Datto SIRIS vs. Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Datto SIRIS
Score 9.7 out of 10
N/A
Datto SIRIS is a BCDR solution built for MSPs to prevent data loss and minimize downtime. Utilizing a cloud-first approach, MSPs can offer their clients local backup and recovery with a cloud-based repository and full disaster recovery in the cloud. All of this administered from a multi-tenant cloud portal that allows MSPs to view, manage and recover client data from a single interface.N/A
Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Spiceworks offers a set of free tools for IT network management and help desk support ticketing. The inventory management system essentially provides comprehensive device information for asset management.
$0
(free for 1-5 Seats)
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
Datto SIRISSpiceworks Cloud Help DeskZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Core Plan
$0
Premium
$6
per month per user
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
Datto SIRISSpiceworks Cloud Help DeskZendesk Suite
Free Trial
YesNoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsDatto sells 100% through the channel. Specifically, Datto partners with managed service providers (MSPs). The MSPs then sell direct to small and mid-sized businesses, worldwide.20% discount available with annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Datto SIRISSpiceworks Cloud Help DeskZendesk Suite
Considered Multiple Products
Datto SIRIS
Chose Datto SIRIS
We've chosen to go with Datto RMM after finding other platforms that didn't quite meet the requirements of growing endpoint management.
Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
We found that for entry-level SMB in-house needs that Spiceworks had an impressive range of features and options at an unbeatable price-free! For our in-house and multi-tenant needs, we use a different product that is more appropriate to our particular needs, but with no cost …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
A lot of the competition starts with some free options, but bare minimum or "paid only modules" etc. And their support is often either non existent or convoluted while Spiceworks Help Desk is both great and responsive as well as having an open community and forums. You can …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
We are in the process of looking at Remote Monitoring & Management tools as we are growing so rapidly. We have been checking out demos & reading reviews of these other applications and they are way more feature-rich than Spiceworks - however, they come at a cost and will …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Spiceworks was free and already in place at the organization. Users are comfortable with the process and transparency offered.
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
The main commercial alternative product evaluated was Zendesk, which was not selected because of the price. The second alternative researched was the osTicket, which was not selected as it was complicated to configure. With hindsight, I would suggest using osTicket instead of …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Spiceworks was the best solution by far, and it was also free, so it was impossible to beat. Also the community of IT pros using Spiceworks is huge and makes it even more of a clear winner. When it comes to help desk and inventory software, there was not really any …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Footprints, Zendesk, and TrackIt.
Zendesk Suite
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk is used in conjunction with ConnectWise Manage to communicate to us in our ticketing system. Zendesk has more features than Spiceworks, and I believe the increased cost justifies itself. The ability for our users to text in to the ticketing system makes it easy to …
Chose Zendesk Suite
No comparison to TSC2. We used it years ago and it was very limited (no automation, customizations, etc). We used Kace for 3 years and hated it as a support desk solution. It was great for asset inventory, but that was all. Spiceworks was just too busy to look at. JitBit was a …
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
Datto SIRISSpiceworks Cloud Help DeskZendesk Suite
Data Center Backup
Comparison of Data Center Backup features of Product A and Product B
Datto SIRIS
8.0
1 Ratings
1% below category average
Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Flexible deployment9.01 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Encryption7.01 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Datto SIRIS
-
Ratings
Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
8.2
56 Ratings
0% below category average
Zendesk Suite
8.8
173 Ratings
7% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.655 Ratings9.3172 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings6.148 Ratings8.2118 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings5.943 Ratings8.7119 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.546 Ratings8.2122 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings10.055 Ratings9.4173 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings10.054 Ratings9.2172 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Datto SIRIS
-
Ratings
Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
8.9
53 Ratings
10% above category average
Zendesk Suite
8.2
157 Ratings
2% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings8.949 Ratings8.1151 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.849 Ratings8.3144 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Datto SIRIS
-
Ratings
Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
8.7
53 Ratings
8% above category average
Zendesk Suite
8.8
169 Ratings
10% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings9.647 Ratings9.1138 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings5.112 Ratings8.471 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings8.928 Ratings8.4112 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings10.047 Ratings9.3166 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings10.029 Ratings9.0128 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Datto SIRISSpiceworks Cloud Help DeskZendesk Suite
Small Businesses
Cove Data Protection
Cove Data Protection
Score 9.7 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cove Data Protection
Cove Data Protection
Score 9.7 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Keepit
Keepit
Score 9.4 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Datto SIRISSpiceworks Cloud Help DeskZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(32 ratings)
10.0
(84 ratings)
9.1
(208 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(29 ratings)
10.0
(43 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.6
(10 ratings)
8.8
(82 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
9.1
(14 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(11 ratings)
8.7
(26 ratings)
5.6
(31 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(7 ratings)
9.1
(19 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Datto SIRISSpiceworks Cloud Help DeskZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Kaseya
Datto is a fantastic option for smaller businesses who don't have as large of a budget. It might work well for larger businesses as well, but the features are not exactly on par with more prevalent backup solutions. So, that should be kept in mind while determining a good fit for a company. But if selling a backup solution is met with push back, this can be a great option to give a good working backup solution. It offers the main features solutions should have, so it's definitely not a compromise. Just keep in mind the features it does not offer.
Read full review
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
It's a great helpdesk solution - we currently have five years of data within it, roughly 25,000 tickets. The older edition is a great inventory and software license tracking tool. It is easy for users to use the interface and submit tickets and requests on the web, and its email integration is solid. The new version is a below-average system monitoring tool, only giving up/down status and a few other metrics.
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
Kaseya
  • Simple agent setup for new machines to be protected. A new machine can be setup on the server in under a minute whether it be a Linux or Windows based machine.
  • Local virtualization on the Datto is quick to start up. After a physical problem with a server I had the machine locally virtualized on the Datto before users had a chance to report service issues to me.
  • Nothing to do on my end to get backups shifted to offsite data center. Schedules are setup for each machine or group of machines and I sleep well knowing all our backups are safely stored offsite.
Read full review
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
  • It helps to multitask, even on the go with the mobile App.
  • We can customize to meet your needs with automated responses, notifications, and templates.
  • Detailed reports allow managers to keep track [of] and analyze data.
  • Allows for a database to store notes helpful for future tickets.
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
Kaseya
  • Initial backup sync: The downside to the cloud backup is that, if you have a lot of data, you need an external hard drive to seed to the cloud. And you usually have to request this after you've already got everything else working.
  • Unsyncing: We have pretty decent bandwidth, but with 8TB of data, we'd get syncing issues with the cloud servers every 3 months or so. The only way to address it was to request another external drive and resync it, but that also meant losing the older data.
  • Availability and support: Datto only operates through MSPs and VARs, and will not help you directly without putting in a ticket with your provider. This causes delays, and extra epenses, and if you grow beyond the need for an MSP, you have to keep them around for at least that piece.
Read full review
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
  • I have always wanted a way to redirect a support request into another IS bin, such as a development task.
  • It's possible to extract the data from the Spiceworks database, but it would be helpful if the process to do so were easier.
  • Improved ability to customize the system generated emails to improve the formatting and company branding.
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
Kaseya
I trust the product and service and am satisfied with the direction of the company
Read full review
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
Spiceworks is a free tool, so there would be no hesitation if we are required to upgrade it. We have installed Spiceworks on a dedicated server with more than enough resources to get the most from this tool, so we will have this running in our department for years to come.
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
Kaseya
Usability is great. The web interface is simple and easy to use. While various options are available for client backups, it is very easy to re-use settings of the existing client, so adding new clients is a very fast process. Configuration of the agent on the client-side cannot be easier as well. Datto dashboard provides an overview of the client status, and email notifications can be configured for various events.
Read full review
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
Spiceworks is user friendly and easy to set up. It can be customized to suit your needs. If there are any problems, you can go to the community forums for support and be in contact with many IT Pros, as well as the Spiceworks support staff and development teams who are always happy to help users out
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.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Kaseya
No answers on this topic
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
We use it both locally on our own server so up time is decided by us and we also use the hosted help desk. We have never had an outage of that.
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
Kaseya
No answers on this topic
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
No answers on this topic
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
Kaseya
My specific example or reason for this rating goes back to a need for support after a client on this platform has a fire. In a nutshell, Datto had no idea how to BMR the image back to the server correctly, and as a result, the RAID on the server was lost, due to the Datto BDR environment not being able to see the RAID card, and the support technician knowing how to inject drivers.
Read full review
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
Spiceworks has been working out of the box, and some of the basic customizations have been successful with just our internal staff handling. We don't have any other issues with the tool. It provides us with the inventory information we want in a quick and concise report in a variety of formats for our team.
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
Read full review
Online Training
Kaseya
No answers on this topic
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
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
Kaseya
No answers on this topic
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
If you can spin up a VM to run it on, you'll thank yourself later. If you have remote sites, set up a local server (or dedicated computer) at each site and set them up as remote collectors for the main site. You'll save time and bandwidth
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
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Kaseya
Datto seemed to be better than other vendors I trialed, and I inherited an Alto device, so it was easy to stay with them. I also assumed the backups had been working with the previous contractor, but it turns out they had been failing for months and no one knew it.
Read full review
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
EGroupware UI is clunky and hard to use, Jira is great but the pricing is expensive in comparison with spice works that has a free version and you can test it out properly before buying and make a correct decision based on your business plan and company objectives with the right software.
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.
Read full review
Scalability
Kaseya
No answers on this topic
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
WHY we will use Zendesk in HR and PD internally
Read full review
Return on Investment
Kaseya
  • In most cases, Datto will provide the appliance free of charge with a 3-5 year contract which results in a modest monthly fee instead of a large initial outlay and monthly fees.
  • The contract's warranty is top-notch. Failed drives or issues with the appliances are replaced/corrected with free replacements and shipping.
Read full review
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
  • Positive - Allow organizations to implement structured Help Desk procedures.
  • Positive - IT can begin to quantify their tickets and uncover needs within the organization.
  • Positive - IT can develop a solid roadmap with [the] management of future needs, equipment refresh schedules, etc.
  • Positive - IT can pinpoint employees who may need extra training or updated equipment based on historical ticketing data.
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