Zendesk vs Intercom: Which Is Right For Your Business in 2023?

It’s an opportunity for Zendesk to differentiate itself, but unfortunately it didn’t get very high marks from users, either. Reviewers were frustrated by how long it took for their tickets to get resolved, as well as the complexity with which they were tossed around from department to department. Given that these are two services predicated on making you better at customer support, you’d think they’d be able to handle it better themselves. However, reading the reviews, it’s probably more accurate to say that Zendesk is “mixed” on customer support, whereas Intercom doesn’t have a stellar record. Zendesk offers a free 30-day trial, after which customers will need to upgrade to one of their paid plans. Zendesk and Intercom are robust tools with a wide range of customer service and CRM features.

When it comes to self-service portals for things like knowledgebases, Intercom has a useful set of resources. Intercom also has a community forum where users can help one another with questions and solutions. For Intercom’s pricing plan, on the other hand, there is much less information on their website. There is a Starter plan for small businesses at $74 per month billed annually, and there are add-ons like a WhatsApp add-on at $9 per user per month or surveys at $49 per month.

So far, the chatbot can transfer chats to agents or resolve less complex queries in seconds. That means all you have to do is add the code to your website and enable it right away. Intercom offers a simplistic dashboard with a detailed view of all customer details in one place.

Email marketing, for example, is a big deal, but less so when it comes to customer service. Still, for either of these platforms to have some email marketing or other email functionality is common sense. Intercom has a very robust advanced chatbot set of tools for your business needs. There is a conversation routing bot, an operator bot, a lead qualification bot, and an article-suggesting bot, among others. It is also not too difficult to program your own bot rules using Intercon’s system.

Once you add them all to the picture, their existing plans can turn out to be quite expensive. Welcome to another blog post that helps you gauge which live chat solution is compatible with your customer support needs. And in this post, we will analyze two popular names in the SaaS industry – Intercom & Zendesk. 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. Zendesk is suitable for startups, mainly due to its transparent pricing.

Comparison: Zendesk vs Intercom – Features and Functionalities Explained

Key factors to consider include the scale of your customer service operations, the level of customization required, and the complexity of your support processes. Additionally, assessing the volume and nature of customer inquiries can help determine which platform offers features best suited to address those needs effectively. In this article, we comprehensively do a comparison of Zendesk vs Intercom, examining their key features, benefits, and industry use cases. By exploring their distinct offerings, we aim to assist businesses in making informed decisions when selecting a customer service platform. It is great to have CRM functionality inside your customer service platform because it helps maintain great customer experiences by storing all past customer engagements and conversation histories. This method helps offer more personalized support as well as get faster response and resolution times.

Learn how top CX leaders are scaling personalized customer service at their companies. For small companies and startups, Zendesk offers a six-month free trial of up to 50 agents redeemable for any combination of Zendesk Support and Sell products. Zendesk has over 1,300 integrations, compared to Intercom’s 300+ apps, making it the leader in this category.

Zendesk’s extensive feature set and customizable workflows are particularly appealing to organizations looking to streamline and scale their customer support operations efficiently. It offers a chat-first approach, making it ideal for companies looking to prioritize interactive and personalized customer interactions. However, it’s essential to consider the strengths of Zendesk, which offers a comprehensive and versatile customer support platform.

Overall, Zendesk wins out on plan flexibility, especially given that it has a lower price plan for dipping your toes in the water. This is not a huge difference; however, it does indicate that customers are generally more satisfied with Intercom’s offerings than Zendesk’s. In terms of G2 ratings, Zendesk and Intercom are both well-rated platforms.

If you have been wondering which to choose, Intercom or Zendesk, the good news is you aren’t alone. That’s true, businesses vary by industry, size, purposes, the software they need, a budget for that software, and the list can go on. After an in-depth analysis such as this, it can be pretty challenging for your business to settle with either option. That’s why it would be better to review where both the options would be ideal to use.

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

The company’s products are built with an emphasis on simplicity and usability. This has helped to make Zendesk one of the most popular customer service software platforms on the market. For small companies and startups, Intercom offers a Starter plan — with a balanced suite of features from each of the solutions below — at $74 per month per user, billed annually. You can create an omnichannel CRM suite with a mix of productivity, collaboration, eCommerce, CRM, analytics, email marketing, social media, and other tools.

In the category of customer support, Zendesk appears to be just slightly better than Intercom based on the availability of regular service and response times. However, it is possible Intercom’s support is superior at the premium level. There are 3 Basic support plans at $19, $49 and $99 per user per month billed annually, and 5 Suite plans at $49, $79, $99, $150, and $215 per user per month billed annually. After an in-depth exploration of Zendesk and Intercom, Dominic wraps up the video with his conclusions.

Intercom’s pricing typically includes different plans designed to accommodate businesses of various sizes and needs. While Intercom offers a free trial, it’s important to note that the cost can increase as you scale and add more features or users. Founded in 2007, Zendesk started off as a ticketing tool for customer support teams. It was later when they started adding all kinds of other tools like when they bought out Zopim live chat and just integrated it with their toolset.

Known for its scalability, Zendesk is suitable for various business sizes, from startups to large corporations. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. In navigating the dynamic landscape of customer service software, understanding the strengths and capabilities of Zendesk and Intercom is crucial for making an informed decision. Both platforms offer powerful features tailored to meet the evolving demands of 2024 customer service trends. However, the choice between Zendesk and Intercom ultimately depends on the specific requirements of individual businesses. One of the key strengths of Intercom lies in its powerful messaging and engagement tools, which are instrumental in facilitating effective customer interactions. These tools enable businesses to initiate personalized conversations with their customers, thereby fostering meaningful engagement and relationship-building.

Essentially, Desku is not an option but a reliable replacement for Zendesk and Intercom that companies can rely on at lower costs and improved performance. Customers will stay with you long if they are not getting any support from your company, especially when you are new to them. Zendesk is yet another powerful way to help businesses interact with their customers.

Customers

While both Intercom and Zendesk excel in customer support and engagement, the decision between the two depends on your specific requirements. It’s well-suited for organizations aiming to enhance customer engagement through real-time communication. Intercom, a leading player in the customer support software landscape, offers a diverse range of solutions tailored to modern customer service needs. Its comprehensive suite of customer support tools is designed to address the dynamic and evolving requirements of businesses across various industries. With a focus on versatility and adaptability, Intercom’s offerings aim to provide an integrated approach to managing customer interactions and support processes. It’s known for its unified agent workspace which combines different communication methods like email, social media messaging, live chat, and SMS, all in one place.

Intercom is praised as an affordable option with high customization capabilities, allowing businesses to create a personalized support experience. Although the interface may require a learning curve, zendesk vs. intercom users find the platform effective and functional. However, Intercom has fewer integration options than Zendesk, which may limit its capabilities for businesses seeking extensive integrations.

If your business has an app, in-app messaging can be used to send messages to customers. You can use this with the push notification of the app to keep your customers in the loop of possible promos, rewards, and more. The only relief is that they do reach out to customers, but it gets too late. In terms of customer service, Zendesk fails to deliver an exceptional experience. This can be a bummer for many as they can always stumble upon an issue. One of the most significant downsides of Intercom is its customer support.

However, if you look at Zendesk’s high pricing and complicated features, the tool doesn’t work well for small businesses that have limited needs. It can be the right option for big enterprises that have global customers and big support teams. Ultimately, the choice between Intercom and Zendesk depends on your specific needs and priorities. If you prioritize real-time messaging and customer engagement, Intercom may be the better option for you.

Create a chatbot with minimal coding and customize it to your heart’s content. Zendesk would be a perfect option for businesses that are searching for a well-integrated support system. It offers a suite that compiles help desk, live chat, and knowledge base to their user base. This enables them to speed up the support process and build experiences that customers like.

The optimized agent interface ensures rapid responses for maximum efficiency, all while keeping your website running smoothly. We are easy-going yet knowledgeable team of experts who will make sure that what’s important gets done skillfully. I found that if I wanted to work most productively I’d need to have all four main Zendesk products opened in different browser tabs as there is no option of having all of them within a single dashboard. What can be really inconvenient about Zendesk, though is how their tools integrate with each other when you need to use them simultaneously. 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). So when I realized lots of companies actually prefer Zendesk over Intercom, I was surprised.

Streamline support processes with Intercom’s ticketing system and knowledge base. Efficiently manage customer inquiries and empower customers to find answers independently. Intercom has more customization features for features like bots, themes, triggers, and funnels. Triggers should prove especially useful for agents, allowing them to do things like automate notifications for actions like ticket assignments, ticket closing/reopening, or new ticket creation. If delivering an outstanding customer experience and employee experience is your top priority, Zendesk should be your top pick over Intercom.

Here’s what you need to know about Zendesk vs. Intercom as customer support and relationship management tools. Use ticketing systems to manage the influx and provide your customers with timely responses. We also adhere to numerous industry standards and regulations, such as HIPAA, SOC2, ISO 27001, HDS, FedRAMP LI-SaaS, ISO 27018, and ISO 27701.

While the pricing can be flexible, it may become more costly as your organization’s requirements and usage increase. On the other hand, Intercom, starting at a lower price point, could be more attractive for very small teams or individual users. However, additional costs for advanced features can quickly increase the total expense. The cheapest plan for small businesses – Essential – costs $39 monthly per seat.

While Zendesk is a widely used and versatile customer support and engagement platform, it’s important to consider whether there might be a better software solution tailored to your specific needs. When comparing the pricing of Zendesk and Intercom, there are significant differences to take into account. Zendesk’s pricing offers a range of plans, including a tiered model with different levels of features and capabilities.

This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. The learning and knowledgebase category is another one where it is a close call between Zendesk and Intercom.

Zendesk and Intercom offer a free trial of 14 days, but you will eventually have to choose once the trial ends. The pricing strategies are covered below so you can analyze the pricing structure and select your customer service software. Its ability to scale with the businesses makes it an attractive option for growing companies.

I tested both of their live chats and their support agents were answering in very quickly and right to the point. Zendesk team can be just a little bit faster depending on the time of the day. 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. Why don’t you try something equally powerful yet more affordable, like HelpCrunch?

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. Unlike https://chat.openai.com/ Intercom, Zendesk is scalable, intuitively designed for CX, and offers a low total cost of ownership. Selecting the right customer support solution involves a comprehensive assessment of how each platform aligns with your business requirements. It’s crucial to weigh the long-term scalability and potential for enhancing customer service operations offered by Zendesk and Intercom.

It delivers a multi-channel support system with customer service automation. You can set business rules, SLA, and ticket routing based on the agent’s skills, language, and expertise. Each message will have identifiers so that they will be easy to recognize at a glance. As a result, you’ll be able to see the sender, anyone who replied, and the dates of their interaction. As well as Intercom, it allows sharing of private notes with other support agents. Intercom offers advanced customer service through its automated functions and is suitable for businesses looking for a sophisticated customer support solution.

When comparing Zendesk and Intercom, evaluating their core features and functionalities is essential to determine which platform best suits your organization’s customer support needs. Let’s explore how Zendesk and Intercom stack up in terms of basic functionalities required by a helpdesk software. Zendesk and Intercom offer various pricing plans, but Intercom is generally more expensive. Zendesk’s pricing plans start at $19 per month, while Intercom’s pricing plans start at $74 per month. If you are a small business with basic CRM needs, then the Zendesk Support Team or Intercom Starter may be a good option for you. If you are a growing business with more complex CRM needs, then the Zendesk Enterprise or Intercom Pro plan may be a better option for you.

• Ticket routing helps to send the ticket to the best support team agent.
• Some software only works best for startups, while others have offerings only for large enterprises.
• It is great to have CRM functionality inside your customer service platform because it helps maintain great customer experiences by storing all past customer engagements and conversation histories.
• This has helped to make Zendesk one of the most popular customer service software platforms on the market.
• In the world of customer support and communication platforms, two heavyweights stand out – Zendesk and Intercom.

The top products based on usability and customer satisfaction, as rated by user reviews. Zendesk has been ruling the market for ages due to its multi-communication and ticketing system. Whether it’s about communicating via phone, email, or social media, Zendesk will always stay upfront. Both the platforms have the knowledge base feature, and in my opinion, both of them are becoming winners. Though expensive and quality are synonymous in some worlds, such a principle cannot define Desku where it stands out as one of such affordable companies.

You can even improve efficiency and transparency by setting up task sequences, defining sales triggers, and strategizing with advanced forecasting and reporting tools. This could impact user experience and efficiency for new users grappling with its complexity​​​​​​. Zendesk is built to grow alongside your business, resulting in less downtime, better cost savings, and the stability needed to provide exceptional customer support. Many customers start using Zendesk as small or mid-sized businesses (SMBs) and continue to use our software as they scale their operations, hire more staff, and serve more customers. Our robust, no-code integrations enable you to adapt our software to new and growing use cases. Compared to Zendesk, Intercom offers few integrations, which may hinder its scalability.

If not, then you should because it will ease much of your workload as you would not have to waste your precious time in finding the helpdesk operator, plus zero management issues. One more thing to add, there are ways to integrate Intercom to Zendesk. Visit either of their app marketplaces and look up the Intercom Zendesk integration.

Zendesk is ideal for businesses seeking to enhance their customer service processes and maintain a high level of customer satisfaction across all communication channels. Another critical difference between Zendesk and Intercom is their approach to CRM. It’s an invaluable tool for businesses aiming to enhance customer satisfaction, increase conversions, and build lasting relationships. Intercom and Zendesk are both powerful support solutions with unique features. Intercom excels in real-time messaging and customer engagement, while Zendesk focuses on ticketing and strong customer support.

Zendesk’s email marketing functionalities include advanced segmentation options, powerful automation tools, and detailed email tracking capabilities. These features empower businesses to create highly targeted and personalized email campaigns, ensuring efficient communication and nurturing of customer relationships. If your organization aims to enhance customer engagement through live chat, in-app messaging, and proactive outreach, Intercom might serve as a viable alternative to Zendesk. Intercom’s pricing structure offers different plans to cater to various customer support and engagement needs, accommodating users with different budgets.

In contrast, Zendesk primarily relies on a knowledge base, housing articles, FAQs, and self-help resources. While this resource center can reduce the dependency on agent assistance, it lacks the interactive element found in Intercom’s onboarding process. When it comes to ease-of-use, Zendesk undeniably takes the lead over Intercom. Zendesk’s intuitive design caters to beginners and non-technical users, offering a seamless experience right from the start. For instance, when you need to access specific features or information, Zendesk’s organized interface ensures that everything is easily locatable, reducing search time and user frustration. Now, let’s delve into the Chat GPT comparison to help you make an informed decision when selecting the right customer support and engagement platform that aligns with your specific needs.

Which one offers superior communication tools for reaching out to customers? Dominic breaks down the outbound features, helping viewers understand how each platform supports ongoing conversations with customers. Just like Zendesk, Intercom also offers its Operator bot, which will automatically suggest relevant articles to clients right in a chat widget. You can publish your self-service resources, divide them by categories, and integrate them with your messenger to accelerate the whole chat experience.

On the other hand, Intercom positions itself as a versatile solution, integrating customer communication with marketing and sales. Dominic’s insights provide viewers with a clear understanding of the primary focus of each platform. As a conversational relationship platform, Zendesk gives you the option of live chatting with customers via your website, mobile, and messaging. Though, if you compare Zendesk chat vs Intercom, the plugin is a bit hard to use as reviewed by customers. Installing it might take some technical skill and even when installed, could malfunction a bit.

• On the other hand, Intercom positions itself as a versatile solution, integrating customer communication with marketing and sales.
• It is quite the all-rounder as it even has a help center and ticketing system that completes its omnichannel support cycle.
• In fact, the Zendesk Marketplace has 1,300+ apps and integrations, from billing software to marketing automation tools.
• Pricing starts at $39 and varies based on the number of records you want to migrate.
• In this article, we will directly compare two customer service providers—Zendesk vs Intercom, to help you evaluate what would work best for your business.

Sure, Intercom allows you to create articles and deliver a bot that answers customer questions with specific articles and resolves issues faster. As a rule, Intercom reviews are positive as many users praise the interface, the ease of use, and the deployment of the software. However, some users remarked that a developer is needed to properly install the software or run the risks of problems in the future. The Intercom Messenger, in particular, performs well compared to the Zendesk alternative. It’s Intercom VS Zendesk, the battle of two well-known software in the help desk category.

He summarizes the key points, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each platform, and provides recommendations based on different business needs. Viewers are equipped with the knowledge to make an informed choice that aligns with their specific requirements. In terms of pricing, Intercom is considered one of the most expensive tools on the market. Keeping this general theme in mind, I’ll dive deeper into how each software’s features compare, so you can decide which use case might best fit your needs.

Many use cases call for different approaches, and Zendesk and Intercom are but two software solutions for each case. The Zendesk marketplace is also where you can get a lot of great add-ons. There are also several different Shopify integrations to choose from, as well as CRM integrations like HubSpot and Salesforce.

While Zendesk features are plenty, someone using it for the first time can find it overwhelming. With only the Enterprise tier offering round-the-clock email, phone, and chat help, Zendesk support is sharply separated by tiers. When it comes to customer communication, Intercom has a perfect layout and customer information storage system. Based on such information, you can easily communicate with your customers and resolve their queries instantly.