is controlled, how data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and what happens to your data if you leave. Ask those three questions of any provider, including us.
On our side, agents sign in with single sign-on through Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace where you use them, so account control stays with your existing identity provider rather than becoming another password to manage. Agent privileges decide who can see which departments and queues, and private notes keep internal discussion off the customer-facing thread.
Where cloud genuinely is not the answer: if a regulator or a contract requires customer data to remain on infrastructure you control, that is a hard requirement and no amount of vendor assurance satisfies it. In that situation self-hosted open-source software is the correct category, and we would rather say so than sell you something that does not fit.
Help desk software that runs on the vendor’s servers and is reached through a web browser, rather than installed on hardware you own. Tickets, history and settings live in the vendor’s environment, so there is nothing for you to provision, update or patch. It is the same thing as an online ticketing system or a web based helpdesk - three names, one arrangement.
Yes, though check what is capped. Raiseaticket is free forever for 5 agents and 500 tickets a month with the full feature set, no credit card and no expiry. The limit is capacity rather than capability, which is the distinction worth checking in anybody’s free plan. See pricing.
On-premise if regulation requires the data to sit on infrastructure you control and you have somebody to run it. Cloud otherwise. The saving from a free self-hosted licence is usually smaller than it looks once you count server costs and the staff time to maintain, back up and patch it.
No. There is no client software and no server. Agents sign in through a browser on whatever device they are using, which is what makes it workable for remote and hybrid teams.
Creating a workspace and inviting agents takes minutes. Connecting your support mailbox and setting up departments and SLA targets is worth an afternoon, and after that the queue runs itself.
You should be able to export tickets, conversation history and contacts. Check this on any provider before you migrate in, not after - the cost of leaving a help desk matters more than the cost of joining one, and it is the question vendors are least keen to be asked.
Yes. The same workspace handles external customer queues and internal ones for IT, HR or facilities, with departments and agent privileges keeping them separate. See internal ticketing and service desk software.
Yes. Migration can bring across tickets and their history, contacts, your department structure and knowledge base content, with a cut-over agreed in advance so support keeps running. See services.
Yes. “Trouble ticket” is older terminology - still common in telecoms and IT operations - for exactly the same record: one issue, logged and tracked from report to resolution. A web based trouble ticket system and an online ticketing system are the same arrangement under two names, and Raiseaticket is free for 5 agents and 500 tickets a month either way.
Sign up, connect your mailbox and take your first ticket. Free forever, full feature set, no credit card.
Free foreverNo credit cardNot a 6-month trial