Exceptional customer service can make or break businesses today. With rising standards, companies must have robust tools that provide quick support across channels. This is what makes a help desk software one of the most critical business applications.
However, with tons of options available, selecting the right platform is easier said than done!
In this guide, we provide an in-depth comparison of two popular help desk tools – Zendesk and Jira Service Management (JSM).
We will evaluate the capabilities of both platforms and see how they fare on critical aspects like features, ease of use, customization, integrations, pricing, and more. By the end, you will have clarity on which solution best matches your needs and constraints.
Let‘s start by first understanding what Zendesk brings to the table.
Zendesk Overview: The Leading Cloud-Based Help Desk Software
Zendesk has become synonymous with help desk software, and for good reason. With an impressive 140,000 paid customer accounts globally, it’s the market leader in the segment.
The SaaS company behind Zendesk is now valued at over $10 billion. Top brands across every industry are leveraging Zendesk for their customer service:
| Uber | Spotify |
| Shopify | Mailchimp |
| Airbnb | HubSpot |
In a recent G2 report, 96% Zendesk users rated it as an exceptional customer service software. Users specifically praised its ticketing management, ease of use, and integration capabilities.
So what makes Zendesk such a flexible and powerful help desk platform?
Key Features and Benefits
Zendesk centralizes all customer interactions across channels for swift communication. Agents get a unified inbox to manage and respond to diverse queries with optimal efficiency.
Some standout features include:
1. Omnichannel Support
Seamlessly engage with customers via email, social media, voice/chat, self-service portal, in-app messaging, and more.
2. Custom Ticket Workflows
Automate ticket routing, sharing, escalations through customizable views, forms, and triggers.
3. Reporting and Analytics
Track KPIs like resolution time, CSAT, agent workload in pre-built dashboards and 150+ reports.
4. Seamless Integration
Embed natively with 400+ apps via Zendesk API and Sunshine platform. Popular tools like Shopify, MailChimp integrate out-of-the-box.
5. Self-Service Portal
Reduce tickets through knowledge base, community forum access, and an intuitive help center.
6. Proactive Customer Engagement
Identify at-risk customers via data insights and automatically reach out through appropriate channels.
7. Security
Robust access controls, high encryption standards, and GDPR compliance for data security.
8. Scalability
Flexibly scale from 1 to 1000+ agents while delivering optimal performance through load balancing.
With its user-friendly and customizable workflows, Zendesk speeds up ticket resolution significantly. Customers get fast and contextual support, boosting satisfaction scores.
On average, Zendesk powers a 31% increase in customer satisfaction (CSAT) for businesses. For support teams, there is a 23% gain in productivity as well.
Let‘s now shift our focus to Jira Service Management.
Jira Service Management: A New Age Help Desk Solution for ITSM
While Zendesk has long ruled the pure-play help desk space, Jira SM or JSM is Atlassian’s bold foray into the segment.
As a pioneer in issue tracking software with 100,000+ global clients, Atlassian is a trusted vendor. It is now leveraging Jira’s versatile platform to disrupt traditional help desk tools.
Jira SM marries a consumer-grade front-end portal with proven ITSM best practices. The biggest value proposition lies in empowering DevOps teams to deliver faster service support as per ITIL standards.
Companies like Cisco, Adobe, and Tableau are loving Jira SM for transforming IT service operations:
| Cisco | Adobe |
| Tableau | |
| Dropbox | GoDaddy |
In a survey conducted by TechValidate, 88% of JSM customers vouch for its positive impact on their IT support processes.
So what makes Jira Service Management enterprise-ready for global teams? Let‘s analyze its critical capabilities.
Key Features and Benefits
Jira SM is designed for agile service delivery leveraging proven frameworks like ITSM and ITIL practices.
Here are some salient features:
1. Service Level Agreements
Define, track, and report on SLA goals around response/resolution times through workflows. Get alerts on potential breaches.
2. Change Management
Initiate, review, approve, and track changes to services. Maintain consistency using standardized methods.
3. Customizable Workflows
Visual workflow editor to model ITSM processes without coding. Set validations, business rules, and stages tailored to your needs.
4. Advanced Reporting
Detailed audit logs and history across time periods. Works as system of record for compliance needs.
5. Multi-Channel Help Center
Unified workspace to manage web portal cases, email requests, communities questions and more.
6. Enterprise Scale
Role-based access control, robust permissions, and controls around data access even at largest deployments.
7. Asset Management
Comprehensive repository to store and manage assets + CI relationships. Comes with useful request and approval forms.
8. Seamless Integrations
2000+ native apps and custom APIs. Plug and play with monitoring, identity, collaboration tools.
Jira SM creates an efficient system for delivering reliable IT support and operations. The result? Up to 50% faster service request resolution. Teams collaborate smoothly to drive up to 30% improvement in CSAT as well.
Now that we have seen an overview, let‘s do a detailed feature comparison.
Zendesk vs Jira SM: Detailed Feature Comparison
While Zendesk and Jira SM cater to help desk requirements, they take diverging approaches.
Here is an analysis of how the two platforms‘ capabilities measure up across key parameters:
| Features | Zendesk | Jira Service Management |
|---|---|---|
| Workflow Customization | Lightweight customizations with views, groups, macros, tags | Fully customized stages, validations, transitions, business rules |
| Reporting | 150+ pre-built reports. Good for operational metrics | Broad custom reporting leveraging Jira’s flexible data model |
| Omnichannel Engagement | Unified workspace. Email, social, voice channels enabled | Help center, portals, communities access in one place |
| Ease of Use | Gets running in hours. UI is intuitive | Steep learning curve. Better for technically sound teams |
| ITSM Capabilities | Limited. More customer support focussed | Mature ITSM out-of-the-box with ITIL best practices |
| Asset Management | Basic with limited storage and search | Advanced – repositories, relationships, contracts, audits |
| Change Management | Lacks native change approval features | Built-in workflows for change control and governance |
| Pricing | Premium plans required. Per agent model | Cost effective tiered pricing. Free for up to 3 agents |
As we can see, each platform targets slightly different needs. Now let‘s look at how they fare for specific use cases.
Comparing Industry Use Cases: Zendesk vs. Jira in Action
While features provide a lens for comparing tools, the acid test is real-world usage across business scenarios.
Here is an analysis of typical use cases and how Zendesk and Jira SM deliver value:
Use Case 1: Onboarding clients faster at IT Managed Service Provider
For an ITSP specializing in SMB networks, Jira Service Management enabled 2x faster client onboarding with accelerated Windows environment builds.
The predefined yet customizable change approval workflow ensured all proper checks were done before provisioning client sites.
Zendesk ticketing and web portal capabilities also work well here. But the lack of native change control hinders compliance for tightly regulated industries like healthcare or finance.
Use Case 2: Boosting customer satisfaction for eCommerce site
A leading brand leveraged Zendesk across their ordering cycle – from purchase to product setup to issue resolution.
With the help center and knowledge base, customers self served 40% more queries, decreasing call volume. Satisfaction rose as customers found consistent answers from a unified agent experience system.
However, given Jira SM‘s limited eCommerce templates, the workflow customization effort would have overshot budgets.
Use Case 3: Reducing hospital patient discharge time by 50%
A specialty hospital used Jira SM as an integration engine across isolated patient care systems.
Using change protocols and approvals, discharge tasks like administration, insurance, prescriptions got streamlined between departments. This brought down delays escaping notice of staff in a traditional spreadsheet tracker.
Zendesk ticketing, however, works better for direct patient communication via appointment reminders and interaction history tracking.
As we see with the examples above, identifying the right tool depends on the environment, systems, and processes currently in play.
Now let‘s take a final lens on pricing considerations.
Zendesk vs Jira SM: Comparing Pricing Models
For most businesses, pricing plays a major role in tool selection. Let‘s analyze what Zendesk and Jira SM cost across different scenarios:
| Zendesk | Jira Service Management | |
|---|---|---|
| Free Version | No free version | Free for up to 3 agents |
| Pricing Model | Per agent. Tiers based on features | Tiers based on number of agents |
| Starting Price | $5/agent/month annually | $3/agent/month annually |
| Estimated Total Cost* | Team of 5 – $840 annually Team of 50 – $10,000+ annually |
Team of 5 – $540 annually Team of 50 – $5,400 annually |
| Scalability | Load balancing for large deployments | Works for enterprises via controls |
*Including essential add-ons based on team size. Volume discounts can further optimize pricing.
For small businesses, Jira SM‘s free and starter tiers accelerate ROI. Zendesk suits those wanting premium capabilities like omnichannel support from the start.
However, at scale, Zendesk costs can be aligned with business growth via yearly commitments. Jira also provides enterprise add-ons to manage complex systems behind the scenes.
Conclusion and Key Recommendations
Let‘s summarize the critical aspects to weigh when deciding between Zendesk vs Jira for your business:
1. Team Structure
Assess if you need ITSM capabilities or pure customer support features upfront. Involve all stakeholders to determine must-have use cases.
2. Workflow Customization
Zendesk offers simpler personalization while Jira lets you tweak every stage per business logic. Evaluate flexibility needed around SLAs, change control etc.
3. Data and System Integration
Audit existing apps and infrastructure elements to integrate like CRM, eCommerce platforms etc.
4. Pricing Value
Start with team size, expected growth and premium features needed. Do hands-on trials to estimate budgets.
5. User Experience
More technical teams find Jira intuitive. Customer support agents and business users prefer Zendesk‘s simplicity.
Think about current team skills, challenges to address and scalability needed. This helps match apt solution strengths to your environment.
While both Zendesk and Jira SM check all the boxes for enterprise-grade help desk tools, identify your must-haves. For pure customer support and ease of use, Zendesk leads. Jira SM excels at advanced ITSM methodologies for complex services. Determining key priorities and use cases helps pick the best platform fitting your needs.
Hope this guide helps demystify Zendesk vs. Jira SM considerations for your service desk software evaluation! Please share your questions or feedback on your experiences leveraging these solutions.
