Zendesk vs. Gladly

Support teams today face the pressure of providing exceptional customer service while working faster and more efficiently. They need to find ways to deliver more value without breaking the bank. This is where Zendesk stands out from Gladly.

With Zendesk customer service software, you get a scalable solution that's more cost-effective and easier to use. Read on to discover how Zendesk delivers these benefits and the features that make it happen.

Low total cost of ownership

Zendesk offers more value for your money with a comprehensive feature set that you can easily administer without a dedicated dev team, hidden costs, or endless add-ons. Gladly, on the other hand, is more than three times the price per user of Zendesk while offering fewer functionalities.

Scalability

Zendesk has a flexible and scalable architecture that seamlessly evolves with growing businesses, enabling them to keep up with demands without inflating operating costs. Plus, qualifying startups can use Zendesk free for six months. Gladly’s expensive costs may act as a barrier to entry for small businesses, so the software provider may not be feasible for scaling businesses. Additionally, Gladly has a fraction of the pre-built integrations that Zendesk offers to extend its functionality.

Intuitive design

Zendesk presents a user-friendly interface that lets businesses easily tailor the system to maximize productivity and move at the speed of their customers. New Gladly users may struggle with the reportedly complex system that isn’t as easy to customize as Zendesk and can require thorough training and support before understanding it.

More in this guide:

• At-a-glance comparison: Zendesk vs. Gladly
• Gladly vs. Zendesk: Key capabilities
• Maximize your ROI with Zendesk
• Why customers love Zendesk
• Ready to try Zendesk?

Explore this comparison of Zendesk and Gladly for a quick understanding of each service’s functionality.

Get to the root of Zendesk and Gladly’s core features and discover which solution best meets your needs.

Actionable insights

Learn more about Zendesk omnichannel analytics.

Zendesk gives you real-time and historical reports that include data from all your support channels so you can identify problem areas and fix them immediately. You can easily customize your reporting using a point-and-click experience to share important metrics and surface more granular insights.

It’s been noted that Gladly’s reporting tools may lack the detailed analysis and customization options users need to make critical decisions and efficiently find relevant information.

Open, flexible architecture

Zendesk users have access to a marketplace of over 1,500 apps and integrations, allowing them to connect their entire customer experience ecosystem to provide more personalized and proactive customer interactions. With our plug-and-play integrations and comprehensive set of APIs, teams can also quickly extend their help desk software to growing customer needs and business use cases.

Gladly customers have access to under 50 pre-built integrations, with many categories including only one or two options. The limited choices may be a performance barrier for scaling businesses.

Explore the Zendesk Marketplace to find pre-built apps and integrations.

Customizable environment

Learn how to customize the Zendesk Sunshine platform.

Zendesk lets businesses seamlessly customize their software through logos, colors, and fonts to reflect their brand identity. Users can also customize chat widgets, greetings, portals, group views, layouts, and business rules to further adhere to organizational requirements.

Gladly has fewer options for businesses to customize the look and feel of their pages, such as dark mode and page themes. Additionally, the customizable options it does provide can be complex and present a steep learning curve for its users.

AI that’s fluent in customer service

Zendesk users have access to a marketplace of over 1,500 apps and integrations, allowing them to connect their entire customer experience ecosystem to provide more personalized and proactive customer interactions. With our plug-and-play integrations and comprehensive set of APIs, teams can also quickly extend their help desk software to growing customer needs and business use cases.

Gladly customers have access to under 50 pre-built integrations, with many categories including only one or two options. The limited choices may be a performance barrier for scaling businesses.

Deliver more efficient experiences with Zendesk AI.

Optimized team productivity

Manage scheduling, forecasting, and more with Zendesk WFM (formerly Tymeshift).

Zendesk offers native workforce management tools that help managers effectively allocate resources so agents are more productive. You can automatically forecast staffing needs and schedule agents to reduce idle time by ensuring you have the right number of agents available.

Gladly doesn’t provide native workforce management tools and only has two third-party integrations, which can restrict a manager’s ability to oversee operations.

Speed and reliability

The user-friendly Zendesk interface and ticketing system maximize agent efficiency by incorporating automation and customer service best practices into workflows. With the streamlined interface, agents can easily navigate customer inquiries, access relevant information, and respond promptly.

Gladly users report numerous bugs with the software that inhibit performance. Common issues include calls dropping without warning, chats not loading, and incoming calls not popping up on the agent’s screen.

Take a tour of the Zendesk Agent Workspace.

A study by Forrester revealed businesses stand to receive a staggering 286 percent return on investment (ROI) over three years using Zendesk. Dive into the Total Economic Impact report to see the data behind these impressive results and unlock the potential for your business to thrive.

While Gladly may boast higher ratings, the limited number of reviews can inflate the company’s score. For a more accurate perspective, see how Zendesk has helped its large user base deliver great customer experiences across various industries.

Azerbaijan Airlines

“Zendesk offers very flexible and convenient tools, which enable the agents to quickly adapt themselves to solving new tasks and provide extremely fast support. Everything that is needed for providing a high-level support service to the end customer can be found in Zendesk.”

—Anar Aliyev, public relations specialist at Azerbaijan Airlines

Khan Academy

“The areas where I get most creative are triggers, automations, ticket fields, ticket forms, views, and macros. The ability to customize and set up complex rules to allow a truly seamless and well-organized user and agent experience is something that I really value in Zendesk, as well as the ability to track and report on all of those aspects.”

—Laurie LeDuc, head of community support at Khan Academy

Absorb Software

“The Zendesk Suite enabled us to personalize our support experience and provide best-of-class service to our clients across multiple channels. Like any organization tackling exponential growth and scalability, we discovered which processes and tools need to be added, removed, or refined within our tech stack.”

—Darren O’Connor, manager of global advocacy at Absorb Software