Freshdesk vs Zendesk: Comparing the Leading Help Desk Systems

If you are thinking about a help desk system, chances are email doesn’t cut it anymore or maybe you’re about to establish a support department. Whatever the reason may be, picking the right software will make all the difference. But how do you pick one? What are the criteria? Aren’t they all the same? Well, turns out they aren’t, and we are here to show it.

For this particular case, we’ve decided to compare Zendesk and Freshdesk as they are two of the most popular systems out there. Thus, without any further delay, let’s explore the different things you have to consider when choosing a help desk system and decide which one is for you, Freshdesk or Zendesk.

Questions to Ask Yourself before Choosing a Help Desk Software

Now before you start looking into any system, it is best that you ask yourself a couple of questions that will help you define your support goals. After all, each industry is different, and each vendor tries to cater their software to a set of specific requirements and standards. So, what are the questions?

They are quite simple actually.

1. What are your team goals?
2. What do your customers expect from you?
3. What does your team expect from you?
4. And can you scale the solution?

Knowing answers to these questions will allow you to understand what is required from the help desk system in terms of functionality and what kind of issues you will be able to solve with it.

Zendesk vs Freshdesk

Now that you understand what you need from a help desk system, it is time you learn about two market leaders, Zendesk and Freshdesk. So, both help desk solutions have been on the market for quite some time and each system has its own set of functions that set them apart from the competition. But to pick the right tool for your business needs, it is best that you follow a simple outline below.

Comparing:

• Unique Features
• Integrations
• Reports & Analytics
• Pricing

While these information blocks might seem simple and obvious at a glance, you absolutely must know all about them as they are the most important aspects of any help desk solution. As we already mentioned, as an example, we will compare both Zendesk and Freshdesk using these criteria. By the end of the analysis, you will have a good idea as to which tool is the better option for your particular case.

Unique Features

Both systems, over the years, have developed a set of unique features to win new customers. These features aren’t only meant to win new customers, however. The reason unique features are so important is that they are defining traits of each ecosystem and will serve as the basis of your choice. After all, if you take a look at the tools of this caliber, you’ll notice that standard functionality is pretty much identical across the board.

Zendesk

One of the key features of Zendesk is its Multi-brand system. With it, managing multiple brands is not only easier but far more efficient. The key thing about the system is that it not only separates two products/services but analytics, contact pages, and inboxes as well. Furthermore, they are completely independent of one another. Changes made on one brand aren’t effective in the second.

Then there is the Guided Mode that tosses tickets one-by-one depending on the priority. This might seem simple but it does prevent cherry-picking among agents. This feature will also speed up response time and will have a direct impact on your customer satisfaction rate.

Finally, there is the Contextual workspace system. It allows you to build spaces that have relevant information on your ticket. In other words, if the ticket is about meat, all surrounding information such as recommendations, suggestions, and contact links will be about meat.

Freshdesk

Agent Collision is perhaps the most cited feature of the platform. The key function it delivers is that it prevents multiple agents from answering the same ticket. This system speeds up ticket resolution since one ticket is managed by one agent and not 20.

Another good function is the Parent-Child Ticketing tool. Now the main feature of this tool is that it allows you to split a super complex ticket into small, Child tickets. This might seem small but in cases where careful threading is required, this feature is very helpful.

Last but not least, there’s the Team Inbox system and as the name suggests, it consolidates incoming messages into one inbox where your support team can access it. Access can be also managed and it even understands who is not a team member meaning no “unwanted” help will be possible.

Integrations

Integrations play a vital role in any help desk solution, hence why most companies try to secure as many seamless integrations as possible. They allow for more productivity and they eliminate unwanted juggling between tabs. Furthermore, having a lot of native integrations means you have an increased area of effect.

Freshdesk

Freshdesk integration module includes all the popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, among others. Agents of the system can both monitor and scale their social media interactions and can even gather and transform complaints into tickets directly from the social media platform.

Zendesk

Zendesk is no different in this regard. It also supports popular social media platforms and just like Freshdesk, you can transform incoming questions and complaints into tickets. What is unique to Zendesk is the fact that changes made on social media are automatically reflected in the ticket.

Reports & Analytics

Both tools are very robust in terms of analytics and are pretty similar in terms of features but there are enough differences to warrant a separate block, so let’s take a look at each.

Freshdesk

Freshdesk makes a huge emphasis on advanced automation and workflows. They are built-in which makes using the tool out of the box easier as you don’t have to configure anything. Another cool function of the module is that you get access to team performance reporting capabilities in practically every plan. If you want more reporting and analytics options, higher plans offer trend monitoring, customer analysis, and satisfaction surveys.

Zendesk

Zendesk, unlike Fresh, has quite a few advanced features that are focused on customization. Out of the box, you get access to reporting tools that will also help you measure overall department performance. But the main draw of the system is the fact that you can get more granularity. Whether you want to track individual agents, define key metrics or automate notifications about important milestones, Zendesk allows you to set up just about anything.

Pricing

The last aspect you should keep an eye on is pricing. A tool is good when it is priced fairly. For this occasion, we decided to pick those plans that are recommended by the vendor. And thankfully, Freshdesk and Zendesk are quite similar in their feature set and price per month, per agent. Take a look below.

* Prices are subject to change. Please check their official websites for the latest pricing information.

Now keep in mind that we’ve excluded basic things such as the Knowledge Base system as these come in just about any help desk system regardless of its popularity. As evident in the feature set, each tool targets a slightly different size of business.

Zendesk is tailored more towards large organizations due to the inclusion of Custom business rules, Zendesk Explore, and CSAT surveys whereas Fresh is more effective in small companies due to having things such as Marketplace Apps, Social Ticketing, and Ticket Trend Reports.

Final Notes

As we can see, each tool is great in its respective right. However, each tool targets are different demographic. But that about wraps things up from us.

Contributed by Anastasia Savelieva

Anastasia Savelieva is a Content Manager at Help Desk Migration. If she’s not busy creating content in the office, she’s getting creative taking pictures or spends time looking for new music.