As a business owner, you know that customer service is essential to your success. However, providing top-notch customer service can be expensive and time-consuming.
Fortunately, Zendesk can help. It is a platform that allows businesses to provide excellent customer service.
But is it the only option available? Definitely not. Numerous Zendesk alternatives can also help you take your business to the next level.
Comparison of the Best Zendesk Alternatives
With several Zendesk competitors, we tried and tested a few and narrowed them down to 10. Here’s a table summarizing their key features and pricing that you can use as a quick reference:
| Zendesk Alternatives | Features | Monthly Plans |
| Freshdesk | CRM Tool Agent Collaboration Reporting Freshworks Integration | Free $15 (Growth) $49 (Pro) $79 (Enterprise) $29 to $99 (Omnichannel) |
| Zoho Desk | Automated Ticketing System Zia AICustomization | Free $14 (Standard) $23 (Professional) $40 (Enterprise) |
| Gorgias | Integrations Sentiment Analysis | $60 (Basic) $360 (Pro) $900 (Advanced) For quotation (Enterprise) |
| Front | Unified Inbox Multi-Channel Support Automation Custom Integrations | $19 (Starter) $49 (Growth) $99 (Scale) |
| HappyFox | Efficient Ticketing System HappyFox Business Intelligence Workflow Automation Integrations | $29 (Mighty) $49 (Fantastic) $69 (Enterprise) For quotation (Enterprise Plus) $1499 (Unlimited Agents Starter) $1999 (Unlimited Agents Growth) $2999 (Unlimited Agents Scale) |
| Groove | Knowledge base Shared Inbox Reports and Analytics | $12 (Starter) $20 (Plus) $35 (Pro) For quotation (Enterprise) |
| Help Scout | Shared Inbox Self-Service Support Beacon Messages Reports | $20 (Standard) $40 (Plus )$65 (Pro) |
| ThriveDesk | E-mail Signature Generator Modern Interface | Starts at $12 per month |
| ServiceNow | Incident Management Problem Management IT Service Management | For quotation |
| HubSpot | Help Desk Software Omnichannel Service | Free $45 (Starter) $450 (Professional) $1200 (Enterprise) |
Top 10 Zendesk Alternatives
To help you choose between the best paid and free Zendesk alternatives, let’s discuss in more detail what each can offer.
1. Freshdesk
Freshdesk is one of the most sought alternative solutions in the market. They understand the need for functions and affordability, as they have some identical features to Zendesk and their own.
If you’re looking for an alternative to Zendesk with the same features at a discounted price, Freshdesk is the answer. Here are some of its key features to make a note of:
- Customer Relationship Management Tool
The technology of Freshdesk routes the support tickets to agents relative to their knowledge base and workload. Another feature that adds to customer satisfaction is their AI chatbot that answers the customer’s FAQs.
Agents can communicate using multiple channel support through social media networks, SMS, calls, Email, or the Freshdesk platform. After addressing the customer queries, the customer service software will also send notifications as a follow-up to their concerns.
- Agent Collaboration
Freshdesk has an efficient ticketing system wherein multiple agents can work and collaborate on a single ticket.
Having multiple agents discuss and work on a single ticket simultaneously allows for a fast and effective ticketing system.
To combat the potential of support agents to message the same inbox, Freshdesk has a message collision protection technology.
- Reporting
After closing a ticket, the advanced reporting features will show the data you need to know for the business. It also has customer satisfaction surveys wherein you can check if Freshdesk was able to help answer customer requests.
- Freshworks Integration
One of the interesting features of Freshdesk is its integration capability with its own Freshworks Family. Some features that can be integrated into Freshworks are Freshchat, Freshsales, Freshcaller, and Freshmarketer.
Not only will integrating these features improve the work of support agents, but it will solve other problems for the business.
Pros:
- Innovative workflow automation
- Simple user interface
- Advanced live chat widget
- Freshworks integration
- Regularly updated platform
Cons:
- Limited integrations
- An overwhelming number of features
- Limited customization
Pricing
Freshdesk is incredibly flexible when it comes to its pricing models. As one of the best Zendesk competitors, they don’t only have cheap plans but also add-ons that can be demonstrated.
Here are the plans available:
- Free
If you’re a startup business, the free plan will fit right in as it has the basic features you need. Freshdesk’s free plan includes an email and social ticketing system, knowledge base, and reports system.
- Growth
With $15 per month, you’d have access to automation, collision detection in the ticketing system, and a time sheet summary report.
- Pro
At $49 per month, it brings unique features such as round robin routing, custom dashboards, and a multilingual knowledge base to address a wider audience.
- Enterprise
As the most popular pricing plan at $79 per month, the Enterprise plan has an email and assist bot along with improved features.
- Omnichannel
If you want multi-channel support for your business, you can avail yourself of their omnichannel packages. It is priced at $29 per month for Growth subscribers, $59 per month for Pro, and $99 per month for Enterprise.
- Add-ons
Freshdesk also has some add-ons to improve your business’ help desk further.
For $75 per month, you can have up to 1000 bot sessions through Email, chatbots, and voice bots. The Field Service Management add-on is priced at $15 per month for every agent, which is only available if you have the growth plan.
2. Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is one of the best Zendesk competitors when it comes to generating sales. While Zoho is mostly recognized as an effective customer support software solution, they also make top-notch help desk software.
That’s all thanks to the following features:
- Automated Ticketing System
Zoho implements an automated ticketing system to efficiently assign tickets to the agent with the knowledge base of forming a solution. The system tracks the ticket’s progress, enabling users and agents to know if the customer inquiries are resolved.
- Zia AI
One of the most remarkable features of Zoho is Zia, a powerful artificial intelligence software that helps respond to tickets quickly through Zoho’s knowledge base. It lessens the hassle of customer-to-agent interaction by suggesting relevant solutions and auto-tagging tickets.
- Customization
With a customizable layout and design, your business can stand out by having it match your brand. You can also customize the reporting features to collect the right customer data that will further improve the business.
Pros:
- Customization
- Self-service portal
- User-friendly
- Team collaboration
- Easy ticketing system
Cons:
- Incompatible with some Apple products
- Steep learning curve
- Dated task automation
Pricing
Zoho prides itself on providing exceptional customer support without spending a high amount of cash. They have different pricing options that won’t leave a big dent in your pocket.
- Free
The Zoho Desk software can become a free Zendesk alternative. It can provide up to three free agents, along with various features.
Some features in this free plan include email ticketing, mobile apps, a private knowledge base, and a help center.
- Standard
At $14 per month, you will have access to phone support, reports and analytics dashboard, customer ratings, and community and social channels.
- Professional
The professional pricing plan is the most preferred by businesses as it provides multi-department ticketing, agent collision, ticket sharing and templates, and more. At $23 per month, you can avail of the professional plan, with a $6 add-on per agent to support customers.
- Enterprise
The enterprise plan is available at $40 per month, and it has the most notable feature of Zoho, which is Zia AI. It also has a ton of functions that are customizable to fit the business needs. They also included the live chat widget in this package.
3. Gorgias
If you’re a small business owner centered on Shopify, Gorgias is one of the best Zendesk alternatives in this category. Gorgias will offer incredible support as you navigate through the e-commerce business.
- Integrations
Gorgias specializes in shop integrations such as Shopify, Magento, and other e-commerce platforms. It also provides social media integration to help businesses to expand conversions on big digital networks, such as Instagram and Facebook.
- Sentiment Analysis
Another unique feature of Gorgias is its technology to analyze customer data to find the best resolutions. It helps the company find the negative feedback and quickly turnaround the irate customer into a satisfied and repeat buyer.
Pros:
- Organized support tickets
- Shopify integration
- Process automation
- Easy to navigate interface
Cons:
- Not suited for larger businesses
- Not ideal for non-e-commerce businesses
Pricing
As a customer service software focused solely on big online stores, their expensive pricing plans are justifiable. Here are the options available:
- Basic
The basic plan starts at $60 per month with 300 tickets, with an additional $40 for every 100 exceeding tickets.
Compared to other Zendesk competitors, the basic plan from Gorgias come with Shopify integration and unlimited users. On the other hand, you have to pay an additional $30 if you want your processes to be automated.
- Pro
At $360 per month, you can unlock the Magento integration and revenue statistics feature along with 2000 tickets.
Gorgias will add $36 for every 100 succeeding tickets. You can also unlock automation features for another $180 per month.
- Advanced
The advanced plan is available at $900 per month, which includes 5000 tickets and an additional $36 for every 100 tickets exceeding the figure. The package includes social media integration through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, along with a success manager to help you with your concerns.
If you wish to automate some of your processes with this plan, you must pay an additional $450 per month.
- Enterprise
The enterprise is for you if you feel some features are lacking or want a customized plan. They’ll tailor fit the right plan for you if you wish only to include a set of features or more tickets in the system.
For this plan, you have to message them to receive a quotation.
4. Front
Front is the best Zendesk alternative when it comes to account management. More than ticketing systems, they offer personal support in their services to give their customers a personalized experience.
Here’s what you can expect from the platform:
- Communication and Collaboration Tools
Front has a unified inbox, auto reminders, and centralized communication tools to increase agent productivity. Aside from the features mentioned, the software also includes assignments, comments, and drafts, so teams can collaborate effectively.
- Multi-Channel Support
To avoid continuously relaying customers to different agents, Front allows you to manually or automatically assign team members to specific customer inquiries. It will help match the correct agents with the right customer, shortening the time to respond to the ticket.
- Automation
If conversations meet specific criteria, Front can automate the actions to address the customer issue. They can also automate workflows to sort and assign requests while ensuring that every request gets resolved.
This type of automation improves customer satisfaction while reducing the workload of the support teams of the business.
- Custom Integrations
Since businesses want to integrate almost every possible profitable application, Front has over 40 third app integrations in their software. Some well-known Front integrations are Slack, Asana, Trello, Facebook, Google Drive, and Dropbox.
Pros:
- Centralized communication
- email templates
- Reports and analytics
- Automation
- Multi-channel management
Cons:
- Lacking some integrations
- Weak knowledge base
Pricing
Front has three simple pricing plans, perfect for small to large-sized businesses, namely:
- Starter
At $19 per month, you’d have access to multi-channel messaging, live chat, team collaboration, and basic automation. This package is perfect for businesses with two to ten support team members.
- Growth
The growth package is available at $49 per month and will include the features of the starter pack along with CRM tools, analytics, and workflows.
- Scale
Priced at $99 per month, it is the most popular package deal businesses avail from Front. It gives you assistance with different tools, expert design solutions, and consulting for your business.
5. HappyFox
If you’re looking for something in between project management and help desk software, then HappyFox is here to the rescue. As a combination of both tools, it is an excellent alternative to Zendesk as it has many notable features, including:
- Efficient Ticketing System
With an organized ticketing system, HappyFox will categorize into similar groups so that agents can address the concerns swiftly. The system also assigns priorities into which ticket needs to be resolved while having visibility, so no two agents work on the same issue.
- HappyFox Business Intelligence
Another feature of HappyFox is its unique reporting system wherein ticket properties are used to study specific behavior. It analyzes ticket inflow so the business will know how many agents should be available at a particular time.
The feature generates reports based on the agent’s productivity, ensuring that customer support is satisfactory.
- Workflow Automation
Since there will be repetitive tasks in every support system, HappyFox has automation technology, reducing the burden of manually doing these processes.
You don’t need a programmer to do these automation tasks, as HappyFox has a no-code, drag-and-drop builder to automate the tasks easily.
- Integrations
Every business nowadays requires third-party integrations to link their applications to improve functionality and capability. HappyFox can integrate the software into known third-party service providers, such as Jira and GitHub.
Pros:
- Excellent support ticket tracking system
- Useful insights
- Ability to assist customers anywhere
- Responsive sales team
Cons:
- Mobile app login issues
- Programming is required for the initial setup
- Chat website errors
Pricing
HappyFox offers cheap plans that can vary from monthly to discounted packages if you avail of their services for two to three years. They also have unlimited packages wherein big businesses can find value as the number of agents isn’t restricted.
- Mighty
At $29 per month for each agent, the Mighty plan offers omnichannel ticketing, migration assistance, SLA management, SSL hosting, and SSO (Gsuite/Azure/SAML).
- Fantastic
The Fantastic plan offered at $49 per month has additional features, such as 24/7 email support, breach notifications, and custom ticket queues.
- Enterprise
At $69 per month, you can unlock the project management features, such as task and asset management, and avoid agent collision in addressing tickets.
- Enterprise Plus
With Enterprise Plus, you’ll have your own customer success manager to guide you in navigating the platform. You’ll also have access to complete email, chat, and phone support so that the business has more coverage in solving issues.
- Unlimited Agents Starter
At $1499 per month, you can use up to 10000 tickets per year with 10 custom fields.
- Unlimited Agents Growth
The growth plan priced at $1999 per month can use 20000 tickets with 20 custom fields yearly.
- Unlimited Agents Scale
Scale offers 100000 tickets and 100 custom fields per year with a monthly fee of $2999.
- Unlimited Agents Scale Plus
Scale Plus is the last on the list, with 250000 tickets per year with 200 custom fields at $4999 monthly.
6. Groove
If you’re looking for a Zendesk alternative with a simple design and easy-to-navigate UI, then Groove has your back. Don’t be deceived by Groove’s simplistic approach, as it is impressively one of the best customer portals.
Feature-wise, here’s what you can expect from the platform:
- Knowledge Base
Through the knowledge base of Groove, customers can find information on their own to resolve their concerns.
Agents can use this feature to link relevant articles or tools that may help the customers find a solution to their problems. It works well on desktop and mobile devices, meaning many devices support it.
- Shared Inbox
Multi-channel and shared inbox allow agents to organize and track conversations through different networks via email, chat, phone, or social media. Agents can tag conversations, collect data from customer inquiries for future use, or spot trends.
- Reports and Analytics
Groove provides powerful analytics and insights that serve as a reference for what needs to be improved in the business.
It can track how many conversations, customers helped, and the resolution given. You can use this feature to track if the customer is satisfied with your services, as it includes surveys.
Pros:
- Simple and organized interface
- Fast support team
- Ticket categorization
- Easy to track tickets
- Top-notch knowledge base
Cons:
- Limited functionalities
- No mobile apps
- Confusing Email formatting
Pricing
You can start using Groove with a free trial to test out if the product fits well within your business needs. If you decide to stay with Groove, their cheap pricing plans will certainly be worth it.
Here are your options:
- Starter
The starter plan is available at $12 per month. It includes a mailbox, knowledge base, web widget, live chat, assignments, and mentions.
- Plus
At $20 per month, you’ll have the starter features along with five mailboxes, reports, rules, API access, and at least 25 integrations.
- Pro
The most value per money spent is the Pro plan at $35 per month, with 25 mailboxes, teams, priority support, and more integrations.
- Enterprise
If you still feel the features are lacking, you can message them for the enterprise plan. It has unlimited mailboxes, a dedicated success manager to help you out, SSO/SAML, and an enterprise-grade security feature.
7. Help Scout
Help Scout is the best Zendesk alternative for small to medium-sized businesses looking to scale up. Signing up to Help Scout gives you access to high-quality customer service tools to boost your business growth.
Its top features include:
- Shared Inbox
Shared inboxes allow agents to better manage customer conversations by including private notes in the database.
The collision detection feature prevents double replies from different agents in one customer. It holds the messaging function if an agent is already chatting with the customer.
The shared inbox is also an efficient way of assigning conversations to the right agents.
- Self-Service Support
Customers can find the answer on their own using the knowledge base and FAQ pages. With the self-service portals, you can save up time and money on agents as the simple problems are solvable with this feature.
- Beacon
Beacon is a live chat widget that delivers a real-time solution to customers. You can embed this support widget anywhere in your app or website.
As you scale up your business, you can add more customized features to Beacon to meet your business demands.
- Messages
Messages guarantee proactive support by notifying customers in real-time of the progress of their tickets. You can also schedule messages and deliver relevant information to the customers at a specific time.
- Reports
Help Scout provides several dashboards containing reports that enable you to see the performance of the processes. You can customize the metrics appearing in the reports dashboard, wherein you can prioritize the data that matters for your business.
Pros:
- Simple interface
- Reliable
- email tracking
- Reporting features
- Easy to communicate with team members
Cons:
- Hard to edit the knowledge base
- Tagging function takes time to set up
Pricing
Help Scout has simple pricing plans that are jam-packed with many features.
- Standard
At $20 per month, you will have access to customized reports, automated workflows, the Beacon help widget, live chat, and other features.
- Plus
In addition to the standard features, you can use teams, custom fields, security and permissions, and more in the Plus plan. This plan is offered at $40 per month.
- Pro
The Pro plan, priced at $65 per month, focuses on larger teams as it has more services and security features. You’ll be introduced to Help Scout by their onboarding service, and a dedicated account manager will help you along the way.
8. ThriveDesk
ThriveDesk is a simple and affordable Zendesk alternative suited for Software as a Solution (SaaS) startups. It’s also geared toward businesses using WordPress themes or plugins or those coming from the e-commerce industry.
What are the specific features it offers? Here they are:
- email Signature Generator
ThriveDesk has a very easy-to-use generator for creating email signatures. It saves the agents’ time and effort from manually configuring their mail settings.
You can simply fill out the boxes and choose colors that fit your business’ brand. You can also use it for email inquiries.
- Modern Interface
With a friendly and modern interface, navigating the platform can be performed without difficulty. Teams can easily collaborate, tag tickets, and provide support with ease.
Pros:
- Modern design
- Efficient email management
- Automated replies
- Reporting features
- Chatbot 24/7 availability
Cons:
- No mobile app
- Lacks social media integration
Pricing
ThriveDesk offers a 14-day free trial so businesses can check if it meets their requirements.
They also have cheap plans, which is excellent if you need to spend less while still subscribing to a reliable platform. It starts with $12 per month for one user, up to $600 per month, with a maximum of 50 users.
9. ServiceNow
While looking for customer support software as a Zendesk alternative is common, ServiceNow is the best for IT ticketing. That’s all thanks to the features it offers, such as:
- Incident Management
ServiceNow minimizes the downtimes when service interruptions occur, restoring them as soon as possible. They use temporary solutions through self-service or virtual agents until the main problem is addressed and resolved.
- Problem Management
ServiceNow identifies an IT infrastructure’s issues and finds ways to minimize the errors. The management also keeps track of the problems and solutions presented for future use.
- IT Service Management
This feature involves all the technological knowledge of the company and uses it for IT services. It allows agents to quickly resolve issues related to IT, which in turn improves customer satisfaction.
Pros:
- Fully customizable software
- Easy handling of IT requests
- Best problem management system
Cons:
- Complex mobile app customization
- The support team isn’t available 24/7
Pricing
ServiceNow doesn’t have pricing packages when it comes to its services. You need to contact them directly.
10. HubSpot
The HubSpot service hub is an all-in-one Zendesk alternative with many features that suit small to large businesses. Businesses can maximize the software when the service hub is paired with other HubSpot tools.
Here are two of its most notable features:
- Help Desk Software
HubSpot’s help desk software consists of powerful options to give customers the best service. It has customizable views in the shared and mobile inbox, conversation forwarding, knowledge base, and a customer portal.
- Omnichannel Service
The omnichannel service allows users and agents to solve issues on multiple platforms through calls and social media networks. It also has automated chatbots that quickly resolve simple customer issues.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- CRM integration
- Free plan
- Multi-channel support
- 24/7 customer support
Cons:
- Mobile app limitations
- An overwhelming number of options
- Laggy chatbox when used with extensions
Pricing
HubSpot service hub offers a free plan with a set of valuable features. After you’ve tested their free version, you can upgrade to their competitive paid plans.
- Free
The free plan comes with ticketing, email scheduling, live chat, shared inbox, and basic bots, which are helpful tools for startup businesses. If you’re a small business owner, this is one of the best platforms when looking for free Zendesk alternatives.
- Starter
Starting at $45 per month, you’ll have email and chat support, reporting dashboard, and shared and mobile inboxes.
- Professional
At $450 per month, you’ll have the starter features plus help desk automation, ticket routing, and phone support, along with other features.
- Enterprise
The enterprise plan is available at $1200 per month with features for scaling teams, process customization, and growth performance optimization.
Which Among the Best Zendesk Alternatives Should You Choose?
After we’ve presented 10 Zendesk alternatives, the best option will depend on the budget and features your business requires or needs. That said, feature-wise, Freshdesk comes closest to Zendesk as it will give you almost the same experience.
If you’re looking for the best Zendesk free alternatives, our top picks would be Zoho Desk and HubSpot.
FAQs About Zendesk and Zendesk Alternatives
Now that you’ve options for the best paid and free Zendesk alternatives, allow us to provide you with more pieces of information. This way, you won’t have doubts about your choice, whether it may be Zendesk or an alternative.
1. What is Zendesk?
Zendesk is one of the most reliable and well-known customer service software today. With its reputation, this customer service platform has become the go-to solution for businesses.
It allows you to have conversations through different mediums, such as email, social media channels, and other networks.
2. What makes Zendesk popular?
While Zendesk is known as a remarkable customer service software, it is also famous for some of its features. They include AI-powered chat, integrations, community forum, and sales tools.
Its price tag is nothing compared to the return on investment (ROI) of the businesses that avail of their service.
3. How much does Zendesk cost?
Zendesk has flexible plan options so that it can suit most businesses. With many choices, small to large-sized businesses can find the perfect plan from the list.
Here’s a quick breakdown:
Plans for Everyone
- Suite Team: $49/month
- Suite Growth: $79/month
- Suite Professional: $99/month
Plans For Enterprises
- Suite Enterprise: $150/month
- Additional Plans: $215+/month
Foundational Support
- Support Team: $19/month
- Support Professional: $49/month
- Support Enterprise: $99/month
Zendesk for Sales
- Zendesk Sell Team: $19/month)
- Zendesk Sell Growth: $49/month)
- Zendesk Sell Professional: $99/month)
4. Why do users look for Zendesk Alternatives?
Zendesk has diverse pricing plans but is still more expensive than most of its competitors.
Small businesses will enjoy saving a few dollars for a free Zendesk alternative or cheaper counterpart. Some may also find it challenging to configure the integrations on the platform.
With the wide number of features available on Zendesk, other users might want to find a simpler platform.
5. What should I look for when searching for an alternative to Zendesk?
Aside from the obvious reason that it should have the features your business needs, here are other options you’d undoubtedly need:
- Chatbot
A chatbot is a helpful tool that addresses customer issues through automated replies to frequently asked questions. Not only does it save time on their end, but it also saves the time and effort of the support agents of the business.
- Sales and Marketing Tools
Sales and marketing tools help the business gather more clients and customers. Having this feature in your customer service software will not only market your business, but it will generate a great ROI.
- Affordable Plans
Of course, the Zendesk alternative should fit within your budget.
As a business owner, it is a fact that you should find the best service for the right value. It is proven that Zendesk is a reputable software, but you shouldn’t force yourself to use their service if there are cheaper alternatives.
6. Is Zendesk worth it?
As an all-in-one solution to your business needs, Zendesk is worth it. The customer support software they offer is one of the best, if not the best, in the market today, and for a good reason.
7. Is Zendesk secure?
Zendesk undergoes routine audits to guarantee that its software is continuously secure. Their numerous certifications showcase their commitment to giving businesses a secure and safe experience.They offer different authentication options, such as single sign-on (SSO), two-factor authentication (2FA), and high-security password requirements. They also have additional safety features, including device tracking, IP restrictions, and role-based access controls.
