Freshdesk vs. Zendesk

Freshdesk and Zendesk fall in the leading helpdesk solutions and unwrap all the pragmatism that you could expect from them. One needs to perform exhaustive research as there are a galore of aspects you have to dedicate yourself to before deciding on the best helpdesk solution.

We have streamlined the process for you and our group of whizzes has done a great deal of research to identify the key differences between Freshdesk and Zendesk helpdesk solutions. Below, we stack up pricing info, intended users, and key features of Freshdesk and Zendesk helpdesk solutions.

Intended users – Freshdesk vs. Zendesk

If you are a small business owner and don’t have deep pockets to invest in help desk solutions, look no further. Freshdesk help desk solution is stimulated with all aspects to make the small business owner contented.

However, if your requirements are a bit on the upper side, say change or problem management this help desk solution may not be able to please you.  The price point is a definite clincher for Freshdesk.

Zendesk scores over Freshdesk in features like UI usability and customizability. However, we could see from the following pricing info that Zendesk is not the right option for smaller organizations that are tight on budget.

Pricing info – Freshdesk vs. Zendesk

Freshdesk provides a free 30-day trial before the user gets their feet wet with the help desk solution. It is appealingly priced at 5 pricing options, viz. Sprout (Rs. 0 per agent per month, up to 3 agents  13 USD/agent/month thereafter), Blossom (15 USD per agent per month billed annually), Garden (22 USD per agent per month billed annually), Estate (37 USD per agent per month billed annually) and Forest (66 USD per agent per month billed annually).

Zendesk also offers a free 30-day trial option so that you could play around with the software and get to know about its core features. Zendesk offers 4 pricing options to suit different user groups Essential (5 USD per agent per month), Team ( 19 USD per agent per month), Professional ( 49 USD per agent per month), and Enterprise ( 99 USD per agent per month).

Zendesk is not competitively priced as opposed to Freshdesk and we could see that as we move up the plans, Zendesk tends to be more pricey.

Features – Freshdesk vs. Zendesk

Ticket management – Freshdesk vs. Zendesk

Freshdesk brings to the table core ticket management features and boasts of enviable features like agent collision detection, shared inbox, etc. Ticket generation and ticket management is an effortless process and could be delegated to discrete agents or in bulk.

Tickets can be categorized and ranked according to priority. Innovative aspects like in-ticket contextual client details and nifty propositions for helpdesk solutions take it to an all-new level. With its global helpdesk solution, fresh desk helps to expand your reach across multiple countries and supports as high as 26 languages.

Trophies and badges will be assigned to good agents and this gives them a good boost to scale new heights.  Other features that are worth mentioning are Automatic ticket dispatch, Time based actions, and event-triggered actions.

Zendesk offers a complete ticket management solution with features like default views, macros, and RTF. Tickets can be viewed on the basis of parameters like ticket status, assignee, group, etc. You can also set macros to swiftly react to general requests with a standard reply.

Users can also attach files to tickets and file size is restricted on the basis of your plans. On-hold ticket status helps to distinguish response times of your group contrasted with the third party. To give a boost to localized support applications, Zendesk offers a dynamic content feature where ticket content would be integrated dynamically on the basis of the client’s chosen language.

Features like keyboard shortcuts and instant search help to boost productivity and speed up the process.

Reporting and analytics -Freshdesk vs. Zendesk

Zendesk benchmark feature empowers users to compare with their colleagues with respect to parameters like client satisfaction, response time, ticket volume, etc. Ticket view can be exported to CSV format as well.

Dashboards help to offer a bird’s eye view of crucial ticket parameters. Information portrayed in the dashboards is updated in an hourly manner. You can also peer up Zendesk with the Google Analytics tool to take note of activities an individual performs before ticket submission.

Client self-service experience can be leveraged by exploiting the nuances of the Help Center dashboard which offers better insight about search patterns, knowledge base activity, etc. The professional plan offers core reporting and analytics features like reporting on custom fields, SLA reporting, etc.

Freshdesk offers plenty of reporting features like Summary reports, At Glance reports, Comparison Reports, and Top-N analysis reports. Freshdesk offers 16 different report tracking parameters to suit varied user needs.

Some of the metrics that could potentially add value to your projects are ticket response and resolve time, load analysis, top agent performance, etc. Satisfaction surveys could be incorporated into the chat section to apprehend user satisfaction and assess team performance.

Satisfaction surveys help you to evaluate pitfalls in your team and your strong points. By efficiently using this feature, one could give a good boost to the overall support experience.

Security -Freshdesk vs. Zendesk

Freshdesk gets abundant safety aspects like SSL encrypted servers, redundant backups, and DDoS mitigation. The trusted IP feature enables users to whitelist definite IP ranges and ascertains who should be given access to the web- portal. VPN helps to create a secure and elite method to access your online support portal.

Zendesk also gets a couple of safety features like two-factor authentication, SSL encryption, and SSL certificate hosting. Audit logs help to keep track of significant changes which has to be made to your helpdesk solution.

The network access restriction feature helps to restrict access from particular IP ranges. In the higher-end Zendesk versions, users could relish features like SSO with SAML support, custom roles, permissions, etc.

Integrations – Freshdesk vs. Zendesk

Zendesk offers a couple of integrations with leading social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and CTI integrations and also provides integration with tools that support time tracking, e-commerce, etc.

Freshdesk also provides integration with prominent tools like Dropbox, Google Analytics, Salesforce, Shopify, etc.

Freshdesk

Pros

• Affordable helpdesk solution
• Efficient ticket management and reporting features
• Supports ITIL

Cons

• Lack of asset management feature
• Does not help in change or problem management

Zendesk

Pros

• Admirable customization feature
• Asset management feature
• Good social ticketing factor

Cons

• Expensive helpdesk solution
• No WYSIWYG editor