Microsoft Dynamics 365 vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft Dynamics 365
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a CRM providing sales, marketing, and service functionality. It is offered as SaaS and on-premise. Dynamics 365 is part of the larger Dynamics suite of business intelligence and ERP products.
$44
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
Microsoft Dynamics 365Zendesk 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
Microsoft Dynamics 365Zendesk Suite
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft Dynamics 365Zendesk Suite
Considered Both Products
Microsoft Dynamics 365
Chose Microsoft Dynamics 365
[Microsoft Dynamics CRM stacks up] Very poorly. You should go for a CRM with a modern cloud architecture.
Zendesk Suite
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Microsoft Dynamics 365Zendesk Suite
Sales Force Automation
Comparison of Sales Force Automation features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.9
69 Ratings
3% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Customer data management / contact management8.768 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow management7.266 Ratings00 Ratings
Territory management8.150 Ratings00 Ratings
Opportunity management8.362 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)7.565 Ratings00 Ratings
Contract management8.351 Ratings00 Ratings
Quote & order management8.347 Ratings00 Ratings
Interaction tracking7.159 Ratings00 Ratings
Channel / partner relationship management7.550 Ratings00 Ratings
Customer Service & Support
Comparison of Customer Service & Support features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
6.9
54 Ratings
8% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Case management7.950 Ratings00 Ratings
Call center management8.044 Ratings00 Ratings
Help desk management4.948 Ratings00 Ratings
Marketing Automation
Comparison of Marketing Automation features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.8
66 Ratings
3% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Lead management8.360 Ratings00 Ratings
Email marketing7.261 Ratings00 Ratings
CRM Project Management
Comparison of CRM Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.7
63 Ratings
1% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Task management7.358 Ratings00 Ratings
Billing and invoicing management7.543 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting8.352 Ratings00 Ratings
CRM Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of CRM Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
8.8
64 Ratings
14% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Forecasting9.154 Ratings00 Ratings
Pipeline visualization9.160 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable reports8.363 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.8
66 Ratings
3% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Custom fields8.365 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom objects8.060 Ratings00 Ratings
Scripting environment8.347 Ratings00 Ratings
API for custom integration6.751 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.9
61 Ratings
5% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Single sign-on capability8.355 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based user permissions7.556 Ratings00 Ratings
Social CRM
Comparison of Social CRM features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.9
36 Ratings
8% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Social data8.335 Ratings00 Ratings
Social engagement7.536 Ratings00 Ratings
Integrations with 3rd-party Software
Comparison of Integrations with 3rd-party Software features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
7.5
55 Ratings
5% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Marketing automation7.555 Ratings00 Ratings
Compensation management7.528 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform
Comparison of Platform features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
8.3
47 Ratings
10% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Mobile access8.347 Ratings00 Ratings
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.2
112 Ratings
4% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.5111 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings7.270 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings7.676 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.171 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.2112 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings8.9111 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.0
99 Ratings
3% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings7.995 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.189 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft Dynamics 365
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.0
110 Ratings
4% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings7.786 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings7.835 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings7.366 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings8.6108 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.679 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Microsoft Dynamics 365Zendesk Suite
Small Businesses
Salesmate
Salesmate
Score 9.8 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.1 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.1 out of 10
SAP Service Cloud
SAP Service Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft Dynamics 365Zendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
7.8
(88 ratings)
8.3
(150 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(20 ratings)
10.0
(40 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(18 ratings)
7.4
(23 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(13 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Support Rating
7.9
(11 ratings)
9.0
(29 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
7.5
(2 ratings)
7.9
(9 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.2
(4 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.3
(3 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
3.9
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft Dynamics 365Zendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
All told, if it hadn't been for the fact that we were testing it with both employees who knew CRM lingo and those who were new, we wouldn't have found such an issue. The program itself can be very useful for people who already manage CRMs, who know how to use them, who know how to run and manage employees on them, namely because of the "one-stop-shop" concept in data visibility. When it came down to it though, if you have high-turnover, then this product will devolve into only being used for it's base components. Down the middle, we found that the people who'd been in marketing for 4-5 years fell into the product easily because of the way it was written. Everyone before that, with novice experience, thought it was written like a textbook for a graduate class - little to no leeway if you don't happen to know one specific term
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Zendesk
1. A lottery winner has a question about claiming their prize that involves tax implications. You can easily loop in a tax specialist from your finance department within the ticket itself for a collaborative resolution. 2. Lottery players frequently ask about specific drawing times or eligibility rules. You can set up automated responses within Zendesk to answer these common questions, saving time for your team.
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Pros
Microsoft
  • Some useful out-of-the-box features, like mass uploads of Leads from trade shows or when qualifying a Lead, CRM automatically creates the Opportunity, Contact, and Account for you, etc.
  • Really powerful customizations through the user interface to improve user experience. Things like Business Rules, for example, if Field A = 1, then Field B = 2 and Field C = 2, if Field A = 2, then Field B and Field C don't apply, so automatically hide them.
  • Or other functionality that improves user experience, like Business Process Flows. These walk users step by step through our business process, helping them know when certain actions should take place, and at what point other data is now required. We've used this extensively with our Lead to Opportunity to Quote to Order process, helping users understand the business process each step of the way.
  • Customizations built on top of the platform now called model-driven PowerApps. You can have connections to "typical" data, like Accounts, Contacts, or Opportunities, for example, but then connect that data to custom entities, records that only apply to your specific business. This is all done through the user interface and allows you to customize and automate specific line-of-business applications for your specific needs.
  • Behind the scenes, D365 CE is built on SQL. So the data conforms to industry standards and makes it much easier to interact with. Your developers and IT team will thank you.
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
Microsoft
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365 storage & license cost can prohibit some large deployments or even cost-sensitive small projects from using the platform (although I'm certain most deployments would realize a positive ROI if implemented correctly with process automation).
  • The cost and licensing document for Dynamics 365 is 61 pages and will take a rocket scientist to understand it. It's better to just have your Microsoft help estimate the cost if they are willing to help you that.
  • The documentation on how to first fully understand the Out of the Box default solution and settings is lacking or even non-existing. This has the potential to derail Dynamic 365 launches and implementations from the gitgo. Want to use an out of the box entity?.. well it's probably related to 5 other entities that require configuration and full understanding of it to successful implement. And you ask where is the laymen guide or instructions?... User groups and forums. In Summary, Microsoft can up its game in deployment training and supporting documentation.
  • Microsoft needs to incentivize more external platforms to build app connectors for easy integration, such as ZenDesk, Slack, Tableau, etc. Even the current connector apps such as Salesforce, MailChimp, Docusign are useless or don't work at all.
  • Several limitations inhibit successful Dynamics 365 deployments such as: limited number of Rollup field calculations (summarizing fields on child/related records), limited number rows that can exported to Excel via advanced find, Dynamics 365 files, log and database storage size limit is extremely small and will always require purchasing additional storage (for Online deployments).
  • New user buy-in or acceptance or system platform changes can be difficult if a solid change management plan isn't enacted.
  • Don't expect much help from Microsoft on implementation or solutions unless it's a technical flaw with the platform. Microsoft relies on their MVP partner network to consult for implementations at a hefty cost. Hiring a knowledgeable and savvy Dynamics 365 System Administrator can reduce the need for consultant support; of course, this is dependant upon many many variables.
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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
Microsoft
CRM has allowed us to keep all of our data in one place that is easy for all users within the company to view. I came into the company after they had been using CRM for about 4 years. They have all said that since we have used this it has helped us control work processes better, it has allowed us to be able to track things so much better, and has been something that has helped unite many processes that used to be all over the place. We are currently using CRM 4.0 and are planning on upgrading in the next 18 months to the 2011 version. Support for 4.0 is almost all but dried up. Understandably so. Some of the customization we have done, and a plugins we use, are now contained within the 2011 version so we are looking forward to that upgrade. We use an email marketing company as well, and they primarily support the 2011 version, but their product connects and is integrated within CRM. This is a great benefit as well so that all of our marketing information can be contained in one location.
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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
Microsoft
My review can help others to choose the correct CRM like Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM. I see lots of great things in Microsoft Dynamics 365 that make your business easy and smooth also MS allows users to customize the software according to their needs. So Thought I should share my experience with others.
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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
Microsoft
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
Microsoft
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.
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Support Rating
Microsoft
Our partner, Ledgeview Partners has been FANTASTIC to work with. They are always timely in their response and have taken time to understand our business and our specific needs. We've made a lot of advanced customizations and they have been a great help in making those updates.
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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
Microsoft
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
Microsoft
We used a data warehouse to house our data, and our IT team and implementation vendor worked diligently ahead of time to construct idea implementation plans. Out of millions of records- we had less than a dozen errors, which is remarkable. My major insight is simply having a group of completely devoted individuals working towards your goal who fully understand the desired outcome. Focused resources for implementation season are critical to success.
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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
Microsoft
Salesforce has more desirable functions than Microsoft Dynamics 365, at a competitive price. Its user interface is far more superior, it has more customization, easier customization, and out of the box it is more pleasing to the eye and to the end user. If the client doesn't have a deep-rooted connection with Microsoft I wouldn't leap to Dynamics 365.
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Zendesk
If spoken honestly Intercom is a level-par with any nearest competitor, Tools like Zendesk has to catchup with them in speed. However, there is an advantage to Zendesk with its simple and easy-to-get software which falls in every mid and small-size business pocket wherein Intercom is way too expensive and needs a tech admin to customize the product. The kick-starting feature with negligible configuration made Zendesk the ideal choice of our organization + the budget fell under our expenses.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Microsoft
On our purchase, I'd been interrogated about our usage. Our needs are met by Microsoft Dynamics 365, which is simple to use. With so much data and information available, we must ensure that it is presented correctly to managers. Due to a lack of use, we don't have to spend as much money on Salesforce.
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Zendesk
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
Microsoft
My company's preferred program right now is Microsoft Dynamics 365. We use it to keep track of customers and important sales metrics in a streamlined manner. Anyone familiar with CRMs will find the tool extremely useful. Considering that we have a good turnover, this product will be used for its basic segments. As a result, there are few chances of error with Microsoft dynamics because it is so easy to use. Many options for recording data on these leads are available. It meets our needs and pays off.
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Zendesk
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • It is hard to say, the reason why we are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM is because it is provided to us for free.
  • It could be worthwhile to investigate whether an alternative CRM (even though paid) can be used to boost the ROI
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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
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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