Zendesk pricing explained

What is Zendesk?

Zendesk is a cloud-based customer service platform that facilitates customer interactions across various channels, including email, phone, chat, social media, and self-service portals. While Zendesk offers a variety of tools to help businesses manage their customer support operations, its pricing structure can be confusing and expensive, potentially making it a less worthwhile investment.

Businesses using Zendesk may pay a high price for the platform's plans, which often require additional paid add-ons for essential features on top of an already costly base plan. Moreover, although Zendesk provides tools for creating a knowledge base and enhancing customer engagement, these features may only partially meet some business needs.

As of 2024, Zendesk's user interface remains outdated and clunky, relying heavily on marketplace and custom apps that can add further costs and lead to a subpar user experience. Despite Zendesk's claims of effectively supporting customer operations and offering plans suitable for various needs, the platform charges up to $89 per agent for basic features like a self-service customer portal. Therefore, it is crucial for businesses to thoroughly assess Zendesk's costs and features to determine if it aligns with their requirements.

First, we will provide an overview of Zendesk's pricing, and then we'll explain why Freshdesk is a superior option that offers better value for your investment.

How much does Zendesk cost in 2024?

Zendesk has three different offerings: Zendesk for service, Zendesk for sales, and a 3-tier basic plan for support. With multiple pricing plans and different offerings under each category, it’s very difficult to pick and choose according to your unique business requirements. If you’re looking for customer support software, here’s what Zendesk offers: Zendesk Suite - It has four plans

• Suite Team - US$ 55 per agent/month billed annually

• Suite Growth - US$ 89 per agent/month billed annually

• Suite Professional - US$ 115 per agent/month billed annually

• Suite Enterprise - pricing unavailable

Zendesk Sell - It has three plans

• Sell Team - US$ 19 per agent/month billed annually

• Sell Growth - US$ 55 per agent/month billed annually

• Sell Professional - US$ 115 per agent/month billed annually

Zendesk basic plans

• Support Team - US$ 19 per agent/month billed annually

• Support Professional - US$ 55 per agent/month billed annually

• Support Enterprise - US$ 115 per agent/month billed annually

Why is Freshdesk more cost-effective than Zendesk?

Freshdesk offers transparent pricing, and all the features are natively built into the product, unlike Zendesk, where a lot of features are available as add-ons and expensive third-party integrations. This reliance on partners and third parties can result in increased ownership costs. Here are some highlights that make Freshdesk a more cost-effective option:

*To talk to sales to understand the Enterprise plan

Freshworks Customer Service Suite vs Zendesk - pricing comparison

* All prices in USD

Customer expectations for support constantly evolve, increasing the demand for service and the necessity for digital customer support. If you are looking to enhance customer service operations and scale productivity with the help of generative AI, your customer service solution should unify data and channels while avoiding IT complexities and controlling costs. 

The Freshworks Customer Service Suite is an AI-powered, all-in-one omnichannel customer service solution that addresses these key objectives:

Customer retention: Seamless communication across channels to ensure consistent and personalized interactions, fostering enduring connections with customers and enhancing loyalty and retention.

Agent productivity: A unified workspace, streamlined workflows, and AI-driven tools to empower agents to handle inquiries across multiple channels efficiently, reducing response times and improving productivity.

Smart decision-making: Advanced analytics and real-time insights to equip leaders with actionable intelligence to make informed decisions fast, driving continuous improvement in service delivery and customer satisfaction.

Simplified operations and cost control: Consolidating support tools with a powerful, unified platform to streamline operations, remove IT complexity, and control costs.