Zendesk functions as a straightforward help desk software used by some leading businesses across the globe. However, expensive pricing and complicated features make it an unsuitable option for most small to mid-sized businesses.
Let me introduce you to 12 best-in-class Zendesk alternatives, each capable of taking your customer service to the next level. In the following sections, I’ll delve into the unique features, pros and cons, and pricing of each tool, providing an unbiased analysis.
12 Zendesk Alternatives That Deserve Your Attention in 2024
While Zendesk serves as a reliable ticketing system, it’s crucial to explore other options to make an informed decision for your business.
The alternatives discussed in this blog have been integral to my team’s customer support suite over the past eight years. I’ve personally used most of these software systems, and some come highly recommended by experienced colleagues and industry experts.
1. ProProfs Help Desk – Best for Automated Customer Service
Whether you own a small business, a big enterprise, or a startup, you can easily use ProProfs Help Desk to connect with customers across multiple touchpoints, automate workflows, and resolve customer issues faster.
My team loves the automation features that ProProfs Help Desk brings to the table. For instance, I can automatically assign tickets to agents, share automated email notifications, and create canned responses to tackle common service queries.
Also, features such as AI-powered chatbots, shared inbox, insightful reports, team collaboration features, and parent-child ticketing make this tool the most popular Zendesk alternative.
What you’ll like:
- An easy-to-use interface can help your team get started in no time.
- Multichannel ticketing via email, live chat, help center, and web forms
- Ticket prioritization for urgent customer issues that demand immediate attention
- Monitor agent ratings and other important metrics to improve support performance
What you won’t like:
- Frequent feature releases can be confusing for some users
- Fewer industry-specific canned responses is a bit limiting factor
Pricing:
FREE for a single user. Plans start at $19.99/user/month for 2 or more users. No hidden fees. A 15-day money-back guarantee.
2. Freshdesk – Best for Help Desk Reporting
Freshdesk offers extensive team collaboration features, powerful integrations, and customization options to help you deliver a stellar support experience to your customers.
But that’s not what stood out to me. I was more impressed with Freshdesk’s reporting capabilities.
The product now incorporates advanced visualization features, allowing you to effortlessly comprehend extensive data volumes and present vibrant, colorful visuals to stakeholders.
Also, you can curate customer satisfaction reports to understand how customers feel about your support process.
What you’ll like:
- Agent collision detection to prevent multiple agents from working on the same ticket
- Related tickets can be linked together for faster issue resolution
- Interact with your customers instantly through WhatsApp
- Ticket forms can be shared with customers depending on their issues
What you won’t like:
- Multiple icons and features on the home dashboard can be confusing for first-time users
- Attaching files, especially images, to tickets takes a lot of time
Pricing:
Starts at $15/user/month
3. LiveAgent – Best for Social Media Support
Having used LiveAgent approximately six months ago, I found their help desk platform to be highly effective in reaching customers across various channels, including email and social media.
If you wish to support your customers and prospects on social media platforms, LiveAgent can be a good option. You can seamlessly manage popular social platforms like Whatsapp, Twitter, Viber, and Instagram from a centralized dashboard.
LiveAgent empowers agents to expedite issue resolution with a suite of robust productivity tools, fostering customer loyalty through personalized interactions.
Notable features such as automatic ticket or call routing, workflow automation, and SLA reports make it a compelling alternative to Zendesk, enhancing overall support efficiency.
What you’ll like:
- Automated ticket assignments to create optimal workloads for your agents
- Ticket Tags to better organize help desk tickets
- Automated spam filtering to avoid irrelevant messages in your help desk
- Private notes to facilitate internal discussion among team members
What you won’t like:
- Some important features, such as time tracking and custom roles, are only available in the Large Business plan
- The UI seems outdated and needs improvement
Pricing:
Starts at $9/user/month
4. Zoho Desk – Best for Help Desk Customization
I have always believed help desk customization is paramount as it tailors solutions to unique business needs.
This reminds me of Zoho Desk, which offers advanced customization options. Using this tool, I could personalize the look and feel of our help desk system, create custom fields, design email and SMS templates, and customize ticket statuses.
Some other notable customization features are rebranding, domain mapping, and help center customization for a unique customer experience.
You can easily cater to your global audience and support them 24/7. Simply build a robust self-service knowledge base and empower your customers to find solutions on their own.
One thing that disappoints me is that the live chat feature is only available in the Enterprise plan. So, if you wish to connect with customers instantly, you will have to spend a lot more.
What you’ll like:
- Multichannel ticketing for assisting customers on different channels
- Sentiment analysis with Artificial Intelligence named Zia
- Knowledge base articles or guides can be shared in ticket responses
- Develop and grow a community of prospects, existing customers, and visitors
What you won’t like:
- The live chat feature is only available in the Enterprise plan
- Zoho Desk hangs at times, which lowers its efficiency
Pricing:
Starts at $14/user/month
5. Kayako – Best for Internal Collaboration
Kayako is another Zendesk help desk alternative that equips your team to deliver exceptional customer service in multiple languages across live chat, email, Facebook, and Twitter.
After using this tool for around 5-6 months, I realized that it can work great for SMBs looking for relevant ticketing features to start supporting customers immediately.
Furthermore, Kayako’s internal collaboration features empowered my agents to work efficiently and provide personalized assistance. We could view all internal conversations in one place and work with internal and external collaborators to solve complex problems.
On the downside, the company does not offer the chatbot feature yet. I feel this is a major concern area for this tool.
What you’ll like:
- Live chat to convert website visitors into paying customers
- Automated workflows such as ticket routing, ticket updates, and more
- SLA management helps you stay on track and measure performance
- Slack integration to further boost internal communication
What you won’t like:
- Kayako does not offer a chatbot feature
- Expensive pricing compared to other help desk systems
Pricing:
Custom pricing
6. TeamSupport – Best for Preventing Customer Churn
Are you looking to gauge customer sentiment and proactively address churn?
If so, TeamSupport is the solution for you. This tool equipped my team with the essential features to monitor customer health scores, improve support, and mitigate churn risks.
TeamSupport stands out by adopting a unique approach to customer service. Rather than treating customers as mere tickets, it provides additional insights into our audience and allows us to track ticket history for trend identification.
The Customer Distress Index™ feature has proven invaluable, aiding us in identifying at-risk customers, making informed decisions, and ultimately reducing churn. It has become a crucial asset in our customer support endeavors!
What you’ll like:
- Automation rules help you route, escalate, and close tickets faster
- Agents can easily find support articles to resolve customer issues quickly
- Real-time sentiment analysis to identify the emotions behind a customer response
- Internal chat function to discuss tickets with team members
What you won’t like:
- TeamSupport’s pricing is on the expensive side
- The tool should offer more chat widget designs for improved customization and branding
Pricing:
Starts at $49/agent/month
7. HappyFox – Best for Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Do you know what successful brands have in common? They all prioritize the voice of the customer (VoC).
HappyFox’s CSAT survey feature empowers businesses to measure customer satisfaction effectively. With customizable surveys, timely feedback collection, and insightful analytics, you can gather valuable insights to enhance customer experiences.
Also, the user-friendly interface and automation options make it a seamless solution for tracking and improving CSAT scores.
Besides this, HappyFox is known for its multilingual capabilities that allow businesses to support their customers from across the globe. You can easily create help center articles in multiple languages and offer round-the-clock assistance.
What you’ll like:
- Canned responses to reply to customer queries in a single click
- Internal knowledge base to ensure rapid agent training
- AI-powered chatbots can help deflect support tickets
- Automated notifications to keep customers and team members notified
What you won’t like:
- Phone support is only offered to Enterprise Plus customers
- More integration with project management tools should be offered
Pricing:
Starts at $26/user/month
Read More: Voice of Customer: How to Boost Your Business With VoC Data
8. Groove – Best for Shared Inbox
If you are looking for a simple tool to collaborate around email, Groove might be the solution for you.
During our short free trial period, my agents could collaborate to resolve tickets faster, see who is working on what, and respond to customers without stepping on anybody’s toes. All thanks to its shared inbox feature!
With the reporting features of this tool, you can quickly understand your team’s workload and identify trends.
Also, the tool allows you to monitor key metrics such as the total number of conversations and resolutions per day, the total number of customers assisted, trend insights, and more.
What you’ll like:
- Step-by-step training guides help your team get started in minutes
- Internal notes to discuss complex issues with team members
- Unlimited reporting history to compare your current and past performances
- You can enjoy 50+ third-party tool integrations
What you won’t like:
- More integration options should be available
- Initially, some users might find it difficult to figure out how to properly format emails (create hyperlinks, etc.)
Pricing:
Starts at $12/user/month
9. HelpDesk – Best for Tickets Heatmap
HelpDesk is another popular software like Zendesk that makes it easier for support teams to manage incoming customer emails, requests from web forms, and many other sources.
Support agents and members from other departments can collaborate effortlessly using private notes, multiple mailboxes, and automated assignment rules.
I’m sure you will love the ‘New tickets heatmap’ feature, which helps you identify peak times when your agents receive more customer requests than usual. This tremendously helped me ensure that an adequate number of staff members were always available during peak hours.
On the downside, I wish the company offered a forever-free plan for startups or small businesses.
What you’ll like:
- Filters and Tags help you keep your inbox well-organized
- Automated ticket assignments for improved ticket distribution
- Managers can monitor their team’s first response time and other crucial metrics
- Roles and responsibilities help you recreate team structure
What you won’t like:
- The Team plan is limited to just 5 email templates
- There is no forever-free plan available for users
Pricing:
Starts at $29/user/month
10. Intercom – Best for AI-Powered Chatbot
Intercom helped my team deliver the perfect blend of human, self-service, and proactive support to our customers from across the globe.
My agents could hold one-on-one interactions with customers, resolve repetitive questions automatically, and tackle upcoming problems before customers reached out.
So, what was the most remarkable aspect of this tool? I think it’s Intercom’s Custom Bots. You can create multiple bots to collect valuable up-front information, prioritize urgent issues, and connect customers to the right people on your team.
This way, you can not only deflect basic support tickets but also free up your agents to focus on more pressing customer issues.
What you’ll like:
- Help articles can be shared with customers through your website or mobile app
- Custom Bots to answer and resolve basic customer queries
- Intuitive product tours to deliver the best onboarding experience
- No-code customization helps you create a help center in no time
What you won’t like:
- Intercom is quite expensive compared to other Zendesk alternatives
- At times, it is difficult to search for past tickets
Pricing:
Starts at $39/user/month
11. Front – Best for Email Ticketing
Image Source: Front
If email is your primary customer service channel, you can consider Front for your team.
Front is another leading Zendesk competitor that impressed me with its simple, email-like interface. With robust team collaboration features, my agents could work in sync without having to forward long email threads.
I’m sure you will like Front’s shared inbox feature. You can use it to set roles or permissions for each team member to determine who can access what in your shared inbox.
You can automate email assignments, share email alerts with agents when an SLA breach is near, and organize all your team inboxes in one place.
What you’ll like:
- Email and live chat conversations can be managed in one place
- Time-based notifications to keep your agents updated
- Powerful search box to find relevant conversations
- Ready-to-use email templates for consistent messaging
What you won’t like:
- Front’s pricing is highly expensive compared to the features it brings to the table
- You will have to pay an extra amount of money for the WhatsApp integration
Pricing:
Starts at $59/user/month
12. JitBit – Best for Help Desk Mobile App
JitBit is another impressive Zendesk alternative that is offered in SaaS and on-premise versions. I got the chance to use its SaaS version and was blown away by the intuitive mobile apps.
My team could handle tickets on the go with JitBit’s fully-featured iOS and Android apps. They worked seamlessly on our smartphones and tablets, remaining remarkably fast even on slow connections.
In case you don’t have an iOS or Android device, you can simply open JitBit in your smartphone browser and leverage the mobile user interface.
Another thing worth mentioning is that you can operate your help desk in multiple languages, such as English, French, German, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, and more.
What you’ll like:
- Custom ticket statuses, such as “on hold” or “refund,” for enhanced ticket management
- Ticket priorities to resolve urgent issues first
- PDFs and screenshots can be easily attached to help desk tickets
- Track the time spent on tickets to calculate billable hours
What you won’t like:
- The tool’s UI seems outdated and should be improved
- There is no provision to create your own chatbot
Pricing:
Starts at $29/user/month
Which Is the Best Zendesk Alternative?
Among the tools discussed in this blog, pinpointing the ultimate Zendesk alternative isn’t a straightforward task.
Mentioning a single tool would be unjust, considering the uniqueness of each business. The ideal choice depends on factors like customer service budget, technology needs, existing tools, team size, and various other considerations.
To assist you further, here are my top three recommendations:
Option A: ProProfs Help Desk
If you wish to give your support heroes the right platform to automate repetitive tasks, collaborate across the company, and offer personalized service, you can place your bet on ProProfs Help Desk. The best part is that ProProfs Help Desk offers almost the same features and capabilities as Zendesk at a very reasonable price.
Option B: LiveAgent
LiveAgent captivated me with its social media integrations, and I’m confident it will leave a lasting impression on you, too. Whether it is Twitter, Instagram, or WhatsApp, you can track all social media messages in one place. Additionally, you can use live chat for instant customer assistance.
Option C: Intercom
If pricing is not a major concern area, you can opt for Intercom, too. The standout feature, Intercom’s Custom Chatbots, will allow you to automate information collection, prioritize issues, and connect customers with the right team members.
If you’re still uncertain, my recommendation is to explore ProProfs Help Desk. It offers a comprehensive customer support suite with robust features like a powerful ticketing system, knowledge base, live chat, surveys, and more.
Before making any financial commitments, I advise taking advantage of the free trial to personally explore the interface and capabilities. For additional information, check out thi small FAQ section below.
Learn More About Zendesk Alternatives
Are these alternatives suitable for small businesses?
Yes, all the alternatives mentioned in this blog are suitable for small to mid-sized businesses. Whether you own a small startup or are an emerging brand in the market, you can choose a help desk system to offer delightful customer service.
How do alternative solutions compare in terms of pricing?
Most tools mentioned above offer a starting price ranging anywhere from $15/user/month to $40/user/month. However, only a handful of tools, like ProProfs Help Desk, offer a forever-free plan with certain limitations.
What security measures do alternative solutions have in place?
Most Zendesk alternatives offer help desk security features to safeguard sensitive information and protect against unauthorized tool access. Some popular features include single sign-on, IP restrictions, two-factor authentication, roles and permissions, and many others.
How to choose the best Zendesk alternatives?
Consider these key aspects when choosing the right alternative for your team:
- Define Your Requirements: Identify your unique customer support needs, whether it’s ticketing, knowledge base, or live chat.
- Feature Comparison: Research various help desk solutions, comparing features, pricing, and scalability.
- User Input: Read reviews and gather feedback from current users to gauge reliability and user-friendliness.
- Integration Compatibility: Ensure the chosen alternative seamlessly integrates with your existing tools and systems.
- Cost Assessment: Analyze costs, taking into account scalability and potential hidden fees.
- Trial Period: Take advantage of free trials to test the alternatives before making a decision.
For more on this, watch: How to Choose the Best Help Desk Software
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