Top 9 Zoho Desk Alternatives [SMB edition]

Zoho Desk is a popular customer support tool that businesses of all sizes use to manage their customer interactions. However, as businesses grow and evolve, they may face challenges with Zoho Desk that affect their productivity and efficiency. In this blog, we will discuss why many businesses are considering Zoho Desk alternatives and provide you with the top 11 Zoho Desk alternatives for small to medium-sized businesses. We will explore each solution's features, pricing plans, and customer support options so that you can make an informed decision. Lastly, we will share some tips on how to choose the best customer support tool for your business needs.

Why Businesses are Considering Zoho Desk Alternatives?

Considering the drawbacks of Zoho Desk's functionality, limited customization options, and pricing constraints, businesses are exploring alternatives. Some may require additional features or a tool that better meets their support needs.

Drawbacks of Zoho Desk

While Zoho Desk offers a range of functionality, it does have some limitations compared to alternative help desk software. One drawback is the lack of advanced features, customization, and workflow automation that businesses may require for efficient agent productivity. Another point to consider is the pricing, which may not be cost-effective for smaller businesses with limited budgets. Additionally, support tickets in Zoho Desk may not have all the custom fields that businesses need to track and categorize their customer queries effectively. Lastly, while Zoho Desk provides a knowledge base for self-service support, the articles may not be as comprehensive or user-friendly as desired. These drawbacks highlight the need for businesses to explore the best alternatives that offer more robust features, seamless integration with other tools like CRM or SMS platforms, and superior user experience, such as Intercom, Gmail, or other suitable options.

Top Zoho Desk Alternatives for Small-Medium Businesses

In the realm of zoho desk alternatives, Globo stands out with its simple and minimalistic interface, complemented by live chat functionality to enhance agent productivity. HelpSpot emerges as a comprehensive solution catering to all customer support needs, offering a seamless alternative to Zoho Desk's basic features. Zendesk, a perennial favorite, remains a popular choice among businesses of all sizes, offering an extensive range of features for enhanced CRM capabilities. Meanwhile, Freshdesk strikes a balance between features and affordability, making it an attractive option for small to medium-sized businesses seeking a cost-effective alternative to Zoho Desk. Help Scout combines a user-friendly design with powerful features, making it an excellent choice for businesses looking to streamline their support operations. These top Zoho Desk alternatives bring unique strengths to the table, addressing the cons of Zoho Desk while providing a more tailored solution for businesses of all types and sizes.

1. Globo - Simple and Minimalistic with Live Chat Feature

When it comes to finding a Zoho Desk alternative, Globo stands out for its simplicity and minimalistic design. The interface is user-friendly, making it easy for both agents and customers to navigate. One of the key features that sets Globo apart is its live chat functionality. This allows businesses to engage in real-time communication with their customers, providing prompt support and resolving issues efficiently. Another advantage of Globo is its customizable functionality. Businesses can tailor the software to fit their specific needs, ensuring that they have the right tools and features at their disposal. By opting for Globo, businesses can improve agent productivity and enhance the overall customer experience. With its basic features and live chat capability, Globo proves to be a strong contender as a Zoho Desk alternative.

2. HelpSpot - A Comprehensive Solution for Customer Support

HelpSpot is a comprehensive solution that caters to all customer support needs. This powerful software offers a wide range of features to streamline and enhance the support process. With HelpSpot, you can effectively manage support tickets, ensuring that each query receives prompt attention and resolution. Additionally, HelpSpot provides a robust knowledge base where you can store important information and FAQs, empowering both customers and agents with self-service options.

One of the standout features of HelpSpot is its ability to facilitate team collaboration. By allowing agents to collaborate on tickets and share insights, HelpSpot enhances overall team performance and ensures that customer queries are handled efficiently. The software also offers advanced features like custom fields and automation, which further optimize the support workflow and improve agent productivity. In addition, HelpSpot provides analytics and reports that allow you to track key metrics, monitor team performance, and gauge customer satisfaction.

In summary, HelpSpot is a feature-rich alternative to Zoho Desk that offers a comprehensive solution for customer support. With its extensive range of functionalities and emphasis on collaboration and performance monitoring, HelpSpot proves to be an excellent choice for businesses seeking a more robust support system.

3. Zendesk - A Popular Pick among Businesses

Zendesk is a highly recognized customer support software that is widely used by businesses of all sizes. It offers an array of communication channels such as phone support, email, live chat, and social media integration, allowing businesses to connect with their customers effectively. What sets Zendesk apart is its ability to be customized to fit the specific needs of businesses, ensuring that they have the right tools and features to optimize their customer support processes.

One of the key functionalities of Zendesk is its customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities. This feature enables businesses to manage their customer interactions and track customer data, ultimately helping them build stronger relationships with their customers. Additionally, Zendesk offers AI-powered features, automation, and custom reports that enhance agent productivity and enable businesses to provide more personalized and efficient customer service.

While Zoho Desk may have its advantages, it's important to consider the drawbacks of the platform. This is where Zendesk shines as a top alternative. Its robust set of basic features, combined with its CRM functionality and customizable options, make it the best alternative for businesses looking to elevate their customer support experience. With Zendesk, businesses can streamline their support processes, improve customer satisfaction, and gain valuable insights through its comprehensive suite of features.

In conclusion, Zendesk stands out as a popular pick among businesses due to its wide range of communication channels, flexible customization options, and powerful features like CRM, AI, automation, and custom reporting. By choosing Zendesk as their customer support software, businesses can effectively address customer needs and deliver exceptional support experiences.

4. Freshdesk - A Balance of Features and Affordability

Freshdesk is a highly recommended Zoho Desk alternative that strikes a balance between features and affordability. It offers similar functionality to Zoho Desk but at a more affordable price point. With Freshdesk, you can provide support through various channels such as email, phone, live chat, social media, and knowledge-based articles.

One of the standout features of Freshdesk is its good news system, which allows multiple agents to collaborate on a single ticket without duplicating efforts. This collision detection feature ensures efficient handling of support requests and prevents any confusion or repetition. Additionally, Freshdesk provides shared inbox functionality, making it easy for teams to manage and respond to customer inquiries in a streamlined manner.

Freshdesk boasts a user-friendly interface that makes it accessible and easy to use for all team members, regardless of their technical expertise. Moreover, Freshdesk offers mobile app support, enabling prompt responses to support requests even when you're on the go. This ensures that your customers receive timely assistance and have a positive support experience.

In summary, Freshdesk is a cost-effective alternative to Zoho Desk that offers the essential features needed for efficient customer support. Its combination of functionality, affordability, and user-friendliness makes it a top choice for businesses seeking a reliable support solution.

5. Help Scout - User-friendly Design with Powerful Features

Help Scout stands out as a top choice among Zoho Desk alternatives due to its user-friendly design and powerful features. Teams find it easy to navigate and utilize the software's functionalities. Help Scout offers support for various communication channels including email, chat, phone support, and knowledge base articles, ensuring that businesses can provide a comprehensive customer support experience.

In addition to its user-friendly design, Help Scout also provides advanced features such as internal notes and automation workflows, allowing teams to streamline their support processes and enhance agent productivity. Whether you run a smaller business or have a larger team, Help Scout can cater to your needs. Its functionality and customer service have garnered positive reviews from users, further solidifying its reputation as a reliable alternative to Zoho Desk. With Help Scout, businesses can enjoy a seamless support experience and efficiently handle customer inquiries.

6. TeamSupport - A Great Fit for Collaborative Teams

TeamSupport is an excellent option for customer support teams that prioritize collaboration. With its focus on facilitating efficient communication, this software allows team members to work together seamlessly. It offers various features such as ticketing, customer satisfaction surveys, and custom reports, enabling agents to provide exceptional service to customers. Additionally, TeamSupport provides a mobile app, ensuring that support teams can stay connected even while on the go. This feature is particularly beneficial for businesses of all sizes, including smaller ones that may have remote or distributed teams.

By utilizing TeamSupport, customer support teams can enhance their agent productivity and streamline their processes. The software's collaborative capabilities enable agents to share information, delegate tasks, and resolve customer issues more effectively. With its comprehensive functionality and user-friendly interface, TeamSupport emerges as a strong contender among the best alternatives to Zoho Desk. Its emphasis on teamwork and efficient communication sets it apart, making it an ideal choice for businesses looking to improve their customer support operations.

7. Salesforce Service Cloud - An Enterprise Solution

Salesforce Service Cloud is a powerful customer support software designed for enterprise-level organizations. It offers a range of features and functionality to streamline the support process and enhance agent productivity. With Salesforce Service Cloud, you can effectively manage customer inquiries and tickets, build a comprehensive knowledge base, and gain valuable insights through support analytics.

One of the key advantages of Salesforce Service Cloud is its customization options. You can tailor the software to align with your specific business needs and requirements. Additionally, the software boasts advanced features such as automation and workflow customization, allowing you to automate routine tasks and streamline support processes.

Salesforce Service Cloud has established itself as a trusted solution for larger teams. It is widely used across industries and is known for its reliability, scalability, and robustness. By choosing Salesforce Service Cloud as an alternative to Zoho Desk, you can leverage its enterprise-level capabilities to deliver exceptional customer service and support.

8. LiveAgent - A Feature-rich Alternative

LiveAgent is a feature-rich alternative to Zoho Desk that offers a wide range of functionalities to support customer service needs. With LiveAgent, businesses can effectively handle customer queries and provide assistance through various channels such as email, chat, phone support, social media, and even knowledge base. The software also incorporates automation, customization, and analytics functionality, allowing businesses to streamline their processes, personalize customer interactions, and gain valuable insights into their support operations.

Regardless of the size of the business, whether it's a small startup or a larger team, LiveAgent is designed to cater to the customer service requirements of all. Its user-friendly interface and intuitive features make it easy for anyone to navigate and utilize the software effectively. Users have praised LiveAgent for its reliability and functionality, making it a trustworthy option for businesses seeking a reliable customer service tool.

In conclusion, LiveAgent serves as an excellent alternative to Zoho Desk, offering a comprehensive set of features and functionalities to enhance agent productivity and improve customer support. Its automation capabilities, customizable options, and advanced analytics make it a top contender among the best alternatives available in the market.

9. Kayako - An Emphasis on Customer Engagement

Kayako stands out among the Zoho Desk alternatives with its strong focus on customer engagement, ensuring a positive experience for users. The software offers a comprehensive range of communication channels, including email, chat, phone support, social media integration, and knowledge base articles. With these options, businesses can provide seamless support across various platforms to meet their customers' needs.

One of Kayako's key features is its advanced functionality, allowing for customization and analytics. This means businesses can tailor the software to fit their specific requirements and gain valuable insights into customer interactions. Additionally, Kayako offers mobile app support, enabling support teams to respond to queries on the go, further enhancing agent productivity.

User reviews of Kayako have been largely positive, with users praising its functionality and customer service. This makes it a top choice when searching for the best alternative to Zoho Desk. Its emphasis on customer engagement, along with its array of features and customization options, makes Kayako a reliable option for businesses looking to provide exceptional customer support.

How to Choose the Best Customer Support Tool for Your Business?

Consider your customer support needs and communication channels. Look for customization options and advanced features. Evaluate pricing and scalability for businesses of all sizes. Read user reviews and consider use cases. Assess the functionality of ticketing software, knowledge base, and analytics.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are several Zoho Desk alternatives available for small and medium businesses that offer a wide range of features and affordability. Whether you prefer a simple and minimalistic solution like Globo with a live chat feature or a comprehensive solution like HelpSpot, there is an option to suit your needs. Other alternatives such as Zendesk, Freshdesk, Help Scout, TeamSupport, Salesforce Service Cloud, LiveAgent, and Kayako also provide unique features and benefits. When choosing the best customer support tool for your business, consider factors like your budget, specific requirements, scalability, integrations, and customer reviews. By selecting the right alternative, you can enhance your customer support efforts and improve overall satisfaction.