Zendesk is an industry-leading CRM trusted by more than 200,000 customers worldwide. The tool offers artificial intelligence (AI)-powered automations and dynamic workspaces that improve team productivity and efficiency. It also comes with analytics tools, custom dashboards, support for third-party integrations and a document library. It also has a variety of plans for businesses of all sizes, such as Zendesk Sell Teams, Zendesk Sell Professional and Zendesk Sell Enterprise.
Salesforce is an established CRM that can also be known as a direct competitor to Zendesk. Much like Zendesk, it offers customizable sales pipelines, document storage of up to 2GB per user, prebuilt sales dashboards and a mobile app. Since Salesforce is also packed with complex and advanced features, its basic plan is more expensive compared to Zendesk.
Both Zendesk and Salesforce are designed for large organizations that need advanced features and integrations. Zendesk is easy to learn and it is user-friendly. However, Salesforce has more complex features that make it difficult to use
Zendesk Sell
Why We Picked It
Zendesk Sell is a modern sales CRM where users can manage their leads, contacts and account information in one centralized platform.
The reporting and analytics features allow you to monitor and predict sales performance through accurate forecasting pipeline analysis and advanced analytics. You can also access drag-and-drop widgets to keep tabs on your performance goals, tasks and deal activity. The basic Team plan—priced at $19 per user, per month—includes customizable sales pipelines, document storage, email and calendar integration as well as a mobile app.
Pros & Cons
- Gain complete visibility on customer interactions
- Cheaper starter plan compared to Salesforce
- Native integration with Zendesk Support to improve customer communication
- No free plan
- Customizable sales pipeline limited up to two for Team plan
- Limited document storage of up to 2GB per user
Salesforce
Why We Picked It
Salesforce is a popular solution for businesses of all sizes but is best suited for large organizations and enterprises.
The tool is packed with account, lead, opportunity and pipeline management features, to enable users to sell smarter and faster. As with Zendesk, it also comes with a dedicated mobile app and forecasting features as well as customizable reports and dashboards. The Essentials plan—priced at $25 per user, per month—is significantly more expensive than Zendesk’s basic plan.
Pros & Cons
- Extensive customization options
- Supports 3,000-plus integrations, which is 3x more than Zendesk’s 1,300-plus integrations
- Powerful reporting capabilities
- More expensive compared to Zendesk
- More difficult to use
- Time-consuming to set up and maintain
