Intercom vs Zendesk Why HubSpot is the Best Alternative

However, some users find customization challenging, and the platform is considered expensive, requiring careful cost evaluation. If money is limited for your business, a help desk that can be a Zendesk alternative or an Intercom alternative is ThriveDesk. They offer straightforward pricing plans designed to meet the diverse needs of businesses, with only 2 options to choose from; it makes it easier for business owners to make a decision regarding pricing. Choose the plan that suits your support requirements and budget, whether you’re a small team or a growing enterprise. As your business grows, so does the volume of customer inquiries and support tickets.

It allows businesses to automate a wide range of business interactions. Its automation tools help companies see automated responses and triggers based on the customer journey and response time. Intercom’s automation features enable businesses to deliver a personalized experience to customers and scale their customer support function effectively. It’s an invaluable tool for businesses aiming to enhance customer satisfaction, increase conversions, and build lasting relationships. However, it’s essential to recognize that Zendesk has its own array of strengths, particularly in its comprehensive and versatile customer support platform. Intercom’s pricing structure offers different plans to cater to various customer support and engagement needs, accommodating users with different budgets.

This includes secure login options like SAML or JWT SSO (single sign-on) and native content redaction for sensitive information. We also adhere to numerous industry standards and regulations, such as HIPAA, SOC2, ISO 27001, HDS, FedRAMP LI-SaaS, ISO 27018, and ISO 27701. The Zendesk Marketplace offers over 1,500 no-code apps and integrations. Customer expectations are already high, but with the rise of AI, customers are expecting even more. Customers want speed, anticipation, and a hyper-personalized experience conveniently on their channel of choice. Intelligence has become key to delivering the kinds of experiences customers expect at a lower operational cost.

Intercom vs. Dixa

It feels very modern, and Intercom offers some advanced messenger features that Zendesk does not. Staying updated with the future prospects and developments of Zendesk and Intercom is crucial for anticipating upcoming features and advancements. Examining the roadmap of both platforms helps businesses envision how their customer support needs can align with the evolving market trends and technological innovations. Intercom also offers a 14-day free trial, after which customers can upgrade to a paid plan or use the basic free plan.

• After an in-depth exploration of Zendesk and Intercom, Dominic wraps up the video with his conclusions.
• Intercom has a different approach, one that’s all about sales, marketing, and personalized messaging.
• Every CRM software comes with some limitations along with the features it offers.

G2 ranks Intercom higher than Zendesk for ease of setup, and support quality—so you can expect a smooth transition, effortless onboarding, and continuous success. Whether you’re starting fresh with Intercom or migrating from Zendesk, set up is quick and easy.

Specifications

It calculates the cost of its Pro and Premium plans based on the number of AI resolutions, people reached, and seats (or users). This can make it challenging to estimate the cost yourself during your research and you need to speak with Intercom for more information. Luckily, a range of customer service solutions is available that enables you to communicate directly with your customers in real-time. These tools are ideal for personalizing the customer experience and building better customer relationships.

To sum up this Intercom vs Zendesk battle, the latter is a great support-oriented tool that will be a good choice for big teams with various departments. Intercom feels more wholesome and is more client-success-oriented, but it can be too costly for smaller companies. If you thought Zendesk prices were confusing, let me introduce you to the Intercom charges.

It integrates customer support, sales, and marketing communications, aiming to improve client relationships. Known for its scalability, Zendesk is suitable for various business sizes, from startups to large corporations. Intercom offers a unique pricing model based on the number of people you engage with, which includes both customers and team members.

Essential Plan

This becomes the perfect opportunity to personalize the experience, offer assistance to prospects as per their needs, and convert them into customers. Intercom offers a simplistic dashboard with a detailed view of all customer details in one place. Operators will find its dashboard quite beneficial as it will take them seconds to find necessary features during an ongoing chat with the customers. Admins will also like the fact that they can see the progress of all their teams and who all are actively answering a customer’s query in real-time.

Intercom has a standard trial period for a SaaS product which is 14 days, while Zendesk offers a 30-day trial. If I had to describe Intercom’s help desk, I would say it’s rather a complementary tool to their chat tools. It’s great, it’s convenient, it’s not nearly as advanced as the one by Zendesk. Just as Zendesk, Intercom also offers its own Operator bot which will automatically suggest relevant articles to customers who ask for help.

Intercom pricing

Zendesk also has the Answer Bot, which can take your knowledge base game to the next level instantly. It can automatically suggest your customer relevant articles reducing the workload Chat GPT for your support agents. Hivers offers round-the-clock proactive support across all its plans, ensuring that no matter the time or issue, expert assistance is always available.

• One of the pivotal aspects of any customer support platform is its ticketing system.
• With its live analytics feature on the dashboard, it makes it easy for you to make instant decisions in no time.
• It will allow you to leverage some Intercom capabilities while keeping your account at the time-tested platform.
• Some of the highly-rated features include ticket creation user experience, email to case, and live chat reporting.
• Let’s explore these unique offerings and see how they can benefit your business.

It allows businesses to automate repetitive tasks, such as ticket routing and in-built responses, freeing up time for support agents to deal with more crucial cases requiring more agent attention. This automation enhances support teams’ productivity as they do not have to spend too much responding to similar complaints they have already dealt with. Intercom’s live chat reports aren’t just offering what your customers are doing or whether they are satisfied with your services. They offer more detailed insights like lead generation sources, a complete message report to track customer engagement, and detailed information on the support team’s performance. A collection of these reports can enable your business to identify the right resources responsible for bringing engagement to your business. They offer an omnichannel chat solution that integrates with multiple messaging platforms and marketing channels and even automates incoming support processes with bots.

But with perks like more advanced chatbots, automation, and lead management capabilities, Intercom could have an edge for many users. But they also add features like automatic meeting booking (in the Convert package), and their custom inbox rules and workflows just feel a little more, well, custom. I’ll dive into their chatbots more later, but their bot automation features are also stronger. Zendesk is among the industry’s best ticketing and customer support software, and most of its additional functionality is icing on the proverbial cake. Intercom, on the other hand, is designed to be more of a complete solution for sales, marketing, and customer relationship nurturing. You can use it for customer support, but that’s not its core strength.

Although Zendesk does not have an in-app messaging service, it does have one unique feature, and that is its built-in virtual call assistant, Zendesk Talk. It is a totally cloud-based service; you can operate this VOIP technology by sitting in any corner of the world. You will be able to find the most common chatting system with a single communication channel. So, communicating with customers on different communication channels would be difficult on Intercom. Zendesk has been ruling the market for ages due to its multi-communication and ticketing system.

When comparing the user interfaces (UI) of Zendesk and Intercom, both platforms exhibit distinct characteristics and strengths catering to different user preferences and needs. At the same time, they both provide great and easy user onboarding. Say what you will, but Intercom’s design and overall user experience leave all its competitors far behind. What can be really inconvenient about Zendesk is how their tools integrate with each other when you need to use them simultaneously. So you see, it’s okay to feel dizzy when comparing Zendesk vs Intercom platforms.

Intercom also offers a suite of tools for customer support, including a knowledge base, a help center, and a community forum. Zendesk offers simple chatbots and provides businesses with straightforward chatbot creation tools, allowing them to set up automated responses and assist customers with common queries. Zendesk may be unable to give the agents more advanced features or customization options for chatbots. Zendesk has a strong customer support reputation, a helpful community, and extensive resources. Salesforce Service Regarding live chat capabilities, both Zendesk and Intercom have integrated solutions.

The company’s products include a ticketing system, live chat software, knowledge base software, and a customer satisfaction survey tool. Zendesk also offers a number of integrations with third-party applications. Zendesk is a customer service software company that provides businesses with a suite of tools to manage customer interactions. The company was founded in 2007 and today serves over 170,000 customers worldwide. Zendesk’s mission is to build software designed to improve customer relationships. Its chat-based approach, automation capabilities, and chatbots are ideal for handling routine inquiries efficiently.

With Zendesk, you get next-level AI-powered support software that’s intuitively designed, scalable, and cost-effective. Compare Zendesk vs. Intercom and future-proof your business with reliable, easy-to-use software. Say farewell to disjointed customer experiences and costly third-party consultants.

Both Zendesk and Intercom have integration libraries, and you can also use a connecting tool like Zapier for added integrations and add-ons. Intercom’s large series of bots obviously run on automations as well. As mentioned before, the bot builder is a visual drag-and-drop system that requires no coding knowledge; this is also how other basic workflows are designed. The more expensive Intercom plans offer AI-powered content cues, triage, and conversation insights. There are pre-built workflows to help with things like ticket sharing, as well as conversation routing based on metrics like agent skill set or availability. There are even automations to help with things like SLAs, or service level agreements, to do things like send out notifications when headlights are due.

These are both still very versatile products, so don’t think you have to get too siloed into a single use case. Yes, Zendesk has an Intercom integration that you can find in the Zendesk Marketplace—it’s free to install. So, you can get the best of both worlds without choosing between Intercom or Zendesk. With over 160,000 customers across all industries and regions, Zendesk has the CX expertise to provide you with best practices and thought leadership to increase your overall value. But don’t just take our word for it—listen to what customers say about why they picked Zendesk.

It has very limited customization options in comparison to its competitors. If you’re a huge corporation with a complicated customer support process, go Zendesk for its help desk functionality. If you’re smaller more sales oriented startup with enough money, go Intercom. Zendesk, less user-friendly and with higher costs for quality vendor support, might not suit budget-conscious or smaller businesses. Pricing for both services varies based on the specific needs and scale of your business.

Intercom stands out here due to its ability  to tailor sales workflows. You can also set up interactive product tours to highlight new features in-product and explain how they work. Both Zendesk Messaging and Intercom Messenger offer live chat features and AI-enabled chatbots for 24/7 support to customers.

In summary, choosing Zendesk and Intercom hinges on your business’s unique requirements and priorities. If you seek a comprehensive customer support solution with a strong emphasis on traditional ticketing, Zendesk is a solid choice, particularly for smaller to mid-sized businesses. ThriveDesk empowers small businesses to manage real-time customer communications. In addition to Intercom vs Zendesk, alternative helpdesk solutions are available in the market. ThriveDesk is a feature-rich helpdesk solution that offers a comprehensive set of tools to manage customer support effectively. Intercom is praised as an affordable option with high customization capabilities, allowing businesses to create a personalized support experience.

Zendesk has a help center that is open to all to find out answers to common questions. Apart from this feature, the customer support options at Zendesk are quite limited. First, you can only talk to the support team if you are a registered user. The cheapest plan costs about $74/month (when billed annually) and consists of one seat and 1,000 people reached/month. In-app messages are notifications sent to users while they’re engaged with an app on mobile or PC. It allows companies to interact with customers while they’re active in the app, delivering information based on time or behavior.

If you seek to enhance customer engagement through chat-based support, in-app messaging, and proactive outreach, Intercom may be the superior option. Intercom and Zendesk, two of the most popular customer service platforms have gained popularity and unique clientele for themselves since their launch. While both are customer-centric, it is worth mentioning that when we dig even a little deeper, the differences and similarities become quite apparent, even to a casual observer. The best way, however, to maximize their potential is through Intercom Zendesk integrations on Appy Pie Connect. While Intercom offers a user-friendly interface and solid chat features, it may lack the comprehensive, modular capabilities provided by Zendesk.

Intercom has a full suite of email marketing tools, although they are part of a pricier package. With Intercom, you get email features like targeted and personalized outbound emailing, dynamic content fields, and an email-to-inbox forwarding feature. Email marketing, for example, is a big deal, but less so when it comes to customer service. Still, for either of these platforms to have some email marketing or other email functionality is common sense. Intercom has a very robust advanced chatbot set of tools for your business needs.

The first is proactive, in-app messaging, and the second is email marketing capabilities. Both Intercom and Zendesk provide you with their own Operator bot, which immediately suggests relevant material to clients via the chat widget. When it comes to creating an optimum knowledge base experience, both Intercom and Zendesk are excellent choices with similar capabilities for your needs.

After an in-depth exploration of Zendesk and Intercom, Dominic wraps up the video with his conclusions. He summarizes the key points, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each platform, and provides recommendations based on different business needs. Viewers are equipped with the knowledge to make an informed choice that aligns with their specific requirements. Founded in 2011, Intercom has quickly become one of the most versatile and comprehensive customer support tools on the market and they are showing no signs of slowing down. Overall, Zendesk empowers businesses to deliver exceptional customer support experiences across channels, making it a popular choice for enhancing support operations. Intercom provides a perfect platform for sales and support teams to collaborate.

Zendesk’s per-agent pricing structure makes it a budget-friendly option for smaller teams, allowing costs to scale with team growth. When comparing the automation and AI features of Zendesk and Intercom, both platforms come with unique strengths and weaknesses. When comparing Zendesk and Intercom, various factors come into play, each focusing on different aspects, strengths, and weaknesses of these customer support platforms. So yeah, all the features talk actually brings us to the most sacred question — the question of pricing. You’d probably want to know how much it costs to get each of the platforms for your business, so let’s talk money now.

Understanding your budget constraints, specific business requirements, and long-term goals is crucial. Evaluate factors such as scalability, user-friendliness, integration capabilities, and the type of customer experience you aim to provide before making a decision. Gathering insights from customer reviews and testimonials offers a comprehensive understanding of the first-hand experiences of businesses using Zendesk and Intercom. The feedback and recommendations from existing users serve as valuable guidance for businesses considering either platform. Real-world case studies illustrate how businesses leverage Zendesk and Intercom to enhance their customer support operations and drive business growth. Analyzing these case studies provides practical insights into the tangible benefits and outcomes achieved by implementing either platform.

We are delighted to offer a platform exclusively designed for customer service teams. At Dixa, our complete focus is on improving the overall customer experience. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. We are confident that our partners will achieve their objectives with our advanced tools and comprehensive resources. Let us collaborate to transform customer service into an excellent experience. Whether you’re focused on customer service, sales, or a combination of both, Dominic’s insights will guide you towards the platform that best suits your unique business needs. One of the pivotal aspects of any customer support platform is its ticketing system.

Zendesk and Intercom both have an editor preview feature that makes it easier to add images, videos, call-to-action buttons, and interactive guides to your help articles. The three tiers—Suite Team, Suite Growth, and Suite Professional—also give you more options outside of Intercom’s static structure. Suite Team is more affordable than Intercom’s $79/month tier; Suite Professional is more expensive. Overall, Zendesk wins out on plan flexibility, especially given that it has a lower price plan for dipping your toes in the water. We give the edge to Zendesk here, as it’s typically aimed for more complex environments. It’s also more exclusively focused on providing help support, whereas Intercom sometimes moonlights as being part-time sales.

Reporting tools are essential to helping support leaders analyze and improve their customer support operations. Personalized messaging, in-app messaging, product tours, and chatbot capabilities set Intercom apart from Zendesk. However, it simplifies sorting and filtering options based on multiple parameters—date, priority, ticket, tags, sources, etc. It also enables dashboard customisation and integration with 500+ apps. Zendesk offers an integrated CRM alongside its suite to offer a consolidated view of customer data.

It offers a chat-first approach, making it ideal for companies looking to prioritize interactive and personalized customer interactions. In the dynamic landscape of customer support platforms, choosing between Zendesk and Intercom depends on various factors such intercom vs zendesk as budget, specific business requirements, and long-term goals. Businesses should carefully evaluate their needs and consider scalability, user-friendliness, and integration capabilities before deciding on the platform that best suits their requirements.

That means all you have to do is add the code to your website and enable it right away. Zendesk is another popular customer service, support, and sales platform that enables clients to connect and engage with their customers in seconds. Just like Intercom, Zendesk can also integrate with multiple messaging platforms and ensure that your business never misses out on a support opportunity.

Understand essential metrics to track, top tools to check out, and common… All plans come with a 7-day free trial, and no credit card is required to sign up for the trial. And there’s still no way to know how much you’ll pay for them since the prices are only revealed after you go through a few sale demos with the Intercom team. Check out our chart that compares the capabilities of Zendesk vs. Intercom.

If I had to describe Intercom’s helpdesk, I would say it’s rather a complementary tool to their chat tools. Just like Zendesk, Intercom also offers its Operator bot, which will automatically suggest relevant articles to clients right in a chat widget. The Help Center software by Intercom is also a very efficient tool. You can https://chat.openai.com/ publish your self-service resources, divide them by categories, and integrate them with your messenger to accelerate the whole chat experience. All customer questions, be it via phone, chat, email, social media, or any other channel, are landing in one dashboard, where your agents can solve them quickly and efficiently.

So, Zendesk’s users are always going to have a smooth experience with it. For businesses aiming to seamlessly integrate customer communication with sales efforts, the sales functionalities of Zendesk and Intercom become paramount. Dominic evaluates the CRM capabilities, lead generation tools, and overall sales support offered by each platform, giving viewers a clear picture of which one aligns better with their business goals.

Both Zendesk and Intercom are customer support management solutions that offer features like ticket management, live chat and messaging, automation workflows, knowledge centers, and analytics. Zendesk has traditionally been more focused on customer support management, while Intercom has been more focused on live support solutions like its chat solution. When it comes to customer support and engagement, choosing the right software can make a world of difference. Both offer powerful solutions for businesses looking to enhance their customer service capabilities.