HelpSpot vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
HelpSpot
Score 4.2 out of 10
N/A
HelpSpot is an affordable, web-based help desk system. It is available as a SaaS product or can be hosted by the customer behind a firewall. Pricing is by named user.
$49
per month
Zendesk Suite
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
The Zendesk Support suite is a cloud-based customer support software built for better customer relationships. Designed to improve customer satisfaction and to support customers on any channel: text SMS, web, mobile app, phone, email, social media. The vendor states more than 200,000 companies such as Uber, Groupon, Box, Airbnb, and Slack are using Zendesk to lower their support costs, raise productivity, and increase customer satisfaction. Zendesk offers a full suite of products to meet customer…
$55
per month agent
Pricing
HelpSpotZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Support Team (Foundational Support Only)
$19
per month agent
Suite Team
$55
per month agent
Support Professional
$55
per month agent
Suite Growth
$89
per month agent
Suite Professional
$115
per month agent
Support Enterprise
$115
per month agent
Suite Enterprise
$169
per month agent
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
HelpSpotZendesk Suite
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
HelpSpotZendesk Suite
Considered Both Products
HelpSpot
Chose HelpSpot
HelpSpot appears to be more of an old-school product but much of the recent technology is running under the surface. It has much of the compexity and customization available with Jira in tandem with the easy communications interface, not unlike Zendesk ,and some of the …
Zendesk Suite
Chose Zendesk Suite
We have used HelpSpot for several years prior to the transition to Zendesk. Our biggest gripe was the cost and limitations on what kind of communication channels could be integrated into HelpSpot. Zendesk allows us to have multiple communication channels even for the most basic …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
HelpSpotZendesk Suite
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
HelpSpot
9.0
1 Ratings
13% above category average
Zendesk Suite
8.1
109 Ratings
3% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.01 Ratings8.4108 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission9.01 Ratings9.1109 Ratings
Ticket response9.01 Ratings8.8108 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings7.268 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings7.374 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings7.970 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
HelpSpot
9.0
1 Ratings
15% above category average
Zendesk Suite
7.9
97 Ratings
2% above category average
Internal knowledge base9.01 Ratings8.088 Ratings
External knowledge base00 Ratings7.893 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
HelpSpot
9.0
1 Ratings
16% above category average
Zendesk Suite
7.9
107 Ratings
3% above category average
Email support9.01 Ratings8.5105 Ratings
Customer portal00 Ratings7.484 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings7.835 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings7.366 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.579 Ratings
Best Alternatives
HelpSpotZendesk Suite
Small Businesses
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP Service Cloud
SAP Service Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
HelpSpotZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(3 ratings)
8.3
(147 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
2.3
(2 ratings)
10.0
(40 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
6.9
(20 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(13 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(29 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.9
(9 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.3
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
HelpSpotZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
UserScape
HelpSpot is well suited for streamlining support ticketing within the organization. By providing a single point of contact to email for support, we were able to increase response time and case resolution by approximately 30% through the increased efficiency of ticket routing via workflows and the ability for IT support staff to grab tickets from the queue instead of having them pile up in a mailbox that contains other emails as well.
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Zendesk
The ability to Merge tickets is a good to have feature. Navigation is easy from one ticket to another ticket without having to go back to the list. Admin options should be more clear, internal menu navigation is complex and creates more confusion while arranging the sections and articles. Channel Management is good but Forum management can be brought in with more flexibility. More Apps integration or flexibility in APIs so that a newbie can also integrate the application into the software. A redundant software that brings in 360-degree communication of support/service concepts into practicality however if the option to compile texting with platforms like ringcentral, Twilio or Dialpad will be an awesome thing to share ticket updates with custom templates.
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Pros
UserScape
  • HelpSpot was great for organization. Having different queues allowed each of my team members to organize their conversations with the customer and quickly retrieve the history of the ticket.
  • HelpSpot is a fairly simple tool that has a friendly user interface. With it's more modern look, it made it easier for me personally to navigate and train team members on how to use it successfully.
  • HelpSpot allowed our team to view the responses section, which allowed our team to cut down on the time we spent responding to a ticket.
Read full review
Zendesk
  • Reporting and Analytics
  • Ease of Agent Training and Use
  • Able to add multiple brands with related custom reports and dashboards
  • Adding a new brand and basic help center is easy to do without the need of an expert or web team
  • Ability of agents and supervisors to see customer history across multiple channels
Read full review
Cons
UserScape
  • The UI is a little dated but to be fair, shows most of the pertinent information at a glance on a well designed dashboard.
  • The UI can also be buggy at times with controls appearing in strange places. These glitches are usually corrected within a reasonable amount of time.
Read full review
Zendesk
  • I think the Graphical User Interface could use a facelift. It not the most aesthetically pleasing platform in my experience.
  • Particular things like where the default is when you click on each and every dropdown menu.
  • The macro integration could be a little more simplified.
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Likelihood to Renew
UserScape
My current job does not use this platform as it is not necessary for my job function.
Read full review
Zendesk
Zendesk is super easy to use and navigate. I really enjoy the sleek layout, the ability to tailor tickets, the macro option, and the quick key guide they have to make your use of time even more effective. My whole team loves working with Zendesk and rarely ever has problems.
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Usability
UserScape
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
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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Reliability and Availability
UserScape
No answers on this topic
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
UserScape
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
UserScape
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
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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Online Training
UserScape
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
UserScape
No answers on this topic
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
UserScape
HelpSpot appears to be more of an old-school product but much of the recent technology is running under the surface. It has much of the compexity and customization available with Jira in tandem with the easy communications interface, not unlike Zendesk ,and some of the potential archival intelligence (in the works) of Fogbugz
Read full review
Zendesk
Although a bit pricey, it does the job well. We are happy with the results it provides; our team is also quite satisfied on how easy it is to use, login and start working. Compared to the other two we have tried, Zendesk takes the cake. It makes Customer Management much easier, more efficient, and more effective.
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Return on Investment
UserScape
  • Improved ticket response time
  • Workload reporting to upper management
  • Ticket category reporting to identify training opportunities
Read full review
Zendesk
  • The positives weigh more than the negatives here, as it gives us a one-stop portal where we can tend to customer needs using one web app
  • It has also helped us identify areas of improvement based on the reporting feature
  • The value it provides outweighs any missing or lacking features that I'm sure will be available in the future
Read full review
ScreenShots

Zendesk Suite Screenshots

Screenshot of 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