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NICE CXone vs Zendesk comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 18, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.7
NICE CXone delivered over $200,000 ROI in one year, saving costs and reducing infrastructure time compared to Genesis.
Sentiment score
6.7
Zendesk enhances organizational efficiency and productivity, reducing costs despite licensing fees, with varied but significant financial benefits.
NICE CXone saves time and resources due to its cloud-based nature, where infrastructure management is handled by AWS, reducing the need for me to manage it.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
NICE CXone offers quick, courteous support; excellent for simple inquiries, with mixed feedback on complex issue response times.
Sentiment score
6.3
Zendesk excels in responsiveness and issue resolution, though reliance on documentation may delay human support replies.
When I faced an issue with reaching a Poland DID that was ported to NICE CXone, their support team resolved the problem immediately.
We have our own technical account manager which provides us with substantial visibility.
Their support team from Zendesk is excellent, similar to what you have in Freshdesk.
The technical support provided by Zendesk has been very satisfactory.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.8
NICE CXone efficiently scales for user expansion, supports extensive data, and adapts well, ensuring growth across various organizational sizes.
Sentiment score
7.4
Zendesk scales well for various team sizes; praised for customization, integration, though challenges include data backup and departmental customization.
I have migrated approximately 500 people to the system, and it can certainly support more users beyond this number.
Zendesk can scale from very small companies to very large ones.
The scalability of Zendesk is still in the same range as Freshdesk.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
NICE CXone is mostly stable, with quick outage resolutions; disruptions are rare and minimally impactful, maintaining user positivity.
Sentiment score
7.7
Zendesk is stable and reliable, despite occasional outages, making it ideal for small businesses and startups globally.
In general, the stability is good.
While the system often operates without issues, there have been instances of reports involving VM resource congestion, WFM issues, and RT problems.
The stability has been quite reliable.
 

Room For Improvement

NICE CXone needs a user-friendly interface, streamlined reporting, and improved integrations, addressing system slowdowns and media management.
Zendesk users face challenges with interface clumsiness, slow performance, customization, integration, and pricing, affecting overall usability and efficiency.
The audio quality in NICE CXone has room for improvement, as I experience issues like diffused calls and crackling audio.
There could be improvements in integration, which can be achieved with APIs or tools like Zapier.
 

Setup Cost

NICE CXone offers tiered pricing with proprietary systems; enterprise buyers should evaluate costs, features, and migration complexities.
Zendesk pricing varies, perceived as high, but offers value and flexibility; negotiation advised for larger teams to optimize costs.
It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for money.
 

Valuable Features

NICE CXone offers a user-friendly, omnichannel experience with analytics, customization, and efficient call management featuring intuitive tools.
Zendesk offers user-friendly integration, robust features, and valuable tools, enhancing efficiency and streamlining customer support processes effectively.
The switch from using Avaya, which required connecting to a hard or soft phone, to using WebRTC via a web browser has significantly improved customer service efficiency.
It allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities.
The benefits I have seen from using Zendesk include faster response times.
 

Categories and Ranking

NICE CXone
Ranking in Knowledge Management Software
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Workforce Engagement Management (3rd), IVR Systems (1st), Live Chat (2nd), Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) (4th)
Zendesk
Ranking in Knowledge Management Software
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
61
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (7th), CRM (24th), Help Desk Software (11th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (11th), Sales Force Automation (11th), Reporting (19th), Community Platforms (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Knowledge Management Software category, the mindshare of NICE CXone is 5.0%, up from 4.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 12.2%, down from 17.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Knowledge Management Software
 

Featured Reviews

James Arvidson - PeerSpot reviewer
A software that enables centers to operate more efficiently, increase the quality of every customer interaction, create new pathways to profit, and ensure ongoing customer-centric business improvemen
One of the best aspects of CXone is its omnichannel experience. It treats all contacts, whether phone, chat, email, or SMS, through the same system, allowing for consistent reporting and a true omnichannel experience. The platform is very flexible. You can customize it to do almost anything as long as it's based on logic, which has been incredibly valuable. In terms of analytics, CXone offers consistent, accessible data across all channels. In the past, different systems like Avaya for phones or separate platforms for chat and email made it hard to compare performance across channels. With CXone, you get the same data points across all interactions, making decision-making much easier. It also allows for deeper reporting, like IVR reporting, where you can see what options people choose and create custom KPIs for better insight.
JohanSkibdahl - PeerSpot reviewer
Automating customer support with advanced AI capabilities and seamless communication
Zendesk has been invaluable in automating communications such as email and phone calls. It allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities. This intelligent tool can manage complex queries before users even realize they are interacting with a non-human. Additionally, we have integrated Zendesk with Datto and Klaviyo, enhancing our workflows.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
5%
Computer Software Company
22%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
6%
Performing Arts
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with NICE CXone?
We need more control over the AWS side of NICE CXone as that's the only area where we lack control. We should have more control over our AWS implementation instead of relying on connections and con...
What is your primary use case for NICE CXone?
We use NICE CXone for voice routing and we have our IVR on it. We utilize ACD, IVR, and many other features. In our current application, we have implemented almost everything available. We build ou...
What advice do you have for others considering NICE CXone?
We utilize the analytics tools within NICE CXone while also employing our own tools. We scrape our data and use our own analytics tools alongside NICE CXone's insights, which help inform our contac...
What do you like most about Zendesk Support?
I found the user experience with vendors on Zendesk to be straightforward, especially when it comes to understanding and searching for specific tickets. The search and navigation tools are easy to ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zendesk Support?
Zendesk's pricing is reasonable. It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for money.
What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?
There could be improvements in integration, which can be achieved with APIs or tools like Zapier ( /products/zapier-reviews ). However, easier integration could enhance the usability. Multilingual ...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

NICE inContact, NICE CXone Workforce Optimization Pro, NICE CXOne WFO Pro, CXone Workforce Optimization, inContact Workforce Optimization, CallCopy, Discover, VPI Empower, Brand Embassy, goMoxie
Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

MoneyGram, Honeywell, Radisson Hotel Group, AAA, New Balance, MattressFIRM, Teleflora, Best Buy
Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber
Find out what your peers are saying about NICE CXone vs. Zendesk and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.