Are you in search of Zendesk alternate options on 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, complicated interface, and restricted help. These components are necessary 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 hundreds of thousands of customers with their initiatives.
On this information, we’ll stroll you thru one of the best Zendesk alternate options for small companies.
The Greatest Zendesk Alternate options: A Abstract
Rank | Platform | Greatest For | Beginning Value |
---|---|---|---|
🥇 | Groove | Full buyer help resolution | $16/person/mo |
🥈 | Heroic Inbox | WordPress ticketing system | $199.50/yr |
🥉 | Nextiva | Cellphone help | $23.95/person/mo |
4 | HubSpot | Assist + CRM | $15/person/mo |
5 | HelpDesk | Superior ticket administration | $29/person/mo |
6 | LiveChat | Reside chat help | $20/person/mo |
7 | ChatBot | AI chat help | $52/mo |
8 | Assist Scout | Easy assist desk | $20/person/mo |
9 | Freshdesk | Freemium resolution | $15/person/mo |
Why Belief WPBeginner?
The WPBeginner editorial crew has over 16 years of expertise in WordPress, digital advertising and marketing, and eCommerce. We’ve tried and examined numerous plugins and software program on actual web sites to seek out essentially the most appropriate ones for our readers’ particular wants.
Need to be taught extra? Simply try our editorial course of.
How We Discovered and Examined the Greatest Zendesk Alternate options
To evaluate one of the best Zendesk alternate options, we centered on one key query: why are individuals shifting away from Zendesk within the first place?
Our analysis discovered 3 key issues:
- Tough to make use of –The newest Zendesk UI (person interface) has a better studying curve than the earlier model and takes extra time to navigate.
- Costly – Zendesk’s most inexpensive plan is $55/agent per 30 days. In case you have at the least a crew of 5 brokers, you will want to pay $3300 per yr to make use of the platform. That’s a major expense for a small enterprise.
- Restricted help – Zendesk’s 24/7 on-line help is barely obtainable through an add-on. In the meantime, there are lots of different customer support platforms on the market that supply that function out of the field.
From there, we determined to deal with 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 trustworthy with our evaluations and can let you understand if there are any drawbacks it is best to take into account. We might not advocate a product that we personally wouldn’t use.
Right here’s some extra recommendation on methods to decide buyer help software program for your online business:
“To choose the correct platform, determine the communication channels that resonate greatest along with your clients and decide the answer primarily based on your online business wants. From there, slim down merchandise primarily based on worth, important options, person evaluations, and your expertise throughout a free trial or demo.”
Jess Pingrey from Match Small Enterprise
1. Groove (Greatest Total Zendesk Various)
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 initiatives, and it’s been a clean 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 underneath one roof.
Groove additionally has distinctive buyer help. They provide onboarding help to get you began shortly, and their 24/7 help is on the market to all customers, no matter their plan.
Execs of Groove:
- Easy ticket administration – Groove makes managing tickets straightforward with automation capabilities like routing guidelines and automated escalation for complicated buyer interactions.
- Enhanced ticketing system – Groove boasts options like collision detection to stop duplicate communication, inner notes for crew collaboration, and agent availability to assist with workload distribution.
- True omnichannel help – Regardless 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 – Achieve useful intel with Groove’s reporting metrics, together with first response instances, buyer satisfaction stories, 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 obtainable on higher-tier plans.
Pricing: Begins at $16/person per 30 days, with a 7-day free trial. Their highest plan prices $56/person per 30 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 evaluate.
2. Heroic Inbox (Greatest for Ticket Administration in WordPress)
In the event you use WordPress to handle your web site, then Heroic Inbox is a good various to Zendesk for dealing with buyer help emails. We’ve talked extensively about this assist desk plugin in different evaluations, 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 immediately throughout the ticketing system. This allows you to present extra focused and useful help. Plus, you will have entry to a whole historical past of all of your help tickets for straightforward reference.
One other advantage of Heroic Inbox is that it helps a number of languages proper out of the field, which is useful when you have clients all over the world. This can be a main benefit over Zendesk, the place you want a higher-tier plan to supply multilingual help.
Execs of Heroic Inbox:
- Limitless energy – Handle an infinite 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 incessantly 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 person roles – Heroic Inbox affords solely two person roles: Mailbox Person and Administrator.
- No dwell chat – You’ll have to put in a unique plugin to reply to buyer queries immediately.
Pricing: Heroic Inbox’s pricing construction relies on web site licensing. It begins from $199.50 per yr for a single web site.
For one of the best worth, take into account the Heroic Bundle Important for $299.50 per yr. This bundle consists of 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 embody a built-in dwell chat function, you possibly can simply add that performance with one other plugin if wanted.
You may be taught extra about Heroic Inbox in our HeroThemes evaluate.
3. Nextiva (Greatest for Name Facilities)
Whereas chat and information bases are in style, some clients nonetheless choose speaking on to brokers. That’s why we needed to point out you a Zendesk various that may fulfill this want.
Meet Nextiva, the top-rated enterprise cellphone service. This platform affords complete customer support instruments, together with name middle, voicemail, SMS, dwell chat, video, and social media help.
Enjoyable truth: we use Nextiva at WPBeginner for our name middle. It lets our groups simply deal with buyer calls from wherever on the earth with out utilizing their very own private mobile phone numbers.
Nextiva makes name dealing with a breeze. You may direct calls primarily based on precedence and expertise, with straightforward transfers between brokers. Plus, you possibly can provide callback request choices, letting clients select when to obtain a name for higher comfort.
Execs 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 primarily based on their enterprise hours, expertise, precedence, and extra.
- Name recording – You may document, pause, and playback buyer interactions anytime for future reference.
- Dependable service – Get pleasure from an industry-leading 99.999% uptime assure, which implies you received’t have to fret about shedding connection in the midst of a dialog.
Cons of Nextiva:
- Restricted limitless calling – Nextiva’s limitless plan is at present solely obtainable within the US and Canada.
Pricing: The Enterprise Communication plans begin from $23.95/person per 30 days for a crew of 1-4 individuals. Apart from cellphone help options, these plans embody crew communication instruments like video conferencing. Costs can get decrease as your crew grows.
In the event you simply wish to use the cellphone service to help your clients, then you possibly can contact the Nextiva crew to get a quote on their Contact Heart plans.
You may as well use our Nextiva coupon to get 21% off of your first buy.
Why we selected Nextiva: It’s an amazing Zendesk various if cellphone help is necessary to your online business. Its complete name middle options allow you to help clients simply over the cellphone.
You may be taught extra in regards to the service in our full Nextiva evaluate.
4. HubSpot (Greatest for Assist + CRM)
Do you wish to handle buyer help and buyer relationship administration (CRM) on the identical platform? In the event you use Zendesk and desire a easier resolution, then take into account HubSpot. It’s recognized 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 may 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.
Execs 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 information and interactions are accessible inside a single platform.
- Automation instruments – Streamline your workflow with automated dialog routing, automated to-do lists, and triggers to ship buyer emails routinely.
Cons of HubSpot:
- Pricing leap – There’s an enormous hole from the Starter plan to the Skilled plan ($15/person per 30 days to $1080/month), which is perhaps quite a bit for some. This generally is a hurdle when you want particular options like WhatsApp integration, which is barely obtainable in increased tiers.
Pricing: A free plan is on the market for companies with as much as 5 brokers. Paid Buyer Platform plans begin at $15/person per 30 days.
Why we selected HubSpot: It’s an amazing all-in-one resolution for companies. It covers help, CRM, advertising and marketing, and extra. In the event you like issues easy and need all of your buyer communications in a single place, HubSpot is a stable selection as a substitute of Zendesk.
For extra data, try our full HubSpot evaluate.
5. HelpDesk (Superior Ticketing System)
HelpDesk is a superb Zendesk various if you’re in search of a strong ticketing software program resolution.
Like Zendesk, HelpDesk permits you to create a number of {custom} varieties for various functions, equivalent to technical help requests or gross sales inquiries. There’s no restrict to the variety of varieties you possibly can create, supplying you with the flexibleness to tailor the consumption course of to your particular wants.
HelpDesk additionally simplifies the method of managing complicated points. If a buyer submits a number of tickets associated to the identical drawback, then you possibly can simply merge them right into a single thread for a clearer overview.
Moreover, HelpDesk affords a shared ticket view function just like Zendesk’s ticket-sharing performance. This lets a number of crew members collaborate on the identical ticket concurrently, permitting them to resolve a sophisticated problem collectively.
Execs of HelpDesk:
- Superior ticketing options – You may merge tickets, permit crew members to view the identical ticket, and allow customers to observe tickets that could be related to their groups.
- Electronic mail supply monitoring – Monitor the deliverability of your help emails to make sure they attain your clients.
- Constructed-in AI options – All plans embody AI-powered options like ticket summaries and textual content enhancements to enhance your buyer communication.
- Multi-channel help – HelpDesk affords 24/7 help through chat, e mail, and cellphone to be able to get help at any time when wanted.
Cons of HelpDesk:
- Restricted pricing – HelpDesk affords just one plan. If your online business outgrows this plan, then you definately’ll have to improve to a custom-priced Enterprise plan.
Pricing: The Workforce plan prices $29/agent per 30 days and consists of limitless contact varieties, 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 on the market.
Why we selected HelpDesk: This assist desk platform generally is a nice possibility if you would like a Zendesk various with a sturdy 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 (Greatest for Reside Chat Assist)
LiveChat is a useful software made by the identical people who created HelpDesk. We’ve used it for a lot of of our eCommerce initiatives to reply pre-sales questions.
Getting began with LiveChat is tremendous easy. Once we did it, all we needed to do was simply enroll, add the LiveChat plugin to the WordPress web site, and log in through 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 software. It’s additionally filled with cool options like real-time chat monitoring, automated prompts to gather customer emails when no brokers are round, and routing chats to the correct consultants for tough questions.
Execs of LiveChat:
- Reside chat focus – Chat-specific options like monitoring site visitors, letting clients charge brokers, and directing chats to the correct individuals.
- 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 may customise the chat function 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 system.
Cons of LiveChat:
- Primary analytics within the lowest-priced plan – The Starter plan solely offers you easy stats like day by day and weekly summaries. You’ll have to improve for extra detailed insights into how your brokers are doing.
Pricing: Begins from $20/agent per 30 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 on the market, and you should utilize our LiveChat coupon to get 30% off your first buy.
Why we selected LiveChat: We use LiveChat incessantly on our web sites, and we predict it’s a best choice for companies in search of 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 may be taught extra in regards to the software program in our LiveChat evaluate.
7. ChatBot (Greatest for AI Chatbot Assist)
Managing buyer help for a small enterprise may be robust, particularly when 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 on your web site. It might 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 maintain fundamental inquiries to liberate your crew’s time for extra complicated points.
Earlier than launching your ChatBot, you possibly can prepare it utilizing numerous sources like FAQs, web site content material, articles, and even your current information base. ChatBot also can be taught 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 go on the robust queries to our dwell help crew.
Execs of ChatBot:
- Teachable AI – ChatBot permits 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.
- Knowledge safety – ChatBot works independently and isn’t affiliated with large AI corporations like OpenAI, so your information 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 additional chat ($0.03 every).
Pricing: Begins at $52 per 30 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 method to deal with buyer questions with out hiring any employees. Plus, it integrates with LiveChat and HelpDesk, so you possibly can construct a full help system that covers all of your bases.
To be taught extra, you possibly can learn our complete ChatBot evaluate.
8. Assist Scout (Easy Zendesk Competitor)
Zendesk affords a strong suite of buyer help instruments. However for small enterprise homeowners, it may possibly really feel overwhelming. If that sounds such as you, then Assist Scout is perhaps an ideal match.
Assist Scout is a well-liked buyer help software program recognized for its user-friendly interface. Whereas it’s barely costlier than Groove at $20/person per 30 days, Assist Scout supplies all of the important performance it’s good to handle buyer conversations successfully.
One other key benefit we found is that their Enterprise Hours function is on the market in all plans, in contrast to Zendesk the place it’s restricted to increased tiers. This function permits you to activate auto-replies primarily based in your working hours.
Execs of Assist Scout:
- Customizable information monitoring – Monitor particular information factors on every buyer interplay to realize useful insights into buyer engagement.
- White-labeling – You may 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 achieve buyer suggestions in your web site’s person expertise.
- Good content material strategies – Assist Scout can advocate related assist content material to clients primarily based 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 initiatives began to develop. Our Groove announcement explains extra about why we determined to modify away from Assist Scout.
Pricing: Begins from $20/person per 30 days with a 15-day free trial. The bottom plan has a cap of 25 customers. You will have to improve to the $40/person per 30 days plan for limitless customers.
Why we selected Assist Scout: This customer support platform prioritizes its core performance and user-friendliness over having a whole lot of options. Due to that, Assist Scout is a good Zendesk various for small companies and startups.
9. Freshdesk (Freemium Zendesk Various)
Beginning a brand new enterprise may be costly, and each penny counts. If you’re in search of an economical method to handle buyer help, Freshdesk is a good possibility to think about.
We discovered Freshdesk’s free plan to have a shocking quantity of performance for small companies simply getting began. It means that you can handle buyer inquiries from e mail and social media with a crew of as much as 10 brokers.
You may as well create guidelines to routinely route tickets to essentially the most certified crew member. Consequently, your clients obtain the very best care.
Freshdesk additionally supplies useful insights into your help efficiency with built-in ticket development stories. This lets you keep on prime of your workload and determine areas for enchancment.
Execs of Freshdesk:
- Free plan – The plan supplies a sturdy 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 cellphone help in increased tiers.
- Actionable analytics – The free plan affords fundamental ticket development stories. In the meantime, paid plans embody 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 embody dwell chat or cellphone help. To entry these options, you’ll have to buy extra Freshworks add-ons or improve to the Buyer Service Suite.
Pricing: Free plan obtainable. Paid plans begin from $15/agent per 30 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 may deal with development whereas providing your buyer help with out breaking the financial institution.
What Is the Greatest Zendesk Various for Small Companies?
One of the best Zendesk various for small companies is Groove. It affords omnichannel help, masking chat, e mail, information base, social media, and extra all at a fraction of Zendesk’s price.
For individuals utilizing WordPress, Heroic Inbox can be value contemplating. It permits you to handle tickets and your information base immediately from WordPress, saving you from switching between platforms too typically.
Alternatively, if your online business depends on cellphone help, then Nextiva is your most suitable option.
Prime Zendesk Rivals: FAQs
Let’s reply some generally requested questions on Zendesk alternate options:
What are the disadvantages of Zendesk?
Regardless of its intensive options, Zendesk is just too expensive for some small companies, as its plans begin from $55/person per 30 days. Its UI can be tougher to make use of in comparison with different platforms, and the help will not be essentially the most responsive.
For that reason, we advocate 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 in search of a free Zendesk various, then we advocate Freshdesk or HubSpot as each provide highly effective free plans.
How do you consider customer support software program?
The very first thing you could do is perceive your crew’s necessities. This can assist you to keep away from going over finances and discover one of the best enterprise software that fits your precise wants.
We additionally advocate having a look at trusted evaluate websites like WPBeginner Resolution Heart and testing the software program your self to see how straightforward it’s to make use of.
Uncover Extra Buyer Assist Guides
We hope this text helped you uncover one of the best Zendesk alternate options on your small enterprise. You may additionally wish to try our record of one of the best HubSpot alternate options and our final information to rising your online business on-line with out some huge cash.
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Disclaimer: We additionally checked out different Zendesk rivals, equivalent to Gorgias, HappyFox, Kustomer, Salesforce Service Cloud, and Zoho Desk. Nevertheless, they didn’t meet our standards for one of the best choices for small companies.
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