Pega Customer Service vs Zendesk comparison

Read 61 Zendesk reviews

3,084 Views
586 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Pega Customer Service

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Zendesk and Pega Customer Service compete in the customer support platform category. Zendesk is typically praised for its user-friendly setup and pricing, while Pega is noted for its comprehensive features that justify higher costs for larger organizations seeking advanced solutions.

Features: Zendesk provides an intuitive ticket management system, seamless integration capabilities, and a self-service community platform. Pega Customer Service offers AI-driven workflows, predictive analytics, and extensive customization options, appealing to enterprises needing sophisticated solutions.

Room for Improvement: Zendesk could improve in scalability for larger enterprises, more advanced analytical capabilities, and wider automation features. Pega Customer Service might enhance its user interface, simplify the deployment process, and offer more competitive pricing tiers for smaller companies.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Zendesk's deployment is straightforward, making it accessible for businesses of all sizes and is complemented with prompt support. Pega's deployment process is more complex, requiring additional resources, but it is supported by robust customer service that aids in smooth transitions and tailored support.

Pricing and ROI: Zendesk offers competitively priced subscription plans, allowing smaller businesses to quickly see ROI. Pega Customer Service requires a higher initial setup cost, which presents a longer ROI timeline but offers substantial value through advanced features for enterprises focused on long-term growth and intricate integrations.

To learn more, read our detailed Pega Customer Service vs. Zendesk Report (Updated: July 2025).

Pega Customer Service vs. Zendesk

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 865,384 peers since 2012

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

Pega Customer Service

Ranking in CRM

30th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zendesk

Ranking in CRM

24th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (7th), Help Desk Software (11th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (11th), Sales Force Automation (11th), Reporting (19th), Knowledge Management Software (4th), Community Platforms (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Pega Customer Service is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 1.5%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CRM

Featured Reviews

reviewer4848291

Global Head of Digital, Process Automation at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Pega Customer Service is an AI-powered, case-centric platform that unifies channels, automates service workflows, and empowers agents to deliver fast, personalized, and consistent customer experiences

1. User Interface Flexibility The Constellation UI architecture, while modern and consistent, limits deep customization. Users want more control over layout, branding, and dynamic UI behavior. 2. Integration Complexity Integrating with non-Pega systems (e.g., legacy CRMs, third-party APIs) can require significant effort and custom development. More plug-and-play connectors would ease adoption. 3. Learning Curve for Configuration Despite being low-code, configuring complex service flows, case types, and AI rules can be challenging for new users. Enhanced guided wizards and templates could simplify setup. 4. AI and NLP Capabilities While Pega offers AI-driven Next-Best-Action, its natural language processing (NLP) for chatbots and sentiment analysis is not as advanced as some competitors. 5. Reporting and Analytics Out-of-the-box dashboards are useful but lack deep customization. 6. Mobile Experience The mobile agent experience is functional but less optimized compared to desktop. Improvements in offline capabilities and responsive design are often requested. 7. Licensing and Cost Transparency Some customers find the pricing model complex, especially when scaling across departments or adding AI features. More modular and transparent pricing would help with budgeting and ROI planning.

Read full review

JohanSkibdahl

CEO at Etcetera Networks

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Pega Customer Service is scalable."

"The product is scalable. It works efficiently for changing existing features."

"The technical support provided for all the solutions from Pega is of the same quality since they have their own internal teams and the same mechanisms, which are good for dealing with issues of different users."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is case management and different configurations."

"One of the most valuable features is that Zendesk gives you a lot of configurability, and a lot of leeway in terms of customizing the look and theme. Zendesk offers you the facility to design your own landing page, as well as the look and feel of the entire knowledge base. At the same time, they offer themes that you can simply purchase and implement. Either way, it can really be turned into the right look and feel of the knowledge base required by our company, which is very important—if you have a bland-looking page, most of the time, people will lose interest. Zendesk also allows you to test the customizations before you publish it. It gives you a sandbox location where you can test everything new that you're trying to create and publish, which is very interesting."

"The most valuable features of Zendesk Support are collaboration, reports, and a self-service portal. The customer and team can see all the information needed from the portal."

"Zendesk has been invaluable in automating communications such as email and phone calls."

"It is a scalable solution."

"I love how the tickets would auto-populate very quickly in Zendesk, especially when a call comes in."

"What is cool about Zendesk Guide is how it works together with others Zendesk products. Especially with support and with the analytics. Put those together for a small or medium-sized company and it's a really powerful tool."

"The feature to move over my customer experience team tickets for different specialists is very valuable for my team."

"The stability has been very good."

More Zendesk pros

Cons

"The licensing cost could also be improved."

"The product's pricing needs improvement."

"Pega JVM function needs to be improved."

"The only concern I have seen about the product is its prices."

"Zendesk Guide's customization could be improved. I would like it to be easier and maybe open-sourced, so that if you have a developer in your company, you can do it yourself. Right now, that isn't allowed, so you need to have it done via the integrator. Another improvement—this is nit-picking—is that it could be less easy to make changes. Some things are so easy that they sometimes look a little amateur-ish. Most of the templates are built-in so they can be used directly, so they are very simple."

"The solution could integrate better with QR codes from some websites such as Facebook."

"As per me, there arent much significant issues or areas for improvement with Zendesk, as my usage of it is limited. I appreciate its ability to organize tickets effectively based on tags, allowing me to easily gather and analyze customer feedback and requests."

"The data you get when logged in to Zendesk Support differs from the data you get when you programmatically query Zendesk Support through its API because of a sync time delay."

"Zendesk's stability on inbound calls could be improved as compared to Talkdesk."

"The support team is time-consuming, and they don't find the answer to our problem."

"It wasn't easy to set up so we're only using a third of all of the features,"

"The dashboard could be better."

More Zendesk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution provides licenses to users either based on the number of users or the number of cases that an end user creates."

"The tool's pricing is flexible, and I rate it four to five out of ten."

"From what I hear, Zendesk's pricing is a little expensive."

"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."

"The price is very competitive."

"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."

"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."

"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."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which CRM solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

38%

Computer Software Company

20%

Non Profit

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

22%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Performing Arts

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pega Customer Service?

The product is scalable. It works efficiently for changing existing features.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pega Customer Service?

The pricing model of the solution can be divided into two parts since there are two types of licenses that users can purchase. The solution provides licenses to users either based on the number of ...

What needs improvement with Pega Customer Service?

Pega can automate the creation of permissions. The licensing cost could also be improved. For future releases, Pega packages are coming along with AI technologies. The blueprint is already in place...

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 ...

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service vs Pega Customer Service

Comparisons

Compared 100% of the time

More Pega Customer Service Competitors

ServiceNow vs Zendesk

Compared 14% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs Zendesk

Compared 6% of the time

Freshservice vs Zendesk

Compared 6% of the time

BMC Helix ITSM vs Zendesk

Compared 5% of the time

PagerDuty Operations Cloud vs Zendesk

Compared 5% of the time

More Zendesk Competitors

Product Reports

Download Pega Customer Service product report

CRM

August 2025

Download Zendesk product report

July 2025

Also Known As

No data available

Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell

Overview

Pega Customer Service is a comprehensive platform designed to transform customer engagement through advanced automation and AI-driven solutions, tailored for knowledgeable audiences seeking efficient service management tools.

With Pega Customer Service, businesses can deliver superior customer experiences by leveraging its automation capabilities to streamline communication and processes. The platform supports dynamic case management, providing tailored services that adapt to individual customer needs, ensuring consistent, personalized interactions. Its robust system integrates seamlessly with existing infrastructures, enabling quick implementation and scalability. Room for improvement includes enhanced reporting functionalities and a more intuitive setup process to ease adoption for teams.

What are the key features of Pega Customer Service?

Dynamic Case Management: Handles complex cases efficiently with adaptable, rule-driven processes.
AI-Powered Automation: Automates routine tasks to free up agents for higher-value customer interactions.
Omnichannel Engagement: Provides consistent service across all channels, enhancing customer satisfaction.
Real-time Decisioning: Utilizes data insights to make informed, timely decisions during customer interactions.

What benefits and ROI can you expect?

Increased Efficiency: Reduces operational costs by automating repetitive tasks, boosting productivity.
Improved Customer Satisfaction: Provides personalized interactions that meet the expectations of today's customers.
Faster Resolution Times: Streamline complex cases to resolve issues swiftly and effectively.
Scalability: Easily adapts to business growth, ensuring a future-ready service environment.

Pega Customer Service is widely used across industries like financial services, healthcare, and telecommunications. It provides a flexible framework to meet regulatory demands and enhance customer engagement in these rapidly evolving sectors. Each industry benefits from tailored workflows and data management features specific to their needs, driving innovation and improved service standards.

Pega

Zendesk Support is intuitive, and it's built with support agents in mind. Everything they need lives in a single, dynamic help desk interface so it's easy to be productive and manage customer interactions.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Mailchimp, Tesco, Vimeo, Instacart, Mediaocean, Slack, Uber