Kayako vs. Zoho Desk

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Kayako
Score 2.2 out of 10
N/A
Kayako is a help desk / ticketing product and is available is both SaaS and on-premise configurations. Is is built in PHP and uses my SQL. The product competes with HelpSpot, ZohoSupport, Freshdesk and Zendesk. The Kayako Engage edition may be deployed as a live chat system without ticketing at a reduced cost, featuring click-to-call and site visitor monitoring for customer targeting and engagement.
$29
per month
Zoho Desk
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Zoho Support is a Saas help desk / ticketing system aimed at SMBs. I competes most often with Zendesk, and Desk.com.
$0
Pricing
KayakoZoho Desk
Editions & Modules
Inbox
$15.00
Per User Per Month
Growth
$30.00
Per User Per Month
Scale
$60.00
Per User Per Month
Free
$0
Standard
$14
per user
Professional
$23
per user
Enterprise
$40
per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
KayakoZoho Desk
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
KayakoZoho Desk
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Kayako
2.0
11 Ratings
119% below category average
Zoho Desk
8.0
2 Ratings
1% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets1.011 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Expert directory1.05 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications1.08 Ratings7.02 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation1.07 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission7.011 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Ticket response1.011 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Kayako
1.0
9 Ratings
154% below category average
Zoho Desk
7.0
2 Ratings
10% below category average
External knowledge base1.09 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Internal knowledge base1.08 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Kayako
1.0
10 Ratings
154% below category average
Zoho Desk
8.0
2 Ratings
4% above category average
Customer portal1.07 Ratings8.02 Ratings
IVR1.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Social integration1.04 Ratings00 Ratings
Email support1.010 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration1.06 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Best Alternatives
KayakoZoho Desk
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
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce 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
KayakoZoho Desk
Likelihood to Recommend
1.0
(22 ratings)
7.5
(21 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.8
(11 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.4
(12 ratings)
Availability
7.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
2.1
(4 ratings)
8.7
(12 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
KayakoZoho Desk
Likelihood to Recommend
Kayako
When it works, It's without a doubt a great help desk solution. It is perfect for our usage, and have rolled it out company-wide. It's great if you have multiple departments. We have it set up so most items come through a single desk that then hands out tickets to their proper department. There may be cheaper options for smaller organizations but for one that is as service-driven as ours, we really think Kayako is a great fit.
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Zoho
The user friendly android and IOS applications are one of the best features of Zoho Desk although if you are expecting a Desktop application then you will be disappointed and will have to access it from your browser which can be slow sometimes, depending on your internet connection. The work flow of tickets submission either manually through the dashboard or mobile application, and tickets assignment to other agents along with tracking tickets and agents' performance is very easily executed with no issues being faced.
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Pros
Kayako
  • Gives a very good report on an individual level of what is being done for a customer or corporate issue.
  • Easy to understand who has what, what the tickets are about, how long they have been opened and how many times the customer/employee have gone back and forth with each other.
  • Nice dashboard view.
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Zoho
  • Report features give the all insights of the customer team and customer support which enables us to make changes according to it.
  • The best thing about Zoho Desk is that it has a very beautiful and fully designed dashboard.
  • I have been using this software for a very long time in my organization, it is very easy to use with having the interface created on a very advanced module.
  • It is completely a feature rich platform.
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Cons
Kayako
  • Departments need a bit of work. Even though you can have multiple departments, the only changes that can be made are globally. If you want independent queues within the departments, you have to do a lot of work that can be very confusing.
  • Survey system is not up to speed. Kayako really needs to add Net Promoter Score into their system. Also, if a staff user removes their name from an incident ticket, it removes them from the survey so you really can't even get a good estimate of how well your staff is in the eyes of the customer.
  • Very difficult to implement when you already have a customer base. Setting them up in organizations is difficult. Also, the sign-up for new customers is quirky. If you send an email to Kayako, it will say you are not an authorized user, however, it will store your email address. If you try to send an email a second time, it will go through. This is one of many reasons why we decided to move from Kayako to Oracle Service Cloud.
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Zoho
  • When utilizing as a ticketing system, it would be nice to have a better way to monitor when something is due. It's just a little cumbersome.
  • Search Functionality - The search functionality could use a tweak or two. Too many times I am unable to find tickets. This would also be very helpful for the "Recycle Bin" when you just need to find that ticket you accidentally deleted (we are all human!). :)
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Likelihood to Renew
Kayako
  • We are grandfathered in on their old Software-assurance pricing and our continued use costs us only a few hundred dollars a year (excluding hosting expenses)
  • Our team's processes are now heavily ingrained in the system
  • We have not been shown a more compelling option that is more cost-effective while still offering all the features we've come to expect
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Zoho
No answers on this topic
Usability
Kayako
I did not come from an IT background and I picked this program up quickly
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Zoho
At times Zoho [Desk] can be a bit glitchy. It does not auto refresh on the ticketing system, and even f it tells you there is a new ticket clicking it does nothing and you need to refresh the page for it to work. We have found at times that is can become unresponsive, although this usually doesn't last for longer than 15-30 mins.
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Reliability and Availability
Kayako
They are really good, but it takes a while to get back, because of the large time difference to the Eastern US. However, they are very helpful.
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Zoho
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Kayako
  • We didn't have to use support too much, but when we did, they were able to assist us and help us make everything work.
  • Mostly we used their Online KB and step by step instructions to get all of our issues resolved.
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Zoho
Zoho Desk has a technical team of professionals, who are well informed, and they know how to share the knowledge with the other players. Besides, they are competent in dealing with all kinds of customers, from divergent locations, and adopt their differences. Lastly, when called upon to solve an issue, they are quickly responsive.
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Implementation Rating
Kayako
Three years in we are about as happy with Kayako as we could be. We've had several employee's leave and on-boarding new hires was easier than it has ever been as things are uniform and consistent across the entire application.
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Zoho
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Kayako
We were using Spiceworks for a few years before switching to Kayako but found that it wasn't as customizable or as user friendly for our customers. The SNMP scanning and inventory features with Spiceworks was nice but we needed more of a Help Desk that would allow us to scale our services to more companies.
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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.
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Return on Investment
Kayako
  • Tickets were definitely responded to faster once we implemented the audible alarm that would go off when new tickets came into the queue. This was possible because of the API.
  • Since the system was email based we could set our monitoring software up to generate tickets automatically via email for customers when it found something out of the ordinary.
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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.
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ScreenShots

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.