Zendesk vs Intercom: Which Solution to Choose in 2024?

If you’re looking for automation, plans can become quite expensive depending on the level of automation you require. Intercom’s pricing is much more customized, offering two monthly plans geared to very small businesses. Larger companies will need to book a demo and receive a custom quote for services. Zendesk is your best bet if you’re looking for a virtual call intercom and zendesk center solution, and you won’t be disappointed with the fully functional support platform that it offers. But if you’re already using Intercom, then you can use a compatible integration in order to meet your needs. Intercom does not offer a virtual call center tool, so it is unable to handle calls through a cloud-based phone system or calling app on its own.

Zendesk offers a free 30-day trial, after which customers will need to upgrade to one of their paid plans. In-app messages and email marketing tools are two crucial features that Zendesk lacks when compared to Intercom. Intercom, on the other hand, lacks key ticketing features that are critical for large firms with a high volume of customer assistance. Simplicity is an important consideration when selecting the best customer service software. Having easy-to-use software is far more controllable and saves time whether you’re a tiny and growing business or a massive multinational.

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Unless you are a small business purchasing the Start or Grow plan, it is difficult to estimate how much you will pay for Intercom. However, since they don’t offer a CRM, their pricing is simpler when compared to Zendesk. In comparison, Intercom has marketed itself as a messaging platform as opposed to a full CRM solution. Currently based in Albuquerque, NM, Bryce Emley holds an MFA in Creative Writing from NC State and nearly a decade of writing and editing experience. When he isn’t writing content, poetry, or creative nonfiction, he enjoys traveling, baking, playing music, reliving his barista days in his own kitchen, camping, and being bad at carpentry.

For example, if your agents see there is a spike in call volume or messages coming in from a certain channel, they can direct their attention to where customers need support the most. Those looking for the most advanced real-time analytics for making educated decisions should look to Zendesk for their customer service needs. An important feature Zendesk offers that Intercom lacks is more advanced, real-time analytics.

Different Criteria Used to Differentiate Zendesk & Intercom

Many businesses choose to work with Intercom because of its focus on personalization and flexibility, allowing companies to completely customize their customer service experience. 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. Zendesk has traditionally been more focused on customer support management, while Intercom has been more focused on live support solutions like its chat solution.

In today’s world of fast-paced customer service and high customer expectations, it’s essential for business leaders to equip their teams with the best support tools available. Zendesk and Intercom both offer noteworthy tools, but if you’re looking for a full-service solution, there is one clear winner. FreshDesk is a SaaS customer messaging software that allows small and large businesses to provide stellar customer support services. Depending on the plan, it can even be free for a lifetime for any number of agents. LiveAgent has an inclusive selection of customer relationship management (CRM) applications.

Intercom vs Zendesk: Which One is Right for Your Business?

HubSpot CRM also made it to our list of the best CRM software for small businesses, especially for scaling startups. There are four different subscription packages you can choose from, all of which also have Essential, Pro, and Premium options for businesses of different sizes. You’d need to chat with Intercom sales team for get the costs for the Premium subscription, though. It’s modern, it’s smooth, it looks great and it has so many advanced features. 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.

Overall, I actually liked Zendesk’s user experience better than Intercom’s in terms of its messaging dashboard. Intercom has a dark mode that I think many people will appreciate, and I wouldn’t say it’s lacking in any way. But I like that Zendesk just feels slightly cleaner, has easy online/away toggling, more visual customer journey notes, and a handy widget for exploring the knowledge base on the fly. The highlight of Zendesk’s ticketing software is its omnichannel-ality (omnichannality?). 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.

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Intercom live chat is modern, smooth, and has many advanced features that other chat tools don’t. It’s highly customizable, too, so you can adjust it according to your website or product’s style. Their chat widget looks and works great, and they invest a lot of effort to make it a modern, convenient customer communication tool. Zendesk also has an Answer Bot, which instantly takes your knowledge base game to the next level.

• Its no-code email automation features also make it beginner friendly, and these features are available for free.
• Customers can search the help center by query keywords and sort through articles in 40 languages.
• As any free tool, the functionalities there are quite limited, but nevertheless.
• There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.

Zendesk’s core feature remains its ticketing system, and its functionality has remained the best in the industry since its inception. As Zendesk started off solely as a helpdesk and ticketing tool, they have perfected this part of their platform over the years. Intercom does have a ticketing dashboard that has omnichannel functionality, much like Zendesk. Christiana Jolaoso-Oloyede creates compelling content for B2B tech companies. She also empowers business leaders with unbiased data-driven information needed to run their SMBs. She has worked with web publications and tech brands such as U.S News & World Report, Elevato, LeadDyno and OMTech.

Help desk SaaS is how you manage general customer communication and for handling customer questions. In the world of customer service, setting clear expectations is key to maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty. When comparing Zendesk and Intercom, various factors come into play, each focusing on different aspects, strengths, and weaknesses of these customer support platforms.

In terms of pricing, Intercom is considered one of the most expensive tools on the market. And there’s still no way to know how much you’ll pay for them since the prices are only revealed after you go through a few sale demos with the Intercom team. To sum things up, one can get really confused trying to make sense of the Zendesk suite pricing, let alone calculate costs. Zendesk is a ticketing system before anything else, and its ticketing functionality is overwhelming in the best possible way. Our integration with Intercom enables bi-directional contact and case synchronization, so you can continue using Intercom as your front-end digital experience and use Zendesk for case management.