Are you worried that purchasing and deploying your very own IT support help desk software will cost you a bomb? How much do you think a great piece of software will cost? $100? $50? $10? How about free?

Yes, it's true that there are free help desk software available for download in the marketplace. Let's take a look at some of them to determine if they're any good.

There are two types of free help desk software. The first type are what we call open source software. Open source software allows developers from all over the world to help develop the software.

The drawbacks of this model is that since it's not profit driven, the developers may appear to respond randomly to customer feedback. For example, there may be an important module that may have been long overdue and no one made it their responsibility to work on it since it's open source! In addition, support is not always readily available.

But the greatest advantage of open source software is that it's free. There are no development costs, no wages to pay and no project teams to manage. And so many companies reviewing open source software find it very easy to live with the features currently available.

After all, if the help desk software becomes a vital piece of software to the Company, the business can always invest in the software to further develop the help desk software. That's a great benefit over commercial software.

The other type of freely available help desk software are those offered as free trials. These are commercial software and you may have to purchase licenses if you want to continue using the software.

There are several types of free trial help desk software. The most commonly seen trial software offers limited features and often expire after a certain period of time, thereby forcing the trial user to come to a decision.

Still, there are some free help desk software that allows users to try to their heart's content without expiring. The software is limited by features only, and to activate those features, the user will have to purchase the software.

The greatest advantage commercial software has over open source software is the availability of support. Nothing beats having a responsive support team to respond to your IT software needs during an emergency. This is something that the open source community cannot offer.

Also, since it's a business transaction, customers are often better taken care of. There may be specialized account managers who know your business better than the open source community. This means having the ability to serve your organization's needs better, and also having the potential to create custom modules that serve more specialized needs.

But since it's enterprise software we're talking about, it comes with a price tag. The good news is, in recent times, enterprise level help desk software has become very affordable. In fact, it has become so affordable that you now cannot afford not to have it for your business. The benefits have been proven many times over to far outweigh the negligible costs.

And if cost is still a concern to you, consider open source software or free trial software. Those will serve you until you're ready for more powerful help desk software features.

As an executive, sometimes you just have to take the first step forward. And free sounds good. There's no risk. No matter how you decide, any decision is still better than no decision. So consciously choose to download a free trial today.

What type of software are you looking to download? Help desk software CD burning software Audio, video player Office software (e.g. MS Office) Free Internet browser Anti virus software