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Okta Platform vs Zendesk comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 22, 2026

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
5.1
Okta Platform enhances identity management, streamlines onboarding, boosts security, and improves compliance, reducing IT burdens and operational costs.
Sentiment score
6.0
Zendesk provides significant ROI with cost savings, efficient features, and streamlined operations despite challenges in measuring returns exactly.
Employee onboarding used to be a major pain point, but the automation Okta Platform provides for creating user accounts across various apps or SaaS tools has made our life much easier.
Technical Lead at CloudBolt Software
First, it improves the security authentication and authorization processes across the organization, securing applications with single sign-on and MFA.
Practice Director - PAM, IGA, IAM & ZeroTrust at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
We have our dashboard to log in via Okta Workforce Identity.
Lead Admin Systems at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
I can tell you that we probably saved at least three employees full-time with the ticket management and the automation and the macros and the user follow-up being built in.
Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises
Time saved is definitely a benefit because it puts all of our tickets in one spot.
Technical Solutions Lead at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
I feel that Zendesk helped us set up our platform for providing support way faster than other platforms due to its easy configuration.
Junior system analyst at Wevt clous
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Okta Platform's customer support is efficient and knowledgeable, though response varies by package, especially for non-premium users.
Sentiment score
6.1
Zendesk's customer service is reputable for quick, courteous support but inconsistent ticket handling and knowledge base completeness frustrates some users.
By offering a system to set varying priority levels on support tickets, urgent issues could receive quicker attention, benefiting business continuity and customer satisfaction.
IT Lead at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
For Okta Platform, the customer service is seamless, and I am very satisfied with their assistance compared to other channels such as Microsoft's, which usually takes longer to resolve issues.
Iam & Security Engineer at zeb consulting
You can raise issues based on urgency using classifications such as P1, P2, P3, and P4, and you will receive a response within two hours for P1 and within four hours for P2.
Customer Identity Engineer - CIAM at American Express Global Business Travel
There appears to be a lack of connection between the bot and the agents, making it feel scripted rather than helpful.
Technical Support Engineer/ QA at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
The technical support provided by Zendesk has been very satisfactory.
CEO at Etcetera Networks
Their support team from Zendesk is excellent, similar to what you have in Freshdesk.
Customer Success Manager at Mimshackworks Endeavors
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Okta Platform is scalable and flexible, efficiently supporting diverse user needs with minimal limitations and robust performance.
Sentiment score
7.1
Zendesk is praised for scalability and customization, despite occasional data migration challenges and pricing considerations.
The scalability of Okta Platform is impressive, but its effectiveness relies on how integrations are designed, rate limits are handled, and day-to-day operations are managed.
Identity and Access Management Specialist at a university with 10,001+ employees
It is secure, providing needed scalability without impacting performance.
IT Lead at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
Clients can scale their API access requests beyond default limits, which is adaptable according to requirements without impacting performance or deployment.
Senior Analyst at Toll Holdings Limited
We have not hit a peak or a turn yet that Zendesk has not been able to go with us or been able to grow with us in the process, change or pivot that the company is making.
Project Manager III at City of Union City Government
Zendesk can scale from very small companies to very large ones.
CEO at Etcetera Networks
Zendesk's scalability is excellent.
Technical Support Engineer/ QA at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Okta Platform is praised for stability and reliability, with high user ratings and effective scalability for identity services.
Sentiment score
7.8
Zendesk is stable with minor outages and bugs, effectively managing high volumes, maintaining efficiency appreciated by most companies.
This ensures immediate action upon changes applied within Okta Platform, stabilizing operations in managing user accounts, identities, logins, and user profiles.
IT Lead at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
Okta Workforce Identity is a stable product.
Business Intelligence Developer at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
There are no doubts regarding the stability of Okta Customer Identity.
Senior Quality Analyst at YASH Technologies
They are always informing us with a status update and an ETA, and the turnaround time is usually within the same day with no extended downtime that would cause a detriment to our company.
Project Manager III at City of Union City Government
Zendesk is quite stable; we experience major outages only once or twice a year, making it very reliable.
Technical Support Engineer/ QA at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
I did not face any slowdown issue in Zendesk; it smoothly handles a lot of tickets.
Senior Software Developer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Okta Platform is costly for smaller businesses, with integration issues, technical limitations, and potential for UI and support improvements.
Zendesk requires improvements in customization, integration, interface usability, pricing, mobile functionality, and incorporating AI for better user experience.
If there was a fingerprint option, then only the person who has already added their fingerprint on their mobile phone could access it.
Lead Admin Systems at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
If someone is a beginner with Okta Platform, the UI should be simplified, and the language used should make it easier for them to understand the concepts and what they are trying to do.
Software Engineer at aeTech Digital Hub
While they have a vast range of integrations out of the box available, if their PAM and IGA capabilities were more mature, then Okta Platform could be the single solution for everything, covering access management, privilege access management, and governance of identity.
Practice Director - PAM, IGA, IAM & ZeroTrust at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Zendesk could actually support HTML on the tickets so we could format our text better than the current options such as size, bold, italic, or underscored, because the text processing is too simple.
Junior system analyst at Wevt clous
Zendesk is missing an AI aspect that could help provide quick answers based on the knowledge housed within the platform.
Technical Support Engineer/ QA at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Zendesk is amazing, and because they are always working on a new upgrade or a new integration, they are very forward-thinking from an engineering perspective.
Project Manager III at City of Union City Government
 

Setup Cost

Okta Platform offers strong security and integrations with higher costs, decreasing with scale and long-term commitments.
Zendesk pricing is flexible but can become expensive, necessitating careful evaluation of needs to choose a cost-effective plan.
Despite the cost, it's cheaper than the potential financial loss from a security breach.
IT Manager at Clear Channel
It is certainly not cheap, but the features that you get, the functionality that you get, and whatever use cases that you have, it definitely satisfies those.
Principle Cloud Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The pricing per-user list drops when user counts rise and with multi-year commitments.
Identity and Access Management Specialist at a university with 10,001+ employees
It is not the cheapest solution nor the most expensive, but it provides value for money.
CEO at Etcetera Networks
The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Zendesk was quite expensive.
Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises
 

Valuable Features

Okta Platform streamlines identity management with centralized access, seamless integrations, intuitive interface, strong security, and efficient user management.
Zendesk offers intuitive interfaces, rich integrations, and strong automation, streamlining workflows and enhancing productivity for diverse teams.
One of its most valuable features is its easy integration with various applications through its extensive application directory, offering hundreds or thousands of applications ready to configure.
IT Manager at Clear Channel
It offers around eight thousand five hundred out-of-the-box connectors, providing an edge over other tools.
Managing Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
For the end user, it is beneficial as they do not have to remember a password or keep the password on a post-it for different applications; they just authenticate once to access several services and service providers.
Technical Team Lead at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It allows us to handle more support cases with fewer people due to its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities.
CEO at Etcetera Networks
Zendesk is way cheaper than other ITSM platforms such as ServiceNow, providing a good platform at a lower price so we could offer good support with a low budget for the license.
Junior system analyst at Wevt clous
Being able to put response counters on certain tickets and have certain ones that are high priority and have a tighter SLA than lower priority items, being able to categorize them as a question versus an urgent request, and being able to bucket them as feature requests or product enhancements.
Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises
 

Categories and Ranking

Okta Platform
Ranking in AI IT Support
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
122
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (1st), Authentication Systems (3rd), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (3rd), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (2nd), Access Management (2nd), ZTNA as a Service (3rd), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (1st)
Zendesk
Ranking in AI IT Support
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (3rd), CRM (5th), Help Desk Software (3rd), IT Service Management (ITSM) (5th), Reporting (7th), Knowledge Management Software (3rd), AI Customer Support (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the AI IT Support category, the mindshare of Okta Platform is 3.8%, down from 24.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 3.9%, down from 25.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
AI IT Support Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Okta Platform3.8%
Zendesk3.9%
Other92.3%
AI IT Support
 

Featured Reviews

SN
Identity and Access Management Specialist at a university with 10,001+ employees
Automated lifecycle management has cut onboarding times and now drives secure, clean access
Although I am a fan of Okta Platform overall, there are areas where it could improve security outcomes and reduce admin friction. My top improvement areas include the system log and analytics upgrade, which are great for point troubleshooting, but trending and root cause analysis across large tenants still require exporting to SIEM. Verbose queries and long-range retention costs can add up. Additionally, while certificate rotations are better than most, the process is still manual for busy portfolios, especially concerning multi-SP SAML certificate rotations and app metadata drift. Two more buckets of potential improvements for Okta Platform involve user experience and security. There is the issue of push fatigue and prompt sprawl, where users receive multiple prompts across different apps and sessions. I arrived at the rating of eight because the core controls are strong and reliable, but a few operational UX and UI gaps prevent it from being rated higher. The reasons for not giving it a nine or ten include ongoing issues concerning safety and change safety, the complexity of group rules and mappings, and the lack of robustness in policy management. Additionally, there remains a need for more manual involvement than necessary, especially for large portfolios and dual certificate rotation, along with proactive SP data metadata validation.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Construction Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business51
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise62
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Okta Workforce Identity?
Pricing for Okta is reasonably not that much, however, I don't have access to the commercial aspect.
What needs improvement with Okta Workforce Identity?
Currently, in Okta Workforce Identity we get the two-digit authentication code. Instead of getting the two-digit authentication code, if we had an option to do fingerprint verification, that would ...
What is your primary use case for Okta Workforce Identity?
I don't have many details about Okta Workforce Identity. I use the tool just to sign in to different applications that we have. We basically set up Okta Workforce Identity in our mobile phone. We d...
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

Okta Customer Identity, Workforce Identity
Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

FedEx, Zoom, Takeda, Lululemon Athletica, GrunHub, jetBlue, McKensson, Bain & Company, Engie, Peloton, Sonos, T-Mobile, Hewlett Packard, MGM Resorts, Ally Financial, Priceline, Albertsons, Itercom, Classy, FICO, Kensho, Live Nation, Drata, Rotary, and others.
Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber
Find out what your peers are saying about Okta Platform vs. Zendesk and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.