Service desk platforms, also known as agent desks, help companies improve customer experiences, scale conversations across multiple channels, and reduce customer service costs. Two of the most established and compared ticket management software platforms in this space are Zendesk vs. Freshdesk. Both are used by hundreds of thousands of businesses around the world as customer support software and technical support software service solutions.
Both offer a range of sophisticated features, some the same and some different, that help agents resolve issues faster and make support easier and more convenient for customers. The platforms have excellent G2 ratings and reviews: Freshdesk rated 4.4/5 stars from 2,482 reviews and Zendesk Support Suite rated 4.3/5 stars from 3,267 reviews (at the time of publication). So which is better for you: Zendesk or Freshdesk?
In this post we will cover everything you need to know about Zendesk vs Freshdesk including features, pricing, customers, customization and more:
- Zendesk: Everything you need to know
- Key features of Zendesk
- A complete guide to Freshdesk
- Main features of Freshdesk
- Comparison between Zendesk and Freshdesk features
- How to use AI to get even more value from Zendesk and Freshdesk
Zendesk: Everything you need to know
Zendesk is one of the best known and most established helpdesk platforms. It has over 160,000 customers including some of the world's largest retail brands such as Siemens, Uber, Instacart and Polaris. It's aimed at high-growth and large companies that need sophisticated features, so it's the most expensive option. More than a helpdesk, Zendesk can help companies manage the entire customer experience by bringing marketing and support together on a single platform.
Zendesk enables customers to deliver a consistent experience across multiple channels and gives agents a unified workspace to manage conversations and even collaborate. The platform gives agents a 360-degree view of customer data, allowing context to move (similar capabilities are available on Freshdesk). This has a major impact on theCustomer Service KPIs- On average, Zendesk increases customer satisfaction by 25% and agent productivity by 30%.
Key features of Zendesk
Zendesk ticket management
Zendesk's ticketing system consolidates all your tickets into a single platform including social media, email, chat, in-app support, phone and web. It has features like ticket routing and assigning tickets to the right agent.According to a review, this feature has an impact: “The built-in intelligent routing ensures that the customer and agent are the right match and automates ticket queues to reduce resolution time..”
By using the Zendesk platform, you'll never miss a request again because every ticket, regardless of channel, is queued for agents to pick up.
Zendesk Knowledge Base
Zendesk is one of thembest knowledge based softwarePlatforms that are self-service through customization and ease of use. This allows your customers to find answers to their questions through an online help center without having to interact with an agent, essentially avoiding fines. These intuitive help centers can be deployed to mobile devices or the web via a simple SDK.
Applications and Integrations
The Zendesk Marketplace offers over 1,250 ready-to-use apps and integrations, includingChatbots make Zendeskfor automating conversations, productivity tools, time tracking, collaboration and customer surveys. These Zendesk apps extend the power of the platform, and many can be deployed with a single click.
Zendesk Pricing
Zendesk offers a variety of pricing plans based on the number of agent licenses needed, channels, and access to features such asSelf-service Zendesk knowledge base. At the time of writing, the most basic plan starts at $49/month/agent and goes up to $215/month/agent for the most robust enterprise plans. While Zendesk doesn't offer a free tier, it does have a free trial.
Zendesk customization
Zendesk allows you to customize all reports and charts, as well as chat colors, text, logos, and branding. The views on Zendesk's dashboard can also be "broadly customized to suit your preferences, an area where Freshdesk has attempted to do something similar, but we prefer the way Zendesk Support displays information, including ticket expiration times." .”
Zendesk reporting and data analysis
Zendesk offers a nice set of reports that you can use to measure the success of your customer service operations. You can quickly identify areas for improvement and development for your agents. The best part? You can track your performance with best practice metrics to see your performance.
Zendesk security
Security is critical to the Zendesk platform. The company is SOC 2 Type II, ISO and FedRAMP LI SaaS compliant.
A complete guide to Freshdesk
Freshdesk is greatAlternative to Zendeskand it might be the best option if you're looking for a simpler and cheaper option. More than half of the reviews on G2 are from small businesses, but that doesn't mean larger businesses don't use Freshdesk too.
The platform is used by over 50,000 brands including Bridgestone, HP, Harvard University and DHL to improve customer service. While Zendesk takes a broader view of the entire customer experience, Freshdesk focuses more on customer support (although it can be integrated with other Freshworks products).
The platform is praised for its ease of use and you can set it up in just a few minutes. According to one review, “Freshdesk is easy to set up and get started. It has the fastest time-to-market implementation, even considering inexperienced users.”
Main features of Freshdesk
Freshdesk ticket management
Freshdesk's ticketing system allows you to close tickets faster with a centralized inbox that receives tickets from multiple channels (email, phone, web, chat, and social media). Tickets are assigned to agents in a number of ways: with skill-based, load balancing and rotation shifts - and agents can collaborate on tickets in real time. It's the only platform that provides in-app notifications for agents when a ticket's status changes or when a customer replies, and canned responses help provide consistent answers to common questions. The platform has unique tools like a "thank you detector" that prevents tickets from being reopened when customers reply with a thank you.
Freshdesk knowledge base and self-service
Sometimes customers want to help themselves, and Freshdesk has a number of self-help tools. One such tool is a fully customizable knowledge base (or help center) that you can access from your website, mobile app, or even chat. Another way toCustomer Self Serviceare the community forums that allow users to ask each other questions.
Cool desktop integrations
While not as robust as the Zendesk Marketplace, Freshdesk has an app store with over 800 pre-built integrations, including productivity, remote work, file sharing, and collaboration tools.
Freshdesk reporting and data analysis
Freshdesk users can make data-driven decisions by accessing a variety of reports including ticket volume trends, agent performance, group performance, satisfaction surveys, customer sentiment, and more.
fresh table prices
Freshdesk offers a range of pricing plans, from FREE (yes, free!) for high-growth companies ($15/month/agent) to enterprise plans starting at $79/month/agent (price at time of publication). Plans vary based on available features, channels, and integrations, but they've done a good job of adding great value at every level, depending on the stage of your business. According to one review, "even on the [Basic and Free] plans, there aren't many limitations [when it comes to features."
cool desktop customization
Freshdesk offers many ways to customize your experience. You can brand all of your technical support to match your company's branding by choosing the style or color of your portal elements, or by choosing from a library of plug-and-play "FreshThemes". You can also integrate your portal in 40+ languages and even map your Freshdesk domain to your own support URL.
FreshDesk security
Like Zendesk, Freshdesk has tight security controls and is GDPR, HIPPA, SOC, and ISO compliant.
Get 5 strategies for successful customer service automation
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Feature comparison between Zendesk and Freshdesk
special feature | Zendesk | cool table |
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free option | N / D | Free plan with unlimited agents that includes:
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ticket management |
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Agent Collaboration |
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How to use AI to get even more value from Zendesk and Freshdesk
Companies using chatbots for customer servicecan further enhance the CX experience. While ticket management platforms like Zendesk and Freshdesk greatly simplify the agent experience and reduce resolution time, AI chatbots like Netomi now act as the first line of defense when tickets come in. Netomi's virtual agents sit alongside human agents to complement and enhance live chat support. teams
After clarifying this decision by comparing Zendesk versus Freshdesk, Netomi AI takes the best course of action for each incoming ticket:
- For highly repeatable tickets, the AI can automatically resolve them without connecting a human agent
- For more complex tickets, the AI can collect information from the customer or back-end systems and even compose a response for verification before passing it to a human agent.
- For more complex tickets, the AI can aggregate tickets and route them to the right agent
By leveraging Netomi's out-of-the-box virtual agent integration, organizations improve the agent and customer experience while reducing costs. Most other chatbots don't live natively on the agent's desktop, but with Netomi, virtual and human agents work together to form the most efficient customer service team we've seen.
You want to know more about how Netomi integrates with two majorsHelp Center AIplatforms? see how we canintegrate with Zendeskand how can we help youConnect your Freshdesk implementationa netomi.
References we used for this comparison between Zendesk and Freshdesk
FAQs
Is Freshdesk better than Zendesk? ›
The difference between the two is that Freshdesk lets you create both kinds of knowledge bases on any of its plans, including its free plan. Since Zendesk doesn't offer a free plan, you'll need to pay to have access to this feature and it's only offered on the Suite and enterprise plans.
Why choose Freshdesk? ›Freshdesk is a better option than handling support through email. The app keeps responses from customers together and offers useful features for sharing support responsibilities with other agents. The “Solutions” section is helpful to customers and the solutions can be easily linked or added to customer responses.
Is Zendesk like Freshdesk? ›Zendesk also offers additional alignment functionality through their Collaboration add-on which provides the ability to share with team members across departments. If advanced functionality is needed, Zendesk is a strong Freshdesk alternative. Freshdesk is known as a relatively easy and intuitive to use tool.
Why should I choose Zendesk? ›It's flexible and easy to build on, and gives people the tools and freedom to try new ideas. With custom metrics, custom reports, and flexible data visualizations, Zendesk reporting enables teams to make sense of the information that matters to them.
Which ticketing system is best? ›- Best Overall: Freshdesk.
- Runner-Up: Zendesk.
- Best Value: Kayako.
- Best Price: Zoho Desk.
- Best for Email Support: JitBit.
- Best For Ease of Use: HappyFox.
- Uber.
- Pinterest.
- Shopify.
- Twitter.
- Instacart.
- Slack.
- Stripe.
- reddit.
- The uniqueness of your business will suffer because there are way too many knowledge bases with the same design all over the web, which are also easily accessible.
- You may spoil user experience by long waiting of page loading.
Knowing the basic elements required to provide good customer service, Freshdesk offers a forever-free plan—for up to 10 agents—that'll help small businesses and startups to start off on the right foot when it comes to delivering effortless customer experiences.
Why is Zendesk so popular? ›It provides both your support and customers with easily searchable detailed information. The Chat and Talk modules provide you with channels where you can connect with your customers. Zendesk Chat lets you engage customers over mobile apps, popular messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, and even over websites.
Is someone buying Zendesk? ›N) on Tuesday completed its sale to a group of private equity firms led by Hellman & Friedman and Permira in a deal valued at $10.2 billion after prolonged pressure from activist investor Jana Partners. As part of the deal, Zendesk shareholders received $77.50 per share in cash.
Who is Zendesk competition? ›
The top Zendesk competitor is Freshdesk as it offers a robust interface and powerful features that can rival Zendesk. From ticket management and multi-channel support capabilities to knowledge base creation and community portal tools, this application is a well-rounded solution for all of your help desk requirements.
Does IKEA use Zendesk? ›You do not have to worry about purchasing, installing, licensing and upgrading software. Several large companies in Sweden, including Ikea and SAS, use Zendesk to increase the quality of their customer service.
What is the disadvantage of Zendesk? ›One of the drawbacks of Zendesk is that it doesn't provide a secure way for us to send data. So, we usually use a secure SharePoint folder link. We put that in the Zendesk ticket so that the requester has a secure way of getting to their data. The dashboard could be better.
What is the limitation of Zendesk? ›Volume limitations
4,000 concurrent conversations/with 200,000 total conversations per day. 500 configured integrations (web/mobile/social). 1,000 steps/nodes in a messaging bot.
Scaling fast with Zendesk
Given Airbnb's global reach, the company needed a solution that could easily scale at pace with its phenomenal growth. “Scalability and reliability and 24/7 uptime were big factors,” said Shirley Lin, product lead for the Support Products Group, of Airbnb's decision to initially adopt Zendesk.
osTicket - Support Ticketing System + Support.
What ticketing system does Google use? ›Is there a Google ticketing system? Google Workspace does not provide a ticketing system. There are no Google applications support ticket systems for firms that use Gmail to manage customer support inquiries from their customers. Indeed, the Google helpdesk provides customer service via other Google apps.
What ticketing system does Microsoft use? ›Office 365 Ticketing System is a helpdesk ticketing management software that was launched by Microsoft to help enterprises effectively manage ticketing issues.
Does Netflix use Zendesk? ›Use Zendesk and the Partner Portal user interface to create and manage support tickets for the Open Connect team.
Does Apple use Zendesk? ›At this point, your Zendesk instance is integrated with Apple Business Chat. But you'll still need to design, configure, and test the messaging experience with help from Zendesk and get your integration approved by Apple.
Will Zendesk be sold? ›
Consortium Led by Hellman & Friedman and Permira Completes Acquisition of Zendesk. SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Zendesk, Inc. today announced the completion of its acquisition by an investor group led by Hellman & Friedman and Permira in an all-cash transaction that values the company at approximately $10.2 billion ...
What companies use Freshdesk? ›...
232 companies reportedly use FreshDesk in their tech stacks, including Soundcloud, Practo, and Pipedrive.
- Soundcloud.
- Practo.
- Pipedrive.
- Haptik.
- Justmop.
- Sprinklr.
- Wunderflats.
- CommonBond.
Manage PayPal payments inside Freshdesk. Refund payments, manage subscriptions, send invoices and much more!
Does DHL use Freshdesk? ›Freshdesk is used by over 50,000 customers, including Bridgestone, HP, Harvard University, and DHL.
Is Freshdesk an Indian company? ›US Company or India Company
We decided to incorporate Freshdesk in the US.
Salesforce is the worldwide market-share CRM leader, but if you're starting out with your relationship management efforts, Freshworks CRM is the better deal with affordable pricing and uniform customer support options.
What is the cost of Freshdesk? ›On the surface, Freshdesk offers a plan for every business need. Start price for each plan: Growth: $35 per month / per user. Pro: $71 per month / per user.
Is Zendesk a Chinese company? ›Zendesk, Inc. is an American company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides software-as-a-service products related to customer support, sales, and other customer communications. The company was founded in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2007.
Is Zendesk better than Salesforce? ›Zendesk Sell's CRM is user-friendly, which makes it easy to onboard sales teams and get prospects along the sales funnel. Meanwhile, Salesforce is much more difficult to use because it has a lot of advanced features. Zendesk Sell is also more expensive than Salesforce.
Does Microsoft use Zendesk? ›We're excited to announce the release of the new Zendesk integration for Microsoft Teams! This integration brings your communication and support solutions together to enable employees to work wherever they're most productive.
Is Zendesk a unicorn? ›
Zendesk: A Brief History. Zendesk is the rare unicorn that started not only outside of Silicon Valley but outside of the United States entirely.
Does Zendesk make a profit? ›Highlights: Third quarter revenue increased 20% year-over-year to $416.9 million. Third quarter GAAP operating loss of $55.4 million and non-GAAP operating income of $48.9 million.
Do people like working at Zendesk? ›Zendesk has an overall rating of 3.8 out of 5, based on over 1,431 reviews left anonymously by employees. 78% of employees would recommend working at Zendesk to a friend and 59% have a positive outlook for the business.
Does Zoom use Zendesk? ›With the Zendesk for Zoom Phone app, you can seamlessly access the power of Zoom's platform from within Zendesk. After installing, please visit the Zendesk Marketplace and install the Zoom Phone app to complete installation of the integration.
Can Zendesk compete with Salesforce? ›The Zendesk CRM platform emphasizes sales and does not offer many features for marketing. So for the Salesforce vs Zendesk discussion from the features standpoint, Salesforce provides a better 360° customer visibility that enables users to market their product well and also use impactful tools to increase sales.
Who is current user in Zendesk? ›(current user) is the person who last updated the ticket. The (current user) changes each time someone different updates the ticket. The update can be made by any agent or end-user with access to the ticket.
Does Shopify use Zendesk? ›Shopify rolls out Zendesk to create more upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Shopify retired Desk.com and rolled out Zendesk in just one day, creating a unified workspace for sales, support, and customers to connect.
Is Zendesk a big tech company? ›Zendesk is ranked #161 in Tech Brands.
Is Zendesk a CRM or SAAS? ›Zendesk Sell is a web-based and mobile customer relationship management (CRM) tool that helps sales, marketing and support teams collaborate and align on all lead and customer needs. Its features include email automation and tracking, custom dashboards and lead scoring.
What is a problem in Zendesk? ›Problems and Incidents in Zendesk offer a better solution to this situation. Problem and Incident are different ticket types. Any ticket that is assigned as an Incident can be attached to a Problem ticket. Then, once the Problem ticket is solved, all Incidents attached to it will automatically be solved as well.
Is Zendesk worth the money? ›
In fact, our research found that Zendesk is the best CRM for customer service and the best CRM for easily managing customer databases. However, when it comes to sales, the Zendesk Sell platform did not score as well compared to other options, but it's worth a shot if you're already set up with Zendesk Support.
Why is Zendesk so slow? ›Check that your device and browser meet the Zendesk Support system requirements. Make sure you don't have too many tabs open. A lot of Zendesk tabs can cause lag and interfere with each other. Make sure you aren't having any trouble with apps.
How reliable is Zendesk? ›Reviews from Pandia
“Zendesk is one of the most popular help desk software that has been used by thousands of big companies around the world. It offers reliable service with complete features designed to help your company build better relationships with your customers.” — Jay.
Zendesk Help Center is a customer self-service solution that enables an organization effortlessly reduce support ticket volumes. Top companies that use it appreciate the value of seamless customer service, save customer support costs, improve staff productivity, and transform the sales experience.
Has Zendesk been hacked? ›Customer service solutions provider Zendesk has suffered a data breach that resulted from employee account credentials getting phished by hackers. Cryptocurrency trading and portfolio management company Coinigy revealed last week that it had been informed by Zendesk about a cybersecurity incident.
Who is Airbnb biggest competitor? ›Vrbo. As Airbnb's biggest competitor with over 2 million listings and vacation rentals in 190 countries and counting, Vrbo is the next most important website, following Airbnb, to be familiar with for your vacation rental business. Vrbo is an acronym that stands for “vacation rentals by owner”.
Which is better Jira or Zendesk? ›Zendesk's strengths are two-way communication, automation and knowledge bases, while JIRA's strengths are multiple activity feeds at project, team, issue, and user levels, and assessment/reporting tools. JIRA covers from concept to launch, while Zendesk focuses on follow up with maintenance, support and feedback.
Is Zendesk B2B or b2c? ›Our customer service software makes it easier to maintain complex B2B customer service relationships. It allows you to integrate all your customer information and interactions from a wide array of touchpoints, including social media, text, email, live chat, and phone calls.
Who is the competitor of Zendesk? ›Freshdesk is probably the tool that most closely resembles Zendesk on this list. It has a shared inbox, a knowledge base, and the ability to connect to other software using apps in its marketplace. It also has some automation capabilities to improve productivity.
Can Freshdesk be used as a CRM? ›Freshdesk is a powerful CRM that offers email ticketing, live chat, and phone support for your customers. It's very easy to use and boasts tons of features, but plans that include automation can be pricey.
Is Freshworks a loss making company? ›
Freshworks' Loss Narrows 58% YoY To $58.3 Mn In Q3 2022, Revenue Jumps 33%
Is Zoho better than Freshworks? ›Based on verified reviews from real users in the CRM Customer Engagement Center market. Freshworks has a rating of 4.4 stars with 600 reviews. Zoho has a rating of 4.5 stars with 1390 reviews.
Who is the biggest competitor of Salesforce? ›- Microsoft.
- Oracle.
- SAP.
- Zoho.
- SugarCRM.
- HubSpot.
- Sage.
- Zendesk.