Zendesk vs Intercom: Which One Is Right for You?

Intercom is 4 years younger than Zendesk and has fancied itself as a messaging platform right from the beginning. Intercom lets businesses send their customers targeted in-app messages. You can construct an omnichannel suite by combining productivity, e-commerce, CRM, analytics, social media, and other applications. Having more connectors accessible gives organizations the flexibility to select software that meets their specific needs.

Apart from this feature, the customer support options at Zendesk are quite limited. First, you can only talk to the support team if you are a registered user. Both Zendesk and Intercom are excellent customer service solutions. However, the right fit for your business will depend on your particular needs and budget.

Zendesk vs Intercom

They both offer some state-of-the-art core functionality and numerous unusual features. Basically, if you have a complicated support process, go with Zendesk, an excellent Intercom alternative, for its help desk functionality. If you’re a sales-oriented corporation, use Intercom for its automation options. Both tools can be quite heavy on your budget since they mainly target big enterprises and don’t offer their full toolset at an affordable price. 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.

These are both still very versatile products, so don't think you have to get too siloed into a single use case. Besides, the prices differ depending on the company’s size and specific needs. We conducted a little study of our own and found that all Intercom users share different amounts of money they pay for the plans, which can reach over $1000/mo. The price levels can even be much higher if we’re talking of a larger company. To sum things up, one can get really confused trying to make sense of the Zendesk suite pricing, let alone calculate costs.

On the other hand, it’s nearly impossible to foresee how much Intercom will cost at the end of the day. They charge for agent seats and connections, don’t disclose their prices, and package add-ons at a premium. Although the Intercom chat window claims that their team responds within a few hours, user reviews have stated that they had to wait for a few days. Intercom is the clear victor in terms of user experience, leaving all of its competitors in the dust. While Zendesk features are plenty, someone using it for the first time can find it overwhelming. Intercom has a community forum where users can engage with each other and gain insights from their experiences.

Zendesk vs. Intercom: Which is better?

Intercom, on the other hand, excels in providing a seamless customer service experience by merging automation with human support. Its proactive support features, unified inbox, and customizable bots are highly beneficial for businesses looking to engage customers dynamically and manage conversations effortlessly. On the other hand, Intercom prides itself on being the only complete customer service solution that provides a seamless experience across automation and human support. By aiming to resolve most customer conversations without human intervention, Intercom allows teams to focus on higher-value interactions.

• Basically, you can create new articles, divide them by categories and sections — make it a high end destination for customers when they have questions or issues.
• The price levels can even be much higher if we’re talking of a larger company.
• Zendesk maps out each activity a visitor performs on your website.
• LiveAgent is a help desk software that helps customer support teams manage inquiries across multiple communication channels.
• Their template triggers are fairly limited with only seven options, but they do enable users to create new custom triggers, which can be a game-changer for agents with more complex workflows.
• It’s also good for sending and receiving notifications, as well as for quick filtering through the queue of open tickets.

An operational level agreement (OLA) outlines the responsibilities and expectations between internal teams to ensure efficient collaboration and coordination in resolving customer issues. With a reporting and analytics solution that integrates data from every channel, you can measure how customers interact with your business and how you perform. Cloud-based help desk software stores data on remote servers owned by a software or third-party vendor, which greatly benefits remote work environments.

At the same time, Zendesk looks slightly outdated and can’t offer some features. To create a virtual help desk, select a cloud-based help desk software and define virtual communication channels for remote interactions. Implement a ticketing system within the software to log and manage support requests efficiently. Develop https://chat.openai.com/ a knowledge base with self-help resources and integrate collaboration tools for remote team communication. Train support agents, ensure security measures, and continuously monitor and analyze performance for ongoing improvement. They can consistently do their best work and, in turn, provide a better customer experience.

You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. For example, you can read in many Zendesk Sell reviews how adding sales tools benefits Zendesk Support users. You can even improve efficiency and transparency by setting up task sequences, defining sales triggers, and strategizing with advanced forecasting and reporting tools. Starting at $19 per user per month, it's also on the cheaper end of the spectrum compared to high-end CRMs like ActiveCampaign and HubSpot. Using this, agents can chat across teams within a ticket via email, Slack, or Zendesk's ticketing system. This packs all resolution information into a single ticket, so there's no extra searching or backtracking needed to bring a ticket through to resolution, even if it involves multiple agents.

For example, the Zendesk Marketplace offers over 1,500 apps and integrations, complete with user reviews and ratings. An IT help desk assists users with solving technical problems related to devices or software. The software creates a ticket in a centralized location and recognizes similar issues, grouping tickets.

It also has an Answer Bot that reduces the workload for employees. That being said, in your search for the best customer support tool, you must have come across Zendesk and Intercom. In today’s hyper-competitive, hyper-connected globalized economy, customer experience has become a fundamental differentiator. As customers’ needs are constantly evolving, businesses must adapt and keep up to guarantee the best customer experience and satisfaction.

Customers want speed, anticipation, and a hyper-personalized experience conveniently on their channel of choice. Intelligence has become key to delivering the kinds of experiences customers expect at a lower operational cost. As more organizations adopt AI, it will be critical to choose a data model that aligns with how your business operates. Customer experience will be no exception, and AI models that are purpose-built for CX lead to better results at scale.

The two essential things that Zendesk lacks in comparison to Intercom are in-app messages and email marketing tools. On the other hand, Intercom lacks many ticketing functionality that can be essential for big companies with a huge client support load. The cheapest plan for small businesses – Essential zendesk vs intercom – costs $39 monthly per seat. But that’s not it, if you want to resolve customer common questions with the help of the vendor’s new tool – Fin bot, you will have to pay $0.99 per resolution per month. Intercom live chat is modern, smooth, and has many advanced features that other chat tools don’t.

Some of the links that appear on the website are from software companies from which CRM.org receives compensation. This site does not include all companies or all available Vendors. However, this is somewhat subjective, and depending on your business needs and favorite tools, you may argue we got it all mixed up, and Intercom is truly superior. Some startups and small businesses may prefer one app, while large companies and enterprise operations will have their own requirements.

It has very limited customization options in comparison to its competitors. Messagely also provides you with a shared inbox so anyone from your team can follow up with your users, regardless of who the user was in contact with first. Both Zendesk and Intercom have their own “app stores” where users can find all of the integrations for each platform. Depending on your needs, you can set up Intercom on your website or mobile app and add your automations. Setting up Intercom help centers is also very easy and intuitive, with no previous knowledge required.

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.

Software providers typically offer support to help you troubleshoot issues and make any updates. On-premise help desk software allows companies with strict data security needs to keep their data on their own servers (or on-premise) rather than on the cloud. They’re customizable and easy to interoperate with your company’s internal systems.

Consider automating customer satisfaction (CSAT), employee satisfaction, and Net Promoter ScoreⓇ (NPS) surveys using support software triggers when closing tickets. This approach ensures ongoing improvement based on real-time insights from your workforce. Customers and employees can get convenient support over their preferred communication channels, like Slack, email, and live chat. Context moves with the user from channel to channel and lives in the omnichannel agent workspace. This unified view of conversation history, background information, and contact data allows agents to better personalize the interactions.

Has live chat analytics to monitor customer satisfaction, employee performance. Overall, Zendesk’s Chat is less customizable than Intercom’s but still has all the essentials. In 2018, Intercom raised $125 million in funding, which brought its value up to $1.25 billion and provided the company with all the rights to call itself a unicorn. First of all, Intercom positions itself as a business messenger, the primary aim of which is to deliver modern and reliable customer communication tool. To sum things up, Zendesk is a great customer support oriented tool which will be a great choice for big teams with various departments. Intercom feels more wholesome and is more customer success oriented, but can be too costly for smaller companies.

Tools that allow support agents to communicate and collaborate are important aspect of customer service software. But it’s designed so well that you really enjoy staying in their Chat GPT inbox and communicating with clients. As a result, customers can implement the help desk software quickly—without the need for developers—and see a faster return on investment.

Learn more tools and terminology re: workplace knowledge

What better way to start a Zendesk vs. Intercom than to compare their features? Working on customer queries from Gmail was exactly what we needed. All plans come with a 7-day free trial, and no credit card is required to sign up for the trial. No matter what Zendesk Suite plan you are on, you get workflow triggers, which are simple business rules-based actions to streamline many tasks. As for the category of voice and phone features, Zendesk is a clear winner.

This comparison will delve into the features, similarities, differences, pros, cons, and use cases of Zendesk and Intercom, providing you with the insights needed to make an informed decision. While they like the ease of use this product offers its users, they’ve indeed rated them low in terms of services. The ProProfs Live Chat Editorial Team is a diverse group of professionals passionate about customer support and engagement. We update you on the latest trends, dive into technical topics, and offer insights to elevate your business. Also, Intercom has a special proposition for early-stage startups, which can get Intercom’s pro products for $49/month for up to one year. Just as Zendesk, Intercom also offers its own Operator bot which will automatically suggest relevant articles to customers who ask for help.

Plus, our transparent pricing doesn’t have hidden fees or endless add-ons, so customers know exactly what they're paying for and can calculate the total cost of ownership ahead of time. In comparison, Intercom’s confusing pricing structure that features multiple add-ons may be unsuitable for small businesses. Enhance your help desk by gathering employee and customer feedback to identify challenges and areas of improvement.

With only the Enterprise tier offering round-the-clock email, phone, and chat help, Zendesk support is sharply separated by tiers. Customers rated Intercom 4.4 on G2 Crowd, while Zendesk scored 4.3. This is not a huge difference; however, it does indicate that customers are generally more satisfied with Intercom's offerings than Zendesk's. Zendesk is a much larger company than Intercom; it has over 170,000 customers, while Intercom has over 25,000.

From there, you can include FAQs, announcements, and article guides and then save them into pre-set lists for your customers to explore. You can even moderate user content to leverage your customer community. Now, their use cases comprise support, engagement, and conversion.

Zendesk offers intelligent tools to transform your system into an AI help desk that effortlessly boosts EX. Intercom is a customer messaging platform that enables businesses to engage with customers through personalized and real-time communication. While the company is smaller than Zendesk, Intercom has earned a reputation for building high-quality customer service software.

Whether agents are facing customers via chat, email, social media, or good old-fashioned phone, they can keep it all confined to a single, easy-to-navigate dashboard. That not only saves them the headache of having to constantly switch between dashboards while streamlining resolution processes—it also leads to better customer and agent experience overall. Why don’t you try something equally powerful yet more affordable, like HelpCrunch? Web-based help desk software solutions—or software as a solution (SaaS) help desks—are platforms hosted on the software provider’s server. These help desk solutions are typically sold as monthly or annual subscriptions and include maintenance, updates, and security costs.

Its straightforward pricing structure ensures businesses get access to the required features without complex tiers or hidden costs, making it an attractive option for cost-conscious organizations. Intercom also offers a 14-day free trial, after which customers can upgrade to a paid plan or use the basic free plan. Unlike Zendesk, the prices for Intercom are based on the number of seats and contacts, with each plan tailored to each customer, meaning that the pricing can be quite flexible. This is especially helpful for smaller businesses that may not need a lot of features.

• When comparing the user interfaces (UI) of Zendesk and Intercom, both platforms exhibit distinct characteristics and strengths catering to different user preferences and needs.
• I'll dive into their chatbots more later, but their bot automation features are also stronger.
• Depending on your company’s size, complexity, and customer service needs, each software can offer unique benefits to help your teams.
• You can opt for code via JavaScript or Rails or even integrate directly with the likes of Google Tag Manager, WordPress, or Shopify.
• Basically, if you have a complicated support process, go with Zendesk, an excellent Intercom alternative, for its help desk functionality.

Including knowledge base software allows customers to quickly find relevant resources and resolve issues independently, reducing the number of support tickets. IT help desks can work in tandem with a searchable self-help center so users can resolve simple issues independently. They also enable access to IT members who can troubleshoot issues and help with products, processes, and services.

Intercom does have a ticketing dashboard that has omnichannel functionality, much like Zendesk. Their reports are attractive, dynamic, and integrated right out of the box. You can even finagle some forecasting by sourcing every agent's assigned leads. 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. Understanding these fundamental differences should go a long way in helping you pick between the two, but does that mean you can't use one platform to do what the other does better?

When visitors click on it, they’ll be directed to one of your customer service teammates. Its $99 bracket includes advanced options, such as customer satisfaction prediction and multi-brand support, and in the $199 bracket, you also get advanced security and other very advanced features. It’s clear that both of these tools are designed for different use cases. Intercom is geared toward sales, whereas Zendesk includes everything a customer service rep desires.

AI reduces business costs by improving task automation and decision-making and optimizing various processes. Businesses can boost agent productivity and efficiency by automating repetitive tasks and implementing AI-driven reporting and analytics—helping businesses achieve more without adding headcount. Plus, customer support automation with AI-powered chatbots reduces the need to involve human agents, lowering support costs.

While these IT tools share similarities, they have distinct approaches to solving problems. The right help desk solution enables you to adapt to evolving expectations so you can continuously provide a great customer and employee experience at scale. OpenTable, for instance, improved its IT help desk with help from Zendesk.

We work for Ukraine’s economy as our army resists the unprovoked Russian war against Ukraine. KindGeek was founded in Ukraine; our co-founders are from Ukraine, and all of our team members call Ukraine home. It means that Zendesk’s prices are slightly easier to figure out than Intercom’s. We are going to overview only their helpdesk/communication features to make the two systems comparable. On practice, I can’t promise you anything when it comes to Intercom. Moreover, these are new prices as they’re in the middle of changing their pricing policy right now (and they’re definitely not getting cheaper).

It works out-of-the-box and is easy to modify when changes arise, helping businesses move faster. In leveraging cutting-edge AI, Zendesk empowers service teams to resolve customer issues more quickly and accurately. Built on billions of customer experience interactions, the AI capabilities can be integrated across the entire service experience, from self-service to agent support, optimizing operations at scale.

Its intuitive design and quick setup offer a fast time to value, allowing businesses of any size and industry to implement our software and start using it in minutes. Zendesk seamlessly integrates with your existing tech stack and is easily customizable with the 1,500+ apps and integrations in the Zendesk Marketplace. Help desk software is a tool designed to assist support teams in tracking, prioritizing, and resolving customer and employee queries. The right help desk system empowers agents to collaborate on requests and personalize conversations across channels.

There’s a plethora of features to help bigger teams collaborate more effectively — like private notes or real-time view of who’s handling a given ticket at the moment, etc. To select the ideal fit for your business, it is crucial to compare these industry giants and assess which aligns best with your specific requirements. Intercom's user interface is also quite straightforward and easy to understand; it includes a range of features such as live chat, messaging campaigns, and automation workflows. Additionally, the platform allows for customizations such as customized user flows and onboarding experiences.

After signing up and creating your account, you can start filling in your information, such as your company name and branding and your agents’ profiles and information. The setup can be so complex that there are tutorials by third parties to teach new users how to do it right. Intercom works with any website or web-based product and aims to be your one-way stop for all of your customer communication needs. Respond to all conversations across different messaging platforms in one place and avoid juggling between dozens of tabs. Collaborate with your teammates by easily assigning the right rep to best handle a customer query. Intercom also does not offer a free trial period for users to examine the software prior to joining up for their services.

This unpredictability in pricing might lead to higher costs, especially for larger companies. While it offers a range of advanced features, the overall costs and potential inconsistencies in support could be a concern for some businesses​​​​. Intercom is a customer support platform known for its effective messaging and automation, enhancing in-context support within products, apps, or websites. It features the Intercom Messenger, which works with existing support tools for self-serve or live support. Zendesk is among the industry's best ticketing and customer support software, and most of its additional functionality is icing on the proverbial cake. Intercom, on the other hand, is designed to be more of a complete solution for sales, marketing, and customer relationship nurturing.

The more expensive Intercom plans offer AI-powered content cues, triage, and conversation insights. There are pre-built workflows to help with things like ticket sharing, as well as conversation routing based on metrics like agent skill set or availability. There are even automations to help with things like SLAs, or service level agreements, to do things like send out notifications when headlights are due. Intercom has a full suite of email marketing tools, although they are part of a pricier package. With Intercom, you get email features like targeted and personalized outbound emailing, dynamic content fields, and an email-to-inbox forwarding feature. Your typical Zendesk review will often praise the platform’s simplicity and affordability, as well as its constant updates and rolling out of new features, like Zendesk Sunshine.