HubSpot Service Hub vs Zendesk
Pick HubSpot Service Hub if your marketing or sales team already works in HubSpot, because the help desk then runs on their customer record, and the Professional seat bundles calling minutes and a cheaper AI agent. Pick Zendesk if support runs as its own operation and you want the AI agent on the cheapest Suite plan, social messaging in the same workspace and no setup fee. Where your customer record lives decides most cases. After that, the AI bill is the biggest gap, at about $0.50 per resolved conversation on HubSpot and $1.50 on Zendesk.
| Fact | HubSpot Service Hub | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $10/agent/mo | $25/agent/mo |
| Plans | Free, Starter, Professional, Enterprise | Support Team, Suite Team, Suite Professional, Suite Enterprise + Copilot |
| Best for | HubSpot CRM customers, Marketing-led teams, CRM-attached support | Large support orgs, Multi-brand deployments, Complex routing |
| Deployment | Cloud | Cloud |
| Headquarters | Boston, US | San Francisco, US |
| Founded | 2006 | 2007 |
| Facts checked |
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What each costs
Six agents, billed annually, answering email, live chat and phone, with a help centre, CSAT surveys and an AI agent that resolves 300 conversations a month without a person. CSAT surveys put both on the middle plan, HubSpot Professional and Zendesk Suite Professional. Both bill the AI agent only for resolved conversations, so the 300 is priced the same way on each.
HubSpot Service Hub Professional
- Seats: 6 × $90 = $540 a month, $6,480 a year
- Onboarding: $1,500 once, required, and not in the price shown
- AI: 300 × 50 credits = 15,000 credits a month. Professional includes 3,000, so 12,000 are bought at $0.010 each, which is $120 a month or $1,440 a year
- Year one: $6,480 + $1,500 + $1,440 = $9,420. Year two: $7,920
Zendesk Suite Professional
- Seats: 6 × $115 = $690 a month, $8,280 a year
- AI: the plan includes 10 automated resolutions per agent a month, 60 for six agents. The other 240 at the $1.50 committed rate are $360 a month or $4,320 a year ($5,760 at the $2.00 pay-as-you-go rate)
- Year one: $8,280 + $4,320 = $12,600, and the same in year two
At this volume Zendesk costs $3,180 more in year one and $4,680 more in year two. If the team can live without CSAT surveys, Zendesk Suite Team is the fair match: 6 × $55 = $3,960 a year in seats, plus 270 resolutions a month beyond the 30 included, at $1.50, for $4,860 a year. That totals $8,820, which is $600 under HubSpot in year one and $900 over it from year two. HubSpot has no cheaper plan for this team, because Starter has no customer agent.
The fees the headline leaves out:
- Zendesk Copilot is $50 an agent a month paid yearly, $3,600 a year for six agents. HubSpot's Core Seat includes Breeze Assistant
- Zendesk's plan comparison lists phone numbers, call minutes and text messages as add-ons on Suite Team and Suite Professional. HubSpot Professional includes 3,000 minutes and up to 3 numbers
- HubSpot's 3,000 credits reset monthly and don't roll over, and every other AI feature you switch on draws from the same balance
- Zendesk introduced resolution tiers with a resolution allowance on May 18, 2026, and the pricing page doesn't price them. Ask which model your account will be billed on before you forecast
- Paying monthly: HubSpot Professional is $100 a seat and still commits you to a year, $7,200 for six agents. Zendesk Suite Professional is $149 a seat month to month, $894 a month
HubSpot Service Hub plans
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed annually | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Free | Free for up to 2 users, no credit card. |
| Starter | $10 | $7 | Shown as "starts at". |
| Professional | $100 | $90 | Shown as "starts at". |
| Enterprise | – | $150 | Shown as "starts at", sales-led (Talk to Sales). |
Prices are an agent a month, in US dollars. Source: hubspot.com/pricing/service, checked .
Zendesk plans
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed annually | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support Team | $25 | $19 | Ticketing without the wider Suite. |
| Suite Team | $69 | $55 | The entry point to the Suite, which is where the AI and the extra channels start. |
| Suite Professional | $149 | $115 | Marked Most Popular by Zendesk. |
| Suite Enterprise + Copilot | Contact sales | – | Quoted, not published. |
Prices are an agent a month, in US dollars. Source: zendesk.com/pricing, checked .
Where the features differ
25 of the 28 features we checked on both differ in availability or the plan you need. The other 3 are the same on both. Each answer links to the page on the vendor’s own site that says so.
| Feature | HubSpot Service Hub | Zendesk |
|---|---|---|
| Channels | ||
| Contact form and widget | Some plansfrom Startersource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource |
| Every plansource | Every plansource | |
| Live chat | Every plansource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource |
| Phone | Some plansfrom Startersource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource |
| Social DMs | Every plansource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource |
| Some plansfrom Professionalsource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource | |
| AI and automation | ||
| Agent copilot | Some plansfrom Startersource | Paid add-onfrom Suite Professionalsource |
| AI agent (customer-facing) | Some plansfrom Professionalsource | Every plansource |
| AI agent takes actions | Some planssource | Paid add-onsource |
| Automation rules | Some plansfrom Startersource | Every plansource |
| Intent detection and routing | Some planssource | Some plansfrom Suite Professionalsource |
| Macros and saved replies | Some plansfrom Professionalsource | Every plansource |
| Voice AI | Some plansfrom Professionalsource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource |
| Self-service | ||
| Customer portal | Some plansfrom Professionalsource | Some plansfrom Suite Growthsource |
| Customer-facing help centre | Some plansfrom Professionalsource | Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource |
| Multilingual support | Every plansource | Some plansfrom Suite Growthsource |
| Workflow and admin | ||
| Native mobile app for agents | Every plansource | Some plansfrom Suite Growthsource |
| Public API | Every plansource | Every plansource |
| Roles and permissions | Some planssource | Some plansfrom Suite Enterprisesource |
| Single sign-on | Some plansfrom Professionalsource | Every plansource |
| SLA management | Some planssource | Some plansfrom Suite Professionalsource |
| Reporting and quality | ||
| Custom reports and export | Some planssource | Some plansfrom Suite Professionalsource |
| QA and agent scoring | Some planssource | Paid add-onsource |
| Reporting dashboards | Every plansource | Every plansource |
| Security and reliability | ||
| HIPAA | Some planssource | Paid add-onsource |
AI agents and how they bill
HubSpot is cheaper per resolution, and Zendesk puts the AI agent on more plans.
- HubSpot's customer agent needs Professional or Enterprise. Its rate sheet charges 50 credits to resolve one conversation on text channels and 50 credits a minute for voice, which is in beta
- A team buying its first Professional or Enterprise seat gets 14 days of unlimited customer agent use, and HubSpot lets you cap how much each AI feature can spend
- Zendesk includes AI agents on every Suite and Support plan. It bills an automated resolution only when the request was resolved without escalation to a human, verified by an LLM when the conversation ends: 72 hours after the first email, or 2 hours after the first message by default
- Zendesk includes 5 resolutions per agent a month on Support Team and Suite Team and 10 on Suite Professional, up to 10,000 a year
- Both reach into Shopify. HubSpot says its customer agent can take action in your CRM and Shopify. Zendesk's Copilot page describes Shopify actions such as processing returns, run with agent oversight, on the $50 add-on
From running support desks, we know an AI agent's resolution count keeps climbing for months after launch as the help centre fills in. Price both at the volume you expect six months in, because HubSpot's $1.00 saving per resolution grows with every one.
Phone and messaging
HubSpot puts more of the phone bill in the seat. Zendesk covers more messaging channels and has more room for a large phone team.
- HubSpot Professional includes 3,000 calling minutes, up to 3 numbers and up to 1,000 WhatsApp messages a month. Starter gets 500 minutes and 1 number
- HubSpot's help desk page lists email, live chat, phone, SMS and WhatsApp in one workspace, and its pricing table puts Facebook Messenger on every plan
- Zendesk Suite Team adds messaging, live chat and telephony to email, and its messaging page extends AI agents to WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram
- On Zendesk, numbers and minutes are bought on top, and the queueing tools (IVR, callbacks, monitoring and barging) start on Suite Professional
In our view a team taking a few hundred calls a month gets the better deal from HubSpot's included minutes, while a team running phone queues at volume should look at Zendesk's Contact Center add-on before either plan.
Seats, setup and contracts
- HubSpot charges a required onboarding fee of $1,500 on Professional and $3,500 on Enterprise. Zendesk's pricing page lists none
- HubSpot's view-only seats cost nothing. Zendesk Suite Professional includes up to 100 light agents, and Suite Team can add them as an add-on
- HubSpot has a free plan for up to 2 users with no card, enough to test the inbox but without the customer agent. Zendesk's 14-day trial runs on Suite Professional with Copilot included
- On HubSpot Professional, the monthly option is still a 12-month commitment. Zendesk says its subscriptions can be month to month, annual or multi-year
How we checked this
- The arithmetic is ours, from the published per-seat, per-credit and per-resolution prices
- Checked 2026-10-29
Sources
- hubspot.com/pricing/service
- legal.hubspot.com/hubspot-product-and-services-catalog
- hubspot.com/products/artificial-intelligence/ai-customer-s…
- hubspot.com/products/service/help-desk
- zendesk.com/pricing
- support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5352026794010
- support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9570369117338
- zendesk.com/service/messaging
- zendesk.com/service/ai/copilot
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