Zoho Desk

Help desk software that actually helps

Customer Support Platforms
★★★★☆ 4.3
1996 Founded
10001+ Employees
100,000+ Customers
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India (global HQ); Austin, Texas, USA (US HQ) Headquarters
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Quick Facts

✓ Free Trial
Website
zoho.com →
Starting Price
7
Pricing Model
per-user
Free Trial
15 days
Company Type
private
Social
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About Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is the flagship customer support platform from Zoho Corporation, a privately held business software company founded in 1996. Built originally out of Zoho’s Tenkasi development center in India, Zoho Desk has grown into a mature, cloud-based help desk solution used by more than 100,000 businesses worldwide. It brings together email, chat, social media, telephony, web forms, and messaging into a single ticketing platform so support teams can manage the entire customer experience from one place.

The product emphasizes context-aware support: agents can see the full history of a customer’s interactions, view CRM data from Zoho CRM or Salesforce, and collaborate with other departments using internal comments and team feeds. Automation features such as SLAs, workflows, blueprints, macros, round-robin and skill-based routing help teams scale their operations while maintaining response time and resolution targets. Zoho Desk also includes a comprehensive self-service layer with knowledge base, community forums, and the ASAP in-app widget, plus multilingual support for both customers and agents.

A major differentiator is Zoho’s AI layer, Zia. In Zoho Desk, Zia powers capabilities such as ticket sentiment analysis, thread summarization, topic tagging, reply suggestions, anomaly detection, and AI “Agents” that can handle routine tasks or serve as answer bots for customers. These agentic AI capabilities are built directly into the platform and integrate with both Zoho’s own LLMs and external models where configured, giving teams sophisticated AI workflows without bolting on third-party tools.

Zoho Desk occupies a strong position in the customer support market as a value-focused alternative to Zendesk, Freshdesk and Salesforce Service Cloud. It is especially compelling for SMB and mid-market organizations that want a modern omnichannel help desk tightly integrated with the broader Zoho ecosystem—CRM, analytics, finance, collaboration, and more—while still being able to scale up to larger, more complex deployments as their needs grow.

Key Features

Omnichannel ticketing - Consolidate email, live chat, social media, telephony, web forms, messaging apps, and web widgets into a unified help desk.

AI-powered Zia Agents - Use agentic AI for ticket summarization, sentiment analysis, reply suggestions, topic tagging, anomaly detection, and autonomous support workflows.

Answer Bot and chatbots - Deploy AI and guided-conversation bots across web and messaging channels to deflect tickets and provide 24/7 self-service.

Knowledge base & self-service portals - Create branded, multilingual help centers, FAQs, and communities so customers can find answers without contacting support.

ASAP in-app widget - Embed knowledge base, community, chat, and ticket submission widgets inside web apps or mobile apps for contextual support.

Advanced automation - Configure workflows, SLAs, escalations, blueprints, macros, and rules-based routing to streamline ticket handling and reduce manual work.

Multi-department & multi-brand support - Manage multiple support departments and brands within one account with separate configurations and portals.

Customizable workspace - Tailor layouts, fields, views, ticket forms, and user preferences so each team can work in an interface optimized for its processes.

Analytics & dashboards - Access 30+ built-in reports, AI dashboards, and real-time KPIs for response time, resolution time, SLA adherence, agent performance, and customer satisfaction.

Deep CRM integration - Sync contacts, accounts, and products with Zoho CRM and integrate with Salesforce to give agents complete customer context within each ticket.

Collaboration tools - Use team feed, @mentions, light agents, internal comments, and shared views to collaborate across support, product, and engineering teams.

Telephony & remote support - Integrate with cloud telephony providers and Zoho Assist to run voice-based support and remote troubleshooting directly from tickets.

Multi-language support - Provide agent interfaces in 20+ languages and publish help center content in 40-50+ languages for global support operations.

Developer toolkit - Extend Zoho Desk with REST APIs, webhooks, custom functions, and mobile SDKs to build custom integrations and workflows.

Mobile apps & Radar - Manage tickets from iOS and Android apps and monitor live service metrics on the Zoho Desk Radar mobile analytics app.

Pros & Cons

👍 Pros

  • Robust omnichannel ticketing that centralizes email, chat, social, telephony, and web forms into a single interface.
  • Powerful automation with workflows, SLAs, blueprints, macros, and routing rules that reduce manual effort and improve response times.
  • Deep integration with the Zoho ecosystem (especially Zoho CRM) plus many third-party tools like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Shopify, and QuickBooks.
  • Strong reporting and dashboard capabilities, with optional advanced analytics through Zoho Analytics for deeper BI and custom KPIs.
  • Zia AI features such as ticket sentiment analysis, summarization, reply suggestions, and answer bots that help agents work faster and more accurately.
  • Highly customizable fields, layouts, views, and processes, allowing teams across industries to tailor the system to their workflows.
  • Competitive, transparent pricing with a free plan and relatively low per-agent costs compared to many enterprise help desk platforms.

👎 Cons

  • Interface can feel busy and has a noticeable learning curve, particularly for new admins configuring automation and customizations.
  • Some users report slow performance or lag when working with large ticket volumes or complex reports.
  • Mobile apps are not as full-featured as the web interface and can update ticket statuses or data more slowly.
  • Email integration and deliverability (including SPF/DKIM configuration and spam handling) can be challenging and occasionally unreliable.
  • Notification controls and fine-grained alert settings are limited, leading some teams to experience too many or hard-to-tune notifications.

User Reviews

G2
4.4
★★★★☆
Capterra
4.5
★★★★★
TrustRadius
8.1
★★★★★

Integrations

Google Workspace Microsoft 365 Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Teams Slack Shopify Shopify Plus Stripe Connect QuickBooks Online Jira Trello GitHub Mailchimp Transactional Email Mailchimp Facebook Instagram for Business WhatsApp Business Platform Telegram Bot Twilio Zoom Workplace Zapier RingCentral Contact Center 3CX Aircall Amazon Connect Zoho CRM Zoho Books Zoho Projects Zoho SalesIQ Zoho Mail Zoho Assist Zoho Inventory Zoho Forms Zoho FSM

Best For

Company Size

smb mid-market enterprise

Industries

SaaS Technology Financial Services Retail & Ecommerce Manufacturing Healthcare

Use Cases

Omnichannel customer support and ticket management IT and internal help desk ticketing Ecommerce and order support across email, chat, and social Product and SaaS customer support with in-app widgets Knowledge base and community-driven self-service Service-level management and compliance tracking

FAQ

What is Zoho Desk?

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Zoho Desk is a cloud-based, AI-powered help desk and customer support platform from Zoho Corporation. It centralizes customer requests from email, chat, social media, phone, web forms, and messaging apps into a single ticketing system. Teams use Zoho Desk to manage omnichannel support, build self-service portals and knowledge bases, automate workflows and SLAs, integrate with CRM and other business systems, and monitor performance through detailed analytics and dashboards.

How much does Zoho Desk cost?

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Zoho Desk offers a free plan for up to 3 agents and paid plans starting at approximately $7 per user per month (billed annually) for the Express edition. Standard, Professional, and Enterprise plans are priced around $14, $23, and $40 per user per month (billed annually), with higher tiers adding capabilities such as live chat and instant messaging, advanced automation, telephony, multi-department management, AI agents, and sandboxing. Monthly billing is also available at higher per-user rates, and discounts are offered for annual commitments.

What are the main features of Zoho Desk?

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Key features of Zoho Desk include omnichannel ticketing across email, chat, social media, telephony, and web forms; a full self-service stack with knowledge base, communities, and the ASAP in-app widget; automation via SLAs, workflows, blueprints, macros, and intelligent routing; AI capabilities powered by Zia for sentiment analysis, ticket summarization, answer bots, and agentic AI workflows; multi-department and multi-brand management; extensive customization; deep integrations with Zoho CRM and other Zoho apps; and rich reporting and analytics with optional Zoho Analytics integration.

Who are Zoho Desk's main competitors?

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Zoho Desk's primary competitors in the customer support and help desk market include Zendesk Suite, Freshdesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, and ServiceNow Customer Service Management. In some segments it also competes with products like LiveAgent, Help Scout, and other SMB-focused ticketing tools. Buyers often evaluate Zoho Desk alongside these alternatives based on pricing, ease of use, depth of automation, integration needs, and alignment with existing CRM or ITSM investments.

Is Zoho Desk good for small businesses?

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Yes. Zoho Desk is particularly well-suited to small and mid-sized businesses because it combines a generous free plan, low entry-level pricing, and a broad feature set that can scale as the business grows. Smaller teams can start with email ticketing, basic automation, and a simple help center, then progressively adopt live chat, AI, advanced workflows, and integrations as their needs expand. However, the configuration options and interface can feel complex at first, so investing some setup time or working with a partner can help small teams get the most value from the platform.

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