If you have a customer-centric business, you want to ensure a positive customer experience that keeps them coming back. Amidst all the other demands of running a company, it can be tough to keep that focus where it needs to be. Customer relationship management (CRM) software is a convenient solution that helps your sales team optimize the sales pipeline.
Freshdesk and Zendesk are two leading CRM software providers. In this article, we compare how they stack up in pricing and functionality so you can decide which one is best for your business.
Starting paid plan price
$10 per user per month (billed annually with a minimum of 3 users)
Ease of use (based on user reviews)
Excellent
On Monday.com’s Website
Starting paid plan price
$18 per month
Ease of use (based on user reviews)
Above average
On Hubspot’s Website
Starting paid plan price
$14.90 per user per month (billed annually)
Ease of use (based on user reviews)
Above average
On Pipedrive’s Website
Freshdesk vs. Zendesk snapshot
Pricing and plans
*Prices are per user per month, billed monthly; there is a discount if you opt for annual billing.
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Freshdesk
Freshdesk’s name can be confusing — Freshdesk was rebranded under the larger name of Freshworks in 2020, and the CRM tool itself is called Freshsales (we’ll use both names throughout). Freshdesk (or Freshsales) has three CRM plans that are geared toward small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs):
- Free plan: Allows up to three users and comes with an array of useful features, such as contact management, account management and task and appointment setting
- Growth plan: Includes all the above features plus a sales dashboard, product catalog, 20 basic workflows per month, a visual sales pipeline and integration with other popular tools (such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Slack)
- Pro plan: Adds advanced customization options, 50 advanced workflows and auto-assigning
If your business’s needs exceed what these plans offer, Freshsales also has an Enterprise plan for larger companies.
Zendesk
Zendesk has three SMB-relevant plans:
- Sell Team plan: Offers sales tracking for two customizable pipelines, along with basic task and appointment setting, communication (such as email tracking and text messaging) and dashboard reporting
- Sell Growth plan: Increases tracking to 10 customizable pipelines and adds advanced features like Sequences (series of timed customer outreach emails) and custom sales reports and dashboards
- Sell Professional plan: Accommodates 20 pipelines and adds advanced roles and permissions, lead and deal scoring, and task automation
For startups, Zendesk offers six months for free. It also offers an Enterprise plan for larger companies.
Verdict: Freshdesk wins with a free plan and lower starting price
With similar features available at comparable plan tiers, Freshdesk outpaces Zendesk’s offerings for a much lower price. Freshdesk also offers a free plan for up to three users, which may be enough for many small businesses.
Key CRM features
CRMs work by tracking customer interactions — whether via email, social media or your web page’s chat feature — for the life of the relationship. Both Freshdesk/Freshsales and Zendesk enable sales teams to follow up on leads and record customer service interactions, ultimately converting contacts to sales.
Freshdesk
All Freshsales plans come with an array of useful CRM features, such as contact management, account management, task and appointment setting, sales dashboards and deal management. Sales dashboards use a Kanban view with a drag-and-drop interface. There’s also built-in chat, email and phone.
Freshdesk’s Free plan gives this tool an edge over Zendesk, but features on this plan are limited. For instance, Freshdesk’s chatbot is the only supported communication channel on the Free plan; you’ll need at least the Growth plan for SMS, Facebook, WhatsApp and other communication options. Also, many of the sales pipeline features — such as Rotten Deals, visual sales pipeline and sales forecasting — are only available on paid plans.
Zendesk
You’ll find essential CRM features like task and appointment setting, deal management and call tracking/recording across all Zendesk plans. Every plan also includes email tracking, text messaging and subscriptions. Sales pipelines are customizable on every plan.
Like Freshdesk, Zendesk offers increasingly advanced features as you move up through the plan tiers. Sales engagement tools such as enrichment and prospecting credits (which enable you to complete customer profiles with limited data and generate new prospects, respectively) are unavailable on the Sell Team plan. You also need at least the Sell Growth plan for bulk emailing and product and price book. Crucial sales features like call scripts are only available on Professional plans and above.
Verdict: Freshsales (Freshdesk) offers comparable features at a better price
Most small businesses will find it tough to shell out for Zendesk when Freshdesk includes much of the same core CRM functionality for much cheaper. Both products have limited features at lower tiers, adding functionality as you go up in price.
Integrations
Integrations work directly with your other software tools to streamline processes such as team communication, data sharing and time tracking. When weighing Freshdesk vs. Zendesk, make sure its available integrations can handle the tasks you need them to.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk offers 1,300 integrations to boost the CRM’s onboard features. They’re categorized by type and conveniently listed in an Apps tab on the helpdesk’s home page. Use the search bar to find a specific app or choose from one of Freshdesk’s suggested apps. Popular integrations you can find in the Freshdesk Marketplace include Jira, QuickBooks, MailChimp and Dropbox.
This company also supports APIs, so you can create custom integrations that fit the way you do business. For example, Freshdesk notes that an e-commerce business could create a custom order management system that tracks key order details or you could connect the CRM to any web-based service that uses an open API.
One downside to note is that integrations are not supported on the free plan.
Zendesk
At the time of reporting, the Zendesk Marketplace has 1,710 apps, categorized by type and purpose, such as agent productivity, reporting and analytics and product and product management. The platform offers integrations with Slack, Hubspot, Pipedrive and myriad other apps small businesses use every day.
Like Freshdesk, Zendesk allows APIs to support custom integrations. Zendesk’s website also features a developers’ support page with instructions for using its API, as well as an array of prebuilt apps categorized by capability (such as ticketing and live chat).
Verdict: Zendesk has more app integrations
With both platforms offering similar capabilities, this category comes down to the number of apps from each company. Zendesk wins with 400 more apps than Freshsales.
AI and automation
AI and automation add even more functionality to CRM platforms. By automating important tasks and repetitive workflows, your CRM can save time and labor for your sales team. And AI-powered features can enhance the insights you get from your CRM.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk packages its suite of AI features as the assistant “Freddy,” which is only available on the top tier plan (Pro). Freddy can instantly perform essential tasks, like analyzing customer behavior and scoring contacts. You can also use the tool to streamline content creation by drafting personalized emails or fine-tuning the tone of an email. Depending on your plan, Freddy can also aggregate data from across your account and provide targeted insights for improvements. There are also a few standard AI features available across all plans, such as a chatbot builder.
For automation, Freshdesk offers basic workflows and advanced workflows to automate sales processes and trigger outreach, both of which differ significantly between plans in terms of availability. The Free plan offers no workflows, the Growth plan offers 20 basic workflows and no advanced workflows, and the Pro plan offers 50 each of basic and advanced.
Zendesk
In contrast, Zendesk has no native AI tool. For an additional cost, there are a number of AI-related apps that you can purchase in the app marketplace. Zendesk promotes the Ada plug-in, Ada Engage, which is a chatbot that nests on your web page and proactively invites visitors to interact. The tool also triages high-value opportunities and sends them to available agents.
Basic automations — such as task and appointment setting and sales triggers (which auto-assign tasks based on pre-requisite events) — come standard on all Zendesk plans. Upgrade to the Sell Growth plan to get Round Robin (an app that evenly distributes tickets to agents) and sequences (which sends targeted emails incrementally to nurture contacts over time). The allotted sequences vary by plan: you’ll get 50 recipients per agent on the Sell Growth plan and 300 recipients per agent on the Sell Professional plan.
Verdict: Freshdesk wins with a native AI tool
Freshdesk wins this category for being the only provider with built-in AI assistance, with its AI assistant Freddy performing critical functions lightning fast. Although you’ll need the highest-cost paid plan to access the tool, Freshdesk is still more cost-effective than Zendesk’s more expensive plans and any costs associated with the Ada add-on.
Reporting and analytics
The most useful CRMs take the data your agents and customers generate and provide data-based insights into not only how your sales team can better target leads, but also where your business can improve in areas like customer retention and marketing. Here’s how Freshdesk vs. Zendesk compete for reporting and analytics.
Freshdesk (Freshsales)
Depending on your plan, Freshsales Analytics provides an array of curated and custom reports to analyze your team’s data. The platform’s reports include valuable insights into your sales pipelines, such as contact scoring, next best action and deal insights, which use AI to predict the best times and methods to maximize sales.
On the downside, there’s a wide disparity in which reporting and analytics features you get with each plan. The Free plan offers only a basic dashboard with no curated or custom reports. On the Growth plan, you’ll get a conversation overview report with data about customer-agent interactions and a label report. And you’ll need at least the Pro plan to get the advanced dashboard, CSAT survey and report and agent availability report, as well as the AI-powered insights.
Zendesk
Zendesk’s reporting and analytics features enable your team to make data-driven improvements to its sales approach. Use the forecasting tools to inform your sales strategy and budgeting, or use the pipeline analysis tools to identify sticking points in making conversions. Zendesk’s analytics suite also includes deal and lead scoring, KPI monitoring and custom drag-and-drop dashboards.
On the downside, Zendesk also reserves important reporting features for its higher-cost plans. For instance, while the Sell Team plan offers the same prebuilt sales dashboards as the other plans, crucial features like lead and deal scoring and sales forecasting are only available on the Sell Growth plan and above.
Verdict: Freshdesk’s advanced analytics tools have a lower price tag
Although Freshdesk’s Free plan only comes with a basic dashboard and prebuilt reports for basic functions (such as response speeds), you don’t need to spend much to upgrade to more advanced analytics tools. The low-cost Growth plan adds curated reports and is just $11 per user per month; the Pro plan is just $39 per user per month, which includes the company’s full suite of reporting features and is still less expensive than Zendesk’s comparable plan.
Summary: Freshdesk has the CRM features small businesses need, at a lower cost
Both tools offer promising solutions to effectively manage customer data, track marketing campaigns and improve conversions. The ultimate winner of the Freshdesk vs. Zendesk match-up, however, is Freshdesk. In the categories we covered, Freshdesk consistently offers comparable CRM features and functionality as Zendesk but at a significantly lower cost. Freshdesk will give smaller sales teams the tools they need to streamline customer relationship management without breaking their budget.
When should you choose Freshdesk?
Freshsales is a more affordable CRM solution for small to medium-sized businesses. With Freshsales, you get all the functions you need to maximize returns on customer relationships at a considerably lower cost than Zendesk. Many smaller companies with less complex customer management needs may be able to get by with Freshsale’s free plan.
When should you choose Zendesk?
Zendesk is more appealing to businesses on the larger end of the SMB spectrum. Its plans are pricier than Freshdesk’s, and some of its most useful features only come with the higher-cost plans. However, you get a significant amount of bang for your buck — Zendesk’s extensive feature offerings may make the platform an appealing solution for CRM needs. Zendesk also offers more integrations than Freshdesk, so it’s more likely to work with the tools you already use.
Starting paid plan price
$10 per user per month (billed annually with a minimum of 3 users)
Ease of use (based on user reviews)
Excellent
On Monday.com’s Website
Starting paid plan price
$18 per month
Ease of use (based on user reviews)
Above average
On Hubspot’s Website
Starting paid plan price
$14.90 per user per month (billed annually)
Ease of use (based on user reviews)
Above average
On Pipedrive’s Website
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Is Freshdesk better than Zendesk?
Which CRM platform is better ultimately depends on factors such as your sales team’s size, your budget and what functions you want your CRM software to perform. Freshdesk (or Freshsales) is a better value and offers superior reporting, whereas Zendesk has more app integrations. Fortunately, both companies offer a free trial, so you can get a feel for which platform suits your organization better before committing.
What is the best CRM software?
According to our research, Apptivo is the best CRM platform. We ranked it highly for its affordability, customizability and customer support. However, other platforms are better for certain use cases. For instance, we ranked Nimble best for social media prospecting and monday.com best for team collaboration.
What should I look for in CRM software?
Affordable pricing and useful features are probably the first things you’ll look for but also consider ease of use, security, third-party integrations, marketing automation, task management, lead management and employee tracking.
