Zoho Desk has been around for several years, helping organizations manage and monitor customer-facing conversations. Among the very few context-aware customer support solutions available in the marketplace, Zoho Desk offers businesses a buffet of features to handle customer queries/complaints through multiple communication channels.
Besides, it has features for organizing and managing customer details and assessing conversations to identify areas for improvement. No doubt, it is a commendable platform that does not cost a fortune.
But not all businesses are made of the same cloth. Organizations have different needs, which another Zoho Desk alternative could better meet them.
First of all, Zoho Desk’s basic plan is not feature-rich. While the subscription does not cost you much, it misses out on important customer support features, including round-robin and skill-based assignments, agent collision detection, live chat and telephony support, and Zia answer bot.
You will have to upgrade straight to Zoho Desk’s topmost Enterprise plan to unlock these features alongside AI capabilities. Costing around US$39/agent/month, businesses running on budgets will soon find the customer support tool unsuitable.
A Swiss Army knife among customer service software, Zoho Desk offers tons of tools that your support team might never need. So, if you primarily focus on managing shared inboxes and offering customer support, Zoho Desk’s pre-populated functionalities will seem overwhelming and unnecessary.
The live chat widget’s overall design seems dull and outdated. While you can deploy it on your help center, it has limited customization capabilities. Further, no pre-chat forms are available to share with customers to deep-dive into their issues and transfer conversations to the right support agent (s).
Lastly, Zoho Desk’s conversational AI, Zia, efficiently generates leads and builds reports but misses the mark when it comes to offering customers relevant solutions.
See what users have to say about Zoho Desk:
“Have a lot of options and some times you don’t know where are the options you need.” – Alejandro C.
“It’s relatively easy to use, although the UI/UX isn’t clean and there are many buttons.” – Joe H.
“It’d be great if they could add a few more customization options for the chat widget’s appearance.” – A verified user.
“Most of the good features are in higher tiers.” – Syed A.
Now that you know Zoho Desk’s shortcomings, let’s explore the ten best Zoho Desk alternative platforms.
Helpwise is the most comprehensive customer service platform with a range of features designed for lean businesses to offer best-in-breed support. When you sign up for the solution, you will find a curated suite of advanced tools to have meaningful conversations with customers.
With a high focus on simplicity and usability, Helpwise provides a clean UI and intuitive workflows. You can help customers on their favorite communication channels – email, call, live chat, SMS, WhatsApp, and social media (Facebook and Twitter) – all from one dashboard.
Saved replies make your support agents more responsive, especially on queries that do not demand much work. You can also build a database of saved replies for future use.
Besides, you can create service-level agreements (SLA) to define benchmarks your agents can work toward, including quality standards, performance targets, and response times.
Helpwise automatically assigns customer conversations to relevant support agents based on skills and round robins. Moreover, it re-assigns a conversation to the next available agents if the original assignee is unavailable.
Helpwise scores full marks in terms of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. It paraphrases and summarizes conversations for better case understanding and accurate resolution. Plus, its chatbot answers routine customer queries and redirects them to both human agents and suitable help documentation.
The best part, you can enjoy most of these functionalities in Helpwise’s basic plan itself.
Pricing
Standard: US$15/user/month
Premium: US$25/user/month
Advanced: US$50/user/month
Enterprise: Custom quote on request
ProProfs offers a solid customer support platform for handling customer conversations through live chat, email, a help center, and web forms. As a Zoho Desk alternative, it has all the functionalities necessary to maintain robust customer service – a knowledge base, ticket routing, and advanced reports.
You can club all customer-facing inboxes, including @support, @billing, or info@, into a centralized space. You can send clients automated customer satisfaction (CSAT) or net promoter score (NPS) surveys to identify customer sentiments about your services and aspects needing improvement.
However, ProProfs has attracted criticism due to limited integrations, especially CRM. Also, you cannot address customer queries/complaints via social media channels.
ProProfs does not have a mobile app for its customer service solution. Further, its subscription can exceed your budget as you expand your support team as well as your customer base.
Pricing
ProProfs offers a single plan at US$30/user/month. Unlock a 30% discount for annual contracts.
Dixa has quickly made a name for itself as a strong Zoho Desk alternative, thanks to its exhaustive feature set. You can optimize your support agents’ workflow by handling email, chat, voice, and social media conversations in a single platform.
What is more, Dixa goes further by offering features such as in-depth analytics, CSAT surveys, chatbot creation, and a quality assurance tool.
However, the customer support tool has usability issues. There are times when your customers cannot see the attached files in the responses, or you might not be able to add attachments in the first place.
For omnichannel support and an external knowledge base, you wil`l have to upgrade to Dixa’s higher-end plans. Not just that, chatbots and quality & insights come as an add-on, US$1199/month and US$35/agent, respectively.
Pricing
Essential: US$49/user/month
Growth: US$109/user/month
Ultimate: US$169/user/month
Custom: Contact sales for a custom quote
Trengo is another Zoho Desk alternative that consolidates customer conversations across chat, voice, email, SMS, and social media channels. You can effectively engage with web visitors via live chat, offering personalized assistance along their journey.
One of Trengo’s highlighting features is its ability to create no-code chatbots using its drag-and-drop blocks. Besides using these chatbots for self-hosted live chats, you can use them on popular messaging platforms, including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, and WeChat.
However, Trengo misses out on essential support features such as shared drafts, service-level agreements (SLA), and collision detection. Combine those with limited AI capabilities and no Twitter integration.
Users have also pointed out its clunky UI, with one saying, “The interface sometimes looks a bit crowded and busy. More customization options would be nice.”
Furthermore, Trengo’s basic plan is available for up to five support agents. So, if you are a 5–10-member support team, for example, you will have to upgrade to its Scale plan, which can be costly.
Pricing
Grow: US$23/user/month
Scale: US$37/user/month
Enterprise: US$50/user/month
Built for B2B companies, TeamSupport offers collaboration features and real-time insights to help you identify growth avenues. Additionally, it takes your customer support to another level by improving internal collaboration and further removing barriers that occur to most businesses.
Your support agents can ask questions, send messages, comment on issues, and even chat 1:1 with other team members on Water Cooler – a Facebook-style internal social network. The live chat tool lets you conduct voice calls, text chat, video calls, and even screen sharing for more complicated cases.
However, TeamSupport’s unintuitive and complex UI has annoyed its users. One user has to frequently refresh the web page as the “displayed reports appear to be stacked on top of one another.” Another has to do the same as “The “action bar” at the top of a ticket sometimes disappears.”
Lastly, important features, such as screen sharing, SLA management, and workflow management, are available in the higher-cost plans. So, as TeamSupport is already on the higher end price-wise, it is out of reach for smaller support teams.
Essential Support: US$49/user/month
Enterprise Support: US$69/user/month
Complete Customer Support Suite: US$119/user/month
Salesforce Service Cloud is a comprehensive platform that offers a shared view of all customer conversations, coupled with a stack of smart productivity features for effective case resolution.
Its social platform, Chatter, lets your support team quickly escalate urgent conversations, @mention appropriate agents, or create groups for learning and collaboration.
For immediate support, you will have AI-enabled chatbots. Moreover, these chatbots automatically route conversations to the right agent based on skills and availability.
That being said, Salesforce Service Cloud does not offer end-to-end email functionality. Plus, its extensive capabilities make it challenging for new users to understand and navigate the UI.
Critical features, including chat (live agent), advanced reporting, and help center, are locked in the higher-priced plans. Not just that, but you will have to pay extra for add-ons – contact center (US$150/user/month), virtual remote assistant (US$50/user/month), and digital engagement (US$75/user/month).
These pricing models drive away small businesses to other cost-effective options.
Starter: US$25/user/month
Professional: US$75/user/month
Enterprise: US$150/user/month
Unlimited: US$300/user/month
Like most top-quality Zoho Desk alternatives, Vision Helpdesk is also a reliable customer support platform that identifies conversations and stores them in a central location. Minimum human effort involved.
You can set up an online help center that contains answers to common customer queries. The help center is customizable and has numerous features like a self-service portal, knowledge base, and online community.
You can define escalation, SLA, workflow, and round-robin rules to automate your customer support operations and delight users with fast resolutions.
While Vision Helpdesk looks promising at first, it lacks “vision.”
Users have reported its limited integration capabilities. For instance, the platform does not blend in with popular (and important) tools, including Jira, WhatsApp, Shopify, and Salesforce.
Besides, most of the integrations are offered at higher-cost plans. That includes social media integrations (Facebook and Twitter) as well. Even more disappointing is that the live chat feature comes as an add-on.
Starter Help Desk: US$15/user/month
Pro Help Desk: US$25/user/month
Satellite Help Desk: US$30/user/month
Pro Service Desk: US$40/user/month
Enterprise Help Desk: US$60/user/month
If you are looking for a large jump in your customer support game, Zendesk makes an excellent Zoho Desk alternative. Its advanced live chat functionality has live visitor tracking, behavior triggers, and chat ratings.
Your support agents can see when customers are typing a response and reply to conversations natively across WeChat, Facebook Messenger, or WhatsApp. Additionally, you can build no-code, multilingual chatbots and deploy them across different support channels, including your website, social media handles, and Slack.
Zendesk’s plans are also packed with impressive features, including AI-enabled automated responses, advanced analytics, and the ability to create customer portals.
Though incredibly powerful, all those features mean a longer setup time and somewhat complicated onboarding for support teams, especially those unfamiliar with the platform.
One user, for instance, noted, “Search functionality for knowledge documentation is not optimized and the platform doesn’t make it easy to find resources.”
Zendesk’s paid plans start at US$69/agent/month, significantly more than comparable solutions in the industry. Moreover, most of those powerful features lie within their higher-priced plans.
Pricing
Suite Team: US$69/agent/month
Suite Growth: US$115/agent/month
Suite Professional: US$149/agent/month
Suite Enterprise: Custom quote on request
When considering Zoho Desk alternatives, Freshdesk provides support teams with everything essential in a neat package. Its customer service platform consolidates customer conversations from email, social media, and live chat into a shared inbox.
Time-saving features, such as bulk actions and canned responses, optimize query management. Plus, Freshdesk supports localization, making it ideal for multilingual support teams.
Further, its AI-driven chatbots, Freddy, offer step-by-step guidance to customers and sense frustration or dissatisfaction, forwarding the conversations to a human agent when needed.
However, various users have questioned Freshdesk’s AI and reporting capabilities. For live chat, you will have to buy FreshChat separately. Similarly, to collaborate with other agents – sharing internal notes or comments right on the conversation – you have to integrate Freshdesk with another tool called FreshConnect.
Important features, including agent shifts, custom reports, and skill-based routing, are available only in upper-tier plans, making Freshdesk unsuitable for brands with tight budgets.
Pricing
Growth: ~US$15/user/month
Pro: ~US$52/user/month
Enterprise: ~US$84/user/month
Gorgias is a customer support solution with a narrowed focus on e-commerce businesses. Nevertheless, it offers most support-centric features that you will find in Zoho Desk alternative.
Smart autoresponders enable you to define rules for automatic responses, minimizing repetitive tasks. Social media sentiment analysis that uses AI to detect positive/negative customer feedback across the web and displays them on the dashboard.
Gorgias’s standout feature is its deep integrations with e-commerce tools – Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento (not in the base plan). With it, you can see and edit order details and even process refunds directly from the platform.
However, Gorgias’ strong focus on e-commerce customer support drives away businesses running in other industries. Besides, it scores low on reporting capabilities, with one user saying, “The reporting feature within Gorgias only allows for historical data within 90 days.”
Further, Gorgias charges based on ticket volume, so you cannot predict what your costs will be month to month.
Pricing
Starter: US$10/month – up to 50 monthly tickets
Basic: US$60/month – up to 300 monthly tickets
Pro: US$360/month – up to 2000 monthly tickets
Advanced: US$900/month – up to 5000 monthly tickets
Enterprise: Custom quote
| Platform | Key Features & Pros | Pricing | Cons | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helpwise | Omnichannel support Unlimited SLA rules CSAT reports | Paid plans starting at US$15/agent/month | Doesn’t have a desktop app | Businesses of all sizes using Gmail or non-Gmail mailboxes |
| ProProfs | Child tickets Advanced reports Roles & permissions | Paid plans starting at US$30/agent/month | Limited CRM and social media integrations No mobile app Costly for small businesses | SMBs looking to offer top-notch customer support |
| Dixa | Notes and tags Intelligent routing Bulk actions | Paid plans starting at US$49/agent/month | Usability issues Expensive chatbot add-on Knowledge base and omnichannel support in higher-cost plans | Medium-to-large organizations seeking advanced functionalities |
| Trengo | Website widget Notes & @tags Workload balancing | Paid plans starting at US$23/agent/month | Lacks multiple essential features Clunky interface Limited user capacity in basic plan | SMBs looking to offer basic customer support |
| TeamSupport | Water Cooler Knowledge base Ticket collision | Paid plans starting at US$49/agent/month | Unintuitive interface Pricey plans Important features only in upper-tier plans | Medium-to-large B2B organizations seeking better team collaboration tools |
| Salesforce Service Cloud | Chatter Case auto-assignment Help center | Paid plans starting at US$25/agent/month | Hard-to-navigate UI Important features only in higher-priced plans Multiple paid add-ons | Medium-to-large companies seeking feature-rich solutions |
| Vision Helpdesk | Incident automation Multi-level ticket escalation rules Calendar | Paid plans starting at US$15/agent/month | No integration with common platforms Social media integrations available in higher-priced plans Live chat comes as an add-on | SMBs with customer base seeking to optimize conversation assignment |
| Zendesk | Macros Custom business rules Light agents | Paid plans starting at US$69/agent/month | Complex UI Longer setup time Pricey plans | Large companies looking for advanced features |
| Freshdesk | Merge tickets Tags Agent shifts | Paid plans starting at US$15/month | Some collaboration features and live chat come as paid add-ons Limited AI and reporting capabilities Basic plan lacks essential features | SMBs looking for basic features with multichannel support |
| Gorgias | E-commerce integrations Intent & sentiment detection Satisfaction survey | Paid plans starting at US$10/month (up to 50 monthly tickets) | Only for e-commerce businesses Limited reporting capabilities Unpredictable ticket-based pricing | Small-to-medium e-commerce companies |
All these Zoho Desk alternatives help organizations improve customer service and agent productivity. But the final decision boils down to your specific business needs.
If you run an online retail store, Gorgias is the best bet. Vision Helpdesk and Freshdesk make the perfect cost-effective options without compromising the feature set. Choose Zendesk, Dixa, or TeamSupport if you want to level up your support process with advanced functionalities.
That said, Helpwise wins the race by a significant margin. It offers customer support feature set to help you handle and close conversations in the quickest turnaround time.
With impressive features, including collision detection, SLA management, omnichannel support, automation rules, and advanced analytics, you cannot go wrong with Helpwise.
Its AI capabilities and deep integrations with popular platforms – Slack, Clickup, Zapier, and Shopify make it a one-stop customer service solution for businesses of all sizes. That, too, without putting a hole in your pocket.
Convincing enough? Sign up for a free 14-day trial to know more.
Some Zoho Desk alternatives include Helpwise, Zendesk, Freshdesk, and Trengo. Among these, Helpwise outshines other tools as it offers a vast array of customer support tools, including shared drafts, AI capabilities, omnichannel support, and comprehensive analytics. You can access most of these features in its basic plan (US$15/agent/month), which does not hurt your bank balance.
Let’s compare Zoho Desk’s features with those of its alternatives.
Zoho Desk does not offer integrations with crucial e-commerce tools, including Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, which Gorgias does.
Helpwise offers AI-enables tools, like paraphrasing and summarizing, which are not available in Zoho Desk’s plans.
ProProfs let you divide a complex customer conversation (ticket) into “child tickets” and assign them to relevant support agents. You will not find such a feature in Zoho Desk’s platform.
While Freshdesk offers a free plan for small support teams (max 10 agents), the Zoho Desk alternative will soon be outgrown as teams expand. Unfortunately, their basic plan does not have essential features like AI chatbot, agent shifts, and SLA reminders.
On the contrary, platforms like Helpwise offer most advanced features in their base plans, despite the tool not having a free plan.
All Zoho Desk alternatives have their own share of pros and cons. For instance, Gorgias has functionalities built explicitly for e-commerce brands, which companies in other industries might not find useful. Similarly, Dixa offers intelligent routing and collaboration features but offers live chat as a paid add-on.
Helpwise, on the other hand, provides you with critical support functionalities. That includes saved replies, social media channel support, collision detection, a chat widget, and advanced automations. All these without having you spend significant resources.
All Zoho Desk alternatives have varying integration capabilities. For instance, Vision Helpdesk and ProProfs do not integrate with popular tools – Slack, Jira, and Shopify. Likewise, Gorgias has robust e-commerce integrations but does offer the same with Salesforce, Zapier, and Clickup.
With Helpwise, you get deep integrations with over 55 tools, including those above.
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