In this fast-changing business world, businesses need software to rely on to automate repetitive tasks, handle all customer support tickets effectively, and take off the burden of manual tasks from their support team.
This guide will discuss Zendesk, its offerings, and all the alternatives in detail. You can compare software offerings and pricing plans to see which software fits your business needs and budget well.
Before we delve into the details of each software, let us look at what these customer service software are and why they are important for businesses.
Customer service software refers to businesses' tools and platforms to manage and enhance the customer experience. These tools help businesses efficiently handle customer support requests by collecting data, analyzing reports, assisting with issues, and reporting ticket progress.
Customer Service Software enables businesses to manage various communication channels like chat, text, email, and social media where businesses interact with customers. Effective customer service software helps businesses coordinate their service teams more efficiently, leading to quicker response times and streamlined customer support.
Customer Service Software is crucial in transforming businesses' communication systems with customers. It offers benefits to the business that improve customer service and streamline so many processes.
The software also ensures that complaints are directed towards the relevant person to be sorted to enhance customer efficiency. It streamlines communication from all platforms, including chat, live, and email, resulting in streamlined customer support.
Customer Service Software helps businesses keep track of emails that customers send so you do not miss any requests. This prevents requests from being missed, as this software assigns a unique reference number to these tickets. Tickets are never missed, and customer communication is never delayed.
The software also automates requests and repetitive tasks. Scheduling gets easier with this software, and the system sends scheduled emails to manage customer queries. The data is then used to create comprehensive reports highlighting trends, performance, and areas for improvement. This results in smooth customer interactions, as they never have to wait to get a response to a simple query.
Zendesk is a customer support software designed to streamline customer journeys across various channels. It allows businesses to interact with customers through chat, calls, email, social media, and more. It streamlines all the communication to one platform.
It simplifies support request management, facilitates quick responses to inquiries, and helps monitor customer service tasks. Setting up Zendeks is simple, and none of its features require extensive setup.
Whether you are a growing startup or an established business, Zendesk meets your business requirements. If your business faces issues managing customer support, you should opt for Zendesk.
Zendesk offers its users the following features.
Zendesk's ticketing system is a centralized platform for collecting all customer requests from multi channel support through email, chat, and social media. All these requests are organized in one place to streamline the management. It enables businesses to respond to customer issues promptly and helps them develop an effective problem-solving system.
With Zendesk, you can create a knowledge base tailored to your business needs. The knowledge base contains content, FAQs, tutorials, and product documentation. It allows the organization of information, making it accessible to all agents and also the general public. Zendesk ensures that accurate and timely information is available in this robust knowledge base to prevent delays in accessing information.
Zendesk empowers businesses to manage online communities where customers can interact with each other. These forums allow customer inquiries, share insights, and provide feedback. Community interactions facilitate deeper customer relationships and generate valuable insights into customer preferences. Such forums also lift the burden from support teams by letting customers find solutions by collaborating.
Zendesk offers the following plans to its customers.
Zendesk also offers an Advanced-AI add-on that costs $50 per agent per month and a Zendesk Workforce Management add-on that costs $25.
Due to different budget ranges, Zendesk alternative has multiple pricing plans that can fit customers. It also has features that align well with most of the business needs. Its features are unique and very useful for customer service operations.
However, Zendesk is imperfect and complains about costs, complexity, and support. All these complaints give rise to the need to have a Zendesk alternative for businesses that think Zendesk is not the right software for them.
There are multiple software that can serve as alternatives to Zendesk. These software offer various features suitable for different business sizes and structures. We have covered 20 alternatives to Zendesk in detail below, as well as their top offerings. The Zendesk alternative are:
Zoho Desk is a Zendesk alternative and a top-tier customer support software widely adopted by businesses because of its rich features and intuitive interface. Its multiple advantages make it a preferred solution for customer service management.
It is software designed to streamline support operations and deliver outstanding customer service. It equips organizations with features that enable them to manage tickets, ensuring prompt resolution to customer problems.
Zoho Desk offers its users the following top features.
ZIA is Zoho Desk's AI assistant that automates repetitive tasks to lift the burden of manual tasks. It also suggests relevant solutions to customer problems and provides real-time insights to support agents.
It provides a comprehensive suite of tools for efficient customer support management, especially by offering multichannel support. It seamlessly integrates customer communication channels such as social media, chat, emails, and phone calls to enhance collaboration on a unified dashboard.
It also has service-level agreements (SLAs) to track availability and promptly handle customer issues. It also has a track for ticket due dates and escalation levels. Zoho Desk also provides analytics and reporting that help increase customer satisfaction scores.
The pricing plans for the Zoho desk are as follows:
Freshdesk is an available tool for your customer support team with features designed to streamline ticket management and enhance customer support. You can streamline various channels on Freshdesk using a unified system that helps resolve customer queries.
It caters to businesses of all sizes, offering a scalable customer support system that grows alongside the company. It also offers various customization options, categorizing customer requests promptly and accurately.
Freshdesk offers its users the following top features.
Freshdesk is user-friendly and very easy to see, with a free trial available that you can rely on for exploration. It also provides templates to help users familiarize themselves with various features that Freshdesk offers.
It does not require specific hardware and can be set up with any existing device, making it a cost-effective solution, as you will not be required to spend money on additional systems.
Freshdesk prioritizes the security of its users by hosting its service on servers known for excellent uptime and data protection. Customers seek software that prioritizes your security before anything else, as they want their data protected and secured.
Freshdesk has the following pricing plans.
The intercom serves as a unified platform and data source for all customers. It keeps learning and adapting to meet individual customer needs. It stands out as a customer service platform that empowers businesses to elevate engagement to a strategic advantage.
It is a unified platform for all customer communications and continuously improves for a better customer journey. Intercom connects every team and function within the organization, enhancing the collaboration between team members.
Intercom offers its users the following features.
It has an advanced AI language model, Fin AI, that provides accurate and conversational answers to customer queries. It instantly resolves issues for customer guidance and goes beyond a typical chatbot offering sophisticated solutions.
Intercom consolidates conversations by offering multi channel support from all customer sources, including email, phone, and messenger, routing conversations directly to the inbox for easier resolution. It supports multilingual interactions, catering to a diverse client base.
Intercom offers an integrated help center, ensuring customers can access support content wherever they want. It also maintains brand consistency through various platforms by facilitating seamless navigation and self-service capabilities.
Intercom offers the following pricing plans.
Front is a significant Zendesk alternative and comprehensive communication hub around critical conversations. It provides users with prompt, precise, and highly personalized responses, ensuring a seamless experience.
Front centralizes conversations, providing team members a chance to collaborate with them. Users can also expect timely and personalized responses to deliver exceptional customer service.
It has a user-friendly interface makes it easier for users to navigate through various features. Frot also keeps customers connected through native collaboration tools.
The top offerings for Front are as follows.
It keeps track of all communications in one of all communication channels. This ensures that no customer requests are lost on any channel.
It allows users to customize the chat colors, logos, and branding based on customer feedback, ensuring a personalized experience for the clients.
The front has lead development tools that help staff identify potential clients, a feature used by front reviewers. This functionality supports sales and marketing efforts, facilitating lead conversion.
It has the following plans.
Kustomer is a cloud-based Customer relationship management tool designed to streamline customer service and enhance support interactions. It has a centralized data management system, allowing easy access to everything and eliminating the need to switch platforms.
With Kustomer, your business can get a 360-degree view of customers, including their interaction, purchase history, and feedback. This holistic view gives personalized support to all people.
The comprehensive view of the platform facilitates personalized interactions and recommendations based on customer profiles. This personalization enhances the customer experience and fosters long-term loyalty.
Kustomer's top offerings are as follows.
Kustomer's unified dashboard provides a holistic view of customer interactions. This comprehensive view also enables agents to understand customer issues in detail and make personalized and informed decisions.
Kustomer provides omnichannel support to maximize efficiency. It gives access to real-time communication between agents and customers, ensuring responsive support. In this way, no customer complaints go unnoticed, and overall organizational efficiency is improved.
It also leverages artificial intelligence to automate routine tasks and categorize messages. This automation reduced response time and optimized the utilization of resources. The chatbot is also handling requests 24/7, which leads to operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Kustomer's pricing plans are as follows:
JustReply is the best Zendesk alternative designed for customer support teams where everyone is involved in customer support. It seamlessly integrates Slack, allowing users to view, assign, and reply to conversations directly from Slack workspace. The integration is beneficial for smaller teams where collaboration is a key priority.
It seamlessly integrates with Slack, bringing all customer activities into Slack workspace. Users can also view incoming support and live chat conversations within Slack. The members can also use Slack to improve task management and accountability when assigning conversations to team members.
The platform is particularly suited for smaller teams where everyone plays a key role in customer support. It empowers team members to manage, respond, and resolve customer support seamlessly.
Just Reply AI offers its users the following features.
Just Reply AI provides a flexible chat widget that directly supports live chat, email, and video support from within the widget. Users can enable channels they feel comfortable with, offering various communication options.
The platform features a minimalist inbox where users can view incoming conversations. This interface helps prioritize customer conversations and promptly addresses critical issues.
Just Reply AI allows users to create speedy macros for frequent customer inquiries and send them in one cycle. These macros can be easily translated with a button, saving time and improving response efficiency.
Just Reply AI has the following pricing plans.
Salesforce Service Cloud is a CRM platform tailored to meet businesses' service and support needs. It is a widely used CRM among sales professionals. The core objective is to facilitate the service processes and automate workflows to enhance the customer experience.
It automates service processes, eliminating the need to do manual tasks. The automation enhances efficiency and ensures that customers respond promptly.
That platform also integrates with social media platforms, allowing businesses to listen to customer feedback and provide a comprehensive view of customer interactions.
Its top features are as follows.
The lightning service console provides a customizable user interface and dashboard for agents. It has productivity tools and analytics and allows agents to manage customer interactions.
Agents can handle multiple cases across various channels using a service console. This ensures that agents have access to case management tools wherever they are.
The platform also has advanced workflow automation capabilities powered by AI. This allows businesses to automate repetitive tasks, streamline different procedures, and ensure timely approval of customer service operations.
The pricing plans for Salesforce Cloud are as follows:
HelpScout is a versatile help desk platform that caters to the needs of small businesses and freelancers. helpScout provides a shared inbox system to enhance collaboration between team members and customers.
It also has amazing integration capabilities that allow the integration of various channels on one platform. It helps businesses customize workflows and expand the platform's functionality through specific requirements.
HelpScout helps businesses simplify customer support processes, enhance collaboration, and provide a seamless experience for businesses and their customers.
HelpScout offers a range of features, but its top picks are as follows.
HelpScout interface resembles a standard email setup, making it intuitive for users to navigate. The familiarity reduces onboarding time and ensures incoming requests are sorted based on context.
It has over 50 integrations with third-party apps. It allows seamless connectivity through platforms and tools. It also simplifies workflows and enhances productivity, making it ideal for businesses to pick for their support teams.
HelpScout provides real-time reporting capabilities and gathers data from multiple sources. No matter where the consumer interaction is, it is gathered on the same platform to help in decision-making.
The pricing structure of HelpScout is as follows.
Gorgias is another Zendesk alternative and specialized customer service platform tailored to meet the needs of e-commerce businesses, especially those operating online. Its primary focus is to provide support solutions for online shoppers and is a valuable tool for enhancing customer service.
The deep integration of Shopify enables the customer support team to manage customer orders directly. It allows users to switch between multiple applications and streamline the support process. Agents can also review customer orders and make edits if necessary.
Accessing order information within the workspace is a significant advantage for customer service teams. By having comprehensive order details at their fingertips, agents can address customer issues with a deep understanding and improve the services for customer satisfaction.
Gorgias has several offerings, and the top features are as follows.
Gorgias supports multiple channels, including email, live chat, social media, and WhatsApp. Additionally, voice and SMS channels are available as an add-on. This ensures businesses can engage with customers seamlessly across the preferred communication channels.
The platform also has a shared inbox, which includes macros to help agents quickly respond to common customer inquiries. It enables the assignment of tickets for efficient delegation of tasks. It allows teams to focus on specific segments of requests. This system ensures enhanced interaction and that none of the customer queries go unnoticed.
Gorgias also offers automation Add-On packages that focus on enhancing the automation capabilities. The package includes features such as autoresponders for instant replies so customers don't have to wait for the replies. These automation packages greatly reduced the response time.
Gorgias' pricing plans are as follows:
HappyFox is a cloud-based software streamlining customer support access across various communication channels. It efficiently manages customers originating from different channels. The platform ensures that all customer requests are handled no matter the channel used.
HappyFox features community forums and a knowledge base that helps customers find instant support. The communities also enable customers to interact with each other and foster a sense of community and belonging to the product.
HappyFox offerings are as follows.
HappyFox's Business intelligence tool provides detailed reporting on different metrics, including call resolution rates, response time, and time to closure. These reports and dashboards give an overview of the overall performance trends and help make informed decisions.
Service level agreements (SLAs) ensure timely IT operations and help manage escalations by reporting performance against the set targets. It also helps support teams get real-time data to control potential issues and adhere to service standards.
HappyFox pricing plans are as follows.
Gladly is a customer service platform that provides personalized interactions over case-centric approaches. It stands out from other platforms by focusing on people rather than tickets, fostering a lifelong relationship with customers.
Gladly's design involves placing customers at the center of support interactions rather than just focusing on ticket exchanges. The customer-centric approach helps Gladly enhance customer relationships. Gladly seeks to transform how businesses engage with customers and deliver exceptional customer service.
Like any other customer service platform, Gladly also offers all the basic features such as managing workflows and automation. However, the two top features that make Gladly stand out are as follows.
Gladly Hero is a CX platform that fosters long-term customer conversations by focusing entirely on customers and offering automation around people, not tickets.
Gladly Sidekick works with Gladly Hero, it is an AI based solution that enables rich and personalized experience to customers across multiple channels.
Kayako is a customer service platform designed to help customers obsess about business and deliver personalized customer service. Unlike traditional helpdesks that treat customers as tickets that need to be managed, Kayako focuses on interacting with customers to build long-term relationships.
With Kayako, you can integrate all your channels and manage customer information effectively. The team collaboration helps support team agents in working together and streamlines the operations in the business context.
Kayako has the following features to offer its customers.
With customer information management, you can access all customer-related data and provide a holistic view of this interaction. It also allows teams to personalize responses to cater to individual customer needs.
Kayako is well known for its speed and efficiency. The platform optimizes overall customer support and helps support agents solve the issues promptly, leading to greater satisfaction.
Kayako also offers a fully customizable web interface, allowing users to tailor the platform according to their needs. This customization extends to all options to optimize the user experience.
Kayako is not very transparent about its pricing plans and has two plans. Kayako Cloud is for small and growing teams, while Classic on Prem is for large teams and businesses.
Crisp is not a typical CRM platform, but its comprehensive solution is tailored to small businesses. It offers many features to automate repetitive tasks, enabling businesses to focus on getting more details. You can also harness the power of unlimited automation scenarios, ensuring hot leads flow seamlessly into the sales pipeline.
The platform also provides a conversational experience through the live chat feature, allowing businesses to engage in real-time and enhance interactions. Crisp enables you to build and manage a contacts database and track the full timeline of contract activity.
Crisp ensures that the proactive approach helps capture new leads and maintain the existing ones. It offers automated conversations that lead customers to the right team members promptly.
Crisp allows you to centralize and unify customer profiles. The unified database enables you to monitor contacts' website activity and engage with them using features such as MagicMap, which helps visualize customer interactions and engagement points.
Pricing plans are as follows.
Hiver is a Gmail (Google Workspace) Powerhouse for Smart Email Management. Hiver helps teams offer fast and reliable customer service. Imagine having an assistant that organizes your emails, analyzes leads and team performance, understands user behaviors, and suggests improvement strategies—all within your Gmail account. That's exactly what Hiver does.
It offers real-time visual analytics to track business performance, understand customer behavior, and refine marketing strategies without leaving Gmail. Hiver's customer service team is available 24/7 to assist with any customer inquiries or concerns, ensuring you get the most out of this powerful tool.
With Hiver, managing customer support and sales from a user's Gmail becomes effortless. Collaborate seamlessly on shared email accounts like support@ or sales@ without ever leaving your inbox.
Shared Inbox Management transforms emails into actionable tasks, assigns ownership, and ensures lightning-fast resolutions with shared inbox features.
Collaboration tools facilitate teamwork with features like shared labels, conversation followers, and collaborators.
Email Templates and Drafts create and share canned responses as templates and collaborate on email drafts in real-time.
Use powerful rule-based automation to simplify help desk software tasks, automate email assignments, and improve workflow efficiency.
Analytics and Insights tracks critical customer service metrics in real-time with rich visual reports, sets SLAs and business hours, and harnesses the power of AI for intelligent conversation management.
LiveChat is like having a friendly helper right at your fingertips. It connects you directly to human support reps to get immediate help with any issues. No more waiting around for email responses or digging through confusing FAQs.
Think of LiveChat as your virtual customer service desk. Unlike chatbots, which are automated, LiveChat puts you in touch with real people who can understand and address your concerns. You'll find LiveChat as a handy little widget on websites. Just click on it, and a chat window pops up, ready for you to type away. It's like having a chat buddy available whenever you need assistance.
And the best part? LiveChat isn't just limited to websites. You can also use it on social media platforms, making connecting with businesses wherever you are online even more accessible. Forget the hassle of phone calls or waiting for email replies. With LiveChat, all it takes is a quick message to get the support you need, recreating that helpful in-store experience right from the comfort of your screen.
Low latency message sending and receiving ensures messages are delivered in real-time with minimal delay, enhancing the live chat experience for users.
Automatic reconnection automatically reconnects to live chat sessions if a disruption prevents interruptions and maintains smooth communication.
Channels and private messages enable group channels and private messaging options to accommodate various communication needs, from team collaboration to one-on-one conversations.
Online status displays users' availability status, such as "Busy" or "Available," to inform others when they can expect a response, improving communication efficiency.
Typing indicators show when a user is typing a message, which shows that providing real-time feedback indicates active conversation engagement.
HubSpot Service Hub isn't just any CRM platform—it's your go-to toolkit for everything related to marketing, sales, and customer service. Imagine having all the essential tools and integrations you need in one place, ready to help you connect with your audience and supercharge your business growth.
HubSpot Service Hub also has a free WordPress plugin; managing your contacts, running email marketing campaigns, engaging visitors with live chat, and creating stunning forms for your website has never been easier.
This includes chatting in real-time with visitors to your website using live chat and chatbots. Capturing leads effortlessly with customizable forms or linking existing ones from your site. Nurturing your leads with newsletters and automate your email marketing campaigns. You are keeping track of your business's performance with easy-to-understand analytics dashboards. The intelligent WordPress CRM plugin provides a unified view of each contact's interactions, past conversations, and more.
CRM Database stores up to 1,000,000 contacts with no expiration date, keeping all customer information organized in one place.
Customized Dashboard easily views your sales pipeline, tracks progress, and analyzes performance to improve sales productivity.
Task Management is effortlessly managing tasks, scheduling reminders, staying updated on deadlines, and streamlining the sales process.
Gmail and Outlook Integrations give access to CRM details directly from your inbox, log emails, and track real-time interactions for enhanced productivity.
Email Marketing helps reach targeted audiences with bulk emails and customizable templates, ensuring relevant content for improved engagement.
There are vast pricing plans for everything and everyone in the business world or individual use; the most basic of product sales include:
Free Plan includes access to marketing, sales, service, and commerce tools for up to 5 users at no cost
Sales Hub Starter tools start at $15 per month per seat, with simple automation, e-signature, and conversation routing.
Sales Hub Professional is comprehensive sales software starting at $90/month. Includes ABM tools and call transcription.
To sum it up, there are multiple alternatives to Zendesk, each with its own offerings and pricing plans. To find the right tool for you, you must analyze each tool's offerings and your business goals and see what fits best with your business requirements. It would be best if you also decided based on the size of your business, as some tools are great for small businesses while others are for big organizations. Lastly, the budget that fits the tool should also be considered to enhance the customer experience.
You can also check out our take on Intercome alternatives.
