Zendesk vs Intercom: A comparison guide for 2024

In summary, choosing Zendesk and Intercom hinges on your business’s unique requirements and priorities. If you seek a comprehensive customer support solution with a strong emphasis on traditional ticketing, Zendesk is a solid choice, particularly for smaller to mid-sized businesses. ThriveDesk empowers small businesses to manage real-time customer communications. In addition to Intercom vs Zendesk, alternative helpdesk solutions are available in the market. ThriveDesk is a feature-rich helpdesk solution that offers a comprehensive set of tools to manage customer support effectively. Intercom is praised as an affordable option with high customization capabilities, allowing businesses to create a personalized support experience.

• It introduces shared inboxes tailored for different teams, such as sales, marketing, and customer success.
• In some cases, Zendesk may be considered a more cost-effective option compared to Intercom, particularly for businesses with smaller budgets or those looking for more predictable pricing.
• Ultimately, it’s important to consider what features each platform offers before making a decision, as well as their pricing options and customer support policies.
• If you’re exploring popular chat support tools Zendesk and Intercom, you may be trying to understand which solution is right for you.
• The cheapest plan costs about $74/month (when billed annually) and consists of one seat and 1,000 people reached/month.

Zendesk also offers a wide range of integrations, including CRM, ecommerce, and productivity tools. Consider the tools and platforms you currently use in your business and ensure that the chosen tool integrates seamlessly with them. Intercom offers a wide range of integrations with other popular tools and platforms, allowing businesses to connect their customer support with other systems. Zendesk also offers integrations, but the ecosystem may not be as extensive as Intercom’s. Intercom provides real-time visitor tracking, allowing businesses to see who is currently browsing their website or using their app. This feature enables support agents to proactively engage with customers and provide assistance.

This integration enables you to access live customer data from Intercom within Zendesk, customize the information displayed, and sync user tags between the two platforms. Additionally, you can forward Intercom conversations to Zendesk as tickets. Intercom calculates the price based on the number of seats (users) you request.

Salesforce Service Regarding live chat capabilities, both Zendesk and Intercom have integrated solutions. However, users often find Intercom’s live chat more user-friendly and feature rich. Intercom’s live chat functionality goes beyond the basics, incorporating targeted messaging, proactive messaging, and sophisticated chatbot capabilities. Zendesk directly competes with Intercom when it comes to integrations. This live chat service provider offers 200+ integrations to its user base.

Dixa is the only customer service platform that centralizes tools, processes, and data into one cohesive omnichannel ecosystem. Tailored for modern businesses, we provide an Intercom alternative that effortlessly aligns with customer expectations in 2023 and beyond. Intercom provides an extensive range of automation tools and workflows, allowing businesses to automate repetitive tasks and streamline their customer support processes. In contrast, while Zendesk does offer some automation capabilities, it may not be as robust and customizable as Intercom.

Market Share by Top Websites

For standard reporting like response times, leads generated by source, bot performance, messages sent, and email deliverability, you’ll easily find all the metrics you need. Beyond that, you can create custom reports that combine all of the stats listed above (and many more) and present them as counts, columns, lines, or tables. Zendesk is designed with the agent in mind, delivering a modern, intuitive experience. The customizable Zendesk Agent Workspace enables reps to work within a single browser tab with one-click navigation across any channel.

If you’re a really small business or a startup, you can benefit big time from such free tools. Intercom generally receives positive feedback for its customer support, with users appreciating the comprehensive features and team-oriented tools. However, there are occasional criticisms regarding the effectiveness of its AI chatbot and some interface navigation challenges. The overall sentiment from users indicates a satisfactory level of support, although opinions vary. The strength of Zendesk’s UI lies in its structured and comprehensive environment, adept at managing numerous customer interactions and integrating various channels seamlessly. However, compared to the more contemporary designs like Intercom’s, Zendesk’s UI may appear outdated, particularly in aspects such as chat widget and customization options.

Messaging Platform

Moreover, the pricing model ensures customer transparency and reveals the costs that businesses will incur. Zendesk and Intercom offer a free trial of 14 days, but you will eventually have to choose once the trial ends. The pricing strategies are covered below so you can analyze the pricing structure and select your customer service software.

Zendesk is another popular customer service, support, and sales platform that enables clients to connect and engage with their customers in seconds. Just like Intercom, Zendesk can also integrate with multiple messaging platforms and ensure that your business never misses out on a support opportunity. Intercom is a customer support messenger, bot, and live chat service provider that empowers its clients to provide instant support in real-time. This SaaS leader entered into the competition in 2011, intending to help its clients reach their target audiences and engage them in a conversation right away. Yes, Zendesk offers an integration with Intercom available through the Zendesk Marketplace.

Some aspects give an edge or create differentiation in the operations of both software, which users may oversee while making a choice. We will discuss these differentiating factors to help you make the right choice for your business and help it excel in offering extraordinary customer service. Optimizing the utilization of Zendesk and Intercom involves implementing effective strategies and best practices. Providing actionable tips for businesses to maximize the potential of these platforms enables them to leverage advanced functionalities and enhance their overall customer support operations.

Both offer powerful solutions for businesses looking to enhance their customer service capabilities. In this article, we will compare Intercom and Zendesk, highlighting their features, benefits, and drawbacks. Both Zendesk and Intercom are customer support management solutions that offer features like ticket management, live chat and messaging, automation workflows, knowledge centers, and analytics. https://chat.openai.com/ Zendesk has traditionally been more focused on customer support management, while Intercom has been more focused on live support solutions like its chat solution. While the company is smaller than Zendesk, Intercom has earned a reputation for building high-quality customer service software. The company’s products include a messaging platform, knowledge base tools, and an analytics dashboard.

Installing it might take some technical skill and even when installed, could malfunction a bit. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to assist customers through self-help options or access to the relevant articles before connecting them to your team. And this, undoubtedly, leaves your customer support agents free to solve urgent matters. One of Zendesk’s standout features that we need to shine a spotlight on is its extensive marketplace of third-party integrations and extensions.

Both Zendesk and Intercom provide a campaign tool, live chat, and a knowledge base. We will compare those customer service solutions in terms of functionality and price. Intercom has a different approach, one that’s all about sales, marketing, and personalized messaging. Intercom has your back if you’re looking to supercharge your sales efforts.

• Being my first time dealing with a migration, they were very patient with me as I guided myself through the process of migrating data.
• Lastly, the tool is easy to set up and implement, meaning no additional knowledge or expertise makes the businesses incur additional costs.
• To that end, you can import themes or apply your own custom themes to brand your help center the way you want it.
• The former is one of the oldest and most reliable solutions on the market, while the latter sets the bar high in terms of innovative and out-of-the-box features.
• You could say something similar for Zendesk’s standard service offering, so it’s at least good to know they have Zendesk Sell, a capable CRM option to supplement it.
• It allows businesses to streamline operations and workflows, improving customer satisfaction and eventually leading to increased revenues, which justifies the continuous high ROI.

Pop-up chat, in-app messaging, and notifications are some of the highly-rated features of this live chat software. The Intercom vs. Zendesk pricing may be justified by the value-added services and minor features that Chat GPT they have for their all-in-one pricing. For example, for businesses that want just a couple of features, there are subscription packages. Each of such packages contains a set of tools from basic to advanced features.

Its automation tools help companies see automated responses and triggers based on the customer journey and response time. Intercom’s automation features enable businesses to deliver a personalized experience to customers and scale their customer support function effectively. While both platforms offer email marketing tools, Zendesk’s email marketing features are more robust and comprehensive. Zendesk’s email marketing functionalities include advanced segmentation options, powerful automation tools, and detailed email tracking capabilities.

You can choose from various import types and options, making Help Desk Migration the go-to platform for all your Zendesk import automation needs. Whether it’s ticket imports, additional import types, or automating the entire Zendesk import process, we’ve got you covered. Get the best of both worlds with Dixa’s Human + AI approach, which combines human intuition and AI efficiency. This allows your team to concentrate on important conversations while our system takes care of routine inquiries. Our AI-driven self-serve options significantly reduce response times, providing customers with speedy solutions.

Once your Demo Migration is complete, review the migration results table to see which records were migrated, failed, or skipped. To ensure everything migrated correctly, download the reports and copy the record IDs to check. The skipped and failed records reports will show the reason for unsuccessful transfers. The fast and personalized service can be the reason for your customers to … Select this feature to import your most recent records in a chronological flow, from most recent to oldest. With Help Desk Migration service, you can simply import and export large amount of different records entities to or from Intercom to Zendesk.

Intercom is more communication-oriented, whereas Zendesk has everything a customer support representative wants. It brings all your customer interactions to a single dashboard so that you can track all your support requests, answer questions quickly, and monitor performance from one place. Automating onboarding messages, product guides, newsletters, and the list goes on. Intercom understands very well that email marketing is no more than a magic wand for building strong customer relations. For leading a successful business, communication is one of the keys.

In this segment, Dominic explores the outbound capabilities of Zendesk and Intercom. How well do these platforms facilitate proactive customer engagement? Which one offers superior communication tools for reaching out to customers?

It’s beautifully crafted and thought through, and their custom-made illustrations are just next level stuff. You can see their attention to detail in everything — from their tools to their website. If you’d want to test Zendesk and Intercom before deciding on a tool for good, they both provide free trials. Intercom has a standard trial period for a SaaS product which is 14 days, while Zendesk offers a 30-day trial.

With its user-friendly interface and advanced functionalities, Intercom offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to effectively communicate and engage with customers. On the other hand, Intercom brings a dynamic approach to customer support. Its suite of tools goes beyond traditional ticketing and focuses on customer engagement and messaging automation. From in-app chat to personalized autoresponders, Intercom provides a unified experience across multiple channels, creating a support ecosystem that nurtures and converts leads. When it comes to customer support and engagement, choosing the right software can make a world of difference.

As we delve into the features of Zendesk, we can identify the following weaknesses regarding user experience. See how leading multi-channel consumer brands solve E2E customer data challenges with a real-time customer data platform. Leave your email below and a member of our team will personally get in touch to show you how Fullview can help you solve support tickets in half the time. Now that we’ve covered a bit of background on both Zendesk and Intercom, let’s dive into the features each platform offers. Say what you will, but Intercom’s design and overall user experience are leaving all its competitors far behind.

When comparing the pricing of Zendesk and Intercom, there are significant differences to take into account. Zendesk’s pricing offers a range of plans, including a tiered model with different levels of features and capabilities. While the intercom or zendesk pricing can be flexible, it may become more costly as your organization’s requirements and usage increase. Intercom’s AI has the transformative power to enhance customer service by offering multilingual support and contextual responses.

We specialize in importing data to Zendesk, utilizing our state-of-the-art Zendesk data importer. Compare Intercom and Zendesk Chat to find the best solution for your particular requirements. By evaluating their key features, pricing, specifications, and ratings, you’ll gather valuable information to make a well-informed decision.

It also offers a confusing pricing structure and fewer integrations, making it less scalable and cost-effective. Zendesk AI is the intelligence layer that infuses CX intelligence into every step of the customer journey. In addition to being pre-trained on billions of real support interactions, our AI powers bots, agent and admin assist, and intelligent workflows that lead to 83 percent lower administrative costs. Customers have also noted that they can implement Zendesk AI five times faster than other solutions. Customer expectations are already high, but with the rise of AI, customers are expecting even more.

What can be really inconvenient about Zendesk is how their tools integrate with each other when you need to use them simultaneously. Just like Zendesk, Intercom also offers its Operator bot, which will automatically suggest relevant articles to clients right in a chat widget. So you see, it’s okay to feel dizzy when comparing Zendesk vs Intercom platforms. You could say something similar for Zendesk’s standard service offering, so it’s at least good to know they have Zendesk Sell, a capable CRM option to supplement it. You can use Zendesk Sell to track tasks, streamline workflows, improve engagement, nurture leads, and much more. Intercom primarily focuses on messaging but offers limited channel breadth compared to Zendesk, requiring paid add-ons for critical channels like WhatsApp.

Robust integrations

Its user-friendly interface, robust ticketing system, and extensive integration options make it popular for businesses seeking efficient customer service solutions. With its robust ticketing system, versatile automation capabilities, and extensive reporting tools, Zendesk empowers businesses to handle customer inquiries effectively and improve support efficiency. It’s best used when you need a centralized platform to manage customer support operations, whether through email, chat, social media, or phone. Zendesk is ideal for businesses seeking to enhance their customer service processes and maintain a high level of customer satisfaction across all communication channels. Zendesk and Intercom are tailored to enhance your customer support and engagement, providing robust tools for managing customer inquiries, automating responses, and facilitating communication.

Powered by Explore, Zendesk’s reporting capabilities are pretty impressive. Right out of the gate, you’ve got dozens of pre-set report options on everything from satisfaction ratings and time in status to abandoned calls and Answer Bot resolutions. You can even save custom dashboards for a more tailored reporting experience. One place Intercom really shines as a standalone CRM is its data utility. Broken down into custom, resolution, and task bots, these can go a long way in taking repetitive tasks off agents’ plates.

It will allow you to leverage some Intercom capabilities while keeping your account at the time-tested platform. In this paragraph, let’s explain some common issues that users usually ask about when choosing between Zendesk and Intercom platforms. To sum things up, one can get really confused trying to make sense of the Zendesk suite pricing, let alone calculate costs. Well, I must admit, the tool is gradually transforming from a platform for communicating with users to a tool that helps you automate every aspect of your routine. They’ve been marketing themselves as a messaging platform right from the beginning.

Zendesk provides comprehensive security and compliance features, ensuring customer data privacy. This includes secure login options like SAML or JWT SSO (single sign-on) and native content redaction for sensitive information. We also adhere to numerous industry standards and regulations, such as HIPAA, SOC2, ISO 27001, HDS, FedRAMP LI-SaaS, ISO 27018, and ISO 27701. The Zendesk Marketplace offers over 1,500 no-code apps and integrations.

Zendesk has more pricing options, which means you’re free to choose your tier from the get-go. With Intercom, you’ll have more customizable options with the enterprise versions of the software, but you’ll have fewer lower-tier choices. If you don’t plan on building a huge enterprise just yet, we have to give the edge to Zendesk when it comes to flexible pricing options.

When comparing the reporting and analytics features of Zendesk and Intercom, both platforms offer robust tools, but with distinct focuses and functionalities. While both platforms have a significant presence in the industry, they cater to varying business requirements. Zendesk, with its extensive toolkit, is often preferred by businesses seeking an all-encompassing customer support solution. But keep in mind that Zendesk is viewed more as a support and ticketing solution, while Intercom is CRM functionality-oriented. Which means it’s rather a customer relationship management platform than anything else.

The free Intercom Platform lets you see who your customers are and what they do in your workspace. They have a 2-day SLA, no phone support, and the times I have had to work with them they have been incredibly difficult to work with. Very rarely do they understand the issue (mostly with Explore) that I am trying to communicate to them.

Gathering insights from customer reviews and testimonials offers a comprehensive understanding of the first-hand experiences of businesses using Zendesk and Intercom. The feedback and recommendations from existing users serve as valuable guidance for businesses considering either platform. Real-world case studies illustrate how businesses leverage Zendesk and Intercom to enhance their customer support operations and drive business growth. Analyzing these case studies provides practical insights into the tangible benefits and outcomes achieved by implementing either platform. While both platforms share the common goal of improving customer support, they differ in their approach and specialized functionalities.

Don’t miss out on the latest tips, tools, and tactics at the forefront of customer support. Any business knows that the front desk is where everything happens. It’s where customers ask the questions that may result in the largest sales in your company’s history.

It can automatically suggest your customer relevant articles reducing the workload for your support agents. Hivers offers round-the-clock proactive support across all its plans, ensuring that no matter the time or issue, expert assistance is always available. This 24/7 support model is designed to provide continuous, real-time solutions to clients, enhancing the overall reliability and responsiveness of Hivers’ services. Choose Zendesk for a scalable, team-size-based pricing model and Intercom for initial low-cost access with flexibility in adding advanced features.

Intercom has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, based on over 2700 reviews. So, whether you’re a startup or a global giant, Zendesk’s got your back for top-notch customer support. Zendesk lets you chat with customers through email, chat, social media, or phone. The three tiers—Suite Team, Suite Growth, and Suite Professional—also give you more options outside of Intercom’s static structure.

Whether you’re starting fresh with Intercom or migrating from Zendesk, set up is quick and easy.

This multichannel approach is especially important for companies that support customers in different regions and countries as access to communication tools can vary. Chat tools are the foundation of customer support software in 2023 and can serve as a key differentiator when choosing the right vendor. For instance, Intercom can guide a new software user through each feature step by step, providing context and assistance along the way. In contrast, Zendesk primarily relies on a knowledge base, housing articles, FAQs, and self-help resources. While this resource center can reduce the dependency on agent assistance, it lacks the interactive element found in Intercom’s onboarding process. While Intercom also provides a user-friendly interface, some users may find it a tad overwhelming, especially when juggling multiple support requests.

We stay ahead of the curve on trends, tackle technical hurdles, and provide practical tips to boost your business. With our commitment to quality and integrity, you can be confident you’re getting the most reliable resources to enhance your customer support initiatives. They offer an omnichannel chat solution that integrates with multiple messaging platforms and marketing channels and even automates incoming support processes with bots. It is quite the all-rounder as it even has a help center and ticketing system that completes its omnichannel support cycle. Intercom is better designed for smaller companies and teams, while Zendesk is suitable for large companies to skyrocket customer support.

Examine the details of data types you can migrate incorporating automation service without extra assistance from tech service reps. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Select the most suitable time to start the help desk migration workflow. Start by exporting historical records and continue with move ahead to the Delta function to import your during migration changed data entities. If you don’t go with ActiveCampaign, then Zoho would be my second choice.