Zendesk lists Support Team at $19 per agent per month for email ticketing and Suite Team at $55 for email, chat, voice and social, on annual billing. Suite Professional is $115, verified October 2026. The ten alternatives below are grouped by what a team wants instead: a simpler help desk, a shared inbox without tickets, chat-first support, or a desk built for ecommerce.
A simpler help desk: Help Scout, Freshdesk or Helply. No ticketing system at all: Front for several departments, Hiver to stay in Gmail, Missive for chat alongside email. Client teams that need a record of what was promised: Sektra. Chat-first: Intercom or Crisp. A Shopify or other store: Gorgias.
What Zendesk costs in October 2026
Support Team is $19 per agent per month on annual billing ($25 monthly) for email ticketing with unlimited addresses. Suite Team is $55 ($69) and adds a web form, Facebook, X, WhatsApp with extra fees, live chat, voice and one help center. Suite Professional is $115 ($149) with skills-based routing, IVR and up to five help centers. Suite Enterprise is sold through sales.
AI resolutions beyond a small included allowance cost $2.00 each pay-as-you-go. Copilot is $50 per agent per month on yearly billing, from Professional. The 14-day trial runs on Suite Professional. We build Sektra, so read our entry with that in mind; every other tool below was checked on its own pricing page in October 2026.
Zendesk alternatives compared
| Tool | Need | List price | AI billing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zendesk | Baseline | $19 to $115 per agent | Resolutions $2.00 each; Copilot $50 | Support operations with voice and routing |
| Help Scout | Simpler help desk | Free plan, then $25 to $75 | AI Answers $0.75 per resolution | Email support with a knowledge base |
| Freshdesk | Simpler help desk | $19 to $89 | 500 sessions, then $49 per 100; Copilot $29 | Ticketing with SLAs |
| Helply | Simpler help desk | Credits from $49 a month | Credits per AI action | An AI agent without seat fees |
| Front | Shared inbox | $25 to $105 | Copilot $20 per seat; Autopilot from $0.05 | Several departments routing email |
| Hiver | Shared inbox | $25 to $85 | Included from Growth | A queue that stays in Gmail |
| Missive | Shared inbox | $14 to $36 | Credits or your own API key | Email, chat and tasks in one app |
| Sektra | Shared inbox | See pricing | Every AI feature in the plan | Client teams that do not want a ticketing system |
| Intercom | Chat-first | $29 to $132 | Fin $0.99 per outcome | Messenger-led support at volume |
| Crisp | Chat-first | Free, then $45 to $295 per workspace | AI credits by tier | Small teams on one workspace price |
| Gorgias | Ecommerce | $10 to $750 a month by ticket volume | AI Agent $0.90 to $1.00 per interaction | Shopify and other store support |
What is the best Zendesk alternative?
It depends on what you want instead of the Suite. The ten tools below are grouped by that need, each with the facts, pros and cons, and who it fits.
A simpler help desk
1. Help Scout: a help desk with a knowledge base and a free plan
Help Scout is a help desk with a shared inbox, live chat, SMS and a Docs knowledge base. The Free plan covers 5 users, 1 inbox and 100 contacts a month. Standard is $25 per user per month, Plus $45, Pro $75 with a 10-user minimum. Verified October 2026.
AI Answers resolves conversations alone at $0.75 per resolution with a spending cap. Live chat is in Standard, where Zendesk needs the Suite. The ticket still closes, so a named account has no single record of what it was promised.
- Pros: a free plan; live chat from $25; AI per resolution below Zendesk's rate.
- Cons: 100 contacts a month on Free; no voice; a ticket model.
Fits a support team that wants email, chat and a knowledge base without the Suite. Sektra vs Help Scout covers account work.
2. Freshdesk: ticketing with SLAs from $19 per agent
Freshdesk lists Growth at $19 per agent per month on annual billing with ticketing, a knowledge base and reporting. Pro is $55 with SLA policies and intelligent routing. Enterprise is $89 with skill-based routing, a sandbox and audit logs. Verified October 2026.
Each account gets 500 Freddy AI Agent sessions once, then $49 per 100. Freddy AI Copilot is a $29 per agent add-on on Pro and Enterprise. No free plan is listed. It is the same ticket model as Zendesk on a lower per-agent price.
- Pros: $19 entry; SLAs and routing at $55; Copilot at $29 against Zendesk's $50.
- Cons: no free plan; AI sessions metered after 500; needs configuring like any ticketing system.
Fits a support team that wants Zendesk's shape at a lower per-agent price.
3. Helply: an AI agent priced by credits
Helply, the successor to Groove, is an AI-agent platform with a help desk included: shared inbox, ticketing, knowledge base and workflows. Pricing is by credits with no per-user fee; $49 a month buys 500 credits and annual billing takes 15 percent off. Channels include email, chat widget, WhatsApp, Slack and Teams. Verified October 2026.
AI actions cost 1, 4 or 12 credits by complexity, with overage up to a cap you set. The agent deflects repeat questions; it keeps no record of what your team committed to.
- Pros: unlimited users; a 14-day trial with 1,000 credits.
- Cons: a credit block to watch; an agent-first model.
Fits a support team that wants an AI agent without seat fees. Sektra vs Groove keeps the comparison under the old name.
A shared inbox instead of a ticketing system
4. Front: a shared inbox routing email across departments
Front is a separate app that routes email, chat, SMS and social accounts with rules, macros and SLA policies. Starter is $25 per seat per month, capped at 10 seats and one channel type; Professional is $65; Enterprise $105. Annual billing, verified October 2026.
Copilot is a $20 per seat add-on below Enterprise and Autopilot starts at $0.05 per conversation. Conversations stay as email with an owner and comments. Front keeps no record of what a client was promised across months.
- Pros: no tickets; routing for several teams; a 14-day Professional trial.
- Cons: routing from $65; AI as an add-on; a new app for everyone.
Fits an operations team that wants routing without a ticket queue. Sektra vs Front has the side by side.
5. Hiver: a shared inbox that stays in Gmail
Hiver in Gmail renders a shared inbox, SLA alerts and analytics inside the Gmail interface; Hiver Omni is a dedicated omnichannel platform for email and live chat. In Gmail, Growth is $25 per user per month on annual billing, Pro $55, Elite $85, with AI Copilot and AI Agents from Growth. Verified October 2026.
Conversations open, get worked and close inside Gmail, so there is nothing to migrate. SLAs and the customer portal start on Pro. There is no record of a client's promises across closed conversations.
- Pros: no new app for a Gmail team; AI in the seat price.
- Cons: SLAs from $55; a queue model.
Fits a support team on Google Workspace. Sektra vs Hiver covers the split.
6. Missive: email, chat and tasks in one app
Missive gives each team a shared inbox, shared tasks and a shared space to discuss work, connecting Gmail, Outlook, IMAP, SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram. Starter is $14 per user per month for up to 5 users, Productive $24, Business $36, billed yearly, with a 30-day trial. Verified October 2026.
AI runs on Missive credits or your own API key. Everyone works in Missive for the shared view to hold, and there is no client-level record of open commitments.
- Pros: Gmail, Outlook and IMAP together; a $14 entry price.
- Cons: full-team adoption; AI billed separately; advanced analytics only on Business.
Fits a team that wants chat next to email. Sektra vs Missive covers where mail lives.
7. Sektra: for teams that do not want a ticketing system
Sektra is a separate workspace that syncs two-way with Gmail, Outlook (including Microsoft 365 shared mailboxes), IMAP mailboxes and WhatsApp Business. Mail stays where it is, so nothing migrates and a teammate who has not moved yet keeps answering from Outlook or Gmail. Gmail and Outlook connect through Google or Microsoft sign-in, IMAP with a password stored encrypted, WhatsApp through the provider.
Conversations stay as email with an owner. Assignment, mentions, internal notes and collision detection, shown as "A teammate is typing a reply", cover the shared inbox basics. Triage orders threads by what it costs to ignore them. Analytics report response times as percentiles per client, with nothing to configure.
The memory layer is a record per client of what each side promised, with the dates, and the questions still open. A watch with a day count you set tells you the day a client goes quiet, and the morning digest lists who owes you a reply. The assistant answers questions about a client with links to the threads, drafts replies, sets reminders and creates watches. Every AI feature is in the plan price.
- Pros: no tickets and no migration; Gmail, Outlook, IMAP and WhatsApp in one record; AI in the plan.
- Cons: no voice and no SMS channel, and the CRM integrations show the record beside the thread rather than syncing every field back.
Fits account management, customer success, agency and logistics teams whose inbound is the same clients every week. See logistics teams, the product page and pricing. Every workspace starts with 7 days of Pro and no card.
Chat-first support
8. Intercom: Messenger-led support with Fin
Intercom lists Essential at $29 per seat per month, Advanced at $85 with 20 free lite seats and Expert at $132 with SLAs. Fin AI Agent bills $0.99 per outcome on every plan, and Copilot is $29 per seat on annual billing. Verified October 2026.
It starts from the website Messenger and the AI agent; email is a channel inside it. Multiple team inboxes and workflows start at Advanced.
- Pros: Fin at $0.99 per outcome against Zendesk's $2.00; a 14-day trial with everything on.
- Cons: routing and multiple inboxes from $85; per-outcome AI on top of seats; chat-first.
Fits a product company resolving repeat questions in chat. Intercom alternatives runs the other way, and Sektra vs Intercom has the direct comparison.
9. Crisp: chat and email on one workspace price
Crisp prices per workspace with seats included. Free has 2 seats and the chat widget with a shared inbox. Mini is $45 a month with 4 seats. Essentials is $95 with 10 seats and the omnichannel inbox for WhatsApp Business, Instagram and SMS. Plus is $295 with 20 or more seats, and extra agents are $10 a month. Verified October 2026.
AI credits are included by tier, $5 on Mini up to $75 on Plus, and no annual prices are listed. The inbox is conversation by conversation, with no view of who owes the next reply.
- Pros: a free plan; seats included; WhatsApp from Essentials.
- Cons: AI credits capped by tier; email inbox from Mini; chat-first.
Fits a small team that wants chat and email for one monthly price.
A desk built for ecommerce
10. Gorgias: a help desk priced by ticket volume
Gorgias prices by tickets per month and never per agent. On annual billing, Basic is $50 a month for 300 tickets, Pro $300 for 2,000, Advanced $750 for 5,000; Starter is $10 for 50 tickets on monthly billing. Overage is $0.36 to $0.40 per ticket. Verified October 2026.
AI Agent costs $0.90 per automated interaction on annual contracts and $1.00 on monthly, and each one also counts as a ticket. Channels include email, live chat, SMS, voice, social and TikTok Shop, with Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento and WooCommerce integrations. The record is the order and the ticket.
- Pros: no per-agent fee; store integrations; a 7-day trial.
- Cons: billed by ticket volume; AI interactions also consume tickets; WhatsApp is not listed.
Fits a store whose support is order questions at volume.
Which Zendesk alternative should you pick?
- A lighter desk with chat and a knowledge base: Help Scout. SLAs at a lower per-agent price: Freshdesk. An AI agent with no seat fees: Helply.
- Several departments routing email with no tickets: Front. A Gmail team that will not leave Gmail: Hiver. Chat alongside email: Missive.
- Named clients who write every week and expect you to remember: Sektra, with mail left in Gmail or Outlook and a record of what each side promised.
- Product company resolving repeat questions in chat: Intercom. Small team on one workspace price: Crisp.
- A store on Shopify or similar: Gorgias.
If you are leaving because every client conversation became a ticket, shared inbox vs help desk sets out the difference. Connect the alternative to the same mailboxes and run both for two weeks before moving the team.
