An effective ticketing system is essential for efficient IT operations. Studies show that 86% of service teams see a productivity boost after implementing a help desk system. Modern ticketing platforms offer AI-driven automation, analytics, and seamless integrations, helping teams manage incidents, service requests, and changes more effectively.
This guide covers the key features of ticketing software and highlights the top vendors to consider in 2026.
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What is Ticket Management?
Ticket Management is the structured process of receiving, categorizing, prioritizing, routing, and resolving IT incidents and service requests, which are captured in the system (ITSM software, help desk) as support tickets.
These requests can include reporting software bugs, hardware failures, or network issues, as well as asking for system access, password resets, or new software installations. Effective ticket management ensures accountability, enforces service level agreements (SLAs), and provides visibility into workload and resolution metrics.
What is a ticketing system?
A ticketing system is software designed to capture, organize, and manage IT support requests and incidents from submission to resolution. Modern ticketing software includes automation features to route tickets, assign priorities, trigger notifications, and update status based on predefined workflows.
They also offer reporting, analytics, and dashboards to monitor performance, compliance, and trends, helping IT teams optimize processes and resolve issues faster.
What is a support ticket?
A support ticket is a digital record representing a user-reported issue or service request. It contains detailed information such as the requester, description of the problem, priority, and any actions taken.
Support tickets allow IT teams to maintain full traceability, manage the back-and-forth communication between users and support staff, and track the request’s progress until resolution, ensuring that nothing is overlooked.
Why do you need a Ticket Management system?
A Ticket Management system is essential for organizations that want to handle IT incidents and service requests efficiently. Without it, requests can get lost, priorities can be mismanaged, resolution times increase, and overall service quality suffers.
With Ticket Management software, companies can centralize all support requests, enforce service level agreements (SLAs), and maintain accountability across IT teams.
Modern systems also offer automation to route tickets, notifications to keep users informed, and reporting tools to monitor performance and identify recurring issues. This not only improves productivity but also enhances user satisfaction and provides a clear audit trail for every request.
Beyond day-to-day operations, a ticketing system helps organizations detect trends and recurring problems. Through these insights, it can guide decisions around process improvement, staffing, and technology investments. It also builds institutional knowledge by capturing past interactions and resolutions, which support teams can reference to resolve future requests faster. Over time, this contributes to a more mature, responsive IT service approach that aligns with business needs and improves the overall user experience.
5 benefits of ticketing software
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Centralized request management: All incidents and service requests are logged in a single system, preventing requests from being lost or overlooked.
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Improved accountability and traceability: Each ticket tracks the requester, actions taken, status updates, and resolution history, ensuring full visibility across the IT team.
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Faster resolution and productivity: Automated workflows, priority routing, and SLA enforcement help teams resolve requests more efficiently.
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Enhanced reporting and analytics: Ticketing software provides insights into trends, workload distribution, and performance metrics, supporting better decision-making.
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Better user experience: Users receive updates on their requests, can communicate directly through the ticket, and gain confidence that their issues are being handled systematically.
How does a ticketing system process work?
A ticketing system follows a structured flow that automates and guides support tasks from start to finish. While agents take action at key points, the system moves the ticket forward based on pre-configured logic, routing rules, and status updates.
Here’s how the process typically works:
- Ticket creation: The process begins when a user submits a request—usually through a portal, email, or chatbot. The system captures the user’s input, logs it as a new ticket, and records key information like contact details, issue description, urgency, and any attachments.
- Categorization and prioritization: Once created, the system applies categorization rules to label the ticket (e.g., software issue, access request). It then calculates the priority level based on predefined conditions such as impact, urgency, or SLA requirements. This step helps queue the ticket appropriately in the system.
- Automated routing and assignment: Based on the ticket's category and priority, the system routes it to the most suitable team or technician. Some setups include triage workflows or load balancing logic to distribute tickets evenly. Manual reassignment is possible, but in many cases, the system handles this automatically.
- Investigation and diagnosis: Once assigned, the technician reviews the ticket, communicates with the user if clarification is needed, and investigates the issue. The system may surface knowledge base articles or past related tickets to support diagnosis.
- Resolution: After identifying a fix or solution, the technician applies it and documents the steps taken. The system updates the ticket’s status and may notify the user automatically.
- Verification: Some systems pause the workflow here to wait for user confirmation. If verification is needed, the system prompts the user to confirm that the issue is resolved. If not, the ticket remains open or may be escalated.
- Closure: Once resolved and confirmed, the system transitions the ticket to a closed state. Details of the resolution are stored in the ticket history, supporting reporting and future reference.
- Follow-up: Many systems are configured to send a short survey after closure. This feedback loop helps measure support quality and pinpoint areas for improvement.
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8 key features of IT ticketing systems
The IT ticketing system market is a crowded one, but here are the essential features to look for:
1. Ticket logging and management
The clue is in the name! The most important thing your ticketing system needs to be able to do is to log and manage tickets quickly and effectively to establish a seamless ticketing process flow.
It should be easy to raise, update, and resolve issues, and you should be able to create templates of your most commonly occurring tickets.
2. Self-service capabilities
A self-service portal, service catalog, and knowledge base allow end-users to become more self-sufficient by empowering them to log and update their own incidents and service requests.
3. Omnichannel support
Colleagues don't all contact IT in the same way. Some call, some email, and some show up in person. So, having a strategy for ensuring that everyone is treated transparently and fairly, no matter how the ticket was logged, is essential.
Thus, ensure that your go-to ticketing platform can integrate with tools such as Zapier, Microsoft Teams, and email to enable IT to support customers using their preferred channels.
4. Ticket routing
It's not just about logging and resolving incidents and service requests; you must also route them effectively. Sometimes, you have to assign an incident to a different team or the next level of support if more specialized knowledge is required.
To achieve this, help desk tools must provide features like automatic assignment of tickets, workflows, and simple ticket escalation options. Regardless of your ticketing system, ticket reassignments and escalations are vital parts of the ticket management lifecycle. So, ensure your tool can support this and that the functionality is easy to use.
5. Automation
Your ticketing system can use workflow automation to free up your help desk to focus on the most valuable customer interactions. Create workflows to automate routine processes across IT and the rest of the business.
6. Integrations
The help desk is too important to work alone, so look at how it can link to other systems within your organization. One integration in particular to leverage is combining support ticketing systems with an Asset Management platform because it'll provide your agents with all the information they need to solve issues faster and more efficiently.
7. Reporting & analytics
There's nothing like solid metrics to keep us all accountable. Done well, reporting can help identify blockers and pain points and be used as the basis for Problem Management and continuous improvement practices.
8. AI capabilities
Artificial intelligence is leading the way when it comes to technology innovations that help enhance the efficiency, precision, and user satisfaction of service processes.
The implementation of AI-driven features introduces intelligent automation and predictive insights, leading to the simplification and streamlining of Ticket Management in the IT support domain.
This includes functions such as summarizing tickets, creating knowledge article drafts, and suggesting improvements to agents answers. This way, it doesn't just improve the workflow for support agents but also heightens the overall experience for end-users.
5 steps to implement a ticketing system
Implementing a ticketing system is one of the most important actions you can take to improve your organization's IT service provision. We have an ITSM implementation checklist to help you out, but in short, remember the following:
- Assess current IT support processes
Observe your help desk team in action. Walk through how it handles incidents, service requests, and routine tasks. Identify bottlenecks, common request types, response times, and existing handoff practices. Document workflows, responsibilities, and escalation paths to understand where improvements are needed. -
Define support hierarchy and roles
Establish the structure of your service teams, including help desk tiers, specialized groups, and escalation paths. Assign responsibilities and permissions to ensure accountability and clear ownership of requests across teams and levels. -
Set up ticket structure and workflows
Create ticket categories, priorities, and statuses. Map how requests flow between teams, including automatic escalations for unresolved or urgent issues. Include clear procedures for back-and-forth communication with users while maintaining a complete record of all actions. -
Configure automation, notifications, and integrations
Implement automatic ticket assignments, status updates, notifications, and routing rules. Connect the system to email, chat, monitoring tools, asset management, and other IT platforms to centralize information, reduce manual work, and maintain traceability across all interactions. -
Test, train, and optimize
Conduct end-to-end testing of workflows, automations, and integrations. Train IT staff and end-users on submitting, updating, and resolving tickets efficiently. Gather feedback, monitor performance metrics such as resolution times and workload distribution, and refine configurations before full deployment.
10 best ticketing systems for 2026
1. InvGate Service Management
InvGate Service Management is a service desk ticketing system that centralizes requests, incidents, and changes in a single ticket management interface. It lets agents assign, prioritize, and track tickets while automating repetitive steps to reduce resolution time.
Beyond ticket management, the platform includes workflow design, self-service portals, and reporting.
InvGate Service Management software features
- An intuitive ticketing system.
- Self-service capabilities (knowledge base, self-service portal, and service catalog).
- Support automation features (a no-code workflow builder, alerts, and notifications).
- Customizable reporting and dashboards.
- ITIL-certified practices.
- Add-on modules to include Asset Management and gamification.
- SLA Management.
- AI capabilities.
And you can explore all of these for free for 30 days or navigate through the live demo.
InvGate Service Management pricing
Pricing starts at $17/agent/month (billed annually).InvGate Service Management reviews and rating
- Gartner: 4.6
- G2: 4.7
"InvGate has been incredibly easy to customize to our organization's needs, the interface feels modern and well designed, and we like all of the functionality offered with their product compared to our previous help desk software. Their customer support is very fast and always available whenever we have a question or an issue, and they are always very nice to work with."
User Review from Gartner, IT system administrator.
2. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine is developed by Zoho Corporation. It's ticket system organizes and routes tickets based on categories, priorities, and SLAs, giving IT teams more control over support operations. It extends into Asset Management and Change Management, and can be deployed on-premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid model. Integrations are available with other ManageEngine tools and third-party apps.
ManageEngine pricing
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has three pricing tiers:
- Standard: $ 13 per technician per month.
- Professional: $27 per technician per month.
- Enterprise: $67 per technician per month.
ManageEngine review rating
- Gartner: 4.3
- G2: 4.2
"It has many built in modules like change management, problem management. Also it can be easily integrated with Manage Engine's other solutions. Initial configuration and implementation are a bit tricky and need some patience."
User review from G2, Network Operations Engineer
3. Hornbill
Hornbill is a help desk ticketing system designed to streamline IT and business workflows. It centralizes service requests, enabling teams to track, prioritize, and resolve issues efficiently. With features like automation, reporting, and self-service portals, it helps organizations improve response times and maintain SLA compliance.
Hornbill software features
- Customizable workflows
- Self-Service portal
- Collaboration tools
- Analytics and reporting
- Integrations with third-party tools and systems
Hornbill pricing
Hornbill uses a subscription pricing model charged per user per month, but exact prices are not publicly disclosed. While basic customer support is included, Hornbill offers three distinct support plans that require additional fees, allowing organizations to select higher levels of support based on their needs.
Hornbill reviews and rating
- Gartner: 4.1
- G2: 4.5
"The best part about Hornbill Service Manager is how easy it is to use It helps us track service requests and its customizable workflows are really helpful for making our work easier. Hornbill Service Manager does not integrate well with some other tools we use, so moving data around can be hard. Also, setting it up was a bit tricky and needed more help than we thought."
User review from G2, Associate Process Analyst
4. TOPdesk
TOPdesk provides a help desk ticketing system widely used by IT, HR, and facilities teams. Its ticket management system allows staff to register, assign, and monitor requests while keeping users updated through a self-service portal. Known for its user-friendly approach, it also covers change and knowledge management.
TOPdesk software features
- Incident and Problem Management
- Change Management
- Self-Service portal
- Reporting and analytics
- Integrations
TOPdesk pricing
Pricing starts at $66 per user/month. Plans include Essential, Engaged, and Excellent tiers.TOPdesk reviews and rating
- Gartner: 4.5
- G2: 4.2
"Topdesk is our main ticketing tool where user can log their ticket via email or via the self-service portal. Our experience isn't that great seeing as we need to hire a consultant every time we need a change to the system. There seems to be no built-in ITIL framework. [We like] the ability to set up a knowledge base which then pops up at tickets that pick up on the same topic. Topdesk also offers various third-party tools and services."
User review from Gartner, System Engineer
5. Ivanti Neurons
Ivanti Neurons for ITSM is a support ticketing system that automates large parts of the request lifecycle through its Neurons automation platform. Tickets are categorized, prioritized, and routed automatically, helping IT teams manage incidents, changes, and problems with less manual work. It can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud and connects tightly with Ivanti’s device and security management products.
Ivanti Neurons software features
- ITIL-aligned processes
- Integration with IT Asset Management
- Omnichannel support
- CMDB
Ivanti Neurons pricing
Ivanti Neurons for ITSM costs vary depending on the number of users and the features selected. The pricing isn't disclosed.
Ivanti Neurons reviews and rating
- Gartner: 4.2
- G2: 3.9
"Responses to issues with the system are slow. Communication with operational incidents is limited. Innovator previews are great and informative Feature updates are brilliant. The roadmap looks great."
User review from Gartner, ITSM Analyst
6. SysAid
SysAid combines ticket management with built-in asset information. It gives agents the ability to log, track, and resolve incidents while having device data linked directly to the ticket system software. SysAid supports both on-premise and cloud use and integrates with remote control, monitoring, and communication tools.
SysAid pricing
SysAid has three pricing tiers, Help Desk, ITSM, and Enterprise, but the price point isn't disclosed.SysAid reviews and rating
- Gartner: 4.4
- G2: 4.5
"SysAid is a cost effective ITSM tool compared to the most of the ITSM tools in the market. Overtime ticket logging in SysAid has been improved. I love the BI Analytics that has been implemented as it helps us track SLA's. I like the Copilot introduced, as it makes it ease to integrate with available knowledge sources to help user resolve issues quickly."
User review from G2, Service Catalog, Asset and Configuration Analyst
7. Freshservice
Freshservice, developed by Freshworks,by Freshworks is a cloud-based ticket management system known for its intuitive interface. It helps IT teams manage tickets across incidents, problems, and changes, using automation to cut down repetitive tasks. This IT ticketing software connects with a wide range of apps, from collaboration platforms to monitoring tools, making it suitable for organizations seeking quick deployment and integrations.
Freshservice software features
- Integrations with communication tools to provide omnichannel support
- Knowledge base and self-service options
- AI capabilities
Freshservice pricing
Freshservice offers four pricing tiers:
- Starter: $19/agent/month.
- Growth: $49/agent/month
- Pro: $99/agent/month
- Enterprise, custom pricing.
All plans are billed annually.
Freshservice reviews and rating
- Gartner: 4.3
- G2: 4.6
"Its ease of use, straightforward installation, excellent ticket management system, and rock-solid technical support are all features that I appreciate. Both tickets and assets are handled effectively. There should be more regular updates in the areas of change management and reporting, as these are often lacking."
User review from G2, IT Project Manager
8. Zendesk
Zendesk started as a customer support ticketing system but also serves IT teams needing a modern IT help desk. It centralizes requests across email, chat, and other channels into a unified ticketing platform, making it easier to track and respond. Fully cloud-based, it integrates with hundreds of third-party apps, particularly useful for companies with strong customer-facing and IT support needs.
Zendesk software features
- Self-service capabilities
- Omnichannel support features
- AI and bots
- Collaboration tools
- Integrations
Zendesk pricing
- $19/agent/month (billed annually).
Zendesk reviews and rating
- Gartner: 4.4
- G2: 4.3
"Zendesk for service helps us deliver exceptional customer experiences and streamline our support operations. Integrates seamlessly with most of the platforms we use, and this ensures all customer data is in one place."
User review from Gartner, Electrical Engineer
9. SolarWinds Service Desk
SolarWinds Service Desk is a cloud-based IT ticket system with features for incident, problem, and change management. Its support ticket software helps IT teams log, prioritize, and automate responses, while the knowledge base reduces recurring requests. It integrates seamlessly with other SolarWinds monitoring and infrastructure tools, making it a good fit for organizations already in their ecosystem.
Solarwinds software features
- Integrated IT Asset management
- Self-service options
- Problem, Change, and Incident Management
Solarwinds pricing
There are three pricing tiers for SolarWinds Service Desk.
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- Essentials: $39 per month / per technician
- Advanced: $79 per month per technician
- Premier: $99 per month / per technician
Solarwinds reviews and rating
- Gartner: 4.3
- G2: 4.3
"We use SolarWinds Service Desk to support a company of about 350 employees, with the IT, finance, and production teams all using the platform. The interface is easy to use and customizable to a degree. We rely heavily on the automation tools, task lists, dashboards, change management features, employee portal, and service catalog. Some of the automation options are limited—you can’t always access certain fields you’d like to use in automation rules. Built-in remote support would also be a useful addition. The email log doesn’t always show the full history, which can make tracking communications harder."
User review from G2, IT Manager
10. Marval
Lastly, Marval is an ITIL-aligned service desk ticketing system that has been in the market for decades. It provides structured ticket management for incidents, problems, and changes, while also extending into enterprise service management use cases. Available in both on-premise and cloud deployments, it connects with monitoring, authentication, and other enterprise systems to support large-scale operations.
Marval pricing
Not disclosed.Marval reviews and rating
- Gartner: 3.5
- G2: Not listed.
"Knowledgeable staff with a commitment to service management/delivery, keys to designing and implementing any tool. Easy to upgrade, maintain and its reliable and meets business needs. Functionally, it is a great product, but the UI could use a refresh in my view."
User review from Gartner, Service Delivery Manager
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The bottom line
The reality is that a ticketing system will enable your IT support teams to handle support requests more effectively and efficiently, delivering better outcomes to end-users. It will help you manage, control, and protect your IT infrastructure, keep costs under control, and plan for future challenges.
When selecting ticketing system software, don't forget to keep in mind your company's needs and must-have features such as automation, integrations, and self-service capabilities – they will make the difference in the long run, we can assure you!
Lastly, if you want to know if InvGate Service Management is the right tool for your organization, our experts are ready to jump in and answer your questions!
