Custom software guide

What is the best customer portal for support and ticketing?

Zendesk is the best customer portal for support and ticketing, because it is built as a help center and ticket tracker and is priced by the support agent and not by the customer. A custom portal built by Black Badger ranks third, and it fits when a ticket has to sit beside the order, asset or contract it is about.

Updated November 14, 2026 How we rank

Best customer portal for support and ticketing. Updated November 14, 2026.
Rank	Option	Best for	Price	Main limit
1	Zendesk	Support teams that want a help center with ticket tracking	Suite Professional $115 an agent a month, billed yearly	Customer portal starts on Suite Professional, priced per support agent
2	HubSpot Service Hub	Companies already on HubSpot that want tickets visible to clients	Professional from $90 a seat a month, billed yearly	Portal needs a Professional or Enterprise seat and tickets linked to chats
3	Custom build by Black Badger	Support that depends on the order, asset or contract behind it	One-time build scoped in writing, no per-seat fee	Needs a scoping call first, and suits companies of 50 or more employees
4	Salesforce Experience Cloud	Service teams that already work their cases in Salesforce	Service Portal $4 a login or $10 a member a month	Priced per login or per named member, and object access starts restricted
5	Zoho Creator	Companies with a request process no help desk models	Standard $8 a user a month billed yearly, plus portal add-on	Portal users are a paid add-on, and Standard allows one application
6	Softr	Teams that log requests as records in a table tool	Basic $19 a month billed yearly, $25 billed monthly	Client users are capped, at 250 on Pro and 500 on Business

The ranking, entry by entry

1 Zendesk

Best for support teams that want a help center with ticket tracking

Zendesk is first because support is the whole product. Customers search a help center, raise tickets and follow them, and you pay per agent however many customers do so. The pricing table marks the customer portal and the Service Catalog for Suite Professional, at $115 an agent a month billed yearly or $149 billed monthly. That plan allows up to five help centers, which helps a company with several brands or regions.

Watch for. Suite Team, at $55 an agent a month billed yearly, allows one help center with basic theme customization. Widget unbranding is not included on any of the three listed plans.

Price: Suite Professional $115 an agent a month, billed yearly Prices are per agent. Suite Professional is $149 an agent a month billed monthly. Suite Team is $55 billed yearly and $69 monthly, and Suite Enterprise plus Copilot is not listed, so contact sales. The customer portal row on the comparison table is marked for Suite Professional only.
Main limit: Customer portal starts on Suite Professional, priced per support agent
Checked: November 14, 2026 on zendesk.com

2 HubSpot Service Hub

Best for companies already on HubSpot that want tickets visible to clients

HubSpot Service Hub is second. For a company that already runs HubSpot, the customer portal lets clients track tickets, reply to updates and search the knowledge base without a second vendor. It is available to Professional and Enterprise customers, from $90 a seat a month billed yearly. It ranks behind Zendesk because the portal shows only tickets linked to conversations, and emails outside a conversation thread do not appear.

Watch for. Access groups for the portal and private knowledge base are limited to 2 on Professional and 100 on Enterprise. Professional adds a required one-time onboarding fee of $1,500.

Price: Professional from $90 a seat a month, billed yearly The page shows $90 and $100 for Professional and labels $90 as the annual rate, which reads as $100 on monthly payment. Enterprise starts at $150 a seat a month and is sold through sales. Professional carries a required one-time onboarding fee of $1,500 and Enterprise $3,500. HubSpot says the customer portal is for Professional and Enterprise customers.
Main limit: Portal needs a Professional or Enterprise seat and tickets linked to chats
Checked: November 14, 2026 on hubspot.com

3 Custom build by Black Badger

Best for support that depends on the order, asset or contract behind it

A custom portal ranks third on a support list, and we would not put it higher. Black Badger publishes this guide and builds portals, and for plain ticketing a support product is the right tool. The case for custom is when support cannot be separated from your own records. A customer opens a request against a specific order, machine or contract, and your staff need that record on the same screen. We build the request flow into the portal that already shows those records.

Watch for. If your team needs a full agent workspace, keep the support product and we connect it to the portal. That choice is made in discovery.

Price: One-time build scoped in writing, no per-seat fee After launch you pay running costs such as hosting, database and email. There are no licenses, so adding a person adds no fee.
Main limit: Needs a scoping call first, and suits companies of 50 or more employees
Checked: November 14, 2026 on blackbadger.biz

What a custom build involves, and how to ask about one

4 Salesforce Experience Cloud

Best for service teams that already work their cases in Salesforce

Salesforce Experience Cloud ranks fourth. The plan on the pricing page is named Service Portal, which tells you support is its intended use, at $4 a login or $10 a member a month. For a company whose service team already works in Salesforce, customers see and update the same records. It ranks fourth because every external user is licensed, where Zendesk and HubSpot charge by the agent or seat.

Watch for. The page says prices may change and to contact sales for detailed pricing. Object access on community profiles starts restricted.

Price: Service Portal $4 a login or $10 a member a month Salesforce's pricing page calls this plan Service Portal and does not use the name Experience Cloud. Prices are in USD, the page says they may change and to contact sales for detailed pricing. Experience Cloud also has Customer Community, Customer Community Plus, Partner Community, External Apps and External Identity licenses, and the page shows no prices for those.
Main limit: Priced per login or per named member, and object access starts restricted
Checked: November 14, 2026 on salesforce.com

5 Zoho Creator

Best for companies with a request process no help desk models

Zoho Creator is fifth. It is a platform for building applications and is not a help desk. You can build a request and tracking application on it with your own data model and workflows. That suits a company whose support process is closer to a service order than a ticket. It ranks fifth because you build and maintain it yourself, and customers come in as portal users on a separately priced add-on.

Watch for. Portal permission sets are capped at 10 per app on Standard and 50 on Professional. Add-on prices for portal users are not published.

Price: Standard $8 a user a month billed yearly, plus portal add-on Standard is $12 a user a month billed monthly, Professional $20 billed yearly or $30 monthly, and Enterprise $25 billed yearly or $37 monthly. Portal users are a separate add-on sold in tiers from 250 to 100,000 portal users, and the pages read show no add-on prices. Flex is quoted.
Main limit: Portal users are a paid add-on, and Standard allows one application
Checked: November 14, 2026 on zoho.com

6 Softr

Best for teams that log requests as records in a table tool

Softr ranks sixth. It is here for the company whose support requests are already tracked as records in a table tool and whose customers only need to submit a request and see its status. Softr puts that view on top quickly, from $99 a month billed yearly on Pro with 50 client users included. It is last because it suits a modest number of customers and does not suit deep custom logic.

Watch for. Client users are capped at 250 on Pro and 500 on Business. Users with free email domains count as client users.

Price: Basic $19 a month billed yearly, $25 billed monthly From Softr's docs, since the pricing page did not load as text. Pro is $99 billed yearly or $119 monthly, Business is $329 yearly or $395 monthly, and Enterprise is custom. Basic allows 5 team users and 5 client users with no add-on. Pro allows up to 250 client users, and Business up to 500.
Main limit: Client users are capped, at 250 on Pro and 500 on Business
Checked: November 14, 2026 on softr.io

How this list was ranked

We ranked for a company whose customers mainly log in to get help, raise a ticket and follow it. Fit to that job came first, then how the vendor charges, since a model priced by agent behaves differently from one priced by customer when the customer base is large.

The custom route is third here on purpose. A support product is the right first answer for plain ticketing, and Black Badger, which publishes this guide, says so.

Questions buyers ask

Is a help center the same as a customer portal?

A help center is one kind of portal. It covers articles and tickets. A wider customer portal also shows things that belong to the customer, such as orders, invoices, projects and documents. A company can start with a help center and add the wider kind later.

Which help desk plans include a customer portal?

On the dates we checked, Zendesk marked the customer portal for Suite Professional among its three listed plans, and HubSpot said its customer portal is for Service Hub Professional and Enterprise customers. Confirm on each vendor's pricing page before you budget.

Can help desk software show customers their order or invoice data?

The two support products on this list are not a fit for a company that wants customers to see orders, projects or invoices from its own systems. If that is the goal, look at the list for showing ERP data, or connect the support product to a portal that holds those records.