Help Scout vs. Zoho Desk

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Help Scout
Score 9.6 out of 10
N/A
Help Scout is help desk software. The vendor’s value proposition is that that their solution reduces time spent on training users because Help Scout is simple to use and set up and scales like any enterprise product. This solution includes multiple mailboxes to support as many email addresses as needed in order to work collaboratively across teams, and manage several products or brands from one account. Reports on conversation trends, team performance, productivity, and customer happiness are…
$20
per user/per month
Zoho Desk
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Zoho Support is a Saas help desk / ticketing system aimed at SMBs. I competes most often with Zendesk, and Desk.com.
$0
Pricing
Help ScoutZoho Desk
Editions & Modules
Standard
$20
per user/per month
Plus
$35
per user/per month
Company
Contact sales team
Free
$0
Standard
$14
per user
Professional
$23
per user
Enterprise
$40
per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Help ScoutZoho Desk
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
Help ScoutZoho Desk
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Help Scout
9.8
18 Ratings
21% above category average
Zoho Desk
8.0
2 Ratings
1% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.018 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications10.010 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission10.017 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Ticket response10.018 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Expert directory00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Help Scout
8.5
16 Ratings
9% above category average
Zoho Desk
7.0
2 Ratings
10% below category average
External knowledge base9.015 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Internal knowledge base8.014 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Help Scout
7.8
18 Ratings
2% above category average
Zoho Desk
8.0
2 Ratings
4% above category average
Email support9.018 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration6.510 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Customer portal00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Help ScoutZoho Desk
Small Businesses
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP Service Cloud
SAP Service Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Help ScoutZoho Desk
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(18 ratings)
7.5
(21 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.4
(12 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(12 ratings)
User Testimonials
Help ScoutZoho Desk
Likelihood to Recommend
Help Scout
Small businesses that want a conversational type of customer support experience. Nothing wrong with support tickets, but it does make you feel like a number. Also, we needed to get up and running quickly so the "inbox" feel of the dashboard was already familiar with the team so they could adopt the new software quickly.
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Zoho
The user friendly android and IOS applications are one of the best features of Zoho Desk although if you are expecting a Desktop application then you will be disappointed and will have to access it from your browser which can be slow sometimes, depending on your internet connection. The work flow of tickets submission either manually through the dashboard or mobile application, and tickets assignment to other agents along with tracking tickets and agents' performance is very easily executed with no issues being faced.
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Pros
Help Scout
  • Extremely simple to use and understand as a user - treats communications like human beings and provides a much more personal feel to communication (as opposed to making people feel like numbers).
  • The email newsletter.
  • They are super responsive. They are pretty rad and transparent: if something goes wrong on their end they are not afraid of admitting fault. Which leads me to trust them because I can believe them. I know that tells you very little about the product, but as leadership, that's something that I really need
  • Help Scout does exactly what it needs to (facilitate organized, efficient conversations between customers and support people) without getting in the way.
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Zoho
  • Report features give the all insights of the customer team and customer support which enables us to make changes according to it.
  • The best thing about Zoho Desk is that it has a very beautiful and fully designed dashboard.
  • I have been using this software for a very long time in my organization, it is very easy to use with having the interface created on a very advanced module.
  • It is completely a feature rich platform.
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Cons
Help Scout
  • Trying to group tickets is a bit unflexible. You can create folders which can be part of a workflow (automatic trigger) but you can't create a folder based on tags. This needs to be improved because there's a need to create smarter segments and mix them.
  • Metrics are useful but there needs to be more details about them. You can drill down in some but others are still not very actionable or visible (ok, that number went down, but what was the cause? what's the criteria with what you measure that?)
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Zoho
  • When utilizing as a ticketing system, it would be nice to have a better way to monitor when something is due. It's just a little cumbersome.
  • Search Functionality - The search functionality could use a tweak or two. Too many times I am unable to find tickets. This would also be very helpful for the "Recycle Bin" when you just need to find that ticket you accidentally deleted (we are all human!). :)
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Likelihood to Renew
Help Scout
We are receiving feedback from the organizational level that they may want us to transition to a different solution to provide consistency across the company.
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Zoho
No answers on this topic
Usability
Help Scout
It is simple and intuitive. I haven't run into difficulty using any of the features that I have wanted to use. Additional help in the form of documentation or support is available as needed, and their response times are pretty good :)
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Zoho
At times Zoho [Desk] can be a bit glitchy. It does not auto refresh on the ticketing system, and even f it tells you there is a new ticket clicking it does nothing and you need to refresh the page for it to work. We have found at times that is can become unresponsive, although this usually doesn't last for longer than 15-30 mins.
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Support Rating
Help Scout
No answers on this topic
Zoho
Zoho Desk has a technical team of professionals, who are well informed, and they know how to share the knowledge with the other players. Besides, they are competent in dealing with all kinds of customers, from divergent locations, and adopt their differences. Lastly, when called upon to solve an issue, they are quickly responsive.
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Alternatives Considered
Help Scout
Only have minimal experience with G-Suite for a much smaller company. This worked well for that organization but did not have similar specialization functions that suite our larger organization very well. Help Scout's pricing makes sense, and continues to service our needs well. Minimal usage of other programs, but have no need to explore alternatives at this time.
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Zoho
We selected Zoho Desk as we needed a platform that was going to allow the business to grow through both usage and staffing numbers. We wanted something cost-effective but still offered standard features in an effective cloud-delivered solution but would still allow customization by our internal dev team, to derive better value from the service where it natively didn't do what we needed it to. FreeAgent was okay for a while, but Zoho Desk has allowed a vast improvement in our service offering to end customers.
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Return on Investment
Help Scout
  • We are able to retain our customer base due to the outstanding customer service our Customer Experience department provides. Without an organized tool like Help Scout, this would not be possible. We pride ourselves in quick response times to customers and are able to do so by effectively routing tickets to the right agents.
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Zoho
  • Zoho Desk has created an organised sytem of support which alows me to help my customers more efficiently.
  • By saving resolutions as articles, Zoho Desk has provided a training resource for current customers and support staff as part of solving problems.
  • All new customers become part of a database of customers who continue to receive support and education from forums created by the articles and customer questions.
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ScreenShots

Help Scout Screenshots

Screenshot of Build better relationships with your customers, and work together better as a teamScreenshot of Tools designed specifically for team collaboration on customer supportScreenshot of Docs Knowledge Base provides self-service that sets your customers up for successScreenshot of The conversation report can change the conversation with your customers from problems to praise by pinpointing what they write in about and when.Screenshot of Productivity Reports track your team's customer-helping velocity and identify sticking points to push through with even greater momentum.Screenshot of Happiness Reports are the closest you can get to your customer's true feelings without hiring a telepath.

Zoho Desk Screenshots

Screenshot of Log and monitor phone conversations, convert them into new tickets, or attach them to existing ones. Convert social media interactions and live chat into tickets at the click of a button.Screenshot of Bring a Help Center directly into a website to strengthen self-service. Chat with Zia, an AI-powered conversation assistant. Customers can chat with Zia right from a mobile app or website. Zia processes their questions and suggests appropriate solutions from the Knowledge Base.Screenshot of With advanced process automation, internal processes can be setup within the help desk, implement them automatically, and make sure that all processes are followed precisely.Screenshot of Instant responses for instant happiness. Respond to customers the minute they reach out with Zoho Desk's embeddable chat widget. Customers can get in touch with agents instantly, right from the Help Center, so agents can respond and help them find answers faster.Screenshot of Monitor a team's performance, customize and schedule reports. Custom dashboards can be created.Screenshot of Zia brings together predictions across anomalies, sentiment, trending ticket tags, and more into a common dashboard for decision-makers to consume. They can drill down further into the details from the same dashboard to investigate further.