Zendesk vs Intercom in 2023: Detailed Analysis of Features, Pricing, and More

The right side of the screen displays all customer contact information and company interaction history, and the agent can contact the customer via any channel with just a few clicks. The top of the agent workspace shows an agent’s open tickets, ticket statistics, and satisfaction statistics, as well as tabs depicting all current tickets. Intercom’s role-based permissions allow administrators full control over each department’s and agent’s capabilities, and access to channels and information.

• But in case you are in search of something beyond these two, then ProProfs Chat can be an option.
• One place Intercom really shines as a standalone CRM is its data utility.
• Moreover, the best part is it also lets you send customized messages to various customers on the basis of their actions.
• With Messagely, you can increase your customer satisfaction and solve customers’ issues while they’re still visiting your site.

Visit either of their app marketplaces and look up the Intercom Zendesk integration. Like with many other apps, Zapier seems to be the best and most simple way to connect Intercom to Zendesk. The Zendesk marketplace is also where you can get a lot of great add-ons.

What Intercom Offers:

While both tools offer top-of-field feature sets that can simplify your customer support processes dramatically, identifying which is right for you can take time and effort. Intercom, of course, allows its customer support team to collaborate and communicate too, but overall, Zendesk wins this group. There are 3 Basic support plans at $19, $49 and $99 per user per month billed annually, and 5 Suite plans at $49, $79, $99, $150, and $215 per user per month billed annually. NovoChat, on the other hand, is great for businesses that primarily engage with their clients through messaging apps.

Though expensive and quality are synonymous in some worlds, such a principle cannot define Desku where it stands out as one of such affordable companies. However, competitive pricing is a promise and not a compromise to make decent customer support accessible for all. Customers will stay with you long if they are not getting any support from your company, especially when you are new to them. In addition, some of the services Zendesk offers have a free plan (find them below in the tables). The difference in prices between plans is so significant because of the features each of them provides. Both Zendesk and Intercom offer varying flavors when it comes to curating the whole customer support experience.

What Is Intercom?

Finally, you can pay $199 per month per user for unlimited sales pipelines and advanced reporting along with other features. Powered by Explore, Zendesk’s reporting capabilities are pretty impressive. Right out of the gate, you’ve got dozens of pre-set report options on everything from satisfaction ratings and time in status to abandoned calls and Answer Bot resolutions. You can even save custom dashboards for a more tailored reporting experience.

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. Yes, you can integrate the Intercom solution into your Zendesk account. It will allow you to leverage some Intercom capabilities while keeping your account at the time-tested platform.

Top Features

Intercom, on the other hand, has prices that are made to fit the needs of each business, so businesses only pay for the features and services they need. With the base plan, you get some sweet facilities like a ticketing system, data analytics, customer chat history, and more. In comparison to that, you enjoy customized agent roles, sandbox, and skills-based routing, besides offering basic functionalities with the expensive enterprise plan.

In-app messaging is useful for a variety of reasons, including onboarding new users, converting users from a free trial, and asking users for feedback. If these features are important for your business, you may want to consider Intercom over Zendesk. While they like the ease of use this product offers its users, they’ve indeed rated them low in terms of services. One of the most significant downsides of Intercom is its customer support.

Gone are the days when you required more than one tool to meet your Customer Service needs. Intercom covers the entire customer lifecycle – from lead generation to support – in one place. Intercom has a community forum where users can engage with each other and gain insights from their experiences. With only the Enterprise tier offering round-the-clock email, phone, and chat help, Zendesk support is sharply separated by tiers.

However, you’ll likely end up paying more for Zendesk, and in-app messenger and other advanced customer communication tools will not be included. Both Zendesk and Intercom have knowledge bases to help customers get the most out of their platforms. Intercom users often mention how impressed they are with its ease of use and their ability to quickly create useful tasks and set up automations. Even reviewers who hadn’t used the platform highlight how beautifully designed it is and how simple it is to interact with for both users and clients alike.

App Directory

Zendesk wins the self-service tools category because it provides extensive help center customization options. When a customer asks a question in the Messenger widget, the Operator automatically suggests a handful of relevant articles based on keywords to help customers resolve their own issues. Users with light access–such as knowledgeable agents and supervisors–can be added to tickets for browsing and feedback. While light agents cannot interact with the customer on the ticket, they can make notes and interact privately with other team members and agents involved with the ticket. The ticket display’s Side Conversations tab allows agents to initiate internal conversations via email, Slack, or ticketing system notes–without leaving the ticket.

The dashboard’s left-hand column organizes and sorts all tickets by urgency. When an agent clicks on a conversation, the full conversation history populates the middle screen. 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. Intercom’s help center allows you to draft and organize collections of articles, accessible to customers via a search bar in the Messenger widget. Zendesk wins the omnichannel capabilities category because it offers voice as a service, which we think is absolutely critical. Zendesk for Sales, or Zendesk Sell, is Zendesk’s sales pipeline and CRM tool with its own dashboard for lead generation and conversion.

After signing up and creating your account, you can start filling in your information, such as your company name and branding and your agents’ profiles and information. Then, you can begin filling in details such as your account’s name and icon and your agents’ profiles and security features. The setup can be so complex that there are tutorials by third parties to teach new users how to do it right. You could say something similar for Zendesk’s standard service offering, so it’s at least good to know they have Zendesk Sell, a capable CRM option to supplement it. You can use Zendesk Sell to track tasks, streamline workflows, improve engagement, nurture leads, and much more.

Essentially, Desku is not an option but a reliable replacement for Zendesk and Intercom that companies can rely on at lower costs and improved performance. During the full-scale russian invasion, we continue developing high-quality innovative technological products while volunteering and donating funds. We work for Ukraine’s economy as our army resists the unprovoked Russian war against Ukraine.

Read more about Zendesk VS Intercom here.