ServiceNow Customer Service Management vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ServiceNow Customer Service Management
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Built on the Now Platform, ServiceNow offers their Customer Service Management solution through the Standard and Professional Customer Service Management bundles. Both include agent workspace, knowledge management, survey and assessment module, and the community module, oriented in this edition to support customers rather than internal employees. The Professional bundle also includes performance analytics, predictive intelligence, and related tools to support customer support agents improvement…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
ServiceNow Customer Service ManagementZendesk 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
ServiceNow Customer Service ManagementZendesk 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
ServiceNow Customer Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Considered Both Products
ServiceNow Customer Service Management
Chose ServiceNow Customer Service Management
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is much more configurable and "Enterprise-Ready", but doesn't work as well out of the box and doesn't guide you into deploying a service ready workflow.
Zendesk Suite
Chose Zendesk Suite
Just a simpler experience that doesn't need all the bells and whistles of a fully ITIL based platform.
Chose Zendesk Suite
What Zendesk lacks in databasing tools, it more than makes up for in ease of implementation and overall total cost of ownership. Implementation takes weeks, not months, and generally speaking, a non-technical person can manage the tool's day-to-day operations without too much …
Chose Zendesk Suite
Zendesk has a more simple and modern look and feel while ServiceNow seems less intuitive and more antiquated. Zendesk has a better UI and sleeker design. Zendesk fits our company's needs, serving both the external and internal customer.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
ServiceNow Customer Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
ServiceNow Customer Service Management
8.6
8 Ratings
6% above category average
Zendesk Suite
8.7
160 Ratings
8% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets8.08 Ratings9.1159 Ratings
Expert directory8.06 Ratings8.0108 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications8.57 Ratings8.3111 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation8.57 Ratings8.4110 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission9.58 Ratings9.3159 Ratings
Ticket response9.08 Ratings9.2158 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
ServiceNow Customer Service Management
9.0
7 Ratings
13% above category average
Zendesk Suite
8.5
145 Ratings
8% above category average
External knowledge base9.06 Ratings8.4139 Ratings
Internal knowledge base9.07 Ratings8.5132 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
ServiceNow Customer Service Management
8.8
8 Ratings
11% above category average
Zendesk Suite
8.6
155 Ratings
9% above category average
Customer portal8.06 Ratings8.8126 Ratings
IVR9.05 Ratings8.562 Ratings
Social integration8.06 Ratings7.9102 Ratings
Email support9.57 Ratings9.2152 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration9.57 Ratings8.8117 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ServiceNow Customer Service ManagementZendesk 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
Front
Front
Score 8.8 out of 10
Front
Front
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ServiceNow Customer Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(8 ratings)
8.9
(198 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(43 ratings)
Usability
7.5
(3 ratings)
8.7
(71 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(13 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
6.2
(31 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.9
(9 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.3
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
ServiceNow Customer Service ManagementZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
ServiceNow
It is well suited for medium to large companies that manage different teams and need to communicate constantly and track progress in a timely manner. It is less suited for small enterprises as it will overwhelm users with the features and functionalities embedded.
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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.
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Pros
ServiceNow
  • Allows for clear communication between help desk and end users.
  • Provides a clean inventory option for both hardware items and software licenses.
  • Navigation is very intuitive and user friendly.
  • Many reporting features for all levels of the company.
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
ServiceNow
  • Adding in additional chat features would be nice
  • Viewing where you stand in priority
  • Having a way to automate more of the processes
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.
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Likelihood to Renew
ServiceNow
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.
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Usability
ServiceNow
ServiceNow Customer Service Management has been in our organization for quiet a while now. We tried other solutions as well. But they were not as effective as as ServiceNow Customer Service Management, either they're not cost effective or they lack the features. ServiceNow Customer Service Management however, is a complete package it's soft effective and it comes with the features that suffice our business need. In a nutshell ServiceNow Customer Service Management is what we need!
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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.
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Reliability and Availability
ServiceNow
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
ServiceNow
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
ServiceNow
Support has been very good. Any time there has been a real issue, the team has responded very quickly and identified the issue without a lot of repetitive questions that I've seen from other services. There is a great external community and internal knowledge base that covers pretty much anything you need.
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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
ServiceNow
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
ServiceNow
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
ServiceNow
ServiceNow Customer Service Management is much more configurable and "Enterprise-Ready", but doesn't work as well out of the box and doesn't guide you into deploying a service ready workflow.
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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Return on Investment
ServiceNow
  • The negative impact for my team is the delay in team completing tickets but not a system issue.
  • A positive impact for my team is we can easily view the status of tickets and the follow-up emails are beneficial to maintain records of tickets.
  • Negative impact is that there is no user job aid or helpful tools for new users.
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