Zendesk is among the world’s leading SaaS providers for customer support and help desk management. The 2007-founded company is headquartered out of San Francisco in California and has over 15 offices worldwide. It trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ZEN and continues to be a rapidly growing company despite its scale.
In 2021, the help desk provider earned $375.4 million in revenues, an increase of 32 percent from 2020.
Despite its market leadership, Zendesk faces stiff competition from established and emerging companies around the world. Indeed, offerings comparable to Zendesk are available in CRM software like Salesforce and suite solutions like Microsoft Dynamics. Here is a breakdown of these and other competitors in detail.
1. Salesforce
Salesforce is popularly known as the world’s no.1 CRM app, and it offers help desk software solutions for both small and large businesses. Small businesses enjoy a tailored Service Cloud offering, which enables help desk automation, 360-degree customer views, omnichannel support, and service personalization. Pricing for Salesforce Essentials starts at $25 per user per month.
Large organizations can implement a complete Salesforce customer service solution built on Service Cloud, priced at $75 per user per month. Such a deal includes proprietary AI technology called Einstein to optimize support workflows.
2. Dynamics 365 Customer Service
Dynamics is the enterprise resources planning (ERP) suite from the productivity software giant Microsoft. Dynamics 365 customer service is a helpdesk solution built on reliable Microsoft technologies, with embedded artificial intelligence for transcription, translation, and agent assist.
The tool fetches data from IoT devices when providing customer support. Users can benefit from several pre-built solutions and integrations, such as Sprinklr, Hootsuite, and Hitachi Health Plans for Dynamics 365 Customer Service.
Like Zendesk, it supports omnichannel interactions across voice, messaging, and chat, and pricing starts at £37.70 per user per month.
3. Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a customer service enablement platform by Freshworks, which offers a wide range of tools for marketing, CRM, sales, and HR. As its flagship solution, Freshdesk is an omnichannel customer support tool for inbound interactions, which also includes a built-in contact center feature.
Agents can engage with customers on social media, messaging apps, websites, or on calls, and Freshdesk simplified remote field service management for when customers need onsite help. Users can also leverage the Freshworks NEO platform to extend and customize its features.
Pricing for Freshdesk starts at $15 per user per month (free version available for unlimited agents).
4. Zoho Desk
Zoho is a close competitor to Freshworks, offering products across similar industries. Zoho Desk is the company’s omnichannel customer service software, which includes features such as ticket management, self-service, agent productivity enablement, and process automation.
Zoho Desk has its own AI technology – a feature not yet available on Zendesk – which powers automated customer conversations, sentiment analysis, ticket tagging, agent assist, and predictive analytics.
The solution functions across all customer channels and has a Blueprint feature to plan and manage complex processes. Pricing starts at €14 per agent per month (free for up to three agents).
5. Sugar CRM
SugarCRM is a customer relationship management software provider, like Salesforce, and it announced its own customer support offering in 2019. The tool allows users to access mainstream service capabilities, including self-service, reports, and analytics.
Also, it natively integrates with SugarBPM service for workflow automation and intelligent task prioritization. Organizations can action an end-to-end customer engagement landscape using the tool, thanks to multiple SugarCRM solutions like Sugar Sell, Sugar Sell, SugarIdentity, and SugarBPM Advanced Email Handling.
Pricing for this Zendesk competitor starts at $80 per user per month, which also includes phone support.
6. HubSpot Service Hub
Service Hub is a simple and easy-to-use customer service software from the CRM and marketing automation provider HubSpot. The company offers five discrete Hub solutions for marketing, sales, content management, operations, and customer service. Users can implement the tool as a standalone solution or deploy all five hubs together as part of the HubSpot CRM Platform.
Service Hub enables omnichannel customer support, help desk management, and ticketing, aided by workflow automation. It is one of the few tools to support one-to-one video messaging, which is another reason why it is a stern competitor to Zendesk.
The solution offers a shared inbox where agents can collaborate, and pricing for the tool starts at $45 per 2 users per month.
7. Gladly
Gladly is an all-in-one customer support solution that brings together call center, omnichannel support, and self-service capabilities on one platform.
Within this platform are a host of unique features that makes it a top Zendesk competitor, such as ticket routing based on customer sentiment, need, or overall context. Users can view an end-to-end conversation timeline, consolidating every interaction with the customer on every channel. It has a built-in knowledge base, payment support, workforce management, and collaborative task lists – all bundled into the platform.
Companies interested in Gladly can undertake a CX Maturity Assessment to check if the solution is a good fit for them. The complete offering is available at a price point of $150 per user per month.
8. Help Scout
Help Scout is a customer service solution that focuses on enhancing agent collaboration and improving their productivity. It provides a shared inbox with automation, a built-in knowledge base, and ready-to-use reports.
While the solution only offers chat-based customer support, compared to solutions such as Zendesk that also handle calls, Help Scout’s USP is that it is affordable and easy-to-use. As such, it allows teams to set up help desks from scratch. For instance, users can create a self-service knowledge base simply by populating word docs.
Pricing for the tool starts at $20 per user per month.
Discover how Zendesk and its competitors are innovating by reading our article: Helpdesk Trends for 2022
