ConnectWise Automate vs Zendesk Support Suite

What users are saying about

Score 7.9 out of 10

Based on 165 reviews and ratings

Score 7.9 out of 10

Based on 809 reviews and ratings

Feature Set Ratings

Monitoring Tasks

7.8

ConnectWise Automate

78%

Zendesk Support Suite

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

ConnectWise Automate ranks higher in 5/5 features

Remote monitoring

7.6

76%

16 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Network device monitoring

7.4

74%

15 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Multiple Server Monitoring

7.9

79%

16 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Multi-device monitoring

8.1

81%

15 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Automated alerts and notifications

8.1

81%

16 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Management Tasks

7.6

ConnectWise Automate

76%

Zendesk Support Suite

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

ConnectWise Automate ranks higher in 4/4 features

Patch Management

7.2

72%

15 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Service configuration management

7.5

75%

15 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Software and hardware inventory

8.3

83%

16 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Policy-based automation

7.3

73%

16 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Reporting

7.8

ConnectWise Automate

78%

Zendesk Support Suite

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

ConnectWise Automate ranks higher in 4/4 features

Performance data reports

8.1

81%

15 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Customizable reporting

8.6

86%

14 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Data visualization

7.6

76%

14 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Risk analysis

7.0

70%

13 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Security

6.8

ConnectWise Automate

68%

Zendesk Support Suite

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

ConnectWise Automate ranks higher in 3/3 features

Data backup and recovery

5.4

54%

10 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Antivirus and malware management

6.9

69%

15 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Administrator access control

8.1

81%

26 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Incident and problem management

ConnectWise Automate

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

7.1

Zendesk Support Suite

71%

Zendesk Support Suite ranks higher in 6/6 features

Organize and prioritize service tickets

N/A

0 Ratings

7.3

73%

87 Ratings

Expert directory

N/A

0 Ratings

6.2

62%

55 Ratings

Subscription-based notifications

N/A

0 Ratings

6.1

61%

62 Ratings

ITSM collaboration and documentation

N/A

0 Ratings

6.8

68%

58 Ratings

Ticket creation and submission

N/A

0 Ratings

8.1

81%

88 Ratings

Ticket response

N/A

0 Ratings

7.9

79%

87 Ratings

Self Help Community

ConnectWise Automate

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

6.9

Zendesk Support Suite

69%

Zendesk Support Suite ranks higher in 2/2 features

External knowledge base

N/A

0 Ratings

7.0

70%

75 Ratings

Internal knowledge base

N/A

0 Ratings

6.8

68%

70 Ratings

Multi-Channel Help

ConnectWise Automate

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

6.7

Zendesk Support Suite

67%

Zendesk Support Suite ranks higher in 5/5 features

Customer portal

N/A

0 Ratings

7.0

70%

69 Ratings

IVR

N/A

0 Ratings

5.3

53%

29 Ratings

Social integration

N/A

0 Ratings

6.6

66%

53 Ratings

Email support

N/A

0 Ratings

7.6

76%

84 Ratings

Help Desk CRM integration

N/A

0 Ratings

7.0

70%

63 Ratings

Attribute Ratings

ConnectWise Automate is rated higher in 2 areas: Likelihood to Recommend, Support Rating
Zendesk Support Suite is rated higher in 5 areas: Likelihood to Renew, Usability, Performance, Online Training, Implementation Rating

ConnectWise Automate

79%

53 Ratings

7.2

Zendesk Support Suite

72%

126 Ratings

ConnectWise Automate

80%

3 Ratings

10.0

Zendesk Support Suite

100%

38 Ratings

ConnectWise Automate

32%

3 Ratings

9.5

Zendesk Support Suite

95%

18 Ratings

ConnectWise Automate

N/A

0 Ratings

8.6

Zendesk Support Suite

86%

26 Ratings

ConnectWise Automate

30%

8 Ratings

8.0

Zendesk Support Suite

80%

20 Ratings

ConnectWise Automate

82%

26 Ratings

6.9

Zendesk Support Suite

69%

49 Ratings

ConnectWise Automate

N/A

0 Ratings

10.0

Zendesk Support Suite

100%

1 Rating

ConnectWise Automate

71%

2 Ratings

7.9

Zendesk Support Suite

79%

9 Ratings

ConnectWise Automate

73%

2 Ratings

9.0

Zendesk Support Suite

90%

35 Ratings

Pros

Desktop sharing / view with chat to the operator, file sharing and pass-through for keyboard strokes
Computer/server monitoring with thresholds and warning
Search - tracking down computers when you have many by name, logged in user, IP
End user ticket raising is built into the tray icon which make access really easy

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Verified User

Manager in Information Technology

Retail Company, 201-500 employees

View all 53 answers on this topic

Zendesk makes it easy to see if a question/ticket has already been answered/updated (and to see who answered it).
Zendesk makes it easy for users to indicate if they are available to respond or not.
Zendesk also makes it easy to respond as you can respond within the software/system. A one-stop process!

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Verified User

Manager in Social Media

Non-profit Organization Management Company, 201-500 employees

View all 126 answers on this topic

Cons

They have conflicting scheduling paradigms. When scheduling patching for clients, the 1st Friday is interpreted as the very first Friday of the month, even if this is the 1st of the month. For scripting, the 1st Friday of the month is interpreted as the 1st Friday of the 1st FULL WEEK of the month. This makes no sense to have two different interpretations, and makes it unreliable to schedule recurring scripts to fall when recurring maintenance does. The scripts need to be done manually because of this.
There is no way to dictate reboot orders for patch policies. This tied directly in with my first point. We have some clients that require reboot orders. This is not possible without having different patch policies for each server and specifying a time this way. But, there aren't small enough increments of time to make this reliable, plus patching duration might vary. Excluding reboots with patching and scheduling reboot scripts fixes this. However, this can't be done once on a recurring schedule due to the different scheduling paradigms already discussed. We have to schedule these manually each month.

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Adam Friedli

Level 2 Network Technician

SpringthroughInformation Technology & Services, 11-50 employees

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Allow each user to customize the look of their Dash, rather than being hemmed in by company selections
Provide a way for Suspended tickets (created by emails from non-users) to be better managed
Set a timer for tickets to reopen on a more individual ticket basis.

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Verified User

Employee in Customer Service

Information Technology and Services Company, 51-200 employees

View all 126 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

Starting Price

$700

ConnectWise Automate Editions & Modules

Edition

Implementation Fee	$700
Agents	$1.00-$6.00²

none
per month/per agent

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Yes

Entry-level set up fee?

Optional

Starting Price

$19 per agent/month billed annually

Zendesk Support Suite Editions & Modules

Edition

Suite Team	$49.00¹
Suite Growth	$79.00¹
Suite Professional	$99.00¹
Suite Enterprise	$150.00¹
Additional Enterprise-Ready Plans, starting at...	$215.00¹
Support Team (Foundational Support Only)	$19.00¹

per agent/month billed annually

Additional Pricing Details

—

Likelihood to Renew

ConnectWise Automate 8.0

Based on 3 answers

Support and the Speed of supporting the latest technology is the main reason for not giving this a 10. But the product is powerful and flexible. The best way that I can sum it up is "You can get out of it what you put in to it"

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Jack Skinner

Managing Partner

Oversee My ITInformation Technology and Services, 11-50 employees

View all 3 answers on this topic

Zendesk Support Suite 10.0

Based on 38 answers

There has not been a reason to consider anything else as the core functions work perfectly for ticketing. Also Zendesk continues to focus on new functionality, growth of the API and Apps framework and add more partner application to the list. Not only will be renew but it is likely we will add seats as we grow and expand our customer focused teams.

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Lou Gallo

Team Member

Onshape Inc.Computer Software, 51-200 employees

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Usability

ConnectWise Automate 3.2

Based on 3 answers

The UI is pretty confusing. There are Right-clicks, ctrl+clicks, Shift clicks, it's all very convoluted. With the latest gussying up, it's now arguably prettier, but very slow... I dread using it now...

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Scott Sanford

Chief Executive Officer

Healthy IT, Inc.Computer Networking, 1-10 employees

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Zendesk Support Suite 9.5

Based on 18 answers

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

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Verified User

Team Lead in Information Technology

Telecommunications Company, 51-200 employees

View all 18 answers on this topic

Reliability and Availability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Zendesk Support Suite 8.6

Based on 26 answers

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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Chase Sheaffer

Co-Founder / Devleoper of Out of Milk

Capigami, IncComputer Software, 1-10 employees

View all 26 answers on this topic

Performance

ConnectWise Automate 3.0

Based on 8 answers

It used to be great, but then they broke reporting, speed and responsiveness with version 11 and the new Patch Manager. It's really bad and their support people are way behind on fixing so many bugs. They have really gone downhill. If they don't get it together soon, we'll start looking around.

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Ian Hansen

IT Service Director

Innovation ComputingInformation Technology and Services, 1-10 employees

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Zendesk Support Suite 8.0

Based on 20 answers

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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Taylor Wielage

CFO/Director of Application Development

New Horizon Software Technologies, Inc.Computer Software, 1-10 employees

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Support Rating

ConnectWise Automate 8.2

Based on 26 answers

ConnectWise Automate lets you manage more endpoints, with enhanced productivity and improved service, all without increasing expenses.It can manage patches and updates across thousands of computers. We also use it for customized monitoring and alerting on workstations and servers. Monitoring is really robust and granular. It does a great job of gathering a TON of data about the network, and that data is searchable. There are a bunch of different reports built in. Integrates with Manage, Control, and other applications. It does a ton of stuff out of the box, and has endless customization options.

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Asfer Bin Saleh

System Engineer

Gurnick Academy of Medical ArtsHigher Education, 201-500 employees

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Zendesk Support Suite 6.9

Based on 49 answers

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.

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Kevin Pearce

Director of support and services

HyporiComputer & Network Security, 11-50 employees

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Online Training

ConnectWise Automate 7.1

Based on 2 answers

LabTech online training is very very thorough in training and helping individuals understand the theory and practical side of using a Remote Monitoring & Management. The training has multiple methods of explaining each section which helps to re-enforce everything about the Training Modules. I have had some Engineers lose their interest after a number of modules because they said that it was too much, that was too similar. I've found that the training is tailored towards a technical background but the Sales training does help NON technical individuals familiarize themselves with the Remote Monitoring and Management components and how it relates to Managed Services.

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Carson Hagan, ITILv3

Director of Managed Services

LightWire, IncInformation Technology and Services, 11-50 employees

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Zendesk Support Suite 7.9

Based on 9 answers

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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Chase Sheaffer

Co-Founder / Devleoper of Out of Milk

Capigami, IncComputer Software, 1-10 employees

View all 9 answers on this topic

Implementation Rating

ConnectWise Automate 7.3

Based on 2 answers

Start small and learn the in's and out's before making policies and rolling things out company wide. Ask the questions of why if you don't agree with something or your company does things a different way. Usually they are done a certain way for a reason. Start simple with roll out and slowly enable or add on the functionality that is needed.

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Jack Skinner

Managing Partner

Oversee My ITInformation Technology and Services, 11-50 employees

View all 2 answers on this topic

Zendesk Support Suite 9.0

Based on 35 answers

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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Verified User

Director in Customer Service

Computer Software Company, 201-500 employees

View all 35 answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

The Continuum RMM is very simplistic in comparison to Automate. The scripting engine in Continuum doesn't compare at all with the scripting in Automate. Continuum has a single level of agent grouping (all agents for a client are in a single group). For clients that have 100's of endpoints across many locations this gets messy. In Automate, you can create 'sites' under each client and move systems into them to not only organize, but to allow running of scripts on those groups.Unlike Continuum, Automate allows you to dynamically add systems to groups. Each group can be configured to run certain scripts, perform tasks or monitor for something specific. An example would be servers with SQL server. You could add these to a group based on SQL being installed and then monitor for specific SQL related events. The remote control in Automate has proven to be much faster and more reliable than LogMeIn that is used in Continuum.

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David Wertz, CHSP

President

PC Works Plus, Inc.Computer & Network Security, 11-50 employees

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I have not used any other support software, but also evaluated FreshDesk. For our needs at the time, Zendesk was more polished and had the ability to support multiple websites in a single instance, while allowing customization for each brand separately. That was crucial to us, and is why we went with Enterprise.

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Adam McCracken

Vice President, e-Commerce

JS Products, Inc.Consumer Goods, 51-200 employees

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Return on Investment

We found we were able to provide good monitoring of our customers sites which was an objective. However, that came at a significant time investment that never seemed to be finished.
We were able to negotiate a price that worked for us for an up-front purchase which was nice.
We found the pricing to be very competitive.
Bottom line for us was despite the pros of the product, we found other RMM solutions to be a better overall "value" due to not having to dedicate technicians to maintaining the product.

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Verified User

Partner in Information Technology

Computer & Network Security Company, 11-50 employees

View all 53 answers on this topic

The main part of the IT department is able to quickly prioritize and delegate tickets as they come in.
Tickets can be linked to each other and support articles, creating opportunities for more efficient responses.
Central location for users to ask for tech help when they don't need to know which staff member is the appropriate person to ask.

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Alicia Barevich, bCRE, bCEE

Database Administrator

The Blake SchoolPrimary/Secondary Education, 201-500 employees

View all 126 answers on this topic

Screenshots

See All (6) ConnectWise Automate Screenshots

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ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

Remote monitoring

Network device monitoring

Multiple Server Monitoring

Multi-device monitoring

Automated alerts and notifications

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

Patch Management

Service configuration management

Software and hardware inventory

Policy-based automation

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

Performance data reports

Customizable reporting

Data visualization

Risk analysis

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

Data backup and recovery

Antivirus and malware management

Administrator access control

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

Organize and prioritize service tickets

Expert directory

Subscription-based notifications

ITSM collaboration and documentation

Ticket creation and submission

Ticket response

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

External knowledge base

Internal knowledge base

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

Customer portal

IVR

Social integration

Email support

Help Desk CRM integration

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

Likelihood to Recommend

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

Pros

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

Cons

ConnectWise Automate

Zendesk Support Suite

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Starting Price

ConnectWise Automate Editions & Modules