Freshdesk vs Zendesk: Which Should You Choose?

Freshdesk and Zendesk are the two mammoths of the customer service software category. As a result, comparing Freshdesk vs Zendesk is no easy task.

To help you decide which software to choose, we’re going to compare Freshdesk and Zendesk based on seven essential features of customer service software.

1. Pricing and plans
2. Customization and branding
3. Apps and integrations
4. Ticket management
5. Knowledge management and self-service
6. Data, reporting, and analytics
7. Security

Freshdesk Vs Zendesk: 7 Points of Comparison

1. Pricing & Plans

The first point of comparison is, of course, the pricing. So we’ll start with Freshdesk first.

Freshdesk

• Freshdesk pricing has four products – based on enterprise need and channel coverage – with different structures. These are the Support Desk, Contact Center, Omnichannel Suite, and Customer Success. 
• Support Desk offers value for money with four plans: Free, Growth, Pro, and Enterprise. 
• Freshdesk’s Contact Center solution has three tiers of pricing: Growth, Pro, and Enterprise.
• Customer Success has two tiers geared towards enterprise users. These offer tools to proactively manage customer journeys like health scoring, churn reports, and recurring process automation. 

Zendesk

• Zendesk pricing has no-frills plans for Foundational Support starting at $19 per month per user. The cheapest plan includes pre-built integrations and ticketing for FB, Twitter, and email. 
• The next tier is Suite plans starting at $ 49 per month per user. 
• Zendesk’s sales solution starts at US $19 per month per user. 
• The lowest tier offers up to 2 customizable sales pipelines along with onboarding and adoption resources. 

2. Customization and branding

Now we move on to Freshdesk vs Zendesk Round 2: Customization and branding. 

Freshdesk

• Freshdesk lets you customize the look and layout of your support portal with themes and CSS.
• You can also create domain extensions, vanity URLs, and custom form fields for your tickets. 
• Customize agent roles with the appropriate permissions according to their responsibilities.

Zendesk

• Zendesk lets you create custom conditions for organizing support tickets.
• The Zendesk helpdesk offers the same customization options as Freshdesk, such as fonts, colors, domain extensions, workspaces, and the ability to remove Zendesk branding.
• Zendesk’s admin interface is available in more than 40 languages. As a result, you can localize your help center content and display it in a different language based on the URL. 

3. Apps & Integrations

Integrations to look for include email marketing, web analytics, social media management, and other third-party integrations. So how does Freshdesk compare with Zendesk?

Freshdesk

• Freshworks’ Neo platform offers APIs for custom integrations and over 1,000 apps from its marketplace.
• As a result, your company can build and scale its own business hub using the apps your team regularly uses.
• Moreover, Neo provides a unified view of customer interactions across platforms and channels.

Zendesk

• In contrast, Zendesk has more integrations than Freshdesk – 1300+ integrations as of now.
• This includes third-party integrations with apps such as time tracking, CRM, surveys, chat, and more. Note: SurveySparrow integrates with Zendesk and Freshdesk as well!
• Zendesk’s APIs can be edited and tested using its public Workspace on Postman. However, you will need a Zendesk Support account to set up API requests.

4. Ticket management

Eliminating pointless data entry is key to smoother customer service. So, what do Freshdesk and Zendesk do on those counts?

Freshdesk

• Freshdesk’s ”Freddy” AI automatically organizes queries into categories based on their location, channel, and content. 
• The platform also auto-assigns tickets to an agent based on their skill level and task load.
• Moreover, you get suggestions on form fields for new tickets based on the conversation history attached to your old tickets. 
• Want to encourage some friendly competition? Use gamification features like award points, quests, and leaderboards to boost performance and make more customers happy. 

Zendesk

• The Smart Assist feature of Zendesk speeds up ticket resolution time by analyzing intent, sentiment, and language. Based on this data, it will auto-suggest the best steps to take. 
• Agents can easily chat with another team or individual without leaving their ticket – even if they’re not in the organization. They can use this to help resolve the customer’s issue without confusing the customer. 
• What’s more, you can assign “characteristics” to each agent, such as the number of languages they speak and their unique skill sets. This helps to route tickets to agents based on their skills. 

5. Knowledge management and self-service

These features are two sides of the same coin and are one of the most robust features of Freshdesk and Zendesk. 

Freshdesk

• On Freshdesk, you can customize and brand your knowledge base and the domain URL. 
• Customer service reps can quickly attach a solution document from the KB to support tickets. They can also convert ticket responses into knowledge-base documents. 
• Additonally, deploy multichannel answer bots and self-service options like web widgets and forums from one platform. 

Zendesk

• Zendesk enables customer self-service inside your product with the Web Widget and Mobile SDK.
• Let your agents collaborate on publishing, editing, and updating help articles with the Team Publishing feature. 
• See which articles are the most helpful and which need to be archived with AI-powered Content Cues. 
• Additionally, you can track your chatbot performance with user analytics. 

6. Data, reporting, and analytics

Now let’s get to the meat of the matter: the numbers.

 Freshdesk

• Overall, Freshdesk offers a bare-bones yet robust set of reporting tools with all the features you need, like report libraries, customizable dashboards, and reports and visualizations. 
• From CSAT reports to Top Customer analytics to team performance distributions, Freshdesk simplifies the reporting process with its collection of Curated reports library.
• However, the standout feature is Freshdesk’s integration with GoodData. This helps you create dynamic dashboards that alert the admins whenever there’s a rise or drop in numbers. 

Zendesk

• Zendesk Explore, their custom analytics and reporting software is integrated with the Zendesk Suite and contains features like ticket analytics, custom fields, dashboards, and user roles.
• Pre-built dashboards in Zendesk Explore display information about your service metrics, help center article performance, agent activity, and more. They can be duplicated, edited, or created from scratch. 
• Datasets are also available in Explore. Each dataset contains data on metrics and attributes based on your Zendesk info. A metric is a quantitative data point like the number of phone calls or tickets, while an attribute is a qualitative data point like the agent’s name or the ticket’s channel.

7. Security

Security is core to both Freshdesk and Zendesk. 

Freshdesk

• An SSL certificate is enabled by default on all Freshdesk accounts.
• Moreover, you can restrict access outside of work by safe-listing only office network addresses for agents and employees.
• In addition to GDPR-ready features, Freshdesk is HIPAA-compliant.

Zendesk

• Zendesk has a TRUSTe certification and is SOC 2 Type II, ISO, and FedRAMP LI-SaaS compliant.
• Also, the platform provides a security feature that includes the ability to configure HIPAA compliance.
• In addition to IP restrictions and device tracking, the product offers role-based access control (RBAC).

Freshdesk vs Zendesk: Wrapping Up

Every review site has a different opinion when it comes to Freshdesk vs Zendesk. For example:

• Zendesk is no. 1 on G2’s list of the top helpdesk software, while Freshdesk is rated a close third.
• According to SoftwareSuggest, Zendesk is rated as a Category Champion, whereas Freshdesk is rated as a High Performer. 
• Capterra has listed them both as Top Performers of 2022.

Ultimately, it all boils down to which product is the best fit for your team, and the quality of the support you receive.

Looking for more options? Check out the top customer service software for 2023.