Customer service is the core of every business. It is one of the best ways to keep customers happy and loyal. Customer service has become even more important as it can create an entire experience for a customer. To manage customer inquiries efficiently, businesses rely on help desk software like Zendesk.
However, there are other customer service software alternatives available on the market that can help companies meet their customer service and help desk system needs. This article will introduce you to Zendesk, and provide 7 top Zendesk alternatives for customer service.
We’ll review each alternative’s features, pricing, and customer support capabilities, as well as the pros and cons associated with each compared to Zendesk, to help you identify which alternative is best suited for your business scenarios in terms of cost savings, feature set, scalability, and more.
So, if you’re looking for the best customer service solution for your business, read on to learn more.
Introduction to Zendesk
Zendesk is a customer service platform designed to give businesses a comprehensive way to manage all customer interactions in one place. It is a cloud-based solution that enables companies to provide customer service through email, live chat, voice calls, and social media channels.
Zendesk simplifies customer interactions through automated responses and intuitive search features that enable operators to quickly answer questions. It also provides analytics that allow for tracking customer inquiries over time and actionable insights about how to improve experiences for users.
Additionally, its customizable widgets allow customers access from any device, streamlining communication throughout the entire transaction process. These features combine into a powerful suite of services that make it easier than ever for companies to provide world-class support around the clock.
The pricing of Zendesk starts at $49 per agent per month for a Suite Team plan and $99 for a Suite Professional plan. The software, however, has a free trial.
What to Watch Out For From Zendesk Users
From reading through customer reviews, we found out that there is no in-built hardware management within Zendesk, and upgrading for a particular feature such as reporting is impossible as the entire account will have to be upgraded. This is a major issue for companies that have a need to improve only a feature.
“It is a shame that the zendesk guide can’t support advanced features that can answer developers/tech documentation needs. For example if it was able to support API reference documentation and the possibility to preview code scripts directly from within the help center it could have been interesting.” This is another review from a user.
Overall, Zendesk provides essential features necessary for a modern customer service center – making it indispensable for businesses to strive towards quality care while reducing operational costs simultaneously.
Reasons to Choose an Alternative to Zendesk
Customer service is important to retain and gain customers for a brand, which is why most companies make use of Zendesk software to monitor their relationships with their customers. Zendesk has been around for a while and has been instrumental in managing customer services.
However, Zendesk may not always be the right solution for everyone, and some of the reasons are;
Price
It is in human nature to want the most value for the money spent. As such businesses may consider alternatives to Zendesk in 2023 due to pricing. While Zendesk is a popular customer service and support platform, it can be expensive for businesses to use, especially small enterprises operating on limited budgets.
There are many other platforms on the market that offer similar features at a lower price point, making them more attractive to cost-conscious businesses. Zoho Desk, for example, has low pricing compared to Zendesk, and all its features for different plans come built-in and not as an add-on.
In addition, as new platforms enter the market, prices are likely to drop even further, making it even more difficult for Zendesk to compete on price. As a result, businesses that are looking for an affordable customer service and support solution will increasingly turn to other options in 2023 and beyond.
Size of Company
The size will be a major factor for businesses considering alternatives to Zendesk in 2023. Small businesses may find that they can get by with a less expensive option, while larger businesses will want something that can accommodate their needs.
Customer Support
In 2023, businesses may consider alternatives to Zendesk due to the fact that it lacks a dedicated customer support helpline. As more companies strive for excellence in the field of customer service, the need for helpful and timely assistance has become essential.
Rather than relying on email support alone, modern businesses now require an extensive customer support infrastructure, including a team of experts or an available hotline for difficult questions or issues.
By opting for a Zendesk alternative that offers dedicated customer support, businesses can ensure that their customers are cared for in an efficient and effective manner.
Specific or Customized Features
Despite Zendesk’s popularity, other software may offer better-differentiated services for specific companies in 2023. Zoho Desk, for instance, has features such as AI-powered assistance, free data backup, anomaly notification, and more that are not available with Zendesk.
Many alternatives provide business-specific or customizable features that can tailor-fit their service offerings to various industries and company types. With the added access to niche capabilities, businesses may find Zendesk’s suite is not as comprehensive as they need it to be, making them more likely to opt for an alternative in the future.
An example is the review of a developer mentioned earlier, such an enterprise will consider an alternative to suit their needs.
Flexibility and Scalability
When businesses are looking for an alternative to Zendesk in 2023, they will consider flexibility and scalability as two important factors. Zendesk is a great platform for customer service and support, but it may not offer the same level of flexibility and scalability that other platforms do. It may be flexible in pricing or add-ons, or even able to accommodate the size of the company.
On the other hand, it’s important to note that these advantages come at a price and they also might require more intensive technical efforts before implementation can begin (or once live). This often requires specific expertise and the additional overhead costs associated with the training staff.
Overview of Zendesk Alternative’s Features, Pricing, and More
Here is a review of the top 7 Zendesk alternatives for customer service
1. Zoho Desk
In 2023, Zoho Desk will be an incredible and noteworthy alternative to Zendesk. With its range of features, from powerful tools for managing customer interactions and automating tasks to easy-to-use templates and sophisticated analytics dashboards for deep insights into data, it has become a viable option for businesses of all sizes.
Its subscription plans are tailored to each user’s requirements while helping them save money with its tiered pricing model. Plus, its setup process is quick, giving users easy access to all the necessary details within a ticket view. Additionally, integrated with Zoho CRM, it provides customers with relevant data at their fingertips.
Finally, it includes key features such as anomaly notifications and custom functions in workflows, which are greatly beneficial for any organization looking for reliable customer service tools. Zoho Desk clearly stands out as a robust yet cost-effective alternative to Zendesk in 2023.
Pricing: It has three plans ranging in price from $3,500 to $10,500 per user per month when billed annually. When paying monthly, prices range from $5,400 to $13,500 per user per month. Zoho Desk also has a free plan with basic features.
Notable Features
- API
- Omnichannel Ticketing
- Instant Messaging
- Multi-brand Help Center
- Live Chat
- Built-in time tracking
- AI Reply Assistance
- Auto-tag Tickets
- Sentiment Analysis
- Embeddable Self-service
- Knowledge Base
- CRM Integration
Summary
In 2023, Zoho Desk will be the go-to, incredible alternative to Zendesk, as all its plans come with notification rules and integrate seamlessly with Google Workspace. Plus, all plans come with 24/5 support and a 15-day free trial, making setup and onboarding a breeze.
Not only is it compliant with all major business standards, such as HIPAA, CCPA, and GDPR compliance, but it offers an array of capabilities, from real-time insights to setting service level agreements so no tickets ever go unanswered.
Integrating effortlessly with popular software like Slack, Jira, Salesforce, G Suite, Trello, and more, this software is an incredible yet affordable ticketing software.
Watch out for: The live chat feature is only available on the Enterprise plan.
2. Freshdesk
Freshdesk is an incredible Zendesk alternative. Its automated ticket routing and queue optimization capabilities make it a great choice for businesses of all sizes. Advanced filters allow agents to identify frequent customer requests and trigger rule-based solutions quickly and efficiently.
Moreover, custom SSL certificates give customers the option to secure their unique support URL to ensure data security. Freshdesk also allows customers to create custom apps that are tailored to their business needs and generate reports specific to those requirements.
Additionally, businesses can monitor help desks in real-time and implement moderation workflows that keep content guidelines in check. All these features come together to make Freshdesk a powerful and reliable Zendesk alternative in 2023.
Pricing: Paid plans start at $15 and go up to $79 per agent per month when billed annually. Monthly plans start at $18 and go up to $95 per agent per month. Freshdesk, however, comes with a 21-day free trial and has add-on options.
Notable Features
- Agent Collision Detection
- SLA Management
- Ticket Field Suggester
- Thank You Detector
- Canned Responses
- Scenario Automation
- Omnichannel Support
- Time-Triggered Automation
- Chatbox Powered by Freddy AI
- Customer Satisfaction Rating
Summary
Freshdesk will be an excellent Zendesk alternative in 2023, offering a range of tools to help businesses prioritize, categorize, and assign tickets.
Teams can share ownership of tickets while maintaining visibility over progress and assigning deadlines for resolutions based on business hours or categories.
With advanced parent-child ticketing functionality, resolving complex multi-stage issues is quicker than ever. Freshdesk also comes with live chat support to engage with customers and offers businesses the capability to set up a fully functional call center to record and track calls as tickets.
Without a doubt, Freshdesk provides a robust and intuitive customer experience alternative for Zandesk in 2023.
Watch out for: It does not have all-inclusive pricing, as some features are add-ons.
3. Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud is the ultimate customer service platform, poised to become one of the most efficient Zendesk alternatives in 2023.
With features like advanced reporting, task management, customizable reports, and customer history tracking, the Salesforce Service Cloud makes it easy for companies to keep their customers happy with up-to-date information and quick response times.
Plus, their activity feed and customizable profiles provide teams with an all-encompassing view of their customers, allowing them to create personalized experiences tailored to individual needs. And with an extensive Web Services API, companies can easily manage integration requests from third parties while keeping customers’ data secure.
Salesforce Service Cloud provides a streamlined and reliable user experience that any company looking for efficient Zendesk alternatives should consider in 2023.
Pricing: It starts at $25 to $300 per user per month when billed annually.
Notable Features
- Team chat
- Share attachments
- Article recommendations
- Automatic ticket assignments
- Multichannel communication
- Escalations
- Email auto-responses
- Android & iOS app
- CRM integration
- SLAs and contract management
Summary
Salesforce Desk offers customers full control over their accounts with an easy-to-use self-service portal, enhanced case management, and powerful productivity tools. With a comprehensive ticket tracking system, all the information needed to resolve cases quickly is in one place, saving time and effort.
In addition, a centralized knowledge base allows customers to search for answers themselves when they need them. Utilizing Salesforce Service Cloud, companies can provide prompt customer service with confidence and experience peace of mind knowing that they have streamlined their case processing and reduced manual effort.
Watch out for: It is more expensive compared to Zoho Desk.
4. Help Scout
Help Scout is an efficient Zendesk alternative as it offers an advanced platform for customer support. With Help Scout, teams are able to easily track and display customer information for improved responsiveness and ease of access across various channels.
This powerful software brings more to the table than just ticketing; automatic workflows can be created so that recurring tasks are automated with simple logical coordination. Communication is made easier between businesses and customers through easy inbox assignments and the integration of 1:1 live support in-app or on websites.
Moreover, reports help optimize team productivity, channel effectiveness, and satisfaction among customers. Lastly, quick export features enable the extraction of pertinent data into CSV or XLSX formats for additional analysis.
Pricing: paid plans starts at $20 to $65
Notable Features
- Beacon help widget
- Custom reports
- Automated workflows
- Customer properties
- API and 50+ integrations
- Web Form
- Team Chat
- Advanced Permission
- Live Chat
- HIPAA Compliance
Summary
Help Scout has emerged as one of the most efficient Zendesk alternatives in 2023 due to its affordability. The most endearing thing about Help Scout is that It offers a 30-day cash-back guarantee, special pricing for non-profit organizations and startups, as well as a 15-day free trial.
With Help Scout, you have access to filters and reports to dig deeper into customer interests, track customer KPIs such as response times and volume data, customize the customer experience on iOS and Android with Mobile SDKs, and dive into Beacon.
Watch out for: It does not have custom ticket views.
5. Groove
Groove can be an excellent alternative to Zendesk in 2023. With Groove’s team-wide communication systems and automation capabilities, customer support processes can become more streamlined for companies.
Groove also offers a variety of gratifying metrics, including an overall happiness score, a percentage of customers that left a rating, tone of voice analytics such as positive and negative ratings, and sortable team leaderboard capabilities such as total conversations, total resolutions, and happiness rate indicators.
The combination of these powerful data trackers makes Groove an unbeatable choice for the best customer service experience in 2023 and beyond.
Pricing: It starts at $12 to $35 per user per month when billed annually.
Notable Features
Data Reports
Cloud Telephony
Response Shortcuts
Tag Colleagues to Comment
Customer history
Real-time Notification Center
Agent Collision Detection
Password Protection
IP Restriction
Custom Domain
Summary
Groove is quickly becoming a highly capable alternative to Zendesk in 2023, offering powerful integrations with the tools they know and love while still providing built-in customer service features tailored to their business.
Alongside live chat integration with Olark, Groove also comes equipped with customizable colors so as to enhance brand identity. Plus, marketers can create multiple knowledge bases for different products or brands in order to provide comprehensive support services.
Email deliverability presents an additional advantage of using Groove, as accounts come pre-equipped with 1-click SSL provisioned from Let’s Encrypt! Additionally, Groove offers a quick contact form and tools that enable teams to quickly identify trends in customer inquiries and workloads.
All of this combines to make Groove a great choice for those looking for advanced features along with powerful customization options.
Watch out for: It does not have a custom ticket view.
6. Hivers
In 2023, businesses looking for an efficient Zendesk alternative should consider Hivers. This product ensures a smooth customer service process by making it easy to convert emails into actionable tasks and assign them to relevant team members. The actionability of emails can be tracked through the platform anytime, anywhere.
There are also helpful features like round-robin email assignments and assigning & tracking customer requests with specific tags and predefined conditions. Plus, Hivers allows organizations to organize (tag) and prioritize support requests based on certain predefined conditions like the type of request or urgency of the query so that every support query is handled accordingly.
For instance, when emails contain the word ‘Payment’ in the subject line/mail body you can quickly assign them to finance specialists just in time!
Notable Features
- Email Management
- EmailTags
- Customer Contacts
- Note and @ Mention
- Permalinks
- Workload Distribution
- Multi-Channel Support
- Customer Surveys (CSAT)
- SLA and Business Hours
- Body-search automation
- Round Robin Ticket Assignment
Summary
Hiver offers a compelling alternative to Zendesk as it enables users to integrate the WhatsApp Business API into their systems. With Hiver, customers can have their queries answered in minutes instead of hours and manage chats right inside Gmail.
Additionally, users are able to group customer emails by filter combinations, enabling them to quickly access important information. In addition, Hiver makes collaboration easy as it allows teams to share drafts on emails instantaneously in order to come up with the best responses for customers.
Moreover, agents on the go can easily solve customer problems via the iOS and Android mobile apps that are also available on this platform.
Watch out for: It takes time to get used to the conversational function of Hiver.
7. Happyfox
As organizations shape up to meet their customer support requirements in 2023, HappyFox stands out as a viable alternative to Zendesk. With HappyFox at the helm, it can help your organization monitor and compare the SLA performance of different departments as well as measure first contact resolution (FCR) across teams.
Additionally, with its ticketing system, you can convert multiple types of requests into organized tickets-email, phone, chat, social media, and web. There’s also an option of creating articles and sections with images embedded for your customers and staff to access easily via the CMS system.
An added benefit is that you can have a voice call with them straight from the helpdesk view – all the data remains within HappyFox’s ticket creation eco-system for further reference or follow-through. No doubt Happyfox has got your back when it comes to providing a world-class customer service experience in 2023.
Pricing: Start at $25 per agent per month to $89 per agent per month when billed annually.
Notable Features
- Email Ticketing
- Knowledge Base
- Help Desk Reporting and Customization
- Multilingual Help Desk
- Self Service Portal
- SLA Management
- Satisfaction Survey
- Email Notification
- Help Desk Ticket Features
- Multilingual Knowledge Base
- Internal Knowledge Base
Summary
Happyfox is a go-to solution for support agents looking for an effective alternative to the current crop of ticketing systems. Incredibly easy to configure and use, it allows you to create custom ticket queues by adding one or more rules to filter tickets based on priority and responsibility.
It also gives you the power of omnichannel customer service with its ability to manage customer communications across multiple channels like email, social, chat, and phone calls. Plus, its features, like a quick selection of related tickets and applying bulk actions across them, make it stand out amongst the competition.
With tags that let you categorize & sort tickets based on assigned importance, collaborative private notes between users, and handy FAQ & knowledge base tools replete with pre-written replies, Happyfox will be a serious contender in the ticketing system arena in 2023.
Watch out for: Users have complained about multiple bugs that have been reported but have not yet been fixed.
Final Conclusion
With ever-evolving technologies and customer expectations, businesses must choose a system that is modern and robust enough to meet the needs of their customers in 2023.
While Zendesk has its place as one of the top customer service platforms, there are many Zendesk alternatives available to help businesses with their customer service needs in 2023.
Each alternative listed in this article has its own unique set of features and pricing structure that can help businesses save money while still providing a great level of support. Weighing the pros and cons associated with each solution can be very helpful in determining which one is best suited for your business’s particular scenario.
