Zendesk vs Salesforce 2024 (Which is Better Customer Service Software?)

While Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud are both great customer service tools, they do have some key differences. In this comparison article, we’re going to dive into the features, pricing, and customer satisfaction of each software to help you to make the decision.

Which One is Better, Zendesk or Salesforce Service Cloud?

The help desk software market is growing more competitive by the day. Two popular options are Salesforce and Zendesk. Both have their pros and cons, but which one is better for your business? Here are our three use cases to see which one is better.

Zendesk vs Salesforce Pros and Cons

Both Salesforce and Zendesk have their pros and cons, but one may be a better fit for your company depending on your needs. In this section, we will compare and contrast the pros and cons of both platforms to help you make the best decision for your business.

Zendesk Pros & Cons

Salesforce Pros & Cons

Zendesk vs Salesforce Price Comparison

Let’s take a look at these two’s pricing plans to see which one offers better pricing.

Zendesk Pricing Plans

Zendesk’s pricing comes in three tiers: Suite Team, Suite Growth, and Suite Professional. Each tier offers various features such as messaging, support channels, AI-powered tools, and dashboards. Users can choose the plan that best fits their needs and budget. Higher tiers offer more advanced features for larger teams with increased support demands. All pricing is based on a per-user per-month cost.

Suite Team — $49 per user per month

• Industry-leading ticketing system
• Messaging across web, mobile and social
• Email, voice, SMS, and live chat support
• Help Center
• AI-powered automated answers

Suite Growth — $79 per user per month

• Self-service customer portal
• AI-powered knowledge management
• Customizable ticket layouts
• Service Level Agreement (SLA) management
• Multilingual support and content

Suite Professional — $99 per user per month

• Live agent activity dashboard
• Integrated community forums
• Private conversation threads
• Customizable and shareable dashboards
• Advanced voice capabilities

Salesforce Pricing Plans

Salesforce Service Cloud’s pricing comes in four tiers: Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, and Unlimited. Each tier offers increasing levels of functionality and support options. The Essentials plan is a good option for small businesses just starting out with Service Cloud, while the Unlimited plan offers the most comprehensive set of features and support for larger organizations.

Essentials — $25 per user per month

• Case Management 
• Service Console App(s) 
• Knowledge 
• Telephony Integration (CTI) 

Professional — $75 per user per month

• Case Management 
• Service Console App(s) 
• Knowledge 
• Service Contracts and Entitlements 
• Telephony Integration (CTI) 

Enterprise — $150 per user per month

• Case Management 
• Service Console App(s) 
• Knowledge 
• Service Contracts and Entitlements 
• Telephony Integration (CTI) 
• Web Services API 

Unlimited — $300 per user per month

• Case Management 
• Service Console App(s) 
• Knowledge 
• Service Contracts and Entitlements 
• Telephony Integration (CTI) 
• Web Services API
• Premier Success Plan

Zendesk vs Salesforce Features Comparison

While these tools share some similarities, there are also some key differences. In this section, we will compare these two software programs’ features and help you decide which one is right for you.

Zendesk Features

Zendesk makes customer service better. Zendesk builds software to meet customer needs, set your team up for success, and keep your business in sync. It’s everything you need, in one powerful package.

• Ticketing system
• Live Chat
• Help Center
• Voice (call center)
• AI and chatbots

Ticketing system

A great customer experience starts with a fully integrated ticketing system. It’s the go-to place for questions, requests, and concerns from customers. And it provides you with complete information about each customer so that you can offer personalized support.

• Email with unlimited addresses: Zendesk’s email integration is ready to use out-of-the-box, and you can create unlimited email addresses. Plus, their customizable HTML and text templates make it easy to brand your communications.
• Contact form: Place a contact form on your website so customers can reach out to you 24/7.

Live Chat

With Zendesk, you can get messaging that is personalized and engaging right out of the box or customize it to your own liking.

• Web widget: Support your customers by embedding support onto your website. This will allow them to take actions like submit a ticket or chat with an agent in order to get the help they need quickly and easily.
• Mobile SDKs: Support your app development for iOS and Android by utilizing Zendesk’s native software kits.
• Unlimited concurrent chats: Unlike some competitors, Zendesk’s agents can handle multiple chats at the same time.
• Automatic translation: The dashboard automatically translates conversations (powered by Google Translate).

Help Center

Not only is self-service quick and convenient for customers, but they actually prefer it! That’s why a knowledge base is such an important part of your customer experience strategy. Zendesk’s help center software organizes critical information and empowers both customers and agents with that data.

• Contextual self-service: With the web widget and mobile SDK, you can embed your help center and suggest relevant articles to your audience.
• Multilingual content: Give your customers the ability to receive help from you in their own language by localizing your help center into over 40 different languages.
• Theme customization: You can use themes to unify the look and feel of your help centers, no matter how many products or brands you have.
• Search: Allow customers to find the answers they need by expanding the help center search to include all relevant resources.

Voice (call center)

Even in this day and age of technology, sometimes the quickest solution is to talk with a real person. Zendesk’s integrated voice solution not only syncs with all other channels but also lets agents have access to customer information as soon as they receive the call. Now that’s what’s called convenience!

• Voicemail: With automatic voicemail-to-ticket creation, you can easily keep track of customers’ needs and follow up with them promptly. Enable optional voicemail transcription to get a quick overview of why each customer is calling.
• Text messages: With Zendesk’s easy-to-use messaging system, you can respond to customer inquiries quickly and easily. Automated alerts keep you updated on current issues, and proactive text messages help prevent future problems.
• Call routing: With Zendesk, you can ensure that your customers will always be able to reach a live agent by routing calls directly to a specific group of agents or sets of groups. You can also route calls received after business hours or when agents are busy to an alternate phone number.
• Call recording: Recording calls makes it easy to QA, saves time by reference, and shows when troubleshooting.

AI and chatbots

With Zendesk’s AI capabilities, your support team can get answers to customers quickly and efficiently. Whether or not agents are logged in, the bot will always be there to help.

• Answer Bot AI-powered bot solution: Answer Bot provides instantaneous responses to customer questions by using machine learning to reply immediately with available, relevant information. Answer Bot can deliver answers via email, ticket form, live chat, messaging channels such as Slack or API and/or SDK.
• Automate interactions: The key to setting up your bot lies in Flow Builder. This tool allows you to direct the conversation between a bot and your customers. Furthermore, you can publish flows in multiple languages without needing any coding knowledge.
• Intelligent triage: With Zendesk’s advanced AI, you’ll barely have to lift a finger to understand what customers need and how they’re feeling. This way, you can always connect them with the perfect agent for the job.

Salesforce Features

Create a more streamlined and efficient high-touch service center by automating processes and connecting all channels into one workspace for agents.

Case Management

Reduce service costs and stick to your budgetary goals by optimizing high-touch customer service centers. By uniting customer data and automating processes, agents will be empowered to work faster and more efficiently.

Knowledge Management

Salesforce’s knowledge management solution helps agents find the answers they need quickly and efficiently, so customers can get the help they need faster. With recommended articles and optimized search, Salesforce’s solution makes it easy for agents to find the right information quickly, no matter what channel they’re using.

Self-Service

Personalized portals or self-service communities can help customers find answers on their own, reducing the number of support cases. This lowers costs by giving agents more time to focus on complex issues.

Messaging

Save money and stay connected to customers via their favorite digital channels in real-time. Engage in rich conversations on your website, mobile app, SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and more.

Chatbots

Reduce the number of cases you have to deal with by using intelligent chatbots. Automate routine requests, help customers figure out what to do next, or connect them with the right agent.

Telephony & Voice

No matter where your customer service agent is, they’ll be able to solve phone cases quickly. With cloud telephony integrated into the service console, productivity tools powered by artificial intelligence are now within reach.

People’s Choice: Zendesk vs Salesforce

One key aspect when comparing these two services is to compare how other customers rate them. Both of the software has multiple trusted reviews so it’s easy to compare which one is better.

Zendesk Reviews

Zendesk has an average of 4.3-star 3rd party reviews (in legit sites like G2 and Capterra). Other customers seem to love it and consider it as a great option for their customer service software needs.

Salesforce Reviews

Salesforce Service Cloud has an average of 4.2-star 3rd party reviews (in legit sites like G2 and Capterra). Other customers seem to love it and consider it as a great option for their customer service software needs.

Top 10 Customer Support Software

Now it should be clear which platform is better for your needs. In case you’re still not happy with either of them, take a look at this list of the top 10 customer support software that has similar features.

Zendesk vs Salesforce Wrap

Choosing the right help desk software can be tricky. There are a lot of factors to consider, and each product has its own unique set of features. In this article, we’ve compared two popular help desk software on the market: Salesforce and Zendesk. We’ve looked at both products from a variety of angles, including price, customer support, features, and more.

So, which one is the best? Well, that depends on your needs and budget. Ultimately, it comes down to what works best for you.