Top 15 Zendesk Alternatives in 2023: Save Your Budget Today!

Their help desk is a single inbox to handle customer requests, where your customer support agents can leave private notes for each other and automatically assign requests to the right people. But it’s designed so well that you really enjoy staying in their inbox and communicating with customers. The Intercom versus Zendesk conundrum is probably the greatest problem in the world of customer support tools. They both offer some state-of-the-art core functionality and numerous unusual features.

• Kustomer allows users to see the whole picture of each client and update every system at once, saving energy and time.
• But, if you just need a secure and quick data transfer, opt for Help Desk Migration.
• Moreover, Groove allows multiple agents to work collectively on one support item as needed in real-time.
• You can use the Intercom Articles feature to automatically import all of your published articles from Zendesk and organize them into collections that match your existing knowledge base structure.
• Based on that, for software companies that have mobile apps or cross-platform, they might have a mobile app or a web app, Intercom tends to stand out as a really solid option.
• For example, you can read in many Zendesk Sell reviews how adding sales tools benefits Zendesk Support users.

One more thing to add, there are ways to integrate Intercom to Zendesk. Visit either of their app marketplaces and look up the Intercom Zendesk integration. Like with many other apps, Zapier seems to be the best and most simple way to connect Intercom to Zendesk. Intercom’s large series of bots obviously run on automations as well. As mentioned before, the bot builder is a visual drag-and-drop system that requires no coding knowledge; this is also how other basic workflows are designed. The more expensive Intercom plans offer AI-powered content cues, triage, and conversation insights.

Is Zendesk better than Intercom? Our final points

It tracks changes in the synchronized data sources and performs only necessary data changes. It offers powerful mapping features, allowing you to sync data with different structure. Kustomer provides businesses with multi-channel support for email, chat, phone, and social accounts. However, Kustomer is more costly when compared to its alternatives in the market.

• Intercom has a wider range of uses out of the box than Zendesk, though by adding Zendesk Sell, you could more than make up for it.
• On the other hand, Intercom is more focused on conversational customer support, and has more help desk features suited for live chat and messaging.
• This feature is available on all the channels your customers use to get in touch with your brand.
• They’ve been marketing themselves as a messaging platform right from the beginning.
• If a customer starts an interaction by talking to a chatbot and can’t find a solution, our chatbot can open a ticket and intelligently route it to the most qualified agent.
• Additionally, Front allows customers to self-serve with its self-service portal feature which can be customized to match your brand’s look and feel.

Live chat mobile makes it simple to answer customer questions from any place at any time. Freshdesk is good for growing businesses because the pricing plan is agent-dependent. You can easily add additional customer support staff to the account at any time and the price of the selected plan increases accordingly. If someone has a question, they wanna talk to someone on the sales team, and then their messages.

An All-on-one CRM Platform for a Better Customer Experience

This makes it a great choice for businesses that want to provide their customers with a more personal experience. Whatever people are using to communicate with each other, whether it be online or over the phone, they expect to also be able to talk to the businesses they use with those same tools and platforms. Among the many challenges facing businesses today is the pressing need to meet their customers where they are.

Instead, they offer a product demo when prospects reach out to learn more about their pricing structure. Zendesk has also introduced its chatbot to help its clients send automated answers to some frequently asked questions to stay ahead in the competitive marketplace. What’s more, it helps its clients build an integrated community forum and help center to improve the support experience in real-time. Zendesk and Intercom are robust tools with a wide range of customer service and CRM features. Zendesk has over 1,300 integrations, compared to Intercom’s 300+ apps, making it the leader in this category. However, you can browse their respective sites to find which tools each platform supports.

Knowledge base

The customizable live chat tool also stands out with features such as auto-reply and canned replies. The platform, which stands out with its easy use, has been developed for businesses to professionally manage instant customer communications. Customer support is an important part of any business, and Zendesk’s customer support agents are no exception.

While its pricing may be on the higher side, the value it brings in terms of customer satisfaction and loyalty is well worth the investment. Gist not only has a support system but also a marketing automation platform (sold separately), they are very close to Intercom in what they do and have similar features. One thing unique about Gist is while their base plan starts at $29/mo with 5 users included, their $99/mo plan includes unlimited users making it a perfect and affordable suite for large teams. They have been around for years, are reliable and many large enterprises use them.

Zapier – automation and integrations

It is handy for both sides since users can get in touch with customer support teams via a chat widget placed right on the website. Freshdesk functions as a one-stop shop for customer support teams. The cloud-based platform features a multi-channel help desk, customizable knowledge base, chatbots, and a ticketing system, all wrapped up in a clean and simple interface.

AzureDesk is an excellent Zendesk alternative for businesses looking for an easy-to-use and comprehensive customer service platform. It provides a full suite of tools to help you manage customer interactions, including ticketing, messaging, and automated workflows. Plus, the intuitive interface makes it easy to set up and use right away. Tidio stands out as a fantastic Zendesk alternative, specifically designed for small and medium-sized businesses that focus on e-commerce and sales. With its primary goal to boost sales through exceptional customer service, Tidio utilizes powerful AI chatbots and conventional support tools.

Best Zendesk Alternative for Startups

Their reports are attractive, dynamic, and integrated right out of the box. You can even finagle some forecasting by sourcing every agent’s assigned leads. Keeping this general theme in mind, I’ll dive deeper into how each software’s features compare, so you can decide which use case might best fit your needs.

This enables companies to reach out to the right people on the right platform, at exactly the right time. Best Zendesk alternative for businesses looking for an all-in-one customer service solution with a powerful CRM, marketing automation, and sales tools. LiveAgent is a great LiveChat alternative with over 175 features including the fastest chat widget, call center and coverage of channels like Instagram and Viber. The migration process from LiveChat to LiveAgent is easy and free, taking only 5 minutes. Plus, there is no setup fee, customer service is available 24/7, and no credit card is required.

Onboarding features

Intercom has positioned itself as a messaging platform rather than a comprehensive CRM solution. This differentiates it from Zendesk, which offers a more traditional CRM experience. Intercom’s primary focus is engaging and communicating with customers through live chat, in-app messaging, and email.

If you wait for a while, after installation is complete you will be able to access your account directly from here. The first and biggest one is LiveAgent, followed by Zoho Desk, Help Scout, Gorgias, HappyFox, and Hiver. ServiceNow’s Integration Hub allows you to connect software like SAP, Salesforce, Oracle, Jira, Okta, and many others. If you’re not ready to sign up for any of these just yet, you can give Help Scout a try with their 15-day free trial. Before purchasing a plan, you can give Helpjuice a test ride during a 14-day free trial.

Intercom or Zendesk: Help desk and ticketing

The platform also offers an inbox that consolidates all customer communication into one simple-to-use interface. This Intercom Inbox allows businesses to create workflows that help automate customer journeys and tasks, such as directing customers to relevant knowledge base articles. Key features of Intercom include live chat and bots, which are widely used across websites to connect customers with customer support agents, FAQs, and automated responses to commonly asked questions.

Many use cases call for different approaches, and Zendesk and Intercom are but two software solutions for each case. However, this is somewhat subjective, and depending on your business needs and favorite tools, you may argue we got it all mixed up, and Intercom is truly superior. metadialog.com Some startups and small businesses may prefer one app, while large companies and enterprise operations will have their own requirements. So, by now, you can see that according to this article, Zendesk inches past Intercom as the better customer support platform.

ProProfs Help Desk is a decade-old SaaS company that offers an array of customer service and learning tools for businesses across the globe. Right from managing your support tickets to training your employees, you can take your support operations to the next level. Front is an all-in-one customer service platform that helps teams provide personalized and efficient customer service.

Calendly is a web-based booking tool that allows you to manage your appointments online. Calendly integrates with Intercom to help you keep track of your customers and their upcoming bookings. Fullview Replays allows you to watch video-like recordings of user sessions right from Intercom. Your support agents can quickly see customer bugs and issues in context — even before a user reaches out to them with a problem.

• They integrate well with various channels such as email, phone, Facebook, slack, etc making it an efficient platform.
• Hiver offers a customer service platform for streamlined communication and improved customer experience.
• Yes—as your business’s needs grow, you will require a more sophisticated case management system.
• Intercom is better designed for smaller companies and teams, while Zendesk is suitable for large companies to skyrocket customer support.
• A complete set of customer service management offerings to help you create human relationships with your customers.
• Intercom integrates with various platforms, including Salesforce, WhatsApp, Instagram, Slack, Facebook, Statuspage, and Twitter.

This customized dashboard will help you see metrics that you’d like to focus on regularly. Now that we know a little about both tools, it is time to make an in-depth analysis and identify which one of these will be perfect for your business. Here’s a list of criteria we’ve used to differentiate the two for you.