ServiceNow Customer Service Management vs Zendesk comparison

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

ServiceNow Customer Service Management and Zendesk compete in the enterprise customer service software category. ServiceNow appears to have the upper hand with comprehensive workflow and automation capabilities, while Zendesk shines for its simplicity and ease of integration.

Features: ServiceNow offers robust workflow capabilities, extensive integration with business applications, and features like incident and change management, providing flexibility and automation. Zendesk excels with easy configuration, valuable integration options, and features like the Help Center, customizable macros, and strong analytics, boosting support efficiency.

Room for Improvement: ServiceNow lacks better customization options, clear pricing, and improved AI integration. It also could benefit from native features like IVR integration. Zendesk needs enhancements in ticket auto-assignment, customization tools, and analytics, with more seamless integration options and better ticket status delineation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: ServiceNow offers flexibility with various deployment models, but its technical support might require third-party assistance for complex configurations. Zendesk focuses on ease of use and configuration and provides varied technical support experiences, often requiring less technical expertise than ServiceNow.

Pricing and ROI: ServiceNow is typically expensive, fitting larger enterprises with positive ROI when aligned with business objectives. Zendesk, while also costly, provides good value due to its ease of use and integration features. Both are expensive, but ServiceNow offers comprehensive capabilities, whereas Zendesk values operational simplicity and customer insights.

To learn more, read our detailed ServiceNow Customer Service Management vs. Zendesk Report (Updated: December 2025).

ServiceNow Customer Service Management vs. Zendesk

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Helped 879,711 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:

ROI

Sentiment score

6.5

Organizations using ServiceNow experience improved ticket management, reduced costs, and increased efficiency, impacting revenue and staffing needs.

Sentiment score

6.2

Zendesk delivers cost savings and efficiency with flexible pricing and integration, addressing operational needs despite ROI measurement challenges.

Without such tools, the business would be affected by five to ten percent in annual revenue.

Works

In our organization, downtime and criticality have been addressed in a very short time, and the revenue and outcomes from this have increased.

System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

ServiceNow Customer Service Management saves time because of the CSM module and it saves money as well.

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Customer Service Management report

Software Engineer 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

I feel that Zendesk helped us set up our platform for providing support way faster than other platforms due to its easy configuration.

Filipe Abreu

Junior system analyst at Wevt clous

We were able to offer a seamless 24/7 support experience and meet all our SLAs due to the robust nature of the platform.

For more quotes and insights, download the Zendesk report

Technical Support Engineer/ QA at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.5

ServiceNow Customer Service Management offers quick, multilingual support, though lower packages may experience delays; users appreciate efficient communication.

Sentiment score

6.4

Zendesk support is generally responsive and professional, with some users experiencing delays and a lack of 24/7 chat support.

It is better because partners have a deep understanding of the code and configuration challenges.

Arvind Mehrotra

managing partner at AmPmilify Associates LLP

Customer support provides a lot of help and responds immediately, offering very good service.

System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

Whenever we raise high cases, we do get a response in minimum TAT.

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Customer Service Management report

Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

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.

For more quotes and insights, download the Zendesk report

CEO at Etcetera Networks

Their support team from Zendesk is excellent, similar to what you have in Freshdesk.

Anita Orioma

Customer Success Manager at Mimshackworks Endeavors

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

8.0

ServiceNow Customer Service Management is scalable, user-friendly, customizable, integrates well, and efficiently handles large volumes for businesses.

Sentiment score

7.4

Zendesk scales well across team sizes, despite challenges in backups, updates, customization, and larger organization's specific scalability needs.

If challenges are resolved efficiently with tools like ServiceNow Customer Service Management, it significantly impacts business operations.

Works

The solution is scalable and offers high scalability as new features are added regularly.

Head of Business Agility and Development at Aqarat Real Estate Development Company

ServiceNow Customer Service Management's scalability is such that it is scalable to a large extent as it can be integrated with other applications as well.

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Customer Service Management report

Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

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.

Dimitri Cooper

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.

For more quotes and insights, download the Zendesk report

Technical Support Engineer/ QA at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.9

ServiceNow CSM is stable and efficient for large enterprises, with biannual updates, but has customization limits and occasional delays.

Sentiment score

7.8

Zendesk is stable and reliable, with occasional outages swiftly resolved, making it ideal for small businesses and startups.

Overall, it is very stable aside from these issues.

Works

ServiceNow Customer Service Management is highly stable, which is critical because it operates as a live system 24/7.

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Customer Service Management report

Head of Business Agility and Development at Aqarat Real Estate Development Company

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.

Dimitri Cooper

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.

For more quotes and insights, download the Zendesk report

CEO at Etcetera Networks

Room For Improvement

ServiceNow Customer Service Management needs better pricing, customization, integration, and support with advanced AI, automation, and low-code features.

Zendesk users seek improved usability, better integration, enhanced reporting, customization, mobile support, streamlined management, and communication tools.

It is important to follow practical rules and best practices to avoid misconfigurations caused by different developers doing things their own way.

Head of Business Agility and Development at Aqarat Real Estate Development Company

Quick case resolutions through AI is one of the most valuable use cases.

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Customer Service Management report

Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Managing this platform requires sophisticated handling.

Arvind Mehrotra

managing partner at AmPmilify Associates LLP

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.

Filipe Abreu

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.

For more quotes and insights, download the Zendesk report

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.

Dimitri Cooper

Project Manager III at City of Union City Government

Setup Cost

ServiceNow Customer Service Management is costly, suitable for enterprises, with mixed ratings due to its high expense.

Zendesk's pricing can be high, impacting decisions, but offers flexibility and valuable CX features if negotiated effectively.

ServiceNow Customer Service Management is expensive, with costs around half a million US dollars per year.

Head of Business Agility and Development at Aqarat Real Estate Development Company

The pricing is around a seven, making it rather expensive.

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Customer Service Management report

Works

ServiceNow Customer Service Management is expensive, although there is value for money considering the time and administrative efficiencies it brings.

Ambar Pradhan

Lead Business Analyst at Orange

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.

For more quotes and insights, download the Zendesk report

Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises

Valuable Features

ServiceNow Customer Service Management enhances operations with integration, automation, and B2B support for efficient, streamlined digital transformations.

Zendesk excels in integration, user-friendly ticket management, automation, customization, and robust analytics to enhance productivity and user experience.

ServiceNow Customer Service Management has impacted our organization positively; we have formed a very good process with this tool that has helped increase the productivity of the team.

System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

The most valuable features are incident management and change management.

Works

ServiceNow Customer Service Management offers valuable features such as workflow management, an approval cycle, and integration with a payment gateway, which allows for payments to be made using the system.

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Customer Service Management report

Head of Business Agility and Development at Aqarat Real Estate Development Company

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.

Filipe Abreu

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.

For more quotes and insights, download the Zendesk report

Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises

Categories and Ranking

ServiceNow Customer Service...

Ranking in CRM Customer Engagement Centers

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Customer Experience Management (4th)

Zendesk

Ranking in CRM Customer Engagement Centers

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM (8th), Help Desk Software (4th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (6th), Sales Force Automation (4th), Reporting (10th), Knowledge Management Software (3rd), Community Platforms (1st), AI Customer Support (7th), AI IT Support (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the CRM Customer Engagement Centers category, the mindshare of ServiceNow Customer Service Management is 6.6%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 6.9%, up from 6.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CRM Customer Engagement Centers Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
ServiceNow Customer Service Management	6.6%
Zendesk	6.9%
Other	86.5%

CRM Customer Engagement Centers

Featured Reviews

Structured ticket workflows have improved resolution speed and have supported SLA-driven support

System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

ServiceNow Customer Service Management is offering very good things, but I felt improvements to our process would allow us to depend on this tool in many other ways. Regarding the interface, currently the user who creates the ticket has a very limited interface with only the options for creating a ticket and providing details, while the support team has a much larger interface with many options, including SLA details and report generation. While this classification is great, I felt that some modifications could be brought to the interface. I felt that further modifications can be made so that it could be a perfect tool.

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Macros and automation have streamlined workflows and reduced manual effort across support teams

Consultant and Startup Founder at AimHi Enterprises

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

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Retailer

Computer Software Company

Performing Arts

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	9

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	35
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

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

I did not purchase ServiceNow Customer Service Management as it was assigned to me with a fully loaded version. All purchases were made prior to my involvement.

What needs improvement with ServiceNow Customer Service Management?

There should be many more automations and customizations available in ServiceNow Customer Service Management to help both users and developers, including quality testers. Many integrations are need...

What is your primary use case for ServiceNow Customer Service Management?

The use cases for ServiceNow Customer Service Management were mainly for integration purposes, mid-server installations, and playbook configurations. I utilize ServiceNow Customer Service Managemen...

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?

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?

As of right now, I have nothing that comes to mind as an improvement needed or a feature that could work differently or be enhanced. I think across the board, Zendesk is amazing, and because they a...

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Product Reports

ServiceNow Customer Service Management

Download ServiceNow Customer Service Management product report

ServiceNow Customer Service Management report

Download Zendesk product report

Also Known As

ServiceNow CSM

Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell

Overview

Customer Service Management groups key applications and capabilities into scalable packages that can grow with you as your needs change.

ServiceNow

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

Siemens Healthineers, SAP SuccessFactors, Asurion

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

ServiceNow Customer Service Management vs. Zendesk