Sendbird vs Zendesk comparison

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Sendbird

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

Sendbird and Zendesk are competing solutions in the customer engagement and support space. While pricing and support appear more favorable for Sendbird, Zendesk is noted for its more comprehensive feature set, offering greater value for its higher cost.

Features: Sendbird provides a robust real-time communication suite including Chat APIs, SMS, and app-based chat features, ideal for businesses seeking tailored communication solutions. Zendesk offers a wide array of customer support tools including ticketing systems, live chat, and help centers, well suited for service-driven organizations.

Room for Improvement: Sendbird could enhance its feature set by expanding capabilities beyond chat-focused applications, diversifying integration options, and improving analytic tools for customer interactions. Zendesk could optimize its setup process to reduce complexity, streamline its user interface for increased usability, and expand its lower-tier pricing options to be more accessible to smaller businesses.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Sendbird allows straightforward integration supported by comprehensive documentation, making it particularly attractive to developers aiming for custom solutions. Zendesk entails a more complex setup due to its broad feature palette but compensates with extensive customer support services ideal for larger operations.

Pricing and ROI: Sendbird's competitive pricing aligns with its niche focus on real-time communication features, yielding favorable ROI for companies concentrating on custom chat solutions. Zendesk, with its expansive range of customer service features, requires a higher initial investment but provides considerable ROI for enterprises utilizing its integrated support platform to boost overall customer satisfaction.

To learn more, read our detailed Sendbird vs. Zendesk Report (Updated: June 2025).

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Sendbird vs. Zendesk

June 2025

Helped 856,873 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

Sendbird

Ranking in Help Desk Software

13th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Social Software (10th)

Zendesk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

9th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (7th), CRM (19th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (8th), Sales Force Automation (8th), Reporting (14th), Knowledge Management Software (5th), Community Platforms (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Sendbird is 0.1%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 4.6%, up from 4.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software

Featured Reviews

Pranay Koley

Junior Software Developer at Weavers Web Solutions Private Limited

Facilitates user communication with rich features

In our company, we are using Sendbird for building a chat feature within our salon application. I am using the Flutter framework to implement the chat feature, which facilitates communication between users and businesses, specifically salon shops There are many useful features with Sendbird. I…

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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 ( /products/klaviyo-reviews ), 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

"Sendbird is reliable and generally crash-free."

"The backend system was managed by Sendbird, eliminating the need for caching systems or local storage on user devices."

"Sendbird is very flexible, and they have made great strides towards optimization."

"Features similar to WhatsApp, such as online and offline statuses, message reactions, and replies, add significant value."

"There are many useful features with Sendbird."

"Sendbird provides many features for real-time messaging, such as receipt ID and typing indicators."

"The Sendbird developer portal provides each step, including methods, making it easy to implement."

"The most valuable feature for us, besides chat, was file transfer, as we used it for sending files and images in chats."

"The product offers very good management. It has a great ability to assign tickets based on content."

"Zendesk Support has a lot of good APIs."

"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."

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

"It's a very stable tool, very powerful."

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

"One of the most valuable features is the ease of use. If you take the standalone product, it is so easy to use, but if you want a tailor-made Zendesk Guide, you can't do it yourself. However, you can use a template that already exists—they have a lot, and they're very cheap, around 300-400 euros—and use it on all your brands. It's a very easy product to use."

"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."

More Zendesk pros

Cons

"I thought that there should be the audio and the video call functionality as well."

"Their pricing is very high compared to competitors, which is a concern for us."

"A major issue was the requirement for a separate connection to Sendbird, resulting in a delay when initiating the chat."

"At times, there are unexpected behaviors where the documentation suggests something different from how the SDK actually behaves, requiring us to create workarounds."

"Impersonating a user or using a template user to send messages for development purposes would be very useful."

"More analytics tools could be integrated into Sendbird."

"The documentation for integrating with the Flutter framework is lacking detailed information."

"The documentation for integrating with the Flutter framework is lacking detailed information. Initially, I struggled to connect users and manage tokens for active and offline sessions, which caused frustration."

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

"You couldn't give administrative access to new hires."

"They have something called Zendesk Explore, which isn't as good as what they had in place previously."

"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."

"Zendesk Guide could be improved by allowing us to put our assets in one location. What happens now for each article, for example, is we have to upload the images for that article to that location, so the image reuse is still not something that they have perfected. If they could allow us to update all the images in one location, and then pull the image from there, it would be easier when working on Multibrand projects. There are no Multibrand updates available—we have to update each brand manually. For my company, I have come up with an API tool which allows me to push the content to multiple brands together, but if you don't have something like that, you have to manually do it."

"There is always a network issue with Zendesk. But we don’t know whether it is managed. The network issue is that when I call, it does not let us."

"There could be improvements in integration, which can be achieved with APIs or tools like Zapier."

More Zendesk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a starter plan for $399 per month, and a pro plan for $799 dollars."

"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."

"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."

"The price is very competitive."

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

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Computer Software Company

24%

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sendbird?

Testing Sendbird is challenging due to the trial limitations of only one hundred users. The subscription cost is quite high, which prevents us from subscribing before the project completion and use...

What needs improvement with Sendbird?

The documentation for integrating with the Flutter framework is lacking detailed information. Initially, I struggled to connect users and manage tokens for active and offline sessions, which caused...

What is your primary use case for Sendbird?

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 ...

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May 2025

Also Known As

Sendbird Calls, Sendbird Desk

Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell

Overview

Businesses utilize Sendbird for real-time communication in apps, including chat, notifications, messaging for support, and community engagement. It integrates with mobile and web platforms for seamless user interactions and reliable messaging services.

Sendbird is highly regarded for its ease of integration with both mobile and web platforms, providing a robust solution for real-time communication needs such as chat, notifications, and customer support messaging systems. Companies use it to enhance user engagement through efficient, reliable messaging services. The platform stands out due to its strong API, reliable performance, excellent customer support, and extensive documentation. Despite challenges with scalability during peak times and integration difficulties, Sendbird's customization options and real-time messaging capabilities cater to both small and large applications.

What are the key features?

Strong API: Provides a powerful and flexible interface for developers.
Reliable Performance: Ensures stable and consistent operations.
Excellent Customer Support: Offers responsive and helpful assistance.
Seamless Integration: Easily integrates with other platforms.
Extensive Documentation: Enhances the developer experience with thorough guides and resources.
Customization Options: Allows tailoring to specific needs and use cases.
Real-Time Messaging: Supports instant communication capabilities.
Easy Scalability: Handles growth for both small and large applications.

What benefits should users look for?

Enhanced User Engagement: Promotes active interaction and satisfaction.
Efficient Communication: Provides reliable messaging and notifications.
Developer-Friendly: Offers strong support and comprehensive documentation.
Scalability: Adapts to the changing demands of the business.
Seamless Integration: Simplifies the integration process with other platforms.

Sendbird is widely implemented across a range of industries such as e-commerce, healthcare, and social networking. E-commerce platforms use it to handle customer support and notifications, healthcare apps utilize it for patient communication, and social networks leverage its real-time chat capabilities for community engagement and interaction.

Sendbird

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