Atlassian Confluence vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Confluence
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Confluence is a collaboration and content sharing platform used primarily by customers who are already using Atlassian's Jira project tracking product. The product appeals particularly to IT users.
$10
per month
Zendesk Suite
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
The Zendesk Support suite is a cloud-based customer support software built for better customer relationships. Designed to improve customer satisfaction and to support customers on any channel: text SMS, web, mobile app, phone, email, social media. The vendor states more than 200,000 companies such as Uber, Groupon, Box, Airbnb, and Slack are using Zendesk to lower their support costs, raise productivity, and increase customer satisfaction. Zendesk offers a full suite of products to meet customer…
$55
per month agent
Pricing
Atlassian ConfluenceZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
Free for 10 Users
Standard
$5
Per User Per Month
Premium
$10
Per User Per Month
Server
$10
10 Users - Perpetual License
Server
$2,700
25 Users - Perpetual License
Server
$5,300
50 Users - Perpetual License
Server
10,200.00
100 Users - Perpetual License
Data Center
15,000.00
500 Users - Annually
Server
19,800.00
250 Users - Perpetual License
Server
30,000.00
500 Users - Perpetual License
Data Center
30,000.00
1,000 Users - Annually
Server
45,000.00
2,000 Users - Perpetual License
Data Center
52,000.00
2,000 Users - Annually
Data Center
79,200.00
3,000 Users - Annually
Server
90,000.00
10,000 Users - Perpetual License
Data Center
105,600.00
4,000 Users - Annually
Data Center
132,000.00
5,000 Users - Annually
Data Center
143,000.00
10,000 Users - Annually
Server
150,000.00
10,001+ Users - Perpetual License
Data Center
154,000.00
15,000 Users - Annually
Data Center
165,000.00
20,000 Users - Annually
Data Center
176,000.00
25,000 Users - Annually
Data Center
187,000.00
30,000 Users - Annually
Data Center
198,000.00
35,000 Users - Annually
Data Center
209,000.00
40,000 Users - Annually
Data Center
220,000.00
40,001+ Users - Annually
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Support Team (Foundational Support Only)
$19
per month agent
Suite Team
$55
per month agent
Support Professional
$55
per month agent
Suite Growth
$89
per month agent
Suite Professional
$115
per month agent
Support Enterprise
$115
per month agent
Suite Enterprise
$169
per month agent
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ConfluenceZendesk Suite
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Atlassian ConfluenceZendesk Suite
Considered Both Products
Confluence
Chose Atlassian Confluence
We really only use Confluence because we use JIRA and Hipchat and it seemed to work well within the suite of Atlassian products. I would personally prefer a custom made internal website for our organization plus the integration of google docs/hangouts (or the use of something …
Zendesk Suite
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk is the industry leader in terms of the number of other platforms you can connect it with (CRM's, Customer Success Tools, Billing Tools, etc)—this makes it extremely sticky and a core part of your workflow. Zendesk also offers a variety of channels all in the one …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Salesforce is far more established but the price tag was too high for our small team. I would be surprised if we didn’t migrate to Salesforce when our team reaches a certain size
Chose Zendesk Suite
I prefer Zendesk, though I find engineers are often in Jira. Zendesk is, in my opinion, far easier to navigate, but that might just be my personal preference and comfort with the application. Both maintain a history/record of who and what, but I think Zendesk is more intuitive, …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk has a more simple and modern look and feel while ServiceNow seems less intuitive and more antiquated. Zendesk has a better UI and sleeker design. Zendesk fits our company's needs, serving both the external and internal customer.
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk was a lot more user-friendly than Service Cloud or Desk.com. We ultimately chose Zendesk for that reason. We felt like all of the platforms we were considering were going to be able to help us accomplish our main goal of handling inbound support tickets, but we felt …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk is much cleaner, simpler, and the support staff is faster to respond with actual solutions than the larger solutions. It is also a lot cheaper, both in license cost and in cost to implement. There are also a number of additional support channels (which I am not …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Salesforce is a more robust tool with back-end SQL reporting functionality and numerous plugins, but with this comes cost. Most startup organizations do not want the expense, at least not at the beginning of the product life cycle.
Chose Zendesk Suite
Mojo HelpDesk, Zoho... I picked Zendesk because it felt the most intuitive, powerful and seemed more polished.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Atlassian ConfluenceZendesk Suite
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Confluence
7.2
109 Ratings
9% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Task Management7.087 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts7.912 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling7.221 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation7.058 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access6.882 Ratings00 Ratings
Search6.8107 Ratings00 Ratings
Visual planning tools7.586 Ratings00 Ratings
Communication
Comparison of Communication features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Confluence
7.9
109 Ratings
1% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Chat6.415 Ratings00 Ratings
Notifications8.2107 Ratings00 Ratings
Discussions7.9101 Ratings00 Ratings
Surveys7.015 Ratings00 Ratings
Internal knowledgebase8.5101 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with GoToMeeting6.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts9.37 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Outlook9.610 Ratings00 Ratings
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Confluence
7.9
109 Ratings
3% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Versioning8.092 Ratings00 Ratings
Video files7.869 Ratings00 Ratings
Audio files7.763 Ratings00 Ratings
Document collaboration9.0104 Ratings00 Ratings
Access control8.7102 Ratings00 Ratings
Advanced security features8.178 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrates with Google Drive7.148 Ratings00 Ratings
Device sync6.748 Ratings00 Ratings
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Confluence
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.2
113 Ratings
4% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.5112 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings7.269 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings7.475 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.171 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.2113 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings8.8112 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Confluence
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.1
100 Ratings
4% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings8.096 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.289 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Confluence
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.1
111 Ratings
5% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings7.685 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings8.136 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings7.367 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings8.7109 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.679 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Atlassian ConfluenceZendesk Suite
Small Businesses
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.8 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger
Score 9.7 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
HCL Connections
HCL Connections
Score 9.0 out of 10
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Atlassian ConfluenceZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(126 ratings)
8.3
(151 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(19 ratings)
10.0
(40 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(12 ratings)
7.7
(24 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(3 ratings)
8.6
(13 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(5 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Support Rating
5.4
(25 ratings)
9.0
(29 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.9
(9 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.8
(4 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Configurability
6.0
(1 ratings)
9.3
(3 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Atlassian ConfluenceZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Atlassian
It has a comment option on the page, where you can tag other teammates tagging them. it sends the mail notification. Comment at the page end is pretty good for referring to other stakeholders and future references of the topic on the page. Creating the highlights of the discussions, and meeting held points with highlighted tagging. Easy shortcuts such as to add a date just type "//". The interface is cool and has easy shortcuts for quick page making.
Read full review
Zendesk
Inbound messaging it is top notch, it does it well and couldn't imagine anyone's program doing it better. Like I said before been using ZenDesk for over 7 years and absolutely love it. We use the talk feature with the phone very limited so Zen works fine for us, but if I was running an inbound or outbound call center I don't believe Zen has all the functions I would want as a manager. For limited phone use and mostly email, text, and even web chat, ZenDesk works great. Having the iOS App is so great and flexibility with notifications allows my team to be "on call" anytime without unnecessary interruptions
Read full review
Pros
Atlassian
  • QUICK How-to Guides that can be generated and share instantly
  • One can subscribe to the pages and spaces and receive updates in the feed on their home page
  • Automatic Email notifications of new updates in the Confluence area
  • The platform integrates easily with other Atlassian platforms including third-party apps thus improving its reliability
Read full review
Zendesk
  • Reporting and Analytics
  • Ease of Agent Training and Use
  • Able to add multiple brands with related custom reports and dashboards
  • Adding a new brand and basic help center is easy to do without the need of an expert or web team
  • Ability of agents and supervisors to see customer history across multiple channels
Read full review
Cons
Atlassian
  • Navigation. Similar to other Atlassian products, users have complained that aspects of Confluence are difficult to learn right away[.]
  • An issue that users can face when using Confluence is attempting to edit a document while someone else is editing. Although users can access the document and save it, they are unable to see the changes happening in [real-time] that other users are implementing until they refresh their page. Some users have also noted that this can result in loss of edits.
  • Another drawback of using Confluence is its specific organizational structure. All information is stored within one page or project, although the page is able to be broken up into sections, some users do not prefer this style. Users can use the ‘page tree’ on each page to organize the different elements of each project.
Read full review
Zendesk
  • I think the Graphical User Interface could use a facelift. It not the most aesthetically pleasing platform in my experience.
  • Particular things like where the default is when you click on each and every dropdown menu.
  • The macro integration could be a little more simplified.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Atlassian
I am confident that Atlassian can come with additional and innovative macros and functions to add value to Confluence. In 6 months, Atlassian transformed a good collaborative tools into a more comprehensive system that can help manage projects and processes, as well as "talk" with other Atlassian products like Jira. We are in fact learning more about Jira to evaluate a possible fit to complement our tool box.
Read full review
Zendesk
Zendesk is super easy to use and navigate. I really enjoy the sleek layout, the ability to tailor tickets, the macro option, and the quick key guide they have to make your use of time even more effective. My whole team loves working with Zendesk and rarely ever has problems.
Read full review
Usability
Atlassian
Confluence can - and in my personal opinion, it will - be a bit hard to use in the first moment. Atlassian is a great company and is eager to help you with any question you have, though. The interface seems to be a bit clumsy at first but the customization options are enough to make it easier and simpler. In general, Confluence is easy to use when you understand what each section does, but this can take a while.
Read full review
Zendesk
As an agent it's very simple to use. As an admin it's also easy to use, but sometimes lacks some functionality that would be nice to have such as expanded native 2 way sync functionality for many major apps that are commonly used today like HubSpot and Salesforce. The ability to add followers to tickets to they get updates and are in the know without the customer seeing this agent cc'd is a nice touch. This ensures additional visibility and easily following the communication without having to appear as a CC to the customer, who could accidentally remove that person in a response, thus breaking the visibility
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Atlassian
I do not recall having outages or applications error so far, very reliable and available.
Read full review
Zendesk
In the past year, I'd say I have only noticed maybe two hours total of downtime in my own usage. Very minimal.
Read full review
Performance
Atlassian
Pages load very quickly, which makes it useful for quickly obtaining information. The search functionality is also very quick and is able to parse through all of the documents to provide the most relevant results for the query. Other information based software gets bogged down, but so far Atlassian Confluence maintains its performance.
Read full review
Zendesk
There has been minor performance degradation on a very few days out of the two years I have been using the product.
Read full review
Support Rating
Atlassian
This rating is specifically for Atlassian's self-help documentation on their website. Often times, it is not robust enough to cover a complex usage of one of their features. Frequently, you can find an answer on the web, but not from Atlassian. Instead, it is usually at a power user group elsewhere on the net.
Read full review
Zendesk
Every time I contacted them they were not only very responsive and knowledgable, but always seemed to have a positive upbeat attitude. It probably helps that we did not have significant service outages or sev 1 level issues, but even my lower severity issues were quickly answered. And the positive and upbeat attitude really made things feel comfortable.
Read full review
Online Training
Atlassian
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
Zendesk has tons of available material for training - videos, webinars, articles, etc. The only reason this is not a 10 is because it can be hard to figure out how to navigate to these things and find what you are looking for.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Atlassian
Overall, I am very satisfied with the initial implementation (and the subsequent upgrades and implementations made over the years).
This product has never rose to the level of being an major issue at an executive level. It has quietly and valiantly done it's job for our company!
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Zendesk
I was very satisfied. They have a free trial for 30 days and I recommend you do that and use it. It is very easy to get started with the basics and the build on over time.

The only thing technically complex was single sign-on and integration to Salesforce.com required some tweaks – otherwise setting up system was very easy
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Alternatives Considered
Atlassian
We used to use Google Drive to store all of our documentation, but it is disconnected from our every day working environment and it was easy to lose documents and become disorganized within the broad drive environment. [Atlassian] Confluence has kept us more organized and its tight coupling with Jira has made documents more accessible and more likely to be kept up to date.
Read full review
Zendesk
If spoken honestly Intercom is a level-par with any nearest competitor, Tools like Zendesk has to catchup with them in speed. However, there is an advantage to Zendesk with its simple and easy-to-get software which falls in every mid and small-size business pocket wherein Intercom is way too expensive and needs a tech admin to customize the product. The kick-starting feature with negligible configuration made Zendesk the ideal choice of our organization + the budget fell under our expenses.
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Scalability
Atlassian
This tool is very adaptable. So much so we use it for three completely separate projects, in three very different ways.
Read full review
Zendesk
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Atlassian
  • We've gone from folders and folders of Word documents and PDFs into a single system with a search feature to bring all of our data together and trackable
  • While onboarding took a bit longer for the company (to switch from a Word document centric mindset - to a web-based one), overall the company has embraced the features and power of Confluence within the working stack
  • However, as costs continue to climb for the Atlassian product, we are forced to continue our evaluation of the product - with replacing it a remote possibility if it begins to outprice its usefulness to us.
Read full review
Zendesk
  • The positives weigh more than the negatives here, as it gives us a one-stop portal where we can tend to customer needs using one web app
  • It has also helped us identify areas of improvement based on the reporting feature
  • The value it provides outweighs any missing or lacking features that I'm sure will be available in the future
Read full review
ScreenShots

Zendesk Suite Screenshots

Screenshot of Zendesk Agent WorkspaceScreenshot of Omnichannel MessagingScreenshot of Zendesk TicketingScreenshot of Bots powered by Zendesk AIScreenshot of Tone shift with Zendesk AIScreenshot of Zendesk ticketing side conversations