Freshdesk vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Freshdesk
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Freshdesk (a product of Freshworks Inc.) is a customer service solution with enterprise capability. Freshdesk unifies channels, conversations, AI capabilities, customer insights, and advanced ticketing into the Freshdesk Command Center so agents are ready to resolve. With Freddy, People-first AI, customer service teams can take AI agents live in minutes to fully resolve complex and simple queries, get response and resolution assistance from AI copilot, and stay ahead with AI insights.…
$18
per month per user
Zendesk Suite
Score 8.7 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
FreshdeskZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
Growth
$18
per month per agent
Pro
$59
per month per agent
Enterprise
$95
per month per agent
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
FreshdeskZendesk Suite
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details20% discount available with annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
FreshdeskZendesk Suite
Considered Both Products
Freshdesk
Chose Freshdesk
- Zendesk vs Freshdesk is similar but FD is better than zendesk. - SF vs Freshdesk cost is almost ok but got better contacts in FD to begin with. - Siebel vs Freshdesk UI challenge are easier than Siebel. - Jira vs Freshdesk Cost effective than Jira.
Chose Freshdesk
Freshdesk, Zendesk and ServiceNow are all excellent. Other products have good points and bad points, but, in my opinion, are clearly inferior. It really comes down to implementation and how well the ticketing system is integrated with other systems, and customized for your …
Chose Freshdesk
My company originally selected Freshdesk due to price, but as we grew, we found it lacking compared to its more expensive counterparts. I briefly compared Zendesk to resolve our main issues with Freshdesk, but I'd spent so much time and effort customizing Freshdesk that we …
Chose Freshdesk
Freshdesk was the easiest to set up and was the most straightforward product of all the products we evaluated. It had a better user interface for agents, and provided a great solution to meet our needs at a lower cost than the other products that we evaluated. Freshdesk offers …
Chose Freshdesk
Ultimately we ended up switching from Freshdesk to Zendesk, and then from zendesk to DevRev. We're still trying to find the right fit for us - Freshdesk covers the same options as Zendesk, if you use the whole suite it's probably a good option.
Chose Freshdesk
The decision was made before my time. I want to move to another platform ASAP.
Chose Freshdesk
How do they stack up? Like apples and hand grenades, there’s no comparison. In my experience, Zendesk was a complete nightmare, between being overpriced contracts, difficult to communicate with, impossible to implement, I wouldn’t wish Zendesk on my worst enemy. Stay away!
Chose Freshdesk
We chose Freshdesk for the variety of capabilities and easy-to-use features. Jobber lacked the analytics, history, sales features, and easy-to-use options needed to grow our business. Zendesk was not user-friendly and many of the "integrations" could only be connected by people …
Chose Freshdesk
Value for Money and Ease of Use put it ahead of the competing products when making our decision.

Whilst they all offer similar services, our time to implement, set-up and get the platform running the way we needed was shortest. It was also an easy to use tool for agents - …
Chose Freshdesk
Freshdesk is cheaper.
Zendesk would also allow customers to close tickets on their own and it also has functionality where a few solution articles are automatically recommended to the customer based on what they wrote and that might already solve the customers' request.
Chose Freshdesk
we decided to use Freshdesk based on the fact that a sister company was also using it and recommended we use it as well
Chose Freshdesk
It is easier to start with, but less robust overall. Freshdesk has a better free tier, and had some advanced customization capabilities. Zendesk is easier to get to an advanced level with, has more and better integrations, and has a better data tool. HubSpot is comparable to …
Chose Freshdesk
Freshdesk is much more cost effective than competitors.
Chose Freshdesk
Freshdesk offers so much more support, integration and a great mobile app compared to ZenDesk.
Chose Freshdesk
We used to use Spiceworks but it was extremely clunky and not very customisable at the time. When we started looking at other options we ended up focusing on Freshdesk, Zendesk and Zoho as they seemed like the best out of all the ones we found. We eventually went with Freshdesk …
Chose Freshdesk
For the price point, FreshDesk is a great starter solution for service desk management.

If you need further integration with other systems, you may quickly find yourself looking at other options, or using native tools - because FreshDesk simply doesn't have the integration …
Chose Freshdesk
Compared to the above alternatives, Freshdesk has proven to be easier for our organisation to use for both our colleagues and external parties. The fast and personalised support also rose above the other alternatives.
Chose Freshdesk
I did not make the decision originally on implementation however having inherited it I would choose it again, it's feature rich and cost effective with great support.
Chose Freshdesk
We set up test instances of Zendesk, Zoho Desk, UVdesk, Freshdesk and trakdesk and asked our agents to evaluate the products themselves. It was very clear to all that Freshdesk was the more user-friendly, easy-to-set-up and more innovative solution. In the meantime we are very …
Chose Freshdesk
It's a matter of which one is more straightforward and beneficial for the agents. There was much more features offered with Freshdesk that could help our business flow and workflow which is why we've opted to use it for a client. There was also less cost to using it compared to …
Chose Freshdesk
We purchased both Freshsales and Fresh desk at the same time. The Freshworks products gave the best solution at the time because I believed I'd receive one-on-one support and guidance as well as get all of the features we required between the two products as well as full …
Zendesk Suite
Chose Zendesk Suite
We used Freshdesk when it was a relatively new product. We switched to Zendesk later to take advantage of better user management, easier interface and user experience, better reporting tools and to align ourselves with a recognised brand.

We use Intercom to engage with …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk is more established than these two companies and provides a more robust solution for multi-channel support. Intercom is better suited for chat support and Freshdesk doesn't offer as many features and Zendesk does.
Chose Zendesk Suite
Freshdesk lacks the integration across channels. Their chat and email experience feels disconnected. Their reporting lacks customizability and some data is just not available.
For agents pulling in external information is more complex due to it's lack of fully integrated apps …
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
We Initially started working the Zendesk Suite and it is more easier to understand all the functionalities and workflows. It is more secured and well managed platform
Chose Zendesk Suite
Here are the explanations for my preference of analysis Zendesk Suite to this end:

Power + Usability: Zendesk Suite has abundant omnichannel coverage, acceptable automation, and decent reporting but does not go all in to full-custom dev mode, so hangs nicely in the space of …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk Suite seemed to have a lot more customization and flexibility. We have multiple "brands" that need to follow different flows and have different needs and Zendesk Suite allowed us to easily do that. We also had strong needs for a help center and liked how their worked …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Although Zendesk Suites has a higher value when it comes to it's pricing, Zendesk offers more features and functionality also Zendesk Suites has already established it's name and is trusted by many businesses and organizations. Other similar products maybe cheaper and simple …
Chose Zendesk Suite
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 …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk was the most organized, integrateable option between the other options I've used before.
Chose Zendesk Suite
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 …
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
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 Suite might be pricey but the cost definitely outweighs numerous benefits. Other platforms focus solely on the customer but what our organization likes about Zendesk is that it not only aims to provide a great experience for the customer, it also keeps in view …
Chose Zendesk Suite

Zendesk offers an all-in-one solution and great analytics to analyze the ticketing in the company.

Zendesk seems to be more customizable than others and it seemed to be the best option for the price paid. It's secure and stable which is what we needed in the company.

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
Zendesk was the best of the bunch and allowed us the best value for what we were looking for. It allowed us to import data from our other ticketing system and was very user friendly when it came to ticket and email integration. We also were able to setup on our website where …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk is a world recognised tool, that ITIL recommend. Easy to use format, great search tools to cross reference issues that are logged. Personalisation allows you to brand your customer facing site.
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk competitors include:
  • Microsoft Parature -- this product intreface is possibly the worst I've seen for customer service. Looks like a mid-90s enterprise application and is about as intuitive to use. We have help migrate dozens of instances away from Parature into Zendesk …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Freshdesk, Sherpadesk
Chose Zendesk Suite
Other platforms I have evaluated: Kayako, Fogbugz, Bugzilla, Assembla, FreshDesk.

I ended up picking Zendesk for several reasons, but there was really 3 reasons why I ultimately picked them:
Features
FreshdeskZendesk Suite
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
8.6
197 Ratings
5% above category average
Zendesk Suite
8.9
172 Ratings
8% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.2193 Ratings9.3171 Ratings
Expert directory8.1130 Ratings8.2118 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications8.43 Ratings8.7119 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation7.64 Ratings8.2122 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission9.3193 Ratings9.4172 Ratings
Ticket response9.1193 Ratings9.3171 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
8.5
175 Ratings
6% above category average
Zendesk Suite
8.4
156 Ratings
5% above category average
External knowledge base8.6159 Ratings8.3150 Ratings
Internal knowledge base8.5163 Ratings8.5143 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Freshdesk
8.9
184 Ratings
11% above category average
Zendesk Suite
8.8
168 Ratings
10% above category average
Customer portal9.0156 Ratings9.1138 Ratings
IVR9.158 Ratings8.570 Ratings
Social integration8.699 Ratings8.4112 Ratings
Email support9.2183 Ratings9.3165 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration8.6117 Ratings9.0128 Ratings
Best Alternatives
FreshdeskZendesk Suite
Small Businesses
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
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
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
FreshdeskZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(262 ratings)
9.0
(209 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.7
(26 ratings)
10.0
(43 ratings)
Usability
9.4
(43 ratings)
8.8
(82 ratings)
Availability
7.9
(7 ratings)
9.1
(14 ratings)
Performance
8.1
(7 ratings)
9.1
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(42 ratings)
5.6
(31 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(2 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
8.5
(4 ratings)
6.4
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.3
(193 ratings)
9.1
(19 ratings)
Configurability
6.9
(8 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.7
(6 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.2
(7 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.8
(7 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
8.8
(3 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.1
(6 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.1
(6 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
FreshdeskZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Freshworks Inc
Freshdesk is very easy to implement. This tool is very easy to understand and adapt. Omnichannel capability enables keeping a track of every complaint from different channels, including chat, call, email, and social media. Excellent, customizable self-service portal, and AI-powered deflection tools such as Freddy AI, which help advisors provide proper resolution.
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
Freshworks Inc
  • No prior experience with similar platforms is required to use Freshdesk. I found its interface to be quite intuitive, at least for the end user.
  • It's easy to connect with other platforms, so you can sync and manage data from other platforms because the integrations work correctly.
  • Freshdesk's technical support is quite responsive, with short and effective response times. They have easily handled my questions and issues.
  • It has tools for customizing automated chats, answering frequently asked questions before transferring to an agent. Its configuration is extensive and highly customizable.
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
Freshworks Inc
  • Freshdesk is buggy, full stop. I don't know how many support tickets I submitted related to user login.
  • There can be a language barrier with support and sales.
  • There were a couple of hours-long outages that significantly impacted my company's customer experience.
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
Freshworks Inc
We are extremely happy with Freshdesk and can foresee using it for the next year. We might only consider using a different platform if our average daily ticket volume reaches four digits and its AI isn’t enough to handle our needs by then. While we haven’t tested this yet, we have read reviews that it’s AI capabilities are lacking
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
Freshworks Inc
I gave it a rating of 9 out of 10 because they delivered on everything we asked them to do. Easy to setup, easy to deploy to end users, easy to customize, easy to enter tickets and so much more. Our experience with their support is top notch! After opening a ticket for support they call use back within 10 minutes every time!
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
Freshworks Inc
I have encountered a lot of errors in the Freshdesk, however, they tend to resolve it on priority or at least they will share the timeline by when this can be resolved. Most of the time the issue has been from the other partner's end. They take time to resolve their vendor issues and they don't have any timelines in case of developed app errors.
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
Freshworks Inc
The reports take a lot of time to download if the time period is large. Also, the tickets take their sweet time to open and load. It is not fast as Zendesk. Only 30 tickets are visible in a single go and there isn't any option to select all. If we need to change the pages and dashboards it takes a lot of time to open.
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
Freshworks Inc
The main thing about Freshdesk user service is that once a request has been made for information about a feature of the platform, the support team responds to tickets quickly, within a day of writing and submitting them, with information that is concise enough so that there is no need to ask for help on the same topic again.
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
In-Person Training
Freshworks Inc
Support Team's knowledge and understood the company's requirement, and always shared the insight of the usage of the tool to it s full potential, moreover the team checks periodically to check if we using the tool right and if we are facing any kind of challenges. Also they would update us on new features that can make the work easy.
Read full review
Zendesk
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Freshworks Inc
Video tutorials, questions answers round before and after testing and Fresh desk team would always share best practices on the needs. Furthermore would periodically check if we are able to work smoothly. Would send alerts to known any issues, send recommendation on new features. Freshdesk team always available when we need certain advise.
Read full review
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
Freshworks Inc
Our team easily implemented Freshdesk, and as soon as we started, we were pros with it. In a matter of days, we had integrated signatures and canned responses. The biggest problem was the Help Center part, but after some time, that was also integrated. We did not know some features when we started, but that is normal.
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
Freshworks Inc
Freshdesk has a more modern and intuitive user interface, while Help Scout's interface is simpler and more minimalist.In case of features, Freshdesk offers a wider range of features, includes omnichannel support, AI powered automations, and advanced analytics. Help Scout is more focused on providing a simple and efficient ticketing system.
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
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Freshworks Inc
I was not very involved with the purchase/contract (my company purchased Fresjdesk before I was brought on), but I will say that pricing per agent made it difficult to grow our support team. Additionally, we were kind of disappointed after our upgrade because it didn't solve our pain points as much as we expected.
Read full review
Zendesk
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Freshworks Inc
My company had Freshdesk agents from support and success. It's generally difficult to customize permissions for different agent "roles." We were a fully distributed company, so "multiple sites" doesn't apply to us. We found Freshdesk features lacking as we grew our customer base, and adding agents wasn't easy because price steeply increases with number of agents.
Read full review
Zendesk
WHY we will use Zendesk in HR and PD internally
Read full review
Professional Services
Freshworks Inc
Very professional, they would always ask for the steps followed and where we went wrong, they would politely share the video recording to review in case any other team member faces the same issue
Read full review
Zendesk
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Freshworks Inc
  • Increased response times - Client Success maintains at 98% SLA for resolution
  • Categorization of feedback and issues - custom ticket fields make it easier for us to review why clients contact us on a high level
  • Standardization of internal procedures via templates, canned responses and automations
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