Zendesk vs Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk suits a team that works mostly in email, social and a help center and wants SLAs and custom reports without paying top-plan prices. Ten agents on Zoho Desk Professional cost $2,760 a year billed annually, while Suite Professional, the Zendesk plan where SLA management and custom reports start, costs $13,800. Pick Zendesk when phone is a main channel or a security review decides the purchase, and budget two to five times Zoho Desk Professional's seat price for it.

Zendesk review Zoho Desk review

Zendesk and Zoho Desk at a glance
Fact	Zendesk	Zoho Desk
Starting price	$25/agent/mo	$9/agent/mo
Plans	Support Team, Suite Team, Suite Professional, Suite Enterprise + Copilot	Free Edition, Express, Standard, Professional, Enterprise
Best for	Large support orgs, Multi-brand deployments, Complex routing	Zoho suite users, Cost-sensitive teams
Deployment	Cloud	Cloud
Headquarters	San Francisco, US	Chennai, IN
Founded	2007	1996
Facts checked	Sep 13, 2026	Sep 13, 2026

Which one fits your team?

Tick what's true for you.

Pick Zendesk if

Phone is one of your main channels. Telephony is built into every Suite plan from Suite Team, while Zoho Desk connects an outside provider such as Twilio or Zoho Voice from Professional and the call charges come from that provider
You want your agents' AI to act inside Shopify. Zendesk says its Copilot add-on, $50 an agent a month paid yearly, can take actions in Shopify, including processing returns
A customer's security questionnaire decides the deal. Zendesk lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, 27017, 27018, 27701 and 42001, FedRAMP LI-SaaS, HDS for French health data and PCI-DSS card redaction
You want AI billed on results. Every Zendesk plan includes AI agents, and you pay per automated resolution, counted when the AI agent resolves a request without escalating it

Pick Zoho Desk if

Budget sets the plan. Zoho Desk Professional is $23 an agent a month billed annually ($35 billed monthly) and includes telephony, the built-in Zia AI and Blueprints for step-by-step processes
You need SLAs and custom reports on a mid-priced plan. Zoho Desk has custom SLAs and up to 50 custom reports from Standard at $14 billed annually ($20 billed monthly), and Zendesk adds both at Suite Professional, $115 billed annually ($149 billed monthly)
Your business already runs on Zoho CRM or other Zoho apps and you would rather keep the help desk with the same vendor
You handle health data or need a set hosting region on a small budget. Zoho Desk is on Zoho's list of HIPAA-supporting services with a BAA on request, and your data center follows the country you sign up from, with no add-on named
You want to start free. The Free Edition covers three users

Tick what describes your team. We'll tell you which way it leans.

What each costs

We priced one team both ways: 10 agents, billed annually (the lower rate at both), working email, social, chat and phone with a public help center. Plan prices are from the plan tables on this page.

Zendesk Suite Team is 10 × $55 × 12 = $6,600 a year, or 10 × $69 × 12 = $8,280 if you pay monthly. It has chat, telephony, a knowledge base and AI agents, and no SLA management or custom reports
Zendesk Suite Professional is 10 × $115 × 12 = $13,800 a year, or 10 × $149 × 12 = $17,880 if you pay monthly, and adds SLA management, custom reports and side conversations
Zoho Desk Professional is 10 × $23 × 12 = $2,760 a year, or 10 × $35 × 12 = $4,200 if you pay monthly. It has telephony through your provider, Zia, custom SLAs and unlimited custom reports
Zoho Desk Enterprise is 10 × $40 × 12 = $4,800 a year, or 10 × $50 × 12 = $6,000 if you pay monthly, and adds SalesIQ live chat, Guided Conversations bots, skill-based assignment and a sandbox
Matched on SLAs and custom reports, that is $13,800 against $2,760 billed annually, a gap of $11,040 a year, or $17,880 against $4,200 if you pay monthly, a gap of $13,680

Zoho's own pages disagree about a five-user cap. The pricing FAQ puts it on Standard and the plan comparison puts it on Express. A 10-agent team lands on Professional or above either way.

The fees the headline prices leave out:

Zendesk includes 5 automated resolutions per agent a month on Suite Team and 10 on Suite Professional. At 500 AI resolutions a month on Suite Team, 450 are billable, which is 450 × $2.00 = $900 a month pay-as-you-go, or 450 × $1.50 = $675 on a commitment
Copilot for all 10 Zendesk agents adds 10 × $50 × 12 = $6,000 a year
Zendesk voice minutes and phone numbers are billed on usage past the plan allowance
Zoho's hosted AI models include 30 million tokens a month, then $1.00 per million on the standard model tier, or $3.00 per million on the Pro tier after 20 million free. The bill depends on how many tokens each conversation uses, which Zoho doesn't estimate. At 60 million tokens in a month on the standard tier, the overage is 30 × $1.00 = $30
On Zoho Desk Express and Standard, generative AI runs on your own OpenAI key, and OpenAI bills that usage directly
Zoho Desk phone calls are billed by the provider you connect, and WhatsApp's own usage charges apply on top of the channel
Zoho's Premium support plan (24-hour weekday chat and phone, 3-hour first response) costs 20% of the subscription, so $552 a year on $2,760

Zendesk plans

Zendesk plans and prices
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 Oct 30, 2026.

Full Zendesk pricing

Zoho Desk plans

Zoho Desk plans and prices
Plan	Billed monthly	Billed annually	What you get
Free Edition	Free	Free	Free Forever.
Express	$9	$7	Free trial available.
Standard	$20	$14	Free trial available.
Professional	$35	$23	Free trial available.
Enterprise	$50	$40	Free trial available.

Prices in US dollars. Source: zoho.com/desk/pricing, checked Oct 23, 2026.

Full Zoho Desk pricing

Where the features differ

29 of the 33 features we checked on both differ in availability or the plan you need. The other 4 are the same on both. Each answer links to the page on the vendor’s own site that says so.

Features where Zendesk and Zoho Desk differ
Feature	Zendesk	Zoho Desk
Channels
Contact form and widget	Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource	Every plansource
Email	Every plansource	Every plansource
Live chat	Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource	Some plansfrom Standardsource
Phone	Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource	Some plansfrom Professionalsource
Social DMs	Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource	Some plansfrom Expresssource
WhatsApp	Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource	Some plansfrom Standardsource
AI and automation
Agent copilot	Paid add-onfrom Suite Professionalsource	Some plansfrom Expresssource
AI agent (customer-facing)	Every plansource	Some plansfrom Expresssource
AI agent takes actions	Paid add-onsource	Some plansfrom Enterprisesource
Automation rules	Every plansource	Some plansfrom Expresssource
Intent detection and routing	Some plansfrom Suite Professionalsource	Some plansfrom Standardsource
Macros and saved replies	Every plansource	Every plansource
Self-service
Customer portal	Some plansfrom Suite Growthsource	Every plansource
Customer-facing help centre	Some plansfrom Suite Teamsource	Some plansfrom Standardsource
Multilingual support	Some plansfrom Suite Growthsource	Some plansfrom Professionalsource
Workflow and admin
Audit log	Some plansfrom Suite Enterprisesource	Some plansfrom Enterprisesource
Custom fields	Every plansource	Some plansfrom Expresssource
Native mobile app for agents	Some plansfrom Suite Growthsource	Every plansource
Public API	Every plansource	Every plansource
Roles and permissions	Some plansfrom Suite Enterprisesource	Some plansfrom Standardsource
Sandbox	Some plansfrom Suite Enterprisesource	Some plansfrom Enterprisesource
Side conversations	Some plansfrom Suite Professionalsource	Every plansource
SLA management	Some plansfrom Suite Professionalsource	Every plansource
Reporting and quality
Custom reports and export	Some plansfrom Suite Professionalsource	Some plansfrom Standardsource
Reporting dashboards	Every plansource	Some plansfrom Expresssource
Ecommerce
Multiple storefronts	Some plansfrom Suite Growthsource	Some plansfrom Professionalsource
Security and reliability
24/7 vendor support	Paid add-onsource	Some plansfrom Expresssource
EU data residency	Some plansfrom Suite Professionalsource	Every plansource
HIPAA	Paid add-onsource	Every plansource

AI agents and how they're billed

Zendesk handles this better for a team that wants a customer-facing AI agent with a bill it can forecast. Zoho Desk's AI costs less to run and is harder to budget.

Zendesk includes AI agents on every plan and they answer in 80+ languages. The bill counts resolutions, so a conversation the AI hands to a person costs nothing extra
Zendesk's agent-side Copilot is a paid add-on. Suite Professional includes limited writing tools, 5 pooled uses per agent a month
Zoho Desk lists AI agents from Express through Zia Agent Studio. Answer Bot replies from your knowledge base from Standard, and bots in the ASAP widget and on messaging channels are Enterprise only
Zoho's built-in Zia model starts at Professional, with field predictions such as priority and issue type that can trigger workflows. Below Professional, generative features need your own key
We think token-metered AI is the harder line to defend in a budget review, because nobody can say ahead of time how many tokens a month of tickets will use

Compliance and hosting

Zendesk has the longer certification list. Zoho Desk puts HIPAA and a hosting region within reach of a smaller budget.

Zendesk HIPAA accounts need the Advanced Security or Advanced Compliance add-on plus a signed BAA. Zoho Desk is on Zoho's HIPAA services list, and Zoho sends its BAA on request with no edition named
Zendesk hosts in the US, the EEA, the UK and Asia Pacific (Japan and Australia). Choosing the region is included at no charge from Suite Professional, and Zendesk switches it on when you ask its support team. Its pricing page doesn't list region choice on Support Team or Suite Team. Zoho assigns a data center by the country you pick at sign-up, from ten regions including Amsterdam and Dublin for Europe
Both hold SOC 2 Type II. Zendesk adds the ISO family, FedRAMP LI-SaaS and HDS, which counts when a large customer sends a security questionnaire

Reporting, SLAs and leaving later

Zoho Desk gives more at each price point here. Zendesk's lower plans are thinner on reporting than their price suggests.

Zendesk Suite Team has pre-built reports. SLA management and custom reports start at Suite Professional, and real-time shareable reports at Enterprise
Zoho Desk has 4 custom SLAs, 50 custom reports and 10 custom dashboards on Standard, with agent performance and SLA dashboards from Professional. Scheduled reports are Enterprise only
Side conversations, for pulling someone outside the ticket into it, are on every Zoho Desk edition and on Zendesk Suite Professional and above
Zendesk's export tools aren't on Team plans, which leaves the API. On qualifying plans exports stay off until the account owner asks Zendesk support, and CSV exports leave out ticket comments and descriptions
Zoho Desk includes one full data backup a month from Standard, and its plan comparison lists migration from Zendesk, with help from Zoho's team, on every paid edition

How we checked this

Checked 2026-10-29, every source on the vendor's own site. Plan prices come from our plan tables, last verified against Zendesk's pricing page on 2026-10-29 and Zoho Desk's on 2026-10-23.

Sources

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