Pendo.io vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Pendo.io
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Pendo.io is a product engagement platform with features for in-app analytics, surveys and feedback, and guidance.N/A
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
Pendo.ioZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
*Free
Free
Base
Contact sales team
Core
Contact sales team
Pulse
Contact sales team
Ultimate
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
Pendo.ioZendesk Suite
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details20% discount available with annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Pendo.ioZendesk Suite
Considered Both Products
Pendo.io
Chose Pendo.io
At the time of evaluation, Pendo.io stood out as an exceptional digital adoption solution. We couldn't find another solution that had the mix of analytics and in-app guidance that worked for our needs. We're so glad we selected Pendo and look forward to continuing our …
Chose Pendo.io
We used a rubric to compare Pendo.io to the other tools listed. We scored/compared on the following items that were/are important to our company:

  • Ease of Use
Chose Pendo.io
We didn't find other products like Pendo.io when we looked through them years ago
Chose Pendo.io
We previously subscribed to Intercom for product announcements but went with Pendo.io because it also gives us robust product usage analytics and polls, and allows us more flexibility in posting targeted product announcements. We phased out Intercom after we purchased Pendo.io …
Chose Pendo.io
Pendo's level of analytics that they provide on how our customers are performing and what they're using within our platform is second to none. We use the guides a lot but we really get value out of being able to see how our customers are using our platform. We're now able to …
Chose Pendo.io
Mixpanel was a more labor intensive to setup and use. We had to divert developer resources to tag each feature and deploy code. With Pendo a non-technical/non-developer can tag elements on the webpage and it is a huge time saver to get information back faster and cheaper.
Zendesk Suite

No answer on this topic

Features
Pendo.ioZendesk Suite
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Pendo.io
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.8
171 Ratings
7% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings9.2170 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings8.2117 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings8.6118 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.2121 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.4171 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings9.3170 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Pendo.io
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.4
155 Ratings
4% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings8.4149 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.5142 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Pendo.io
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.8
167 Ratings
10% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings9.0137 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings8.570 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings8.4111 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings9.3164 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings9.0127 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Pendo.ioZendesk Suite
Small Businesses
ChurnZero
ChurnZero
Score 8.8 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
ChurnZero
ChurnZero
Score 8.8 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Nexthink
Nexthink
Score 7.5 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Pendo.ioZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(130 ratings)
9.0
(209 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.2
(6 ratings)
10.0
(43 ratings)
Usability
7.9
(43 ratings)
8.8
(82 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.1
(14 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.1
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(5 ratings)
5.7
(31 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
9.1
(1 ratings)
6.4
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.1
(2 ratings)
9.1
(19 ratings)
Configurability
7.3
(1 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
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Pendo.ioZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Pendo.io
Pendo.io is useful in generating great dashboards that present user analytics in the best possible view that could be used for analysis & derive key insights on what could be done if there's a feature that's not being recognized by end users or if there are any pain points where users are struggling more around a workflow which is technically not that difficult. Pendo.io also can be used to create impactful guides where intercatoin of a user with the Guide can be created in less steps & have relevant information about that workflow that the user is completing. Pendo.io's resource center can act as a one stop hub to present any sidewide updates which could be information of Prod releases, New KB Articles, Register to any event, & much more. Segments can be created in as many variation as one can. In fact, Segments are the ruling property or feature that works so handy, which reduces a lot of iterative work.
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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
Pendo.io
  • NPS Surveys
  • Feature usage insights
  • Identifying user behaviors using Replay feature
  • Clearly segmenting users in a way we want it to be
  • Identifying time spent on a feature/product to better understand what customers actually use
  • Documentation, in-app guides and help section
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
Pendo.io
  • Dashboard is sometimes very slow to load
  • Preview is problematic if the Pendo.io user doesn't have access to the target environment or application where the guide is going to display
  • It would be ideal to have a gallery of thumbnail images of previously used guides to select from, either to pull a screen capture or to use as a template. It's cumbersome to go to the guides, find the one you want, click on Preview, etc.
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
Pendo.io
We have had an excellent experience with Pendo. When we've had questions or concerns, Pendo is very quick to respond and communicate with us. We have experienced top-notch customer support and customer engagement. We have actually modeled some of our implementation and product processes after Pendo's examples.
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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
Pendo.io
It is intuitive for core tasks like tracking feature usage, building Guides, and viewing dashboards. The interface is clean and well structured, making it easy for product managers and operational teams to get value quickly without heavy technical support. However, there is a noticeable learning curve when setting up advanced custom events, reports, or integrations, which can take some time and internal knowledge-sharing to master.
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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
Pendo.io
Every time I have logged into Pendo, the service has been available for me to use. The page has never been down when I am trying to get info from there.
Read full review
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
Pendo.io
Everything loads fairly quickly and it's not slow. I don't use an integration, I log in straight in the webpage.
Read full review
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
Pendo.io
They've been great anytime that we have needed help with something. They also have some really great help articles. We're able to figure most things out through their articles, but when we've had to call in they've been very helpful and we haven't had any problems. I'd highly recommend working with them.
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
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Online Training
Pendo.io
The training schedule was well thought out and tailored to meet our needs. Chantelle stayed with us through the whole implementation and made sure that we were good to go.
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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
Pendo.io
Use Segment to install and cut developers out of the work cycle!
Read full review
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
Pendo.io
I have just very superficial experience with Google Analytics but I do believe that Pendo.io is a much much better tool in pretty much all aspects of it. It has a ton more features and capabilities and even for the capabilities where there is overlap, Pendo seems to come out ahead easily. There are aspects that Pendo could improve for sure such as what metadata it captures from the users; an example of this is screen resolution which Google Analytics captures but Pendo does not.
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
Pendo.io
The system is pretty flexible and scalable, I have used it in different browsers and devices without issues.
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Zendesk
WHY we will use Zendesk in HR and PD internally
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Return on Investment
Pendo.io
  • Reducing development time with in-app guides and resource center, with product management being able to agilely create guides in real time, this could be as much as 1 full time developer in savings.
  • Reducing business time scoping "rock fetches" than are proven to be invaluable based on analytics, each time 1 single piece of analtical data saves around ~20 hours across multiple resources.
  • Increasing user satisfaction with in-app guides and resource center
  • Increasing usage of key features through targetted messaging, those key features either drive costs ou of our business or add value to customers business.
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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

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