SolarWinds Web Help Desk vs Zendesk comparison

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SolarWinds Web Help Desk

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

SolarWinds Web Help Desk and Zendesk compete in the IT service management sector. Zendesk generally holds an advantage with its feature-rich platform that appeals to businesses focusing on customer service.

Features: SolarWinds Web Help Desk includes robust ticketing, asset management, and integration with IT tools, making it ideal for IT-focused companies. On the other hand, Zendesk offers customizable workflows, multi-channel support, and extensive third-party app integrations, which are preferred by users in dynamic customer service environments.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds could enhance its user interface and reporting capabilities and expand its multi-channel support features. Zendesk may improve by offering more affordable pricing options, simplifying setup processes for smaller teams, and enhancing offline support features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds Web Help Desk is known for its quick deployment and straightforward implementation process, backed by efficient customer support. Zendesk offers cloud-based deployment for easy adoption and provides comprehensive customer support, which appeals to businesses looking for scalable solutions.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds Web Help Desk generally involves a lower initial cost, offering significant ROI for IT management-focused businesses. In contrast, Zendesk, while more expensive initially, delivers greater ROI through features enhancing customer interaction and satisfaction. Zendesk's extensive capabilities attract those prioritizing comprehensive customer engagement, offsetting its higher cost.

To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds Web Help Desk vs. Zendesk Report (Updated: April 2026).

SolarWinds Web Help Desk vs. Zendesk

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Helped 893,244 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

SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

19th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Zendesk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

3rd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (3rd), CRM (9th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (5th), Reporting (11th), Knowledge Management Software (3rd), AI Customer Support (7th), AI IT Support (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of SolarWinds Web Help Desk is 1.0%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zendesk is 5.6%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Zendesk	5.6%
SolarWinds Web Help Desk	1.0%
Other	93.4%

Help Desk Software

Featured Reviews

GANESAN K

Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited

Has supported daily operational workflows and improved approval management across departments

We actually do the reselling. We created a self-service portal for the customers, and this particular function does impact reducing IT staff workload overall. From technical standpoints, comparing SolarWinds Web Help Desk with TeamViewer, we need ease of configuration and ease of allocating, creating new fields or creating new layouts for many specific use cases. An organization can have a number of use cases when it comes to a ticketing tool. It's not a security solution; it's more of a service solution where you will be configuring the needed categories and needed fields for each department. On a scale of 1-10, I rate SolarWinds Web Help Desk an 8.

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AmandaSanchez

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.

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

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the assets management module."

"Once installed, it runs like a charm and doesn't ever crash."

"SolarWinds is a very good application that provides you with a detailed monitoring capability of your network and assets."

"A person who is not in IT, but has some good ITSM knowledge will be able to configure it directly on SolarWinds, and Manage Engine."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the assets management module."

"SolarWinds is scalable as far as adding devices and servers."

"The biggest advantage for SolarWinds Web Help Desk is the user interface; we were able to configure a different UI for administrators, employees, and HODs based on their hierarchy level."

"It is easy to use."

More SolarWinds Web Help Desk pros

"It works really well, is very seamless, and is very good software."

"As I am a big fan of assigning tasks to people who are most skilled at doing them in a timely fashion, I found the auto-tagging function to be most valuable."

"We loved the notifications and the way to build custom views for a specific user's open tickets and to see how long they have been open, how long it was since the last request."

"This is one of the better solutions on the market for SMBs."

"The initial setup was incredibly simple: choose your integration method, set up your fields and workflow, and it’s running."

"The ROI is amazing."

"It's an amazing product, it really helps out in organizing all our tasks."

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

More Zendesk pros

Cons

"Dashboards need some amount of work to be done. Ease of customization is desired."

"The technical team is not competent, or available, and they do not know the product."

"This solution needs to have mobile application support added."

"A little outdated compared to newer products that include protection and detection."

"This is a good solution, but the GUI is really old-fashion and needs to be updated."

"It would be good if there were training and tutorial videos on the Web Help Desk."

"The program seems buggy to me. Not infrequently, when I click to add a Note, the Notes section disappears instead of opening a box to add a Note."

"We would like to see automation included in the next release. We would like to eliminate the L1, and L2 support, by at least 80%. To do this, we need automation with AI (Artificial Intelligence) in combination with ML (Machine Learning)."

More SolarWinds Web Help Desk cons

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

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

"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."

"My experience with Zendesk's customer support has not been positive. When I open a ticket for a bug, it often does not expedite the resolution process."

"It would be good to be able to edit. Unfortunately, Zendesk believes that the integrity of a ticket and its comments are important."

"We work in print so being able to preview files attached and having larger files (larger than 7MB would be great) would be a welcomed improvement."

"Many channel inquiries are not possible to collect into a single interface."

"The reports could be more fine tuned to enable better handling of tickets by individual agents and teams."

More Zendesk cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"They charge by the technician. It costs $117 per technician per year."

"When you compare with ManageEngine and ServiceNow, SolarWinds is reasonable."

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

11%

Retailer

11%

Performing Arts

University

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	36
Midsize Enterprise	21
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Web Help Desk?

Areas of improvement can be enhanced regarding configuration. We had the deployment metrics and usability, ease of use, and ease of access. These were the three functionalities we were looking for ...

What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Web Help Desk?

For Zoho, we did OP Manager, Audit Security, AD Security and Asset Management, Patch Management. These things we are dealing with Zoho. We are not dealing with solutions such as Zoho Mail or Zoho P...

What advice do you have for others considering SolarWinds Web Help Desk?

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...

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Product Reports

SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Download SolarWinds Web Help Desk product report

Download Zendesk product report

Also Known As

No data available

Zendesk Support, Zendesk Guide, Zendesk Sell

Overview

SolarWinds Web Help Desk offers a streamlined approach to technical ticketing and asset management, enhancing departmental operations with efficient asset-user linking and automated scheduling.

Offering an intuitive interface for multiple roles, SolarWinds Web Help Desk enhances ticket management through automated scheduling. Integrating ticketing with remote support provides smooth transitions, while LDAP integration streamlines user permissions. It supports diverse departments, including non-IT sectors, providing detailed case management, reporting, and approval workflows.

What are the standout features of SolarWinds Web Help Desk?

Intuitive User Levels: Customizable interfaces for different roles enhance user experience.
Efficient Ticket Management: Automated scheduling aids in managing tickets effectively.
Comprehensive Asset Management: Links assets to users, improving resource tracking.
Advanced Search: Facilitates easy ticket retrieval and management.
Scheduled Report Generation: Uses Power BI for regular, detailed reports.

What benefits or ROI should users consider?

Streamlined Operations: Automates routine tasks, saving time and resources.
Enhanced Reporting: Detailed reports support data-driven decision-making.
Remote Support Integration: Smooth integration improves support team efficiency.
User and Asset Linkage: Increases asset usage visibility and accountability.

In industries like HR, cybersecurity, and maintenance, SolarWinds Web Help Desk is deployed on-premises, serving as a robust case management tool that supports both IT and non-IT departments' specific needs. It helps maintain departmental efficiency by managing technical tickets and supporting patch management workflows.

SolarWinds

Zendesk provides a versatile platform for managing customer interactions, offering efficient ticketing, customization, and integration features across multiple channels to enhance user experiences.

Zendesk stands out for its simplicity, ease of use, and comprehensive integration capabilities with CRM tools, which help optimize workflow efficiency. Users benefit from advanced analytics and reporting features that offer valuable insights into customer behavior. Multi-channel support and self-service portals are integral components, enhancing customer interaction experiences. While security protocols and flexible configurations contribute to its broad appeal, areas for improvement include more intuitive reporting, advanced customization of triggers and automations, and enhancements in knowledge management. Users express the need for better ticket management functionalities, efficient data synchronization, and refined interface aesthetics. Performance can be impacted by extensive customization, and there’s a call for competitive pricing and simplified licensing options.

What are Zendesk's most important features?

Simplicity and Ease of Use - Facilitates smooth onboarding and daily operations.
Integration Capabilities - Seamlessly integrates with CRM tools to enhance workflows.
Analytics and Reporting - Provides insights into customer behavior and operational efficiency.
Multi-Channel Support - Manages customer interactions across various channels.
Self-Service Portals - Empowers users to access information and solve issues independently.
Security and Flexibility - Offers strong security protocols and flexible configuration options.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Increased Productivity - Streamlines processes to boost team efficiency.
Enhanced Customer Experience - Multi-channel support and self-service options improve interactions.
Insightful Data Analysis - Superior reporting features offer valuable business insights.
Improved Workflow - Integrates seamlessly with existing tools to optimize operations.

Zendesk is extensively applied across sectors for customer support management and technical issue resolution. In HR or IT settings, it facilitates internal requests and knowledge base creation. Organizations leverage Zendesk's integration with collaboration tools like Slack and Jira, automating workflows and delivering detailed analytics, which are particularly useful for multinational operations handling queries in different languages and brands.

Sample Customers

Instacart

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

SolarWinds Web Help Desk vs. Zendesk