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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
6.6
PagerDuty Operations Cloud enhances incident management by reducing downtime, alert fatigue, and MTTR, improving uptime and operational efficiency.
Sentiment score
6.0
Zendesk provides significant ROI with cost savings, productivity boosts, and improved efficiency through better ticket management and supportive sales team.
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.
Senior Dev Ops Engineer at Scaler Academy
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
7.9
PagerDuty Operations Cloud provides efficient support with quick responses, valuable workflow solutions, and high ratings despite interface complexity.
Sentiment score
6.2
Zendesk support is praised for responsiveness and availability but criticized for slow responses and lack of personal interaction.
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
I received good responses from PagerDuty Operations Cloud, and they provide informative assistance when required.
Network Operations Center Engineer at HTC Global Inc
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
7.4
PagerDuty Operations Cloud excels in scalability and adaptability, effectively managing alerts and integrations, though pricing may hinder smaller teams.
Sentiment score
7.2
Zendesk is adaptable and scalable for diverse organizations, handling growth well but posing challenges in cost and customization.
Scalability for PagerDuty Operations Cloud is excellent, and I rate it at 9.9.
Network Operations Center Engineer at HTC Global Inc
The product was highly scalable, with no limits on the number of applications or event routing rules.
Sr Director - Global Support APJ at HashiCorp
The scalability of PagerDuty Operations Cloud is very good, and it can handle increasing traffic as our organization expands without any issues.
Senior Business Application Analyst (Product Team) at Kotak Mahindra Bank
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
8.4
PagerDuty Operations Cloud excels in reliable alert management and stability, ensuring seamless performance and minimal downtime across infrastructures.
Sentiment score
7.8
Zendesk is reliable and stable, with minor issues and rare outages, communicated promptly via Twitter, ideal for small businesses.
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.
PagerDuty Operations Cloud is definitely stable, providing faster incident management and making managing our on-call roster easy along with effective escalation and notification channels.
Senior SRE at IBM
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
The stability has been quite reliable.
CEO at Etcetera Networks
 

Room For Improvement

PagerDuty Operations Cloud enhances integration, analytics, and UI, but users want better pricing, customization, security, automation, and support.
Zendesk users seek enhancements like efficient ticket merging, advanced reporting, better integrations, improved usability, and AI features.
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

Enterprise users find PagerDuty pricing varied, with tier-based models affecting cost; some seek trial versions or find alternatives cheaper.
Zendesk's pricing is high but flexible, justified by its value in saving time and enhancing customer experience.
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
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
I hear from my manager that the pricing is very high for PagerDuty Operations Cloud, and only a few of us have the main business tier accounts.
Dev Ops Engineer | Cloud Cost Optimization at HCLSoftware
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 incident response with automation, integrations, AI-driven alerts, and efficient communication tools, enhancing workflow efficiency.
Zendesk enhances productivity with customizable ticket management, CRM integrations, automation, and multi-channel support for improved customer satisfaction.
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
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
Process Automation (5th), IT Alerting and Incident Management (1st), AIOps (6th), Critical Event Management (CEM) (1st), Autonomous Operational Resilience (3rd)
Zendesk
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (3rd), CRM (9th), Help Desk Software (3rd), IT Service Management (ITSM) (5th), Reporting (11th), Knowledge Management Software (3rd), AI Customer Support (7th), 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 11.0%, down 20.7% compared to last year.
Zendesk, on the other hand, focuses on IT Service Management (ITSM), holds 4.9% mindshare, up 3.8% since last year.
IT Alerting and Incident Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
PagerDuty Operations Cloud11.0%
Opsgenie7.5%
Everbridge IT Alerting5.5%
Other76.0%
IT Alerting and Incident Management
IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Zendesk4.9%
ServiceNow14.2%
JIRA Service Management6.9%
Other74.0%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

NS
Senior SRE at IBM
Automated incident workflows have transformed on-call operations and improved response times
Since I host our internal services, I want more customization relating to our specific use case. The needed improvements include the configuration process, as new team members face a steep learning curve to understand the platform. 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. Additionally, I feel the web interface requires improvements. I would rate PagerDuty Operations Cloud as eight out of ten because the cons include a complex configuration process and high costs for each add-on that I try to obtain, making subscriptions costly, along with limited customization in certain incident workflows. The primary reasons for rating it an eight include the complex configuration which makes it challenging for new users, as well as their difficulty in setting up advanced runbook workflows and managing complex on-call setups. The web user interface also requires improvement. Although I receive alerts via the mobile app, which is beneficial for handling schedule maintenance, the same features should be added to the web interface. Customization issues persist, such as the inability to clone entire schedules as part of the workflows, and I want to keep incidents open for a specified duration, neither of which I can currently customize. Thus, I raised a ticket with PagerDuty Operations Cloud to address these concerns. Furthermore, the cost is high, making it one of the more expensive incident management solutions.
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
15%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Educational Organization
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise42
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business36
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PagerDuty?
The setup cost and pricing for PagerDuty Operations Cloud are very cost-effective, but I have a suggestion: if PagerDuty could provide a trial version for individual users, rather than just corpora...
What needs improvement with PagerDuty?
I do not have anything that I dislike about PagerDuty Operations Cloud. Sometimes it hangs and occasionally I am unable to open PagerDuty Operations Cloud, which occurs due to an outage or similar ...
What is your primary use case for PagerDuty?
The major part of PagerDuty Operations Cloud is for communication and pinging people and engaging them and pulling them into the call.
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: April 2026.
892,776 professionals have used our research since 2012.