Zendesk Competitors Overview

67% of customers feel customer service has improved. In no small part it is due to a broad variety of customer service software.

Today we focus on Zendesk chat software competition. There is a lot of software similar to Zendesk and support teams can leverage it to provide the best experience for their customers. 

What Is Zendesk? 

Zendesk has more than 150 thousand users and provides services in over 30 languages. 

Zendesk is a cloud-based customer support management solution. It is a fully customizable customer service portal that can be integrated with Salesforce, Google Analytics, and Shopify. Not all Zendesk competition have the same integrations. This makes it unique. 

Among the main Zendesk messenger competitors and alternatives are Freshdesk, Intercom and Live Agent. 

Before fully diving into Zendesk alternatives, let’s take a look at its advantages and ways it can be beneficial for support teams across all industries. 

Software Perks — What Companies Like Zendesk Can and Can’t Achieve?

Canned Messages

51% of customers want to see businesses available 24/7. 42% are not ready to wait for a response even for several minutes. Canned responses increase customers satisfaction, with 92% of customers feeling satisfied after using them. 

51% of users prefer canned responses for their multitasking feature. Cheaper alternatives than Zendesk can provide canned responses. Leveraging them correctly ensures a constantly high satisfaction KPI.

Ticket Prioritization

88% of customers want to get a response from a business within 60 minutes of their inquiry. The longer they have to wait, the lower the satisfaction KPI falls. 70% of customers will advise their friends not to deal with a business that provides bad service after experiencing it first-hand.

A good practice here is the prioritization of customers’ tickets according to their urgency and difficulty. While Zendesk has the possibility to set up the prioritization, some programs like Zendesk developed an easier and more intuitive process of prioritization that can be tweaked according to each support team’s needs. 

Vast Integration

Emails, live chats, calls, Slack, social media — not every software like Zendesk has an integration list this vast. Talking about them is especially important because: 

• 62% of customers use emails to connect with support teams.
• 41% of customers prefer communicating with support via live chat. 
• About 50% of customers use phones to connect with customer service teams. 
• 79% of American users use social media to connect with brands. 

Vast and popular integrations help businesses using Zendesk receive inquiries from any communication channel. This helps increase customer satisfaction.

Versatile Pricing

1. Suite Team

The package includes fundamental services and offers. Good for small businesses and startups. Provides an omnichannel approach. 

Cost: €49 per agent per month. A business is billed annually.

• ✅ Advanced ticketing system
• ✅ Messaging across various communication channels
• ✅ Email, voice, SMS, and live chat support
• ✅ Automated workflows
• ✅ Unified workspace
• ✅ Reporting and analytics
• ✅ Standard data and file storage
• ✅ Online, email, and phone support from the Zendesk team
• ✅ Onboarding and adoption guidance 

2. Suite Growth 

More self-service and automation tools which can be leveraged by medium businesses. 

Cost: €79 per agent per month. A business is billed annually.

• ✅  Suite Team service package
• ✅  Up to 100 AI-powered automated answers
• ✅  Prebuilt and custom apps and integrations
• ✅  Robust APIs
• ✅  Self-service customer portal
• ✅  AI-powered knowledge management
• ✅  Customizable ticket layouts
• ✅  Up to 50 light access licenses
• ✅  SLA management
• ✅  Multilingual support 

3. Suite Professional 

Analytic tools, collaboration and routing available. Deeper understanding of support services. 

Cost: €99 per agent per month. A business is billed annually.

• ✅  Suite Growth service package
• ✅  Conversation routing based on each agent’s skills
• ✅  Access to integrated community forums
• ✅  Private communication threads
• ✅  Customizable and shareable dashboards
• ✅  Advanced voice capabilities
• ✅  HIPAA compliance
• ✅  Events connector for Amazon Web Services 

4. Suite Enterprise 

Personalized customer experience at scale. A plan for enterprises. 

Cost: €150 per agent per month. A business is billed annually.

• ✅  Adjustable team roles and access permissions
• ✅  Advanced knowledge base management
• ✅  Customizable workspaces
• ✅  Customizable branding for web conversations
• ✅  Up to 1000 light access licenses
• ✅  Real-time, shareable and advanced reporting and analytics
• ✅  Sandbox environment
• ✅  Robust APIs 

5. Tailored enterprise-ready plan

A plan that can be tailored exactly to every business’ needs. Anything a team might need will be provided by Zendesk. Perfect for unicorns with specific requirements and a big customer base.

Cost: €215 per agent per month. A business is billed annually.

✅ Fully customizable chat that will be tuned in accordance with the business’ needs 

There are not a lot of better alternatives to Zendesk when it comes to pricing flexibility and versatility. 

Zendesk Alternatives

Here are top Zendesk competitors: 

1. Freshdesk as a Zendesk competitor

Freshdesk is one of the closest and most obvious Zendesk alternatives and competitors in the modern market. They are equal when it comes to functionality and the level of customer service they provide. Although, teams using both of them note that Freshdesk is better than Zendesk when it comes to design and functionality. Freshdesk also offers better email and social media customer communication options. 

2. Zendesk chat competitor HelpScout

HelpScout is a good choice for small businesses not looking to scale their team. HelpScout is much easier to navigate and set up than any other service like Zendesk. At the same time, it doesn’t offer the same amount of tools that can improve the performance of the support and customers communication team.

3. Live Agent — Zendesk competitor review

Live Agent is a Zendesk cheaper alternative. A team can get the functionality of Zendesk Suite by paying only $29 per agent per month. At the same time this Zendesk alternative is more customizable and even offers Customer Portal.  

4. QCRM as one of Zendesk competitors

SupportYourApp QCRM and an online chat solution — QUIDGET that can be embedded right onto any webpage offers smooth and easy customer communication. It makes sure every team can provide omnichannel support and approach to every customer. 

QCRM is used by 51% of SupportYourApp customers. Support teams using it can answer customers’ questions quickly and without mistakes which ensures our long-standing 95% customers satisfaction KPI. 

Zendesk Pros and Cons

✅	❌
Omnichannel support possibility	Expensive packages
Customer knowledge base	No desktop application
Answer bot	Can easily be replaced with a competitor
Ticketing and routing system	Overwhelming setup page
Ticket management and automated workflow	Basic personalization themes

Zendesk is a perfect solution for businesses with set needs. Companies requiring constant scaling might want to look at something cheaper and more flexible.  

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