Zendesk is known to be a highly scalable platform having a capacity of anywhere in between 5 to 500 helpdesk service agents. It translates any communication from the customer in the form of tickets to look into any issue faced by the customer. Zendesk is designed to track chats, emails, web forms and social media messages, making it easier for businesses of any size to manage customer response.
It is advised that Zendesk is best suited for organizations which require to handle a large number of customer support requests. The other features range from robust self-service and FAQs to analytics and reporting for managers. Feedbacks and reviews show that it is a powerful solution as a helpdesk, but it isn’t right for everyone. For example, it can prove overwhelming for small businesses which only handle a small number of inquiries every day or those who aren’t required to maintain multiple support channels. As opposed to Zendesk, it may be not enough in cases depending upon the complexity of the business.
For example, the reviewer faced challenges in data integration from Zendesk with their company’s system and found the system is less flexible than alternatives in regards to custom permissions and roles, making it difficult to implement it for organizations with particular needs and individualization. The pricing for Zendesk starts at $5/ month and goes up to $199/ month based on company size.
To cater to the specific business requirements, there are plenty of Zendesk competitors which small businesses can consider.
List of Top Zendesk competitors
1. TeamSupport
It is easy to get going app offering the sandbox environment to help you get started within minutes. With TeamSupport’s focus on automation, it can be considered one of the top Zendesk competitors for growing customer support teams.
Components which it has common with Zendesk include:
- Ticket automation: Allows to set rules on who receives tickets, making the automation process easier after setting rules.
- Email Integration: Respond to tickets and perform actions directly via email.
- Ticket Collision Prevention: Prevents two agents from working on the same ticket.
When compared to Zendesk, pricing for TeamSupport is a bit on the higher side. The monthly pricing starts at $40 per user while it can jump to $55 per user for software and tech companies. Though being one of the Top Rated apps, it can be considered just the right tool for your team to manage customer queries.
2. Help Scout
Whether you have a small or a large team, Help Scout is a wonderful tool to work with. In case you haven’t tried this Zendesk alternative, it is definitely one of Zendesk competitors.
Compared to any other helpdesk company, Help Scout is a relatively smaller helpdesk app company, though it has a strong service team to help you. Due to this, its reviewers are of the view that it works well for every team size, whether small or large company with thousands of users. As a Zendesk alternative, the goal of Help Scout is to make every interaction more personalized by doing away with the automation part and sending out ticket numbers.
Highlights of Help Scout as a Zendesk alternative include:
- Tagging: Keep track of tickets and automated actions via the tagging system
- Multiple Mailboxes: It allows managers to create multiple boxes for shared email addresses to help team members know about communication which they are responsible for.
- Collaboration Notes: The agents can make notes related to a ticket for other agents to collaborate on it.
The app is available from $15/month/ per user for up to 10 agents while at $40/month per user it offers unlimited mailboxes and users.
3. Oracle Service Cloud
It can be considered the gold standard for customer service. Oracle helps streamline everything you require into a single product which is simple to use. It also makes the whole operations cost-effective with a huge company behind the product.
Oracle has made strides with its customer support solution which goes far beyond just a simple helpdesk. The strength of the tool is its ability to provide omnichannel support and easily integrate with components of Oracle Customer Experience Cloud Suite.
However, it can be an overskill for smaller organizations with a limited budget when compared to other Zendesk competitors. When compared to Zendesk, it is less easy to navigate, though its huge advantage is its ability to integrate different services to a single platform. Oracle is a behemoth in business software and is a helpdesk solution that has the price to match.
The Services of the tool start at $90/month per user, though keep in mind it includes cross channel contact centre, knowledge management, field service management and policy automation.
4. LiveAgent
LiveAgent can be considered perfect for an environment which deals with both small scare and large scale email traffic, with the possibility of automation and customization to provide a relevant customer experience. Consider Liveagent to be a Zendesk competitor for the small and mid-size business, particularly in the eCommerce market, which wants to focus on resolving user issues via video chat.
Companies can incorporate other features such as email, social, customer self-service portal based on the pricing.
Some of the features similar to Zendesk include the following:
- Automated Ticket Distribution: Tasks aren’t required to be assigned manually, and managers can monitor agent performance based on the tickets assigned or completed.
- Hybrid Ticket Stream: It makes the tickets uniform irrespective of the channel they come in through.
- Universal Inbox: Managers can easily track down all tickets in a single place.
The Pricing for LiveAgent ranges between $12/month per user to $59/month per user. The higher end of pricing supports features such as social channels, gamification and time tracking.
5. Freshdesk
Considering the agent’s standpoint, the app is highly optimized for all the tasks which a support agent is required to do regularly. Freshdesk designed the UX by spending a lot of time taking inputs from the support people. From the user’s standpoint, the experience has also been optimized. The review is that the app is easy to open the cases and to see the status easily across the cases.
It is considered to be one of the top Zendesk competitors currently available in the market. Some reviewers believe that it stands right behind Zendesk.
Some of the specific features of Freshdesk which help it stand out to include the following:
- Canned Responses: The Helpdesk agents can shorten the time to respond using canned responses saved on the platform.
- Team Inbox: All agents can track tickets via multiple channels within a single team inbox.
- Team Huddle: In case of challenging tickets, an agent can consult other team members to get a clear answer.
- Scenario Automation: In case of tickets which require a similar response, the agents can take actions which can be taken care of within a single click.
24/7 Support: It offers 24/7 email support and 24/5 phone support for all of its customers.
The pricing ranges between $19/month to $89/month per agent.
6. ConnectWise Manage
ConnectWise Manage helps keep track of all the communication between the agents and the end-users. The details are available from the company level as compared to needing to ask the tech people what they have in the mailbox.
It offers an array of business management tools in a single suite, which is not limited to helpdesk tools. The app Manage may not be as simple as Zendesk. However, it can be considered a powerful tool for tech companies who look to manage sales, marketing, customer services using a single system.
Some of the features of ConnectWise Manage similar to Zendesk include the following:
- Team Review the Team: See how your customer service team is spending the time.
- Data Tracking: Set goals and track them easily.
- Customizable Tickets: See all the required information on a single screen.
As it has a broader suite of software tools, the pricing for ConnectWise Manage is available on request.
7. Helpjuice
This tool is obviously on the list as it focuses on specifically enabling users to create a fully-customizable knowledge base which can be used both by internal employees as well as customers. The customization offered by Helpjuice allows the users to tailor the look and feel of the customer-facing knowledge base.
When compared with functionality, Helpjuice allows for internal editing of knowledge base documents allowing multiple agents to collaborate remotely to make improvements to a document at the same time.
Besides this, agents can tag as well as categorize the documents as appropriate to allow customers to find the required answers. Customers can find the answer either via browsing or manually and either by using the tool’s intelligent search capabilities.
Helpjuice provides in-depth analytics, reports related to customer queries, in turn allowing the users to focus on content and documentation. When coming to the User’s perspective, it offers an intuitive UI which is customizable and user friendly and does exactly in the way it is required to do. It is touted to help the organization learn more about how customers search for things.
8. Spiceworks
You can stop using other products and switch to Spiceworks as using it is pretty simple. It is a help desk solution which is tailored for IT companies. Though it may not be as full of features as Zendesk, it does have email integration and supports a simple ticket system. It can be considered a quick and easy helpdesk IT solution. The price of this Zendesk competitor cannot be beaten, as it is available for free.
9. Desk.com
Desk.com offers global customer support and helps the customer support team keep going at full speed.
As a product of Salesforce, the software brings together the support and sales with the goals of having a consistent customer experience and having track of an account in a single place. It provides the ability to track communication within Desk.com and does it with efficiency and transparency. However, it may not be convenient for other teams to stay updated on the support issues.
It can be not easy to integrate with other systems in case other teams aren’t all in on Desk.
Similar to Zendesk competitors, Desk.com has certain features which include:
- Case Management: It ensures that the right agents work on the ticket.
- Productivity Tools: Tagging and Automation is designed to help agents, as well as managers, create workflows faster.
- Multichannel Support: Create tickets using social media messages, phone calls and emails.
The pricing of Desk.com between $20/month per agent for the small businesses to $100/month. For enterprises. In this sense, it is about the same price as Zendesk.
10. WebEx Support Center
The main use of Webex is to assist clients with bugs or troubleshooting within the software. As it comes from the telecom giant Cisco, WebEx Support Center is designed to provide the technical support to major software clients. Its limitation is that it is not meant to be considered as a helpdesk solution and is a communication tool which allows support agents to communicate with customers, share screens and help them troubleshoot issues.
In the case of companies which require to be in constant contact with customers, WebEx is the solution.
It is a bit pricey when compared with Zendesk or other Zendesk competitors. The clients are required to pay $24/month for up to 8 customers or $89/month for up to 100 people on a call.
Conclusion
Help desk solutions are designed to be cost-effective, truly helpful, and can be customized based on customer needs. Take your time to read the reviews, understand the pros and cons, before narrowing down on the list of available options. You can start with a free to use a tool such as Spiceworks to understand more about the working and functionality of helpdesk software.
Let us know which one do you prefer and what else you would like to see in a helpdesk software.