Zendesk and Freshdesk are arguably two of the world’s best and most recognized and trusted customer support tools out there. Both offer a comprehensive set of features to deliver stellar customer support and they basically offer the same basic features, which makes it really difficult to choose between the two. We pit the two help desk software giants against each other to see which one’s better for your business.

What is Zendesk?

Zendesk is an award-winning customer service software designed to improve customer relationships by integrating email, phone, tweet, chat and search data, all into a single unified platform. It is one of the leading cloud-based customer held desk solutions, favored by businesses all over the world because of its simple, intuitive interface, ease of use, and low cost ownership. Zendesk was founded in 2007 in Copenhagen, Denmark, and within a short seven years, it managed to garner a massive following. It had tapped into the hidden potential of data and found a way to leverage data to revolutionize customer service.

The founders saw customer service as a means to build relationships with customers. Zendesk was the only cloud-based help desk at the time when it was launched and it worked out well for the folks at Zendesk who entered a new realm of customer service. So, Zendesk is a help desk platform based on tickets. Customers can create tickets, seeking assistance from a customer support agent. The support agent then reviews the ticket, initiates a conversation with the customer via live chat or message, and finally closes the ticket after solving the customer’s query. Zendesk basically connects businesses to customers.

What is Freshdesk?

Freshdesk, just like Zendesk, is a cloud-based customer service software that enables businesses to deliver exceptional customer support through ticketing systems. It offers businesses all the required tools to deliver stellar support to its customers. The agents take customer queries from phones, emails, websites, chats, and social media, and convert them into tickets. They then solve the customers’ problems with a simple and smart interface that they can access from anywhere they want. Freshdesk automatically assigns tickets to different support agents based on intelligent rules.

The support team gets notified immediately when a ticket is generated and the notification comes in the form of a bot that send a chat to their channel. The agents can reply to the bot and send a message back to the customer to further update the ticket. With the help of smart automation tools, Freshdesk streamlines all the customer conversations in one place and collaborates better with other support teams to connect to customers and solve their queries faster.

Difference between Zendesk and Freshdesk

Profile

 – Both Zendesk and Freshdesk are two of the most recognized and commonly used customer service solutions out there that enable businesses of all sizes to deliver exceptional customer support. Zendesk is a world’s leading customer help desk software developed and managed by a company of the same name, Zendesk Inc. – a service-first CRM company based out of San Francisco, California. 

Freshdesk is yet another major software product that provides help desk support with smart automation tools. It was founded in 2010 by Girish Mathrubootham who is nothing short of an icon in the SaaS world. Freshdesk is now part of a new umbrella brand Freshworks Inc., which hosts a suite of products that includes Freshdesk.

Pricing 

– Freshdesk combines best-in-class ticketing system with a low-cost pricing structure. Its cheapest plan costs $15 per agent per month for the annual commitment ($19 for monthly billing) which is great for small teams. It also offers a free plan for unlimited agents which is great for getting started and serves the purpose really well. Other plans include a $35 Garden plan for growing teams, a $49 Estate plan for large teams, and $89 Forest plan for enterprise users.

Zendesk also has similar pricing plans, starting with the Team plan which is priced at $19 per agent per month for the annual subscription ($25 for monthly billing); the Professional plan costs $49 per agent per month (annual billing); and the Enterprise plan costs $99 for annual subscription. Zendesk also offers a free trial to get started and running, and you also get access to live chat and phone features, but for a limited period of time.

Interface 

– Both are popular support ticketing systems and when it comes to choosing between the two, the choice is not so easy. Zendesk is favored by businesses all over the world because of its simple, intuitive interface and ease of use and it tends to handle complexity better than its counterpart, especially when it comes to automation. Freshdesk is easy to setup and very intuitive, and thanks to its streamlined ticketing interface, support teams can track and manage interactions with customers easily. Zendesk offers more customizations on its dashboard whereas Freshdesk has a simple dashboard with minimal customizations and a dozen of metrics based on your priority tasks.

Zendesk vs. Freshdesk: Comparison Chart

Summary

While Zendesk is a more robust help desk platform that offers a host of cool features to deliver unmatched customer support, Freshdesk is a more budget friendly option. Both are undoubtedly two of the biggest players in the help desk market, which makes it even harder to choose between the two. Both offer a comprehensive set of features to impress their customers, and they are built around tickets. Every time a customer contacts a company via email, chat, message, web, phone or social media, the software converts their query into a ticket. The Zendesk’s ticket management system is more advanced and feature rich than Freshdesk’s, Also, in Zendesk, you have options to implement widgets to your website, which is great. Freshdesk ticketing system is not as rich as Zendesk’s but it certainly compensates that for a more polished, more refined dashboard that makes it easy to get around.

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