LiveAgent vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
LiveAgent
Score 8.9 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
LiveAgent is a help desk software designed to help users bring personalization to customer interactions. LiveAgent presents an omnichannel universal inbox, real-time live chat, built-in call center, and a customer service portal. It offers customer segmentation, automation, built-in CRM, and an analytics package, as well as gamification features, ultimately containing are over 180+ help desk features, and 200+ integrations. The solution boasts users among companies like BMW, Yamaha,…
$15
per month per seat
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
LiveAgentZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
per month
Small
$15
per month per seat
Medium
$29
per month per seat
Large
$49
per month per seat
Enterprise
$69
per month per seat
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
LiveAgentZendesk Suite
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details20% discount available with annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
LiveAgentZendesk Suite
Considered Both Products
LiveAgent
Chose LiveAgent
I hated Zendesk we used them for 2 years and found them very unreliable and [unprofessional]. The system was laggy, bugged and beyond basic. It is nowhere near as good as LiveAgent and I am over the moon that we found them and decided to make the switch.
Chose LiveAgent
The price that LiveAgent has is just outstanding even with the features and helps us save money rather than spending loads of cash on other systems. It has also helped us better support our customers.
Chose LiveAgent
LiveAgent is much more complete and all the channels are available at the same place. The way customers get an answer is friendlier than Zendesk.
Overall, LiveAgent is much more user friendly and simple to understand. It has knowledge base section.
Chose LiveAgent
Price vs Functionality was a good fit for us.
Chose LiveAgent
Combines the above-mentioned services in one.
Chose LiveAgent
LiveAgent is high performing against the others. It does not have all the functionalities as Zendesk Chat or Aircall, as they are specifically handling one type of communication, but, it has all basic features and integration.
Chose LiveAgent
Before making the decision, we evaluated many tools, but none of them met all of our needs or the costs we could bear for them, until we found LiveAgent. The implementation process was super simple and supported by the LiveAgent support team, who are excellent!
Chose LiveAgent
LiveAgent unifies the various channels like nothing I have seen before. I also find the live support 24x7 for it to be excellent. All in all, this is a very good experience which is not only found to be beneficial by the management but also by the members of the team.
Chose LiveAgent
I have worked in other companies where the challenge was to train agents to use various communication and contact management tools.
Chose LiveAgent
We previously used Zendesk Chat but discovered after a period of testing that the chat widget negatively impacted our site loading speed. We did some research and discovered LiveAgent was number one ranked in the market place for a number of factors but, importantly for us, the …
Chose LiveAgent
LiveAgent provides better ROI, as Zendesk is too expensive.
Chose LiveAgent
For support tickets, I've found LiveAgent to be the best solution for the price. I love Gist but use it mostly for marketing automation. However, they do offer chat (similar to tickets, but can be more real-time) and knowledgebase functionality--I found keeping support tickets …
Chose LiveAgent
The main difference between LiveAgent and the alternatives is price and it's pretty huge. LiveAgent is a much cheaper option with no drawback.
Also, we've contacted various helpdesk software companies and once we've had a conversation with all of them, our company has decided …
Chose LiveAgent
  • Cheaper
  • Better knowledge base
  • Significantly better customer tickets
Chose LiveAgent
LiveAgent had the most important features that we needed with a much better cost per user compared to their competitors.
Chose LiveAgent
LiveAgent has impressed us the most out of all solutions that we've tested out. The features and plans seemed crafted to our needs so the decision was to go with LiveAgent. I can now honestly say that it was a good decision. We've recommended LiveAgent to many of our business …
Zendesk Suite
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.

Features
LiveAgentZendesk Suite
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
LiveAgent
7.8
59 Ratings
5% below category average
Zendesk Suite
8.8
172 Ratings
7% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets7.956 Ratings9.3171 Ratings
Expert directory7.947 Ratings8.2118 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications7.042 Ratings8.7119 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation6.838 Ratings8.2122 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission8.458 Ratings9.4172 Ratings
Ticket response8.459 Ratings9.3171 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
LiveAgent
10.0
52 Ratings
22% above category average
Zendesk Suite
8.4
156 Ratings
5% above category average
External knowledge base10.049 Ratings8.3150 Ratings
Internal knowledge base10.047 Ratings8.5143 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
LiveAgent
8.5
58 Ratings
6% above category average
Zendesk Suite
8.8
168 Ratings
10% above category average
Customer portal10.053 Ratings9.1138 Ratings
IVR7.028 Ratings8.570 Ratings
Social integration8.150 Ratings8.4112 Ratings
Email support7.454 Ratings9.3165 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration10.046 Ratings9.0128 Ratings
Best Alternatives
LiveAgentZendesk 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
LiveAgentZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(117 ratings)
9.0
(209 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.3
(4 ratings)
10.0
(43 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(4 ratings)
8.8
(82 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(14 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
9.3
(24 ratings)
5.6
(31 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.1
(2 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
LiveAgentZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
QualityUnit, LLC
LiveAgent is great for companies that want to help customers with their issues. It is also great for getting sales for our company. During our chats, if a customer is interested, we like to ask for the sale. It is too easy for the customers to say no. So it is nice that with LiveAgent, they have an automatic process where the customer can enter their item and address information and it is easy for our agents to get the sale.
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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.
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Pros
QualityUnit, LLC
  • Having the ability to transfer tickets or chats has proven useful when we are working with a customer who has a specific type of inquiry - perhaps a sales question or an employment request. We’ve found it helpful to have the ability to transfer the chat to the online agent best equipped to answer the inquiry so we are able to serve our customers to the highest standard and with an immediate response.
  • We find being able to add notes and labels to previous chats and tickets incredibly helpful in data collection and also in our ability to work as a dynamic team. By being able to sort our chats and tickets into an organized system that our company created, we can work cohesively to review old conversations for continuity, opportunities for growth, and with transparency between departments.
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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
QualityUnit, LLC
  • LA doesn't provide you SMS integration.
  • You cannot divert your phone call from your local carrier to LA agent directly. You need to get a third party number which is way much costly. Also, if you get a third party number to divert your calls from a local carrier to LA, then the callers have to wait more than the usual time in order to get them connected with the Customer Support Team.
  • WhatsApp Integration also unavailable.
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?
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Likelihood to Renew
QualityUnit, LLC
I am giving this rating as Live Agent is a very good software that is essential to any small or big business that provides customer support services. It gives you the possibility to manage any of your clients issues, answer questions and keep a good relationship with them by providing quick solutions.
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.
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Usability
QualityUnit, LLC
The initial setup, onboarding and training is easy. The system provides 2 graphic version of interfaces in black or white default colors. I would appreciate, if there were more. Some of the setup forms are not correctly resized. Overall, I'm always able to find what I am looking for in LiveAgent.
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.
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Reliability and Availability
QualityUnit, LLC
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
QualityUnit, LLC
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
QualityUnit, LLC
The one time that I contacted the customer support at LiveAgent, they were very quick to help me out and the customer support representative walked me through every thing that I needed to know to set up what I needed. Over all, the support staff at LiveAgent were perfect.
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
QualityUnit, LLC
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
QualityUnit, LLC
Implementation was quick and when not counting a bug on our website, it took a couple hours. It was mostly done on our end or with the assistance of LiveAgent's live chat support team. We recommend to check out LiveAgent's tutorial videos on their youtube channel or browsing their knowledge base - we've almost always found answers to our queries there.
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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
QualityUnit, LLC
Before making the decision, we evaluated many tools, but none of them met all of our needs or the costs we could bear for them, until we found LiveAgent. The implementation process was super simple and supported by the LiveAgent support team, who are excellent!
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.
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Scalability
QualityUnit, LLC
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
WHY we will use Zendesk in HR and PD internally
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Return on Investment
QualityUnit, LLC
  • Less expensive than having multiple individual email accounts.
  • LiveAgent has helped decrease our errors since it's more straightforward than sharing a traditional inbox with multiple team members.
  • Sometimes the emails sent from LiveAgent end up in our customer's spam/junk folder because the auto-generated alpha-numeric ticket looks suspicious.
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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.
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ScreenShots

LiveAgent Screenshots

Screenshot of Inside of TicketsScreenshot of Chat - Support ViewScreenshot of Chat - Customer ViewScreenshot of Chat - Fully Customizable

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