Zendesk vs LiveAgent

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Our analysts compared Zendesk vs LiveAgent based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Help Desk Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Zendesk For Service is a scalable platform offering streamlined customer and sales support. Agents can resolve problems efficiently, and track and prioritize support tickets. Omnichannel support allows users to centralize customer interactions across phone, chat, email and more. Its built-in intelligent routing reduces resolution time by automating ticketing queues and ensuring an appropriate customer-to-agent fit.

Customizable, shareable and pre-built dashboards help users gain actionable insights through real-time data. Teams can leverage the integrated knowledge base management tools to empower customers to resolve issues by themselves. AI-powered bots optimize engagement by providing 24/7 support, answering FAQs, collecting information, delivering chat transcripts and auto-filling ticket fields. Its other offerings include a self-service portal, reporting and analytics, an IT service desk and more.

To explore other popular solutions offered by Zendesk, visit our Zendesk company page.

Pros
  • Easy to use
  • Scalable
  • Multi-channel
  • Integrations
  • Customization
Cons
  • Costly
  • Limited reporting
  • Learning curve
  • Collaboration limitations
  • Integrations limitations
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LiveAgent is an online communication platform that supports personalized, multilingual customer service. It provides in-suite and standalone offerings for live chat, online self-service portals, ticket management, change and license management, and more. It offers all-in-one helpdesk support by combining all communication channels, including email, live chat, phone calls and social media, in a single company inbox.

LiveAgent offers additional services through third-party companies to provide CRM, including sales and marketing automation. Users can analyze helpdesk performance and generate multiple reports to reward high-performing support agents and track customer satisfaction.
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$55/User, Monthly
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$9/Agent, Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
Small 
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Large 
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Small 
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Medium 
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Large 
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Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Unified Workspace: Get a coherent workspace experience with a digital contextual interface. Get benefits when agents work in shifts. Pass around tickets and work orders get passed around within the team. 
  • Omnichannel Support: Bridge support and service teams with customers across multiple modules. Get omnichannel support embedded in the product’s context-preserving workspace. Continue conversations with customers regardless of the channel and resolve issues without losing context. 
  • Better Support From Anywhere: Offer 24/7 support with AI-powered chatbots that help customers answer common queries without agent intervention. 
  • Enhanced Agent Productivity: Route tickets according to agent availability, capacity, priority and skill to ensure better resolution times. Rank agents based on performance and gamify work to further encourage productivity 
  • Better Reporting: Custom dashboards enable better data visualization and performance tracking. Track a range of different KPIs through custom and pre-built reports. Schedule automated reports at regular intervals to keep track of KPIs.
  • Improved Security and Compliance: Encrypt communication data between customers and support agents using industry best practices. GDPR compliance, HTTPS security and Transport Layer Security (TLS) keep private data secure.
  • Streamlined Workflows: Leverage AI to automate and enhance operations through tools like AI-based ticket routing, ticket sentiment analysis and automated response suggestions. 
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  • Make Better Decisions: A range of insightful and data-driven reports summarize business aspects like accounting, inventory, employee activity and sales for performance overview and informed decision-making. 
  • Drive Profits: Improve user experience and boost retention to create fresh revenue channels with customer marketing strategies. 
  • Save Time: Improve customer support quality with over 180 features, like automated ticket distribution and callback, call routing, email notifications and IVR. Automate agent workflows using SLA rules, time and action. 
  • Respond Quickly: Improve customer engagement by reaching out faster to customer queries, with an average response time close to 30 minutes. 
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  • Ticketing System: Offer high-quality customer support across various channels with pre-built dashboards, automation, customer ticket fields and dynamic forms. Avoid misplacing tickets, produce faster resolution and boost the bandwidth via robust tools such as CSAT ratings, routing, service-level agreements and time tracking. 
  • Omnichannel Support: Offer quick and seamless customer support through multiple channels including email, phone, chat, customized chatbots, a website, WhatsApp, messaging, Facebook and Twitter to ensure faster resolutions 
  • Messaging and Live Chat: Engage in long-term, personalized conversations with customers to deliver instant support without any repetitions. Help customers get instant answers via bots and integrated programs with the ability to turn to a live agent whenever needed. 
  • Help Center: Give customers access to knowledge base articles and automated suggestion pop-ups to enable a streamlined and efficient self-service. Convert essential issues in the community into resolvable tickets and update reusable content from help centers and articles through content blocks. 
  • Voice Support: Deliver instant support to customers with a cloud-based voice solution, plug into 90+ telephone providers. Extend voice capabilities with services including redaction, quality assurance and advanced call transcriptions. 
  • Community Forums: Create a platform for customers to collaborate, provide feedback, review the product, and answer other user’s questions. Help them reach out for the most relevant services. 
  • Reporting and Analytics: Analyze how customers use websites, products, services and various support channels. Determine ways to improve the experience by getting instant access to insights and identifying problem areas via customizable, pre-built dashboards. 
  • Knowledge Base: Help customers get to know the services and products better by creating easy-to-read articles with rich formatting and translations to 40+ languages for a localized customer experience. 
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  • Ticketing System: Provide customer service with a centralized response system. Address inquiries from one inbox, update ticket status, gather customer data to identify and solve problems and distribute cases automatically to ensure fast resolution of queries. 
  • Call Center: Organize sales and provide support by managing customer calls on a unified platform. Connect devices, add agent phone numbers, place a call button on the website and make calls from the computer. Automate responses with IVR, route conversations to skip unnecessary waiting times, track missed calls using the callback feature and record talks without size limitations. 
  • Analytics and Reports: Get insights into the team performance, agent rankings, usage statistics, customer satisfaction ratings, SLA metrics, support channels and other key benchmarks to improve business practices, products and services. Access tag, SLA compliance, channel, department time reports. 
  • Data Protection: Enhance safety standards with help desk features to protect customer data and company practices. Ban IP addresses to limit irrelevant inquiries, enable secure login with 2-step verification, protect data between the browser and software using HTTPS encryption and store information in the data center for effective management. 
  • Gamification: Take advantage of innovative elements to increase engagement and customer retention. Use customizable badges based on the worker’s performance and benchmarks and leaderboards to showcase achievements. 
  • Customer Portal: Create product and brand-specific categories to help customers with self-service content and onboarding. Build knowledge bases using articles, guides, screenshots, videos, search widgets, suggestion forums and other problem-solving information to provide 24/7 customer support and boost website traffic. 
  • Automated Replies: Create automation rules to manage the high volume of tickets with predefined actions. Transfer tickets to departments, add tags, mark and resolve tickets with system actions and minimal guided intervention. Manage rules to organize tickets effectively, improve response time and reduce support costs. 
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Product Ranking

#3

among all
Help Desk Software

#53

among all
Help Desk Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

91
83
92
83
87
66
100
67
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Dashboards and Reporting
Platform Security
Integrations and Extensibility
Ticket Management
Platform Capabilities
Platform Security
Ticket Management
Integrations and Extensibility

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Zendesk
LiveAgent
+ Add Product + Add Product
Agent Productivity Call Center Management Dashboards And Reporting Email Management Live Chat Management Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Team Collaboration Ticket Management 92 87 100 92 74 81 93 85 95 83 66 67 84 84 75 82 82 94 0 25 50 75 100
83%
0%
17%
83%
0%
17%
83%
0%
17%
67%
0%
33%
100%
0%
0%
67%
0%
33%
86%
0%
14%
86%
0%
14%
73%
0%
27%
82%
0%
18%
80%
0%
20%
60%
0%
40%
83%
8%
9%
71%
4%
25%
67%
0%
33%
83%
0%
17%
88%
6%
6%
94%
0%
6%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

95%
0%
5%
84%
0%
16%
100%
0%
0%
89%
11%
0%

User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 5221 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 3716 reviews
86%
of users recommend this product

Zendesk has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 86% when considering 5221 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

93%
of users recommend this product

LiveAgent has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 93% when considering 3716 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

5.0 (32)
5.0 (172)
4.2 (2286)
4.5 (1313)
n/a
4.68 (1174)
4.4 (2528)
n/a
n/a
4.7 (995)
4.3 (51)
n/a
3.9 (324)
4.7 (62)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Zendesk and concluded it deserves the award for the Best Overall Help Desk Software available today and earns best-in-class honors for Dashboards and Reporting and Platform Security.

Analysts' Pick Award
Dashboards and Reporting Award
Platform Security Award

LiveAgent stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Ticket Management: 83% of users who talked about Zendesk’s ticket management features had a positive experience and praised the platform.
Ease of Use: 64% of users who talked about their onboarding and general experience using the platform said Zendesk was easy to use and learn.
Integrations: 57% of reviewers who mentioned integrations were happy with the range and variety of integrations available.
Knowledge Management: 83% of users who mentioned using the knowledge management and help center tools said they had a positive experience.
Collaboration: 92% of users who talked about Zendesk’s collaboration tools said that the platform made external and internal collaboration and communication easier.
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Usability: 77% of users who reviewed this aspect said the software is easy to use and navigate.
Pricing: According to 82% of reviews on this element, the software offers many features at a great price.
Customer Service: The customer support channels are responsive and useful, according to 91% of users reviewing support.
Integration: 86% of users who mentioned this aspect said that the software offers multiple integrations.
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Reporting: 55% of users who talked about the platform’s reporting and analytics tools complained about the lack of advanced reporting tools, especially on cheaper plans.
Customer Support: 70% of users who talked about contacting Zendesk customer service expressed dissatisfaction with their experience.
Cost: 100% of users who talked about pricing said that the cost of the platform was quite high for small businesses and businesses in developing countries.
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Mobile Application: 84% of users who reviewed the mobile app stated that the notifications, features and design could be improved.
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Zendesk For Service offers streamlined tools for businesses of all sizes. It excels in features like ticket management, collaboration and knowledge management. Its interface is easy to use and understand, and there are plenty of onboarding resources for new users. The platform also offers numerous integrations with programs like CRM systems, project management tools and collaboration tools like Slack.While users praised the comprehensive features and level of customization offered by the platform, they also said that this can make the learning curve steeper. Some customers were also disappointed by the lack of advanced reporting tools, the unresponsiveness of customer support and high cost for small businesses. All in all, Zendesk is a scalable and feature-rich solution for businesses looking for an efficient ticketing and support tool.

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LiveAgent offers live chat and helpdesk capabilities, including advanced ticketing. Users can access and update all aspects of a given customer account. Interactive tools, automated behavior reply terminology, live queries management and intuitive onboarding are some aspects of the software that users appreciate. However, some users noted that the software is pricey and the UI is dated. They also reported issues with the payment gateway, mobile app design, service experience feedback and somewhat limited integration options, in terms of other social media and chat platforms. All things considered, LiveAgent is a decent live chat software suitable for businesses of all sizes.

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Screenshots

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