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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Gist

    Score9.5 out of 10
    N/AGist is a unified marketing, sales, and support platform. It includes live chat, a help desk, knowledge base, email marketing, marketing automation, opt-in forms, and more.

    $29

    per month

    Zoho Desk

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AZoho Support is a Saas help desk / ticketing system aimed at SMBs. I competes most often with Zendesk, and Desk.com.

    $9

    per month per user

    Pricing
    GistZoho Desk
    Editions & Modules
    Professional
    $29.00
    per month
    Premium
    $99.00
    per month
    Free
    $0
    Express
    $9
    per month per user
    Standard
    $20
    per month per user
    Professional
    $35
    per month per user
    Enterprise
    $50
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    GistZoho Desk
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
    Additional DetailsA discount is offered for yearly billing.
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    GistZoho Desk
    Chat Analytics and Reports
    Comparison of Chat Analytics and Reports features of Gist and Zoho Desk
    Feature
    Gist
    8.9
    2 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Zoho Desk
    -
    Ratings
    Chat history and transcripts8.92 Ratings00 Ratings
    Chat reporting8.92 Ratings00 Ratings
    Chat and web analytics8.92 Ratings00 Ratings
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Gist and Zoho Desk
    Feature
    Gist
    -
    Ratings
    Zoho Desk
    8.5
    5 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
    Expert directory00 Ratings7.14 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings7.14 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings8.95 Ratings
    Ticket response00 Ratings8.95 Ratings
    Self Help Community
    Comparison of Self Help Community features of Gist and Zoho Desk
    Feature
    Gist
    -
    Ratings
    Zoho Desk
    9.8
    5 Ratings
    20% above category average
    External knowledge base00 Ratings9.85 Ratings
    Internal knowledge base00 Ratings9.85 Ratings
    Multi-Channel Help
    Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Gist and Zoho Desk
    Feature
    Gist
    -
    Ratings
    Zoho Desk
    6.6
    5 Ratings
    19% below category average
    Customer portal00 Ratings8.04 Ratings
    Social integration00 Ratings6.83 Ratings
    Email support00 Ratings6.15 Ratings
    Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings5.44 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    GistZoho Desk
    Small Businesses
    Olark
    Score10 out of 10
    Help Scout
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zoho SalesIQ
    Score9.7 out of 10
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Genesys DX (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    GistZoho Desk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.5
    (112 ratings)
    8.8
    (23 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    6.7
    (4 ratings)
    8.0
    (12 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.6
    (9 ratings)
    8.8
    (11 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    GistZoho Desk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Gist
    If your marketing model is selling products, services, or SAAS where you are doing inbound marketing and your website will do most of the lead generation and conversion, this is a great product. From live chat, support, event tracking, and automation, you could almost put your entire business on autopilot. If your marketing model is mostly outreach to cold leads and conversion, this software currently does not have any type of sales stages or task generation. I would still use Gist for website inbound but use another software for outreach and cold leads then when they become a lead put them into Gist for marketing automation.
    Incentivized
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    Zoho
    Zoho Desk is a great customer service tool. It is very easy to track the ability to receive tickets and send responses in Zoho Desk. There are lots of options for customization. The knowledge base feature is very extensive and powerful. It makes creating internal and external FAQs easy.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Gist
    • Customer service via a unified inbox so you dont have to separately monitor your twitter, Facebook or IG account for consumer communication there. Gist unified all into one inbox, better than anyone else I've seen in the market. They archive all communications and tie them back to a single user so you get unified customer history / data.
    • Marketing segmentation and automation: they track user history and behavior across the site and have super detailed segmenting capability, on par with ActiveCampaign's, but better I'd say. Better UI for the marketing admin person, and more unified data than in AC.
    • Live chat and chatbot. Usually it's either one or the other but with Gist you can do both seamlessly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoho
    • It provides a simple widget code with a few clicks once you decide to integrate it with your website or application.
    • There is a very user friendly dedicated mobile application for Zoho Desk for Android and IOS devices.
    • You can easily track all of your tickets and agents from the dashboard interface.
    • You can insert tags with each ticket to group them into specific categories for analysis and troubleshooting.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Gist
    • Plan limits can be confusing. For example, there is a monthly charge for support and a monthly charge for "growth," plus there's a separate charge depending on how many contacts and seats you have. Perhaps this is normal in the industry, but it can make it a little challenging to understand the bill every month.
    • The vast amount of features means development will never be as fast as you'd like it to be (even though they release updates all the time). This may not actually be a valid concern, and it certainly isn't unique to Gist (who doesn't have a wishlist they're waiting on their favorite SaaS to get to?), but I do believe the likelihood of being stuck without your desired feature being developed goes up a lot as the product gets bigger and bigger.
    • Email deliverability has been less than perfect in the past, but it has improved drastically in the last year.
    Read full review
    Zoho
    • The biggest drawback that I am facing while using the platform is that their ticketing system is not that great [in my opinion]. It does not give us the option to add sales tax and other charges in the invoices which leads to a big problem for us.
    • [I feel] its customer support needs improvement.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Gist
    Gist is a quite reliable service with a lot of added values. We don't need to pay for different Saas for these important features. If I had an issue the team was super responsive and helpful, that is essential for every business. The email delivery is great, so virtually no email has landed into spam folder
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zoho
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Gist
    It’s pretty simple, but it does a lot so there are more complicated features which depend on an individuals ability for software implementation. I am not an IT expert and I’ve managed to implement everything myself, others that are more tech-minded may find everything easier.
    Read full review
    Zoho
    I give [Zoho Desk] [an] overall usability score of 9. This is partly due to the search functionality needs improvement. There are several times where I am left unable to find a ticket and have to generate a new one. I am hoping in the future that they will make some changes!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Gist
    Fantastic support. Ask a question, get an answer within 24 hours every time. And sometimes within a few minutes. They've always come through for me, helpful and, even when it's an issue on my end, they point me in the right direction.
    Incentivized
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    Zoho
    As Zoho Support is based in a different timezone to ours it can be an issue that we cannot get an immediate response to an issue. But I will say that once their Support is in the office they are fairly good to respond. they have resolved almost all issues I have told them about, but Zoho have also made system changes and not communicated these beforehand which means we are faced with something new and cannot get support on this until their support team is in the office
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Gist
    Gist combines all our previous products into one application and adds many more features that would require more apps. Gist is excellent and a no-brainer all-in-one application when compared to having to manage multiple applications at higher cost. The support from the whole Gist team has been extremely responsive.
    Read full review
    Zoho
    We selected Zoho Desk as we needed a platform that was going to allow the business to grow through both usage and staffing numbers. We wanted something cost-effective but still offered standard features in an effective cloud-delivered solution but would still allow customization by our internal dev team, to derive better value from the service where it natively didn't do what we needed it to. FreeAgent was okay for a while, but Zoho Desk has allowed a vast improvement in our service offering to end customers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Gist
    • They are perfect for me as a someone who needs a lot of bang for the buck. The chat messenger device on my website alone has brought me new prospects that I did not have to spend money recruiting.
    • I am able to save hours of time with the automated emails that are GDPR compliant.
    • I don't have to pay for a designer to have excellent looking emails either.
    Read full review
    Zoho
    • Zoho Desk has created an organised sytem of support which alows me to help my customers more efficiently.
    • By saving resolutions as articles, Zoho Desk has provided a training resource for current customers and support staff as part of solving problems.
    • All new customers become part of a database of customers who continue to receive support and education from forums created by the articles and customer questions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Gist Screenshots

    Screenshot of Live ChatScreenshot of Email MarketingScreenshot of Marketing Automation WorkflowsScreenshot of Knowledge BaseScreenshot of Meetings

    Zoho Desk Screenshots

    Screenshot of Log and monitor phone conversations, convert them into new tickets, or attach them to existing ones. Convert social media interactions and live chat into tickets at the click of a button.Screenshot of Bring a Help Center directly into a website to strengthen self-service. Chat with Zia, an AI-powered conversation assistant. Customers can chat with Zia right from a mobile app or website. Zia processes their questions and suggests appropriate solutions from the Knowledge Base.Screenshot of With advanced process automation, internal processes can be setup within the help desk, implement them automatically, and make sure that all processes are followed precisely.Screenshot of Instant responses for instant happiness. Respond to customers the minute they reach out with Zoho Desk's embeddable chat widget. Customers can get in touch with agents instantly, right from the Help Center, so agents can respond and help them find answers faster.Screenshot of Monitor a team's performance, customize and schedule reports. Custom dashboards can be created.Screenshot of Zia brings together predictions across anomalies, sentiment, trending ticket tags, and more into a common dashboard for decision-makers to consume. They can drill down further into the details from the same dashboard to investigate further.