17 Zendesk Competitors that You Should Try

There are a lot of customer communication channels companies use — email, social networks, messengers, and so on. As well, there are many tools to provide support across different channels. One of them is Zendesk — the customer support software suite that combines live customer support, CRM, marketing messages, and other tools developed for all-size organizations. 

Why do companies love this software? 

First, Zendesk tool is easy to use. It is known for its friendly interface and customizable admin panel. See what tools Zendesk provides

– live chatting tool;
– ticketing system to manage clients’ problems;
– automation, workflows, and AI-powered canned answers to save your agents’ time;
– 1000+ integrations to unite your business tool and data in one place;
– 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 organizations such as Uber, Siemens, Khan Academy, and others choose in favor of Zendesk software. 

But nothing is perfect, and neither is Zendesk. So customers start looking for Zendesk alternatives because of: 

– difficult to implement integrations; 
– complex setup;
– slow service;
– too high price.

If it bothers you too, we’ve reviewed the 17 best Zendesk alternatives with their features and pricing.

Dashly

Dashly is an all-in-one conversational platform for SaaS and eCommerce organizations. Dashly may become a worthy Zendesk alternative tool. It will fulfill the expectations of your sales, marketing, and support teams through the toolkit it provides. Also, Dashly offers one of the best chat software.

Dashly features

As promised, we’ll start with its chat features:

– analytics,
– chat widget,
– proactive chat invitation,
– mobile chat,
– in app chat.

Additional tools:

– Chat apps for web, WordPress, iPhone, Android, and Windows.
– There is a сhatbot to complement live chat.
– Team inbox to keep customer requests in one place.
– Knowledge base for self-service.
– Website visitors’ behavior tracking tool supplies your team with all the necessary data about a client.
– Dozens of integrations (Facebook, Instagram, Zoom, and so on).
– Pop-up builder.
– Analytics dashboard.

Website chat is a must-have tool to close more deals. Also, it will help you keep all the conversations from different channels in one place and improve customer experience. You’ll be able to launch marketing communications (pop-ups, emails, and others) and catch more prospects. Thanks to a chatbot, CRM, and other tools, you’ll boost sales and close deals faster. So, these and other features make Dashly software a good Zendesk alternative.

By the way, you can use Dashly tool without involving a developer. To set up, you need only to add the code block before the </head> tag. Regarding launching communications, there are numerous visual builders for all the tools — chatbot, chat, email, and pop-ups which you can create in two clicks.

Pricing: from $39 per month

Free trial: 7 days, free plan: available.

As a Zendesk alternative, Dashly software offers a free plan that includes: 

– chat for SaaS companies and eCommerce;
– one shared inbox;
– 30-day data history;
– two seats for agents;
– email replies to chat messages;
– 100 emails/month;
– canned responses to customers requests.

Note that you can use the free plan only if you have less than 1000 visitors/mo on your website. Otherwise, you can start on any paid plan. There are three of them, starting from $39/mo. Each of the paid plans includes unlimited support agents seats.

The Support plan will suit you in case you search for a Zendesk alternative software for customer service. It includes: 

– chat for eCommerce and SaaS organizations with a shared inbox; 
– integrations with communication tools and services;
– two chatbots;
– three targeted messages;
– user data collection;
– lead cards;
– automated conversation assignment;
– team performance report.

The Marketing plan will suit you if you want to use marketing tools and boost lead generation. There are all the tools from the Conversation chat plan included, plus:

– customer satisfaction reports;
– targeted messages;
– A/B tests;
– funnels report;
– unlimited chat history;
– SEO settings, and other features.

Pros and cons

Intercom

Intercom is one of the most famous Zendesk alternatives and is usually associated with enterprise business. Intercom offers tools for support, sales, and marketing teams — this makes it one of the strongest Zendesk software competitors. 

Intercom features

Many options make the Intercom tool an excellent alternative to Zendesk:

– chat, chatbot, team inbox, FAQs, and self-serve articles;
– automated follow-ups;
– personalized marketing campaigns using chatbots, banners, push notifications, mobile surveys, or email marketing;
– customer data collection, making segments, and sending messages to a particular group of customers; 
– bots to automate sales workflows.

Pricing: from $74/mo

Free trial: available (14 days), no free plan.

Intercom is one of the most overpriced solutions that can be considered a Zendesk alternative. 

To use it, customers have to choose from four plans: for small organizations (you can use this only in case there are less than 1000 website visitors per month on your website), for customer support, engagement, and sales. Customer support includes:

– chat and team inboxes;
– ticketing workflows;
– social media integrations;
– conversation routing bot and so on.

Pros and cons

Intercom Vs. Dashly: Find out why Dashly is a more functional solution for your business

Zoho

Zoho software is another Zendesk alternative. It offers all-in-one services for sales, marketing, support, and even HR and finance teams. Zoho will help manage customer communication via chat, email, phone, social media, etc. Also, this alternative beats Zendesk by its cost. Zoho Desk software offers many apps and bundles so that each business will find something useful.

Zoho Desk features

– CRM, forms, surveys, and phone system integration;
– Marketing automation (forms, pop-ups, emails, visitors tracking) — lead generation, scoring, and customers nurturing;
– Integrations with dozens of communication channels (chat, email, social networks, etc.);
– Analytics.

Pricing: from $14/mo/agent

Free trial: available (15 days), free plan: available.

Paid monthly, Zoho’s plans start from $20. The free one includes:

– up to 3 agents;
– email tickets;
– knowledge base for customer support; 
– default email templates. 

To get advanced features, customers need to buy a standard plan, which starts from $14/mo/agent. Talking about the pricing, Zoho software is a worthy Zendesk competitor.

Pros and cons

LiveChat

LiveChat is a platform that can also be considered a Zendesk alternative. This software enables customer support to chat with website visitors while sales and marketing teams capture and nurture more leads. This tool suits SaaS organizations as well as eCommerce, EdTech, and FinTech teams that search for a Zendesk alternative.

LiveChat features

– сhatbot tool;
– chat and automatic routing of customers requests to relevant agents;
– customers behavior tracking, ticket, and chat reports;
– targeted messages (greetings, quick replies);
– CRM to keep customer data in one place.

Pricing: from $16/mo

Free trial: available (14 days), no free plan.

The pricing will be affordable for organizations that search for Zendesk alternatives. Paid annually, the Starter begins from $16 ($19 if paid monthly). For this money, customers have:

– 60-day chat history,
– full channel support (except SMS and Apple Messages),
– basic chat customization. 

To enable unlimited chat history, complete monitoring, and engagement toolset, choose the Team plan ($33/mo). The Business enables all the LiveChat features and costs $50/mo.

Pros and cons

LiveChat Vs. Dashly: Find out why Dashly is a more functional solution for your business

Userlike

Userlike software is a Zendesk alternative with a very friendly and intuitive interface. It will help you combine chat and other customer communication channel messages in one window. 

Userlike features

Userlike provides features for customer support only. Therefore, Userlike tool may become a Zendesk alternative only in case you’re searching 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 canned messages;
– Analytics and reports.

Pricing: from $90/mo

Free trial: available (14 days), free plan: available.

As a Zendesk alternative, Userlike software offers a free plan that includes:

– canned messages;
– unlimited conversations; 
– unlimited website implementations (the number of websites you can use Userlike on);
– feedback options;
– image and video support, etc. 

The Team one enables:

– using up to four widgets; 
– four agent seats;
– one messenger channel. 

The Corporate enables analytics tools, video calls, and other features. 

To use a chatbot, customers have to buy the Business plan, starting from $720/mo.

Pros and cons

Freshdesk/Freshchat

Freshdesk tool is an all-in-one Zendesk competitor. This cloud-based customer service software combines tools for support, marketing, and sales teams. Freshdesk offers services for eCommerce, healthcare, SMB, and other organizations looking for a Zendesk alternative. 

Freshdesk features

– chatbot;
– chat and team inbox;
– marketing automation (includes automated task assignment, follow-ups, event-based triggers, and so on);
– knowledge base;
– canned response suggested;
– multichannel support (WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and so on);
– custom reports and dashboards.

Pricing: from $15/mo/agent

Free trial: available (21 days), free plan: available. As a Zendesk alternative, Freshdesk offers three paid plans: Free, Growth, and Pro. 

The free plan includes:

– chat,
– reports,
– knowledge base, and so on.

The Growth additionally includes:

– automation tools, 
– time tracking,
– integrations, and other vital support tools.

The Pro adds:

– surveys, 
– customer service,
– multilingual knowledge base and other tools.

Finally, the Enterprise plan includes all the features listed.

Pros and cons

Tawk.to

Tawk.to is a customer communication platform that can become a worthy Zendesk alternative. It combines chat, chat pages, and a knowledge base and helps organizations of all sizes connect with visitors and improve the customer experience for free.

Tawk.to features

– chat translated into 45 languages;
– shortcuts;
– engagement tracking and reports;
– website visitors monitoring;
– chat pages that can substitute for landing pages;
– SEO-optimized knowledge base;
– the ability to hire a virtual assistant or chat agent.

Pricing: $0/mo 

What makes Tawk.to a good alternative to Zendesk is that it’s absolutely free. Hiring a chat agent costs $1/hour while hiring a virtual assistant from $7/hour.

Pros and cons

LiveAgent

LiveAgent is a Zendesk alternative that provides a personalized customer experience with a ticketing system. LiveAgent will help you start a chat (via a website and other communication channels), build a call center and knowledge base. 
The platform is ideal for customer support teams in small and medium-sized organizations.

LiveAgent features

– Live-chat with a ticketing system; 
– team effectiveness reports and advanced analytics;
– call center and video calls;
– proactive messages that will invite more website visitors to chat;
– customer satisfaction reports.

Pricing: from $15/agent/mo

Free trial: available (14 days), free plan: available.

LiveAgent offers four plans. The Free one allows customers to: 

– use one livechat with a ticketing system;
– use a phone number and email;
– create basic reports.

The Ticket includes:

• canned responses and auto-replies;
• reports;
• working hours, and so on.

The Ticket+Chat adds to the features below some others:

• proactive chat messages;
• files sharing;
• website visitors monitoring;
• CSAT surveys and other features.

The All-inclusive includes all the LiveAgent features.

Pros and cons of LiveChat as one of Zendesk alternatives

HubSpot

HubSpot is an all-in-one Zendesk alternative CRM platform that includes Support, Marketing, and Sales tools. You’ll find everything to automate business processes. The biggest advantage for customers is that all the tools are under one roof. So if you’d like to use not only support features but also marketing or sales, it would be easy to start doing it. 

This is one of the strongest Zendesk competitors that suits all-size organizations. 

HubSpot features as one of Zendesk alternatives

HubSpot offers these customer support features:

• chat with shared inbox; 
• automatic routing to the right agent;
• automated replies to frequently asked questions;
• VoIP calling from the HubSpot platform;
• integrations with email, Facebook Messenger, and so on;
• knowledge base;
• free CRM;
• service analytics and customer feedback surveys.

Also, there are a lot of marketing and sales tools (such as email marketing, marketing automation, meetings scheduler, and others). You can launch not only customer support but start marketing campaigns and boost customer experience using HubSpot tools.

Pricing: from $45/agent/mo

Trial: not available. 

Free plan: available.

This Zendesk alternative platform offers organizations four plans. The Free includes:

• live-chat 
• chatbot
• shared inbox
• ticketing
• a mobile app, and other basic features.

The Starter enables:

• shared inbox 
• ticketing system
• canned replies
• meeting scheduling
• outbound calls
• reporting dashboard, and so on. 

Up to 2 agents’ seats are included, which will cost customers $45+.

The Professional also includes: 

• help desk automation (such as chat assignments, repetitive emails, and so on) 
• knowledge base
• customer feedback collection, and other features. 

The Professional starts from $450 and includes up to 5 five agents.

Finally, the Enterprise allows:

• building hierarchical teams
• setting team goals
• using AI
• library (Playbooks), and other features.

This plan starts from $1,200/mo and includes ten agents’ seats.

Pros and cons as one of Zendesk alternatives

Help Scout

Help Scout is a Zendesk alternative for small organizations. This help desk solution was developed to build the best customer communications in SaaS, eCommerce, Education, Healthcare, or Finance companies. 

Help Scout features one of Zendesk alternatives

• chat and in-app messaging,
• knowledge base,
• automated workflow,
• prospects data collection (previous conversations, website activity, and so on),
• 50+ integrations, API, and SDK.

Pricing: from $20/agent/mo

Free trial: available (15 days), no free plan.

Compared to Zendesk, Help Scout is a very affordable alternative. There are three plans. The first one starts from $20/mo and includes:

• up to 25 agents 
• two mailboxes and one doc site
• chat
• in-app messaging
• custom reports
• automated workflows. 

The Plus starts from $35/mo/user and includes:

• unlimited number of agents
• up to five mailboxes and two docs sites 
• custom customer fields
• unlimited reporting history.

The Company starts from $60/mo/user and offers: 

• unlimited number of users
• mailboxes and docs
• access to all the Help Scout features listed.

Pros and cons as one of Zendesk alternatives

HappyFox

HappyFox is an all-in-one ticketing system that can be considered one of Zendesk alternatives.  This provides multichannel support and integrates with vital business services for accounting, CRM, customer feedback collection, commerce, etc. This Zendesk competitor suits small and middle-sized SaaS companies.

HappyFox features one of Zendesk alternatives

• chat integration;
• reports, analytics, and data collection;
• canned actions to automate some basic processes;
• knowledge base;
• task assignment.

Pricing: from $27/mo/agent

Free trial: available after a demo, no free plan.

As a Zendesk alternative, HappyFox starts from $27 if you make a three-year contract. There are four plans. Each one requires at least five agents.

The Mighty includes:

• chat;
• SEO-optimized knowledge base and articles draft;
• dashboards and reporting;
• canned actions and replies;
• integration with Facebook, and so on.

The Fantastic additionally allows you to use:

• customer satisfaction surveys and reports;
• multilingual knowledge base;
• custom dashboard;
• Jira, Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Aircall integrations.

The Enterprise is more about management, so this also includes:

• task management;
• tickets scheduling;
• scheduled reports, ticket lifecycle reports, and other reports.

The Enterprise includes all the HappyFox features.

Also, HappyFox allows having an unlimited number of agents — the price will start from $1499/mo. 

Pros and cons one of Zendesk alternatives

Crisp

This is another Zendesk competitor that helps provide instant communication with website visitors. Using this customer support software as Zendesk alternative, you will be able to provide multichannel customer support, service, and boost sales using such tools as live chat, canned responses, customers actions monitoring, and others. The solution will suit small- and middle-sized organizations. 

Crisp features one of Zendesk alternatives

• Live chat with a ticketing system; 
• knowledge base;
• chatbot and canned messages;
• integrations with HubSpot, Facebook, Salesforce, Slack, and so on;
• MagicBrowse — the tool that gives the view of the website visitors’ screen;
• LiveTranslate — built-in translator for the live chat.

Pricing: from $25/website/mo

Free trial: available (14 days), free version: available. As a Zendesk alternative, Crisp offers three plans: Basic, Pro, and Unlimited. 

The Basic one is free. It includes:

• live chat 
• shared inbox
• mobile apps 
• a contact form that you can place on your website 
• up to two agents’ seats.

Starting from the Pro, you can also use:

• Triggers for automated messages 
• CRM, 
• private notes in live chat
• audio messages
• Integrations with Facebook, Slack, email, and others  
• up to four live chat agents seats.

Finally, the Unlimited enables using all the Crisp features, including:

• automated replies and campaigns
• chatbot
• knowledge base
• MagicBrowse
• LiveTranslate 
• up to 20 live chat agents seats.

Pros and cons of Dashly as a Zendesk alternative

Crisp Vs. Dashly: Find out why Dashly is a more functional solution for your business

Zendesk alternative that only partially can replace the tool

Kayako

This is a Zendesk alternative that will help you make a connection between customer information, support channels, and your support team. As a Zendesk alternative, Kayako service suits businesses of all sizes and all types, especially eCommerce. 

Kayako features as a Zendesk alternative

• Live chat (including integrations with Facebook, Twitter, and email);
• shared inbox;
• reports;
• automated tickets assignment to agents;
• help center and knowledge base for self-service;
• 700+ integrations via Zapier (including Salesforce, Slack, and others);
• custom fields in customer cards. 

Pricing: from $30/agent/mo

Free trial: available (14 days), no free plan.

To use this Zendesk alternative, you’ll have to choose from two plans: Growth and Scale. The Growth includes:

• live chat 
• help center
• advanced reporting
• integrations, and other features. 

The pricing starts from $30 per agent per month. The Scale costs $60/mo/agent and offers all the Kayako features.

Pros and cons of Kayako as a Zendesk alternative

Front as Zendesk competitor

Fron is a Zendesk alternative for support and success service. This competitor will be ideal for SaaS companies that search for Zendesk alternative and strive to provide a faster, more accurate, and personalized customer experience. 

Front service features as a Zendesk alternative

• live chat and chatbot;
• basic automation (chat assignment, escalating messages, etc.);
• CRM integration (Salesforce, Hubspot, or other CRM);
• multi-chat messaging — reply in emails, SMS, and social networks from one admin panel;
• customizable analytics reports.

Pricing: from $19/mo/agent

Free trial: not available, no free plan.

As a Zendesk alternative, Front offers three plans: Starter, Prime, and Enterprise. 

Using the Starter, you’ll be able to use:

• live chat and communication channels integrations; 
• basic automation. 

You’ll need to buy Prime to get CRM integration and analytics, starting from $49/mo. The enterprise includes all the Front features and costs $99/mo which is similar to Zendesk prices. 

Pros and cons of Front customer service software as a Zendesk alternative

Groove for customer engagement

Groove is a sales engagement service designed for Salesforce enterprise businesses. As a Zendesk alternative, this will boost sales by building communication with customers and providing key info about them. There are over 70 000 companies that chose Groove (including Google, Uber, Atlassian, and other businesses) among numerous competitors.

Groove service features as a Zendesk alternative

• Live chat, email, calendar, and activity tracking synced with Salesforce;
• multistep marketing automation for engagement;
• CRM integration;
• meetings scheduler;
• revenue and revenue workflows report.

Pricing: based on team requirements

Free trial: available (14 days), no free plan.

To find this Zendesk alternative precise pricing, you need to have a demo with the Groove team.

But here is what we found on the web. Some people say that the basic price per customer is $12/mo. However, it is $22 for a business. 

Pros and cons of Groove service as a Zendesk alternative

ThriveDesk service

This is a customer support platform that may be considered a Zendesk alternative. This competitor is easy to use and set up and will suit small businesses (eCommerce and SaaS) that search for a cheaper Zendesk alternative.

ThriveDesk features as a Zendesk alternative

– Live chat
– Shared inbox
– CRM
– Knowledge base
– Integrations (including Slack, WooCommerce, Asana, HubSpot, Trello, and so on).

Pricing: from $20/mo

Free trial: available (14 days), no free plan.

As a Zendesk alternative, ThriveDeak competitor offers two plans: Starter and Pro. 

The Starter costs $20 and includes:

– 3 mailboxes 
– up to 5 users
– assignments 
– mentions
– all the integrations
– reports. 

The Pro includes: 

– unlimited number of agents
– up to 5 mailboxes
– access to API
– dedicated success manager 
– all other tools are included in the Starter.

Pros and cons of ThriveDeak as a Zendesk alternative

SmartInbox for email, live chat, and socials communication

This is a minimalistic tool for inbox optimization. If you’ve been searching for a Zendesk alternative that will combine all the communication channels in one place, SmartInbox is a good Zendesk alternative. This competitor will suit support teams in small online shops.

SmartInbox features as a Zendesk alternative

– Customer communication channels integrations (FB, Instagram, WhatsApp, inbox);
– AI for replies suggestions;
– Team inbox;
– CRM;
– customer cards with the essential data.

Pricing: from $9/mo

Free trial: available (14 days), no free plan.

As a Zendesk alternative, SmartInbox competitor provides only one plan which includes all the listed features. It’s very convenient to choose from one plan, isn’t it? 🙂

Pros and cons of SmartInbox as a Zendesk alternative

Briefly: how to choose the right tool for your team

Here in the table, you can see which features are available on each of competitors platform:

	Chabot	Free plan	Unlimited seats	AI	Knowledge base	Marketing tools	Sales tools
Zendesk	yes	no	no	yes	yes	no	yes
Dashly	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes
Intercom	yes	no	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
Zoho Desk	yes	yes	no	no	yes	yes	yes
LiveChat	yes	no	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
Userlike	yes	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Freshdesk	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	no
Tawk.to	no	yes	no	no	yes	no	no
LiveAgent	no	no	no	no	yes	no	yes
HubSpot	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	yes
HelpScout	no	no	yes	no	yes	no	no
HappyFox	no	no	yes	yes	yes	no	no
Crisp	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	no	yes
Kayako	no	no	no	no	yes	no	no
Front	yes	no	no	no	no	no	no
Groove	no	no	no	yes	no	yes	yes
ThriveDesk	no	no	no	no	yes	no	no
SmartInbox	no	no	no	yes	no	no	no

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