Service desk is not for our actual customers, right?

Question

We are a small company, 15 user JIRA instance.  What intrigues me about service desk is if it can replace our helpdesk solution (which is helpscout.com right now).  However, the way I understand it is that it is just for 'internal' people to ask questions to the 'IT' department.  Even though Atlassian documentation and marketing refers to 'customers' they really mean 'employees' or 'team members' NOT the general public who are your paying customers.  Am I right?

If this will replace helpscout I'm in.  If not then I don't think it makes sense at $25 per user for our 15 users, which would make it more expensive than JIRA itself (again I might be confused on this pricing point).

Thanks,

Elisa [Atlassian] · Answer

David, on JIRA Service Desk (JSD) you will have agents and JIRA collaborators. Each agent will consume both a JIRA and a JIRA Service Desk user license. So, for the price of your JSD you will have to count how many agents you have (starting with 3 agents for $20/month). Be aware that you can also have JIRA collaborators (they will only count as one JIRA user license). They will be able to: View issues, comments and attachments; Add attachments and delete their own attachments; and add internal comments to issues and delete their own comments.
Please let us know if this answers your question. :)
Cheers!

David Mineer · Answer

Ok, that's great, I think I was wrong above and actual customers are free. No the only thing that wasn't clear, although I think I understand was the JIRA User - Agent pricing.  If I understand it correctly JIRA users are not already included in service desk and anyone that needs access to both will be an extra $25.  More than JIRA + helpscout (helpscout is $15 per user) but staying in one app will definitely be good.

Thinking out loud here. If you see any error to my thinking please let me know.  Thanks.

Elisa [Atlassian] · Answer

Hi David,

Atlassian has released Atlassian JIRA Service Desk 2.0 that I believe fits your needs just fine.

If you have some time, please read through our FAQ to have a better understanding of how it is going to work.

Otherwise, please ask as many questions as you can! We will be happy to answer you.

Cheers!