BigTime Software vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BigTime Software
Score 7.3 out of 10
N/A
BigTime IQ is time and expense tracking software from Chicago-based BigTime Software.
$20
User per Month
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
BigTime SoftwareZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
Essentials
$20
User per Month
Advanced
$35
User per Month
Premier
$45
User per Month
Projector
$60
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
BigTime SoftwareZendesk Suite
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
Additional Details20% discount available with annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BigTime SoftwareZendesk Suite
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
BigTime SoftwareZendesk Suite
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
BigTime Software
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.7
157 Ratings
8% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings9.1156 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings8.0105 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings8.3108 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.4107 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.3156 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings9.2155 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
BigTime Software
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.5
142 Ratings
8% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings8.4136 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.5129 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
BigTime Software
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.6
152 Ratings
10% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings8.7123 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings8.560 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings7.999 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings9.1149 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.8114 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BigTime SoftwareZendesk Suite
Small Businesses
HaloPSA
HaloPSA
Score 8.9 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Planview AdaptiveWork
Planview AdaptiveWork
Score 7.2 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Planview AdaptiveWork
Planview AdaptiveWork
Score 7.2 out of 10
Front
Front
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BigTime SoftwareZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(32 ratings)
8.9
(195 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.8
(4 ratings)
10.0
(43 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(3 ratings)
8.7
(68 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(1 ratings)
8.6
(13 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(1 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(5 ratings)
6.3
(31 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.9
(9 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.9
(2 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.3
(3 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BigTime SoftwareZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
BigTime Software
I'd like to start by saying, I rarely give 10's on anything, almost always 9's, the main reason for my 10 rating is the support I've received from this team/company. BigTime Software has been well suited for our company b/c it's giving a window into the project budget and time frames to our Project Managers to proactively manage their projects and look for areas to improve and celebrate with support staff. I would say efficiency in time management. BigTime Software is not an accounting software and I love that about it. We were looking for a tool for staff to manage their projects and stay on budget and track time and generate invoices all in one place and we've found that with BigTime Software.
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Zendesk
One specific thing I love about Zendesk Suite lately is the ability to use AI "Enhance writing" it allows me to freehand a response and then have it help me sound more formal or friendly, this is very useful, not only for those free handed ones, but also when you need to repeat the same information to a customer, it can help you make it sound slightly different. I don't like that when a ticket comes, even if you have the shortcut to toggle between chat and email, it doesn't actually toggle.
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Pros
BigTime Software
  • I like the functionality of being able to make payments electronically and the amount of banks and payment methods that are available.
  • Another very useful feature of this tool is that the system allows to set a parameter to perform automatic invoices.
  • I also really like the amount of templates that this tool has. Since it allows us to make customizable reports to our clients.
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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.
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Cons
BigTime Software
  • For some types of projects, we are unable to use BigTime's invoicing feature. It would be nice if we could further customize invoices to fit our needs. We still have to use Quickbooks to complete certain invoices.
  • Being able to create Purchase Orders in BigTime would be extremely useful to us. We currently use Quickbooks for this.
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Zendesk
  • The development of messaging out of the earlier Chat module is clunky and still has limitations for multi language flows.
  • When creating queries in Explore, you can't search for 'or' conditions, only 'And', meaning you have to build multiple queries and manually add them.
  • You can't download the charts in the reports, they come down as tables and then you have to make your own charts.
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Likelihood to Renew
BigTime Software
Its been a huge help in saving time and making billing more efficient. Would like to see the product grow and be able to continue to use it.
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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.
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Usability
BigTime Software
Overall most areas of the software are easy to use. I tend to spend a lot of time in analytics and reports. Those are not as user friendly, in my opinion, and could use some improvements. I think it just takes time to get familiar with where items are stored in the program and what changes affect what.
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Zendesk
Zendesk Suite is a straightforward solution that provides agents with everything they need on the same screen. Allowing an agent to navigate one tab, one screen and switch between features, pin favorite features while viewing the customer profile and details in 360degrees. A view like this empowers agents to support customers better and in a more composed state.
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Reliability and Availability
BigTime Software
BigTime is available 99% of the time. At times there are bugs, but most are resolved quickly
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Zendesk
In the past year, I'd say I have only noticed maybe two hours total of downtime in my own usage. Very minimal.
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Performance
BigTime Software
have not noticed a slow integration issue using QBO
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Zendesk
There has been minor performance degradation on a very few days out of the two years I have been using the product.
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Support Rating
BigTime Software
The support is amazing! They are always available through the chat interface in the program. Each support person has fully answered my questions the first time. I have had a positive experience with each inquiry. It is very important to me that I am able to get instant access to help so that I can make the most of the software and all of its capabilities.
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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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Online Training
BigTime Software
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.
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Implementation Rating
BigTime Software
I touched on this briefly, in another survey section, but my implementation manager, Kevin, was exceptional. The actual implementation process took 3 months, not 1 before I was comfortable rolling it out to staff. We also had to wait/schedule time and coordinate for our custom xml. invoice to be generated and in a place we felt comfortable sending it out to clients. In the end I was very satisfied, but during the first few months it was challenging.
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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
BigTime Software
I liked the client management, but it didn't do time tracking, billing or syncing with quickbooks. It was too robust for my needs. I tried it for the client management and thought I might use it along with bigtime, but it was too cumbersome and would involve too much double entry. And it didn't track time or bill which are necessary functions
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Zendesk
Zendesk Suite is exceptionally user friendly and highly customisable. Free training for all levels and roles of users which is easy to follow and engaging for users is particularly helpful along with the added support behind the scenes from Zendesk support and the Zendesk community is second to none.
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Scalability
BigTime Software
The product is useful for faster billing and efficient timesheet logs. I do like the report features however there are many options and can be overwhelming for the user. It is most helpful to set up reports speaking to an agent to ensure the right fields are set, etc.
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Zendesk
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
BigTime Software
  • Before BigTime, we were using Excel to track everything, creating invoices, and run reports. Getting on BigTime has saved us tons of time and effort which equates to dollars saved on labor.
  • From a legal standpoint, BigTime has allowed us to be organized and prepared in the event we would need to present financial details to anyone.
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Zendesk
  • We have been able to deliver IT accurately and onetime
  • Our customers have been able to provide feedback on a given ticket and helped us build a better support structure
  • Zendesk Suite has allowed us to be more efficient in our every day operations
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ScreenShots

BigTime Software Screenshots

Screenshot of BigTime Wallet provides clients with a personalized experience to pay on time from anywhere, in one click.Screenshot of A big-picture view into operational insights to make adjustments to how resources are managed.Screenshot of Real-time, actionable insights for professional services firms.Screenshot of The platform is designed to work within existing workflows and software stack, acting as a single source of truth for data.Screenshot of BigTime's invoicing engine supports dozens of industry-standard billing scenarios and enough options to satisfy exacting customer needs.

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