Freshdesk vs Zendesk comparison

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Freshdesk

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

Freshdesk and Zendesk are key players in the customer support software category. Freshdesk seems to have the upper hand in affordability and ease of use, while Zendesk excels in integrations and advanced reporting features.

Features: Freshdesk offers robust ticket automation, a powerful API, and customizable reporting tools. Its simplicity and flexible solutions center adapt well to varied business needs. Zendesk, noted for elegant ticket management, provides seamless integration with applications like JIRA and Salesforce, featuring configurable options and strategic reporting capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Freshdesk could refine its customization options, improve social media integration, and streamline complex ticket management. Users note localization issues and support transparency as areas for attention. Zendesk requires enhancement in customization speed, ticket merging, and offering more robust analytics. Users express concerns over its pricing model and suggest making features like support more comprehensive.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Freshdesk offers deployment via public and on-premises cloud, with generally satisfactory customer support but can improve on technical issue resolution. Zendesk provides deployment across private, public, and hybrid clouds, with reliable customer service yet requires improvement in responsiveness.

Pricing and ROI: Freshdesk is lauded for its affordability and value despite some scalability cost concerns, significantly improving efficiency and customer management. Zendesk, though potentially more costly, justifies its price with high-level features and integration capabilities, providing a positive ROI, but users seek more cost-effective pricing options.

To learn more, read our detailed Freshdesk vs. Zendesk Report (Updated: February 2025).

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Freshdesk vs. Zendesk

February 2025

Helped 837,501 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Freshdesk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

8th

Ranking in Knowledge Management Software

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Customer Experience Management (6th), Field Service Management (3rd)

Zendesk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

10th

Ranking in Knowledge Management Software

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (5th), CRM (20th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (8th), Sales Force Automation (7th), Reporting (13th), Community Platforms (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Freshdesk is 3.6%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 4.1%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software

Featured Reviews

Alexey Timchenko

Senior Vice President Information Technology at TASC Towers

Incredibly user-friendly, flexible, and affordable

Automation and ticket routing rules in Freshdesk save us daily by streamlining routine tasks. We use reports to identify issues, allocate resources, and continuously improve our processes. It is a vital part of our daily operations, helping us stay proactive and efficient in handling various types of tickets. The reporting and analytics tools in Freshdesk are effective for measuring customer service performance. While our current subscription level has some limitations in terms of reporting, the next level provides more options. Budget constraints currently prevent us from upgrading, but the available reporting features still meet our basic needs. I highly recommend Freshdesk, especially for companies in their early stages. It is user-friendly, easy to configure, and great for those with a moderate volume of customer requests. The cost is reasonable, making it a quick and efficient solution to implement. Overall, I would rate Freshdesk as an eight out of ten.

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Ahmed Nassar

Technical Consultant at Spectrum Group

Stable tool, making it reliable for handling tasks but difficult initial setup

It has a huge problem regarding the price. The price increases every year. Every year, they raise the price of the licenses, which makes a lot of limitations, and you have to pay more. So that's some conditions. Actually, most of the companies that use Zendesk need a customer experience or customer care department. However, Zendesk only works with chatbox or emailing services, but it can also use Genesys, VoIP, or voice sensors. Additionally, Zendesk needs the administration panels to be easier because it's a very complex panel. You need to search for a lot of things to do, like a small job. So you have to do a lot of setup regarding the integration, and it's a little bit challenging to integrate any software in the vendor.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It's free of charge for us. For our scale of business, it's very important. We don't have a lot of tickets."

"I used Freshdesk for communication with the clients, such as real-time chats."

"The feature that I have found most valuable is the way that it connects to various folders especially because we use it as a CRM tool. We can connect it with our phones and our chat, and also with the API and have it as an email service. Freshdesk just makes our life easier."

"Omnichannel is one of the most valuable features of the solution."

"It's easy to use and integrates with other tools. We can embed Jira into it, link Jira tickets with Freshdesk tickets, and use it for our knowledge base."

"The organization that is possible with other departments is the solution's most valuable aspect."

"The ticketing system is smooth, but since we use a free version, we do not have many facilities available."

"Freshdesk significantly improved our customer issue resolution process. We can now easily record and track all customer requests, ensuring that no tickets are lost."

More Freshdesk pros

"The feature to move over my customer experience team tickets for different specialists is very valuable for my team."

"I love how the tickets would auto-populate very quickly in Zendesk, especially when a call comes in."

"It's a very stable tool, very powerful."

"I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding and searching for specific tickets. The search and navigation tools are easy to use, and I haven't encountered any issues with delays or communication gaps in ticket resolutions."

"It is a scalable solution."

"The initial setup is simple and straightforward."

"Its agility and simplicity are the most valuable features. This tool is very user-friendly."

"One of the most valuable features is the ease of use. If you take the standalone product, it is so easy to use, but if you want a tailor-made Zendesk Guide, you can't do it yourself. However, you can use a template that already exists—they have a lot, and they're very cheap, around 300-400 euros—and use it on all your brands. It's a very easy product to use."

More Zendesk pros

Cons

"Asset management and branding are two areas in the solution that have scope for improvement."

"The reporting, analysis modules and insights capabilities for this solution could be improved."

"I would like to see improvements in the account management aspect, having a customer portal for better visibility into my subscription, invoices, and trouble tickets."

"Freshdesk's major drawback is its limitation in integrating tools for App Store and Play Store reviews, and social channels like Twitter, which come with additional costs."

"I would like to see a little bit more color in the solution."

"There aren't any features that we want to enhance, but we need to mature in our usage of some of them. I can't say any feature is missing or needs improvement, but a tool's built-in features need to evolve customer feedback. We have a dialogue set up for that kind of feedback."

"Technical support is not the best. It could be much, much better and offer better support to users."

"While it's good for a small number of tickets, definitely in the future, we will require something more powerful."

More Freshdesk cons

"One of the drawbacks of Zendesk is that it doesn't provide a secure way for us to send data. So, we usually use a secure SharePoint folder link. We put that in the Zendesk ticket so that the requester has a secure way of getting to their data."

"Zendesk Guide's customization could be improved. I would like it to be easier and maybe open-sourced, so that if you have a developer in your company, you can do it yourself. Right now, that isn't allowed, so you need to have it done via the integrator. Another improvement—this is nit-picking—is that it could be less easy to make changes. Some things are so easy that they sometimes look a little amateur-ish. Most of the templates are built-in so they can be used directly, so they are very simple."

"As per me, there arent much significant issues or areas for improvement with Zendesk, as my usage of it is limited. I appreciate its ability to organize tickets effectively based on tags, allowing me to easily gather and analyze customer feedback and requests."

"Zendesk's stability on inbound calls could be improved as compared to Talkdesk."

"It needs to improve in terms of its flexibility, price, and installation."

"There is always a network issue with Zendesk. But we don’t know whether it is managed. The network issue is that when I call, it does not let us."

"The dashboard could be better."

"It wasn't easy to set up so we're only using a third of all of the features,"

More Zendesk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The best system plan is enterprise. It costs basically 79 Euros per agent per month when it's billed annually and 95 Euros per agent per month when it's billed monthly."

"Freshdesk was the best solution with the best price. It was cost efficient and included all the features that we needed."

"We pay approximately $70 per agent to use Freshdesk. We have 10 agents, which is approximately $700 or $800 per month. It is a fixed license, there are not any additional fees."

"We use a combination of Freshdesk, Freshservice, and Freshchat. We use the whole suite. Weirdly enough, we pay more for Freshdesk than we do for Freshservice. I would rate it a three out of five in terms of pricing. You can get different bundles, and you can always move to different plans that are standard. Freshservice can go anywhere from $19 up to $120 per agent, per month. There is such a wide range, and it is very customizable to your needs."

"We use a licensing model only so we pay for the number of agents we have configured in the system only."

"It is costly."

"It was definitely not expensive. It was two grand or maybe three grand total for a year. It has just straight and simple standard licensing fees. There is no additional fee."

"The price could be better, but it's okay. Compared to ServiceNow and JIRA, Freshworks offers a competitive price. There are also additional licensing costs because you need Microsoft Outlook. Each new email account costs around $15 to $19."

More Freshdesk pricing and cost advice

"From what I hear, Zendesk's pricing is a little expensive."

"Zendesk's licensing is not cheap. For Enterprise, we are paying $200 per agent. It's a per-month cost, so it's pretty steep. There are some services you need to pay extra for. For example, with Zendesk Guide, we had to buy the most expensive offering in order to get Multibrand and everything. We also had to pay a lot of money for themes."

"We pay for the solution on a yearly basis and my understanding is that the cost is about $30,000. That's the cost for 24 to 25 agents."

"There are different plans that are offered. We are using the entry-level plan. The overall price of the solution should be reduced. The price is too high."

"You have to pay extra for better support. So it's not only the license that you pay for, but you have to pay extra for the support as well."

"The price is very competitive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

23%

Financial Services Firm

Real Estate/Law Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

22%

Educational Organization

13%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Freshdesk?

Freshdesk significantly improved our customer issue resolution process. We can now easily record and track all customer requests, ensuring that no tickets are lost.

What needs improvement with Freshdesk?

Freshdesk's major drawback is its limitation in integrating tools for App Store and Play Store reviews, and social channels like Twitter, which come with additional costs. Despite having third-part...

What is your primary use case for Freshdesk?

The customer's primary use case for Freshdesk is handling emails and social media queries. It is mostly used for managing transactional queries such as deposits and withdrawals. Our support team is...

What do you like most about Zendesk Support?

I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding and searching for specific tickets. The search and navigation tools are easy to ...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zendesk Support?

I am not currently aware of the exact pricing, but since we are still using Zendesk, it appears to be at a reasonable price point.

What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?

Report generation is still slightly tricky and not very customizable as per my inquiries. It would be advantageous to have an AI layer that can analyze incoming requests and generate summaries, as ...

JIRA Service Management vs Freshdesk

Comparisons

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Compared 22% of the time

Spiceworks vs Freshdesk

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs Freshdesk

Compared 8% of the time

BoldDesk vs Freshdesk

Compared 5% of the time

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ServiceNow vs Zendesk

Compared 18% of the time

Atlassian Confluence vs Zendesk

Compared 9% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs Zendesk

Compared 8% of the time

Freshservice vs Zendesk

Compared 8% of the time

Odoo vs Zendesk

Compared 3% of the time

More Zendesk Competitors

Product Reports

Download Freshdesk product report

Freshdesk

February 2025

Download Zendesk product report

January 2025

Also Known As

No data available

Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell

Overview

Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer support solution that provides organizations with the features necessary to effectively streamline their support processes. This includes powerful multichannel capability, integrated game mechanics, smart automations, and more.

The solution is designed to automate agent workflows and resolve routine questions using AI and bots. Freshdesk allows managers to prioritize, categorize, and assign tickets to their agents, making it easy for them to collaborate and quickly respond to customers.

Freshdesk Features and Benefits

Some of the solution's top features and benefits include:

Simplified ticketing: With Freshdesk, you can easily prioritize, manage, and assign trackable tickets. The management system ensures that multiple agents don’t work on the same ticket by accident. You can easily set deadlines for ticket resolution based on specific categories and create custom statuses that suit your workflow to identify what stage a ticket is in.

Automation: Automatically assign tickets to agents and groups based on keywords and requests and set up automated repeated actions and provide quick, consistent responses to common questions using pre-formatted replies. In addition, you can choose to prevent the reopening of tickets when customers reply with a thank you.

Improved collaboration: Share tickets with other teams while retaining full visibility into the progress being made on the issue. Related tickets can be linked together to better keep track of the big picture. Tickets can also be split into smaller child tickets and assigned to multiple agents to help resolve complex, multi-stage issues.

Build up your knowledge base: Create effective support documentation by enabling agents to convert their ticket replies into knowledge base articles, while they reply.

Metrics and reporting: See how different agents and groups are performing by viewing various help desk metrics and improve performance by identifying problems based on insights.

With Freshdesk’s reporting tools, you can schedule the periodic delivery of out-of-the-box and custom reports to your inbox. The solution’s customer satisfaction reports provide you with feedback on how your customers rate your support.

Forum moderation: Set up moderation workflows to ensure that forum posts that violate your guidelines are not immediately published. Critical issues raised in the community are automatically converted into tickets to ensure they get the required response.
Integration: Freshdesk’s open API can be used to integrate the solution with multiple third-party systems.

Comprehensive security: Freshdesk’s security features allow you to:
- Set custom access permissions for agents.
- Perform comprehensive audits of networks and systems.
- Secure your own support domain or vanity URL with custom SSL certificates.
- Whitelist IP ranges and restrict login access outside of work, or link IP whitelisting to a VPN.
- Set up SSO scripts for credential authentication.

Reviews from Real Users

Freshdesk stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its effective ticketing system and its intuitive interface.

Deepak B., an application manager, writes, “Freshdesk has allowed us to measure and track the response and resolution time of tickets which has been reduced from seven to eight hours down to 30 minutes to one hour. This information is valuable for board meetings.”

Freshworks

Zendesk Support is intuitive, and it's built with support agents in mind. Everything they need lives in a single, dynamic help desk interface so it's easy to be productive and manage customer interactions.

Sample Customers

Honda, 3M, Hugo Boss, Petronas, Sony Pictures, The Atlantic, goodreads, Clear Channel Radio, Penn University of Pennsylvania, unicef, Kuoni, Movember

Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber