Jira Service Management vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Jira Service Management
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Jira Service Management (formerly Jira Service Desk, now including features from the former Mindville Insight, acquired by Atlassian in June 2020) is a service desk software that is purpose-built for IT, service, and support teams. The software provides everything IT and support teams need out-of-the-box for service request, incident, problem and change management. Jira Service Management integrates seamlessly with Jira Software so that IT and development teams can work better together. Users…
$0
per month
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
Jira Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
per month
Standard
$20
per agent/per month
Premium
$40
per agent/per month
Enterprise
Contact sales team
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
Jira Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details20% discount available with annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Jira Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Considered Both Products
Jira Service Management
Chose Jira Service Management
JSM is more purpose-built for internal support tickets and processes. It also provides a structure to support users, unlike generalist tools like Notion. We found that there isn't really an 'all-in-one' tool that can correctly handle internal and external requests. This isn't …
Chose Jira Service Management
We chose Jira Service Management due to its easy integrations with the rest of the Atlassian tools, as we have also invested in those. For the price, the ability to add or remove agents, and the cost being reflected in that, it was an excellent medium for us. For the …
Chose Jira Service Management
It was the most complete package, requiring the lesser adjustments compared to the others, had the most options to tailor to our specific needs, and the price for the Cloud hosted version was fair.
Chose Jira Service Management
We selected Jira Service Desk because we were already Jira users, and the price point was easy to absorb. Our experience as Jira administrators made it easy to customize Jira Service Desk to our needs.
Chose Jira Service Management
Unlike the 2 other alternatives, Jira is more complete. It is a bit harder to use, but because it has more customized and better functionalities. While other software can be used for almost everything, Jira works best for tech companies that need to work on agile methodologies …
Chose Jira Service Management
We are now in the process of moving from Jira to Zendesk, however, I would assume that we would still be using Jira for the time being. Zendesk is a bit easier to understand and manage for the non-technical people, but Jira gave us the basics that we needed to have in order to …
Chose Jira Service Management
Zendesk is a similar ticketing system that our organization used before JIRA Service Desk. The main drawback of Zendesk was that it can only be used as a cloud service. This means that our company data would be living on the internet at the hands of their security team. Another …
Chose Jira Service Management
We did select Jira initially because of its simplicity and ease of setup but it turned out to be a lot more complex to get up and running!

We had a large KEBD, and we wanted to take its advantage to the fullest, so we went ahead and had this setup, but later replaced it with …
Chose Jira Service Management
Sure there are other great service management products in the market. Since we use JIRA and Confluence heavily, Service Desk fits perfectly in the suite. As a brief example, after the customer creates a case, we can create an associated issue at JIRA for development team, after …
Chose Jira Service Management
We have looked into other software and still use the others like Zendesk and Wrike in other departments but Jira Service desk made the most sense due to our Product development teams using Jira Software already. It was easy to keep it all under one umbrella giving us the ease …
Zendesk Suite
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 was the most organized, integrateable option between the other options I've used before.
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk support is your one-stop shop for managing customers via the customer support portal that has a slew of products available for use via several channels, depending on your particular need may it be email messaging, chat messaging, or voice, and it is quite superior …
Chose Zendesk Suite
In comparison of tracking tickets, I found Jira to be more confusing than Zendesk. I have not used Jira in many years and I know that others in our organization use Jira in addition to Zendesk. Of all the support platforms, I think Zendesk is the best and most used, which is …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk is a customer support tool that offers the best features, is intuitive, dynamic and easy to use. Allows the use of macros to optimize messages to customers. This platform makes it possible to optimize and organize the services we offer to our customers, which are …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk is far superior because it can cater to any size company. Also, regardless of which package you purchase, you get to set up a multi-channel and extensive self-service support, which was very beneficial for us. Finally, the self-service portal hosts a rich knowledge base …
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
We used Kayako and it was pretty basic in terms of workflows and ticket management. It wasn't multichannel and it didn't have a mobile app. Ticket categorization wasn't as robust and effective, but it was easy to learn. JIRA is as robust as Zendesk, but it is also not easy to …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Salesforce is a more robust tool with back-end SQL reporting functionality and numerous plugins, but with this comes cost. Most startup organizations do not want the expense, at least not at the beginning of the product life cycle.
Features
Jira Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Jira Service Management
8.6
84 Ratings
5% above category average
Zendesk Suite
8.8
172 Ratings
7% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets8.883 Ratings9.3171 Ratings
Expert directory9.02 Ratings8.2118 Ratings
Service restoration9.52 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-service tools8.275 Ratings00 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications10.01 Ratings8.7119 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation7.870 Ratings8.2122 Ratings
ITSM reports and dashboards6.871 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.4172 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings9.3171 Ratings
ITSM asset management
Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Product A and Product B
Jira Service Management
10.0
1 Ratings
19% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Configuration mangement10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset management dashboard10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy and contract enforcement10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Change management
Comparison of Change management features of Product A and Product B
Jira Service Management
7.6
78 Ratings
11% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Change requests repository8.571 Ratings00 Ratings
Change calendar6.52 Ratings00 Ratings
Service-level management7.876 Ratings00 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Jira Service Management
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.4
156 Ratings
5% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings8.3150 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.5143 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Jira Service Management
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.8
168 Ratings
10% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings9.1138 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings8.570 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings8.4112 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings9.3165 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings9.0128 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Jira Service ManagementZendesk 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
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Score 9.1 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Jira Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
7.9
(85 ratings)
9.0
(209 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(43 ratings)
Usability
8.3
(10 ratings)
8.8
(82 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(14 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
9.1
(25 ratings)
5.6
(31 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(19 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Jira Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Atlassian
I think using a ticketing system is very easy to use and allows multiple teams to create help desks in the same portal. In terms of internal usage, I think this is a great option. However, suppose you're trying to keep internal items and external helpdesks in the same instance. In that case, this is not ideal, as there is no effective way to separate the two instances to protect internal data better.
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
Atlassian
  • Integration with many of the most common tools companies are using (Slack, MS Teams, Salesforce, ... etc)
  • Natural workflow with Jira (as product development / project management tool) which makes the full fix and follow up of the tickets / issues very easy to follow
  • Allow multiple different entry points and work flows for as many different needs your teams / company have
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
Atlassian
  • Navigating through issues outside of a kan ban board can be confusing and task heavy.
  • It's easy to clutter up the tool. It could use some easy clean up capabilities.
  • User interface is decent, but could use work to make it more intuitive.
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
Atlassian
No answers on this topic
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
Atlassian
If you're used to other tools in the Atlassian ecosystem, you'll feel right at home with JSM. It's also a platform that technical folk can easily pick up. However, I wouldn't recommend using JSM as a company's first jumping off point into Atlassian. There are a lot of other 'newer' tools that provide sleeker ITSM systems at a similar cost.
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
Atlassian
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.
Read full review
Performance
Atlassian
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
Atlassian
I gave JIRA a 9 rating since for me JIRA works according to its purpose. Since there is a customer portal, our clients can leave a comment or communicate with us using the PR ticket that way it is easier for us to also request any additional information we need for our investigation.
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
Atlassian
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
Atlassian
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
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Atlassian
Zendesk is a similar ticketing system that our organization used before JIRA Service Desk. The main drawback of Zendesk was that it can only be used as a cloud service. This means that our company data would be living on the internet at the hands of their security team. Another drawback of this is the price is significantly more expensive rather than hosting it yourself. Zendesk does have some additional features such as commenting on multiple tickets at once that JSD does lack. However, switching to JSD was significantly more cost effective because we have the ability and the infrastructure to host our own ticketing system, something that Zendesk could not provide. Ultimatley switching to JSD saved us money and allows the ability for integration with all of the other Atlassian Suite products that we use on a day to day basis.
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
Atlassian
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
WHY we will use Zendesk in HR and PD internally
Read full review
Return on Investment
Atlassian
  • It is definitely cheaper than Salesforce
  • It allows the IT service desk to be more organized and respond more quickly to tickets, which can save time for both agent and requester.
  • Some things are "not quite there" developmentally, so this means that internal IT will need to spend more time developing and testing the product.
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

Jira Service Management Screenshots

Screenshot of Drive IT best practices with ITIL-ready templates. Get everything your IT teams need out of the box for service request, incident, problem, and change management.Screenshot of Get an ITIL certified service desk. Everything your IT teams need out-of-the-box for service request, incident, problem, and change management. Jira Service Desk is PinkVERIFY™ certified.Screenshot of Deliver a better service experience. Customers or employees can submit requests with an easy-to-use help center and add Confluence to Jira Service Desk to get an integrated knowledge base. Machine learning intelligently recommends the right service and learns from every interaction, so answers are easy to find.Screenshot of Stay in the loop with developers. y linking Jira Service Desk with Jira Software, IT and developer teams can collaborate on one platform to fix incidents faster and push changes with confidence.Screenshot of Deliver on SLA's. Nail your Service Level Agreements, every time. Your agents get a simple queue so they get the important things done first. Configure and get going in minutes.Screenshot of Automate those repetitive tasks. Is your team stuck in gear with repetitive tasks or missing priority requests? Setup automations so your agents can focus on solving the important stuff and help lighten the workload.

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