Zendesk has long been a popular choice for a wide range of business and customer support tools, and for good reason. Zendesk offers five different well-rounded and easy-to-use solutions ideal for almost every industry.
However, that doesn't automatically make Zendesk the best choice for every organization. Some teams may require a more simplistic approach with a shorter onboarding time as opposed to an all-in-one platform.
That's why we wanted to take a closer look at some of the top competitors of Zendesk, and offer a breakdown of what helps each solution stand out.
Here's our list of the 10 Best Zendesk Alternatives
At A Glance Comparison of Alternatives to Zendesk
| Pricing | Communication channels | Best Features | Best For | |
| Zoho Desk | $14-$40 per user/month |
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Large businesses and enterprises especially ones using Zoho CRM or other Zoho tools |
| Freshdesk | $0-$79 per agent/month |
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SMBs and startups that want the option to add telephony and CX tools as needed |
| SugarCRM | $19-$135 per user/month |
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Small but growing sales teams that need analytics and sales intelligence in addition to contact management |
| ServiceNow | Quote based |
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SMBs that want to unify communications and add automations without switching providers |
| Intercom | $29-$132 per seat/month |
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Small companies that need a business phone system with built-in help desk capabilities |
| Help Scout | $22-$65 per user/month |
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Startups and nonprofits that are looking for a simple text-based helpdesk solution |
| Kustomer | $89-$139 per user/month |
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Enterprises that need a high level of customization and control |
| LiveAgent | $9-$69 per agent/month |
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SMBs looking for an affordable solution with call center capabilities |
| HelpJuice | $120-$659 flat monthly fee |
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Companies that only need to implement a knowledge base for employee training or self-service |
| Gogias | $10-$833 flat monthly fee |
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Retail industry companies that wish to implement omnichannel support and streamline operations |
Why Seek A Zendesk Alternative
Some organizations might require a dedicated tool that addresses one or two challenges the company is facing, without the integration into a full service helpdesk ticketing system. For example, companies that are looking for a standalone live chat or knowledge base solution might find Zendesk to be overwhelming.
Additionally, Zendesk is expensive. It offers a starter plan at $19 per month, per user, but this plan is limited in features and does not allow for custom layouts, dynamic content, follow up surveys, or business hours. The next step up plan is $55 per month, per user, which is high compared with other helpdesk providers and does not include add-ons like workforce optimization and generative AI.
How We Evaluated The Zendesk Alternatives
- Live chat: We looked at whether the provider offered live chat functionality and how easy it was to set up
- Call center tools: We researched what contact center tools were available for each provider such as call monitoring, advanced analytics, omnichannel routing, etc.
- Helpdesk ticketing: We compared the ticketing systems of the alternatives and evaluated them for ease of use, customizability, etc.
- Self-service options: We looked at what self-service options were available such as knowledge base creation, chat and voice bots, etc.
- Security: We evaluated the level of security for each provider looking at compliance certifications, data encryption, SLAs, etc.
- Customer support: We compared the available customer support channels and conducted “hands on” research to determine the responsiveness and effectiveness of support agents
- Integrations: We looked at what integrations were available and the depth of those integrations as well as the option to use APIs, SDKs, etc.
The Best Zendesk Alternatives
Below, we'll look into some of the best Zendesk alternatives, detailing their features, pricing, and potential benefits, so you can make an informed decision about the best fit for your organization.
Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is a full service customer support ticketing solution consisting of numerous helpdesk and customer journey management features such as live chat, ticket templates, and analytics.
Zoho prides itself on a user-friendly interface, straightforward pricing, and a wide selection of integrations including Zoom, RingCentral, Office365 and Google Workspace. For businesses that require both sales and support tools, Zoho CRM integrates seamlessly with Zoho Desk and provides features like sales forecasting and scheduled mass emailing.
Zoho is also highly secure, with single sign-on, encryption in transit and at rest, and multi-factor authentication.
Standout Features
- Contextual AI: Zoho’s GenAI tool “Zia” can interact with customers and provide answers using a knowledge base, auto tag tickets, evaluate for sentiment, and more
- Work modes: Tickets move to their appropriate column (status, handshake, countdown or priority mode) automatically in real time
- Auto time tracking: Users measure how much time is spent on every ticket based on selected departments, agents, and modules
- Templates: Zoho includes both email and ticket templates with predefined field values that can be applied to a specific support request
- Permission and Access: Zoho includes 5-250 roles and 6-50 profiles which restrict access to certain features depending on the pricing plan
Pricing
Zoho Desk offers three paid plans from $14 to $40 per user, per month. Month to month pricing is $20 to $50 per user, per month.
For more information, check out our Zoho pricing guide.
What Makes Zoho A Great Alternative to Zendesk
- Security: Zoho offers multi-factor authentication while Zendesk only offers two factor authentication
- Customizability: Zoho Desk allows users to customize fields and layouts, define the steps of every ticket, and build customized mobile apps with APIs, SDKs and webhooks while Zendesk has less customization options
- Price: Zoho offers pricing from $14-$40 per user per month while Zendesk is $55-$115+ per user per month
Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a full-featured helpdesk and ticketing solution that leverages AI to allow for the prioritization, assignment, and tracking of tickets.
Freshdesk does not include telephony service, however, users that need a full UCaaS platform can add on other products from the Freshworks suite including FreshCaller (business VoIP services) and FreshChat (live chat, social media messaging, and team chat).
Like Zendesk, Freshdesk is highly secure, with SOO and roles-based access control included in all plans. Higher-tiered plans also include whitelisting and sandboxing.
Standout Features
- Email bots: AI-powered email bot automatically responds to common email queries with appropriate articles using a Machine Learning model
- Freddy Co-Pilot: This add-on starts at $29/agent/month and can summarize tickets, rephrase content, generate articles, and more
- Community forums: Set up self-service communities with a three-level hierarchy of categories, forums, and topics
- Automations: Set automation rules that will run when specific conditions are met. For example, when a ticket comes in from a certain contact, it is automatically marked urgent
Pricing
Freshdesk is one of the few providers to offer a “free forever” plan that includes ticketing, threads, tasks, ticket dispatch (routing) rules, and shared inbox for up to two agents. There are three paid plans available ranging from $15 to $79 per agent, per month. Users can add on telephony service via Freshcaller starting at $15 per agent, per month.
For more information, check out our Freshdesk pricing guide.
What Makes Freshdesk A Great Alternative to Zendesk
- Collaborators: Freshdesk allows for up to 5,000 unregistered collaborators on some plans, while Zendesk only allows for up to 100 “light agents” (excluding the Enterprise plan)
- Flexibility: Freshdesk is a more flexible platform than Zendesk as it allows users to purchase day passes for agents who only need temporary access. Companies can add on channels such as voice and live chat as needed
- Free plan: Freshdesk offers a completely free forever plan while Zendesk does not
SugarCRM
As the name suggests, Sugar CRM is primarily a customer relationship management solution, however, it also offers powerful self-service and automation functionality, making it a viable alternative to Zendesk.
SugarCRM is built for sales teams, offering detailed pipeline analytics, intelligent lead prioritization, and team collaboration tools. SugarCRM also offers a product for customer service teams, SugarCRM Service. However, considering the price and the fact that many of the features are also included in SugarCRM Sell, companies will likely get more value from SugarCRM’s flagship product.
Companies that have both sales and service teams will be happy to find that SugarCRM Sell offers self-service tools such as chatbots and smart guides, includes account, contact, and activity management in all plans, and offers telephony services with skills-based routing.
Standout Features
- Self-service portal: Set up a portal where customers can communicate with agents via chat or notes, and can attach files
- Bug tracking: Allows companies to easily track and manage product defects and issues
- Sentiment analysis: Leverages AI to determine a customer’s emotional state and predict customer intent
- Omnichannel communications: Amazon Connect is embedded into SugarCRMs platform, allowing users to communicate with customers on multiple channels without losing context
Pricing
SugarCRM offers 4 paid plans from $19 to $135 per user, per month. SugarCRM Market starts at $1,000 per month and offers campaign management combined with CRM. SugarCRM Serve is $80 per user, per month, and focuses on self-service.
What Makes SugarCRM A Great Alternative to Zendesk
- Customer support: SugarCRM includes 12/5 live phone support for Advanced and Premier plan users, while Zendesk only offers live customer support as an add on
- Real time analytics:SugarCRM includes real time reporting and insights for all users while Zendesk limits live dashboards to its Professional and Enterprise plans
ServiceNow
ServiceNow is an AI-driven SaaS platform that helps companies increase productivity through automation and intelligent virtual assistants.
ServiceNow leverages native intelligence, not algorithms, for its AI-powered tools, resulting in AI responses that are natural and innovative. Automations can be built without code using intuitive graphical interfaces.
ServiceNow also offers workforce optimization tools including dynamic scheduling, time-off requests, shift swaps, and performance reporting.
ServiceNow does not include any telephony or helpdesk services, but it integrates with hundreds of third-party apps. This lets companies infuse artificial intelligence and automations into their workflows without switching to a completely new system.
Standout Features
- Skills-based routing: Enables users to route incidents to the right agent based on preset rules and language detection
- Now Assist: GenAI Agent Assistant that provides agents with a summary of case notes and interaction history for customers in real time
- Process mining: Allows businesses to optimize operations by viewing a visual representation of processes, uncovering inefficiencies, and employing root cause analysis
- Guided decisions: Leverages AI to dynamically rank next best decisions based on frequency and priority
Pricing
ServiceNow does not publicly state its prices, but they are estimated at about $75 per user, per month.
What Makes ServiceNow A Great Alternative to Zendesk
- WFO and WFM: ServiceNow includes a number of WFM/WFO tools such as shift swap and time off requests while Zendesk only offers WFO as a paid add on
- Integrations: ServiceNow is more specialized than Zendesk, but it can be integrated with hundreds of CRMs, VoIP, UCaaS, and CCaaS providers to infuse AI and automations into operations
Intercom
Intercom provides organizations with a messaging-first platform to implement self-service and accelerate growth across the entire customer journey.
Intercom offers users a full service helpdesk platform enabling them to implement self-service, live chat, a public help center, and a ticketing system complete with team collaboration and real time customer updates.
Intercom also offers VoIP telephone service and includes cloud PBX features such as customized greetings, team routing, and live call monitoring and barging. Companies can obtain local or toll free numbers, and make and receive phone and video calls.
Phone usage is charged per minute and not included in the subscription plans, but charges are reasonable at $.0035 per minute. Still, companies with a very high call volume might prefer to integrate with a third party VoIP platform.
Standout Features
- Workflow automations: Visual automation builder allows companies to create conditions for assigning, closing, and prioritizing conversations
- Messenger screen sharing: Companies can enable customers to share their screen in order to assist with more complex issues
- Interactive Voice Response: Users create a fully customizable phone tree that automatically sends calls to an agent, department, external number, voicemailbox, etc., based on user data. Includes callback and overflow options
- Fin AI Agent: AI agent that answers customer questions based on company support databases and external sources such as billing history. Companies can opt to include rich media, integrate customer segmentation and create workflow automations for Fin
Pricing
Intercom offers three plans from $29 to $132 per user, per month. Users can also add on proactive support for $99 per month or unlimited Copilot usage for $29 per month, per agent. Whatsapp, phone, SMS and email campaigns are billed based on usage.
What Makes Intercom A Great Alternative to Zendesk
- Multilingual support: AI Copilot operates in 45 languages and is included in all plans, while Zendesk's multilingual support is only included in its Professional plan and up
- Phone and SMS service: Intercom offers phone and SMS functionality to all users, while Zendesk only offers these services to Pro and Enterprise plan users
Help Scout
Help Scout is a helpdesk software platform that allows support agents to interact with customers on up to 25 shared inboxes. Shared omnichannel inboxes organize email, live chat, and social media communications so that agents can easily access interaction history across channels. Voice and SMS channels can be added via integration.
Help Scout also includes tools for building up to 10 knowledge bases, in which users can restrict access by requiring authentication.
Help Scout is highly secure with GDPR and SOC 2 compliance, and a HIPAA compliant option. Help Scout also offers generous discounts–up to 100% off- for nonprofits–particularly those that advocate for human rights, sustainability, and underrepresentation in tech.
Standout Features
- Office hours: Enables users to filter reports and activate auto replies after hours and on holidays
- AI Summarize: Condenses a long conversation into a few bullet points
- Help widget: Allows companies to guide website viewers to contact forms, live chat, self-service content, etc.
- Integrations: Access to 100+ third party apps and APIs included in all plans
Pricing
Help Scout offers three bundled plans from $22 to $65 per user, per month. Help Scout also offers a free plan suitable for startups. It allows companies full access to Help Scout for 6 months and up to 10 users.
What Makes Help Scout A Great Alternative to Zendesk
- Value: Help Scout includes most of its features in its starter plan with only a few exceptions, while Zendesk’s starter plan is limited. Helpscout also offers a 6 month free plan for startups and large discounts for nonprofits, while Zendesk does not
- Ease of Use: Help Scout has a simple, user friendly interface while Zendesk is more feature rich with a steeper learning curve
Kustomer
Kustomer is a customer experience management platform that focuses on AI-powered assistance and omnichannel communication.
Kustomer is built for enterprises and includes automatic language detection, an advanced workflow builder, and real-time analytics. With the KIQ add-on, users build customized agent assist and customer service bots that connect to the company’s CRM and leverage AI to answer customer questions and provide guidance to agents.
Kustomer enables companies to unify communications across a wide variety of channels including native voice, chat, email, Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter, and more.
Standout Features
- Custom workflows: Users can build up to 150 workflows with conditional branching, create reusable logic blocks, and review/debug flows before operation is confirmed
- Message redaction: Users have the ability to permanently redact sensitive information in a text by highlighting the portion they wish to redact
- Team Pulse: Allows supervisors to view what agents are working on in real time on a dashboard that displays agent skills, queues, activity, capacity, etc.
- Customer sentiment: Sentiment is scored for each individual message using NLP and then an average is taken. Users can filter reports by sentiment
Pricing
Kustomer offers two paid plans from $89 to $139 per user, per month. Outbound chat and voice services are charged by usage. Kustomer’s advanced GenAI bot builder “KIQ” is available as a paid add-on.
What Makes Kustomer A Great Alternative to Zendesk
- Customer support: Kustomer includes 24/7 live support, a customer success manager, and customer selected issue prioritization in all plans, while Zendesk only offers 24/7 live support as an add-on
- Automations: Kustomer’s workflow builder is more nuanced than Zendesk’s with the ability to model multiple scenarios in a single workflow
LiveAgent
LiveAgent is an all-in-one ticketing and customer care solution. It offers 130+ features and 200+ integrations including an AI-powered answer assistant and call center tools like IVR, call recording, and automated callbacks.
LiveAgent does not offer native telephony service, but users can integrate with a low cost VoIP provider and take advantage of LiveAgent’s contact center features.
LiveAgent includes a robust ticketing system with several unique features such as agent collision detection, which prevents too many agents from working on the same ticket. It also has a built-in GIF search that customers can use to add GIFs to tickets.
Standout Features
- Gamification: Includes benchmarks, leaderboards, levels, rewards, and badges
- Customer portal: Users can build multiple knowledge bases, including internal knowledge bases, create customer forums to build community, and encourage feedback
- Live Chat: Robust live chat builder enables users to add chat button animations, embed tracking, and view customer typing before they hit send
- Customer service reporting: Includes usage statistics, agent ranking, SLA compliance, time tracking, and tagging
Pricing
LiveAgent offers four paid plans from $9 to $69 monthly, per agent. Live Agent also offers a generous 30-day free trial and a limited free version.
What Makes LiveAgent A Great Alternative to Zendesk
- Affordability: LiveAgent starts pricing at just $9 monthly, per agent in its Small Business. The plan includes a customer portal, custom domain parking, and white glove installation–while Zendesk starts pricing at $19 monthly, per agent
- Video calling: LiveAgent offers a browser based video chat feature that enables agents to connect with customers face-to-face without any third party app integration. Zendesk does not offer native video chat
HelpJuice
HelpJuice is an AI-powered knowledge base software solution. Unlike Zendesk and other providers on this list, HelpJuice does not offer live chat, helpdesk functionality, or call center features, but instead focuses solely on knowledge base creation.
As a result, HelpJuice offers users cutting edge tools and a plethora of customization options so that they can build a dynamic, bespoke knowledge base to impress customers and assist employees.
One of HelpJuice’s most impressive features is its search function. HelpJuice users can add a powerful search bar to their knowledge base that instantly scans documents, PDFs, and even content within images to find relevant results. This feature uses NLP and machine learning, starts working right away, and improves over time.
Standout Features
- Templates: Includes dozens of customizable themes to choose from, each with a list of front end files, supporting HTML, CSS, Javascript, and liquid markup
- Commenting feature: Enables collaborators to comment and reply directly on articles in real time
- Intelligent analytics: Allows companies to view what users are searching, measure article impact over a specified time period, see what topics are trending, etc.
- Structure tools: Enables users to organize content into categories and folders with main and alternative categories
Pricing
HelpJuice offers four paid plans from $120 to $659 per month. There are no per user fees. All features are included in every plan with the number of users increasing from 4 in the Starter Plan to unlimited in the Unlimited plan. Auto translation is only included in Premium and Unlimited plans.
What Makes HelpJuice A Great Alternative to Zendesk
- Single focus: Helpjuice does not offer the call center and ticketing tools that Zendesk does, but it specializes in knowledge base creation and therefore has more options and capabilities in this area
- Customer support: HelpJuice offers setup assistance and live customer service to all users. All pricing plans, except for the Starter plan, also come with “expert customization”, a priority support service. Zendesk only offers this level of service with a premium support add on
Gogias
Gogias is an automated, cloud-based CX platform that combines online commerce tools such as pre-sales support and AI-powered product suggestions, with helpdesk features such as tagging, shared inbox, and an AI assistant that can respond to common questions and resolve routine queries such as changing a customer’s address.
Gogias includes a customizable live chat widget that loads quickly and allows for file and image attachments. Gogias also simplifies data sharing between tools so that agents can view customer history, make updates, and respond to messages all under one pane of glass.
Standout Features
- AI Agent: Connects to all of your companies policies, knowledge and data and allows agents to review responses, provide feedback and increase accuracy
- Ecommerce integrations: Users can connect an unlimited number of stores using Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and BigCommerce and integrations
- Automations: Admins create automations using rules, macros, intent and sentiment detection, and templates
- Live statistics: Includes support performance, revenue statistics, and customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores
Pricing
Gogias has a unique pricing structure that charges companies a flat fee which increases based on the number of included tickets. The price for 10 tickets/month is $10-$40 per month, while The price for 500 tickets/month is $50-$200 per month.
There are four separate feature-bundled plans, but most features are included in all plans. Gogias also offers several add on including voice, SMS, and campaign services.
What Makes Gogias A Great Alternative to Zendesk
- Scalable: Gogias charges less for companies that are handling less tickets per month, and includes almost all features in every plan, making it easy for businesses to scale, while Zendesk does not offer discounts for low ticket volume companies
- Ecommerce focus: Unlike Zendesk which has broad functionality, Gogias focuses on ecommerce integrations and workflows, making it a great choice for those in the retail industry
Which Zendesk Alternative Should You Choose?
While Zendesk is a strong choice for many reasons, the providers and vendors that we have highlighted here stand out on their own as some of the top options among the competition. Here’s a quick breakdown to help you find the best Zendesk alternative:
- For Startups and Entrepreneurs: Freshdesk and LiveAgent both offer free versions and affordable pricing plans
- For SMBs: SugarCRM and Intercom both offer a wide variety of features with the ability to scale
- For Large Businesses and Enterprises: Zoho and ServiceNow provide a high level of security, are customizable, and are built for large companies
- For Knowledge Base only: HelpJuice offers a stellar knowledge base solution
- For Ticketing Only: HelpScout is easy to use and simplifies the ticketing process
