Free or low cost HelpDesk software

[kjv1611]

I like the idea of one called SpiceWorks. I somewhat like their network scanner and the helpdesk seems like a pretty good tool... in theory.

In practice, I have found so far that it doesn't really feel stable, and it runs super sluggish, and I've not created any real tickets.

Does anyone have any suggestions for something just on the HelpDesk software side of things that isn't expensive or better if it's free?

We're all Windows machines, currently, and servers are mostly Windows Server 2012. Clients are everything from XP to 10.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

So in my experience, the free stuff is not really all that free. In the end you will want to pay for their support. They all have their pitfalls. We use a mixture of NCentral (solar winds) and ConnectWise. They are all a PITA really.

ACSS - SME
General Geek

 

[xwb]

Normally with helpdesk stuff, it is only as good as the configuration requirements and setup. You can get vastly different reports on the same software - one company says it is brilliant, the other says it is crap. It is normally down to what was specified in the configuration.

It may be simple stuff like "ignore all out of office replies" or "raise ticket and automatically assign it to team x" or "ignore reports of server outage after the first hour

 

[gbaughma]

I've used Spiceworks before, with great success. Surprised that you're having issues with it...

That being said, Jira may also be an option for you.


Just my $.02

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly replaced his Dilithium Crystals with new Folger's Crystals."

--Greg

 

[kjv1611]

Glad someone here has used SpiceWorks with good success. I don't know what has caused the issues so far here. Not sure if it's all computers too slow that I've installed it on, or it wants faster Internet for the ads it tosses in, or what.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[kjv1611]

As far as free stuff goes... with SpiceWorks, you can contact their support for free. I haven't tried that option yet, but just didn't want to spend so much time just getting something like that up and running. Part of the idea is to save time, not create an additional maintenance task.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[kjv1611]

Alright, per some suggestions there at Spiceworks, I'm going to try the Cloud version. I had read it wasn't very customizeable, but I noticed it does at least allow custom fields. I'm going to try with that. So far, it seems to run perfectly fine.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57