Zendesk vs Intercom: Which is better?

This comparison is going to help you understand the features of both tools. Overall, when comparing Zendesk to Intercom, Zendesk’s features will probably win out over time. But the most important thing is that you get a help desk that you believe in—and that you integrate it into a website as thoroughly as possible. 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.

ThriveDesk is a help desk software tailor-made for businesses seeking extensive features and a powerful yet simple live chat assistant. Even better, it’s the most cost-effective, lightweight, and speedy live chat solution available for Shopify business owners. If you are looking for a comprehensive customer support solution with a wide range of features, Zendesk is a good option. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Zendesk receives positive feedback for its intuitive interface, wide range of integrations, and robust reporting tools.

When making your decision, consider factors such as your budget, the scale of your business, and your specific growth plans. Agents can quickly grasp the context of customer interaction through these support tickets and sentiment analysis that AI facilitates. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Zendesk offers robust reporting capabilities, providing businesses with detailed insights into consumer interactions, ticketing systems, agent performance, and more. Using any plan, this integration is available to all customers, making the customer support experience and onboarding smooth. When comparing the cost of Intercom to Zendesk, it’s important to consider the pricing structures and potential variations based on your specific customer support and engagement needs.

Zendesk is more robust in terms of its ticket management capabilities, it offers more customization options and advanced features like a virtual call center app. On the other hand, Intercom is more focused on conversational customer support, and has more help desk features suited for live chat and messaging. While both platforms focus on enhancing customer support, their approaches and specialized functionalities differ.

Live chat and messaging

Still, considering that such companies do not have a large budget for investing in CRM software, they should carefully consider all plans. While some of these functionalities related to AI are included in the Zendesk suite, others are part of advanced AI add-ons. This plan includes a shared inbox, unlimited articles, proactive support, and basic automation.

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. 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.

The future of customer service is integrated, AI-enhanced—and powered by Intercom

But to provide a more robust customer experience, businesses may need to consider integrating Intercom’s AI tool with a third-party customer service platform, as it falls short of a full-stack offering. We make it easy for anyone within your company to access contextual customer information—including their conversation and purchase history—to provide better experiences. In fact, the Zendesk Marketplace has 1,300+ apps and integrations, from billing software to marketing automation tools. Intercom is better for smaller companies that are looking for a simple and capable customer service platform. Instead, using it and setting it up is very easy, and very advanced chatbots and predictive tools are included to boost your customer service. The increasing significance of chatbot integration underscores the need for comprehensive customer support solutions that can effectively leverage this technology.

But don’t just take our word for it—listen to what customers say about why they picked Zendesk. View the attached screenshots to easily evaluate the similarities and differences between Intercom and Zendesk Chat user interfaces. Experience the amazing capabilities of Intercom and Zendesk Chat on desktop and mobile devices for unparalleled productivity and flexibility. In the specs, Intercom and Zendesk Chat provide complementing benefits.

Intercom Inbox has customer support features that vaguely remind Zendesk Support, but the offered package Acquire customer (Messages and Inbox) is more paralleled with Zendesk Support + Chat. Again, Zendesk has surpassed the number of reviewers when compared to Intercom. Chat GPT Some of the highly-rated features include ticket creation user experience, email to case, and live chat reporting. When you see pricing plans starting for $79/month, you should get a clear understanding of how expensive other plans can become for your business.

Zendesk is an all-in-one omnichannel platform offering various channel integrations in one place. The dashboard of Zendesk is sleek, simple, and highly responsive, offering a seamless experience for managing customer interactions. Although many people tout it as the solution for large businesses, its bottom pricing tier is a nice entry for any small business looking to add customer service to its front page. You can use both Zendesk and Intercom simultaneously to leverage their respective strengths and provide comprehensive customer support across different channels and touchpoints. Intercom also has a mobile app available for both Android and iOS, which makes it easy to stay connected with customers even when away from the computer.

• Operators will find its dashboard quite beneficial as it will take them seconds to find necessary features during an ongoing chat with the customers.
• Zendesk also offers digital support during business hours, and their website has a chatbot.
• Agents can easily track customer conversations, view unassigned tickets, and track their overall performance.
• Now that we’ve covered a bit of background on both Zendesk and Intercom, let’s dive into the features each platform offers.
• When choosing the best customer support solution in 2024, it’s essential to consider factors such as scalability, customization, and the nature of customer inquiries.

As for the category of voice and phone features, Zendesk is a clear winner. Zendesk Support has voicemail, text messages, and embedded voice, and it displays the phone number on the widget. Let’s compare Zendesk vs. Intercom using the help desk features they have. It also offers a Proactive Support Plus as an Add-on with push notifications, a series campaign builder, news items, and more. Sure, you can have a front desk—but you don’t necessarily have to plunk down the cost it would take to buy that desk, train an employee, and add them to your payroll.

Pop-up chat, in-app messaging, and notifications are some of the highly-rated features of this live chat software. For smaller teams that have to handle multiple tasks, do not forget to check JustReply.ai, which is a user-friendly customer support tool. It will seamlessly integrate with Slack and offers everything you need for your favorite communication platform.

Intercom also uses AI and features a chatbot called Fin, but negative reviews note basic reporting and a lack of customization. Fin is priced at $0.99 per resolution, so companies handling large volumes of queries might find it costly. In comparison, Zendesk customers pay a fixed price of $50 per agent—and only Zendesk AI is modeled on the world’s largest CX-specific dataset. Both Zendesk and Intercom offer customer service software with AI capabilities—however, they are not created equal.

It offers comprehensive customer data management and lead-tracking features. Some businesses may require supplemental products to meet specific needs. Intercom’s CRM utility is a solid foundation for managing customer relationships and sales in one platform. Zendesk and Intercom offer help desk management solutions to their users. Intercom also offers scalability within its pricing plans, enabling businesses to upgrade to higher tiers as their support needs grow. With its integrated suite of applications, Intercom provides a comprehensive solution that caters to businesses seeking a unified ecosystem to manage customer interactions.

Zendesk offers its users consistently high ROI due to its comprehensive product features, firm support, and advanced customer support, automation, and reporting features. It allows businesses to streamline operations and workflows, improving customer satisfaction and eventually leading to increased revenues, which justifies the continuous high ROI. Zendesk allows businesses to group their resources in the help center, providing customers with self-service personalized support. The platform has various customization options, allowing businesses personalized experiences according to their branding.

Intercom focuses on personalized messaging, effective lead nurturing, and streamlined communication, fostering a more engaging customer experience. While Zendesk incorporates live chat and messaging functionalities to facilitate proactive customer engagement, it falls short of matching Intercom’s level of personalization. However, if your organization heavily relies on Intercom’s real-time communication features, in-app messaging, and chat-based support, transitioning entirely https://chat.openai.com/ to Zendesk may not cover all your needs. Intercom’s focus on instant interactions and personalized engagement is particularly valuable for businesses prioritizing chat-first customer support and real-time communication. Its chat-based approach, automation capabilities, and chatbots are ideal for handling routine inquiries efficiently. Intercom’s UI excels in modern design and intuitive functionality, particularly noted for its real-time messaging and advanced features.

Both options are well designed, easy to use, and share some pretty key functionality like behavioral triggers and omnichannel-ality (omnichannel-centricity?). But with perks like more advanced chatbots, automation, and lead management capabilities, Intercom could have an edge for many users. To begin with, efficient customer relationship management is important these days.

We are delighted to offer a platform exclusively designed for customer service teams. At Dixa, our complete focus is on improving the overall customer experience. We are confident that our partners will achieve their objectives with our advanced tools and comprehensive resources.

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. Amid tight budgeting times, Desku proves to be the buddy for excellent worth and without any costly expenditure. However, the approach is far much wider than merely focusing on what would be more cost-effective but instead exploring ways through which a solution that would suit you best could be realized.

Zendesk supports teams that can then field these issues from a nice unified dashboard. Zendesk has great intelligent routing and escalation protocols as well. One of the pivotal aspects of any customer support platform is its ticketing system.

Zendesk also allows Advanced AI and Advanced data privacy and protection plans, which cost $50 per month for each Advanced add-on. Don’t miss out on the latest tips, tools, and tactics at the forefront of customer support. But Intercom’s friendliness for growing companies is something you can’t afford to ignore. If your business is established and you need to cut down on those ticket resolution times, Zendesk may be worth it. 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. Zendesk and Intercom each have their own marketplace/app store where users can find all the integrations for each platform.

If this scenario applies to you, you must check out our feature-rich and cost-effective tool—Helplama. However, the best way to find the perfect match is to take a demo or a free trial. But, if you just need a secure and quick data transfer, opt for Help Desk Migration. Pricing starts at $39 and varies based on the number of records you want to migrate.

Intercom has limited scalability compared to Zendesk, which is unsuitable for large-scale enterprises. If transparency in pricing is not an issue for you and you are a small business, contact Intercom. If, after the additional prices they charge, the plan works for you, Intercom is a great way to manage your customer relationships. Every CRM software comes with some limitations along with the features it offers. You can analyze if that weakness is something that concerns your business model.

This combination maximizes the strengths of both help desk platforms, providing a seamless experience for managing customer accounts from initial interaction to issue resolution. Assessing the performance and functionality of both platforms enables businesses to make informed decisions based on their specific requirements. While Zendesk offers an intuitive approach to customer support management, Intercom provides powerful tools for fostering deeper customer relationships through personalized communication.

Zendesk vs Intercom: Live Chat

Zendesk has an app available for both Android and iOS, which makes it easy to stay connected with customers while on the go. The app includes features like push notifications and real-time customer engagement — so businesses can respond quickly to customer inquiries. 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.

You’d probably want to know how much it costs to get each of the platforms for your business, so let’s talk money now. 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. 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.

The app includes features like automated messages and conversation routing — so businesses can manage customer conversations more efficiently. Intercom allows visitors to search for and view articles from the messenger widget. Customers won’t need to leave your app or website to find the help they need.Zendesk, on the other hand, will redirect the customer to a new web page. Zendesk’s Help Center and Intercom’s Articles both offer features to easily embed help centers into your website or product using their web widgets, SDKs, and APIs. With help centers in place, it’s easier for your customers to reliably find answers, tips, and other important information in a self-service manner.

Which means it’s rather a customer relationship management platform than anything else. So when it comes to chatting features, the choice is not really Intercom vs Zendesk. The latter offers a chat widget that is simple, outdated, and limited in customization options, while the former puts all of its resources into its messenger. Intercom isn’t quite as strong as Zendesk in comparison to some of Zendesk’s customer support strengths, but it has more features for sales and lead nurturing.

Our team is experienced in consolidating Zendesk instances and merging instances of other help desk and service desk systems. Zendesk chat vs Intercom offers similar chat features but still has a couple of differences. In any case, whether you choose Zendesk or Intercom, you have wide chatting possibilities. We hope that this Intercom VS Zendesk comparison helps you choose one that matches your support, marketing, and sales needs. But in case you are in search of something beyond these two, then ProProfs Chat can be an option. While they like the ease of use this product offers its users, they’ve indeed rated them low in terms of services.

You can also use Intercom as a customer service platform, but given its broad focus, you may not get the same level of specialized expertise. Zendesk also offers a number of integrations with third-party applications. Intercom’s ticketing system and help desk SaaS is also pretty great, just not as amazing as Zendesk’s. Their customer service management tools have a shared inbox for support teams.

It’s great, it’s convenient, it’s not nearly as advanced as the one by Zendesk. Just as Zendesk, Intercom also offers its own Operator bot which will automatically suggest relevant articles to customers who ask for help. Pricing for both services varies based on the specific needs and scale of your business. When comparing the omnichannel support functionalities of Zendesk and Intercom, both platforms show distinct strengths and weaknesses.

Intercom also charges additional charges for specific features, such as charging $0.99 for every resolution. This eventually adds to overall business costs, so they carefully need to consider all plans and budgets before making a decision. The Expert plan, which offers collaboration, real-time dashboard, security, and reporting tools for large teams, costs $139. The Essential customer support plan for individuals, startups, and businsses costs $39. Yes, you can use Intercom on the front end for customer communication and Zendesk on the back end for managing support tickets and workflows.

You can either track your performance on a pre-built dashboard or customize and build one for yourself. This customized dashboard will help you see metrics that you’d like to focus on regularly. If that’s not detailed enough, then surely their visitor browsing details will leave you surprised.

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. Broken down into custom, resolution, and task bots, these can go a long way in taking repetitive tasks off agents’ plates. Zendesk’s help center tools should also come in handy for helping customers help themselves—something Zendesk claims eight out of 10 customers would rather do than contact support. To that end, you can import themes or apply your own custom themes to brand your help center the way you want it.

However, if your organization heavily relies on Intercom’s real-time communication features, in-app messaging, and chat-based support, transitioning entirely to Zendesk may not cover all your needs. Intercom’s focus on instant interactions and personalized engagement is particularly valuable for businesses prioritizing chat-first customer support and real-time communication. It’s well-suited for organizations aiming to enhance customer engagement through real-time communication. Intercom’s CRM can work as a standalone CRM and requires no additional service to operate robustly.

The Zendesk chat tool has the most necessary features like shortcuts to saved responses, chatbots, and live chat analytics. Yes, you can replace Zendesk with Intercom as both customer support platforms have a rich set of features and integrations. The Intercom vs. Zendesk pricing may be justified by the value-added services and minor features that 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. One study found that 67% of customers prefer calling an agent to help solve their queries.

They have great UX and a normal pricing range, making it difficult for businesses to choose one, as both software almost looks similar in their offerings. This feature ensures that each customer request zendesk vs. intercom is handled by the best-suited agent, improving the overall efficiency of the support team. In summary, choosing Zendesk and Intercom hinges on your business’s unique requirements and priorities.

It is tailored for automation and quick access to insights, offering a user-friendly experience. Nevertheless, the platform’s support consistency can be a concern, and the unpredictable pricing structure might lead to increased costs for larger organizations. When evaluating customer service software such as Zendesk and Intercom, it’s essential to consider various factors that align with your specific business requirements. Understanding the unique needs of your organization is crucial in making an informed decision about the most suitable customer support solution. Zendesk, a customer service-focused tool, is renowned for its robust ticketing system and help desk capabilities.

Intercom, on the other hand, is ideal for those focusing on CRM capabilities and personalized customer interactions. To sum up this Intercom vs Zendesk battle, the latter is a great support-oriented tool that will be a good choice for big teams with various departments. Intercom feels more wholesome and is more client-success-oriented, but it can be too costly for smaller companies. If you create a new chat with the team, land on a page with no widget, and go back to the browser for some reason, your chat will go puff. You can create articles, share them internally, group them for users, and assign them as responses for bots—all pretty standard fare.

Proactive support means fewer questions for your team and much happier customers. 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. If you thought Zendesk prices were confusing, let me introduce you to the Intercom charges.

• You can contact the sales team if you’re just looking around, but you will not receive decent customer support unless you buy their service.
• Its intuitive messenger can help your business boost engagement and improve sales and marketing efforts.
• Now, let’s delve into the Zendesk vs. Intercom comparison to help you make an informed decision when selecting the right customer support and engagement platform that aligns with your specific needs.
• Let’s compare Zendesk vs. Intercom using the help desk features they have.
• I tested both options (using Zendesk’s Suite Professional trial and Intercom’s Support trial) and found clearly defined differences between the two.

Zendesk will meet all your needs, whether you are a budding startup or an enterprise player. It simplifies the ticketing flow through features like automation, a shared inbox, private notes, a consolidated dashboard, analytics, etc. They have similar features, but Intercom has lots of features and tools that better integrate each other.

What’s worse, Intercom doesn’t offer a free trial to its prospect to help them test the product before onboarding with their services. Instead, they offer a product demo when prospects reach out to learn more about their pricing structure. It enables them to engage with visitors who are genuinely interested in their services. You get to engage with them further and get to know more about their expectations. This becomes the perfect opportunity to personalize the experience, offer assistance to prospects as per their needs, and convert them into customers. If compared to Intercom’s chatbot, Zendesk offers a relatively latest platform that makes support automation possible.

They need to comprehensively analyze if they are getting the value of the invested money. We give the edge to Zendesk here, as it’s typically aimed for more complex environments. It’s also more exclusively focused on providing help support, whereas Intercom sometimes moonlights as being part-time sales. The result is that Zendesk generally wins on ratings when it comes to support capacity.

If you’re exploring popular chat support tools Zendesk and Intercom, you may be trying to understand which solution is right for you. On the other hand, if you prioritize customer engagement, sales, and personalized messaging, Intercom is a compelling option, especially for startups and rapidly scaling businesses. Both Zendesk and Intercom have AI capabilities that deserve special mention. Zendesk’s AI (Fin) helps with automated responses, ensuring your customers get quick answers. On the other hand, Intercom’s AI-powered chatbots and messaging are designed to enhance your marketing and sales efforts, giving you an edge in the competitive market. Staying updated with the future prospects and developments of Zendesk and Intercom is crucial for anticipating upcoming features and advancements.