Kayako vs Zendesk: The Clash of Customer Support Titans in 2024

Kayako vs Zendesk: The Clash of Customer Support Titans in 2024

Updated : Nov 8, 2024
14 Mins Read
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We know you’re looking to compare Kayako and Zendesk suits to figure out which customer service solution tool to choose. Our deep comparison helps businesses make decent choices, and we’re again present with a perfect and honest comparison.

What if we say we have a story and a saga to reveal? So be ready to dive into the technical world where the tech giants fight, innovations evolve, and the customer chooses the throne!

Imagine your business as an empire and your customer support and sales staff as your soldiers constantly fighting to increase your foundation’s glory and territory. These soldiers can only give justice to your battle if equipped with high-tech armaments. And you, being an emperor, have your utmost duty to create an alliance with the tech giants to equip your army with modern weapons, right? 

Welcome to the world of tech giants for great support where evolving and deploying the top-most customer support systems for your support team is the only mission of their existence. As we step into the world of customer care software, we come across the monarchs of customer support software who are on their toes to propel your business processes with their technological advancements.

Amongst them, Kayako and Zendesk emerge as the titans of the clan. Kayako isn’t a top competitor to Zendesk, but still, let’s witness the glorious battle as the Titans clash and shed light on the most powerful customer support systems.

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Key Takeaway :

Kayako and Zendesk are two customer support system giants that offer unique and innovative tools to capture the core of the realm by unleashing the power of connections and collaborations with the customers. While Kayako offers a highly customizable customer help desk solution with features such as live chat, shared inbox, context-driven customer service, and customer self-help knowledge base portal, Zendesk offers a comprehensive ticketing system, omnichannel support, extensive customization, knowledge base management, automation capabilities, and an app marketplace.

Kayako: Unleashing Innovative Customer Service Software

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Kayako

Kayako, one of the customer support system giants, is set forth with its unique and innovative tools to capture the core of the realm by unleashing the power of connections and collaborations with the customers. 

Peering through the window, myriad features flash through the mind, making us delusional before we capture the gist of the website. And before these innovative features traumatize our minds, let’s start understanding them individually in their true essence. 

Kayako, introducing itself as a highly customizable customer help desk solution, has treasured more technicalities in its ecosystem and has much more to offer its subscribers. It has many key features that makes it a better help desk solution than several competitors, including Freshdesk.

Considering its live chat function, Kayako lets its users remain in touch with the customers 24/7, never breaking the bridge of conversation between them. The automated response delivered by AI to the customers is at par with that of the user and extends a helping hand in solving the customer queries at a time. This weapon of live chat draws the customer’s attention and retention for a long time.

kayako also offers the potential to keep the whole team vigilant and intact with its Shared Inbox feature. Every query raised by the customer is visible in the shared Inbox and addressed by the right agents at the earliest. Keeping the whole team together is a powerful weapon to march efficiently towards the shared vision. You find such feature with Front, and SpiceWorks.

Information is the most potent weapon of all in any time frame. You can carve a strategy out of it as long as you have it. And Kayako truly inculcates this wisdom in its third feature, namely Context-Driven Customer Service.

Right from the beginning, every query, every conversation, and every concern of a customer is recorded in the system to gain insights into consumer behavior and predict future trends. 

The joy of doing things all by themselves and without asking for help occupies a special place in one’s heart. Kayako offers a perfect feature to experience this human emotion through its Customer Self-Help knowledge base portal, pretty similar to a few other Zendesk competitors like Intercom and ServiceNow. Customers can reach out to any solutions simply by navigating through this self-help portal. 

Kayako’s multiple collaborations, working from a unified platform and automated workflow system, prove to be a solid structure to boost the team’s efficiency and enhance the customer experience. Some expert even compare it to Jira in terms of overall performance.

Zendesk: The epitome of Customer Service Excellence

Zendesk 1
Zendesk

Zendesk, is a giant in the customer service support world like Intercom, that makes helps businesses offer exceptional customer-oriented services to users. 

Zendesk’s Live chat function stands answerable to the customers with its conversational ability like a human being, never letting the visitors roam alone and randomly in the domain.

The highly distinguished and the most functional weapon Zendesk unleashes is its ticketing system. Automatically routing the tickets to the right agents channels the workflow system and increases the efficiency of the employees. 

Apart from this, Zendesk’s user-friendly interface and omnichannel support for the various web platforms strengthen the user’s ability to multi-task and reduce the considerable time spent shuffling between the various platforms. 

What makes Zendesk the epitome of a customer service support system is the ability to cater to customers with numerous solutions and make them feel privileged for being a part of the system. Are you bored of reading the tech specifications of customer support software and finding it difficult to connect with your business empire?

Zendesk also offers best customer support, and you’ll be amazed to know, it’s just Desku that has received more appreciation than Zendesk customer support, and no other competitor. 

Also read: BEWARE: 9 Negatives (cons) of Zendesk you’ll hate!

Desku: A Disruptive Force in Customer support Alternatives

As we turn the pages, we come across an anonymous yet highly disruptive force in the customer support system realm, powerful enough to tremble the Titans with its mighty weapons.

None other than the Desku (best customer service software out there) carries the strength to question the abilities of the customer support system giants with its constantly evolving and established features.

Curious to know what Deksu stores in its armaments? Let’s have a quick look at it.

Just like Kayako and Zendesk, Desku keeps the Live chat function handy to trigger the chain of dialogues between customers and users, always keeping the customers afloat in the pool of information and assistance.

The AI chatbots for businesses developed by Desku compete with human intelligence to converse with customers around the clock. It’s the best software for small (especially cloud-based) businesses.

Working as a team together in a unified space signifies a solid move towards the shared vision and uplifts the team’s core strength in filling the gaps in the processes, as and when required by the team. Desku truly identifies this juncture and presents the Unified Inbox features for managing emails and social media conversations to its users.

Desku’s Knowledge-based portal content creates an ease for the customers to easily collaborate with the ongoing ecosystem. 

Desku’s true strength lies in providing competitive quotations for its unparalleled services. The multiple suites offered by the giants seem trivial when Desku comes forth with its comprehensive services at affordability and expertise capabilities. The unbeaten price line provided by the Desku rules the entire realm and creates a new chapter in the saga of combating titans.

In the world of combat, it is always wise to study the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors and then opt for the wisest option. We have listed the pros and cons of the giants, Zendesk and Kayako, to help you consider the benefits of the emerging entity Desku in the realm of customer support. Check out Desku’s amazing features with price comparison, to know which plan suits the best for your business.

Zendesk Pros and Cons

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Zendesk pros and cons

Zendesk Pros:

  1. Comprehensive Ticketing System: Zendesk’s automation to route the tickets to the right agents is at the heart of the entire customer support system. This ensures the perfect match of an employee with the concerned query to get an effective solution as fast as possible.
  2. Omnichannel Support: The presence of all the social media tools, emails and phone icons in a single dashboard looks picturesque. And the ability to utilize these tools in a single go makes it more interesting. Zendesk features best integrated omni-channel support in its dashboard.
  3. Extensive Customization: Whether big or small, Zendesk aims to cover all sizes of businesses. This vision is realized with its possibility to provide extensive customization of products to content the customer needs in all aspects.
  4. Knowledge Base Management: Zendesk’s knowledge base management portal aims to deliver a sense of independence amongst the customers along with the ability to knock out the less complex queries by themselves.
  5. Automation Capabilities: The system stores the magical tools to rule out mundane tasks such as solving repetitive queries, sending regular emails, and assisting in regular tasks. This automation is made possible by various tools such as triggers, automation and macros.
  6. App Marketplace: Zendesk’s app Marketplace is an app hub for businesses heavily relying on various e-commerce platforms for various integrations, harnessing the potential and widening the scope of the business.

Zendesk Cons:

  1. Costly for Larger Teams: Expensive is a tag attached to its pricing model. Cost is determined based on per-head usage of the service. So, it may prove expensive for the larger teams and may demand huge cash flow from your cash reserves.
  2. Learning Curve: Users new to the customer support system platform can be baffled by the wide range of features and options available on Zendesk. Using Zendesk tools may demand proper training and adequate time for beginners, who may experience a steeper learning curve than predicted.
  3. Limited Reporting in Lower-Tiers: Spend more, and you will receive more. Based on this pricing philosophy, Zendesk premium and advanced tools are placed in its high-end package. With little investment in Zendesk, small businesses wanting to upscale the CRM processes remain deficient in these high-end features. 
  4. Email Ticket Handling: Every system has a loophole, and the users of Zendesk have reported one! Zendesk’s negligence in addressing the email ticketing mechanism has turned out to be a common complaint among users.
  5. Integration Complexity: Want to widen e-commerce opportunities? You have to integrate more apps with your technical set-up. This broad array of integrations can make the system complex and may call for technical experts to pitch in. 
  6. Service Outages: Service Outages are not normal to overlook when you pay enough to avail the services and may create chaos in the minds of customers. Zendesk users have reported Service outages quite often.

Kayako Pros and Cons

Kayako pros and cons
Kayako pros and cons

Kayako Pros:

  1. Unified Inbox and Collaboration: Kayako’s Unified Inbox feature keeps the team intact in a single window and allows them to work independently yet collectively through a shared inbox.
  2. Real-Time Conversational Support: Kayako extends real-time support when the customers are in need of exchanging a word with the experts. Kayako’s Real Time Conversational Support tool makes the customer feel heard and answered all the time.
  3. Automation and Workflow Customization: Kayako excels in the working process by giving access to automatic tools and moderating the workflow systems.
  4. Multi-channel Support: Kayako allows the users to connect with the customers across multiple communication channels such as emails, phone, and social media through its common dashboard.
  5. Knowledge-Base Management: Kayako’s Knowledge-based management system allows users to solve queries independently without asking for help from the employees.
  6. Affordable Pricing: Owing to its affordability, small businesses can look to Kayako help desk software for their customer support system needs.

Kayako Cons:

  1. Learning Curve: Kayako’s help desk maybe a little difficult for beginners to navigate and utilize its functions to the fullest unless proper training has been received. 
  2. Integration Limitations: The app market available in Kayako’s system offers a narrow range of options for businesses to connect with the other platforms. Thus limiting the integration function in the support system. 
  3. Limited Advanced Analytics: Kayako’s reporting and analytical tools may be less efficient in giving detailed analysis and can impart a considerable benefit to its peers.
  4. Interface Customization Challenges: Kayako’s limitation to providing a customized user interface can make customers reluctant to choose the rigid interface for their business and devote reasonable time to get accustomed to it.
  5. Scale for Larger Enterprises: Behemoths of the Businesses may perceive that Kayako lacks the high-end features to comply with their business needs.
  6. Limited Third-Party Integrations: Kayako’s inability to offer a wide range of third-party business tools may limit its integration capabilities and can be tricky to get customers’ attention.

Are you not satisfied with some cons included in both these platforms? We suggest you cherish Desku AI Customer Support Software as well. This platform has provided 100% client satisfaction with their amazing features & functionality.

Differences between Kayako vs Zendesk in 2024

Differences between kayako vs zendesk
Kayako vs zendesk

Security 

What is the most important concern for us while dealing with valuable stuff? Security, isn’t it? What about lets compare Kayako and Zendesk suite based on security. 

The customer data you enroll in the online platform has a wide range of repercussions if it is leaked and not properly handled. It is mandatory for the Saas Platforms to comply with the specific intellectual property and security rights while offering the services.

The following things come into the picture when we compare the two titans of the customer support system industry for their security criteria. 

Kayako is a customer service that complies with the security certifications, which include agent collision, audit logs, Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM), Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards (DSS), SOC 1/SSAE 16/ISAE 340, SOC2.

Zendesk offers security certifications such as two-factor authentication, SSL encryption, SSL Certificate hosting, and audit logs. The top-tier version of the Zendesk suite offers safety features such as SSO with SAML support, custom roles and many more.

We can say that Kayako ranks ahead of Zendesk when comparing its Security features. 

Reporting and Analytics

Any business-oriented software lacking analytics and reporting tools is like having manpower working without using their brain. To get insights, predict the market trend, and carve out future strategies, it is crucially important to have these features enrolled in the software.

Let’s see what these giants have to offer in terms of Reporting and Analytics tools.

Kayako offers a wide range of options when it comes to help desk report templates. These templates can also be customized as per the user’s preference through Kayako Query Language and can also be exported in HTML or Excel sheets for the convenience of the users.

On the other hand, Zendesk offers relatively techy reporting and analytics tools, such as reporting on custom fields, SLA reporting, median first reply time, median full resolve time, etc., in the top-line services. The basic model does offer customer-centric reporting and analytic tools such as Client Satisfaction, response time, ticket volume, and many more.

It is evident from the comparison that Zendesk tends to have more advantageous tools when it comes to measuring customer-related reporting and analysis.

Ticket Management 

Management is at the core of any business process, be it customers or employees. When dealing with customer concerns, our focus should be on managing the tickets raised by the customers and how the employees treat it. And this is where Ticket Management comes into the picture.

Kayako’s Knowledge-based portal does half the job of the employees. The customers can easily solve the simple queries just by navigating the Knowledge-base portal.

Apart from this, Kayako’s well-organized approach to assigning status to each ticket and segregating them into respective departments gives more clarity to the employees in dealing with them. Automatic tools such as macros, notifications, and custom fields lessen the burden on employees by responding quickly and efficiently to customer queries.

Zendesk’s all-in-one ticket management tool contains features such as default views, macros, and RTF. Like Kayako, Zendesk allows users to view tickets based on their status, group, and assignee. 

What distinguishes Zendesk from Kayako is that Zendesk’s dynamic content feature enables customers to raise tickets as per their preferred language.

Pricing

Regarding pricing, both the software offer a 30-day free trial and come in 4 segments. For Kayako, it consists of Case, Engage, Fusion, and Enterprise. The price of each package is based on per agent, per month and billed annually. The Case and Engage services cost 24 USD, the Fusion services cost 39 USD, and the Enterprise Services come at 99 USD.

The pricing model for Zendesk goes like this. The basic model – Essential, costs 5 USD; the next level model – Team, costs 19 USD; the more advanced model – Professional, costs 49 USD; and the premium model – Enterprise, costs 99 USD. The price of each model is based on per agent per month. 

Considering the prices, it is evident that none of the two customer support service giants comes with affordable and competitive pricing options. However, up to some extent, we can say that Kayako is somewhat better for mid-size business, while Zendesk is a cool software for small and large businesses. 

Compare Kayako and Zendesk Suite: Conclusion

Want to streamline your customer support? The competitive arena of help desk platforms is strong, but Zendesk and Kayako have specific pros and cons (with a few similarities, for example, decent API).

Zendesk provides a comprehensive ticketing system, flexible customization capabilities, and a wide variety of available integrations through its App Marketplace that set it apart. The platform offers an omnichannel experience, making it a favourite for businesses seeking to integrate their CSR effort. Nevertheless, it is necessary to consider the possible financial implications to bigger teams and how difficult it may be to learn the multitude of features it offers.

However, when we compare Kayako, it’s a budget option emphasizing instantaneous talk-based support. A unified inbox, automation possibilities, and focus on teamwork make it a great choice for small companies with budget limitations. However, users will face challenges related to a steep learning curve, limited integrations, and limitations in customizing their interfaces. However, Kayako doesn’t beat Desku by any means.

In conclusion, selecting Zendesk or Kayako depends on the individual business’s needs, scale, and costs. Although Zendesk has more comprehensive functionalities for this endeavor, its cost implications are higher compared to Kayako customer support, where affordability is a key factor. Here we conclude our Kayako vs Zendesk suite comparison.

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Gaurav Nagani
Gaurav Nagani is the Founder and CEO of Desku, an AI-powered customer service software platform.
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