Atlassian Jira vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Atlassian Jira
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Atlassian Jira is a project management tool, featuring an interactive timeline for mapping work items, dependencies, and releases, Scrum boards for agile teams, and out-of-the-box reports and dashboards.
$9
per month per user
Zendesk Suite
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Zendesk is a customer support solution with built-in ticketing, conversational messaging, and live chat, designed to help businesses of all sizes and industries deliver personalized service at scale. Zendesk's AI agents are trained in CX to help Service teams resolve customer issues faster and more accurately while still providing a human-centered experience. Zendesk ultimately aims to help businesses improve time to value, reduce effort per ticket, and keep costs low.
$69
per month per agent
Pricing
Atlassian JiraZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
Standard
$9
per month per user
Premium
$17
per month per user
Enterprise
Contact Sales
per year
Suite Team
$69
per month per agent
Suite Growth
$115
per month per agent
Suite Professional
$149
per month per agent
Suite Enterprise
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Atlassian JiraZendesk Suite
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsHigher volume teams may qualify buyers for a discount.20% discount available with annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Atlassian JiraZendesk Suite
Considered Both Products
Atlassian Jira
Chose Atlassian Jira
Jira Software is like Backlog on steroids, but that has [drawbacks] such as slower responsiveness, a cluttered interface, and features smaller teams may not need, but still have to pay for them. [The] backlog doesn't have as much expansion or customizability nor does it allow …
Chose Atlassian Jira
Among the solutions to develop projects, Jira stands out because it is a very solid tool for project management, problems can be tracked throughout the development life cycle. It can be integrated with other common tools, which adds an additional benefit of this.
Chose Atlassian Jira
JIRA is the ultimate in project management software. Nothing else out there comes close to a complete solution that is customization the way you want, and integrates with almost every other application out there.
You can write custom reports, you can set up workflows the way you …
Chose Atlassian Jira
I've only ever used JIRA, so I can't speak to the competitors.
Chose Atlassian Jira
In the past I have used a variety of engineering ticketing systems and project management systems but this one is undoubtedly one of the most flexible and fastest to get going on.
Zendesk Suite
Chose Zendesk Suite
We use JIRA for some IT Tickets but we ended up using JIRA as our second line of defense. If support couldn't resolve a Zendesk ticket, they create a JIRA ticket and someone else is pulled in to help troubleshoot something more complex. We haven't really had an issue having to …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk Suite provides a unified agent workspace and advanced AI agents, flow builders, customer intent as well as triggers, automations and rules that drive efficacy unlike Freshdesk.
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
Overall, the ease of system admin that is done within the Support team, the reasonable license cost for multi-channel support and ability to create custom brand dashboards and needed reports, along with the helpful client support we get- made it an easy decision to purchase and …
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
Zendesk has been easy to implement and evolve over time. They have launched more online Client learning sessions and occasionally offer in-person local client group sessions to aid in our learning. They offer their training modules for free. The key is we can create the needed …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk support is your one-stop shop for managing customers via the customer support portal that has a slew of products available for use via several channels, depending on your particular need may it be email messaging, chat messaging, or voice, and it is quite superior …
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
We used Zendesk Support Suite for adding Customer Community to increase customer engagement and decrease company support costs by decreasing customer support executives. Zendesk is a great platform for community development and information circulation. It offers a lot of …
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
I have used a lot of very old ticketing systems which aren't on here. Zendesk being cloud-based gives us automatic updates and keeps us with the newest features. It is super simple to configure and has a lot of customizable features. It is also very easy to put your own …
Chose Zendesk Suite
In comparison of tracking tickets, I found Jira to be more confusing than Zendesk. I have not used Jira in many years and I know that others in our organization use Jira in addition to Zendesk. Of all the support platforms, I think Zendesk is the best and most used, which is …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk is a customer support tool that offers the best features, is intuitive, dynamic and easy to use. Allows the use of macros to optimize messages to customers. This platform makes it possible to optimize and organize the services we offer to our customers, which are …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk is far superior because it can cater to any size company. Also, regardless of which package you purchase, you get to set up a multi-channel and extensive self-service support, which was very beneficial for us. Finally, the self-service portal hosts a rich knowledge base …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk is currently on par with both of these services in that they are great ticketing software programs but are light in Contact/Sales management. The autoresponder with Zendesk is much easier to implement and customize compared to the other options. The option of the mobile …
Chose Zendesk Suite
At Onshape we have used this from the start but personally I have used a number of tools that were much more a part of the CRM packages like Sage and Zoho CRM and both are lacking in the API, User interface customization and tools that you can integrate. Other systems like …
Chose Zendesk Suite
We used Kayako and it was pretty basic in terms of workflows and ticket management. It wasn't multichannel and it didn't have a mobile app. Ticket categorization wasn't as robust and effective, but it was easy to learn. JIRA is as robust as Zendesk, but it is also not easy to …
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
Zoho does have a ticketing system, however, the user-interface is not as logically laid out as Zendesk's. Zoho is also based in India, which can make receiving customer support difficult. Zendesk also has a proprietary voice system, while Zoho relies on integration with RingCent…
Chose Zendesk Suite
In my searches I have come across a lot of alternatives and I try to keep and open mind on each of them, here are a few of the tools I heard and saw a lot of chatter about while reviewing a looking for Helpdesk tools.

SpiceWorks -
This was a freeware program that i had used in …
Features
Atlassian JiraZendesk Suite
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Jira
7.8
36 Ratings
1% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Task Management8.835 Ratings00 Ratings
Resource Management7.734 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts7.225 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling7.733 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation8.134 Ratings00 Ratings
Team Collaboration8.535 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology8.936 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology7.930 Ratings00 Ratings
Document Management6.930 Ratings00 Ratings
Email integration8.031 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access7.126 Ratings00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking7.626 Ratings00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management8.027 Ratings00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management7.019 Ratings00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Jira
7.5
21 Ratings
3% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Quotes/estimates7.517 Ratings00 Ratings
Invoicing7.813 Ratings00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting7.219 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software7.516 Ratings00 Ratings
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Jira
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.9
174 Ratings
8% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings9.4173 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings8.2119 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings8.8120 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.3123 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.4174 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings9.1173 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Jira
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.2
158 Ratings
2% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings8.2152 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.2145 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Atlassian Jira
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.8
170 Ratings
10% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings9.1139 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings8.572 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings8.4113 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings9.2167 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings9.0129 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Atlassian JiraZendesk Suite
Small Businesses
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
InEight
InEight
Score 8.5 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
InEight
InEight
Score 8.5 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
Atlassian JiraZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
8.3
(221 ratings)
9.1
(208 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.5
(37 ratings)
10.0
(43 ratings)
Usability
7.8
(62 ratings)
8.8
(82 ratings)
Availability
8.0
(4 ratings)
9.1
(14 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(2 ratings)
9.1
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(24 ratings)
5.6
(31 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(2 ratings)
6.4
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(19 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(9 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Atlassian JiraZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Atlassian
Jira facilitates software development, bug tracking, and sprints. It's ideal for structured workflows, issue management, and customer communication. However, more straightforward tools might be more efficient for highly creative, unstructured tasks or tiny, agile teams with quick visual overviews. Jira's complexity can be overkill for basic task lists.
Read full review
Zendesk
Being a customer support agent, I found it very good when it comes to send an email or call or chat- with the user. I can do all that from the one single platform which is so easy and time saving for you. It does not take much time to use this, We can chat- with the user and at the same time we can send an email to them as well.
Read full review
Pros
Atlassian
  • Integration of tools like Bitbucket, Github, etc., has made it easier to track the code changes, pull requests, and branches linked to the respective ticket.
  • The detailed tracking system in JIRA has helped the teams prioritize and understand the project tasks and issues.
  • JIRA's project tracking board helps you keep track of the project, its flow, and expectations in a structured format.
Read full review
Zendesk
  • UI/UX; mature macros and automations, slick and well thought out UI.
  • Reporting, reporting, reporting. With user, org, and ticket level tags, we can track every aspect of our ticket flow.
  • Extensibility; the app marketplace is a great resource for expanding functionality from the baseline offering.
Read full review
Cons
Atlassian
  • The interface is not intuitive to learn for new users
  • JQL is similarly challenging for newbies
  • It's possible to accidentally move issues from one sprint to another without realizing your mistake
  • Certain issue attributes aren't available in certain view (e.g. story points from the epic overview)
Read full review
Zendesk
  • Is there a way for AEs and CSMs to be informed in a weekly summary of all their accounts and any tickets? Example: Disney submitted a ticket on XYZ. Google has an urgent issue on X still unresolved.
  • Is there a way for CSMs or AEs to have a Dashboard that's specific to their accounts instead of seeing all the tickets in the queue that are not relevant to them?
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Atlassian
This is because Jira Software generates a huge profit for an affordable price. Having a tool that makes team management transparent and effective is very valuable.
In addition, the renewal of Jira Software and all Atlassian tools is predictable and clear, as the prices are published on the Atlassian website and there is no pyramid of intermediaries.
Read full review
Zendesk
Zendesk is an amazing tool for communicating with your customers easily. The communication tickets from sellers to us or from us to sellers are stored, and there are statuses used to make communication easy. We have internal conversations between departments, linked with useful software such as Zingtree, Talkdesk, and Webs.
Read full review
Usability
Atlassian
The interface is simple and easy to use if you have some experience with it. Configuration is also logical most of the time. However, less experienced users tend to find themselves lost in some tasks - usually complex project configuration- but sometimes simple things, such as seeing why a user can't move issues in a workflow. Jira configuration requires a good amount of experience - and even experienced users often resort to documentation. It's a tool that's easy to use if you know what you're doing and where to find the proper documentation, but novice users tend to find it challenging.
Read full review
Zendesk
Pros: The agent interface is sleek, contemporary, and relatively easy to learn compared to many other enterprise tools. For common tasks, admins are given point-and-click options- adding fields, modifying workflows, constructing macros. The knowledge base (Guide) editor is easy to use for non-developers. Drawbacks: Once you move past the initial things - complex automations, reporting/analytics in Explore, and/or customizations integrating the API, it requires much more advanced training to use successfully. Navigating between the different modules (Support, Explore, Chat, Guide) can feel very disconnected; often you are reminded that it really is a "suite" of products brought together -not really one unified platform. If you're using multiple brands managing simultaneous support tickets, or heavily customizing workflows to meet your brand, you may run into a bit of struggle with usability. So: it's a lot more user friendly than the palaces (Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceNow), but is not used as quickly or with as much streamlined flow as a product made for a small shop. So if you are looking for a great balance, this is a good option if you are a net new organization or an organization on their way to scaling from 15 - 50 employee. Expect some elbow grease from the admin team once learning, adapting, and working efficiently once you move past the basics with your support tickets and initial customizations.
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Reliability and Availability
Atlassian
Did not face any issues and whenever they plan maintanance they update all of us very well in advance also so in that view we are good with the product stability.
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
Performance is really good though it holds lot of data it loads quickly especially search operation also get the results very quickly as needed hence its good
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
I have not had a chance to contact JIRA's customer support. It does offer extensive documentation, although it often feels too technical for me. There is also a JIRA training app that lets you take little lessons and quizzes on different areas (e.g., JIRA basics, agile). I did find it a helpful way to teach myself.
Read full review
Zendesk
We rarely need to contact their support team, but when we do they are responsive. However there have been notable times when communication between myself and the support rep was challenging despite me providing clear explanation of the issue, screenshots, and a thorough explanation of the goal we hope to achieve. It took several back and forth attempt, on a few occasions, to get resolution on an otherwise simple request
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In-Person Training
Atlassian
Had received training from our own internal user so it was good and also very easy to understand topics and many tasks in the UI are self explanatory and we can do by our own
Read full review
Zendesk
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Atlassian
One of their strong points i stheir documentation. Almost all of the basic set up needed within JIRA is available online through atlassian and its easy to find and very precise. The more critical issues need to be addressed as well and hence the rating of 8 instead of a 9.
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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.
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Implementation Rating
Atlassian
Take your time implementing Jira. Make sure you understand how you want to handle your projects and workflows. Investing more time in the implementation can pay off in a long run. It basically took us 5 days to define and implement correctly, but that meant smooth sailing later on.
Read full review
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
monday.com cannot be integrated with CI/CD tools, whereas Atlassian Jira integrates with CI/CD tools seamlessly. Atlassian Jira has strong Agile and Scrum support. Coming to monday.com, it has basic agile functionality. But Atlassian Jira has a complex UI, and monday.com has an intuitive, drag-and-drop interface. Overall, Atlassian Jira provides features like Agile project management, DevOps integration, and customizable workflows.
Read full review
Zendesk
The customisable reporting every time. Our leadership reply on me to run my team and want to know what customers are telling us so they can elevate our products. We have extensive custom reports that tie up all aspects of our product and customer journeys. I've not found another product that allows me as much freedom as Zendesk Suite explore does, so far.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Atlassian
Product is rellay good but pricing part I am not aware
Read full review
Zendesk
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Atlassian
Atlassian Jira is highly stable and good with its performance and its has all the required scalability features as business needs
Read full review
Zendesk
WHY we will use Zendesk in HR and PD internally
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Return on Investment
Atlassian
  • Atlassian Jira's robust workflow automation has boosted team efficiency, shortening delivery cycles and driving a positive ROI through improved project management.
  • Its advanced reporting and integration capabilities have enabled data-driven decisions, aligning operations with key business objectives.
  • However, the steep learning curve can delay adoption, potentially hindering short-term ROI.
Read full review
Zendesk
  • Integrating other AI solutions for an organization with high volumes can cost about USD5000 monthly. With Zendesk AI and by building onto the same with AI powered apps built for Zendesk Suite we save a projected USD4000 monthly.
  • Robust Zendesk APIs have enabled us to integrate our internal system with a customized app saving us hundreds of hours every quarter spent loading customer profiles that are not loaded instantly from the app.
  • Plug and play apps like Round robin save us weeks of sprint delay timelines as they do not require additional coding or developer support to install and start using.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Zendesk Suite Screenshots

Screenshot of the 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