Help Desk Software · 2026 reliability ranking
Most Reliable Help Desk Software (2026)
We ranked 15 help desk platforms by real-world reliability over the last 90 days, using 94 status page incidents and our own around-the-clock uptime checks. A help desk is where customer emails, chats and calls land, so when it goes down tickets stop arriving or can't be answered and customers are left waiting with no reply. A few hours of downtime can turn into a backlog of hundreds of conversations, missed response-time targets and repeat contacts from people who think they were ignored. Most help desks also depend on email providers, chat widgets and social channels, so an outage in any of those links shows up as lost or delayed messages.
Last updated Nov 1, 2026 · How we score
| # | Vendor | Score | Uptime (90d) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HiverHiver is a help desk that runs inside Gmail and as a standalone app (Hiver Omni), based in Bengaluru, India and San Francisco.Visit site ↗ | 98.9 | 99.99% |
| 2 | HubSpot Service HubHubSpot Service Hub is HubSpot's customer service software, with a help desk, ticketing, live chat and knowledge base built on the HubSpot CRM.Visit site ↗ | 96.9 | 100% |
| 3 | KustomerKustomer is a CRM-based customer service platform for email, chat, voice and messaging support, headquartered in New York.Visit site ↗ | 96.7 | 99.99% |
| 4 | TidioTidio is a live chat, chatbot and help desk tool for small online businesses, headquartered in Szczecin, Poland and San Francisco.Visit site ↗ | 95.7 | 99.98% |
| 5 | HappyFoxHappyFox is a help desk and ticketing system with a knowledge base and chat, headquartered in Pleasanton, California.Visit site ↗ | 89.2 | 100% |
| 6 | LiveAgentLiveAgent is a help desk with ticketing, live chat, call center and social media support, made by Quality Unit in Bratislava, Slovakia.Visit site ↗ | 89.2 | 100% |
| 7 | Help ScoutHelp Scout is a shared inbox, help center and live chat tool for customer support teams, based in Boston, Massachusetts.Visit site ↗ | 89.2 | 99.91% |
| 8 | IntercomIntercom is a customer service platform combining a shared inbox, help center, messenger and the Fin AI agent, headquartered in San Francisco and Dublin.Visit site ↗ | 87.9 | 99.92% |
| 9 | FrontFront is a shared inbox and customer operations platform that brings email, chat, SMS and social messages into one workspace, headquartered in San Francisco.Visit site ↗ | 87.4 | 99.89% |
| 10 | GladlyGladly is a customer service platform organized around people rather than tickets, with voice, chat, email, SMS and AI agents, based in San Francisco.Visit site ↗ | 74.9 | 99.65% |
| 11 | FreshdeskFreshdesk is the customer support and ticketing software from Freshworks Inc.Visit site ↗ | 61.8 | 99.42% |
| 12 | ZendeskZendesk is a customer service platform for ticketing, messaging, voice and help centers, headquartered in San Francisco, California.Visit site ↗ | 51.7 | 98.85% |
| 13 | GorgiasGorgias is a help desk for ecommerce stores that ties support tickets to Shopify and other store data, based in San Francisco.Visit site ↗ | 43.0 | 97.97% |
Help Desk Software reliability at a glance
- Across the 13 ranked help desk platforms, average 90-day uptime is 99.66%. Reliability scores range from 98.9 (Hiver) to 43.0 (Gorgias).
- Together they published 94 incidents in the last 90 days, 29 of them partial or major outages.
- The typical vendor takes 1h 57m to resolve an incident. Hiver is fastest, at 8m on average.
- Freshdesk reported the most incidents (19 in 90 days).
What to check before you choose a help desk platform
- Check which components fail most often. An outage in inbound email processing or the live chat widget loses customer messages; a reporting delay doesn't.
- Ask what happens to emails and chats sent during an outage: are they queued and delivered later, or dropped?
- Look at the vendor's dependence on third parties such as Gmail, Microsoft 365, Meta and Twilio, and whether those channel incidents appear on its status page.
- If you have customers in several regions, check whether incidents are reported per data center and which region your account is hosted in.
90-day uptime history
Each bar is one day. Hover a bar for that day's uptime and incidents.
1. Hiver
99.99% uptime · 1 incidents · avg resolve 8m2. HubSpot Service Hub
100% uptime · 8 incidents · avg resolve —3. Kustomer
99.99% uptime · 3 incidents · avg resolve 23m4. Tidio
99.98% uptime · 1 incidents · avg resolve 1h 54m5. HappyFox
100% uptime · 1 incidents · avg resolve —6. LiveAgent
100% uptime · 1 incidents · avg resolve —7. Help Scout
99.91% uptime · 6 incidents · avg resolve 2h8. Intercom
99.92% uptime · 8 incidents · avg resolve 1h9. Front
99.89% uptime · 7 incidents · avg resolve 1h 51m10. Gladly
99.65% uptime · 7 incidents · avg resolve 3h 58m11. Freshdesk
99.42% uptime · 19 incidents · avg resolve 4h 22m12. Zendesk
98.85% uptime · 13 incidents · avg resolve 7h 47m13. Gorgias
97.97% uptime · 19 incidents · avg resolve 5h 35m- No incidents
- Degraded
- Partial outage
- Major outage
- No data
Being tracked (not ranked yet)
These vendors join the ranking once we have enough evidence: at least 14 days of data, and for vendors with a quiet status page (silent for a year, or for 90 days while their competitors report several incidents), 30 days of our own independent monitoring.
Recent Help Desk Software incidents
Mobile app authentication issues resolvedofficial update ↗
Affected: Mobile Apps
Affected: Fin AI Agent
Hiver service disruption due to AWS outage
Affected: Email User Experience, Email User Experience, Email sync, Email Sync, Notification Services, Automation +14 more
Multiple Products access issues in Pod26
Affected: Support, Agent Workspace (via Support)
Instagram messages delayed or not appearing in Gorgias
Affected: Instagram comments, Instagram Direct Messages
Affected: Forethought AI Agents, Dashboard
Head-to-head comparisons
- Hiver vs HubSpot Service Hub reliability
- Hiver vs Kustomer reliability
- Hiver vs Tidio reliability
- Hiver vs HappyFox reliability
- HubSpot Service Hub vs Kustomer reliability
- HubSpot Service Hub vs Tidio reliability
- HubSpot Service Hub vs HappyFox reliability
- Kustomer vs Tidio reliability
- Kustomer vs HappyFox reliability
- Tidio vs HappyFox reliability
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Frequently asked questions
What is the most reliable help desk platform?
Based on the last 90 days of data, Hiver is the most reliable help desk platform we track, with a reliability score of 98.9/100 and 99.99% uptime.
How do you measure help desk platform reliability?
We poll each vendor's public status page every few minutes, record every incident, and run our own uptime checks against each vendor's login and customer-facing pages. Uptime (40%), incident frequency (20%), average time to resolve (20%) and transparency (20%) combine into one score out of 100.
How often are these rankings updated?
Continuously. Status pages and uptime checks run every five minutes and scores are recalculated several times an hour.
Can vendors pay to rank higher?
No. Sponsored placements are clearly labelled, shown separately from the rankings and never change a vendor's score.