Kayako vs. UseResponse

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Kayako
Score 6.6 out of 10
N/A
Kayako is a help desk and customer support platform that helps businesses automate workflows, improve agent productivity, and deliver personalized customer experiences across email, chat, and social media.
$79
per month
UseResponse
Score 5.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
UseResponse helps companies provide customer service support using several channels and organize their community around products or services on their server. It's all-in-one support suite with feedback, help desk ticketing system, knowledge base and live chat in one package. Integrate it using API, built-in translation tool and fully customizable interface with extended modular system.
$39
per 2 agents/month
Pricing
KayakoUseResponse
Editions & Modules
Kayako One
$79
per month
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Self-Hosted
$3200
includes one of the platforms, 5 support agents, announcements.
Basic
from $39
per 2 agents/month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
KayakoUseResponse
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
KayakoUseResponse
Considered Both Products
Kayako
Chose Kayako
Basecamp is more for client project management and implementations.
Chose Kayako
Jira is much more pricey but more complete. It integrates with our Scrum Board and Agile Software Development platform. So we can much more easily turn Tickets into User Stories, and our techs and devs only have to live in one software platform instead of having to switch …
Chose Kayako
Kayako is way more scalable than Spiceworks' helpdesk offering. We had trouble visualizing our current layout within their environment.

Zendesk was priced quite a bit higher than Kayako while offering similar functionality. It didn't make sense to want to migrate to a new …
Chose Kayako
Kayako's interface is far less complex than Zendesk, so it looked like a good platform. Unfortunately, the features didn't work and their support team is the worst. I went back to Zendesk and I got everything to work including their chat function. Zendesk just works. You don't …
Chose Kayako
Kayako beats the competition with the price but unfortunately loses the battle on all other fronts. Simply not enough options, not enough customisability, very nice and friendly customer support but not the most capable. If the code was less buggy it could be a stronger …
Chose Kayako
Based on cost, Kayako is by far the better solution.
Chose Kayako
Kayako is a great tool for the service industry. I think it is better suited for businesses that do 1-off interactions rather than using it to manage and maintain a larger repeat customer base. This was just our opinion based on the industry we are in. We are in the hosting …
Chose Kayako
We were using Spiceworks for a few years before switching to Kayako but found that it wasn't as customizable or as user friendly for our customers. The SNMP scanning and inventory features with Spiceworks was nice but we needed more of a Help Desk that would allow us to scale …
Chose Kayako
Tried Zen desk and just felt Kayako had many more controllable features.
Chose Kayako
Kayako is the only ticketing system I have used. I found it easy to learn and use.
Chose Kayako
Kayako is the only helpdesk software that I've ever used. In the past we only used a Gmail inbox.
Chose Kayako
This is the only product that I have used for a Help Desk or Case management system
Chose Kayako
We went with Kayako at the time of purchase because there was a much more cost effective self-hosted option that we have been able to leverage to our benefit. That option has become much more expensive now, but we feel like we'd still make the decision again.
Chose Kayako
We only looked at a few. For a small software company, that only wanted to provide better support, it was affordable and easy enough to assimilate into our system.
Chose Kayako
I choose Fusion over OTRS because of the simple nature of the set up and management of Fusion. OTRS required a lot of initial setup and the company was looking for a reliable base system to build onto over time rather than a complex help desk system up front. If you are looking …
Chose Kayako
Kayako's interface is definitely better in the "ease of use" category.

I find that the functionality of Kayako trumps Numara in a few different ways, and the search functions are a little bit easier to navigate.
Chose Kayako
We evaluated Spiceworks and it tried to do too much. Kayako addressed our need for email support and distributing/tracking work without trying to introduce direct monitoring, knowledge base, and all kinds of other tools. It was much simpler to configure for our needs.
UseResponse

No answer on this topic

Features
KayakoUseResponse
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Kayako
2.0
Ratings
120% below category average
UseResponse
-
Ratings
Organize and prioritize service tickets1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Expert directory1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket response1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Kayako
1.0
Ratings
155% below category average
UseResponse
-
Ratings
External knowledge base1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Internal knowledge base1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Kayako
1.0
Ratings
154% below category average
UseResponse
-
Ratings
Customer portal1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
IVR1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Social integration1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Email support1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
KayakoUseResponse
Small Businesses
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
SysAid
SysAid
Score 9.1 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
KayakoUseResponse
Likelihood to Recommend
1.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
7.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
2.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
KayakoUseResponse
Likelihood to Recommend
Kayako is suited for a small company that is just getting started. We are in the web-hosting industry and it was very hard to fully adapt the system the way we would have liked to. Kayako would be very good if you were hosting an ecommerce shop or customer service business where you can look at each customer interaction as separate and not over a long-term period.
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No answers on this topic
Pros
  • Gives a very good report on an individual level of what is being done for a customer or corporate issue.
  • Easy to understand who has what, what the tickets are about, how long they have been opened and how many times the customer/employee have gone back and forth with each other.
  • Nice dashboard view.
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No answers on this topic
Cons
  • I have not tried to use the actual Workflow function for awhile so this issue may have been resolved. When we tried to use it, it was cumbersome and did not offer much flexibility as to meeting the needs of different departments.
  • This may no longer be an issue but if someone was knowledgeable about KQL and knew how another department was set up, they could write a report accessing their data even though they do not have permission to view/edit that departments data.
  • Perhaps adding the function of "Read Receipts" to end-users when opening a ticket.
  • When a ticket is closed, automatically include information from the initial creation of the ticket so the end user knows at a glance what issue has been resolved without looking up the Ticket ID.
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Likelihood to Renew
I am no longer with the company that was using this, and they were recently bought out by a larger organization that uses an internally developed software suite. It is unlikely for that reason that they will renew or keep any service with Kayako.
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No answers on this topic
Usability
I did not come from an IT background and I picked this program up quickly
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No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
They are really good, but it takes a while to get back, because of the large time difference to the Eastern US. However, they are very helpful.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
  • We didn't have to use support too much, but when we did, they were able to assist us and help us make everything work.
  • Mostly we used their Online KB and step by step instructions to get all of our issues resolved.
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Implementation Rating
Three years in we are about as happy with Kayako as we could be. We've had several employee's leave and on-boarding new hires was easier than it has ever been as things are uniform and consistent across the entire application.
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Alternatives Considered
Kayako is way more scalable than Spiceworks' helpdesk offering. We had trouble visualizing our current layout within their environment. Zendesk was priced quite a bit higher than Kayako while offering similar functionality. It didn't make sense to want to migrate to a new platform. We have also evaluated various Sharepoint-based help desks, but their speed and reliability did not match our standards for what a help desk should be.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Kayako has helped our business to grow by allowing us to scale our help desk to accommodate more client companies in an efficient manner.
  • Kayako has allowed our customers to have more direct control over their help desk tickets and has made it easier for them to interface directly with our help desk staff.
  • The built-in chat features in Kayako that tie to our main website has allowed prospective customers to chat with our sales teams right away, resulting in more business.
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No answers on this topic
ScreenShots

UseResponse Screenshots

Screenshot of Help CenterScreenshot of Knowledge Base (Self Service)Screenshot of Live ChatScreenshot of Agents InterfaceScreenshot of Idea PageScreenshot of Dashboard