Intercom vs Zendesk: Comparing features, integrations, and pricing

On the other hand, it provides call center functionalities, unlike Intercom. The Intercom versus Zendesk conundrum is probably the greatest problem in the customer service software world. They both offer some state-of-the-art core functionality and numerous unusual features. Basically, if you have a complicated support process, go with Zendesk, an excellent Intercom alternative, for its help desk functionality. If you’re a sales-oriented corporation, use Intercom for its automation options.

However, the customer service (and the ways how a company delivers it) creates a centerpiece of a brand. But if you’re not familiar with them, think of the software as online human resource departments. For instance, customers and staff alike can channel messages through it. The methods that help desks use, however, are meant to cater to possibly thousands to millions of messages.

However, this is somewhat subjective, and depending on your business needs and favorite tools, you may argue we got it all mixed up, and Intercom is truly superior. Some startups and small businesses may prefer one app, while large companies and enterprise operations will have their own requirements. One more thing to add, there are ways to integrate Intercom to Zendesk. Our breakthrough AI chatbot, Fin, can resolve up to 50% of support questions, instantly. Fin sets the new standard for AI in customer service, dramatically reducing support volume, unlocking 24/7 support, and delivering CSAT-boosting service.

The best part about Zendesk is that, along with its amazing features, it also provides its users with a magical wand for customizing them. Whether it’s the ticketing system, knowledge base corner, or branding elements, you get the full right to use them as per your brand’s need. With its live analytics feature on the dashboard, it makes it easy for you to make instant decisions in no time. Such live insights are very useful in evaluating your customer support process.

This scalability ensures businesses can align their support infrastructure with their evolving requirements, ensuring a seamless customer experience. One of Zendesk’s standout features that we need to shine a spotlight on is its extensive marketplace of third-party integrations and extensions. Imagine having the power to connect your helpdesk solution with a wide range of tools and applications that your team already uses.

There is no harm in testing the waters before committing to one or the other, as both Zendesk and Intercom offer free trials. While Intercom does not offer free trials, they do offer demo versions of each plan. Intercom’s Inbox organizes all of an agent’s core functions into one interface.

Zendesk’s mission is to build software designed to improve customer relationships. It tends to perform well on the marketing and sales side of things, which is key for a growing company. And considering that its tools (including live chat options) are so easy to use, it’s probably going to be easier for a small business to get integrated and set up. ThriveDesk empowers small businesses to manage real-time customer communications.

Reviewers were frustrated by how long it took for their tickets to get resolved, as well as the complexity with which they were tossed around from department to department. Given that these are two services predicated on making you better at customer support, you’d think they’d be able to handle it better themselves. However, reading the reviews, it’s probably more accurate to say that Zendesk is “mixed” on customer support, whereas Intercom doesn’t have a stellar record. When it comes to ease-of-use, Zendesk undeniably takes the lead over Intercom. Zendesk’s intuitive design caters to beginners and non-technical users, offering a seamless experience right from the start.

Zendesk, with its extensive toolkit, is often preferred by businesses seeking an all-encompassing customer support solution. Businesses of all sizes can rely on the Zendesk customer service platform and benefit from workflow management, powerful AI tools, robust insights, and more. If that sounds good to you, sign up for a free demo to see our software in action and get started. But it’s designed so well that you really enjoy staying in their inbox and communicating with clients. Zendesk is billed more as a customer support and ticketing solution, while Intercom includes more native CRM functionality. Intercom isn’t quite as strong as Zendesk in comparison to some of Zendesk’s customer support strengths, but it has more features for sales and lead nurturing.

Zendesk and Intercom are Equal in Terms of Multichannel Support

It offers a suite that compiles help desk, live chat, and knowledge base to their user base. This enables them to speed up the support process and build experiences that customers like. For businesses looking for a comprehensive customer service and support tool, Zendesk reigns supreme. Its feature offering is second to none and for growing companies, Zendesk scales as well or better than any other customer support platform on the market.

Intercom offers live chat, email, and phone support to its customers, ensuring that any issues or questions are addressed promptly. Zendesk provides similar support options and also has a vast knowledge base with helpful articles and tutorials. Check customer reviews and ratings to gauge the quality of support offered by each platform.

Customers won’t need to leave your app or website to find the help they need.Zendesk, on the other hand, will redirect the customer to a new web page. Live chat is quickly becoming an indispensable tool for businesses aiming to offer top-notch customer service in today’s digital landscape. Intercom stands out for its modern and user-friendly messenger functionality, which includes advanced features with a focus on automation and real-time insights.

Ready to switch to Zendesk?

They’ve been marketing themselves as a messaging platform right from the beginning. Currently based in Albuquerque, NM, Bryce Emley holds an MFA in Creative Writing from NC State and nearly a decade of writing and editing experience. When he isn’t writing content, poetry, or creative nonfiction, he enjoys traveling, baking, playing music, reliving his barista days in his own kitchen, camping, and being bad at carpentry. Below, we’ve compared the usability of Zendesk’s and Intercom’s agent dashboards and administrator controls. Sequence all channels–chat, web post, email, chatbot outreach, tour message, banner, push notification, or carousel–mixing and matching modes of outreach to fit campaign goals. If a customer isn’t satisfied with Answer Bot’s response, Answer Bot quickly routes them to an agent best suited to help.

Many software vendors aren’t upfront about the cost of using their products, maintenance costs, or integration fees. Altogether, this can significantly impact affordability in the long term. Intercom is the new guy on the block when it comes to help desk ticketing systems. This means the company is still working out some kinks and operating with limited capabilities.

Support requests are managed as ongoing conversations rather than tickets which are shared via a unified inbox allowing multiple team members to share knowledge and solutions. For an area of focus as critical as customer support, it can mean the difference between a satisfied customer and a lost account. Zendesk, less user-friendly and with higher costs for quality vendor support, might not suit budget-conscious or smaller businesses. When comparing the user interfaces (UI) of Zendesk and Intercom, both platforms exhibit distinct characteristics and strengths catering to different user preferences and needs.

Zendesk’s per-agent pricing structure makes it a budget-friendly option for smaller teams, allowing costs to scale with team growth. When comparing the automation and AI features of Zendesk and Intercom, both platforms come with unique strengths and weaknesses. Intercom, on the other hand, is ideal for those focusing on CRM capabilities and personalized customer interactions. Learn how top CX leaders are scaling personalized customer service at their companies.

Zendesk is a customer service software company that provides businesses with a suite of tools to manage customer interactions. The company was founded in 2007 and today serves over 170,000 customers worldwide. Zendesk’s mission is to build software designed to improve customer relationships. AI and ML make customer service functionalities like chatbots, sentiment analysis, ticket creation, and workflow automation possible. All these features are necessary for operational efficiency and help agents deliver fast, personalized customer experiences. View your users’ Zendesk tickets in Intercom and create new ones directly from conversations.

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In this article, we will explore the key differences between Intercom and Zendesk, two popular customer support platforms. Both Intercom and Zendesk offer a range of features to help businesses manage customer interactions, but there are some distinct differences between the two. In the realm of automation and workflow management, Zendesk truly shines as a frontrunner.

Yes—as your business’s needs grow, you will require a more sophisticated case management system. But that doesn’t mean you have to completely switch from your current provider if you’re not quite ready. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Yes, you can find the Intercom integration in the Zendesk Marketplace—and it’s free to install. In terms of pricing, Intercom is considered one of the most expensive tools on the market. Though the Intercom chat window says that their customer success team typically replies in a few hours, don’t expect to receive any real answer in chat for at least a couple of days. Their reports are attractive, dynamic, and integrated right out of the box.

In this article, we will compare Intercom and Zendesk, highlighting their features, benefits, and drawbacks. For instance, a customer inquiry about product availability can trigger an automated response providing real-time stock information within Zendesk. While Intercom does incorporate automated responses via chatbots, it doesn’t exhibit the same level of sophistication and versatility in its automation capabilities as Zendesk. Zendesk’s advanced automation features make it the preferred choice for businesses seeking to optimize their workflow and enhance customer support efficiency.

BotPenguin provides more features than they both had to begin with at an unbelievable price. Automated service to migrate your data between help desk platforms without programming skills — just follow simple Migration Wizard. Sure, Intercom allows you to create articles and deliver a bot that answers customer questions with specific articles and resolves issues faster. As a rule, Intercom reviews are positive as many users praise the interface, the ease of use, and the deployment of the software. However, some users remarked that a developer is needed to properly install the software or run the risks of problems in the future.

Let’s explore how Zendesk and Intercom stack up in terms of basic functionalities required by a helpdesk software. This multichannel approach is especially important for companies that support customers in different regions and countries as access to communication tools can vary. While Intercom is great for tracking user-centric metrics, Zendesk can provide a more comprehensive look at overall customer support performance. Winner — Intercom edges out Zendesk here due mainly to its customizable workflow capabilities. Chat tools are the foundation of customer support software in 2023 and can serve as a key differentiator when choosing the right vendor. Intercom allows visitors to search for and view articles from the messenger widget.

Intercom’s pricing structure offers different plans to cater to various customer support and engagement needs, accommodating users with different budgets. Both Zendesk and Intercom are customer support management solutions that offer features like ticket management, live chat and messaging, automation workflows, knowledge centers, and analytics. Zendesk has traditionally been more focused on customer support management, while Intercom has been more focused on live support solutions like its chat solution.

But the company’s story isn’t just one of pandemic-induced change—in the first half of the year, Novo’s client base grew from 2,000 to tens of thousands. With over 100,000 customers across all industries and regions, Zendesk knows what it takes to interact with customers while retaining and growing relationships. Check out the research-backed comparison below to better understand how each solution can add value to your organization. Compare Zendesk versus Intercom to determine who will be the best partner for your business at every phase of the customer journey. It allows you to chat with visitors on your website and convert them into customers. It allows you to anticipate customers questions and offer help when and where they need it.

There is one mind-boggling feature in Intercom, and that is its in-app messaging serving. It’s a very good way of communicating with customers through multi-platform apps. Moreover, the best part is it also lets you send customized messages to various customers on the basis of their actions. When making your decision, consider factors such as your budget, the scale of your business, and your specific growth plans. Explore alternative options like ThriveDesk if you’re looking for a more budget-conscious solution that aligns with your customer support needs. Experience targeted communication with Intercom’s automation and segmentation features.

We make it easy for anyone within your company to access contextual customer information—including their conversation and purchase history—to provide better experiences. In fact, the Zendesk Marketplace has 1,300+ apps and integrations, from billing software to marketing automation tools. By leveraging the out-of-the-box Netomi virtual agent integration, companies enhance both the agent and customer experience, while also reducing costs. Other chatbots don’t sit natively within the agent desk, but with Netomi, virtual and human agents work alongside each other, creating an efficient and ultra-powerful customer service team. Zendesk offers tiered pricing based on the level of service you need, the size of your teams, and other factors. Every feature is available in the broadest option, Zendesk Suite, which is the version most companies would be implementing.

However, customers should keep in mind that Intercom does not offer voice. Zendesk for Service, a customer service solution, provides unified customer-facing communication channels, self-service, collaboration, intercom vs zendesk customer routing, and analytics–all organized in one dashboard. But keep in mind that Zendesk is viewed more as a support and ticketing solution, while Intercom is CRM functionality-oriented.

Zendesk’s core feature has always been its ticketing system, and it remains the industry’s finest. Since Zendesk’s inception, its ticketing system has remained the best in the business. Zendesk has over 160,000 customers, including some well-known brands like Siemens, Uber and Instacart.

When it comes to customer communication, Intercom has a perfect layout and customer information storage system. Based on such information, you can easily communicate with your customers and resolve their queries instantly. If you go through Zendesk’s reviews and ratings section, you will get to see a long list of positive appraisals.

Intercom wins the reporting and analytics category due to its unique visualization and display formats for contact center and article data. Reporting and analytics provide metrics, trends, and key performance indicators (KPIs) that offer insights to agents and administrators. Zendesk’s chatbot, Answer Bot, automatically answers customer questions asynchronously in up to 40 languages–via any text-based channel. Self-service tools let customers resolve their own issues quickly and 24/7, improving satisfaction and reducing excessive agent workload. The ticket display’s Side Conversations tab allows agents to initiate internal conversations via email, Slack, or ticketing system notes–without leaving the ticket.

Zendesk is a comprehensive CRM and support suite that offers a variety of features for customer support, sales, and marketing. One of Zendesk’s most notable aspects is its robust ticketing system. As Zendesk initially began as a help desk ticketing system, it’s no surprise that the platform makes tracking and managing customer inquiries seamless.

• Now that we’ve covered a bit of background on both Zendesk and Intercom, let’s dive into the features each platform offers.
• The three tiers—Suite Team, Suite Growth, and Suite Professional—also give you more options outside of Intercom’s static structure.
• A mighty email marketing platform to help you reach your customers and increase sales.
• Intercom understands very well that email marketing is no more than a magic wand for building strong customer relations.
• Moreover, Intercom bots can converse naturally with customers by using conversation starters, and respond with self-help, and knowledge base articles.

Agents can use the desktop chatbox to respond to customers in any outbound channel. Users of Zendesk find its pricing high and customization options limited. The world is a wonderful place, speak the tongue of your customers and customize the chatbot to match your brand. If you don’t go with ActiveCampaign, then Zoho would be my second choice.

Intercom does have a ticketing dashboard that has omnichannel functionality, much like Zendesk. Keeping this general theme in mind, I’ll dive deeper into how each software’s features compare, so you can decide which use case might best fit your needs. Whether Zendesk can fully replace Intercom depends on your specific customer support and engagement requirements. Zendesk has more pricing options, which means you’re free to choose your tier from the get-go. With Intercom, you’ll have more customizable options with the enterprise versions of the software, but you’ll have fewer lower-tier choices. Intercom stands out with its focus on personalized interactions, offering businesses a platform designed to nurture leads and deliver exceptional customer support.

Zendesk provides limited customer support for its basic plan users, along with costly premium assistance options. On the other hand, Intercom is generally praised for its support features, despite facing challenges with its AI chatbot and the complexity of its help articles. Intercom is a customer support platform known for its effective messaging and automation, enhancing in-context support within products, apps, or websites. It features the Intercom Messenger, which works with existing support tools for self-serve or live support.

Zendesk and Intercom are robust tools with a wide range of customer service and CRM features. For small companies and startups, Intercom offers a Starter plan — with a balanced suite of features from each of the solutions below — at $74 per month per user, billed annually. You can create an omnichannel CRM suite with a mix of productivity, collaboration, eCommerce, CRM, analytics, email marketing, social media, and other tools. Both app stores include many popular integrations, such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Mailchimp, and Zapier. Intercom offers an easy way to nurture your qualified leads (prospects) into customers with Intercom Series. If you’re exploring popular chat support tools Zendesk and Intercom, you may be trying to understand which solution is right for you.

Choosing the right customer service platform is pivotal for enhancing business-client interactions. In this context, Zendesk and Intercom emerge as key contenders, each offering distinct features tailored to dynamic customer service environments. Zendesk’s user face is quite intuitive and easy to use, allowing customers to quickly find what they are looking for.

Using the existing knowledge base functionality, they can display self-help articles in the chat window before the customer approaches your team for support. You can create these knowledge base articles in your target audience’s native language as their software is multilingual. In summary, choosing Zendesk and Intercom hinges on your business’s unique requirements and priorities.

As you dive deeper into the world of customer support and engagement, you’ll discover that Zendesk and Intercom offer some distinctive features that set them apart. Intercom is a fully-featured customer support platform that provides powerful automation and AI tools to enable more efficient and effective customer engagement. Whichever solution you choose, mParticle can help integrate your data.

Here’s what you need to know about Zendesk vs. Intercom as customer support and relationship management tools. You need a complete customer service platform that’s seamlessly integrated and AI-enhanced. However, customers can purchase multiple Intercom plans to use together, or purchase add-ons to select just the features they want. Intercom wins the sales pipeline tools category because its campaigning and sequencing tools integrate all channels and unique services, like carousels and product tours.

You can use this with the push notification of the app to keep your customers in the loop of possible promos, rewards, and more. Intercom Inbox has features that vaguely remind Zendesk Support, but the offered package Acquire customer (Messages and Inbox) is more paralleled with Zendesk Support + Chat. Intercom is a customer relationship management and messaging tool for web businesses. Erika is Groove’s Customer Success Manager, committed to helping you find the right software solution for your business needs. She loves finding innovative ways for your support team to scale and grow, always putting the customer first. Overall, when comparing Zendesk to Intercom, Zendesk’s features will probably win out over time.