9 Finest Zendesk Alternate options for Small Companies

Are you searching for Zendesk alternate options in your small enterprise’s buyer help?

You’re not alone. Whereas Zendesk is a well-liked selection, many customers have complained about its excessive prices, advanced interface, and restricted help. These components are vital for small companies, the place each penny and minute counts.

Right here at WPBeginner, we perceive these challenges firsthand. We’ve examined many various customer support instruments to optimize our personal operations and helped thousands and thousands of customers with their tasks.

On this information, we’ll stroll you thru one of the best Zendesk alternate options for small companies.

The Finest Zendesk Alternate options: A Abstract

RankPlatformBest ForStarting Value🥇GrooveFull buyer help resolution$16/consumer/mo🥈Heroic InboxWordPress ticketing system$199.50/yr🥉NextivaTelephone help$23.95/consumer/mo4HubSpotHelp + CRM$15/consumer/mo5HelpDeskSuperior ticket administration$29/consumer/mo6LiveChatDwell chat help$20/consumer/mo7ChatBotAI chat help$52/mo8Assist ScoutEasy assist desk$20/consumer/mo9FreshdeskFreemium resolution$15/consumer/mo

How We Discovered and Examined the Finest Zendesk Alternate options

To assessment one of the best Zendesk alternate options, we centered on one key query: why are folks transferring away from Zendesk within the first place?

Our analysis discovered 3 key issues:

Troublesome to make use of –The newest Zendesk UI (consumer interface) has the next studying curve than the earlier model and takes extra time to navigate.

Costly – Zendesk’s most inexpensive plan is $55/agent per thirty days. In case you have no less than a crew of 5 brokers, you have to to pay $3300 per 12 months to make use of the platform. That’s a big expense for a small enterprise.

Restricted help – Zendesk’s 24/7 on-line help is just out there by way of an add-on. In the meantime, there are various different customer support platforms on the market that provide that characteristic out of the field.

From there, we determined to give attention to discovering one of the best Zendesk alternate options with the next standards: ease of use, worth for cash, and nice help.

Some choices on the record simply occur to be merchandise we already use on our WordPress web sites, so we’re assured in recommending them. Those we don’t use are in style platforms that we examined ourselves.

We’re sincere with our opinions and can let if there are any drawbacks you must take into account. We might not suggest a product that we personally wouldn’t use.

Right here’s some extra recommendation on easy methods to decide buyer help software program for your enterprise:

Jess Pingrey from Match Small Enterprise

1. Groove (Finest General Zendesk Different)

Out of all of the customer support software program we’ve examined, Groove is one of the best Zendesk various by far. We’ve been utilizing Groove to handle each help and advertising and marketing emails throughout our tasks, and it’s been a easy expertise from day one.

What actually units Groove aside is its easy-to-use interface. Even if you’re a small enterprise proprietor with no prior expertise with assist desk software program, you’ll be up and working very quickly. The design is clear and clutter-free, with simple language that makes each button and power clear.

Right here’s one of the best half: Groove affords a strong omnichannel buyer help platform for a fraction of the worth of Zendesk’s fundamental plan. With Groove, you possibly can create a shared inbox, add dwell chat performance, handle social media messaging, and construct a information base – all below one roof.

Groove additionally has distinctive buyer help. They provide onboarding help to get you began shortly, and their 24/7 help is accessible to all customers, no matter their plan.

Professionals of Groove:

Easy ticket administration – Groove makes managing tickets straightforward with automation capabilities like routing guidelines and computerized escalation for advanced buyer interactions.

Enhanced ticketing system – Groove boasts options like collision detection to stop duplicate communication, inside notes for crew collaboration, and agent availability to assist with workload distribution.

True omnichannel help – Irrespective of your plan, you’ll get a shared inbox, dwell chat, social media messaging integrations, and a self-service information base, multi function place.

Actionable insights – Acquire precious intel with Groove’s reporting metrics, together with first response instances, buyer satisfaction reviews, and common decision instances.

In depth API and integrations – Groove seamlessly integrates with in style instruments you already use, like Zapier, Slack, and Jira.

Cons of Groove:

Restricted AI-powered options – These instruments are solely out there on higher-tier plans.

Pricing: Begins at $16/consumer per thirty days, with a 7-day free trial. Their highest plan prices $56/consumer per thirty days and unlocks superior options like superior rule automation, team-specific reporting, and cargo balancing for optimized dialog assignments.

Why we selected Groove: It’s merely one of the best Zendesk various for anybody looking for a user-friendly and inexpensive buyer software program resolution. The user-friendly interface, highly effective options, and distinctive buyer help make Groove a powerful competitor.

For extra particulars, you possibly can learn our full Groove assessment.

2. Heroic Inbox (Finest for Ticket Administration in WordPress)

In the event you use WordPress to handle your web site, then Heroic Inbox is a superb various to Zendesk for dealing with buyer help emails. We’ve talked extensively about this assist desk plugin in different opinions, and that’s for a very good cause.

With Heroix Inbox, you possibly can handle all of your emails from Gmail or Outlook in a single place, proper inside your WordPress dashboard. Plus, you possibly can have limitless inboxes for not simply your buyer help groups but in addition different departments like advertising and marketing or gross sales.

Heroic Inbox integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, so you possibly can see the client’s buy historical past instantly throughout the ticketing system. This allows you to present extra focused and useful help. Plus, you have got entry to a whole historical past of all of your help tickets for straightforward reference.

One other good thing about Heroic Inbox is that it helps a number of languages proper out of the field, which is useful you probably have clients world wide. It is a main benefit over Zendesk, the place you want a higher-tier plan to supply multilingual help.

Professionals of Heroic Inbox:

Limitless energy – Handle a vast variety of tickets and customers with out worrying about month-to-month charges.

Time-saving options – Save valuable time with options like saved replies and auto-responders for regularly requested questions (FAQs).

Seamless teamwork – Arrange environment friendly collaboration with options like crew notes, draft replies, and collision detection to keep away from duplicate efforts.

Enhanced communication – Enable each clients and brokers to supply richer context inside messages by attaching recordsdata on to tickets.

Cons of Heroix Inbox:

Restricted consumer roles – Heroic Inbox affords solely two consumer roles: Mailbox Person and Administrator.

No dwell chat – You’ll have to put in a special plugin to reply to buyer queries instantly.

Pricing: Heroic Inbox’s pricing construction relies on web site licensing. It begins from $199.50 per 12 months for a single web site.

For one of the best worth, take into account the Heroic Bundle Important for $299.50 per 12 months. This bundle contains each Heroic Inbox and Heroic KB, so you possibly can create a information base for purchasers to assist themselves and scale back your help tickets.

Why we selected Heroic Inbox: This assist desk resolution stands out as a Zendesk competitor for WordPress. Whereas it doesn’t embrace a built-in dwell chat characteristic, you possibly can simply add that performance with one other plugin if wanted.

You’ll be able to study extra about Heroic Inbox in our HeroThemes assessment.

3. Nextiva (Finest for Name Facilities)

Whereas chat and information bases are in style, some clients nonetheless favor speaking on to brokers. That’s why we needed to indicate you a Zendesk various that may fulfill this want.

Meet Nextiva, the top-rated enterprise telephone service. This platform affords complete customer support instruments, together with name heart, voicemail, SMS, dwell chat, video, and social media help.

Enjoyable truth: we use Nextiva at WPBeginner for our name heart. It lets our groups simply deal with buyer calls from wherever on the planet with out utilizing their very own private cellular phone numbers.

Nextiva makes name dealing with a breeze. You’ll be able to direct calls based mostly on precedence and abilities, with straightforward transfers between brokers. Plus, you possibly can provide callback request choices, letting clients select when to obtain a name for higher comfort.

Professionals of Nextiva:

Enhanced name expertise – See caller particulars on-screen to arrange for conversations and enhance your brokers’ service.

Good routing – Use Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to direct calls to the correct brokers based mostly on their enterprise hours, abilities, precedence, and extra.

Name recording – You’ll be able to document, pause, and playback buyer interactions anytime for future reference.

Dependable service – Take pleasure in an industry-leading 99.999% uptime assure, which suggests you gained’t have to fret about dropping connection in the course of a dialog.

Cons of Nextiva:

Restricted limitless calling – Nextiva’s limitless plan is at the moment solely out there within the US and Canada.

Pricing: The Enterprise Communication plans begin from $23.95/consumer per thirty days for a crew of 1-4 folks. Apart from telephone help options, these plans embrace crew communication instruments like video conferencing. Costs can get decrease as your crew grows.

In the event you simply need to use the telephone service to help your clients, then you possibly can contact the Nextiva crew to get a quote on their Contact Middle plans.

It’s also possible to use our Nextiva coupon to get 21% off of your first buy.

Why we selected Nextiva: It’s an important Zendesk various if telephone help is vital to your enterprise. Its complete name heart options allow you to help clients simply over the telephone.

You’ll be able to study extra concerning the service in our full Nextiva assessment.

4. HubSpot (Finest for Help + CRM)

Do you need to handle buyer help and buyer relationship administration (CRM) on the identical platform? In the event you use Zendesk and need a less complicated resolution, then take into account HubSpot. It’s identified for its CRM and affords a buyer help resolution referred to as HubSpot Service Hub.

HubSpot combines help and CRM in a single platform, so that you don’t want separate instruments. To entry each, you will get the Buyer Platform plan, which incorporates Service Hub, Gross sales Hub, Content material Hub, Operations Hub, and Commerce Hub.

Service Hub affords extra than simply ticketing. It has options like conversational bots to reply easy queries, e mail well being reporting to trace the effectiveness of your e mail outreach and a cellular app for managing buyer interactions on the go.

Professionals of HubSpot:

Highly effective free plan – Consists of options like canned snippets for sooner responses and Slack integration for real-time notifications.

Unified platform – Integrates seamlessly with its different HubSpot merchandise for advertising and marketing and gross sales. This manner, all of your knowledge and interactions are accessible inside a single platform.

Automation instruments – Streamline your workflow with computerized dialog routing, automated to-do lists, and triggers to ship buyer emails routinely.

Cons of HubSpot:

Pricing soar – There’s an enormous hole from the Starter plan to the Skilled plan ($15/consumer per thirty days to $1080/month), which is likely to be loads for some. This generally is a hurdle in case you want particular options like WhatsApp integration, which is just out there in greater tiers.

Pricing: A free plan is accessible for companies with as much as 5 brokers. Paid Buyer Platform plans begin at $15/consumer per thirty days.

Why we selected HubSpot: It’s an important all-in-one resolution for companies. It covers help, CRM, advertising and marketing, and extra. In the event you like issues easy and wish all of your buyer communications in a single place, HubSpot is a strong selection as an alternative of Zendesk.

For extra data, take a look at our full HubSpot assessment.

5. HelpDesk (Superior Ticketing System)

HelpDesk is a superb Zendesk various if you’re searching for a strong ticketing software program resolution.

Like Zendesk, HelpDesk enables you to create a number of {custom} kinds for various functions, reminiscent of technical help requests or gross sales inquiries. There’s no restrict to the variety of kinds you possibly can create, supplying you with the pliability to tailor the consumption course of to your particular wants.

HelpDesk additionally simplifies the method of managing advanced points. If a buyer submits a number of tickets associated to the identical downside, then you possibly can simply merge them right into a single thread for a clearer overview.

Moreover, HelpDesk affords a shared ticket view characteristic just like Zendesk’s ticket-sharing performance. This lets a number of crew members collaborate on the identical ticket concurrently, permitting them to resolve an advanced challenge collectively.

Professionals of HelpDesk:

Superior ticketing options – You’ll be able to merge tickets, permit crew members to view the identical ticket, and allow customers to comply with tickets which may be related to their groups.

Electronic mail supply monitoring – Observe the deliverability of your help emails to make sure they attain your clients.

Constructed-in AI options – All plans embrace AI-powered options like ticket summaries and textual content enhancements to enhance your buyer communication.

Multi-channel help – HelpDesk affords 24/7 help by way of chat, e mail, and telephone so as to get help each time wanted.

Cons of HelpDesk:

Restricted pricing – HelpDesk affords just one plan. If your enterprise outgrows this plan, you then’ll must improve to a custom-priced Enterprise plan.

Pricing: The Staff plan prices $29/agent per thirty days and contains limitless contact kinds, a number of mailboxes, limitless workflows to automate duties, and 5 e mail templates to reply to buyer inquiries. A 14-day free trial is accessible.

Why we selected HelpDesk: This assist desk platform generally is a nice possibility in order for you a Zendesk various with a strong ticketing system. The only plan’s key options are sufficient for many small companies, as long as you don’t create greater than 5 e mail templates.

6. LiveChat (Finest for Dwell Chat Help)

LiveChat is a helpful device made by the identical of us who created HelpDesk. We’ve used it for a lot of of our eCommerce tasks to reply pre-sales questions.

Getting began with LiveChat is tremendous easy. After we did it, all we needed to do was simply join, add the LiveChat plugin to the WordPress web site, and log in by way of the plugin web page. The chat widget would then pop up on the location, prepared to attach with clients.

However LiveChat isn’t only a fundamental chat device. It’s additionally full of cool options like real-time chat monitoring, computerized prompts to gather customer emails when no brokers are round, and routing chats to the correct consultants for tough questions.

Professionals of LiveChat:

Dwell chat focus – Chat-specific options like monitoring visitors, letting clients charge brokers, and directing chats to the correct folks.

Nice for on-line shops – It integrates with eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, and BigCommerce. Plus, you possibly can monitor chats that result in gross sales.

Chat window editor – You’ll be able to customise the chat characteristic to fit your branding and use pre-made themes.

Quick loading time – The chat window opens sooner than many different dwell chat suppliers and works throughout each machine.

Cons of LiveChat:

Fundamental analytics within the lowest-priced plan – The Starter plan solely provides you easy stats like every day and weekly summaries. You’ll must improve for extra detailed insights into how your brokers are doing.

Pricing: Begins from $20/agent per thirty days. With the Starter plan, you possibly can monitor as much as 100 guests and get entry to your chat historical past from the previous 60 days. A 14-day free trial is accessible, and you should utilize our LiveChat coupon to get 30% off your first buy.

Why we selected LiveChat: We use LiveChat regularly on our web sites, and we predict it’s a best choice for companies searching for an easy-to-use dwell chat resolution.

Simply bear in mind, LiveChat focuses solely on dwell chat. In the event you additionally want a ticketing system and a information base, then you’ll have to pay for HelpDesk, too.

You’ll be able to study extra concerning the software program in our LiveChat assessment.

7. ChatBot (Finest for AI Chatbot Help)

Managing buyer help for a small enterprise might be powerful, particularly in case you can’t afford an enormous crew. If that’s the case, ChatBot generally is a nice Zendesk various.

ChatBot is a cloud-based AI assistant in your web site. It may deal with buyer questions in actual time like dwell chat, however you don’t want a human agent to run it. Even when you have already got a help crew, ChatBot can deal with fundamental inquiries to liberate your crew’s time for extra advanced points.

Earlier than launching your ChatBot, you possibly can practice it utilizing numerous sources like FAQs, web site content material, articles, and even your present information base. ChatBot can even study from unanswered questions to enhance its response accuracy over time.

We use ChatBot in our SaaS companies to deal with questions earlier than a sale and cross on the powerful queries to our dwell help crew.

Professionals of ChatBot:

Teachable AI – ChatBot enables you to train and enhance your AI helper so it will get higher at giving useful solutions.

Efficiency insights – Get helpful stats about how your bot is doing, like what number of messages it handles, when it’s busiest, and the way engaged customers are.

Information safety – ChatBot works independently and isn’t affiliated with huge AI corporations like OpenAI, so your knowledge stays protected inside your system.

Dynamic responses – ChatBot can use pictures, product playing cards, and carousels to create participating and informative conversations.

Cons of ChatBot:

Overage chat charges – In the event you go over your month-to-month restrict, you’ll pay a small charge for every further chat ($0.03 every).

Pricing: Begins at $52 per thirty days billed yearly, which incorporates as much as 1,000 month-to-month chats. In addition they provide a 14-day free trial.

Why we selected ChatBot: For small companies, ChatBot is a budget-friendly approach to deal with buyer questions with out hiring any workers. Plus, it integrates with LiveChat and HelpDesk, so you possibly can construct a full help system that covers all of your bases.

To study extra, you possibly can learn our complete ChatBot assessment.

8. Assist Scout (Easy Zendesk Competitor)

Zendesk affords a strong suite of buyer help instruments. However for small enterprise homeowners, it could possibly really feel overwhelming. If that sounds such as you, then Assist Scout is likely to be an ideal match.

Assist Scout is a well-liked buyer help software program identified for its user-friendly interface. Whereas it’s barely dearer than Groove at $20/consumer per thirty days, Assist Scout offers all of the important performance you could handle buyer conversations successfully.

One other key benefit we found is that their Enterprise Hours characteristic is accessible in all plans, not like Zendesk the place it’s restricted to greater tiers. This characteristic enables you to activate auto-replies based mostly in your working hours.

Professionals of Assist Scout:

Customizable knowledge monitoring – Observe particular knowledge factors on every buyer interplay to achieve precious insights into buyer engagement.

White-labeling – You’ll be able to customise Assist Scout’s buyer portal interface to match your model and create a seamless buyer expertise.

In-site or in-app surveys – Use these to shortly accumulate Internet Promoter Scores (NPS) or acquire buyer suggestions in your web site’s consumer expertise.

Good content material ideas – Assist Scout can suggest related assist content material to clients based mostly on the webpage they’re visiting, decreasing the burden in your help crew.

Cons of Assist Scout:

Restricted integrations within the lowest-priced plan – The bottom plan doesn’t join with in style process administration instruments like Jira and has no AI options.

Restricted scalability – The core options are nice, however we discovered some bugs and limits when our tasks began to develop. Our Groove announcement explains extra about why we determined to modify away from Assist Scout.

Pricing: Begins from $20/consumer per thirty days with a 15-day free trial. The bottom plan has a cap of 25 customers. You’ll need to improve to the $40/consumer per thirty days plan for limitless customers.

Why we selected Assist Scout: This customer support platform prioritizes its core performance and user-friendliness over having lots of options. Due to that, Assist Scout is a superb Zendesk various for small companies and startups.

9. Freshdesk (Freemium Zendesk Different)

Beginning a brand new enterprise might be costly, and each penny counts. In case you are searching for an economical approach to handle buyer help, Freshdesk is a superb possibility to think about.

We discovered Freshdesk’s free plan to have a stunning quantity of performance for small companies simply getting began. It lets you handle buyer inquiries from e mail and social media with a crew of as much as 10 brokers.

It’s also possible to create guidelines to routinely route tickets to probably the most certified crew member. In consequence, your clients obtain the very best care.

Freshdesk additionally offers precious insights into your help efficiency with built-in ticket pattern reviews. This lets you keep on prime of your workload and establish areas for enchancment.

Professionals of Freshdesk:

Free plan – The plan offers a strong ticketing system with e mail and social media help, good for startups on a finances.

Self-service portal – Empower clients with a information base to reply widespread questions and troubleshoot points independently.

All year-round help – Freshdesk affords 24/7 e mail help within the free plan and 24/5 telephone help in greater tiers.

Actionable analytics – The free plan affords fundamental ticket pattern reviews. In the meantime, paid plans embrace superior analytics like buyer journey monitoring, common dealing with instances, and {custom} metrics to fit your particular wants.

Cons of Freshdesk:

Restricted communication channels – The free plan doesn’t embrace dwell chat or telephone help. To entry these options, you’ll must buy extra Freshworks add-ons or improve to the Buyer Service Suite.

Pricing: Free plan out there. Paid plans begin from $15/agent per thirty days. Upgrading unlocks extra options like SLA administration, which helps guarantee your crew persistently meets your organization’s service stage agreements.

Why we selected Freshdesk: In the event you run a brand new enterprise, Freshdesk’s free plan generally is a lifesaver. You’ll be able to give attention to development whereas providing your buyer help with out breaking the financial institution.

What Is the Finest Zendesk Different for Small Companies?

The most effective Zendesk various for small companies is Groove. It affords omnichannel help, overlaying chat, e mail, information base, social media, and extra all at a fraction of Zendesk’s value.

For folks utilizing WordPress, Heroic Inbox can be value contemplating. It enables you to handle tickets and your information base instantly from WordPress, saving you from switching between platforms too typically.

Alternatively, if your enterprise depends on telephone help, then Nextiva is your best option.

High Zendesk Rivals: FAQs

Let’s reply some generally requested questions on Zendesk alternate options:

What are the disadvantages of Zendesk?

Regardless of its in depth options, Zendesk is simply too expensive for some small companies, as its plans begin from $55/consumer per thirty days. Its UI can be tougher to make use of in comparison with different platforms, and the help shouldn’t be probably the most responsive.

For that reason, we suggest utilizing Groove, Heroic Inbox, or Nextiva as alternate options.

Is Zendesk free?

No. Zendesk’s plans are all paid, although they’ve a 14-day free trial.
In the event you’re searching for a free Zendesk various, then we suggest Freshdesk or HubSpot as each provide highly effective free plans.

How do you consider customer support software program?

The very first thing it’s essential to do is perceive your crew’s necessities. It will aid you keep away from going over finances and discover the greatest enterprise device that fits your actual wants.

We additionally suggest looking at trusted assessment websites like WPBeginner Resolution Middle and testing the software program your self to see how straightforward it’s to make use of.

Uncover Extra Buyer Help Guides

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We hope this text helped you uncover one of the best Zendesk alternate options in your small enterprise. You may additionally need to take a look at our record of the greatest HubSpot alternate options and our final information to rising your enterprise on-line with out some huge cash.

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