Zendesk alternatives
At 1 agent, Zendesk costs $25 a month. 1 help desk costs less, from $23 (Freshdesk). The closest match, Salesforce, covers 99% of what Zendesk does. Each one shows how much of it it covers, capability by capability, next to the price.
What Zendesk does
Core: Human handoff & escalation, WhatsApp & social messaging, AI copilot for support agents, Shared numbers and team inbox, Email ticketing & shared inbox, Workflows & routing, SLAs, reporting & CSAT.
Important: AI answers for customers, Website chat widget, Grounded answers & guardrails, Runs in your help desk (partly), Email ticket automation, AI phone agent, Actions & customer data, Visual flow builder, Conversation analytics, Testing & answer correction, Multilingual answers, Security & compliance, Built-in business calling, IVR and call routing, Call center supervision (partly), CRM integrations and API (partly), Call recording, AI call & meeting notes, HIPAA and security compliance (partly), Public help center & docs, Customer profiles & context, Integrations & API, Multiple brands & stores, Security & compliance (partly).
Also has: Lead capture & qualification (partly), In-app support SDK, API & webhooks (partly), Business phone numbers (partly), International numbers and calling (partly), Two-way business texting (partly), Sales power dialer (partly), Built-in team chat (partly), In-app announcements (partly), Agent mobile apps, E-commerce order actions (partly), Slack & Teams customer channels (partly), Team email client (partly).
Alternatives to Zendesk at 1 agent, best match first
- Freshdesk: $23/mo Growth plan; AI sessions and add-ons extra (Growth plan, 1 agent, billed monthly). It covers 98% of Zendesk; missing or partial: AI phone agent (partly), Agent mobile apps (partly). Free plan: none. Last price hike: Jul 2026.
- Intercom: $29/mo Annual billing: $19/seat/mo (Essential, 1 full seat, monthly billing). It covers 93% of Zendesk; missing or partial: SLAs, reporting & CSAT (partly), Built-in business calling (partly), Multiple brands & stores (partly), Team email client. Free plan: none. Last price hike: Oct 2026.
Other kinds of products that cover part of Zendesk
- Salesforce (CRM): covers 99% of Zendesk; missing or partial: Agent mobile apps (partly)
- HubSpot (CRM): covers 92% of Zendesk; missing or partial: SLAs, reporting & CSAT (partly), Multiple brands & stores (partly), Agent mobile apps (partly)
- Chatbase (AI support agents): covers 57% of Zendesk; missing or partial: AI copilot for support agents, Email ticketing & shared inbox (partly), Workflows & routing (partly), SLAs, reporting & CSAT (partly), Built-in business calling (partly)
- Fin (Intercom) (AI support agents): covers 57% of Zendesk; missing or partial: Email ticketing & shared inbox, Workflows & routing (partly), SLAs, reporting & CSAT (partly), Built-in business calling (partly), Public help center & docs (partly)
- Aircall (Business phone): covers 47% of Zendesk; missing or partial: WhatsApp & social messaging (partly), AI copilot for support agents (partly), Email ticketing & shared inbox, Workflows & routing (partly), SLAs, reporting & CSAT (partly)
- Sprout Social (Social media tools): covers 34% of Zendesk; missing or partial: WhatsApp & social messaging (partly), AI copilot for support agents (partly), Email ticketing & shared inbox, Workflows & routing (partly), SLAs, reporting & CSAT (partly)
Prices at every size
- Zendesk: 1 agent $25/mo, a 3-agent team $75/mo, a 10-agent team $250/mo (Per agent; AI usage and add-ons excluded)
- Freshdesk: 1 agent $23/mo, a 3-agent team $69/mo, a 10-agent team $230/mo (Growth plan; AI sessions and add-ons extra)
- Intercom: 1 agent $29/mo, a 3-agent team $87/mo, a 10-agent team $290/mo (Annual billing: $19/seat/mo)
Cheapest paid hosted plan, billed monthly, that gives every agent a full seat and covers the month's conversations (1 agent / 100, 3 agents / 600, 10 agents / 2,000), plus overage when that is cheaper. Free plans, AI-agent usage fees, phone minutes and messaging carrier fees are not counted.
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Everything about Zendesk's own prices and price hikes: Zendesk.