9.2
SpotScore
Kayako Review: Is It The Right Help Desk Software For Your Team?
Best for SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise
Free Trial & Free Plan Available
GDPR
SOC 2Integrates with
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Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (formerly Pardot)Overview
Pricing
Features
Buyer feedback
Alternatives
Integrations
Customers
Media
Security & Compliance
Support
FAQ
Blogs
Spotsaas Analysis for Kayako
Kayako at 3.5/5 from 262 reviews and SpotScore 9.2 serves Customer Support Managers and IT Support Specialists at companies with 50–500 employees who need multi-channel help desk capabilities. The platform includes live chat, ticketing, and knowledge base tools in a single interface. Setup requires technical configuration time, which some teams find demanding relative to simpler competitors.
Help desk software routes customer inquiries across email, chat, phone, and social channels into a unified queue, then tracks resolution time and first-contact resolution rate. Kayako targets mid-market support teams that prioritize feature breadth over ease of deployment.
Quick picks:
What is Kayako?
Kayako is the premier customer support software, marketplace, and community for support teams. Kayako provides all the tools to create an engaging support experience for website visitors while delivering exceptional customer service. Kayako's chat support software helps businesses improve conversations with customers, close more sales and reduce the time they spend on live chat.
Pricing
Free Trial available
Best For
Suited for solo users, small teams, SMBs, and enterprise
Security & Compliance
SOC 2GDPRSSO & MFA supported
Data residency:Global
Platform
Web + mobile app (iOS & Android)
Kayako Software Demo
Kayako was reviewed internally using user feedback, in-house testing, and market research to assess its performance, reliability, and user experience. Learn how we review products and our evaluation process.
Who should consider Kayako
- Use cases
- E-commerce, SaaS, Telecommunications
- Team types
- Customer Support Manager, IT Support Specialist
- Company size
- 50-500 employees, 500+ employees
- Workflow style
- Flexible and configurable
- Setup complexity
- Medium
Why teams choose Kayako
Unified inbox consolidates customer inquiries from multiple channels
Multi-channel support including email, live chat, and social media
Automation tools that reduce manual tasks and improve efficiency
Is Kayako right for you?
Best for mid-sized support teams needing multi-channel help desk with automation.
Choose Kayako if
- You manage a 50-500+ employee company needing unified inbox across channels.
- You want to reduce manual support tasks with built-in automation tools.
- You value integrated chat support that also helps close more sales.
Consider alternatives if
- You are a very small business with fewer than 50 employees.
- You require highly specialized or advanced enterprise-level support features.
What buyers should know before shortlisting Kayako
Kayako stands out with its comprehensive suite of tools designed for customer engagement and support. Its live chat capabilities are particularly beneficial for businesses looking to enhance customer interactions.
Kayako pros and cons
- Kayako pros
Unified inbox consolidates customer inquiries from multiple channels
Multi-channel support including email, live chat, and social media
Automation tools that reduce manual tasks and improve efficiency
- Kayako cons
Average user rating of 3.5 indicates mixed user satisfaction
Pricing details are not clearly stated, complicating purchase decisions
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See how it stacks up
Compare Kayako side-by-side with top Help Desk Software alternatives.
What is the pricing of Kayako?
Kayako Pricing Plans
Weighing your options?
Not sure if Kayako fits your budget?
Kayako reviews and ratings
Buyer sentiment
Buyers appreciate Kayako's multi-channel support and automation but express concerns about pricing transparency and feature depth.
What buyers like
- Multi-channel support
- Automation capabilities
- Unified inbox
Common complaints
- Pricing transparency
- Feature limitations
Are you using Kayako?
What users are saying
B
Brandon
11/02/21
Top class help desk software and company
PROS & CONS What are the best aspects of this product? I love that Kayako is a stable and robust solution. We have been using the system for the ...
Read more
J
Janae
10/19/21
Improved customer satisfaction rating
PROS & CONS What are the best aspects of this product? Kayako allows us to centralize our help desk channels in one place. That means more ...
Read more
A
Annetta
09/22/21
Intuitive workflows equal user adoption
PROS & CONS What are the best aspects of this product? We've had a few failed tech adoption in the past, but Kayako showed that the whole company ...
Read more
AD
Aritari Drive
09/10/21
Kayako - do not use
Our company has been using Kayako since 2013 when we purchased the original downloadable version. We paid support fees that increased year on year ...
Read more
T
Trystan
08/31/21
Ideal for Startups and SMEs
PROS & CONS What are the best aspects of this product? I like how intuitive the software is. I was able to find my way around after going through ...
Read more
L
Laurie
07/19/21
We have a very positive experience with it.
PROS & CONS What are the best aspects of this product? We've had tried other help desk software and I can say Kayako is one of the easiest to set up ...
Read more
- See if Kayako fits your business
- Real pricing — no sales pressure
- A demo or quick answers, your call
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How big is your team?
We tailor recommendations to companies your size.
What are the features of Kayako?
Kayako's Alerts (Escalation) feature automatically notifies and prioritizes support tickets based on predefined conditions. Unresolved issue…
Kayako's Automated Routing directs incoming support tickets to the most appropriate agents or departments based on predefined rules. This fe…
Kayako's Community Forums help customers share questions, solutions, and standard approaches. These moderated spaces let users provide peer-…
A service level agreement (SLA) is a written contract between a service provider and a client that specifies the services to be provided and…
Kayako's Customizable Branding feature lets organizations align their help desk interface with company branding guidelines. Businesses can p…
Storing a document, usually, a digital document, in a document management system is known as document storage (DMS). We now employ electroni…
Kayako's Incident Management simplifies the identification, logging, classification, and resolution of service disruptions. It supports effi…
A knowledge base is a centralized documentation repository that includes frequently asked questions, how-to guides, and troubleshooting inst…
Kayako's Known Issue Management lets teams track, document, and communicate recurring problems affecting multiple customers. This feature he…
Live chat is a tool that allows employees to communicate with website users or with one another in real-time. It might be text, voice, or vi…
You can resolve cases or support issues faster and more efficiently with answer templates. Answer templates (previously known as templated s…
Kayako's Multi-Channel Communication lets customers interact across email, live chat, social media, phone, and web forms. It consolidates al…
Kayako's Self Service Portal lets customers find answers, track tickets, and engage with community content independently. It provides access…
Kayako's Social Media Integration connects support workflows with platforms like Twitter and Facebook, letting teams track and respond to is…
Kayako's Surveys & Feedback feature lets businesses gather customer insights after interactions through customizable satisfaction surveys. T…
Kayako's Ticket Management system provides a structured, centralized platform for tracking, assigning, and resolving customer inquiries. It…
Kayako security and data handling
Key compliance certifications and security features for IT and security teams evaluating Kayako.
Certifications
Security features
Developer & data
Alternatives to Kayako
Why buyers keep looking beyond Kayako
Customization options are limited — teams needing branded portals or custom fields typically switch to Zendesk or Freshdesk
Interface requires significant training time; onboarding new support staff takes 2–3 weeks longer than competitors
Pricing increases 15–25% annually without corresponding feature additions — teams over 20 agents often migrate to Intercom or Freshchat
API integration demands custom development; connecting to Salesforce or HubSpot requires engineering resources most SMBs lack
File uploads above 10MB fail or process slowly, forcing teams handling large documents to use external storage workarounds
Omnichannel routing is basic — no native SMS or WhatsApp support, requiring third-party tools that add cost and complexity
Kayako Integrations
Kayako Customers
Kayako Support Options
Frequently Asked Questions About Kayako
Common questions buyers ask before choosing Kayako.
Kayako is a Help Desk Software. Kayako offers Incident Management, Social Media Integration, Multi-Channel Communication, Macros (Templated Responses), Document Storage and many more functionalities.
Kayako is a strong fit if: You manage a 50-500+ employee company needing unified inbox across channels.; You want to reduce manual support tasks with built-in automation tools.. Consider alternatives if: You are a very small business with fewer than 50 employees.; You require highly specialized or advanced enterprise-level support features..
Buyers commonly note the following limitations of Kayako: Average user rating of 3.5 indicates mixed user satisfaction; Pricing details are not clearly stated, complicating purchase decisions; May lack advanced features required by very large enterprises or complex workflows.
Some top alternatives to Kayako includes Zoho Desk, Freshservice, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, Freshdesk and BoldDesk.
Kayako offers Free Trial, Freemium, One-time license pricing models
Yes, Kayako can integrate with
The starting price is not disclosed by Kayako. You can visit Kayako pricing page to get the latest pricing.
Free buyer scorecard
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About the reviewer
Rajat Gupta is the founder of Spotsaas. Over the past two years, he has reviewed 2,000+ tools across CRM, HR, AI, and finance — applying hands-on product research and a background in commerce and the CFA program to evaluate software through a business and ROI lens. His goal: help teams make software decisions they won't regret.
Disclaimer: This research has been collated from a variety of authoritative sources. We welcome your feedback at [email protected].
