Help Scout vs Zendesk
Zendesk scores 8.4 to Help Scout's 7.8 among the helpdesks we rate, and is the better pick for 3 of the 4 kinds of buyer below.
Zendesk wins, 8.4 to 7.8
Help Scout has a free plan for up to 100 contacts a month; Zendesk has no free tier, starting at $25 a month per agent for Support Team, under Help Scout's $30 for Standard. Zendesk is ISO 27001 certified; Help Scout is not. Help Scout's AI does not absorb account data into the model; Zendesk trains its own machine learning models on shared customer data. Zendesk also reaches Slack, which Help Scout does not support natively.
Pick Help Scout if you want to start free and keep data out of training.
Pick Zendesk if you want ISO 27001 certification and Slack support.
Best for
Who each one suits, decided on the criteria that matter to that buyer and the checked facts where the two differ.
- Free plan: Help Scout yes, Zendesk no
- What the AI learns from: Help_center, website, notion, google_drive against Website, help_center, files
- Channels it works in: Email, live_chat, voice, whatsapp, instagram, messenger, sms, slack against Email, live_chat, sms, whatsapp, instagram, messenger
- ISO 27001: Zendesk yes, Help Scout no
- Audit log: Zendesk yes, Help Scout no
- Choice of data region: Us, eu, uk, jp, au against Us
- But Help Scout leads on does not train AI on your data: Help Scout yes, Zendesk no
How they score
Both are scored the same way, against the other helpdesks we rate, from facts on each vendor's own pages. Zendesk leads on 4 of 7 criteria.
Where they differ
Every point where the two vendors' published facts disagree, with a link to where each fact was read. "Not published" means the vendor does not say either way.
Published by only one of them
Where they match (10)
Pricing, plan by plan
Every plan each vendor publishes, monthly and yearly where both are offered.
Help Scout
Zendesk
For everything else about each tool, read the full Help Scout review and Zendesk review.
Help Scout vs Zendesk: common questions
Which is better, Help Scout or Zendesk?
Zendesk scores 8.4 and Help Scout 7.8 out of 10 among the helpdesks we rate. Zendesk is ahead on aI that answers your customers, channels, security and privacy and support and branding. Help Scout is ahead on pricing.
Is Help Scout or Zendesk cheaper?
Help Scout's cheapest paid plan is $30/user/mo and Zendesk's is $25/mo. Compare what each plan includes below before going on price alone.
Do Help Scout and Zendesk have a free plan?
Help Scout does and Zendesk does not.
What can Help Scout do that Zendesk cannot?
On the facts both vendors publish: free plan and does not train AI on your data.
What can Zendesk do that Help Scout cannot?
On the facts both vendors publish: iSO 27001 and audit log.
