In this article we are going to find out how much is agent’s account with basic features in Freshdesk and Zendesk and what’s included. For this comparison we took two cheapest pricing plans of both products.
[table colwidth=”36%|16%|16%|16%|16%”]
,Zendesk Essential,Zendesk Team,Freshdesk Sprout,Freshdesk Blossom
Price per agent per month,$5,$25,$15,$19
Number of agents free of charge,None,None,3,None
Unlimited number of emails,Yes,Yes,No,Yes
Tickets via widget,Yes,Yes,Yes,Yes
Tickets via Facebook and Twitter,Yes,Yes,No,Yes
Tickets by phone,Yes\, functionality paid separately,Yes\, functionality paid separately,Yes,Yes
Tickets via chat,Zopim chat\, $14/month,Zopim chat\, $14/month,No,No
Knowledge base,Yes,Yes,Yes,Yes
Website form,Yes,Yes,Yes,Yes
Portal,No,Yes,Yes,Yes
Forum,No,No,No,Yes
Canned replies,Yes,Yes,Yes,Yes
Mobile apps for agents,Yes,Yes,Yes,Yes
Custom filters in ticket list,No,Yes,Yes,Yes
Agent time tracking,No,No,No,Yes
SLA policies,No,No,Yes,Yes
Custom rules of automatic processing,No,Yes,Yes,Yes
Control of customer satisfaction,No,No,No,Yes
Integration with third party services,No,Yes,Yes,Yes
Own domain,No,Yes,No,Yes
[/table]
Bottom line
The bottom line is that Zendesk Essential has edge only when there are over 3 agents and customer service does not need a wide functionality. In all other cases Freshdesk provides more benefits, especially when it comes to support via chat. Freshdesk has Garden pricing plan that is worth $29 per month and includes chat. It is still cheaper than Zendesk Team ($25+$14). The only instance when Zendesk can be cheaper is Essential + Zopim Chat ($5+$14).
Here you can read comparison of features of Zendesk and Freshdesk.