Want to make the jump from Zendesk? Based on hundreds of authentic evaluations, these are the best Zendesk alternatives and rivals to consider.
Companies employ a variety of consumer contact methods, including email, social media, and messengers. There are also other technologies available to provide help through various channels. One of them is Zendesk, a customer support software suite that integrates live customer help, CRM, marketing communications, and other features designed for businesses of all sizes.
Why do businesses adore this software?
The Zendesk tool is simple to use to start. It is well known for its user-friendly design and customizable administration panel. Discover what tools Zendesk offers.
- a live chat tool
- a ticketing system to manage clients’ problems;
- automation, workflows, and AI-powered canned answers to save your agents’ time
- 1,000+ integrations to unite your business tool and data in one place
A knowledge base to enable customers to find answers to their questions; up to 20 pipelines to close deals and move them through funnel stages; a dashboard to analyze the team’s performance.
This is why companies like Uber, Siemens, Khan Academy, and others use Zendesk software.
Yet nothing is perfect, and Zendesk is no exception. Customers begin seeking Zendesk alternatives as a result of:
- Difficult to develop integrations
- Extensive setup
- Sluggish service
- Prohibitively expensive fee.
Without further ado, here are the 15 greatest alternatives to Zendesk’s renowned help desk software.
1. Zoho Desk
Zoho is most well-known for its customer relationship management software, but they also provide help desk software. A shared inbox, phone integration, and chat are just a few of the services that Zoho Desk offers. Nevertheless, some of those functions, such as chat, are only available on the most expensive plan.
Zoho Desk also has a robust set of connectors for connecting with the rest of your IT stack. There are team management capabilities, such as time monitoring, available for bigger teams. They even provide AI alternatives for self-service, although this function is only available on the most expensive package.
2. Help Scout
Since it offers a wide range of services to its users, Help Scout, a help desk and customer care software solution, is a popular Zendesk competitor.
First and foremost, Help Scout is concerned with “customers, not tickets.” In other words, Help Scout simply lets a company’s consumers engage with the support team via email in a genuine and spontaneous manner. While messages are internally logged as tickets, the consumer is never treated as “just a number.”
Help Scout also enables enterprises to track interactions with particular consumers from the time an internal ticket is opened until the issue is handled. This helps all internal teams remain on the same page while resolving a single customer’s issue.
Lastly, Help Scout allows businesses to construct customer-facing self-service portals. These portals may incorporate knowledge bases and other similar information to assist clients in finding the answers they want without having to contact customer service.
3. LiveChat
LiveChat is a platform that may be used as an alternative to Zendesk. This software allows customer service representatives to interact with website users while sales and marketing teams acquire and nurture additional prospects. This application is ideal for SaaS companies as well as eCommerce, EdTech, and FinTech teams looking for Zendesk alternatives.
LiveChat features include a chatbot tool; chat and automatic routing of customer requests to relevant agents; customer behavior tracking, ticketing, and chat reporting; targeted messages (greetings, short responses); and a CRM to centralize customer data.
4. ServiceNow
Whilst Zendesk is commonly seen as a customer-facing platform, several organizations also utilize it for internal IT requests. ServiceNow, an IT ticketing system developed for internal ticket management, is another choice in this regard.
ServiceNow provides tools such as AI-assisted support ticket assignments to help enhance team members’ productivity. Employees may obtain answers fast thanks to self-service alternatives and virtual assistants, and reports allow you to analyze performance and identify areas for growth.
5. Freshdesk
Another help desk system that prioritizes usability and cost is Freshdesk. Organizations may use Freshdesk to build up automation to address particular client questions as needed. This comprises automatic routing of help desk tickets to the appropriate department or agent, prioritizing of inquiries depending on severity, and auto-responders for situations where a live answer isn’t required.
Freshdesk recognizes the significance of real-time information and documentation updates. The programme contains “collision detection,” which ensures that many agents do not pick up and work on a single query when only one person is required. Moreover, information and documentation created by either the client or the agent may be quickly uploaded “on the fly” to Freshdesk’s knowledge base, allowing such content to be continuously updated over time.
6. Userlike
Userlike Software is a Zendesk alternatives with a nice and easy design. It will allow you to merge messages from chat and other consumer communication channels into a single window.
User-friendly characteristics
Userlike solely offers functionality for customer support. As a result, Userlike may become a Zendesk alternatives only if you’re looking for a customer communication platform:
- Chatbot, live translation, video calls, and screen sharing;
- Integrations with Zendesk, Google Analytics, Mailchimp, and other platforms
- Proactive chat and prepared messages
- Analytics and reporting.
7. Gorgias
Gorgias is an e-commerce help desk solution. When you sign up, you will have access to a shared email as well as live chat. The most notable distinctions are its Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce connectors (although the Magento integration is only offered on the higher-tier plan).
Using those integrations, you can view order information, alter orders, and even issue refunds right from your help desk, saving your support personnel a lot of time and effort. Gorgias also includes social media interfaces with networks such as Instagram and Facebook that allow you to measure conversions on those platforms.
Furthermore, all of their programs have ticket restrictions, which means your charges may change month to month based on demand. To give you an idea, their standard package offers 350 monthly tickets, which equates to around 12 tickets every day—a number that most teams would significantly surpass. After that, you’re charged an extra $25 for every 100 tickets.
8. HubSpot Service Hub
HubSpot Service Hub, another cloud-based customer care platform, seeks to streamline operations connected to managing customer queries and improving client engagement for all-sized enterprises. Users may effortlessly communicate with their consumers via live chat, conversational bots, one-on-one dialogue, prepared replies, etc.
HubSpot Service Hub, with its automated customer marketing emails and comprehensive CRM tools, enables organizations to consistently interact with customers through fast access to multiple case remedies. As predicted, it can be integrated with all essential third-party apps.
9. Tawk.to
Tawk.to is a customer communication platform that can compete with Zendesk. It combines chat, chat pages, and a knowledge base to let businesses of all sizes communicate with visitors and improve the customer experience for free.
Tawk.to features include: chat translated into 45 languages; shortcuts; engagement tracking and reporting; website visitor monitoring; chat pages that may replace landing pages; an SEO-optimized knowledge library; and the possibility to employ a virtual assistant or chat agent.
10. Kustomer
CRMs and help desk software have always existed independently, but Kustomer integrated the two to create a new sort of solution. With Kustomer, you can view a full picture of each client and update various systems at once, saving time and energy.
Kustomer provides email, chat, phone, and social account help via many channels. There are also no-code chatbots available for redirecting support queries to self-service solutions.
Nevertheless, Kustomer is pretty pricey, and the pricing is a little perplexing because there are a variety of add-on features. Also, many of its features are geared towards diverting inquiries, which may not be optimal for more customer-focused teams.
11. Intercom
Intercom’s customer messaging platform focuses on helping businesses develop genuine connections with their customers at every level of the sales funnel.
With Intercom, users can engage with their consumers via live chat, email, in-app messaging, and push notifications. This allows businesses to reach out to the appropriate individuals on the right platform at the right time.
Intercom also allows users to develop extensive knowledge bases. This enables consumers to quickly and easily discover solutions to both simple and difficult inquiries without the need for a customer support representative to intervene. Of course, Intercom’s messaging services make it simple for agents to help customers as needed.
When a client’s issue has been handled (or not), Intercom gives the firm a report on the matter at hand. This enables enterprises to examine their knowledge base and update particular support materials as needed.
12. LiveAgent
LiveAgent is a Zendesk alternatives that uses a ticketing system to give a personalized customer experience. LiveAgent will assist you in launching a chat (through a website and other communication methods), as well as establishing a call center and knowledge base.
The platform is perfect for customer care teams in small and medium-sized businesses.
Features of LiveAgent
- Live chat with a ticketing system
- Team effectiveness reports and comprehensive analytics;
- Call centers and video calls
- Proactive messaging to encourage more website visits to chat
- Customer satisfaction surveys.
13. HappyFox
HappyFox is an all-in-one ticketing system that may be used as an alternative to Zendesk. This provides multichannel assistance and interfaces with critical company services such as accounting, CRM, customer feedback, commerce, and so on. This Zendesk competitor is best suited for small to medium-sized SaaS businesses.
HappyFox has chat integration, which is one of the Zendesk alternatives; reporting, analytics, and data collection; prepared actions to automate certain basic procedures; a knowledge base; and job assignment.
14. Crisp
Another Zendesk rival that enables rapid conversation with website visitors With this customer support software as a Zendesk replacement, you will be able to deliver multichannel customer support, service, and sales by utilizing technologies such as live chat, canned replies, customer action monitoring, and others. Small- and medium-sized businesses will benefit from the solution.
Crisp includes one of the Zendesk options.
- Live chat with a ticketing system; a knowledge base; chatbots and scripted messages; interfaces with HubSpot, Facebook, Salesforce, Slack, and other services;
- MagicBrowse—a tool that displays the screen of website visitors;
- LiveTranslate is the built-in translator for live chat.
The Best Zendesk Alternatives to Consider
As we conclude our compilation of Zendesk alternatives, it’s critical to remember that the objective value of each of these tools isn’t as essential as the value each will provide to your firm. In that instance, while some may seek an all-in-one customer care solution, others may choose a more basic choice to do a single task.
With that in mind, go over this advice again as you start to narrow down your options. What’s your best bet? Don’t choose a more complex tool because you “could” utilize its more advanced capabilities in the future. Rather, choose the tool that will assist you in tackling your most pressing problems today while leaving other possibilities open in the future.