Freshdesk vs. Zendesk

Freshdesk and Zendesk falls in the leading helpdesk solutions and unwraps all the pragmatism that you could expect from them. One need to perform exhaustive research as there is 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 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 bit on the upper side, say change or problem management this help desk solution may not be able to please you.  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 which are tight on budget.

Pricing info – Freshdesk vs. Zendesk

Freshdesk provides free 30-day trial before 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 free 30-day trial option so that you could play around the software and get to know about its core features. Zendesk offers 4 pricing options to suit different user groups as Essential ( 5USD per agent per month), Team ( 19 USD per agent per month), Professional ( 49 USD per agent per month), 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 table core ticket management feature 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, 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 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.

User 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 boost to localized support applications, Zendesk offers dynamic content feature where ticket content would be integrated dynamically on the basis of client’s chosen language.

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

Reporting and analytics -Freshdesk vs. Zendesk

Zendesk benchmark feature empowers users to compare with your 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 bird’s eye-view of crucial ticket parameters. Information portrayed in the dashboards are updated on an hourly manner. You can also peer up Zendesk with 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 Help Center dashboard which offers better insight about search patterns, knowledge base activity etc. Professional plan offers core reporting and analytics features like report on custom fields, SLA reporting etc.

Freshdesk offers plenty of reporting features like Summary reports, At a 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 about user satisfaction and to 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 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. Trusted IP feature enables users to whitelist definite IP ranges and ascertains who should be given access to web- portal. VPN helps to create a secure and an elite method to access your online support portal.

Zendesk also gets 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.

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

Integrations – Freshdesk vs. Zendesk

Zendesk offers couple of integrations with leading social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, CTI integrations and also provides integration with tools which 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