10 Best Customer Portal Software Solutions in 2024

Over the past couple of years, working with customer support software has taught me one essential thing: customers have a lot of questions, as they should. As a customer myself, I want to know everything before committing to a service, or buying a product. 

In B2B businesses, this curiosity is often met with a customer portal—a space where customers can find answers on their own, without the wait.

Customers today don’t just appreciate quick service; they expect it. They want answers right when they need them, and that’s where a good customer portal is useful. 

It’s not just about convenience for the customer; it’s also a huge help for support agents who can then focus on solving more complex issues instead of answering the same basic questions over and over. And for businesses, it’s a win because happy, informed customers stay loyal .

Understanding this, I set out to find the best customer portal software. In this blog, I’ve pulled together the top options, comparing their features, pricing, and how they could fit into your business. 

Table of Contents

• What is customer portal software? 
• 10 best customer portal software solutions in 2024
  • 1. Hiver 
  • 2. Zendesk 
  • 3. Freshdesk 
  • 4. Salesforce 
  • 5. Copilot 
  • 6. Zoho Desk 
  • 7. HappyFox
  • 8. TeamSupport 
  • 9. Help Scout 
  • 10. Intercom   
• Select the best customer portal software 

What is customer portal software?

Customer portal software is a digital platform that helps customers access personalized information and services related to their accounts with a business. 

It serves as a central hub where customers can find all the information and resources they need, without having to contact customer support directly. Here’s what they can do:

• View order history
• Track shipments
• Submit support requests
• Access self-help resources like FAQs and knowledge bases
• Track the progress of ongoing services

Amazon’s customer support portal is a good example to understand a customer portal. 

When you visit their customer service page, the first thing that stands out is the personalized greeting: “Welcome to Amazon Customer Service, [your name].” It instantly creates a connection between you and the brand.

Next, you’ll notice how everything is neatly organized. The information you might need, whether it’s for login problems, device issues, or something else, is sorted into clear categories. It’s as if Amazon has stepped into the customers’ shoes and anticipated exactly what questions they might have.

10 best customer portal software solutions in 2024

Today, there are plenty of customer portal software options available. Before choosing one, it’s important to think about the specific problems you’re trying to solve for your customers. 

Consider which features will be the most helpful for your business, your support team, and your customers. I’ve put together a detailed list of the 10 best options. This list will help you check out everything that these tools offer, and then decide which tool is the best fit for you.

1. Hiver

Hiver is a customer support tool that seamlessly integrates with Gmail and Outlook, making it easy to handle support requests right from your inbox. It has a customer portal, where customers can submit their issues and track the progress all in one place.

What’s also great is that you can brand the portal with your logo and colors, giving it a consistent look that feels like part of your company. If you manage multiple shared inboxes, Hiver lets you set up individual portals for each one, each with its own custom URL. 

To cut down on repetitive questions, Hiver has a knowledge base that customers can access to find answers on their own. 

Benefits:

• Hiver makes it easy for customers to submit and track their issues. You can set up forms with custom fields to ensure your team gets all the details they need right from the start. Once a customer submits an issue, they can track it themselves, seeing key details like when it was created, who’s handling it, and what the current status is.
• By letting customers submit and track their queries on their own, the self-service customer portal reduces the need for direct interaction with your team, freeing them up to tackle more complex problems.

Pricing:

Hiver’s customer portal is included in two pricing plans: the Pro plan at $49 per user per month and the top-tier Elite plan.

2. Zendesk

Zendesk, a customer support tool, offers a customer portal software called Zendesk Guide. Through this portal, customers can easily check the status of their support requests, follow updates in the knowledge base, and track any content or discussions they are involved in, all from a centralized location.

You can set up your help center in over 40 languages to serve customers in their native language, and it also supports multiple brands, products, service tiers, or regions. 

Besides, Zendesk’s AI tools help keep your portal up to date. Generative AI can turn bullet points into full articles, refine content, and adjust tone. 

Additionally, the portal integrates with Zendesk’s omnichannel ticketing system, so you can track and manage requests alongside other support channels, such as messaging, chat, email, or phone.

Benefits:

• Customers can easily look through their past interactions or tickets they’ve been copied on to find answers to questions they’ve already asked, which saves them time and reduces repetitive work for your team.
• Zendesk’s user portal allows you to add your logo and customize the look to match your brand. You can also create a seamless experience by using your own domain and enabling single sign-on.
• Customers can submit new requests directly through the Zendesk portal. You can customize the fields they need to fill out, making sure your support agents get all the necessary information to resolve issues quickly. 
• Zendesk’s portal also supports shared organizations, meaning that team members can view each other’s requests, making it easier to stay transparent and keep everyone on the same page when multiple people are involved.

As per a user review on G2, “Zendesk allows our customers to self-help due to the knowledge base, but also allows them to submit a ticket if additional assistance or support is needed. Once a ticket has been submitted, it’s easy to manage and respond.”

Pricing:

Zendesk’s customer portal is available in three plans: Suite Growth at $89 per agent per month, Suite Professional at $115 per agent per month, and Suite Enterprise at $169 per agent per month.

But I’ve got to say, Zendesk is pretty pricey—almost double the cost of Hiver. On top of that, I’ve found that the customization options in their customer portal aren’t as flexible as you might expect. Just something to keep in mind when you’re weighing your options.

3. Freshdesk

​​Freshdesk is a customer support software, that offers various features to manage customer queries. Its self-service portal helps customers find answers to their questions, submit support tickets, and interact with your agents. 

The customization options are a key strength. You can tailor the look and feel of the portal to match your brand, making it an integrated part of your business rather than an add-on. 

Additionally, Freshdesk’s ticket forms make it easy for customers to contact you through the support portal. They gather all the necessary information upfront, so your agents don’t have to ask repetitive questions. 

Pros:

• Freshdesk helps you build a comprehensive self-service portal. The text editor offers various formatting options, including embedding images to make your articles more useful. It also supports different versions of articles and translations, so you can offer support in multiple languages. 
• Freshdesk makes sure your help content is search engine-friendly, so customers can easily find the right articles through online searches.
• With feedback and analytics, you can see how well your knowledge base is performing and make improvements where needed.
• It offers a range of ready-made themes to customize your portal. You can pick from their gallery and set it up without needing a developer. You can also import and manage up to 10 custom themes for each portal.

“Freshdesk has made the customer support team’s lives easy by organizing the email management coupled with automation and other options like a self-service portal has made it easier for us to manage the customer support function.” – Freshdesk user review | G2

Pricing:

Freshdesk offers four pricing tiers:

• Free plan
• Growth plan- $15 per user per month.
• Pro plan- $49 per user per month.
• Enterprise plan- $69 per user per month.

4. Salesforce

Salesforce is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that helps businesses manage everything from sales to customer support. Salesforce’s customer support portal includes a built-in knowledge base where customers can access solutions to common questions. 

The portal also makes it easy for customers to find the best answers by integrating third-party knowledge resources with Salesforce’s Unified Knowledge feature. This feature uses AI to pull up relevant content, helping customers get the information they need faster.

Benefits:

• Build a customer community with peer-to-peer forums for Q&A, groups, and interaction with top users. Offer a personalized feed for easy collaboration and sharing of knowledge.
• Use Einstein Service Agent to resolve cases through natural language chats across platforms like WhatsApp, Apple Messages, Facebook Messenger, and SMS. Customers can also share photos, videos, and audio for complex issues.
• Provide quick answers by integrating your knowledge base directly into your Help Center or via a bot, saving time for both customers and agents.
• Launch a branded self-service portal quickly with prebuilt templates and drag-and-drop tools. Use Experience Builder to style and customize your site with low-code options.

“The article creating feature enables the Salesforce users to build a stable knowledge base for future reference, with a very intuitive text editor and different levels of access.” – Salesforce user review | G2

Pricing:

This is how the pricing looks like. 

• The Help Centre is included starting from the Enterprise plan.
• The Service Catalog is only included in the Einstein 1 Service plan.
• Authenticated Portal and Customer Community are available for purchase as add-ons starting from the Professional plan.

5. Copilot

Copilot is a no-code solution that lets you create a customized customer portal, giving your clients a unified space for messaging, file-sharing, eSignatures, payments, forms, and self-serve support. 

It integrates with tools you might already be using, like Airtable and Calendly. You can also discover new tools built specifically for the Copilot platform or even create your own custom apps if you need something unique. What’s also great is the app marketplace, which lets you securely integrate with services like DocuSign for contracts, Stripe for payments, and Airtable for managing tasks. 

On top of that, Copilot makes it easy to build automations that save you time and minimize mistakes. You can set up workflows using triggers and actions, and even add custom fields for more specific needs. 

Benefits:

• You can fully white-label the portal, making it look like an integral part of your business. Clients won’t even realize they’re using a third-party platform, which adds to the professionalism of your service.
• Copilot makes it easy to handle contracts and documents with eSignatures. You can integrate tools like DocuSign right into the portal, so clients can sign documents without jumping through hoops. It keeps everything in one place, making the process smooth and hassle-free.
• One of the standout features is the ability to create real-time, customizable dashboards for your clients. They can see project updates, payment statuses, or any other relevant information at a glance, which reduces the need for constant updates.
• Whether it’s contracts, project files, or any other important documents, you can securely upload and download everything within the portal.

“I attempted to use other client portals for my consulting business and they did not work like Copilot. It’s easy to use and add on the branding features like custom domain and colors, it makes my client portal feel like mine!” – Copilot user review | G2

Pricing:

Here’s the pricing breakdown:

• Starter Plan: $29 per internal user
• Professional Plan: $69 per internal user
• Advanced Plan: $119 per internal user
• Supersonic Plan: Custom pricing based on platform and usage fees

6. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk gives companies a way to handle customer support. It offers a self-service customer portal feature, that’s really helpful for businesses that run more than one brand. You can set up separate help centers for each of your brands, and you get to decide exactly how they look and work. Every brand ends up with its own unique way of helping customers. 

You can adjust the appearance, set different service channels, and create brand-specific SLAs and notifications. The platform supports multiple languages allowing clients to communicate in their preferred language. This feature proves useful if you cater to a diverse customer base. 

The platform also supports multiple languages, making it easier for clients to interact in the language they’re most comfortable with. This feature is particularly valuable if you serve a diverse customer base.

Benefits:

• Zoho Desk enables clients to submit tickets from the help center. You can customize the ticket forms to collect specific information, and clients can monitor their request status in one place, which simplifies the process.
• It also provides a space for customers to engage with your team and each other. They can ask and answer questions, exchange ideas, and work together to solve problems fostering a sense of community.
• Customers can give ratings to Knowledge Base articles informing you which ones they find helpful and which might need updates.
• For issues that need more attention, customers can submit tickets and keep track of them through the Help Center. They can also respond to your team’s comments in the same place, making communication easier.

“We needed a simple knowledge base with help articles and a ticket system which keeps the enquiry and conversation threads together under a unique ticket number. Zohodesk worked well for us right out of the box, easily creating help articles and embedding them into our app and website support area.” – Zoho Desk user review | G2

However, for bulk imports into the knowledge base, you can’t upload everything at once; you have to upload content category by category.

Pricing:

• The free plan offers only private knowledge base for agents and article versioning features. 
• In the Standard Plan ($20/user/month),you get features like a private knowledge base for agents, a public knowledge base, dashboards, access to the themes gallery, and more.
• Upgrading to the Professional Plan ($35/user/month) adds a community dashboard, Google Analytics integration, and CSS customization on top of the features included in the Standard Plan.
• If you opt for the Enterprise Plan ($50/user/month),you’ll receive all the features in the Professional Plan, plus community gamification, an Answer Bot, and live chat. 

7. HappyFox

HappyFox is a customer support software that helps businesses manage their customer interactions. When it comes to their customer support portal, HappyFox offers a 24×7 self-service platform. 

With HappyFox, customers can handle everything in one place. This includes making a new ticket checking on existing tickets, or looking through knowledge base articles. Customers can also sign in using their Google or Twitter accounts, which saves them the trouble of setting up a new login. 

Meanwhile, your support team can focus on more complex problems, knowing that the portal is handling the routine questions and tasks.

Benefits:

• It offers a full knowledge base and FAQ setup that users can access without signing in. 
• HappyFox includes a user forum where customers can talk to each other, explore topics, share thoughts, and give feedback. 
• HappyFox provides a handy tool that brings together your help center, knowledge base, and ticket system in one place. Customers can look for answers, join forum talks, and send in tickets—all from a widget on the side of your webpage.

“HappyFox enabled us to setup a searchable knowledge base so our customers can find the answers to their questions very easily. It also enabled us to set up categories for different types of questions and issues which makes it easy for us to reply to important issues first.” – HappyFox user review | G2

Pricing:

The self-service portal is included in all the four plans of HappyFox. 

• Basic: $9/agent/month
• Team: $39/agent/month
• Pro: $89/agent/month
• EnterprisePRO: Pricing on request 

8. TeamSupport

TeamSupport is a customer support software for B2B technology and software companies. It offers a customer support portal that brings together various features for customer self-service.

A standout feature is the “Community” section, which gives users a place to connect with each other and company support experts. This forum-style area lets customers exchange ideas, raise questions, and offer feedback. It also serves as a space for users to help one another solve issues, which eases the burden on your support team.

Benefits:

• It integrates ai-powered chatbots into their portal. These chatbots can handle routine queries by mimicking human conversations. For more complex issues, the chatbot either directs the customer to the Knowledge Base or escalates the matter to a human agent, speeding up the resolution process.
• The “Customer Hub” puts all the important support information in one place. Customers can easily track their tickets, access product updates, and find the resources they need, all without needing to contact support.
• Posts in the Community are linked to support tickets, so your support team stays updated on what’s happening in the discussions. This keeps everyone on the same page and helps in providing more informed support.

“The best feature that TeamSupport offers is the Knowledge Base articles. This feature allows answers to common support issues to become community answers or documentation the end customer can access. This feature reduces the call time and eventually may eliminate some of the incoming call workloads.” – TeamSupport user review | G2

Pricing:

The self-service support feature is available in three of its pricing plans: 

• Essential Support ($35/agent/month)
• Professional Support ($49/agent/month)
• Enterprise Support (Custom pricing)

9. Help Scout

Help Scout is a customer support platform that makes self-service easy for both businesses and their customers. It offers a self-service customer portal feature through its two key tools: Docs and Beacon.

Docs

Docs is a knowledge base builder that allows businesses to create, organize, edit, and manage content for their self-service portal. It offers:

• A WYSIWYG editor for quick and easy content creation
• Customizable CSS to keep the help center on-brand
• Organization options and search capabilities to help customers find information easily
• Performance data to understand which articles are effective and where there are content gaps

Beacon

Beacon is a live chat widget that can be embedded on any page to give customers quick access to relevant Docs content. It allows businesses to:

• Set suggested articles per page to ensure content is always relevant
• Provide a clear path for customers to escalate issues and get personalized help from support agents if needed
• Track user activity on pages and articles to identify trends and optimize content

Benefits:

• The inclusion of AI tools, such as AI summarize and AI assist, helps customers get quick answers and improves the efficiency of support interactions.
• Help Scout allows businesses to send proactive messages and microsurveys, enhancing customer engagement and feedback collection.
• The Docs feature enables businesses to create a customizable help center where customers can access articles and FAQs, empowering them to find answers independently.

However, I came across a few limitations of its knowledge base while browsing through G2 reviews:

• “Wish we could secure the knowledge base website for only our application users so it was not public for everyone to see.” 
• “There is only one knowledge base template/design available; it will be great if we have different templates to choose from.”
• “HelpScout’s Docs text editor is horrendous. This is extremely frustrating because there are dozens of free Text Editor APIs on the market.” 

Pricing:

• Standard ($22 per user): Includes 1 Docs site where you can store and manage your help articles.
• Plus ($44 per user): Includes 2 Docs sites, offering more flexibility if you need multiple help centers. 
• Pro ($65 per user): Offers up to 10 Docs sites, making it ideal if you need several help centers for different products or services.

10. Intercom

Intercom is a customer service platform. As part of its service, Intercom also provides a self-service customer portal through its Help Center. The help center is pretty versatile, supporting 45 languages and integrating with a ton of third-party apps from the Intercom App Store. 

You can even set up automated welcome messages to greet users right when they need help. Customers can easily access help center articles through the company’s website, mobile app, and product interface, making self-service straightforward. 

Benefits:

• Intercom allows businesses to deploy custom bots that collect valuable upfront information from customers, prioritize urgent issues, and connect them with the appropriate team members.
• Make it easier for customers to solve issues independently by embedding apps like Content Showcase, Statuspage, or Shopify directly into your Business Messenger.
• Share help center articles across your website, mobile app, and product, so customers can easily access the information they’re looking for.
• Resolution Bot in Intercom can handle repetitive questions, helping to resolve common customer issues even when you’re not available, reducing repetitive queries. 

Pricing:

Intercom offers the following three pricing options: 

• Essential: $29 per seat per month
• Advanced: $85 per seat per month
• Expert: $132 per seat per month 

“In Intercom, there aren’t any customisation options for the layout of the help centre. It’s not a big issue, but having more customisation options for the layout (i.e. being able to add different columns of articles, rather than just one column) could help reduce the scrolling needed to reach a specific collection of articles.” – Intercom user review | G2

Select the best customer portal software

I hope this list of customer portal software gives you a clear picture of what each tool offers. When choosing the best self-service portal for your needs, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Ease of use: How simple is the portal for both your team and your customers?
• Customization: Can you tailor the portal to match your brand and specific needs?
• Integration: Does it work well with the tools and systems you already use?
• Support and resources: What kind of help and documentation is available if you run into issues?
• Pricing: Does the cost fit within your budget, and are there any hidden fees?

It’s also a good idea to take advantage of free trials and demos to see how each tool works in practice before making a decision. If you’re looking for a user-friendly customer portal that comes with great features, consider trying Hiver. You can start with a 7-day free trial to see if it’s the right fit for you.