Freshdesk vs Zendesk: Which tool should I choose?

To offer high-quality customer service and respond to customer queries as quickly as possible, you need the right software platform. However, with so many different products on the market, it can be difficult to identify the best tool for your business.

Some of the best customer service management software includes Freshdesk and Zendesk. In this guide, we compare the differences and features of the two solutions to help you find the best software for your business. Ready for Freshdesk VS Zendesk? Then don't wait any longer and discover the SaaS you need!

Freshdesk and Zendesk are both renowned for their performance and the scope of their services. Both offer a wide range of features, so it's difficult at first glance to decide which one is better than the other in the Freshdesk VS Zendesk duel.

To help you choose the software solution best suited to your business needs, we've put together a comparison table of the key features of each customer support platform. Each criterion is rated by a star system and accompanied by a commentary to make it easier for you to read the table below.

Both customer service management tools are high-performance SaaS solutions with a proven track record in the software market. Each platform has its own strengths, weaknesses and relevant features. For this reason, it's difficult to identify a single factor that differentiates Freshdesk and Zendesk. However, the main difference certainly lies in the target audience of each tool. Indeed, while Zendesk is the platform of choice for large companies or start-ups with substantial budgets, Freshdesk is the tool of choice for small businesses or teams with limited budgets.

Freshdesk is the easiest platform to get to grips with. Its pleasant, intuitive interface can be picked up quickly by all types of user. This makes it ideal for small businesses that don't necessarily have strong technical expertise in this type of SaaS software. What's more, this tool offers a free price plan. This is perfect for getting an initial idea and testing the platform without incurring costs during the trial phase. While Freshdesk offers fewer integrations than its counterpart, it can nevertheless easily connect to tools such as PayPal, Slack, Salesforce or even Google Analytics. For all these reasons, the Freshdesk platform meets most business needs, and is the tool of choice to support the development of small and medium-sized businesses.

Zendesk is considered one of the leaders in customer service. More expensive than Freshdesk, it also offers a wealth of features that will delight the most discerning connoisseur. The software's advanced reporting capabilities, for example, are perfect for obtaining comprehensive reports on team performance. It has to be said, however, that Zendesk is more expensive to run than Freshdesk. It is primarily designed for companies looking for a complete platform and who have the financial capacity to opt for this tool.

Freshdesk offers many advantages. First and foremost, the software tool is extremely easy to use, making it accessible to the widest possible audience. What's more, it incorporates AI-based automation functionalities. All incoming tickets are analyzed and assigned to the right team member, efficiently and effortlessly. Add to this its relatively low cost and the presence of a free price plan. All these elements make Freshdesk the platform of choice for companies that want to get straight to the point with a powerful, high-performance SaaS solution that's also very easy to learn.

However, the Freshdesk software solution also has its disadvantages. Its free plan, for example, is practical. However, it also has a number of limitations that force some teams to upgrade to the paid version if they wish to achieve their business objectives. What's more, the analysis functionalities are a little light, especially in the free plan where only one report is available. The lack of detail in the reports also makes it more difficult to optimize customer request management processes. That's why it's so important to assess your needs. In particular, before opting for the free plan, check that it meets your operational requirements.

The customer service management platform is the leader in this segment. This is illustrated by a plethora of advanced features that meet the expectations of even the most demanding experts. One of Zendesk's main advantages is its functional depth. Depending on your needs, you can customize the tool to perfectly match your team's specific requirements. To do this, the tool features a powerful API that will work wonders with the right technical team. This customization is also evident in the wealth of integrations offered by Zendesk. Over 1,000 software applications can be connected to the platform in a matter of moments.

However, like all software, Zendesk also has its drawbacks. The first is its high cost, which means it's best suited to companies with the budget to use it over the long term. In addition, Zendesk's customer service is not the best. Some users complain that the quality of this support service does not fully meet their needs. What's more, this platform is complex to use, and deploying it may require some effort on the part of your team. So it's best to have a strong technical team and experienced staff to get the most out of Zendesk software.

In our comparison of Freshdesk and Zendesk software, we found that Freshdesk has a number of advantages, such as ease of use, a lower cost per use than its competitor, and highly relevant automation solutions to make your staff's work easier. This SaaS platform is therefore an appropriate choice if you want to centralize your needs and actions in terms of customer request management. This means you can deploy a complete customer loyalty strategy, although Freshdesk has fewer advanced features than industry leader Zendesk.

The choice between two SaaS tools always depends on many factors, such as the size of the company, the skills of its technical team, its budget and its specific needs. We'd say that Freshdesk is better than Zendesk if, above all, you're looking for an affordable tool that will enable you to respond to customer queries. Freshdesk has all the features you need to set up a first-rate customer service department. Its ease of use and free plan, for example, are two important criteria if you want to deploy such a solution as quickly as possible.

Freshdesk makes it quick and easy to deploy a customer service management tool. You can facilitate the work of your agents while significantly improving their performance. Analysis tools, for example, enable you to identify areas for improvement in order to optimize your profitability. And it's in terms of profitability that Freshdesk really comes into its own. Its affordable pricing options give you access to robust functionality while keeping costs under control. If you're a start-up, Freshdesk is the perfect way to start responding to customer requests as quickly as possible, to increase customer satisfaction and build loyalty.

It all depends on the size of your business and its needs in terms of functionality and customization. For small businesses with no particular needs, the Freshdesk solution can perfectly replace Zendesk. For larger companies, Freshdesk may have more difficulty replacing its competitor, notably because of the smaller number of software integrations available. Zendesk's powerful API is also difficult to replace if you're looking for very strong platform customization. So, it all depends on your expectations and needs, as it's difficult to generalize on this point of comparison.

As we saw earlier, Freshdesk offers pricing plans that are generally more affordable than Zendesk. With seven different plans, Freshdesk lets you find the option that best suits your needs. The first three plans, focused on technical support, range from €0 to €79 per month per agent. The next three plans are highly relevant if you want to deploy omnichannel customer service, with rates ranging from €22 to €99 per month per agent. It's also possible to subscribe to a limited free plan to further reduce the costs associated with the software.

Freshdesk software is a benchmark in the field of helpdesk tools. However, there are many other SaaS platforms that can also meet your needs. To identify the best software solution for your particular business, you need to consider a number of factors, including the tool's ergonomics, the number of integrations offered, automation features and ticket management.

Alternatives to Freshdesk include Hubspot Service Hub, Zendesk, Intercom and Zoho Desk.

If you're looking for a tool that's easy to deploy and use, with affordable pricing plans, then Freshdesk is for you.

As we've seen, Zendesk is a well-known name in customer support software. Powerful, with highly relevant features, it's the choice of many companies looking for a high-performance platform. By using this tool, you're sure to have at your fingertips all the functionalities your agents might need to successfully carry out the tasks you entrust to them. However, no software is perfect. That's why it's a good idea to compare Zendesk with its counterpart Freshdesk. This will give you all the information you need to make your choice.

Zendesk's strength lies in its ability to meet the most demanding requirements. In fact, this SaaS solution is more powerful and scalable than Freshdesk. The huge number of available integrations, for example, combined with a robust API, means you can customize Zendesk to suit your needs. What's more, Zendesk's analytics are used by many service managers to identify trends and understand why and how certain agents respond better to customer requests. As a result, you can fine-tune your processes and continuously improve customer satisfaction. However, let's qualify this statement by emphasizing the greater complexity of Zendesk's use.

We recommend using Zendesk to optimize your customer service processes. If you already have a customer relations team in place and want to improve its productivity, Zendesk is perfect. The workflow automation made possible by this software streamlines your agents' actions by eliminating low-value-added tasks. What's more, Zendesk's powerful analytics tools and artificial intelligence-based functionalities can help improve processes that are already well established. By choosing Zendesk, you can better manage customer interactions, answer questions faster and resolve problems more easily.

Once again, it all depends on your needs. If you have a strong technical team, a group of agents already in place and you want to optimize your processes, Zendesk can replace Freshdesk, as it will offer you more advanced functionalities. In particular, these will give you the opportunity to go further in improving workflows. However, if you're not a large enterprise and your budget or needs are a little more limited, Zendesk will have a hard time replacing Freshdesk, as it's more complex to deploy and more costly to operate for your customer management hub.

The price of Helpdesk software can vary widely, depending on the features required, the number of users and the duration of the subscription. However, as we've already seen, Zendesk's pricing package is more expensive overall than Freshdesk. Zendesk's standard plan represents more than double the investment compared to the same type of plan at Freshdesk. What's more, unlike its competitor, Zendesk doesn't offer any free plans. However, while it's more expensive, Zendesk's SaaS tool is also richer in business functionalities, particularly when it comes to customer ticket management options.

It's tricky to pinpoint the best software in a field, because it all depends on your company's needs. Although Zendesk is considered to be one of the best software solutions on the market, there are many criteria you need to take into account to make the right choice, including the tool's price, but also the features included, the software's intuitiveness and the quality of customer support.

Alternatives to Zendesk include Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Oracle Service Cloud, Freshdesk and Zoho Desk.

If you're looking for a complete solution with advanced automation and reporting features, Zendesk is undoubtedly an excellent choice.

The diversity of software integrations is a criterion you shouldn't overlook. By connecting your current tools to your customer service platform, you can streamline your actions and optimize your workflows. To achieve this, you need to opt for software that offers a wide range of integrations. This is particularly the case with Zendesk, which is capable of synchronizing with over 1,000 software applications such as Slack, JIRA, Giphy or Google Play Review. This diversity of integrations is ideal for customizing and extending the functionality of your customer relations platform. What's more, you can go even further with the Zendesk API.

In order to constantly improve your after-sales service offering and provide the best possible response to customer requests, you need to set up rigorous monitoring of your agents' performance. Average response time, request resolution time or customer satisfaction rate are all key performance indicators that need to be taken into account. Zendesk is perfect for this, offering you in-depth analyses of your team's work. You can even benchmark your performance against other companies, or automate the reporting process to make your customer support department even more efficient.

When using a customer support platform, one of the best options for limiting the influx of requests is to implement so-called selfcare tools. In other words, customers find answers to their questions via online tools such as a knowledge base. Both Zendesk and Freshdesk enable you to create this knowledge base. However, Freshdesk's great strength is that it offers all its customers the opportunity to design such a base right from the free plan. Zendesk, on the other hand, only offers this functionality in the most expensive price plans.

Personalization is a key point when comparing different SaaS customer care solutions. In fact, it's important to personalize the portal branding to match your corporate colors. Both Freshdesk and Zendesk offer a variety of features in this respect. The former gives you the opportunity to customize numerous elements, such as the header or footer, so that the platform adapts perfectly to your company. Zendesk is not to be outdone, allowing you to remove the Zendesk branding from all your support widgets. You can then make the helpdesk tool your own and offer your customers a powerful, personalized experience. 

At the heart of every customer service tool are tickets. Thanks to them, you can keep track of all requests and respond to them quickly and efficiently. While Zendesk and Freshdesk both offer powerful ticket management features, Zendesk is admittedly better in this respect. The wealth of options available on the platform is impressive. The tool lets you assign, track, modify and delete tickets with ease. But Zendesk goes even further, using automation to analyze the support database to detect similar problems in seconds. Agents then have access to the solution within moments. 

When deploying a Helpdesk solution, your aim is to provide the best possible response to your customers' queries. But your customers use a multitude of channels, and it's best to offer them a wide range of communication options. This way, your customers can contact you on their preferred channel at any time. This is where Freshdesk comes into its own. It unifies all support-related communications within the platform. Whether your customers try to reach you by phone, e-mail, chat, via social networks, WhatsApp or your website, they can be sure of a quick and easy exchange with an agent.

The user-friendliness and attractiveness of an interface is partly a subjective feeling. However, many users of these tools agree that the Freshdesk SaaS platform is simpler to use. All information is quickly and easily accessible for your agents, who won't have to make much effort to identify the data they're looking for as quickly as possible. In fact, accessible sorting options enable them to find tickets according to different characteristics or criteria such as priority, tags or even the date the ticket was handled.