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Bullhorn vs Zendesk comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Bullhorn
Ranking in CRM
32nd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software (2nd)
Zendesk
Ranking in CRM
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (3rd), Help Desk Software (3rd), IT Service Management (ITSM) (5th), Reporting (7th), Knowledge Management Software (3rd), AI Customer Support (6th), AI IT Support (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Bullhorn is 0.6%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 1.4%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Zendesk1.4%
Bullhorn0.6%
Other98.0%
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Christiane Hauk - PeerSpot reviewer
COO at RM Group (Switzerland)
Have improved workflows through automation but faced challenges with feature limitations and unclear pricing
The impact of those automation features on our operational efficiency is huge; however, what I don't appreciate about it is that it's very limited; it's limited to Bullhorn and, even within Bullhorn, it's limited to the candidate, the placement, the job, and the contact entity. You cannot automate files, notes, or change requests, so it's very limited, and they also don't do any further development in this anymore since AI is on the market. When it comes to automation in Bullhorn, I would appreciate seeing that automation is possible for integrating files. For example, that you can say, show me all candidates who don't have a file or which have a file that is older than one year, or which have a file type of resume or contract. I would appreciate seeing the possibility to build automations based on change requests, where you can automate according to the status submitted or approved, which is currently not possible, or automation based on notes. When it comes to the missing features in Bullhorn, I have numerous suggestions. Recently they introduced the AI assistant, which is a chatbot within Bullhorn that can refer to candidate, contact, and job data, which is great. However, the output from your prompt can only be copied to a clipboard and not inserted into a Bullhorn field, meaning you always have to do three, four more clicks to get it over to an email or to the field that publishes the job ad. This functionality has to be developed further because there are other tools that can already do this. The prompting and formatting possibilities within the prompt are very limited as well. Regarding AI, there is no match top candidates functionality that provides results good enough to use. We are already using the Textkernel search, which is the future search Bullhorn will integrate. Additionally, we also work with Bullhorn Onboarding, which is a catastrophe; it's not further developed, and they have not provided a new solution for the German-speaking market in five years. We also use the Canvas reporting tool that lacks further development; there are limitations on what you can build reports on. I would appreciate seeing improvements there, and to close this circle, I would appreciate seeing a kind of avatar that can conduct a first interview with a candidate.
AmandaSanchez - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises
Macros and automation have streamlined workflows and reduced manual effort across support teams
The ability to communicate on the Zendesk ticket through the actual user software, so TOPs, would have been helpful. Somehow seeing a user's ticket history within our app would have been beneficial. That is the only thing that I do not think existed at the time that might have been helpful. Some people struggled with Zendesk, but it was always easy enough to show them how to use it and what they were missing. The only times we really had people report concerns about it was when they did not understand that it could do that or how to use it in that way.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"What I appreciate most about Bullhorn's core functionalities and ATS functionalities is that it is highly customizable, the UI is very user friendly, and it's very easy to train."
"What I appreciate best about Bullhorn is its user interface, which is really nice, and I enjoy the flexibility that you have with it and how you can customize it to meet your needs."
"Our CS team has been able to quickly and effectively run through customer inquiries using the Zendesk platform."
"Zendesk Support has a lot of good APIs."
"In a nutshell, it's a great tool that allows you to manage all your customer service issues in one location."
"The initial setup is simple and straightforward."
"Largely, we have been happy with its capabilities."
"It is a scalable solution."
"To be honest with you, I thought Zendesk was a very good product."
"It is easy to use, highly customizable and makes our work faster."
 

Cons

"I think one thing that could be improved is that it's expensive."
"Bullhorn Onboarding, which is a catastrophe; it's not further developed, and they have not provided a new solution for the German-speaking market in five years."
"Merging tickets is very time consuming; maybe the system can automatically merge tickets that are related and on the same topic."
"If I write an article, and I have a team of 30 people, and they all have a Zendesk account, when I write an article, I send them an email. "Hey guys, I just wrote this article. It's one of the most popular topics this month on which we are not covered. Please check it and make sure that you include it in your resolutions". The issue is, once I send it to those 30 people, and they open it, the next morning, that article is the most popular article."
"It was not easy to set up so we're only using a third of all of the features, and we wanted something that was easier to configure and set up."
"Additionally, "Internal note" is never just an internal note, it is sent to all recipients on the ticket, which has led to quite a lot of miscommunication and frustration."
"Report Generator needs to be improved."
"I would like to see the ability to merge between companies/teams."
"It would be good to be able to edit. Unfortunately, Zendesk believes that the integrity of a ticket and its comments are important."
"If you are only using it for the knowledge base, it may not be the best product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"You have to pay extra for better support. So it's not only the license that you pay for, but you have to pay extra for the support as well."
"Zendesk's licensing is not cheap. For Enterprise, we are paying $200 per agent. It's a per-month cost, so it's pretty steep. There are some services you need to pay extra for. For example, with Zendesk Guide, we had to buy the most expensive offering in order to get Multibrand and everything. We also had to pay a lot of money for themes."
"There are different plans that are offered. We are using the entry-level plan. The overall price of the solution should be reduced. The price is too high."
"We pay for the solution on a yearly basis and my understanding is that the cost is about $30,000. That's the cost for 24 to 25 agents."
"From what I hear, Zendesk's pricing is a little expensive."
"The price is very competitive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
24%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Construction Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Bullhorn?
Bullhorn is expensive, and if you are looking to scale your operations, it really shines.
What needs improvement with Bullhorn?
The impact of those automation features on our operational efficiency is huge; however, what I don't appreciate about it is that it's very limited; it's limited to Bullhorn and, even within Bullhor...
What is your primary use case for Bullhorn?
We are an agency, a staffing agency, and we use Bullhorn mainly as an ATS, so we use it for reporting, onboarding, and to process our payrolling requests.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zendesk Support?
I actually have no idea about pricing, setup costs, and licensing. That was provided by our client, so they handled those kinds of things. We were only using the application, so I have no idea abou...
What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?
The time saved or how quickly we resolve tickets now compared to before depends on the situation we are handling. If a customer is facing issues that need some testing in the backend, it takes time...
What is your primary use case for Zendesk Support?
My main use case for Zendesk is for ticketing purposes. I was replying to customers over Zendesk, and I was also using Zendesk for live chat purposes. As a specific example, suppose a customer is f...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Tiro Partners, Skills Alliance, Think IT Recruitment, Mclaren Consultancy, REACH Employment Services, Aurec, FocusCore, Icon Partners, Curate Partners, Rowben Consulting, Richard Lloyd, Peoplefusion, Gemini People, Glotel
Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber
Find out what your peers are saying about Bullhorn vs. Zendesk and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.