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PagerDuty Operations Cloud 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.6
PagerDuty Operations Cloud boosts efficiency, reduces costs, enhances service reliability, and improves incident response, benefiting customer satisfaction and finances.
Sentiment score
6.0
Zendesk provides significant ROI with cost savings, efficient features, and streamlined operations despite challenges in measuring returns exactly.
The escalation was not possible at all before, which led to the L1 team being under too much stress.
Software Developer at Webspruce
The alert reduction feature has greatly impacted our ability to prevent costly incidents, as we can accurately respond to alerts with the help of autonomous AI agents, which reduces erroneous notifications.
Sr.DevOps Engineer at Scaler
We definitely save time with PagerDuty Operations Cloud. It saves more than half an hour—30 minutes—for each incident.
Sr. Specialist at a tech vendor 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
7.1
PagerDuty Operations Cloud provides 24/7 support with high satisfaction, offering proactive assistance, quick responses, and effective problem resolution.
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.
PagerDuty Operations Cloud is a good product for the organization and the support team is highly effective and responsive.
Delivery Manager at Cognizant
we have never had an issue when reaching out to someone in customer service
Senior Cloud Operations Engineer at IMO Health
They understand our concerns and are willing to implement solutions that integrate into PagerDuty Operations Cloud effectively.
Senior SRE at IBM
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
7.2
PagerDuty Operations Cloud scales well, integrates efficiently, and adapts to growth but may challenge pricing for smaller teams.
Sentiment score
7.1
Zendesk is praised for scalability and customization, despite occasional data migration challenges and pricing considerations.
Scalability for PagerDuty Operations Cloud is excellent, and I rate it at 9.9.
Network Operations Center Engineer at HTC Global Inc
Whatever top-notch tools we are using as an enterprise solution, PagerDuty Operations Cloud has kept itself current and integrates nicely with all the tools we use these days.
Lead Engineer, Cloud Operations at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
We are able to extend our PagerDuty Operations Cloud configuration without major challenges or changes to our overall operational model.
Lead Data Ops Engineer at Wipro 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
8.3
PagerDuty Operations Cloud is praised for stability, reliable alerts, efficient management, and high ratings across industries despite minor delays.
Sentiment score
7.8
Zendesk is stable with minor outages and bugs, effectively managing high volumes, maintaining efficiency appreciated by most companies.
We have never experienced any downtime or latency issues from PagerDuty Operations Cloud.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
It never breaks down for us, and considering I have devoted 20 years of my career to IT infrastructure operations, where everything typically breaks down, including Jira and ServiceNow, it is impressive to say that PagerDuty Operations Cloud has not caused disruptions.
CSO C Apac at Autodesk, Inc.
Over three years, we have experienced zero outages on PagerDuty that prevented alerting or on-call notifications.
Senior Software Engineer at Infosys
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

PagerDuty Operations Cloud needs better configuration, cost reduction, and UI to enhance alerts, integrations, customization, and user satisfaction.
Zendesk requires improvements in customization, integration, interface usability, pricing, mobile functionality, and incorporating AI for better user experience.
It would be useful to have a way to define all configurations in code that is similar to how Terraform operates.
Sr Director - Global Support APJ at HashiCorp
With many new members, they need training to set up runbook workflows, event orchestration, and manage complex on-call schedules across 23 services, making it a challenge for new users.
Senior SRE at IBM
Additionally, I think a sandbox mode would be helpful for new team members, allowing us to guide them in simulating alerts, performing escalation policies, and creating PagerDuty Operations Cloud channels.
Dev Ops Engineer | Cloud Cost Optimization at HCLSoftware
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

PagerDuty offers competitive pricing with flexible licensing, though costs may rise, delivering justified value and efficiency despite expenses.
Zendesk pricing is flexible but can become expensive, necessitating careful evaluation of needs to choose a cost-effective plan.
I had around seven users part of it for a base pricing of around $450 per user, primarily for custom workflows and the ITSM part.
Senior SRE at IBM
The pricing for PagerDuty Operations Cloud is a bit expensive, especially for startups like us, compared to the other platform which I mentioned, which is Rootly.
Dev Ops Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
We have been using PagerDuty Operations Cloud for several years, so our pricing and cost have definitely increased over time, especially as we have hired additional engineers.
Senior Cloud Operations Engineer at IMO Health
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

PagerDuty Operations Cloud optimizes alert management through mobile notifications, tool integrations, and AI, enhancing efficiency and boosting revenue.
Zendesk offers intuitive interfaces, rich integrations, and strong automation, streamlining workflows and enhancing productivity for diverse teams.
It integrates with multiple applications and is highly customizable, with policies, escalation procedures, and an event routing tool that ensures contacting the right person.
Sr Director - Global Support APJ at HashiCorp
In addition to those features, I also find the integration and reporting aspects of PagerDuty Operations Cloud valuable, as it records all triggered calls and incidents, enabling us to analyze patterns and identify the times when systems go down, thus assisting us in understanding and addressing the underlying causes.
Senior Business Application Analyst (Product Team) at Kotak Mahindra Bank
Before, setting up everything was very difficult. Now, we don't have to think about it. We can simply set it up in PagerDuty and it works.
Software Developer at Webspruce
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

PagerDuty Operations Cloud
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
84
Ranking in other categories
Process Automation (5th), IT Alerting and Incident Management (1st), AIOps (5th), Critical Event Management (CEM) (1st), Autonomous Operational Resilience (3rd)
Zendesk
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (3rd), CRM (6th), Help Desk Software (3rd), IT Service Management (ITSM) (5th), Reporting (8th), Knowledge Management Software (3rd), AI Customer Support (6th), AI IT Support (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Systems Management solutions, they serve different purposes. PagerDuty Operations Cloud is designed for IT Alerting and Incident Management and holds a mindshare of 9.7%, down 19.8% compared to last year.
Zendesk, on the other hand, focuses on IT Service Management (ITSM), holds 4.8% mindshare, up 3.9% since last year.
IT Alerting and Incident Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
PagerDuty Operations Cloud9.7%
Opsgenie6.8%
Everbridge IT Alerting5.3%
Other78.2%
IT Alerting and Incident Management
IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Zendesk4.8%
ServiceNow13.9%
JIRA Service Management6.8%
Other74.5%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

Daksh Yamal - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at Infosys
Centralized incident response has cut noise, improved morale, and protects revenue every day
PagerDuty Operations Cloud offers robust features including centralized alerting and incident response, on-call scheduling and escalation, automated remediation and runbooks, stakeholder communication during major incidents, and automation capability. Everything has been working exceptionally well with PagerDuty Operations Cloud. The features have been excellent. It is a spanning tool that has enabled us to operationalize reliability. Since rolling it out three years ago, we have cut MTTR by 35% and reduced on-call noise by 70% through AIOps correlation. For us, the main value of PagerDuty Operations Cloud lies less in paging and more in coordination, automation, and reducing the operational burden on engineers. Reducing the operational burden has improved morale among our engineers. They have been able to focus on other projects and tasks since they have saved considerable time, and consequently productivity in the organization has greatly improved. We have also seen faster incident response, lower MTTR, reduced alert noise, and decreased on-call burnout. Additionally, automation has reduced manual toil, with approximately 25 of our P2 incidents now being resolved or partially resolved by automation before an engineer touches them.
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
Performing Arts
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Educational Organization
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise63
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PagerDuty?
I would say the pricing is quite mid-range, but the setup cost and licensing can sometimes be a little challenging.
What needs improvement with PagerDuty?
Currently, improvements for PagerDuty Operations Cloud could be made. It mainly acts as a monitoring alert tool. We need to prioritize tickets according to P1, P2, P3, and perhaps create a dashboar...
What is your primary use case for PagerDuty?
PagerDuty Operations Cloud serves as an alerting tool for our organization. Whenever applications or any protection systems are down, we get notified via email and mobile. My current role in PagerD...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zendesk Support?
From what I recall, the experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Zendesk was quite expensive and that is what prohibited us from expanding usage of it into more users and using more o...
What needs improvement with Zendesk Support?
I wish there was a more easily dynamic tool. Currently, it is quite difficult because not all the tools are labeled. A feature that would be beneficial is if hovering over an icon would tell you wh...
What is your primary use case for Zendesk Support?
I have been using Zendesk for approximately five years now. I use Zendesk for keeping track of emails and customer tickets. Whenever a customer has issues or questions about our product, they email...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

40% of the Fortune 100 TrustPagerDuty. Customers include: Slack, Intuit, Zendesk, Panasonic, Pinterest, Airbnb, eHarmony, McKesson, Comcast
Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber
Find out what your peers are saying about PagerDuty, Splunk, Atlassian and others in IT Alerting and Incident Management. Updated: May 2026.
897,029 professionals have used our research since 2012.