Salesforce Experience Cloud vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Salesforce Experience Cloud
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement (formerly Salesforce Experience Cloud or Salesforce Community Cloud) is an online forum powered by Salesforce that enables businesses to connect with their employees, customers, partner organizations, and prospects. Designed to help facilitate communication and information sharing, customers can ask questions and request help, administrators can integrate data from third-party apps, and employees can collaborate across projects and…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
Salesforce Experience CloudZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
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
Salesforce Experience CloudZendesk Suite
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details20% discount available with annual pricing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Salesforce Experience CloudZendesk Suite
Considered Both Products
Salesforce Experience Cloud
Chose Salesforce Experience Cloud
Overall, Salesforce is the most effective solution since it is part of an integrated stack to house and activate CRM audiences within an email, but also expand upon it via the DMP. This can allow for cross channel reach and exposure frequency measurement. If we were to partner …
Chose Salesforce Experience Cloud
As our client already used Salesforce CRM, it is a simple integration tasks to link Community to CRM. As such this was a quick deployment with the base data already being present and easily linked to.
Chose Salesforce Experience Cloud
I’m sure Salesforce does this as well but we were able to create many macros for Zendesk, that helped our agents interact with customers on a very consistent basis. We haven’t quite got that far in our organization, but I do think it would be useful to our agents.
Chose Salesforce Experience Cloud
Zendesk was far better at case management.

Atlassian Confluence for knowledge base was not perfect but it was better than Community Cloud for search and appearance for the FAQ.
Chose Salesforce Experience Cloud
We were already using Salesforce for other reasons so this was a natural choice. We didn't see any huge advantages in the other products so it just wasn't any reason to consider other products seriously. The pricing is reasonable too. Salesforce is really good about keeping …
Chose Salesforce Experience Cloud
[We chose Salesforce Communities because of] Seamless integration with our CRM.
Zendesk Suite

No answer on this topic

Features
Salesforce Experience CloudZendesk Suite
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Experience Cloud
10.0
1 Ratings
20% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Role-based user permissions10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Experience Cloud
10.0
1 Ratings
18% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
API10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Experience Cloud
9.3
1 Ratings
20% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG editor8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Admin section10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Page templates10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Library of website themes8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Publishing workflow10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Form generator8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Experience Cloud
8.6
1 Ratings
18% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Content taxonomy9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO support8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Bulk management8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Community / comment management10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Results and Analysis
Comparison of Results and Analysis features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Experience Cloud
8.0
1 Ratings
6% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Conversion tracking8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Test reporting8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Funnel Analysis8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
User Segmentation8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Digital Experience Platform
Comparison of Digital Experience Platform features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Experience Cloud
10.0
1 Ratings
8% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Campaign management10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Cloud enablement10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Content aggregation10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Content classification10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-channel content personalization10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Customer data analytics10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
DXP Third-Party Integrations10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-website management10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Digital asset management10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Editorial workflows and task management10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Experience Cloud
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.7
160 Ratings
6% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings9.1159 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings8.0108 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings8.3111 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.4110 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.3159 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings9.2158 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Experience Cloud
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.5
145 Ratings
6% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings8.4139 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.5132 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Experience Cloud
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.6
155 Ratings
8% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings8.8126 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings8.562 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings7.9102 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings9.2152 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.8117 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Salesforce Experience CloudZendesk Suite
Small Businesses
Yext
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Score 8.9 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 8.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
Salesforce Experience CloudZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(51 ratings)
8.9
(198 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(43 ratings)
Usability
9.4
(4 ratings)
8.7
(71 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(14 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(5 ratings)
9.1
(11 ratings)
Support Rating
7.7
(17 ratings)
6.1
(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
9.4
(4 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
Salesforce Experience CloudZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Salesforce
Salesforce Experience Cloud is well-suited for organizations that have clients who periodically or routinely need to access historical data or documents. The product also offers an exceptionally effective tool to engage with customers around support/service issues and the entire Case management functionality built into the Salesforce platform. The product might be less well-suited in environments where there is exceptionally high staff turnover within customer accounts, or where there is a substantial lack of very basic computer skills.
Read full review
Zendesk
One specific thing I love about Zendesk Suite lately is the ability to use AI "Enhance writing" it allows me to freehand a response and then have it help me sound more formal or friendly, this is very useful, not only for those free handed ones, but also when you need to repeat the same information to a customer, it can help you make it sound slightly different. I don't like that when a ticket comes, even if you have the shortcut to toggle between chat and email, it doesn't actually toggle.
Read full review
Pros
Salesforce
  • Complete integration with the Salesforce ecosystem. Data displayed in your Community portal reflects records from a Sales Cloud organization
  • Highly customizable. A Community Cloud portal can be totally customized both visually and with different funcionalities with little to no coding skills required
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
Salesforce
  • The documentation for implementing Experience Cloud can be a bit confusing as their rebranding hasn't made it's way into all articles, resulting in different terminology being used to refer to the same thing
  • Some things are not as intuitive regarding their customizability, so there's a bit of a learning curve (i.e. Lightning apps can't be used to customize layouts in Experience Cloud)
Read full review
Zendesk
  • The development of messaging out of the earlier Chat module is clunky and still has limitations for multi language flows.
  • When creating queries in Explore, you can't search for 'or' conditions, only 'And', meaning you have to build multiple queries and manually add them.
  • You can't download the charts in the reports, they come down as tables and then you have to make your own charts.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Salesforce
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
Salesforce
Usability is pretty streamlined, especially if you're familiar with other Salesforce products, but even if not, take it from me, as I just entered the technological space about two years ago, that this product is pretty simple to learn. You don't have to jump in with your head underwater. Small wins and learnings along the way are what foster long-term understandings and enable your evolution alongside the product. I definitely recommend Salesforce Trailhead along with it
Read full review
Zendesk
Zendesk Suite is a straightforward solution that provides agents with everything they need on the same screen. Allowing an agent to navigate one tab, one screen and switch between features, pin favorite features while viewing the customer profile and details in 360degrees. A view like this empowers agents to support customers better and in a more composed state.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Salesforce
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
Salesforce
It's delivered on our original requirements and we've found ways to grow its usage. We continue to build on our original success and we can report our data out to leadership to show a true return on investment which is great for growing support and expanding uses for the system.
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.
Read full review
Support Rating
Salesforce
We have weekly calls with our Salesforce reps. They bring new ideas to the table and help with taxonomy builds. They have also answered many questions and connected us to the right people for us to grow our knowledge and utilization of the platform. They are a good partner overall in comparison.
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
Salesforce
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
Salesforce
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
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Alternatives Considered
Salesforce
I have used Datatel/Colleague/Recruiter before. There were issues because only one person at the institution was able to have the student's record open at a time. This was problematic when collaboration between departments was necessary especially in the case of admissions, financial aid, and registration. We also had to do our work and then log out before asking a questions of another department. Sometimes simultaneous use was necessary. However, this was years ago and they may have since updated the program.
Read full review
Zendesk
Zendesk Suite is exceptionally user friendly and highly customisable. Free training for all levels and roles of users which is easy to follow and engaging for users is particularly helpful along with the added support behind the scenes from Zendesk support and the Zendesk community is second to none.
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Scalability
Salesforce
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
WHY we will use Zendesk in HR and PD internally
Read full review
Return on Investment
Salesforce
  • Improved online admission application completion rates from mid-60%s to mid-80%s.
  • Positive user experience from start-to-finish to leverage one data system for all prospective student data
  • Fewer data integrations transforming and loading sensitive student data by leveraging Salesforce Community Cloud to access already existing data
Read full review
Zendesk
  • We have been able to deliver IT accurately and onetime
  • Our customers have been able to provide feedback on a given ticket and helped us build a better support structure
  • Zendesk Suite has allowed us to be more efficient in our every day operations
Read full review
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